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Jean Jacques Rousseau (view source)
Revision as of 00:07, December 30, 2017
, 00:07, December 30, 2017Added section on Rousseau's personal life and treatment of children
Rousseau put government, or "The Sovereign" above all else, and he had that expectation for others. This was the hallmark of good citizenship: willing subjugation. Christians, on the other hand, place God above government. This is why, in his eyes, Christians make for very poor citizens and are ultimately a problem for the state.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=p4V7A8ha_xcC&pg=PA115 Religion and the Workplace: Pluralism, Spirituality, Leadership]</ref>
Rousseau put government, or "The Sovereign" above all else, and he had that expectation for others. This was the hallmark of good citizenship: willing subjugation. Christians, on the other hand, place God above government. This is why, in his eyes, Christians make for very poor citizens and are ultimately a problem for the state.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=p4V7A8ha_xcC&pg=PA115 Religion and the Workplace: Pluralism, Spirituality, Leadership]</ref>
He also believed that the society had a duty toward the poor, to care for them, and to look after them, but interestingly he dumped all 19 of his own illegitimate children in charitable institutions, some of them Roman Catholic and expected them to take care of them.
He taught that society had a duty toward the poor, to care for them, and to look after them, though he personally took no hand in doing so.
Rousseau is believed to be the first to use the phrase ''Let them eat cake'', in book IV of his ''Confessions'', which would be falsely attributed to French queen [[Marie Antoinette]]. It is unclear, however, whether Rousseau actually made up the claim that a French queen said this phrase at all, or whether he was in fact referring to Marie Antoinette's predecessor.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/demystified/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say “Let Them Eat Cake”?]</ref>
Rousseau is believed to be the first to use the phrase ''Let them eat cake'', in book IV of his ''Confessions'', which would be falsely attributed to French queen [[Marie Antoinette]]. It is unclear, however, whether Rousseau actually made up the claim that a French queen said this phrase at all, or whether he was in fact referring to Marie Antoinette's predecessor.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/demystified/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake Did Marie-Antoinette Really Say “Let Them Eat Cake”?]</ref>
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==Personal Life and Morals==
In his private life Rousseau was selfish, irresponsible and an exploiter of women. He never married, but as a young man had a liaison with an older woman named Mme de Warens. At the age of 32, he took up with an illiterate laundress, Therese Levasseur, who bore him eight children. Rousseau sent all of them to be brought up in a foundling hospital (intended for orphans and paupers) because as he explained in the second volume of his own ''Confessions'', he was far too busy writing and being famous to rear or support children. As a modern critic comments "the famed theoretician of enlightened child rearing and family values recounted his decision to place in an orphanage the eight children he had sired by his common-law wife, Therese Levasseur. This disclosure generated considerable backlash in the Parisian public." <ref> Gender and Utopia in the Eighteenth Century: Essays in English and French Utopian Writing, ed. Brenda Tooley, Routledge, 2016. </ref>
Rousseau knew that the infant mortality in these institutions was high, more than half, and as it turned out most of the children he sent there died. <ref> World History, Volume I, by William J. Duiker, Jackson J. Spielvogel, 2008 </ref>
Rousseau moreover treated his common-law wife like a servant and in later life tried to blame her for his decision to abandon the children, calling her "ignorant, stupid, and a detestable mother".<ref> Reason and Revelation: From Paul to Pascal, by Richard H. Akeroyd - 1991.</ref>
<ref> ''Defense and Complaint of Therese Levasseur [Defense et Plainte de Therese Levasseur]'' by Isabelle de Charriere, Paris, 1790. </ref>
<ref> ''Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1754,'' by Maurice Cranston, University of Chicago Press, 1991. </ref>
==Influence==
==Influence==
His most important work, ''The Social Contract'', supplied a blueprint for the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o5fcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 Melancholy Duty: The Hume-Gibbon Attack on Christianity], "Rousseau's ''Contrat Social'' provided the philosophical and ideological ammunition for the conduct of the Revolution."</ref> In addition, the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man]] had been made in large part in respect to his philosophical views on governance. ''Social Contract'' was translated into English in 1913 by [[G. D. H. Cole]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iOzBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2 On the Social Contract]</ref> He was also responsible for several of the aspects of modern education, including especially early childhood education, via his work ''Emile: or On Education''.
His most important work, ''The Social Contract'', supplied a blueprint for the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=o5fcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA35 Melancholy Duty: The Hume-Gibbon Attack on Christianity], "Rousseau's ''Contrat Social'' provided the philosophical and ideological ammunition for the conduct of the Revolution."</ref> In addition, the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man]] had been made in large part in respect to his philosophical views on governance. ''Social Contract'' was translated into English in 1913 by [[G. D. H. Cole]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iOzBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2 On the Social Contract]</ref> He was also responsible for several of the aspects of modern education, including especially early childhood education, via his work ''Emile: or On Education''.
Although Rousseau is taught in various educational circles and was valued as an Enlightenment sage, [[Paul Johnson]] in his book ''[[Intellectuals]]'' demonstrated that Rousseau was a veritable psychopath and a liar, also citing other people from that time who expressed similar views.<ref>[http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z5260P.pdf Excerpt from Paul Johnson's ''Intellectuals''] on thedivineconspiracy.org</ref>
Although Rousseau is revered as a philosopher by the left-wing, [[Paul Johnson]]'s book ''[[Intellectuals]]'' demonstrated that the Enlightenment sage was a veritable psychopath and a liar, also citing other people from that time who expressed similar views.<ref>[http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z5260P.pdf Excerpt from Paul Johnson's ''Intellectuals''] on thedivineconspiracy.org</ref>
His anti-Christian rhetoric, as well as that of his various contemporaries within the French enlightenment such as Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, and to a certain extent the [[Marquis de Sade]], ultimately resulted in the attempted persecution and extermination of Christians during the [[French Revolution]] by the atheistic government, and is also tied with Sade as being the one most responsible for the horrors that occurred during that time overall.<ref>http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/Fidelity_archives/parricide.html</ref>
His anti-Christian rhetoric, as well as that of his various contemporaries within the French Enlightenment such as Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, and to a certain extent the [[Marquis de Sade]], ultimately resulted in the persecution and extermination of Christians and many quite innocent people during the [[French Revolution]] by the atheistic government.<ref>http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/Fidelity_archives/parricide.html</ref>
==Quotes==
==Quotes==