Rousseau’s writings include contradictions which still make his work much discussed. He was born three hundred years ago on June 28, 1712 in Geneva. In his lifetime his writings caused him to be thrown out of cities and he needed to move to different parts of Europe, spending some time in exile in England. After writing the book Émile he made both Protestant and Catholic leaders angry enough to ban him even when trying to support the church. And his friend Mary Wollstonecraft was very angry with him for how he portrayed women in the book. Maybe Rousseau was unappreciated for his positive gifts to humanism in philosophy and misunderstood even today.
Rousseau’s mother died when he is very young so he is raised by one of his aunts (Suzanne Rousseau) and his father. He is well read by the time he is eighteen years old because he reads all kinds of novels, history books and some of the great philosophers with his father. (Broome 1963 213) His life in society is mostly influenced by his own writing because he is so often thrown out of countries for what he has written, he travels a lot.
Broome (1963) notes that the young Rousseau missed the curfew; finding the doors to Geneva locked in March, 1728. From there his life takes interesting twists and turns including soul searching and a change in his religion. He ends up in Turin, Italy and in June of 1729 goes to Paris. He lives in other parts of France and also in Venice during his lifetime.
Mary Wollstonecraft was outraged at the book, Émile written by her friend Rousseau and colleague in the French Enlightenment movement. After she read Émile: Treatise on Education (1762) Wollstonecraft was motivated to write A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) to answer his depiction of women and how women should be educated.
Émile is the main character in the book by Rousseau and the boy’s (Émile’s) education is the main topic of the book. Wollstonecraft did not disagree with his ideas on educating Émile, but how Rousseau discusses the character named Sophie. He writes about women’s education and about what makes a good wife in relation to the character, Sophie, as if women need to be submissive and not as well educated as men. (Wallace 2005)
Wollstonecraft recognizes in book’s character, Sophie, as Rousseau’s own wife, who is named Therése. Wollstonecraft is a practical woman who knows that women can do anything men can do including understand the lessons given in a good education. Trouille (1997) writes that “she (Wollstonecraft) viewed it as a serious obstacle to female autonomy and self-control” (p. 264). Yet she and Rousseau remained friends maybe because he wrote about women in a loving way, not disrespectfully except that his comments were like orders not like giving simple advice (Trouille, 252).
Wallace (2005) demonstrates the widely differing views between Wollstonecraft and Rousseau by quoting the following sentences from each of their books.
“Give, without scruples, a woman’s education to women, see to it that they love the cares of their sex, that they possess modesty, that they know how to grow old in their manage and keep of the house.” (J. J. Rousseau Émile as cited in Wallace 1rst introductory quote)
“The neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore.” (M. Wollstonecraft A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as cited by Wallace 2nd introductory quote)
These two sentiments contradict each other in how they characterize the best education for women, but Wallace (2005) points out that “(Yet) by inserting Sophie in her place in his educational theories, he encourages others to give the question further thought at a moment in history when social revolution uniquely supports her” (para. 9). Wallace (2005) also points out the Rousseau didn’t just take into account the rich and elite of France, he wrote about “all society” so that all women, even women of lower classes became a part of the conversation (para. 9).
Broome notes that in 1754 (at about 35 years of age) he returns to Geneva, regains his citizenship (by reconverting to Calvinism) and tries to educate the citizens there on how to keep their national identity (213). Rousseau felt that it was very important for each nation to keep their national identity . This was because with all the new trends in technology the world was becoming a smaller place. He didn’t think it was good that European countries like Germany, France, and Spain had all become ‘European’ rather than holding on to their unique traditions and national cultures.
Rousseau called for patriotism even though patriotism made citizens unhappy with people from other countries, that is with foreigners. He was influenced very much by Voltaire except on the point that Voltaire thought a person could be a citizen of the world rather than a patriot which could be very dangerous. Rousseau even cautioned Genevans about bringing new habits and ways of thinking home with them from travels abroad. For this reason he has earned in some circles the label “anti-cosmopolitan.’ (Rosenblatt para. 12-16)
Rousseau started out living a cosmopolitan life but ended up preferring to be alone. Maybe his feelings of staying to himself were fueled by the criticisms he received wherever he landed in his life. He was a part of the French Enlightenment movement as a youth but as he became older and more removed from society he still criticized their definition of “cosmopolitan.” He claimed that he was a humanist and loved people more than they ever would.
He was a romantic man and he liked everything to have an order. He had a certain way of thinking about how a house could be run without a lot of tension and with no chaos (based on his description of an ideal wife). In his life he never caused a crime and he loved several women especially adoring his wife Therése and treated them well.
I don’t think he was a bad man or a person who hated foreigners. I think he was trying to help people celebrate their differences like we now try to do when we celebrate diversity. For each citizen in the world to end up as a homogenized version of all the others is exactly what is happening now as American advertising and entertainment has turned Europeans into American clones. Maybe that is what Rousseau was trying to warn us against.
Works Cited
Broome, J. H. A Study of His Thought. London, England: Edward Arnold. 1963. Print.
Huxman, S. Mary Wollstonecraft, Margaret Fuller, & Angelina Grimke: Symbolic convergence and a nascent rhetorical vision. Communication Quarterly, 44(1), 1996, 16-28. doi:10.1080/01463379609369997
Rosenblatt, H. Rousseau, the Anti-cosmopolitan? Daedalus. 137(3), 59+. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
Trouille, M. S. Sexual Politics in the Enlightenment: Women Writers Read Rousseau. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1997. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
Wallace, H. E. Woman’s education according to Rousseau and Wollstonecraft. Feminism and Women’s Studies. (44)1, pp. 37. 20 Jan. 2005 Web. 25 Jan. 2012.
