JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

[00:00:00]Hello friends, I am Dr. Ranjeet Singh.

[00:00:04]Dear friends, today we will listen to an inspiring story related to the life, struggles, his great works and his immortal thoughts of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the great philosopher, political thinker, educationist, novelist and author of Switzerland who is called the Father of Romanticism.

[00:00:27]This is not just the biography of a great man but the story of a thinker who, through his writings, changed the world's thinking about freedom, equality, education and humanity.

[00:00:42]Imagine 18th century Europe. At that time, the whole of Europe was ruled by kings. The church controlled people's thoughts. The society was divided into rich and poor.

[00:00:58]People considered themselves independent. But in reality they were bound by many social, political and religious constraints.

[00:01:08]During this period, on 28 June 1712, a child was born in Geneva, Switzerland, who later changed the thinking of the entire world. His name was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. At that time no one had even imagined that this ordinary boy would one day become such a great thinker of philosophy, politics, education and English literature whose thoughts would remain alive for centuries.

[00:01:40]Rousseau's life began not with happiness but with struggle.

[00:01:43]His mother, Susan Barnard Russo, died just nine days after his birth.

[00:01:50]He never got his mother's love. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker and watch repairer.

[00:01:59]His father raised him alone.

[00:02:03]Father loved books very much.

[00:02:06]He would spend all night reading Plutarch's Lives, Ancient History, and stories of great heroes with his son. These books sowed the seeds of liberty, justice and equality in the mind of young Rousseau.

[00:02:22]But this happiness also did not last long. When Rousseau was about 10 years old, his father had to leave Geneva because of a legal dispute.

[00:02:32]Once again, Rousseau was left alone.

[00:02:36]During his teenage years, he did many small jobs. Sometimes he took training from a notary and sometimes he worked as an engraver.

[00:02:46]There he had to endure harsh treatment and humiliation.

[00:02:55]He finally left Geneva in 1728 at the age of only 16. This was the first turning point in his life. Now he had neither a home nor a certain future. He kept wandering in different cities for two years.

[00:03:06]This wandering gave him the opportunity to observe man and society very closely.

[00:03:12]He saw poverty, saw wealth, saw injustice and realized that the so-called civilized society does not actually treat every person equally. It was during this trip that he met Madame Debernes.

[00:03:29]This was the woman who gave a new direction to Rousseau's life. He not only gave Rousseau shelter but also the opportunity to study music, literature, philosophy and science.

[00:03:40]Rousseau later admitted that if he had not received the support of Madame de Varennes, he might never have become a great writer.

[00:03:50]Madame de Varennes not only raised him but also encouraged him to study reading, writing, music, philosophy, literature and nature. Under his patronage, Rousseau had the opportunity to reflect on himself and think independently.

[00:04:09]These years spent in the lap of nature created a deep love for nature in Rousseau's heart. He realized that the closer a man lives to nature, the simpler, freer, more innocent and happier he becomes.

[00:04:26]This experience later became the basis of his famous principle, Back to Nature.

[00:04:32]And this is also clearly visible in his major works Emily and The Social Contract.

[00:04:41]A few years later, Rousseau arrived in Paris. There he met the famous philosopher Dani Diderot who was the editor of the Encyclopedia.

[00:04:52]Rousseau also wanted to be a part of this intellectual environment.

[00:04:55]But he soon realized that reason and science alone cannot make man happy. His own life experiences told a different story. This thinking gave birth to his first great book, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, which appeared in 1750. In this book he put forward the bold idea that progress in arts and science alone does not make man morally superior. Sometimes civilization makes man more artificial and selfish. This book received the Academy of Sciences Prize and Rousseau soon became famous throughout Europe.

[00:05:37]But his most revolutionary thinking was yet to come.

[00:05:39]In 1755 he published his book Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Man. Which is also called second course.

[00:05:51]In this he argued that in the initial stage man was free and equal. The real problem started when private property came into existence. Property divided the society into rich and poor and inequality started.

[00:06:07]He expressed this idea in a famous sentence.

[00:06:09]Man is naturally good but society corrupts him.

[00:06:13]Although this sentence is not a literal example from the book.

[00:06:15]Yet it is considered the most famous summary of Rousseau's entire philosophy.

[00:06:22]In 1761 his novels Jalli and The New Eloise were published. It was an epistolary novel.

[00:06:29]In which love, emotion, morality and nature were depicted very sensitively. The book became so popular that people would wait for months to get copies.

[00:06:40]It played an important role in the development of Sentimentalism, Emotionalism and later Romanticism in Europe.

[00:06:52]Rousseau is considered the Father of Romanticism because of his ideas about nature, emotion, and individual freedom.

[00:06:55]Then came the year 1762 which proved to be the most important year of Rousseau's life. In the same year he published two books that changed history. The first was Emily and On Education.

[00:07:13]In this book he challenged the entire tradition of education.

[00:07:14]He believed that every child is born innocent and good.

[00:07:21]So he wrote Everything is Good as It Leaves the Hands of the Author of Things.

[00:07:27]Everything Deserets in the Hands of Man.

[00:07:31]He meant that nature purifies man.

[00:07:34]Whereas this artificial society destroys his natural goodness.

[00:07:40]He also said that children should be allowed to learn through experience rather than by rote learning. The roots of today's child-centered education and experiential learning are visible in this book. In the same year 1762, his second great book, The Social Contract, was published. Its very first line is counted among the most famous lines in history.

[00:08:03]Man is born free and everywhere he is in change.

[00:08:09]Rousseau meant that man is free by birth.

[00:08:12]But unjust laws, inequality, social discrimination and autocratic rule take away his freedom.

[00:08:22]He further wrote, One Thinks Himself the Master of Others and Yet Remains a Greater Slave Than They.

[00:08:31]He said that a person who boasts of ruling over others also remains a slave to his own ambition, fear and desire for power. In this book he gave another important idea.

[00:08:47]The Strongest Is Never Strong Enough To Be Always The Master. That is, mere power does not give legitimate authority to a ruler.

[00:08:57]He clearly said, to pronounce liberty is to pronounce being a man. That is, a person who gives up his freedom also gives up his human existence.

[00:09:10]These ideas later deeply inspired the French Revolution of 1789.

[00:09:17]Rousseau's ideas were found unacceptable by both the church and the government.

[00:09:19]Emily and The Social Contract were banned.

[00:09:26]Arrest orders were issued against him.

[00:09:29]He had to spend many years wandering in France, Switzerland and other places.

[00:09:36]In 1766, Rousseau went to England at the invitation of the famous Scottish philosopher David Hume. At that time he was facing opposition in France and Switzerland due to his views.

[00:09:48]Therefore Hume tried to get them refuge and protection in England.

[00:09:54]Initially, the relationship between the two was very good.

[00:09:56]But soon after, serious differences arose between them due to misunderstandings and Rousseau's extremely suspicious nature. As a result, in 1767 Rousseau left England and returned to France. This incident left a deep mental impact on his life and he felt isolated from society till the last years of his life.

[00:10:23]In the last years of his life, between 1765 and 1770, Rousseau wrote his famous autobiography, Confessions.

[00:10:32]He began it with these words with great confidence and originality.

[00:10:35]I have resolved on an enterprise which has no president.

[00:10:41]That is, I have resolved to do something of which there is no example before.

[00:10:48]Through this statement, Rousseau made it clear that he was going to write an autobiography in which he would present a complete and unbiased picture of his life.

[00:10:59]He wrote about his life's successes, failures, weaknesses, mistakes and personal experiences very honestly without any artificiality, pretense or hesitation.

[00:11:12]He openly accepted his qualities as well as his faults.

[00:11:17]This fearless confession places this book among the first modern and most influential autobiographies in world literature.

[00:11:27]After this, in the last years of his life, Rousseau wrote his last and most important creation, Requiems of the Solitary Walker, a book of dreamy thoughts.

[00:11:42]In this book he presented nature, loneliness, introspection and deep experiences of life in a very touching and philosophical depiction. This work was published after his death and is today considered one of his most sensitive and introspective writings. Rousseau died on 2 July 1778 in Airdrie, France.

[00:12:06]But his death was not the end of his thoughts. In 1794, leaders of the French Revolution moved his remains to the Panthéon in Paris in his honor.

[00:12:18]This honour is given only to great national personalities. Today Rousseau is considered not only as a philosopher but also as a great thinker, social reformer and guide of the modern age.

[00:12:30]He gave a new direction to political philosophy through principles like Popular Sovereignty, General Bill and Liberty.

[00:12:38]In the field of education, he propounded that the basis of education should be nature and natural development of the child and not strict discipline and rote learning.

[00:12:52]In the field of literature, he laid the foundation of Romanticism in which emotion, imagination, personality and nature were given supreme importance. For this reason he is also called the Father of Romanticism. The profound influence of Russian ideas on English literature is clearly visible in the works of great Romantic poets like William Busby, ST Courage, William Blake, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.

[00:13:16]These poets also made nature, human emotions, freedom, equality and inner feelings of the individual the main themes of their poetry.

[00:13:29]Rousseau's ideas deeply influenced not only literature but also politics, education, philosophy and modern democratic thought. For this reason he is considered the most influential thinker of the modern world.

[00:13:45]If Basworth considered nature his greatest teacher, Rousseau was the inspiration behind it.

[00:13:51]If Blake praised the purity of childhood, it also reflects Rousseau's vision of education.

[00:13:56]Thus the life of Jean Jacques Rousseau teaches us that great ideas are born not in palaces but in struggles.

[00:14:06]An orphan boy who witnessed a life of poverty, humiliation and exile later became the greatest spokesperson of freedom, equality and human dignity. Even today, when the world talks about freedom, democracy, equality and human rights, Rousseau's voice is heard in his words. Thank you friends. Thank you very much.