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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
Rousseau seldom gets a mention as a philosopher in the conventional histories; if he appears at all it is in connection with that strange and rather suspect discipline ‘political philosophy’. Even then there is a tendency to look upon him as an unsystematic thinker, as a ‘philosophy’ rather than as a genuine philosopher. His ideas are held to be interesting, but the connections between them are thought to be emotional rather than logical. Again, Émile is read by students of education, but not by those studying philosophy. This is both because the ‘philosophy of education’ is thought not to be of great importance and again because of Rousseau's lack of logical rigour. Now it is true that Rousseau himself was an emotional figure, and from reading his Confessions it is easy to get the idea that there is no point in looking for interesting philosophical points in his works.
page 122 note 1 Rousseau says at the beginning of Émile that childhood is an essential part of human development, because a creature that was born with full adult strength would be unable to learn how to satisfy its original needs; animals may do this by instinct, but he seems to think that the case is different for men.