Jean Jacques Rousseau short message. Jean Jacques Rousseau: Pedagogical Ideas

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 - July 2, 1778) was a French writer, philosopher and musicologist. He is considered a prominent representative of the Enlightenment and is even called the forerunner of the French Revolution.

Childhood

Jean-Jacques was born on June 28 in Geneva, in a large and rather poor family. The first tragedy happened during the birth of a child: the mother of Jean-Jacques, having suffered a serious illness during pregnancy, died right during childbirth.

According to many bibliographers, this is what formed the future writer's a certain detachment from the world and hatred of his own personality. Father Rousseau, despite such a sad combination of circumstances, doted on his own son and always devoted much more time to him than to everyone else.

Thanks to the support and great love of his father, Jean-Jacques got acquainted with the world of art quite early. A loving dad taught the child to read and write, often bought him children's and even teenage classic literature and fiddled with the baby in every free second of his time. In his son, he saw not only a consolation from a recent loss, but also a strong personality who would serve his country in the future a great service. However, the father was clearly not mistaken in this regard.

Youth

A calm and trouble-free childhood was replaced by a stormy youth with numerous negative events in the life of Rousseau. First, the family learns that a friend of his father's has been arrested for aiding in organizing an armed attack on the local administration, as a result of which Jean-Jacques' father, Isaac, goes on the run to a neighboring canton. Realizing that the son will not be able to go after him and endure all the hardships and hardships, the young man is left in the care of his maternal uncle, who cannot stand the guy.

Later, Jean-Jacques learns that his father will never return to his hometown, because, hiding in the canton, he met a young girl and married her, creating a new family and completely forgetting about the old one.

Shocked by the betrayal, Jean-Jacques finds no other way but to go to the Lambercier boarding house, where his father planned to send him in a couple of months. But there he realizes that he learned thanks to his father much more, so he leaves the educational institution and gets to study with a notary. And since at that time Rousseau still continues to be fond of literature (which, by the way, he strives to read always and everywhere), he quickly has problems with the teacher, because of which the guy often runs away from work and leaves the city, returning either late at night or a couple of days later.

New life outside of Geneva

On March 14, 1728, Rousseau decides to leave Geneva forever and move to Catholic Savoy. In a foreign city, he falls into the care of a wealthy landowner - Madame Francoise Louise de Varan, who was a famous and popular person in the world of magnates and "businessmen". It is thanks to her that Rousseau learns everything that is necessary to know in a secular society. He is given the necessary literature for spiritual development and enlightenment, taught how to behave in society and not show his true origin. At one time, Jean-Jacques even works for Madame de Varane as a footman, but being in her country residence quickly tires him and he leaves without even thanking the woman.

The next two years, Jean-Jacques independently travels around Switzerland and at the same time writes his treatise "Confession". Since the young man has no money, he undergoes monstrous hardships and most often spends the night on the streets, but he pays absolutely no attention to hardships, admiring nature and devoting himself entirely to it.

In 1732, he again returned to Madame de Varane, who became almost his own mother for him. Upon his return, Rousseau sees that his place next to the woman has already been taken by the Swiss. Nevertheless, this does not prevent the young talent from being a welcome guest of de Varane. By 1737, the patroness leaves for treatment in Montpellier. Without waiting for her return, Jean-Jacques goes to meet her, but on the way he learns that his mistress has acquired a small villa near the city of Chambéry and now lives there with her new "pupil" Vintsinridom.

Moving to Paris

For some time, Jean-Jacques Rousseau lives with his mistress in a villa, but, unfortunately, he no longer feels so easy and free in her company. He is well aware that it turns out to be “third wheel” for the couple, so six months later he gets a job as a home teacher in the Mably family from Lyon. But even there he does not find peace: the education of the younger generation is difficult, and the "teacher" devotes more time to the master's wine, which he steals at night in his room, and the master's wife, whom he "makes eyes." After a serious scandal, Rousseau is kicked out.

He decides to move to Paris and demonstrate there his manuscript entitled "Discourse on Modern Music", according to which Jean-Jacques suggested writing notes in numbers for greater convenience. His theory fails, and Rousseau again faces the fact of a poor and useless existence.

The French tax-farmer Frankel takes pity on Rousseau and offers him the post of secretary at his place. The writer agrees and from that moment on becomes the best friend of the Frankel family. Thanks to his ability to speak beautifully, he captivates the audience with beautiful stories about his own travels, half of which he brazenly invents. In addition, he even puts on several vulgar performances that tell about some periods of his life. But any tactlessness is forgiven for his innate charisma and excellent oratory skills.

Gaining Popularity

One day, walking down the street, an article-reflection caught my eye Rousseau on the topic of whether enlightenment, culture and art have become cleansing for society or have brought absolutely no results. According to Rousseau himself, which were later reflected in his diaries, after this article it literally dawned on him, and a couple of days later Jean-Jacques replied to the editorial office, which was as follows: “Enlightenment is harmful, and culture itself is a lie and a crime.” For such a non-standard answer, Rousseau was awarded a prize, and his look made him popular and famous in the same secular society that now made him their idol.

This was followed by the incredible fame and fame of Mr. Rousseau. Hundreds rushed to see him: women showered him with gifts and confessions, and men tried to shake hands even on the street. The Dijon Academy did not sleep either - the very one for which the first incriminating article was written. This time the topic was about the inequality of people and the roots of its origin. Rousseau, without hesitation, again writes an article, already anathematizing all art and speaking of education as the worst and most unnecessary occupation of mankind. The result - again gratitude to the academy and a standing ovation from the fans.

Publication of novels and link

In 1761, Rousseau, intoxicated by his incredibly fast fame, published three novels in a row. The first to be published is The New Eloise, then Emil and The Social Contract. During the writing of the second novel, Jean-Jacques guessed that society would not be able to understand him correctly, considering him a traitor. And so it happened: after the publication of "Emil", Prince Conti declares the work forbidden, ordering it to be burned, and the author - to the court.

Fearing reprisals, the writer flees the country. Despite the fact that Conti later replaced the court with an ordinary exile, Russo imagines bonfires and incredible torture, from which he runs further and further. He crosses the border and ends up in Switzerland, where, according to his own convictions, he should be understood. But, unfortunately, the Swiss government supports the Parisian administration, and the novels "Emile" and "The Social Contract" are also burned here, trying to arrest their author.

After many months of wandering, Rousseau finds himself on the territory of the Prussian principality. The writer does not really interfere with the local government, so Jean-Jacques can breathe calmly for the first time in a long time. He adapts to village life, begins to work and meet local women, performing romances and serenades for them. There he finds his wife Teresa and dies there in 1778.

Childhood

For more than 2 years, Rousseau wandered around Switzerland, undergoing every need: once he was even in Paris, which he did not like. He made his crossings on foot, spending the night in the open, but he was not burdened by this, enjoying nature. In the spring M. Rousseau again became the guest of Madame de Varane; his place was taken by the young Swiss Ana, which did not prevent Rousseau from remaining a member of the friendly trio.

In his "Confessions" he described his then love with the most passionate colors. After Anet's death, he remained alone with Madame de Varane until the year when she sent him to Montpellier for treatment. Upon his return, he found his benefactor near the city of Chambéry, where she rented a farm in the town " Les Charmettes»; her new "factotum" was the young Swiss Wincinried. Rousseau called him brother and again took refuge with "mother".

Working as a home tutor

But his happiness was no longer so serene: he yearned, retired, and the first signs of misanthropy began to appear in him. He sought solace in nature: he got up with the dawn, worked in the garden, gathered fruits, followed doves and bees. So two years passed: Rousseau was superfluous in the new trio and had to take care of earnings. He entered the city as a home tutor to the Mably family (the writer's brother), who lived in Lyon. But he was very ill-suited for this role; he did not know how to behave either with students or with adults, he secretly took wine to his room, made "eyes" to the hostess of the house. As a result, Rousseau had to leave.

After an unsuccessful attempt to return to Charmette, Rousseau went to Paris to present to the academy the system he had invented to designate notes by numbers; She was not accepted despite Discourse on contemporary music”, written by Rousseau in her defense.

Working as a home secretary

Rousseau is given a position as house secretary by the Count Montagu, the French envoy in Venice. The envoy looked at him as if he were a servant, while Rousseau imagined himself a diplomat and began to put on airs. Subsequently, he wrote that he had saved the Kingdom of Naples at that time. However, the messenger kicked him out of the house without paying his salary.

Rousseau returned to Paris and filed a complaint against Montagu, which was successful.

He managed to stage the opera he wrote Les Muses Galantes"in the home theater, but she did not get on the royal stage.

Wife and kids

Without a livelihood, Rousseau entered into an affair with the maid of the hotel in which he lived, Teresa Levasseur, a young peasant woman, ugly, illiterate, limited - she could not learn to know what time it was - and very vulgar. He admitted that he never had the slightest love for her, but married her twenty years later.

Together with her, he had to keep her parents and their relatives. He had 5 children, all of whom were sent to an orphanage. Rousseau justified himself by saying that he did not have the means to feed them, that they would not let him study in peace, and that he preferred to make peasants out of them than adventurers, as he himself was.

Acquaintance with encyclopedists

Having received the position of secretary from the farmer Frankel and his mother-in-law, Rousseau became a household man in a circle to which the famous Madame d'Epinay, her friend Grimm and Diderot belonged. Rousseau often visited them, staged comedies, enchanted them with his naive, albeit fantasy-colored, stories from his life. He was forgiven for his tactlessness (for example, he began by writing a letter to Frankel's mother-in-law with a declaration of love).

Leaving the Hermitage, he found a new home with the Duke of Luxembourg, the owner of Montmorency Castle, who provided him with a pavilion in his park. Here Rousseau spent 4 years and wrote "New Eloise" and "Emile", reading them to his kind hosts, whom he at the same time insulted with suspicions that they were not sincerely disposed towards him, and statements that he hated their title and high public position.

Publication of novels

In the city, the “New Eloise” appeared in print, in the spring of the following year - “Emil”, and a few weeks later - “The Social Contract” (“ Contrat social"). During the printing of "Emile" Rousseau was in great fear: he had strong patrons, but he suspected that the bookseller would sell the manuscript to the Jesuits and that his enemies would distort its text. "Emil", however, was published; the storm broke a little later.

The Paris Parliament, preparing to pronounce a verdict on the Jesuits, considered it necessary to condemn the philosophers, and sentenced "Emil", for religious free-thinking and indecency, to be burned by the hand of the executioner, and his author to imprisonment. The Prince of Conti made it known at Montmorency; the Duchess of Luxembourg ordered to wake Rousseau and persuaded him to leave immediately. Rousseau, however, tarried all day and nearly fell victim to his slowness; on the road, he met bailiffs sent for him, who politely bowed to him.

Forced link

He was not detained anywhere: neither in Paris, nor along the way. Rousseau, however, fancied torture and fire; everywhere he sensed a pursuit. When he moved across the Swiss border, he rushed to kiss the land of the land of justice and freedom. The Genevan government, however, followed the example of the Paris Parliament, burned not only Emile, but also the Social Contract, and issued an order to arrest the author; the Bernese government, on whose territory (the present canton of Vaud was then subject to him) Rousseau sought shelter, ordered him to leave his possessions.

Portrait of Rousseau at the Scottish National Gallery

Rousseau took refuge in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Prussian king, and settled in the town of Motier. He found new friends here, wandered through the mountains, chatted with the villagers, sang romances to the village girls. He adapted a costume for himself, which he called Caucasian - a spacious, belted arkhaluk, wide trousers and a fur hat, justifying this choice with hygienic considerations. But his peace of mind was not lasting. It seemed to him that the local peasants were too proud, that they had evil tongues; he began to call Motier "the meanest place of residence." For a little over three years he lived like this; then new disasters and wanderings came for him.

Back in the city, having arrived in Geneva and received there with great triumph, he wished to regain the right of Genevan citizenship, lost with the transition to Catholicism, and again joined Calvinism.

At Motiers he asked the local pastor to admit him to communion, but in his polemic with his opponents in the Letters from the Mountain he sneered at the authority of Calvin and accused the Calvinist clergy of departing from the spirit of the Reformation.

Relationship with Voltaire

This was joined by a quarrel with Voltaire and with the government party in Geneva. Rousseau once called Voltaire "touching", but in fact there could not be a greater contrast than between these two writers. The antagonism between them manifested itself in the city, when Voltaire, on the occasion of the terrible Lisbon earthquake, renounced optimism, and Rousseau stood up for Providence. Fed up with glory and living in luxury, Voltaire, according to Rousseau, sees only grief on earth; he, unknown and poor, finds that everything is fine.

Relations escalated when Rousseau, in his Letter on Spectacles, strongly rebelled against the introduction of theater in Geneva. Voltaire, who lived near Geneva and who, through his home theater at Ferney, was developing a taste for dramatic performances among the Genevans, realized that the letter was directed against him and against his influence in Geneva. Knowing no measure in his anger, Voltaire hated Rousseau: he mocked his ideas and writings, then he made him look crazy.

The controversy between them especially flared up when Rousseau was banned from entering Geneva, which he attributed to the influence of Voltaire. Finally, Voltaire published an anonymous pamphlet accusing Rousseau of intending to overthrow the Geneva constitution and Christianity, and claiming that he had killed Mother Teresa.

The peaceful villagers of Motier became agitated. Rousseau began to be insulted and threatened, and the local pastor delivered a sermon against him. One autumn night, a whole hail of stones fell on his house.

In England at the invitation of Hume

Rousseau fled to an island in Lake Biel; the Bernese government ordered him to leave from there. Then he accepted Hume's invitation and went to him in England. Rousseau was not able to make observations and learn anything; his only interest was English mosses and ferns.

His nervous system was greatly shaken, and against this background his incredulity, scrupulous pride, suspiciousness and fearful imagination grew to the limits of mania. The hospitable but balanced host failed to calm Rousseau, who was sobbing and throwing himself into his arms; a few days later, Hume was already in the eyes of Rousseau a deceiver and a traitor, who treacherously attracted him to England in order to make him a laughingstock of the newspapers.

Hume saw fit to appeal to the court of public opinion; justifying himself, he exposed Rousseau's weaknesses to Europe. Voltaire rubbed his hands and declared that the British should have imprisoned Rousseau in Bedlam (lunatic asylum).

Rousseau refused the pension that Hume had secured for him from the British government. For him, a new four-year wandering began, marked only by the antics of a mentally ill person. Rousseau stayed in England for another year, but his Teresa, not being able to talk to anyone, got bored and irritated Rousseau, who imagined that the British wanted to forcibly keep him in their country.

Return to Paris

He went to Paris, where, despite the sentence weighing on him, no one touched him. He lived for about a year in the castle of the Duke of Conti and in various places in southern France. From everywhere he fled, tormented by his sick imagination: in the castle of Three, for example, he imagined that the servants suspected him of the poisoner of one of the deceased servants of the duke and demanded an autopsy of the deceased.

Since then, he settled in Paris, and a more peaceful life began for him; but still he did not know peace of mind, suspecting conspiracies against him or against his writings. He considered the head of the conspiracy the Duke de Choiseul, who ordered the conquest of Corsica, allegedly so that Rousseau would not become the legislator of this island.

In Paris, he completed his "Confessions" ( Confessions). Alarmed by the pamphlet published in the city (“ Le sentiment des citoyens”), ruthlessly revealing his past, Rousseau wished to justify himself through sincere, popular repentance and severe humiliation of pride. But selfishness took over: confession turned into a passionate and biased self-defense.

Irritated by the quarrel with Hume, Rousseau changed the tone and content of his notes, crossed out places that were unfavorable for himself and began to write an indictment against his enemies along with a confession. Besides, imagination has taken precedence over memory; confession turned into a novel, into an inseparable fabric Wahrheit and Dichtung.

The novel presents two heterogeneous parts: the first is a poetic idyll, an outpouring of a poet in love with nature, an idealization of his love for Madame de Varane; the second part is imbued with malice and suspicion, which did not spare Rousseau's best and most sincere friends. Another work written in Paris by Rousseau was also aimed at self-defence, this is a dialogue entitled " Rousseau - judge over Jean-Jacques where Rousseau defends himself against his interlocutor, the "Frenchman".

Death

In the summer of the year, Rousseau's state of health began to inspire fear in his friends. In the spring, one of them, the marquis de Girardin, took him to his dacha in Ermenonville. At the end of June a concert was arranged for him on an island in the middle of a park; Rousseau asked to be buried in this place. On July 2, Rousseau died suddenly in Teresa's arms.

His wish was granted; his grave on the island of Eve began to attract hundreds of admirers who saw in him a victim of social tyranny and a martyr of humanity - a representation expressed by the youth Schiller in famous poems, comparing with Socrates, who died from the sophists, Rousseau, who suffered from Christians, whom he tried to make human . During the Convention, Rousseau's body, along with the remains of Voltaire, was transferred to the Pantheon, but 20 years later, during the restoration, two fanatics secretly stole Rousseau's ashes at night and threw them into a lime pit.

Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The main philosophical works of Rousseau, which set out his social and political ideals: "New Eloise", "Emil" and "Social Contract".

Rousseau, for the first time in political philosophy, tried to explain the causes of social inequality and its types, to comprehend the contractual mode of origin of the state in a different way. He believed that the state arises as a result of a social contract. According to the social contract, the supreme power in the state belongs to all the people.

The sovereignty of the people is inalienable, indivisible, infallible and absolute.

The law, as an expression of the general will, acts as a guarantee of individuals against arbitrariness on the part of the government, which cannot act in violation of the requirements of the law. Thanks to the law as an expression of the general will, relative property equality can also be achieved.

Rousseau solved the problem of the effectiveness of the means of control over the activities of the government, substantiated the reasonableness of the adoption of laws by the people themselves, considered the problem of social inequality and recognized the possibility of its legislative solution.

Not without the influence of Rousseau's ideas, such new democratic institutions arose as a referendum, a popular legislative initiative and such political demands as a possible reduction in the term of deputy powers, a mandatory mandate, recall of deputies by voters.

"New Eloise"

In Letter to d "Alembert" Rousseau calls "Clarissa Garlo" the best of novels. His "New Eloise" was written under the obvious influence of Richardson. Rousseau not only took a similar plot - the tragic fate of a heroine who dies in the struggle of chastity with love or temptation, but and adopted the most sensitive style of the novel.

The New Eloise was an incredible success; they read it everywhere, shed tears over it, idolized its author.

The form of the novel is epistolary; it consists of 163 letters and an epilogue. At present, this form greatly detracts from the interest of reading, but readers of the 18th century liked it, since letters provided the best occasion for endless reasoning and outpourings in the taste of that time. All this happened to Richardson.

Rousseau's personality

The fate of Rousseau, which largely depended on his personal qualities, in turn throws light on his personality, temperament and tastes, reflected in his writings. The biographer has to note, first of all, the complete absence of correct teaching, late and somehow made up for by reading.

Hume even denied Rousseau this, finding that he read little, saw little, and was deprived of any desire to see and observe. Rousseau did not escape the reproach of "amateurism" even in those subjects that he specially studied - in botany and in music.

In everything that Rousseau touched, he is undoubtedly a brilliant stylist, but not a researcher of truth. Nervous mobility, which turned into painful wandering in old age, was due to Rousseau's love for nature. He was cramped in the city; he longed for solitude, to give free rein to the dreams of his imagination and to heal the wounds of an easily offended pride. This child of nature did not get along with people and was especially alienated from "cultural" society.

Timid by nature and clumsy in the absence of education, with a past that made him blush in the “salon” or declare the customs and concepts of his contemporaries “prejudices”, Rousseau at the same time knew his own worth, longed for fame as a writer and philosopher, and therefore at the same time he suffered in society, and cursed him for these sufferings.

The break with society was all the more inevitable for him because, under the influence of deep, innate suspicion and quick-tempered pride, he easily broke with the closest people. The gap turned out to be irreparable due to the amazing "ungratefulness" of Rousseau, who was very vindictive, but inclined to forget the good deeds done to him.

Rousseau's last two shortcomings found their nourishment to a large extent in his outstanding property as a man and a writer: in his imagination. Thanks to his imagination, he is not burdened by loneliness, for he is always surrounded by the cute creatures of his dreams: passing by an unfamiliar house, he senses a friend among its inhabitants; walking in the park, he expects a pleasant meeting.

The imagination is especially inflamed when the very situation in which Rousseau finds himself is unfavorable. “If I need to draw spring,” Rousseau wrote, “it is necessary that there be winter around me; if I want to draw a good landscape, then I need to have walls around me. If they put me in the Bastille, I'll paint a great picture of freedom." Fantasy reconciles Rousseau with reality, consoles him; it gives him stronger pleasures than the real world. With her help, this love-hungry man, who fell in love with every woman he knew, could live to the end with Teresa, despite constant quarrels with her.

But the same fairy torments him, disturbs him with fears of future or possible troubles, exaggerates all minor clashes and makes him see evil intent and insidious intention in them. She presents reality to him in the light that suits his momentary mood; today he praises a portrait painted from him in England, and after a quarrel with Hume, finds the portrait terrible, suspecting that Hume prompted the artist to present him as a disgusting cyclops. Instead of the hated reality, the imagination draws before him the ghostly world of the natural state and the image of a blissful man in the bosom of nature.

An egoist coming out of the ranks, Rousseau was distinguished by extraordinary vanity and pride. His opinions about his own talent, about the dignity of his writings, about his worldwide fame pale before his ability to admire his personality. “I am created differently,” he says, “than all the people I have seen, and not at all in their likeness.” Having created it, nature "destroyed the form in which it was cast." And this egoist in love with himself became an eloquent preacher and an abundant source of love for man and for humanity!

The age of rationalism, that is, the dominance of reason, which replaced the age of theology, begins with Descartes' formula: cogito - ergo sum; in reflection, in the consciousness of oneself through thought, the philosopher saw the basis of life, the proof of its reality, its meaning. Rousseau begins the age of feeling: exister, pour nous - c'est sentir, he exclaims: in feeling lies the essence and meaning of life. " I felt before I thought; such is the common destiny of mankind; I experienced it more than others».

Feeling not only precedes reason, it also prevails over it: if reason is the main property of a person, feeling guides him ...»

« If the first glimpse of reason blinds us and distorts objects before our eyes, then later, in the light of reason, they appear to us as nature showed them to us from the very beginning; so let's be satisfied with the first feelings...» With the change in the meaning of life, the assessment of the world and man changes. The rationalist sees in the world and nature only the operation of rational laws, a great mechanism worthy of study; feeling teaches to admire nature, to admire it, to worship it.

The rationalist places the power of reason above all else in man, and favors those who possess this power; Rousseau proclaims that he is "the best person who feels better and stronger than others."

The rationalist derives virtue from reason; Rousseau exclaims that he has attained moral perfection who is overcome by rapturous astonishment before virtue.

Rationalism sees the main goal of society in the development of reason, in its enlightenment; feeling seeks happiness, but soon becomes convinced that happiness is scarce and difficult to find.

The rationalist, reverent before the rational laws discovered by him, recognizes the world as the best of the worlds; Rousseau discovers suffering in the world. Suffering again, as in the Middle Ages, becomes the main note of human life. Suffering is the first lesson of life that a child learns; suffering is the content of the whole history of mankind. Such sensitivity to suffering, such painful responsiveness to it, is compassion. In this word - the clue to the power of Rousseau and its historical significance.

As the new Buddha, he made suffering and compassion a global issue and became a turning point in the movement of culture. Here even the abnormalities and weaknesses of his nature, the vicissitudes of his fate caused by him, acquire historical significance; suffering, he learned compassion. Compassion, in the eyes of Rousseau - a natural feeling inherent in human nature; it is so natural that even animals feel it.

In Rousseau, it also develops under the influence of another property that prevails in it - imagination; "The pity we feel for the suffering of others is measured not by the amount of that suffering, but by the feeling we attribute to those who suffer." Compassion becomes for Rousseau the source of all noble impulses and all social virtues. “What is generosity, mercy, humanity, if not compassion applied to the guilty or to the human race in general?

Even the location bienveillance) and friendship, in fact - the result of constant compassion, focused on a well-known subject; to wish someone not to suffer is not to wish him to be happy?” Rousseau spoke from experience: his affection for Teresa began with pity, which he was inspired by the jokes and ridicule of his cohabitants. Moderating selfishness, pity protects against bad deeds: "until a person resists the inner voice of pity, he will not harm anyone."

According to his general view, Rousseau antagonizes pity with reason. Compassion not only "precedes reason" and all reflection, but the development of reason weakens compassion and can destroy it. “Compassion is based on the ability of a person to identify himself with a suffering person; but this ability, extremely strong in the state of nature, narrows as the ability to think develops in man and humanity enters a period of rational development ( état de raisonnement). Reason breeds self-love, reflection strengthens it; it separates a person from everything that disturbs and upsets him. Philosophy isolates man; under her influence, he whispers, at the sight of a suffering person: perish, as you know - I'm safe. Feeling, elevated to the highest rule of life, estranged from reflection, becomes for Rousseau an object of self-worship, tenderness before oneself and degenerates into sensitivity - sentimentality. A person full of tender feelings, or a person with a "beautiful soul" ( belle ame - schöne Seele) is elevated to the highest ethical and social type. Everything is forgiven him, nothing is exacted from him, he is better and higher than others, for "actions are nothing, it's all about feelings, and he is great in feelings."

That is why Rousseau's personality and behavior are so full of contradictions: the best characterization of him, made by Shuke, consists of nothing but antitheses. " Timid and arrogant, timid and cynical, not easy to lift and hard to restrain, capable of impulses and quickly falling into apathy, challenging his age and flattering it, cursing his literary fame and at the same time only thinking about how to defend it and increase, seeking solitude and thirsting for world fame, fleeing from the attention paid to him and annoyed at his absence, disgracing the nobles and living in their company, glorifying the charm of an independent existence and never ceasing to enjoy hospitality, which is paid for by witty conversation, dreaming only of huts and dwelling in castles, having contact with a maid and falling in love only with high society ladies, preaching the joys of family life and renouncing his father's duty, caressing other people's children and sending his own to an orphanage, ardently praising the heavenly feeling of friendship and not feeling it for anyone, easily self-giving and immediately retreating, at first expansive and cordial, then suspicious and angry - such is Rousseau.».

No less contradictions in opinions and in the public preaching of Rousseau. Recognizing the harmful influence of the sciences and arts, he sought in them spiritual rest and a source of glory. Acting as an accuser of the theatre, he wrote for it. After glorifying the "state of nature" and stigmatizing society and the state as based on deceit and violence, he proclaimed "social order a sacred right that serves as the basis for all others." Constantly fighting against reason and reflection, he sought the foundations of a "regular" state in the most abstract rationalism. Standing up for freedom, he recognized the only free country of his time as not free. Giving the people unconditional supreme power, he declared pure democracy an impossible dream. Avoiding all violence and trembling at the thought of persecution, he hoisted the banner of the revolution in France. All this is partly explained by the fact that Rousseau was a great "stylist", that is, an artist of the pen. Ratouyu against the prejudices and vices of a cultural society, glorifying the primitive "simplicity", Rousseau remained the son of his artificial age.

In order to touch the "beautiful souls", a beautiful speech was needed, that is, pathos and recitation in the taste of the century. From here flowed Rousseau's favorite technique - a paradox. The source of Rousseau's paradoxes was a deeply disturbed feeling; but at the same time, this is also a well-calculated literary device for him.

Bork quotes, according to Hume, the following interesting admission of Rousseau: in order to impress and interest the public, an element of the miraculous is needed; but mythology has long lost its showiness; giants, magicians, fairies and heroes of novels, who appeared after the pagan gods, also no longer find faith; under such circumstances the modern writer has only to resort to paradox in order to achieve an impression. According to one of Rousseau's critics, he started with a paradox to attract the crowd, he used it as a signal to announce the truth. Rousseau's calculation was not wrong.

Thanks to the combination of passion with art, none of the writers of the XVIII century. did not have such influence on France and Europe as Rousseau. He transformed the minds and hearts of the people of his age to what he was, and even more to what he appeared to be.

For Germany, he became a bold sage from the first words (“ Weltweiser”), as Lessing called it: all the luminaries of the then flourishing literature and philosophy of Germany - Goethe and Schiller, Kant and Fichte - were under his direct influence. The tradition that arose then is still preserved there, and the phrase about “ Rousseau's boundless love for humanity” even went into encyclopedic dictionaries. Rousseau's biographer is obliged to expose the whole truth - but for a cultural historian, a legend that has received creative power is also important.

Rousseau's writings

Leaving aside special treatises on botany, music, languages, as well as Rousseau's literary works - poems, comedies and letters, one can divide the rest of Rousseau's writings into three groups (chronologically they follow one after another in this order):
1. convicting age,
2. instructions,
3. self-defense (this group was discussed above).

The denunciation of the century

The first group includes both reasoning» Rousseau and his « Letter to d'Alembert on theatrical performances».

"Discourse on the influence of sciences and arts" aims to prove their harm. Although the theme itself is purely historical, Rousseau's references to history are insignificant: the rough Sparta defeated the educated Athens; the stern Romans, after they began to study science under Augustus, were defeated by the Germanic barbarians.

Rousseau's argument is predominantly rhetorical and consists of exclamations and questions. History and legal sciences corrupt man, unfolding before him the spectacle of human disasters, violence and crimes. Turning to the enlightened minds that have revealed to man the secrets of the world's laws, Rousseau asks them if humanity would live worse without them? Harmful in themselves, the sciences are also harmful because of the motives that induce people to indulge in them, for the main of these motives is vanity. The arts, moreover, require for their flourishing the development of luxury, which corrupts man. This is the main idea of ​​the Reasoning.

However, in " reasoning”a technique is very noticeably manifested, which can be traced in other works of Rousseau and compared, in view of its musicality, with a change in mood in a musical play, where for allegro followed by an invariable andante.

Instructions

In the second part " reasoning» Rousseau from a detractor of science becomes their lawyer. The most enlightened of the Romans, Cicero, saved Rome; Bacon was Chancellor of England. Too seldom do princes resort to the advice of scholars. As long as the power is in one hand, and enlightenment in another, scientists will not be distinguished by lofty thoughts, sovereigns - by great deeds, and the peoples will remain in corruption and misery. But that's not the only moral." reasoning».

Rousseau's thought about the opposite of virtue and enlightenment and about the fact that not enlightenment, but virtue is the source of human bliss, cut even deeper into the minds of contemporaries. This thought is clothed in a prayer that Rousseau puts into the mouth of his descendants: O Almighty Lord, deliver us from the enlightenment of our fathers and bring us back to simplicity, innocence and poverty, the only blessings that condition our happiness and please You.". The same idea resounds in the second part, through the apology of the sciences: without envying the geniuses who have become famous in science, Rousseau contrasts them with those who, not being able to speak eloquently, know how to do good.

More boldly Rousseau in the next " Reasoning about the origin of inequality between people". If the first "Discourse", directed against the sciences and arts, which no one hated, was an academic idyll, then in the second Rousseau passionately touched on the topic of the day and in his speeches the revolutionary string of the century sounded for the first time.

Nowhere was there so much inequality, sanctified by custom and law, as in the then system of France, based on privileges; nowhere was there such displeasure against inequality as among the privileged themselves against the other privileged. The third estate, having equaled the nobility in education and wealth, envied the nobles in general, the provincial nobility envied the courtier, the judicial nobility envied the military nobility, etc. Rousseau not only connected individual voices into a common choir: he gave the desire for equality a philosophical basis and poetically attractive shape.

Theorists of state law have long toyed with the idea of ​​the state of nature in order to explain the origin of the state with its help; Rousseau made this performance public and popular. The British have long been interested in savages: Defoe, in his "Robinson", created an eternally young, charming image of a cultured person, put face to face with virgin nature, and Mrs. Ben in her novel "Urunoko" put the savages of South America as the best of people. Already in the city of Delisle, he brought out in a comedy the savage Harlequin, who arrived from somewhere in France and, in his naivety, maliciously mocks her civilization.

Rousseau introduced the savage into the Parisian salons as an object of affection; but at the same time he stirred up in the depths of the human heart his inherent sorrow for the lost paradise and for the vanished golden age, supported in every person by sweet memories of the days of childhood and youth.

In Rousseau's first Discourse, historical data are very scarce; the second is not so much a reasoning as a historical tale. The starting scene of this tale is a picture of the life of a primitive man. The colors for this painting are not borrowed from travels in Australia or South America, but from fantasy.

Voltaire's well-known witticism, that the description of savages in Rousseau's work causes a desire to walk on all fours, gives, however, an incorrect idea of ​​\u200b\u200bprimitive man, as Rousseau portrayed him. His task was to prove that from the beginning there was equality - and the image corresponds to the task. His savages are hefty and self-sufficient males, living alone, "without care and work"; women, children, old people are not taken into account. All that savages need is provided by good mother nature; their equality is based on the denial of everything that can serve as a pretext for inequality. Rousseau's primitive people are happy because, not knowing artificial needs, they lack nothing. They are blameless, because they do not experience passions and desires, do not need each other and do not interfere with each other. So, virtue and happiness are inextricably linked with equality and disappear with its disappearance.

This picture of primitive bliss is contrasted with modern society, full of meaningless prejudices, vices and disasters. How did one come about from the other?

Out of this question developed Rousseau's philosophy of history, which is the history of human progress turned inside out.

Philosophy of history according to Rousseau

The philosophy of history, that is, a meaningful synthesis of historical facts, became possible only with the help of people of progress and progressive development. Rousseau sees this progressive development and even considers it inevitable; he indicates its cause, which is the innate ability of man to improve ( perfectiability); but since Rousseau laments the result of this improvement, he also laments the very cause of it. And he not only mourns her, but condemns her in the strongest way, in the notorious expression that “ thinking is an unnatural state, a thinking person is a depraved animal e" ( animal deprave).

In accordance with this, the history of mankind presents in Rousseau a series of stages of successive deviation from the natural blissful and immaculate state. Rousseau completely forgets that, in opposing Voltaire, he attacked pessimism and defended Providence and its manifestation in the world; there is no Providence for him in the destinies of mankind, and his philosophy of history is reduced to the most hopeless pessimism. The initial happy state of people only more strongly emphasizes the mournful history experienced by mankind. In this state, people lived independently of each other; everyone worked only for himself and did everything he needed; if they united, then temporarily, like a flock of ravens attracted by some common interest, for example, a freshly plowed field.

The first misfortune came when people deviated from the wise rule of living and working especially, when they entered the hostel and the division of labor began. The hostel leads to inequality and serves as the last justification; and since Rousseau votes for equality, he condemns the community.

Another fatal step of man was the establishment of landed property. " The first one who fenced off a piece of land, saying that this land can I ”, in the eyes of Rousseau - a deceiver who brought countless troubles to humanity; the benefactor of people would be the one who at that fateful moment would have pulled out the stakes and exclaimed: “you are lost if you forget that the fruits belong to everyone, and the earth belongs to no one.” The emergence of landed property led, according to Rousseau, to inequality between the rich and the poor (as if there were no such inequality between nomads); the rich, interested in preserving their property, began to persuade the poor to establish social order and laws.

In the cohort of the French Enlightenment, the figure of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) certainly stands out. Philosopher, writer, composer, J.-J. Rousseau is among the great teachers.

Fate was not kind to Rousseau. The son of a watchmaker from Geneva went through many professions: apprentice notary, engraver, servant, secretary, home teacher, music teacher, music copyist. Having not received a systematic education, but possessing an irrepressible passion for self-improvement, J.-J. Rousseau became one of the most enlightened people of the era. In 1741 J.-J. Rousseau first comes to Paris. Behind him were wanderings (often on foot) along the roads of Switzerland, Italy, France. In the French capital J.-J. Rousseau meets encyclopedists and writes articles for the Encyclopedia at their request. In friendship and enmity with the French enlighteners, a significant part of the life of J.-J. Rousseau. He was among those who most consistently and forcefully pressed for a democratic educational program for the Enlightenment.

The key to the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau is a dualistic, sensationalist worldview of the thinker. Rejecting confessional religions, the philosopher assumed the presence of some external force - the creator of all things. J.-J. Rousseau put forward the idea of ​​natural freedom and equality of people. He dreamed of eliminating social injustice through the eradication of prejudices and education, thereby assigning training and education the role of a powerful lever for progressive social change. J.-J. Rousseau organically linked pedagogical views and reflections on the just reorganization of society, where anyone will find freedom and their place, which will bring happiness to every person. The central point of the pedagogical program of J.-J. Rousseau - natural education involves such a change in society and the individual.

The problems of education interested Rousseau already at the beginning of his life. In a letter to his father (1735), he admitted to a special attraction to the career of an educator. Five years later, J.-J. Rousseau served in Lyon with a local judge as a home teacher. He presented his experience and views in the form of a treatise "The Education Project de Sainte-Marie". The work testifies to the acquaintance of J.-J. Rousseau with the pedagogical thought of France. The treatise reflected the ideas of Rousseau's predecessors and contemporaries, who advocated the renewal of education and upbringing. J.-J. Rousseau sharply condemned the scholastic school, gave recommendations regarding the teaching of natural science subjects. Turning to already known ideas, he acted as an independent and original thinker. So, he rethought the judgments of his predecessors about the forms of education, the authority of the mentor, the cooperation of the teacher and parents. The author of the "Project" considered moral education to be the most important and primary pedagogical task: "... to form the heart, judgment and mind, and exactly in the order in which he named them."

A turning point for J.-J. Rousseau turned out to be 1749. On the topic proposed by the Dijon Academy, he wrote a treatise " Did the revival of sciences and arts improve morals? France and Europe saw a strong and extraordinary philosopher and teacher. The treatise passionately denounced the old social order as contrary to the nature of man, born kind, happy and equal. Rousseau sharply spoke out against contemporary culture and social injustice, making it clear that a truly humane person can be brought up only in conditions of radical social change. Even greater success brought Rousseau " Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality between people. The treatise proved that man was created on the basis of amazing harmony, but society destroyed this harmony and brought him misfortune.

The creative rise of J.-J. Rousseau fell on 1756-1762, when he lived in the suburbs of Paris, taking advantage of the patronage of large aristocrats and earning a living by correspondence of notes. During this period they wrote "Julia, or New Eloise", "On the Social Contract", "Emil, or On Education", "Letters on Morality", other works that made Rousseau famous not only in France, but also abroad. The Letters on Morality raises the fundamental question of the essence of the human personality. Russo-humanist proclaims the natural kindness of a person, taking into account which he proposes to educate people. He interpreted the Cartesian judgment about the dualism of human essence in his own way. Man is given the freedom to choose whether to follow nature or go against it. Such freedom is the initial condition for the formation of the personality, both good and evil, writes Rousseau.

Rousseau condemned the vices and prejudices of the social order, expressed interesting considerations regarding the education of human feelings. So, in the novel "Julia, or New Eloise" the program of the so-called sentimental pedagogy. Among other things, the characters discuss pedagogical problems, as a result, the novel turns into a treatise on education on the basis of humanism, respect for human nature. The "Social Contract" developed the ideas of the origin and essence of the state, the inalienability of the sovereignty of the people, social and natural determinants of the formation of man. Socio-political and philosophical ideas are closely linked with pedagogical ones. Solving the issue of achieving harmony between natural (natural) and social (civil), J.-J. Rousseau argues that if a society is immoral and contrary to human nature, it disfigures him. It is also possible that the social environment, although always causing a certain damage to the nature of the individual, nevertheless can and should form the second (civil) nature of the individual.

The main pedagogical work of J.-J. Rousseau - "Emil, or On Education". The novel is a kind of solution to the works of Rousseau, which touched upon pedagogical issues. "Emil" reflected the general outlook of Rousseau, where pedagogy is an important, but not the only area. Rousseau critically mastered and reworked the achievements of the pedagogical thought of European civilization, from Antiquity to the end of the 18th century. The Rousseauist program distinctly recalls the judgments of its predecessors about non-violent education, physical education and hardening, the natural kindness of a person and the corresponding moral education, etc.

In "Emile" Rousseau criticized the existing practice of organized education ("I do not see social education in those ridiculous institutions that are called colleges"). He showed the caste, narrow-mindedness, unnaturalness of upbringing and education in class schools, spoke about the inhumanity of upbringing in an aristocratic environment, where the child was usually under the supervision of a tutor or in a boarding house, being cut off from his parents.

At the same time, Rousseau, in the spirit of his theory of natural law, outlined the project natural education new person. The hero of the novel is a certain symbol, the bearer of an idea. This can explain the paradoxical situations in which the author places Emil. Such a technique helps to clearly dissociate themselves from traditional education and training and, at the same time, more transparently present their own pedagogical views. Therefore, the novel should least of all be considered as a practical guide to education.

Assuming that the state of nature is an ideal, J.-J. Rousseau proposes to aim education at such an ideal, making it natural or natural. Rousseau considered the right to freedom to be the main natural human right. That is why he put forward the idea of ​​free education, which follows and helps nature, eliminating harmful influences. In this regard, Rousseau spoke out against authoritarian education. Freedom or natural life away from artificial culture is declared the means of new education. The main and most difficult art of a mentor is to be able to do nothing with a child - such is the Rousseauist paradox of free education. The teacher should not be shown and explained, but patiently monitored so that a new person slowly matures in rural silence.

Rousseau believed that the child is influenced by three factors of education: nature, people, society. Each of these factors fulfills its role: nature develops abilities and feelings; people learn how to use them; society enriches the experience. Together, these factors ensure the natural development of the child. The task of the educator is to harmonize the action of these forces. Rousseau believed that the best education was the independent accumulation of life experience. A sufficient supply of such experience is acquired by the age of 25, the age of manhood, when he, being free, can become a full member of society.

The great humanist advocated the transformation of education into a natural, active, optimistic process, when the child lives in joy, independently listening, touching, observing the world, spiritually enriching himself and satisfying the thirst for knowledge. Under the natural education of J.-J. Rousseau understood the development of the child, taking into account age, in the bosom of nature. Communication with nature strengthens physically, teaches to use the senses, ensures free development. With natural education, following the childish nature, they refuse the restrictions established by the will of the mentor, wean them from blind obedience, and observe immutable natural laws. This eliminates the need for false, artificial punishments. They are replaced by the natural consequences of the wrong actions of the child. A weak child who needs support and help should constantly be patronized by a mentor. Natural education, according to Rousseau, is a life-giving process in which, on the one hand, children's inclinations and needs are taken into account, and on the other, they do not lose sight of the need to prepare the child for social relations and duties. The internal motivation of this pedagogical process is the child's desire for self-perfection.

An integral part of the concept of the natural development of the child are the ideas of negative education, which implies certain limitations in the pedagogical process. Thus, it was proposed not to rush in intellectual and moral education, postponing the achievement of their main goals to the later periods of childhood, adolescence and youth.

In the tasks of education J.-J. Rousseau included the development of the sensory system as the foundation for the formation of personality. The sensualist teacher believed that the material prerequisite for thinking is sensory, which needs constant exercises from early childhood.

Rousseau assigned a special place to physical education as a means of harmonizing human relations with nature and the social environment, as a factor in overcoming pernicious inclinations, in the formation of morally pure ideals and thoughts, in the formation of the whole organism.

Speaking of physical education, Rousseau rejects the idea of ​​negative education, advising from an early age to carry out intensive physical hardening of the child, exposing him to a certain risk.

The methodology and recommendations for physical education were designed for living conditions in an environment close to nature and manual labor. The ideas of labor education and training of Rousseau were innovative. Manual labor (gardening, carpentry, blacksmithing, etc.) was proclaimed an indispensable means of education. J.-J. Rousseau was deeply convinced that any person can secure freedom and independence, first of all, by his own labor. Everyone must master some craft in order to be able to earn a living in the future. That is why labor has taken such an important place in the pedagogical concept of J.-J. Rousseau.

In "Emil" an attempt was made to single out the main periods in the development of a person up to adulthood and outline the tasks of education in each of them. The first period is from birth to the appearance of speech. At this time, education is reduced mainly to caring for the healthy physical development of the child. In contrast to the traditions of aristocratic education, Rousseau insisted that the infant be fed not by a hired nurse, but by the mother herself. Detailed recommendations for the care of children were aimed at hardening the baby. Rousseau warns against attempts to force the development of children's speech, believing that they can lead to defects in pronunciation. The vocabulary of the child must match the accumulated ideas and specific ideas. The second period is from the appearance of speech to 12 years. The main task of education during this period is to create conditions for acquiring the widest possible range of life ideas. To help the child correctly perceive the surrounding objects and phenomena, Rousseau offered a set of exercises to develop vision, hearing, and touch. Assuming that until the age of 12 the child does not come out of the "sleep of the mind", i.e. does not mature in order to acquire any kind of systematic education, Rousseau believed that at this age one should teach without the use of books. The child must learn in practice the elements of various natural and exact knowledge. Moral education was recommended to be carried out mainly on examples, avoiding moralizing conversations. Rousseau saw the main task of a mentor in the moral education of a child up to 12 years of age in preventing situations that provoke children's lies. He showed the harm of teaching literacy and moral rules until they become a human need. Premature attempts to morally instruct the child to mechanically imitate the elders, to be hypocritical. The third period covers the age from 12 to 15 years, when children are full of strength and energy, being prepared for some kind of systematic mental education. When selecting educational subjects, Rousseau insisted on teaching useful knowledge, primarily natural history and mathematics. Teaching should be built on the basis of personal experience and amateur performance. Rousseau rejected the reading of books by children at this age. The exception was "Robinson Crusoe" by the English writer D. Defoe. Such a preference is explained by the fact that the hero of the novel showed for Rousseau the ideal of a person who created his well-being by his own labor. And this was consonant with the convictions of the philosopher. Finally, from the age of 15 to adulthood (25 years), the formation of the moral character of a young person ends. During these years, he gets acquainted with the institutions and customs of the surrounding society. Moral education acquires a practical character, developing good feelings, will, judgment and chastity in a young man. It is time to read historical writings (mainly biographies of great people of the era of Antiquity), since this is one of the important means of moral education. A young man should develop a religious feeling in the spirit of deism, in no way connected with this or that confession. Only later, having become fully grown, a person is free to choose a religion, Rousseau believed.

Created in the quiet of the Parisian suburbs, "Emile" sounded like thunder, announcing the inevitable and imminent death of the old way of life and education. Clericals and monarchists were especially enraged by Rousseau's speech against the dogmas of any religions and church organizations, primarily Catholicism. A frenzied persecution of J.-J. Rousseau. Immediately after the publication of "Emil" was banned. 10 days after publication, the Paris edition was burned at the stake. The same fate befell the Amsterdam edition of the first edition of Emil. Litigation was initiated against the author. The threat of reprisals was so great that Rousseau wrote in those days: "They can take my life, but not my freedom. It remains to finish my career with dignity."

Those in power unleashed their wrath on the freethinker. The Parisian archbishop makes "Emil" in the list of blasphemous books, which are an attempt on the foundations of religion and the state. The Pope anathematizes Rousseau. "Emil" was not to the liking of many reigning persons. The Russian Empress Catherine II wrote after reading the novel: "I especially dislike Emil's upbringing. That's not what they thought in our good old days." After such a recall, the import of "Emil" into Russia was banned.

Fleeing from reprisals, Rousseau sought and did not find shelter in different parts of Europe. He was forced to flee first to Switzerland, and from there through Germany to England. Persecution, life's hardships caused a mental illness in Rousseau. Only in 1767, after five years of exile, under the false name of J.-J. Rousseau returns to France. Here he completes his last works, where he again reflects on the upbringing and characteristics of childhood. Yes, in the treatise "Discourse on the administration of Poland" he speaks about the content of national education, proposing a plan for a secular public accessible "school-republic".

J.-J. Rousseau developed a coherent personality formation program that provided for natural mental, physical, moral, and labor education. Rousseau's pedagogical ideas are unusual and radical for their time. And although Rousseau failed to break with some pedagogical prejudices (in particular, he advocated the restriction of women's education), his ideas turned out to be one of the greatest pinnacles of human thought and served as a source of updating the theory and practice of education.

Rousseau made a strong criticism of the class system of education, which suppressed the personality of the child. His pedagogical ideas are imbued with the spirit of humanism. Rousseau was a champion of the development of independent thinking in children, an enemy of dogma and scholasticism. Putting forward the thesis of active learning, the connection of education with the life and personal experience of the child, insisting on labor education, Rousseau pointed out the way to improve the human personality.

Rousseau's views played an exceptionally important role in the development of the pedagogical ideas of the Enlightenment. "Emil" gave rise to an unprecedented public interest in the problems of education. In France, in the 25 years since the appearance of Emil, twice as many works on education have been published as in the previous 60 years.

Already during the life of Rousseau, his pedagogical ideas became the subject of close study. Many figures of the French Enlightenment accepted Rousseauist pedagogy with significant reservations. Supporters of the social determination of education were skeptical about it. Thus, Voltaire sneered at natural education as a call to "put a person on all fours." Nevertheless, he also found fifty pages in the pedagogical novel, worthy to be "bound in morocco."

The anti-Russoists have chosen two schemes of criticism. Either they recognized the certain value of Rousseau's pedagogical ideas, and then argued that they lacked a system. Or they argued that any idea that was attractive to Rousseau was borrowed. Much more, however, were those who realized the greatness and promise of the pedagogical concept of J.-J. Rousseau.

You can, almost without touching his biography. The work of a thinker who has a strictly scientific character or is most suitable for such a character, by its very essence, cannot have such a close relation to the purely personal life of a writer, as the work of a poet or a writer in general, more or less clearly manifesting his own subjectivity in his works. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) precisely belonged to the people of this last category. Indeed, his writings find their best commentary in his personal character and life fate, as you know, he himself depicted in the famous "Confession".

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's father was a simple Genevan watchmaker who was passionately fond of reading novels and passed this habit on to his son when the latter was still a child. In addition to novels, father and son read Plutarch, whom Father Rousseau commented on with pathetic speeches about love for the fatherland and civic prowess. Thus, fantasy, a somewhat high spirits, and a bookish attitude to reality were already developing in the child. His father abandoned Jean-Jacques to the mercy of fate when he was ten years old, and the boy, spoiled in the family by an aunt who took the place of his mother, who died at his birth, soon had to experience unfair and harsh treatment from strangers; it was probably for the first time that it engendered in Rousseau's soul that feeling of protest against any untruth, which subsequently vomited from his soul more than one eloquent tirade in his writings.

Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Artist M. K. Latour

At the same time, the wandering life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau began with constant changes in occupations. For quite a long time he was an engraver's apprentice, and his master's rough treatment of him embittered him in general against people and, as he himself admits, in addition, corrupted him, making him a liar, a deceiver, a thief and a decent coward. At the age of sixteen, Rousseau fled from his patron, fearing punishment for one offense and dreaming of realizing in complete freedom his fantasies read from novels. The real life of a homeless tramp began. At this time, Rousseau was converted to Catholicism, but was not attached to any business, but in the places of servants that the teenager fell into, he did not get along. Most of all, idleness in the bosom of nature attracted him, and the simplicity of life and the sympathetic attitude of the peasants towards him during his wanderings through the villages most affected his impressionable soul.

At the beginning of the thirties, Rousseau, however, lived quietly for about three years with Mrs. Varanes (Varens), who sheltered him, devoting this time to the study of the Latin language and philosophy. Then Voltaire's English Letters had just come out, and they made a very strong impression on the young man. After that, Rousseau continued to change professions, taught, studied music, traveled to Venice as a secretary to the French envoy, etc., until he settled in Paris for a longer time. Here he made acquaintances in literary circles, in which, however, he was terribly disappointed. By the same time, his rapprochement with Teresa Levasseur, a simple maid in a hotel, where he had to eat, belongs; the children who took root from this union were sent to an orphanage by their parents. The very choice of a very undeveloped woman from the common people as a girlfriend of life - and with her Rousseau then lived his whole century - some biographers explain it with contempt for scientific education and for secular treatment, and it must be added that he did not introduce into his relations with Teresa that suspiciousness, acrimony and irritability, which spoiled his relations with other people.

Such was the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau when he wrote his first famous "dissertation". She, as you know, was called by the Dijon Academy, which offered an interesting topic for an essay for the prize. In the middle of the XVIII century. in France intellectual interests were quite strong even in the provincial towns; this is proved, among other things, by the emergence at that time of scientific and literary societies, which took the name of academies. The Dijon Academy was one of the oldest and developed some interest in philosophical subjects. In 1742, for example, she raised the question whether natural laws could bring society to perfection without the aid of political laws. In 1749, her topic, on which Rousseau wrote, was the question: “did the restoration of the sciences and arts contribute to the purification of morals? “A few years later, the same academy again announced a competitive topic on the origin of inequality between people, and Rousseau, encouraged by the success of the first dissertation, which was crowned with a prize, wrote on this topic as well.

Both of these questions corresponded perfectly to the mood of Rousseau and his secret thoughts. He himself tells in his Confessions, with the usual exaggeration of his emotional disturbances, how he was struck by the question of the influence of the sciences and arts on morality, when he once happened to read an advertisement in the newspaper about the Dijon topic - he says that something suddenly came over him kind of inspiration, which completely intoxicated him, that he burst into tears from excitement, without noticing it himself, and that if he could write down even a quarter of the thoughts that flashed in disorder in his head, then he would obviously prove to everyone all the contradictions in our institutions that spoil man, a being by nature, however, good.

The publication of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's first discourse on the subject of the Dijon Academy opens a period of his literary activity, which was very short, if we count only his largest and most influential works. Indeed, Rousseau's first dissertation appeared in 1750, the second in 1754; in 1761 the New Eloise appeared, and in 1762 - Emil and The Social Contract. There is an inner connection between all these writings, and they were all generated by a mood similar to the state of mind that Rousseau experienced when he was so struck by the question posed by the Dijon Academy. In these years, Rousseau was one of the celebrities and had a place that provided him financially, but he could not get used to the secular society that surrounded him. He even, as if on purpose, in order to annoy this society, played the role of an eccentric and a cynic. Rousseau was terribly burdened by such a life, and he dreamed of settling in Geneva, regaining the rights of a citizen of this republic by renouncing the Roman church and solemnly accepting Protestantism. Among the Genevan theologians there were many who were inclined towards Christian deism, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau became very close to them, contrasting their pious religiosity to the Parisian free-thinking, which, on the contrary, he could not stand.

Rousseau even left Paris, but settled, however, not in Geneva, but not far from Montmorency, in a rural retreat, the Hermitage, arranged for him by one of his admirers and patrons. Here he found solitude and nature, which he loved with a kind of morbid impressionability, completely, so to speak, "simplified", continuing, nevertheless, his studies. Having quarreled some time later with the owner of the Hermitage, he rented an apartment for himself in the same Montmorency. Rousseau became more and more at odds with the philosophers, although he kept in touch with them, until he finally parted ways with them completely, shortly before the publication of The New Heloise, Emile, and The Social Contract. In an open letter to d "Alamberu he even warned his fellow citizens of Geneva against the danger that threatened them from the French enlightenment. The publication of Emile cost Rousseau the persecution raised against him by the parlement of Paris. When the order appeared to burn this book and arrest the author, Rousseau could only flee to Switzerland. Here, however, he could not find peace either; The Geneva City Council also ordered the burning of "Emil", adding to it the "Social Contract", and gave the order to seize the author at his first appearance on the territory of the republic. The Bernese Senate expelled him from the canton, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau found refuge only in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Prussian king Frederick II; Here he settled in a village.

But even from here he had to leave because of the absurd rumors that circulated about him among the peasants, and now, unable to return to Geneva, whose citizenship he, moreover, solemnly renounced, Rousseau left for England at the call of the philosopher David Hume (1766). Very soon, however, Rousseau quarreled with Hume. Imagining that he was lured to England only in order to be ruined, he fled to France and only after long wanderings could he settle again in Paris, where he lived for about eight more years, very poor and almost completely not engaged in literature. Shortly before his death, at the invitation of one of his friends, he moved to his estate, where he died suddenly, shortly after the death of Voltaire. There were rumors that the sudden death of Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a suicide (1778). While still in England, he began writing his "Confession", which he finished shortly before his death.

Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712 - 1778) - French philosopher, political theorist, writer and composer, developer of a direct form of government. His writings on the education system, on government and on moral themes, had a great influence on the leaders of the French Revolution and on the representatives of romanticism in literature and art. His philosophy is dominated by the theory that any person, good and correct by nature, is corrupted and corrupted by any contact with society. Rousseau was so controversial and so influential that George Sand called him "Saint Rousseau", while Voltaire called him a "monster", and Leo Tolstoy, for example, said that the gospel and Rousseau had the greatest influence on him in life.

Jean-Jacques was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva. Jean Rousseau's mother, nee Suzanne Bernard, granddaughter of a Geneva pastor, died a few days after Jean-Jacques was born. Jean-Jacques spent the first ten years of his life in the arms of his father and aunt, a young girl, to whom he retained the warmest feelings for the rest of his life. The kind girl looked after her nephew as well as she could, watched over his health, protected him from the consequences of his weak and sickly build. Her tender cares were imprinted in the sensitive heart of the child and, perhaps, further contributed to the development of this sensitivity. Rousseau sang her sincere songs with tears in his eyes in the last years of his life. There was little this girl could give to her pet, but it was little: a kind heart, justice, folk poetry, musical tunes. Non multa, sed multum. [Not much, but much (lat.).] And the good seed fell on the good soil of a loving, tender, receptive nature.

Since childhood, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was fond of reading books. The boy's father, watchmaker Isaac Rousseau, came into conflict with an officer in the French service and in 1722 was forced to leave Geneva. While Jean-Jacques lived with his father, they often read the fiction of those years together all night long. Later, when his father left Geneva, Jean Jacques, who inherited his grandfather's library, chose his own books to read. A huge role in his further intellectual development was played by the works of Buffon, Fontenelle, Voltaire, and Abbé Saint-Pierre that he read. Jean-Jacques was given to study with a notary, later (in 1725) - with an engraver. Unable to endure the tyranny of the owner, Rousseau left his native city in 1728.

Further education was not stable. A characteristic episode from these years of wandering, which Rousseau later told in his Confession. Wandering near Lyon, Rousseau wandered into the village and asked a peasant to feed him for a fee. The peasant offered at first only a slice of coarse rye bread and skimmed milk. Only after talking with the traveler and making sure that he was dealing with a “decent young man” who would not betray him, the peasant, looking around apprehensively, took out meat and wine hidden from the tax collector, and explained that he would die if someone saw him these supplies. “What he told me in connection with this, and about which I had no idea, made an indelible impression on me; he planted in my soul the seed of that irreconcilable hatred, which subsequently grew in my heart against the oppression experienced by the unfortunate people, and against their oppressors ... ".

In Savoy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau met Louise-Eleanor de Varence, who had a significant impact on his entire subsequent life. An attractive 28-year-old widow from an old noble family, a newly converted Catholic, she enjoyed the patronage of the church and Duke Victor Amedeus of Savoy, who became King of Sardinia in 1720. Yielding to the influence of this lady, Rousseau went to Turin to the abode of the Holy Spirit. Here he converted to Catholicism, thereby losing his Genevan citizenship. In 1729, Rousseau settled in Annecy with Madame de Varence, who decided to continue his education. She encouraged him to enter the seminary and then the choir school.

In 1730, Jean-Jacques Rousseau resumed his wanderings, but in 1732 he returned to Madame de Varence again, this time in Chambéry, and became one of her lovers. Their relationship, which lasted until 1739, opened the way for Rousseau to a new, previously inaccessible world. Relations with Madame de Varence and people who visited her house improved his manners, instilled a taste for intellectual communication. Thanks to his patroness, he received in 1740 a place of tutor in the house of the Lyon judge Jean Bonnot de Mably, the elder brother of the famous Enlightenment philosophers Mably and Condillac. Although Rousseau did not leave Mably as a teacher of children, the acquired connections helped him upon his arrival in Paris.

In 1742 Jean-Jacques Rousseau moved to Paris. Here he intended to succeed thanks to his proposed reform of musical notation, which consisted in the abolition of transposition and keys. Rousseau made a presentation at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and then appealed to the public by publishing a "Dissertation on Modern Music" (1743). His meeting with Denis Diderot also dates back to this time, in which he immediately recognized a bright mind, prone to serious and independent philosophical reflection.

In 1743, Rousseau was appointed to the post of secretary of the French ambassador in Venice, Count de Montagu, but, not getting along with him, he soon returned to Paris (1744). In 1745 he met Thérèse Levasseur, who became his life partner. He married because of a material lack, but was not happy in marriage. Considering that he was not able to raise his children (there were five of them), Rousseau sent them to an orphanage.

In 1749, Denis Diderot engaged Rousseau to work on the Encyclopedia, for which he wrote 390 articles, primarily on music theory. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reputation as a musician increased with his comic opera The Sorcerer Rustic, staged at court in 1752 and at the Paris Opera in 1753.

Having received the award of the Dijon Academy in 1749, Rousseau began to work fruitfully, compose music, rewrite notes. He changed his behavior, moving away from society, settled separately from his wife.

Jean Jacques Rousseau- a representative of sentimentalism, the main feature of which was feelings. J. J. Rousseau opposed social inequality, the despotism of royal power. He idealized the natural state of universal equality and freedom of people, destroyed by the introduction of private property. The state, according to Rousseau, can only arise as a result of an agreement between free people. Rousseau's aesthetic and pedagogical views are expressed in the treatise novel Emil, or On Education (1762). The novel in letters “Julia, or New Eloise” (1761), as well as “Confession”, which put “private”, spiritual life at the center of the narrative, contributed to the formation of psychologism in European literature.

In the pedagogical novel "Emile or on Education" (1762), Jean-Jacques Rousseau attacked the modern system of education, reproaching it for the lack of attention to the inner world of a person, neglect of his natural needs. In the form of a philosophical novel, Rousseau outlined the theory of innate moral feelings, the main of which he considered the inner consciousness of goodness. He proclaimed the task of education to be the protection of moral feelings from the corrupting influence of society.

Meanwhile, it was society that became the focus of Rousseau's most famous work, On the Social Contract, or the Principles of Political Law (1762). By concluding a social contract, people give up part of their sovereign natural rights in favor of state power, which protects their freedom, equality, social justice and thereby expresses their common will. The latter is not identical to the will of the majority, which may be contrary to the true interests of society. If the state ceases to follow the general will and fulfill its moral obligations, it loses the moral basis of its existence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau assigned this moral support of power to the so-called. a civil religion called upon to unite citizens on the basis of faith in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the inevitability of the punishment of vice and the triumph of virtue. Thus, Rousseau's philosophy was far enough away from the deism and materialism of many of his former friends.

Rousseau's sermon was met with the same hostility in the most diverse circles. "Emile" was condemned by the Parlement of Paris (1762), the author was forced to flee France for Switzerland. From there he again moved due to the condemnation of his works. In Geneva, Emile and the Social Contract were burned, and Rousseau was outlawed.

In 1762-67. Jean Jacques Rousseau wandered first in Switzerland, then ended up in England. In 1770, having achieved European fame, Rousseau returned to Paris, where he was no longer in danger. There he completed work on the Confession.

"Confession" - the most outstanding work of Rousseau. This is an autobiographical novel. The purpose of the book is “... to show one person to his fellows in all the truth of his nature”, in all his unique individual originality. With the utmost sincerity and truthfulness, Rousseau bares his heart, "... all his innermost thoughts ...", not being afraid to tell "... the most disgusting things about himself ...". Drawing life, expressing thoughts and describing mental states, Rousseau reveals not only his inner world, but also a system of views on nature and society.

Being in a difficult mental state and overwhelmed by persecution mania, Rousseau retired to the village of Ermenonville in northern France near Senlis, where he spent the last months of his life in the care of the Marquis de Girardin. Died Jean Jacques Rousseau July 2, 1778 in Ermenonville. The Marquis de Girardin buried him on an island in his own park.

In 1781, shortly after the death of the writer, when a stone tombstone was erected on his grave on Poplar Island in Ermenonville, twenty-year-old Friedrich Schiller, still unknown to anyone, wrote in a secret notebook:

A monument that arose with an evil reproach

Our days and France a disgrace,

Coffin Rousseau, I bow before you!

In 1794, during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the remains Jean Jacques Rousseau were moved to the Paris Pantheon.