THE EDUCATION OF SELF-LOVE IN ROUSSEAU’S “ÉMILE”

Abstract

This article addresses the theme of the education of self-love in the book Emile: Or On Education, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This is a pure research, of a bibliographic nature, in which we undertook a review of the existing literature on the topic. Our interest in addressing it derives from the fact that ordinary education, both schooling and non-schooling, devotes little attention to the formation of feelings, or passions, of the human being, and thus neglects something fundamental in the lives of individuals and which has direct repercussions on their private lives and the good order of society. We start from the considerations that Rousseau made about the education of self-love in Émile, we compare and expand our reading of this work with the interpretations of other researchers of the philosophy of the Genevan who wrote on this topic, and, finally, we propose some practical considerations, with the aim of relating our discussion with the educational practice, in order to draw the attention of society to the need to educate properly the self-love of the human being.