Rousseau and the “Copernican revolution” in education: The case of negative education

Abstract

The revolution operationalized by Rousseau in modern education, more specifically in the education of the child, is commonplace. This revolution became known as the "Copernican Revolution," in reference to Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who, in the sixteenth century, changed the geocentric theory to the theory of heliocentrism, with the sun figuring as the center of the universe and the planets revolving around it. Analogous to this, Rousseau does something similar in education, for, instead of the content or the master, the most important element in education becomes the child. With this, the Genevan philosopher radicalized the way of thinking about the child and their education, and how they ought to learn. Thus, the present work aims to explore negative education as one of the aspects of the "Copernican Revolution" in Rousseau's thought. Rousseau's educational project, grounded in negative education as the pillar of the book Émile, or On Education, describes that education adopts principles and tends towards the purpose of forming a human being humanized by the education of nature, also characterized by negative education, forged mainly between the ages of two and twelve. The methodology adopted in the elaboration of this research is bibliographic, with emphasis on the analysis and interpretation of educational ideas, consulting the aforementioned work and other authors who deal with education and negative education in Rousseau. The conclusion is that negative education, as a precept of education for the child undertaken since Émile's birth, is aimed at a higher degree which is to favor the child's flourishing instead of demanding that they answer to moral, social, and cultural questions before the so-called age of reason.