As the spokesman of the petty bourgeoisie in the revolutionary democratic camp, Rousseau made a sharp and profound attack on the hypocrisy and decay of the aristocratic society under the old French system in the18th century. The first is the title of a paper on science and art. Readers will generally understand Rousseau's admiration for "science and art". Therefore, it is very necessary to explain Rousseau's doubts about the argument angle based on "science and art". Rousseau's question is, does the revival of science and art help to corrupt or corrupt customs? In this paper, Rousseau criticized the so-called science and art for giving the aristocratic bourgeoisie sufficient reasons for corruption and moral decay. He asserted that science and art are contradictory to the people, and he revealed sincere feelings rich in people's nature to resist the hypocrisy of aristocratic civilization. This requirement of returning to nature reflects the protest of the third-grade civilian class against the empty and corrupt aristocratic culture. Therefore, the idea of returning to nature put forward in this paper laid the foundation for Rousseau to devote himself to naturalism education in the future.

First, the meaning of natural education thought

Rousseau's naturalistic education theory is the main body of Rousseau's education theory. Rousseau believes that nature should follow the laws of nature and develop human nature. He defined the source of education as three aspects: "This kind of education is subject to nature, people or things." Rousseau said: "Each of us is trained by three kinds of teachers. A student, if the different education of these three teachers conflicts with each other, his education is not good ... If these three different educations are consistent and tend to the same goal, he will achieve his own goal and live a meaningful life. Such students are well educated. " Because it is impossible to control the manpower of natural education, it is impossible to make natural education close to physical education and artificial education. Only when the latter two tend to be consistent with natural education can the three kinds of education be well combined. Therefore, education "belongs to nature", that is, education based on nature is a good and effective education.

Second, On Science and Art is the embryonic form of Rousseau's natural education thought.

(A) the concept of human nature

The paper mentioned: "Before art was shaped into our style and taught our feelings to use artificial language, our fashion was rough, but it was natural;" From the difference in manners, you can see the difference in personality at a glance. At that time, although human nature was not necessarily good at all, it was easy for people to get to know each other deeply and find their own sense of security, which we can't feel today, so that they can avoid all kinds of evils well. "Rousseau's early thoughts have not yet formed a clear system. He believes that although human nature is natural, people's pursuit is consistent under secular evil and hypocrisy, that is, they are forced and ordered by etiquette and gradually move away from morality. The "etiquette" mentioned here is an invisible evil form formed by science and art in society. Rousseau attacked that the corruption brought by the perfection of science and art obliterated human nature. This view has also been developed and perfected in Rousseau's view of nature education.

The book Emile after Rousseau said: "Everything that comes from the creator's hand is good, but once it reaches people's hands, it will all go bad." This view continues Rousseau's thoughts in science and art. Rousseau divides the natural feelings that people are born with into two kinds: self-love and compassion, which proves that human nature is good, and advocates that people should obey nature and fully develop their potential for goodness. Injecting the concept of nature into his educational thought requires children to "return to nature", promote the good and discard the evil, and be able to jump out of the secular framework, that is, education should "take nature as a teacher, not people as a teacher" and people should become "people created by nature, not people".

(2) Values

At present, Rousseau's choice of people's attitude towards life is called the choice of value. Rousseau also stated his position on values in the article Science and Art. Rousseau believes that with the development of science and technology and the increasing comfort of life, people's values are not directly proportional to their living standards. On the contrary, the prosperity of architecture, the richness of lifestyle and the diversity of daily interests have brought endless extravagance and the degradation of human nature. Real courage has begun to weaken and martial arts have disappeared, all of which are attributed to the prosperity of science and art. It should be noted that Rousseau is not denying science and art itself, but aiming at a series of grandiose appearances, leading to the root of evil human nature. Of course, Rousseau's natural education thought is in the same strain as this view.

Rousseau attaches importance to the educational enlightenment of things to people. He believes that if things conflict with nature's humanity, the education it causes will be vicious, just as the obscene things full of frivolous style attacked in On Science and Art will inevitably lead to the disintegration of human values and even the corruption of interest. Therefore, a good education can only be achieved if the education from nature, people and things is consistent.

(3) Moral values

Rousseau also linked morality and science in the article "On Science and Art": "If science education is harmful to combat quality, it is even more harmful to moral quality. From our earliest years, there has been a meaningless education, which pretends to be our spirit and corrodes our judgment. " From a moral point of view, Rousseau even doubted all the education from the secular world: "I saw that people set up countless institutions and spent a huge price to teach young people all kinds of things in all aspects, but only omitted their sense of responsibility." Here, even the nouns of nobility, integrity, temperance, humanity and bravery, as long as they are full of social grandiose appearances, are contrary to morality and are just examples disguised under various bad behaviors. Rousseau loves morality, and what he longs for is the real morality that truly belongs to nature, not the morality distorted by greed and evil thoughts.

In Rousseau's view, moral education not only has its internal purpose, but also has its own task. It has three aspects, namely, stimulating good feelings, cultivating good judgment and cultivating good will. Rousseau believes that the natural person in the natural state is neither a savage without culture in primitive society nor a person who wants to live in the forest without social reality. Rousseau opposed the indoctrination and punishment of old education. He believes that it is necessary to emphasize behavior practice rather than empty talk, demonstration guidance rather than reprimand through moral habits, moral feelings and moral understanding, so that students can naturally develop moral behavior and consolidate the achievements of moral education. Rousseau's educational method has distinct characteristics, the most prominent of which is to conform to nature and behavioral practice. Rousseau's moral education can be described as idealization, which is based on the fantasy of "natural state". According to his idea, the natural state is a state of peace, equality and freedom. It is not a description of reality, but a form of thinking about the transcendental ontological world, which is inevitable for people as rational beings. But we can't deny the influence of Rousseau's thought of paying attention to morality in natural education on later education.