At what developmental stage is Emile at the beginning of Book IV, which is the beginning of the fourth stage of his education?.Our reading begins while Rousseau summarizes the progress Emile has made by the end of this third stage of education. Moreover, he has the faculty to acquire learning (207). He has relatively little knowledge – and this knowledge is only natural and physical, not moral – but it is 'his own' in the sense that he has fully understood it through experience (207). Rousseau ensures at this stage that Emile is skilled at a trade so that he can be, upon full entry into society, self-sufficient (201).īy the end of this stage, Emile has a well-trained faculty of judgment (because of all of the trial and error discovery he has been doing in the world of sense experience). At this stage, though, his needs are merely the necessities of life because Emile is still living in the world of things and not in the world of men.īecause Emile is not yet living in the world of men his education is not yet a moral education (178). In being able to see in what his well-being consists, he can foresee his needs (178). One significant aspect of this third stage of education is that Emile develops foresight. Rousseau designs this period of learning as an opportunity for Emile to practice making sensory judgments so that, in the next stage of his education, he will be able to make accurate judgments of good and bad in society (190). The primary mode of learning during this stage is of hands-on, trial and error discovery in sensory experience. Rousseau harnesses this energy for learning. In Book III Emile reaches a pre-puberty stage of adolescence, a stage at which his relative strength ( i.e., the difference between his strength and his needs) is the greatest (166). Included below are summaries of sections of the text that have been skipped in the required readings. Questions to accompany the readings for Class #8

Rousseau emile sophie