Infinitive avoidance and splendid isolation: Rousseau and the use of conflicts in education

Abstract

The impact of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s educational philosophy can hardly be overestimated. In this article, I re-examine Rousseau’s key text Emile, or On Education and discuss his concept of conflict and the use of conflicts in his imaginary educational philosophy. A detailed analysis suggests that Rousseau was not only an extreme avoider of conflict, by putting Emile in multiple forms of isolation, but that he also postponed any form of social conflict and carefully controlled, directed and manipulated Emile’s personal and social experiences. To realise a new way of upbringing following the ‘natural’ development of the child, I contend that Rousseau excelled in an obsessively controlled and manipulative pedagogy. Liberation from social norms and traditions – by following the unfolding ‘natural development’, which was Rousseau’s overall project – turned into an individual dictate ruled by an omnipresent educational governor: Rousseau. I conclude that Rousseau’s philosophy of education was deliberately anti-social and might well be a fundamental barrier to regaining conflicts in education.