Moral Education Dichotomy in Rousseau: Teaching Good or Hiding Bad?*

Abstract

Rousseau opened the doors of pedagogy into science introducing natural education. Cited as the first in his kind, he used the glasses of a young boy to be educated, and banned the artifact of the society and let the boy discover the world. Although the idea seemed great for a long time and affected educational theories – constructivism to name one –, it is criticized today. The nature of man is not ensured to be bad or good in its nature, but it is accepted that the road through bad is rather downhill. Although Emile’s guide informed him about the consequences of bad and illustrated a tendency to choose the good himself, this autocracy seems rather weak. Because, Rousseau also believes that man can understand bad only if the consequences are relevant to himself. Thus, observing is not an adequate tool for decreeing. Not to mention, the environment Rousseau created for Emile is far from being authentic.