Since 1536, Geneva had been a Huguenot republic and the seat of Calvinism. Rousseau was born in Geneva, which was at the time a city-state and a Protestant associate of the Swiss Confederacy (now a canton of Switzerland). Rousseau's autobiographical writings-the posthumously published Confessions (composed in 1769), which initiated the modern autobiography, and the unfinished Reveries of the Solitary Walker (composed 1776–1778)-exemplified the late 18th-century ' Age of Sensibility', and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His Emile, or On Education (1762) is an educational treatise on the place of the individual in society. Rousseau's sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise (1761) was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. His pedagogical principles still have a lot to offer to modern educators.Jean-Jacques Rousseau ( UK: / ˈ r uː s oʊ/, US: / r uː ˈ s oʊ/ French: 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher ( philosophe), writer, and composer. Whether you agree on his ideas or not, it is obvious that what he saw 250 years ago hasn’t changed much. For many of us, it’s thought-provoking to see our own childhood and upbringing through Rousseau’s eyes. It was a completely different era then … or was it? This was during the times of the Enlightenment when rationality, the human mind and formal teaching were prevailing ideas. The book was burned, and Rousseau had to flee from his home in France to avoid being arrested and thrown into jail.

But when the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau submitted them in his educational novel “Émile” in 1762 people took serious offence.

Today, these considerations don’t seem so strange or surprising. In this way, they gain become confident and self-reliant.

Therefore, according to Rousseau, the best we can offer our children is an upbringing full of freedom, possibilities to follow their curiosity and opportunities to explore and make their own experiences. In Rousseau’s view, humankind is good by nature – opposing other thinkers like Thomas Hobbes who believed that humans are inherently competitive and violent by nature.

Emile by jean jacques rousseau