Dealing with Rousseau: Dutch educational ideals in theory and practice

Abstract

Rousseau had a very mixed reception in the Dutch Republic. The majority of Dutch philosophes disliked his criticism of culture and civilization. According to most their highly urbanized and commercial country was in serious economic and political decline and as result was in need of more refinement and culture instead of less. Rousseau had a small band of followers though, who believed that a frugal and stationary society was the goal reformers should aspire to. In books and novels they claimed that the guardians of what was best in Man were still to be found in the countryside, in the prosperous rural heart of Holland. If the Republic was to be preserved, this part of the population, and above all their moral values, should be cherished. In the early nineteenth century these Rousseauist ideas would even inspire the foundation of an influential colony movement to re-educate impoverished city dwellers.

Keywords:

• Rousseau
• Education
• Enlightenment
• Colony movement