Locke

1
Locke Rousseau

• The Child and The Citizen
• (in theory)

2
Context Matters J. Locke

• widely known as the Father of Liberalism
• limited gov./citizen rights/protection of
  property
• Philosopher, physician, tutor
• At age of 54 began to publish ideas primarily on
  government , education, and the individual
• Best known for ideas on
• empiricism, social contract, natural law, tabula
  rasa
• Ideas are said to have influenced
• Modern democracy, American Revolution, the
  enlightenment

b/ 1632 in Somerset, England d/October 1704 in
Essex, England
3
Context Matters J.J. Rousseau

• Philosopher, Composer, Tutor
• At 38 began to publish writings on art,
  philosophy and music. But it was 1760 before he
  began to publish what are now his seminal texts
  on citizenship and education
• Best known for ideas on
• Romanticism, social contract, education for
  citizenship
• Ideas are said to have influenced
• Modern democracy, the French and American
  Revolution, the Romantic revival in 18th C art

b/ June 1712 Geneva d/ July 1778
Ermenonrville, France
4
Context Matters

• Locke- Second Treatise

• Locke- Some Thoughts

• Published in 1690
• Second of Two Treatise of Civil Government
• As a direct response to The Glorious Revolution
  in 1688?
• (There is some debate as to the date in which
  these texts were written)
• Argued against absolute monarchy and for the
  active role of the individual in government
• Printed at the same time as Some Thoughts, An
  Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and a
  Letter Concerning Toleration

• Published in 1692
• Written while Locke was in Holland (he had first
  come to Holland in exile in the 1680s but
  returned to England in 1688/89 with wife of
  William of Orange- William III from 1689-gt)
• First written as a series of letters to Edward
  Clarke, of Chipley, Esq.
• The letters were a series of advice from Locke
  who had spent his life as tutor, on how a man of
  privilege should raise his son
• Written at the same time as Second Treatise

5
Context Matters

• Rousseau- Social Contract

• Rousseau- Emile

• Published in 1762
• Questioned validly of the monarchy
• At this time, Louis XV (son of Louis the 14th
  (letat cest moi) reigned- until 1774
• Became king at age 5, but did not consume full
  power until 1743 at 33
• Over the next 30 years, his lavish spending at
  court , several mistress, and lack of military
  success- (secession of Austrian territory in
  Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, 7 years war
  with England 1754-1763 and The 1763 Treaty of
  Paris confirmed the loss of French possessions in
  North America and Asia to the British)
• Place France in heavy debt and removed popular
  opinion of monarchy

• Published in 1762
• Alternate title On Education
• Published same year as social contract
• Suggests the importance of educating the whole
  person for citizenship
• Book was banned in Paris and Geneva and even
  publicly burned in 1762
• But later, during Fr. Rev. Became a major
  influence in the development of a new French
  education system

6
So why does all this matter?

• Both Locke and Rousseau are responding to their
  social and political environment
• These are very precise historical moments
• Both L R are speaking out against absolute
  monarchy- and calling for more civil authority
• Both are dealing with changing roles in
  parliament (and both are also dealing with an
  aristocracy, funded by early capitalism that
  desires more power vs. a monarchy seeking to hold
  power )
• For both L R it is only the people who give
  legitimacy to governance
• But for both, this involves compromise of
  individual freedoms for protection of others (ie/
  property)

7
So What do they propose?

• Both L R connect citizenship to participation
• Both L R see the need for education to create
  good citizens
• Both L R see the family as the earliest
  construction of natural government (to which they
  argue the monarchy is an unnatural government)
• Both L R want to use the child as a metaphor
  for the citizen in waiting.

8
Important Theoretical Questions to ask and answer
in order to understand the arguments

• How do L R- see the child
• L tabula rasa, ungoverned, unknowing, at times
  wild and selfish (motivated by impulses) and
• yet rational
• R Romantic, pure, naive, curious, inquisitive,
  and yet capable

9
Important Theoretical Questions to ask and answer
in order to understand the arguments

• How is the family a metaphor for government?
• All men are born into the existing relationship
  of the family, under which they serve a period of
  tutelage and obedience to (for L the mother and
  father, for R the father and tutor) to learn,
  until which point they reach the age of maturity
  or reason and can then govern themselves

10
Important Theoretical Questions to ask and answer
in order to understand the arguments

• Who is a citizen?
• All men are born citizens- but must reach the age
  of reason/maturity in order to activate that
  citizenship
• (again it is very time/space specific- we are
  dealing here with white, male, land owner,
  aristocrats- for the most part)

11
Important Theoretical Questions to ask and answer
in order to understand the arguments

• What is the role of the citizen/ What is the role
  of gov?
• In both cases, it is the citizen, who in forgoing
  their ability to govern themselves in a natural
  sate, join into communion with others to form a
  bond- a social contract, in which the state
  agrees to protect their property- and right to
  property
• AND THEREFORE there can be no absolute monarch
• It is the citizen who gives legitimacy to the
  government

12
The tensions and paradoxes

• For both L R the tensions and paradoxes lay
• in their representation of the child
• In their metaphor of child as citizen in waiting
• In their limited conceptions of democracy
• For L
• The child as blank slate and yet rational
• The child as ungoverned and yet entitled
• For R
• The child as irrational and yet capable
• The child as person and yet unformed
• Both see the education of the child as
  fundamental to citizenship, and the child as
  citizen at birth- but neither see the child as
  citizen

13
-Why this matters to CS students-

• In L R we have the two most influential
  thinkers in the modern construction of childhood
  
• -the child as blank slate/ the child as innocent
• These 2 constructions are the dominant force
  behind the DE POLITICIZATION OF CHILDREN through
  the MOCI
• Ironic then, since they are also the two most
  influential thinkers in the construction of
  modern democracy

14
conclusion

• TWO PARALLEL LINES
• The theory of democracy and the theory of the
  child
• One can not be separated from the other (much
  like capitalism and democracy as argued earlier)
• Both grounded in ideals of education and
  citizenship and in the importance of voice,
  representation, and participation
• And yet- in practise never have two ideals
  been more mutually exclusive
• TO RECONCILE THESE- we must lower the voting
  age, enforce the UNCRC, flip the map, and bridge
  the local and the global...easier said than done!