Natural Human Nature,Education And "Humanitarian Morality"

Rousseau is one of the most important thinkers in the history of the development of modern political philosophy in the West.The related research literature is voluminous."Discourse on the Sciences and Arts(First Discourse)","Discourse on the Origins of Inequality(Second Discourse)" and "Social Contract" has always been popular.In contrast,"Emile" is in an embarrassing position in Rousseau's political philosophy,although it is regarded by Rousseau himself as the most important work,and usually scholars in the process of studying of other works regard it is an important text of extracting materials and argument resources,but the paradox is the political philosophy study of "Emile" itself is scarce.At the same time,"Emile" in the field of education or educational philosophy has a far-reaching impact.On the other hand,Rousseau has been controversial because the distinct ideological tendencies in his early and late writings,or considered to be individualists and anarchists,or is considered collectivists and the pioneers of totalitarianism,some scholars even think his thought never has uniformity.In the face of such a situation,it is necessary to take a closer look at the role and influence of "Emile" in Rousseau's political philosophy.On the one hand,it is useful for digging its valuable value in the field of political philosophy,on the other hand,it could strengthen the consistency of Rousseau's political philosophy and makes it profound.The first way of studying of the political philosophical thought of "Emile" is to place it in the whole of Rousseau's thought,which means that it should be regarded as an organic part with the other main works of Rousseau.Although it is always controversial about the general tendency of Rousseau's political ideology,but the most important matter is to believe that there is a "Rousseau system" and to put aside qualitative assertions,which also means to respect present implication of each major work of Rousseau,to connect overall and judge after trying to find the main line.Rousseau began his writing career with moral criticism.Throughout his thoughts,we could find that all his writings revolved around morality and politics.For this reason,Rousseau was considered to be the pioneer of "moral politics" in modern political philosophy,relying on it to criticize "modernity" on the basis of defending morality.Furthermore,Rousseau's moral idea depends on his theory of human nature.Therefore,the starting point of the political philosophy study of "Emile" should also be based on its human nature as a central clue.The goal of "Emile" is to cultivate a natural person living in society under the guidance of natural education,so that living in society while maintaining the natural human nature,in other words,as a citizen at the same time as a natural person.The contradiction of such educational goals has been demonstrated in "The Two Discourses" and "Social Contract".Rousseau criticized the cultural and educational society in the "First Discourse ",although brought the prosperity of science and art,but it makes human nature degenerate.In the "Second Discourse",Rousseau further to restore the natural state and natural human nature on the ground of natural sciences,to retrospect human degeneration history.The conclusion is that human nature and its non-political attributes,the emergence of skills and social life lead to human nature gradually distorted and human inequality,and the creation of political society signs final confirmation of inequality by the law and the system.However,Rousseau did not extend this logic to completely deny the legitimacy of politics and society,on the contrary,he was committed to building an ideal political order in the "Social Contract",the political citizenship it based on is exactly opposite the natural human nature in the "Second Discourse".The contradiction between nature and society,natural human nature and civic virtue reflects the contradiction between the educational goals of "Emile",but it also shows a way to solve the problem,that is,as long as answering how possible training a natural people living in the society in"Emile",the logical convergence of "The Two Discourses" and "Social Contract"could be achieved.Combining the background of Rousseau's thought,the natural education goal of"Emile" first refers to a natural standard and unnatural construction.This so-called unnatural not only refers to the educational technique itself,but also the natural result of this artificial art,which means Rousseau's natural education contains a new understanding of nature that is different from the "Second Discourse".On the one hand,education and construction are natural because they take the strict nature in the Second Discourse as a standard,and because the goal is to shape a natural persons;on the other hand,education and construction are also unnatural because they are human art which is relative to strict nature,and the goal is not to shape a pure natural person,but the nature man living in society.Therefore,the nature of the "Emile" is quite vague,and when it is a standard,it is a strict nature like in the "Second Discourse",when it is education and its result,it is unnatural thing of nature,or the sociality accorded with nature.So,it can be said that the nature of nature education is broad in the extension in relative to "Second Discourse",which is a inevitable change caused by Rousseau's moral construction and specific historical circumstances.According to this logic,the reason why Rousseau turned to the ideal regime is due to the purely natural state can't be returned,the only hope is to reshape the political society to purify the moral fashion,and this moral construction aiming at social dimension must take the strict nature as a value standard.The result should also be that construction and its consequence is unnatural of nature or nature of socialization in the quality.Although the natural as a standard,but the goal of "Emile"and "Social Contract" are different,the former is civilized nature man and natural human nature,which is the product of natural education,the latter is citizen and civic virtues,which is the product political system.The basis of civilized nature man and natural human nature is Rousseau's re-understanding of nature,while the construction of the political system,although the same as the standard of nature,but still need to solve the political system itself is possible,that is,the legitimacy of the political system.The basis of this foundation is different from the natural construction standards.The construction of civic morality not only requires the wisdom of the legislator to adapt the state to the physical level of nature,to make the influence of the created law conform to the natural human nature,but also to the universal consent of each citizen based on its free will.The consent is the basis of the legitimacy of every political system.While the natural person in society,like the virtuous citizen,can carry out any of the obligations required by law in the same way,but he is based on the humanitarian morality different from the civil morality,that is,the natural emotion realized by the free will at the humanitarian level.Therefore,humanitarian morality is a kind of moral consciousness getting rid of the external coercive restraint of the actual law,and the non-compulsory characteristic of humanitarian morality determines that it can only be the behavioral basis of the minority.In this sense,the humanitarian morality in "Emile" on the one hand is a kind of transcendence in relative to political society and its corresponding morality,on the other hand also delineated the latter limit.