Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French eighteenth-century philosopher, is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers in the modern era. In this seminar we will study his educational thought in light of his philosophical and political viewpoints. In the first part of the seminar we will place his writings in the context of his complex biography and  the political, social and cultural history of the eighteenth century. In the second part we will read some of his writings – beginning with the earliest works on the sciences and the arts, and the origins of inequality in human society, through his revolutionary political text, The Social Contract, ending with his major educational work, Emile or On Education. In the third part of the seminar we will examine the influence of Rousseau on educational thought, with an emphasis on progressive education

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