Democracy and Education · Character

Rousseau

Rousseau champions the child's spontaneous inner development, and Dewey credits his reform while dismantling its myth of self-sufficient growth.

supporting

First appearance: The “Individualistic” Ideal of the Eighteenth Century

As a supporting figure in Democracy and Education, Rousseau is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Dewey notes that Hegel's recognition of historic institutions as nurturing factors advanced beyond Rousseau's view that social conditions are not natural.

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Rousseau treats the three factors of education — native powers, social contact, and direct interaction with the environment — as separate and independent rather than cooperative, and he subordinates social education to a supposedly spontaneous unfolding of the organs. Dewey grants that Rousseau was right to make the structure and activities of the organs the conditions of all teaching, but profoundly wrong to make them the ends. The tension matters because it forces the reader to ask whether growth has a norm outside itself, or whether the child's babblings could ever furnish language.

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Educational philosophy pioneers
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Froebel
professional · positive
Froebel was influenced by Rousseau's naturalistic educational philosophy, particularly… How this plays out →
Plato
professional · positive
Pestalozzi
professional · positive

Froebel
Froebel was influenced by Rousseau's naturalistic educational philosophy, particularly the emphasis on child-centered learning.
Plato
Rousseau drew on Platonic ideas about education and the ideal state, adapting them to his own theories of natural development.
Pestalozzi
Pestalozzi was deeply influenced by Rousseau's Emile, implementing Rousseau's naturalistic principles into practical teaching methods.

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In the story

Rousseau appears across 7 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Education as Unfolding
Dewey notes that Hegel's recognition of historic institutions as nurturing factors advanced beyond Rousseau's view that social conditions are not natural.
The “Individualistic” Ideal of the Eighteenth Century
Rousseau is a key figure in the eighteenth-century movement, influenced by Plato and advocating for education in accord with nature to free individual talents.
Summary: The Democratic Ideal in Education
Rousseau is associated with the eighteenth-century individualism that envisioned a society as broad as humanity but lacked an agency for development, falling back on Nature.
III: Applications in Education
Implied in the critique of preparation theory and the emphasis on following the natural activities and needs of the child.
Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims
Dewey analyzes Rousseau's doctrine of natural development, praising its emphasis on native capacities but critiquing its assumption of spontaneous, independent growth apart from social use.
Nature as Supplying the Aim
Dewey engages extensively with Rousseau's doctrine of following nature, analyzing his statements on education from nature, men, and things, and his political rebellion against social institutions.
Endnotes
Referenced for his views on forming the citizen versus the man, and his ideal of a fraternal society.

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