jean jacques rousseau
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
By: Miriam Berry
CHILDHOOD
Born in Geneva, Switzerland on June 28,1712
Family was pious Calvinists and refugees from
France
His mother died shortly after childbirth
His father was a poor watchmaker and dance
master
When he was ten his father fled Geneva
He was then raised by his mothers sister
SCHOOLING
He stopped traditional schooling at the age of 12
Was apprenticed to several trades but had no success
In 1728 he ran away from Geneva and joined the Catholic church
Took a job as a footman to a noblewoman in Annecy
Later became lover to a wealthy widow who provided for his
education in the classics and music
In 1738 he journeyed to Montpellier to improve his health and
when he returned his lover had found a replacement
CAREER
Attempted teaching but did not like it
Was not recognized for his system of
musical notation
Was an unsatisfactory secretary to the
French ambassador in Venice
Finally moved back to Paris after his
failed attempts
FAMILY
In Paris in 1745 he took a mistress, Therese le
Vasseur
They had five children
Jean took them all to the Foundling Hospital to be
raised as orphans
He later married Therese in 1768
PUBLISHED WORKS
Wrote an essay called “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences”
and won a literary prize from the Academy of Dijon in 1749
This gave him literary fame and he returned to Geneva in1754
There he rejoined the protestant church and regained his
citizenship
He published several essays and had some different
mistresses in the next few years.
EXILE
In 1762 he published his most famous works, “The
Social Contract” and “Emile”
Due to the content of these books about religion
and his opinion that there should be a democratic
city-state in France he was exiled by the
government.
He did not like it so in 1770 he returned to Paris
LATER LIFE
Back in Paris he published several more less
offensive works and an opera.
Rousseau suffered from psychological feelings of
persecution and lived in a cottage at Ermenonville
for the last few months of his life
Due to his mental and physical health problems he
died of a stroke on July 2, 1778
EMILE
Rousseau wrote this novel to show his beliefs on education.
It consists of five books and the different stages of learning
Book 1: Infancy: Goodness of men, keep children should be
kept form forming bad habits
Book 2: “The age of Nature”: purpose of education, school
environment, self motivated learning, discipline and physical
education
EMILE (CONTINUED)
Book 3: Pre-adolescence : Intellectual
education, geography, science, history and other
subjects are learned by desire to learn them
Book 4: Puberty: social attitudes, and natural
religion
Book 5: Adulthood: love, education of women
PHILOSOPHIES
People are inherently good but they become
corrupted by the evils of society.
He believed in liberty, equality, and fraternity
“Make the citizen good by training, and
everything else will follow.” - Jean
Jacques Rousseau
SOURCES
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/a
ee501/rousseau.html
http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau/#
SH1a
http://
www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm