Jean Jacques Rousseau #1 (His History)

During this episode, the focus is on the 18th century Enlightenment, specifically the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau believed that man is innocent and free in the state of nature, but corrupted by institutions such as the church and the state. He called for a new social contract and state based on a democratic majority. The French Revolution was provoked by social and economic unrest, with rising taxes and government interference causing resentment. Rousseau's writings justified the revolution and the violent purging of French society. The trigger event was King Louis XVI's weak fiscal policies and the debt incurred from supporting the American Revolution. The revolution led to the Reign of Terror, during which clergy and nobility were executed. However, the revolution eventually consumed itself and Napoleon Bonaparte intervened to restore order. Rousseau's ideas on education and the ideal state of nature influenced the revolution and its aftermath. He believed that Hi everybody, welcome to greatbiblereset.com. As you may recall, we've been spending a lot of time in the 1600s over the last few weeks, the age of revolution, that culminated with John Locke's second treatise of government that provided the philosophical foundation. As you may recall, we've been spending a lot of time over the last few weeks in the 1600s, which was the age of revolution. That culminated with John Locke's second treatise of government that provided the philosophical foundation for the social contract of the glorious revolution of 1688 in England. John Locke is known as the father of the Enlightenment, and now we're moving into the 18th century Enlightenment. And now we're moving into the 18th century Enlightenment, and for the most part, jumping the channel, the English channel, focusing attention on France, and in particular the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Now Rousseau is known as the philosopher of the French Revolution. He believed that man was innocent and free, innocent and free in the state of nature, but now everywhere he is in chains, according to Locke. Various institutions, the church, the state, the family, and so forth, have corrupted man and must be overthrown. A new social contract and state, based on a democratic majority, must be reinstalled on the ruins of Christian civilization. So Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva of French Protestant lineage. He wandered for years in Europe, a vagabond, and gained notoriety after winning an essay contest in Paris. The French Revolution was preceded by a period of social and economic unrest. It was made worse by the weak fiscal policy of King Louis XVI. There was also a large debt for aid to the American Revolution that Louis XVI had to deal with. Rousseau's writing justified the violence of the revolution, the revolution that was led by Robespierre. Rousseau is called the philosopher of the French Revolution. It was provoked by the rather cavalier attitude of the nobility toward the suffering people. The king's wife, for example, Marie Antoinette, had said, let them eat cake. And although the French had helped the American Revolution, they did not make a pattern for their own. In America it is said that the leaders interposed between the people and a tyrant king, but the French attacked leaders and king alike. It was a coup d'etat, or illegal seizure of power, against established authority in the French Revolution. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is known as the father of the French Revolution, as we noted, because he provided an intellectual justification for the revolutionary destruction of society in order to rebuild on its ruins. The trigger event for the revolution was the weak fiscal policies of King Louis XVI and the debt incurred in support of the American Revolution. This called for a reconvening of the French Parliament to request and raise this money. Rousseau lifted up the state of nature as ideal for man, a paradise in which the noble savage reveled in a condition of unrestrained innocence. This condition can only be restored by stripping away the corrupting and restricting institutions of Christian society, starting over with a new social contract. This includes an educational environment in which children are given free reign to express their natural inclinations. The instrument of choice for ridding France of its undesirable aristocracy was the guillotine. The social contract was written in 1762 and inspired the violent purging of French society. This was the work of Robespierre during the Reign of Terror in 1793. Clergy and nobility alike were found guilty by association with the corrupting institutions of society. Hundreds, if not thousands, were swept away in the Reign of Terror, carted to the guillotine after a cursory hearing. Ironically, this instrument of death got its name from the physician or the healer who invented it, Dr. Guillotine. When the French Terror finally consumed itself, Robespierre himself was dead, a victim of his own revolution, and the brilliant general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte intervened to restore order. So we might ask, what social factors provoked the French Revolution, and in what way did Rousseau contribute to these conditions? Well, as I mentioned, a volatile economy was perhaps the immediate cause of the French Revolution. The price of bread rose precipitously just prior to the eruption. During the 1770s, France had supported the American Revolution as an indirect means of striking at Great Britain, and so by the end of the century, the debt from this and other wars weighed heavily on the French economy. As a consequence, rising taxes and government interference with the private sector fueled resentment. The aristocracy had developed a bloated sense of self-importance and was abusing its privilege to exploit the lower class rather than to serve them. The government and legal system was widely perceived to be inefficient and unfair. The writings of professional intellectuals like Rousseau and Voltaire added to a growing body of civil rights literature which ridiculed the ancient regime, and stoked the fires of resentment that produced the revolution. So Rousseau denied the biblical account of the fall of man, teaching that man in his natural state, a state of nature, is innocent and undefiled. Rousseau lionized the noble savage who is free from rules and conventions of civilization. It is only the corrupting effect of Christian society that has polluted and made man a slave. Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. These were the opening words of the Social Contract, 1762, the heart of the Enlightenment. Rousseau followed Locke's lead in the Social Contract. Locke had written not quite a century earlier and is known as the Father of the Enlightenment, the forerunner of the Enlightenment, which was now coming to full bloom in the philosophy of Rousseau and others such as Descartes, who also ridiculed French society. Men in a state of nature will give up a few rights to form a government. They did this in order to protect their larger body of rights. Only by breaking the shackles of society will man recover these natural rights. He must return to a state of nature in which all are equal. Man may then rebuild anew on the ruins of Christian civilization. He will at last be free of its stifling moral strictures. This is the faith of the ancient chaos cults, in particular summarized in the Bashi of the playwright Euripides, in which the Greek god Dionysus leads a mob of mesmerized women led by his own mother against Pentheus, the leader of thieves. And so the authority for the Civil Compact rests in the general will of the whole people. We see this today in our public opinion polls, manipulated by the propaganda tools of the power elite. The law of God in the Mosaic Covenant is ignored. This naive view of human nature led to Rousseau's utopian views on education in Emile, his other big book, in 1762. If a child is by nature innocent and good, man is by nature good, right? We have only to create a setting that will permit self-expression. In such a context, the flower of all that is good in human nature will blossom. This method has been preserved in the modern Montessori school movement. I believe this is different than the unit studies in which there's a reliance not so much on textbooks, but upon teaching in the natural environment. But it's still directed by the parent, ideally, in the homeschool situation. But Rousseau, so Rousseau contributed to the modern theory of environmental determinism through all of these things. The problem with man lies not in the heart, but rather in the environment. Revolution is justified because civilization and all its structures is guilty, not man, not individual men. Thus, men turn away from the church and her call for repentance to the raw power of the state. They opt for the state to enact forms of evolutionary social engineering, not least of which are the public schools. This is flight from reality and responsibility. It tends only to tyranny in the state and degeneracy in the citizen. And so again, we present the biblical model legislation project in the free book you can pick up at greatbiblereset.com. And in terms of education, if you're grappling with the question of alternatives to the secular government school system, you'll find help with a free spreadsheet that lays out all the alternatives and the various criteria of those alternatives. A cheat sheet at kingswayschool.us forward slash high school, kingswayschool.us forward slash high school. Or if you're struggling, if you're a homeschooler struggling with all the demands of homeschooling, including, you know, how to balance the competing demands of your tots and your teens, including how to pay for the outrageously priced college education that's looming on the horizon. Get the five simple steps you must follow in order to avoid this massive expense at kingswayschool.us forward slash homeschool, kingswayschool.us forward slash homeschool. And we will see you next week for another exciting episode in the teaching of the life of Gene Jacques Rousseau.