Rousseau's educational thought separates human nature from human sociality. So, what is Rousseau's philosophical theory and what influence does it have on educational thought? The following is my overall exposition of Rousseau's philosophical theory and its influence on educational thought, which is for reference only and I hope it will help you!
By grasping his philosophical views formed during the French Enlightenment, this paper comprehensively explains the ideological source and philosophical theoretical basis of his natural education and civic education, and illustrates the significance of his educational thoughts with concrete educational examples. And from a long-term perspective, it analyzes the limitations of his thought and its enlightenment to today's society.
First, Rousseau's philosophy of goodness and its impact on education
Rousseau believes that human beings are inherently kind, which is the most important philosophical proposition in Emile. People are born with nothing, but when they grow up, they can have healthy bodies, rational thinking and noble moral concepts. Education is the way to make people do good, and only through education can people achieve personal goodness and public goodness. Therefore, he also systematically expounded the idea of public education, that is, the formal education established and implemented in our country today. The cultivation of personal goodness needs to cultivate natural people and live entirely for themselves, while public goodness needs citizens, that is, to emphasize the relationship with society. The writing purpose of "Emile" is to cultivate him into a person who is useful to himself and others, a citizen, and his value lies in his value to society, so that he can assume the responsibilities and obligations of a citizen. He is no longer an independent person, but a part of the same interests. "Emile" begins by writing that "everything that comes from the creator's hand is good, but once it reaches people's hands, it will all be stale". This reflects Rousseau's philosophy of goodness of human nature, reflects the decline of morality and the distortion of value in modern society, and reflects a result that goodness in human nature is seriously influenced and corroded. But he also mentioned in turn that "we are born weak, so we need strength;" We were born with nothing, so we need help; We are born ignorant, so we need the ability to judge. What we didn't have when we were born and what we need when we grow up must be given by education. "As early as the Enlightenment, Rousseau foresaw and revealed the destruction of human nature by the development of society and science, and put forward his educational proposition of the return of human nature. Promoting the progress of social civilization and shaping the beauty of human nature are the functions of education, and education naturally bears the responsibility of educating people. Except for education, any measure to improve human nature is inhuman or anti-human, so education is the only way to make people do good.
In the way of cultivating human kindness, Rousseau advocates the idea of obeying human nature and conforming to the laws of nature. This kind of thinking is very important to cultivate people's personal goodness. In fact, in Rousseau's view, goodness is moral education. In moral education, there is only one way that is suitable for children and important for people of all ages. This way is "never harm others". How to teach people to be good, he thinks that the highest morality is negative, so his idea of good nature is reflected in his negative educational proposition. He advocated that teachers' "education in the first few years should be purely negative. It is not to teach children morality and truth, but to prevent his heart from being contaminated with sin and fallacies. " Rousseau believes that "the law of nature" is the foundation of human growth, and "nature" itself can play an educational role. He said: "Nature wants children to look like children before adulthood. If we break this order ... there will be some young doctors and aging children. " For the teacher's requirements, we should first respect the children and don't rush to make various evaluations. Negative treatment can often get better results. Let nature teach for a long time before taking over his work, so as not to conflict with nature and cause greater losses.
Second, Rousseau's epistemology and its impact on education
Rousseau still agrees with Locke's sensory empiricism, and on this basis, he inherits and develops his epistemological thought. He thinks that the objective world is the only object of knowledge, which shows that he is a materialist. Secondly, he also emphasized that people's cognition begins with sensibility, and people's feeling is the hub connecting the subject and the objective world. He believes that all external things are produced by feelings, and what acts on my senses is called matter. The feelings it produces on our senses are the starting point of all human spiritual activities. Therefore, Rousseau, as a materialist sensualist, has always emphasized that education should return to practice and nature. Rousseau, for example, used the example of children lying to illustrate that children cannot be punished for the sake of punishing them. They should feel that these punishments are the natural consequences of their bad behavior, and let them know that if they lie, the bad consequences of lying will fall on them. They will understand that this is not a man-made reason, not a malicious revenge, so their ideas will be simpler. Under natural education, children don't have to lie. As long as we give the right requirements at the right time and don't spoil and surpass their minds, we can teach our children well. "Because nature has never deceived us; It is always ourselves who deceive us. " Therefore, in moral education, Rousseau insists on the materialistic cognitive method, emphasizes the gradual education according to children's cognitive development, advocates that the process of education should adapt to the cognitive process, and advocates conforming to nature, understanding things according to the true nature, and cultivating good feelings, correct judgments and strong will from personal life experience and practice.
Third, the limitations of Rousseau's educational thought
(A) Utopian educational thought
Rousseau's educational thought separates human nature from human sociality, and promotes the value of human biological growth to a very high position, but fails to dig out the different roles that people play in society and are influenced by various aspects of society, which is also the result of Rousseau's positive limitations on behalf of petty assets. The real society does not exist in a vacuum. Various social customs and artificial traditions will not only make people's nature develop towards an ideal state, because the political, economic and cultural background in society will make people's nature impetuous and become a habit that is difficult to change. Therefore, the "natural person" he cultivated has a strong biological color and is also the embodiment of petty bourgeoisie.
(B) the lack of systematic knowledge learning
Rousseau put too much emphasis on children's learning in life and their growth through experience, so they will lack systematic knowledge in textbooks and ignore the role of human cultural traditions in education, resulting in a relative lack of natural science knowledge. Secondly, it is unscientific to equate the cognitive process with the teaching process. Moreover, this teaching process requires a lot of manpower and teachers' input, which is not practical. Moreover, Rousseau is an advocate of extreme intuition teaching. Refusing to use instruments and models will inevitably reduce the learning space, affect the learning effect, make the learning efficiency not high, fail to form a quality inspection system, and fail to ensure that every child can get equal educational effect. Moreover, the arrangement of courses and the division of children's growth stages are all mechanical and subjective.
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