Book Cover of Rousseau and Education According to Nature

Rousseau and Education According to Nature

by Thomas Davidson

In my Volume on Aristotle in this series, I tried to give an account of ancient, classical, and social Education; in the present volume I have endeavored to set forth the nature of modern, romantic, and unsocial Education. This education originates with Rousseau. With much reluctance I have been obliged to dwell, at considerable length, on the facts of his life, in order to show that his glittering structure rests, not upon any broad and firm foundation of well-generalized and well-sifted experience, but upon the private tastes and preferences of an exceptionally capricious and self-centered nature. His Emile is simply his selfish and unsocial self, forcibly withheld, by an external Providence, in the shape of an impossible tutor, from those aberrations which led that self into the a "dark forest " of misery. If my estimate of Rousseau's value as an educator proves disappointing to those who believe in his doctrines, I can only say, in excuse, that I am more disappointed than they are.

Book Details

Language

English

Original Language

English

Published In

1898

Author

Thomas Davidson image

Thomas Davidson was a Scottish-American philosopher and lecturer. Davidson was born of Presbyterian parents at Old Deer, near Aberdeen. After graduating from Aberdeen University (1860) as first gradua...

More on Thomas Davidson

Listen/Download Audiobook

Read by:
00:00
Playback Speed 1.0
00:00
  • Select Speed

Related books

The Story of Joan of Arc  Cover image

The Story of Joan of Arc by Andrew Lang

The story begins in the early 1400 hundreds and Joan of Arc being a child with thirteen years old and one day she was outside and she hears something...

Thomas Wingfold, Curate  Cover image

Thomas Wingfold, Curate by George MacDonald

A young man (Thomas Wingfold) "enters the church" through no real faith and only for want of something to do. After an encounter with a brash young at...

The Mirror of the Sea Cover image

The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad

It is a classic book that explores the author's personal experiences as a sailor and his reflections on the sea. Originally published in 1906, the boo...

William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist Cover image

William Lloyd Garrison, the Abolitionist by Archibald Grimké

"The author of this volume desires . . . to say . . . that it is his earnest hope that this record of a hero may be an aid to brave and true living in...

Redburn: His First Voyage  Cover image

Redburn: His First Voyage by Herman Melville

The book is semi-autobiographical and recounts the adventures of a refined youth among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool. M...

Indian Boyhood Cover image

Indian Boyhood by Charles Eastman

What was it like to grow up as a Native American boy in the late 19th century? Indian Boyhood is a memoir by Charles Alexander Eastman, a Santee Dako...

Alexander Hamilton  Cover image

Alexander Hamilton by Charles Conant

Alexander Hamilton was a significant figure in the political and economic development of the early United States. He served in the American Revolution...

Grammar-Land Cover image

Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbitt

In this charming 1877 book of grammar instruction for children, we are introduced to the nine parts of speech and learn about the rules that govern th...

Robert Browning Cover image

Robert Browning by Gilbert K. Chesterton

There is an old anecdote, probably apocryphal, which describes how a feminine admirer wrote to Browning asking him for the meaning of one of his darke...

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Cover image

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Inventor, author, printer, scientist, politician, diplomat—all these terms do not even begin to fully describe the amazing and multitalented, Benjamin...

Reviews for Rousseau and Education According to Nature

No reviews posted or approved, yet...