Locke and Rousseau compared

1.  Turn in Issue Essays and discuss.
 John Locke and Education
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Education
 Debate – Which theory best describes young
children? Blank slate or Nature’s child ?
 In-class written response

2.  What did you learn about your issues?
 How did using the Socratic method help?
 How did the method not help?
 Would you use this method of questioning in
the future?

3. Empiricism
Everyone is rational.
The Tabula Rosa: A Child Is A
Blank Slate
We learn everything through our
senses
Everyone is equal. Everyone can
be taught in the same way.
John Locke

4. Romanticism
 1800s Human nature
starts out unspoiled but
as we live in society we
become worse and
worse.
 http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=ueuqBT35wN
4

5. Locke - Blank Slate Rousseau - Nature’s
Child
What are
babies born
not knowing?
What are babies
born knowing?
If left alone in
nature, would
they grow up to
be good people?
Compare
Locke’s
views to
Lord of the
Flies.

6. Which philosophy do you agree with?
 We are like chameleons, we take our hue and the
color of our moral character, from those who are
around us.
John Locke
 People who know little are usually great talkers,
while men who know much say little.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

7.  Kant Letters on Pedagogy
 Mary Wollenstonecraft A Vindication…
 John Mill Inaugural Address