The reputation of Rousseau's Emile in France from 1762 - 1790

Abstract

In 1762 Rousseau's reputation depended partly on his controversial essays, partly on the success of La Nouvelle Heloise. This is reflected in early reactions to Emile. The emergence and nature of his reputation as an educationalist can he seen in popular and professional reactions to the main themes of Emile. In physical education, Rousseau's strong naturalistic position contrasts with his predecessors' less decided support of art or nature. In the 1770s popular enthusiasm for Emile prompts the otherwise silent theorists to acknowledge Rousseau's success. Emile seems to encourage both practical reforms and a more decided support of the natural. These changes lose impetus during the 1780s, but Rousseau's reputation as an educationalist is already well-established. Rousseau believes a truly public education is impossible in an unreformed society, and chooses a private education for Emile. Unlike his predecessors, who had been concerned with the formation of social man, Rousseau attempts to combine the formation of natural, or individual man, with that of social man. On the whole, his complex position is not understood, and throughout the pre-Revolutionary period, Emile is interpreted as a treatise of private education, and often criticised as such. However, from 1770 onwards, the theorists incorporate details from Emile in their treatises of public education, and this is very common by the Revolution. Rousseau's insistence on parallel political and educational reform receives no comment. The theme of isolation in Emile may stimulate the popularity of later plans for communal educations in isolated State boarding-schools. Rousseau's psychological theories combine Cartesian and Sensationalist elements, but oppose the extreme Sensationalism of, for example, Helvetius. Helvetius criticises Rousseau in detail, revealing some misunderstanding and misrepresentation. The educational theorists restrict their comments, almost without exception, to the development of the rational faculties, and Rousseau's system of negative education.