ABSTRACT

The man who leads the way out of the disintegration of Protestant education into the creation of "modern" teaching is Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau's mind is, in every respect, at the opposite pole from that of Locke. Both in social and in educational theory, Locke was his chosen enemy. The peculiar quality of Rousseau is well depicted by George H. Sabine as he assigns to the writer of the Social Contract his place among his contemporaries. The basic conflict of ideas and of motives with which Rousseau is grappling is seen most clearly in his discussion of education. The conflict between Locke and Rousseau as to the origin of individual rights, especially when seen in relation to the faith of Comenius, reveals the significance of Rousseau for the modern world. Rousseau challenges the licentious individualism which Matthew Arnold found a century later, destroying the social and intellectual integrity of England and America.