On The Transformation Of Rousseau’s "Educational Authority"

Rousseau’s Emile is often praised as a pedagogical classic,and it has exerted a real influence.In contrast,it is puzzling that the political philosophy thought contained in Emile has been neglected by researchers.Rousseau planned Emile as his key work of democratic theory,in which he started from the dialogue with the philosophers and poured out different educational intentions to the imaginary students.Reading through the whole book of Emile,it seems that Emile is a student of Rousseau on the surface,but in fact Emile is just the reflection of Rousseau himself.Moreover,in Rousseau’s thought,the true metaphor of a natural person not only refers to a person who can live according to his nature,but also refers to a philosopher like Rousseau himself.In this way,we must integrate Emile into the other major works of Rousseau and find the unity of Rousseau’s thought.Rousseau lived in the prosperous period of the Enlightenment Movement.Enlightenment discourse subverted true knowledge,which made Rousseau stand on the standpoint of both supporting enlightenment and opposing it,criticizing the loss of modernity with virtue.In the first three volumes of Emile,Rousseau used the metaphor of "educational authority" to explain that everyone should have the natural virtue of being loyal to his own heart and not "living in others".But the metaphor of "educational authority" does not merely refer to natural virtue,because in the last two books of Emile,there is an obvious shift in natural virtue.One of the bases for the transformation of natural virtue is Rousseau’s inheritance of Platonic ideal,the other is Rousseau’s irrationalism.It is out of the value of love and the critical period of Emile’s "second birth" that the educators have achieved the transformation from natural virtue to political virtue.In Rousseau’s opinion,it is the core of political virtue that every citizen extends love to others beyond himself.This kind of political virtue depends on a special figure,that is,a legislator who can establish order for people’s minds and create a popular fashion system different from the written regulations.So,in Rousseau’s text,Emile is the legislator who can take care of the nation,and Emile’s love as a citizen is extended.The criticism on the crisis of modernity and how Rousseau himself,as a philosopher,should deal with the relationship between civil society are two important reasons for the change from natural virtue to political virtue in Rousseau’s works.In fact,political virtue is not the end of Rousseau’s construction of moral concept,and Rousseau did not regard such civil society as the solution to the crisis of modernity.Because political virtue is still in accordance with natural virtue,Rousseau’s practice reflects his return to natural virtue.