He set himself, in Emile, against all the traditional methods of education, and the book… must have influenced the practice of education insofar as this has gradually if often reluctantly allowed more open expression of individuality' (Seymour-Smith, The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written, 294). Thus, in an important sense, all liberal modern educational experiments derive from Rousseau. Instead of his natural instincts being curbed in schools by moral instruction, the child should be encouraged to develop his individuality in the bosom of his family religion should be nondogmatic and depend not on the head but the heart experience should come not from books but from life.

The first describes, in the form of a novel, the ideal education of the innocent child so that he shall not become tainted by society. This line of thinking led to Emile and the Social Contract (both 1762). 'Around 1750 Rousseau began to promulgate the idea of the noble-or innocent-savage: our ancestor, a man uncorrupted by civilization and untainted by the sin of property. 'One may justly hail Rousseau as the discoverer of the child' (Curtis & Boultwood, 264). Octavo, contemporary full mottled calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, red and olive morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers.įirst edition of one of Rousseau’s greatest works, a vastly influential philosophical novel whose 'originality lay in the fact that it was the first comprehensive attempt to describe a system of education according to nature,' with five finely engraved illustrations after designs by Charles Eisen-a splendid copy in contemporary mottled calf-gilt.Įmile expressed Rousseau's primary philosophy of education, the core of which was his belief in encouraging a child to ask his own questions and in allowing a child to demonstrate his interest in a subject rather than forcing learning. 'ONE MAY JUSTLY HAIL ROUSSEAU AS THE DISCOVERER OF THE CHILD': ROUSSEAU’S EMILE, RARE 1762 FIRST EDITION-A BEAUTIFUL COPY IN CONTEMPORARY CALF-GILT

Jean jacques rousseau emilie