Changes

`ere

`ere

==Personal Life and Morals==

==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>

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." <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 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>

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> ''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>

<ref> ''Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1754,'' by Maurice Cranston, University of Chicago Press, 1991. </ref>