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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

1778 - 1712

The famous French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland, and his mother died shortly after his birth and when he was ten years old, his father died from Geneva and left his son there, and in 1728 Rousseau blessed Geneva when he was sixteen and for several years Rousseau was obscure He wanders from place to place and had romantic relations and gave birth to five illegitimate children. These five children were placed in the house of foundlings, but after a time, when he became fifty-six years of age, he married (Therese Lavisir), the mother of these children.

In the year 1750, at the age of thirty-eight, Rousseau jumped to sudden fame, as the Academy (Dijon) had offered a prize for the best essay on the subject: “Are the arts and sciences useful and necessary for human society and morals, or not?” Rousseau's article won the first prize, and his opinion was that the final net results of the progress of sciences and arts are not beneficial to humanity. Thus, Rousseau became a famous man, and his writings continued after that, including: “The Origin of Inequality between Humans in 1775,” then “Emile” in 1762, and “The Social Contract.” in 1762 and “Confessions” in 1770. He had an interest in music, so he wrote two operas.

Although Rousseau was a friend of many free writers who were in the enlightened movement in the eighteenth century, including Diderot, his ideas were taken from them. A rift occurred between him and Voltaire. Since he opposed Voltaire's plan to create a theater in Geneva (Rousseau was asserting that the theater is the school of immorality), and starting in 1762, power began to chase Rousseau through his political writings, and many friends turned away from him, and Rousseau became complaining of a persecution complex. He had many friends, but Rousseau left no one for himself. In the last twenty years of his life he became a miserable, unhappy man, feeling the bitterness of life. He died in 1778 in Erminon-Ville, France.

His writings are considered a factor in the emergence of socialism, nationalism, romanticism and dictatorship, in addition to paving the way for the French Revolution and contributing greatly to the formulation of ideals in democracy and equality.

He is credited with influencing education theories through his book (Emile), in which he envisions a young man who starts his upbringing from the beginning and mentions his theories in education with the opportunity to include Emile in the field of life.