Definición de Émile ou de l'éducation

Emile: or, On Education (1762) which Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed to be the “best and most important of all my writings” is largely a philosophical treatise on the nature of man; it addresses political and philosophical questions regarding the individual’s relationship to society, in particular how the individual can retain what Rousseau saw as his natural goodness while participating in an inevitably corrupt society. In Emile, Rousseau attempts to describe a system of education that will enable the “natural man” that he outlines in The Social Contract (1762) to live within corrupt society. Rousseau includes the novelistic story of Emile and his tutor in order to illustrate how one might educate this ideal citizen; Emile is therefore not a detailed parenting guide, although it does contain some specific advice on raising children. It is the first complete philosophy of education in the Western tradition, as well as the first Bildungsroman, preceding Goethe's Wilhelm Meister by more than thirty years.

Publié en 1762, comme son titre l’indique, lÉmile, ou De l’éducation' de Jean-Jacques Rousseau est un traité d’éducation ou, aussi bien, un traité sur « l'art de former les hommes ». Il demeure, aujourd’hui encore, l’un des ouvrages les plus lus et les plus populaires sur le sujet, à tel point qu’au Japon, l’autorité du développement de l’enfant impose à tous les instituteurs d’écoles maternelles la lecture de l’Émile.

Émile eller om uppfostran (fransk originaltitel Émile ou de l'éducation) är ett halvfiktivt verk författat av den franska upplysningsfilosofen Jean Jacques Rousseau och utgivet år 1762.