A Research On Rousseau’s Naturalistic Moral Education Thought

Rousseau was a world-renowned ethicist and educationalist.He illustrated the idea of moral education graphically in émile.It was both an attempt to oppose traditional secular ethical and moral education and an innovation based on his philosophy of naturalism.Rousseau’s idea of moral education aims to promote the cultivation of the subject’s goodness through the concept of naturalism,emphasising the moral responsibility of the individual in society and highlighting the mutually reinforcing relationship between natural moral education and civil society education.It also promotes the vital importance of emotions in the process of moral education,asserting that emotions are not only an innate part of human beings,but also an original internal motivation that plays an important role in the process of moral education of the subject.This thesis focuses on Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic moral education.The thesis starts from the background that influenced the emergence of Rousseau’s ideas on moral education,focusing on the important factors that influenced Rousseau’s ideas on moral education,such as the economy,politics and culture in France in the mid-1870 s.The second part focuses on the theoretical content of Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic moral education,and this part includes three main aspects.The first is the reasons for the emergence of the idea of naturalistic moral education,including the change of the original social state by the union of human beings,which led to a qualitative change in the state of human life from the natural state to the social state;then the development of the capacity for self-improvement resulting in the massive abundance and accumulation of material goods and the resulting moral fragmentation;and finally the great impact on morality caused by the emergence of the concept of private ownership and the formation and development of private ownership.The second is an exposition of the main elements of naturalistic moral education.This section provides a specific analysis of the three important concepts of ethics: goodness,justice and virtue.The third explores the methodological operations closely linked to real life from three perspectives: natural,emotional and social,focusing on the concrete implementation methods of Rousseau’s moral education ideas.The thesis concludes with an analysis of the value and modernity of Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic moral education in the context of the current situation of moral education in China.In concrete practice the idea facilitates the subject to truly integrate morality into his own development from three aspects: natural nature,emotional theory and social cultivation,and promotes the achievement of moral education goals.Although Rousseau’s idea of naturalistic moral education has certain limitations,it has important modern values and inspirational significance in promoting the development of moral education in China.Learning from the positive results of Rousseau’s naturalistic moral education thought not only provides a theoretical basis for the development of moral education in China,but also provides methodological guidance in terms of practice.