An Ethic Analysis Of Rousseau’s Natural Person’s Education

Proceeding from the nature hypothesis of equality and freedom, Rousseau came upwith the educational objectives of cultivating natural person. He insisted that educationshould comply with the natural inclinations as well as the natural development of people,proposing to cultivate the natural person with both physical and mental harmony underthe circumstances of freedom and equality, which not only pointed out the problems atthat time, but also provided contemporary education with significant enlightenment andreference.The essence of education is to cultivate people’s activities, while in the process ofcontemporary education practice, we emphasize the pure intellectual education for theonly purpose of practical philosophy, which has resulted in great damage to thiseducation ethic. Excessive fierce competition makes “adult” education neglected, while“talent” education has been largely cleared up due to the over emphasis on the results ofwritten tests. Modern education has evolved substantially into a training that enables theeducators to be qualified for certain vocational skill by virtue of intelligent training,while people have reduced to dependency and tools of the profession, and thuseducation will lose its important mission of fostering real men who are in the pursuit ofspiritual life and human beings’ eternal ultimate value. Having combed the academicresearch on Rousseau’s naturalistic education, this thesis applies the literature analysismethod as well as the method of unifying history and logic, making deep analysis of theunique significance of natural person, the training objective of natural education, fromthe ethical perspective, and trying to explore its implications for our domestic educationin terms of both theory and practice.The thesis consists of three parts. The first part is an overview of the formation ofnatural person’s education background from the perspective of historical development.It talks about the definitions of the savage and natural person under the naturalisticcontext. It points out that there is no good and evil about people under the natural state,and people have no social attribute, undertaking no responsibilities and obligations toeach other, under which circumstance, apart from the internal intellect and need, thenatural person cultivated shall enjoy absolute liberty, independence as well as equalitywithout being bounded by any external authority and prejudice. Then it refers tophilosophical foundation of natural person’s education, including the epistemology which based on sensory experience, the human rights thought attaching importance tothe dignity and value of each person and the popular natural religion at that time. Last,the thesis demonstrates the logical path of Rousseau’s natural person education fromthe three aspects: law of morality based on doctrine of good nature, emotionaleducation which makes supplements for rational education as well as the educationalthought laying equal stress on self-love and altruistic love.The second part is mainly to interpretate the ethical connation of natural person’seducation, both from the aspect of human being’s natural development process and theeducational practice in Emile. It clearly states that the ethical requirements of earlychildhood are to comply with the nature, the ethical characteristics of juvenile periodare to obey nature, the ethics’ centers of adolescence are moral education, and finallycomes to the core concept of Rousseau’s ultimate education ideal,that is, returning tonature. Its goal is to cultivate a liberal, independent and harmonious natural personwithout the influence of social customs and prejudice.The third part is mainly to evaluate Rousseau’s natural education ethics thoughtfrom both positive and negative aspects. It will introduce the paradoxical parts aboutapplying the education thought into practice. Combining with much highlight on wiseeducation in modern education and the reality of achieving quick successes andneglecting the laws of the physical and mental development of children, it points outthe significance of natural person’s ethics education thought for today’s education.