Emile, or On Education
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Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the "best and most important" of all his writings. Du
Title page of Rousseau's Emile
Rousseau
Frontispiece to Rousseau's Émile by De Launay for the 1782 edition. The original caption reads: "L'éducation de l'homme commence à sa naissance" ("A man's education begins at birth").
Title page from a German edition of Émile
Voltaire
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François-Marie Arouet, known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity and of slavery, Vol
Emile, or On Education
…literature and philosophy, as well as a productive approach of sentiment and reason through education". Rousseau's contemporary and philosophical rival Voltaire was critical of Emile as a whole, but admired the section in the book which had led to it being banned (the section titled "Profession of Faith of the…
Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1720s
Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille from 16 May 1717 to 15 April 1718 in a windowless cell with ten-foot-thick walls.
In the frontispiece to Voltaire's book on Newton's philosophy, Émilie du Châtelet appears as Voltaire's muse, reflecting Newton's heavenly insights down to Voltaire.
Pastel by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, 1735