Assessment of Jean-Jacques

Rousseau’s educational
concept “natural inclination”
from a Reformed worldview
perspective

Dr Morne Diedericks
Akademie Reformatoriese Opleiding en Studies (Aros)
[email protected]

Abstract
After almost three hundred years, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s influence
in various fields of science is clearly visible. One field of science in which
Rousseau is particularly indispensable is in education. A key concept
within Rousseau’s ideas on education is his concept of natural inclination.
In this article, Rousseau’s concept of natural inclination is assessed from
a Reformed worldview perspective. Rousseau’s anthropological view of
man being naturally good makes his use of the term ‘natural inclination’
different from that of Reformed thinkers, which is grounded in the
Reformed confession of man’s sinful nature. This further has the effect
that the conceptualisation of the different aspects of education takes a
different form than the framework presented by Rousseau. As a result,
educators working within a Reformed worldview cannot be uncritical
towards Rousseau’s use of the concept of ‘natural inclination’.

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Opsomming
Na byna driehonderd jaar is Jean-Jacques Rousseau se invloed op
verskillende wetenskapsvelde steeds duidelik sigbaar. Een vakgebied
waarin Rousseau besonder onontbeerlik is, is in die opvoedkunde. ʼn
Sleutelkonsep binne Rousseau se idees oor opvoeding is sy konsep
van natuurlike neiging. In hierdie artikel word Rousseau se konsep van
natuurlike neiging vanuit ʼn Reformatoriese lewens- en wêreldbeskouing
beoordeel. Rousseau se antropologiese siening van die mens wat
van nature goed is, maak sy gebruik van die term ‘natuurlike neiging’
anders as dié van reformatoriese denkers. Reformatoriese denkers se
antropologie is gegrond in die belydenis van die mens se sondige natuur.
Dit het verder tot gevolg dat die konseptualisering van die verskillende
aspekte van die opvoeding ʼn ander vorm aanneem as die raamwerk wat
deur Rousseau aangebied word. As gevolg hiervan behoort opvoeders
wat binne ʼn Reformatoriese lewens- en wêreldbeskouing werk, krities te
wees teenoor Rousseau se gebruik van die begrip ‘natuurlike neiging’.

Key Words
Anthropology, Christian Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Natural
Inclination, Reformed Worldview, Sin

1. Introduction and method

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s educational work Emile, can be seen as a
landmark in the history of education. In this book, Rousseau discusses two
fictional characters, Emile and Sophie. Rousseau uses the two characters
to explain his educational philosophy. Rousseau discusses different aspects
of his educational philosophy as these two fictional characters, Emile and
Sophie, move through the different stages of life. The book focuses on the
personality of a child and how to treat a child with dignity. Further educational
aspects such as techniques to motivate children to learn, the distinction
between boys and girls, their political thinking and the influence on a child’s
education makes the book Emile a relevant and insightful book for any
teacher.
In the field of education, a philosopher like Rousseau is unavoidable. His
ideas, theories and philosophical framework for education had an enormous

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impact on the philosophers after him. From the background of a Christian

higher education institution training teachers, the traces of Rousseau’s
thinking are visible in a multitude of study guides and learning materials
(Yang, 2004). When these are not direct references to the works of Rousseau
himself, reference is made to authors such as Kant, Pestalozzi, Dewey,
Montessori, Freire, and Piaget, who followed in the footsteps of Rousseau
(Anthony & Benson, 2011:230). The purpose of this article is to highlight
valuable aspects of Rousseau’s influence on education, but at the same time,
to make Christian academics, involved in the training of teachers, aware of
the dangers of Rousseau’s ideas on ‘natural inclination’.
Rousseau’s educational theories have received particular attention over
the years, despite giving up his five children for adoption (Brown, 1968:80).
In this article, Vollenhoven’s (2005) problem-historical method, by which a
person’s ideas can be analysed, is used as a framework in the discussion
of Rousseau’s thinking about education with a specific focus on Rousseau’s
concept of ‘natural inclination’. This entails first explaining Rousseau’s
cultural context (Background), discussing Rousseau’s directional or religious
thought (Rousseau’s view of religion) and a structural or ontic discussion
of Rousseau’s anthropology. Using this structure as a basis, Rousseau’s
educational thinking on the concept of ‘natural inclination’ is assessed from
a Reformed worldview.

2. Background
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was born in Geneva. He was the son
of a watchmaker. His first interest was music. Rousseau focused his time
in Paris (1742-1762) on his music career (Dent, 2005:823). Yet, Rousseau
was a son of Geneva (the city in which Calvin spent most of his career). In
1762, Rousseau writes to the Archbishop of Paris that he is fortunate to have
been born in the city of the holy reasonable religion of the earth and that he
remains irrevocably attached to the faith of his father. This faith of his father
was the Christian (Calvinistic) faith. Exactly that same year, the illusion of
Rousseau’s faith came to an end in the publication of two books, Le Contract
Social and Emile. Both books were burned immediately by order of the Paris
and Geneva authorities (Praamsma, 1979:112).
Although Rousseau can be placed among the French Rationalists, he
was also a man of heart and emotion. From his educational philosophy, it
is clear that he has worked with specific strong empirical ideas. Rousseau
was a ‘man for people’ (volksman) who wanted to abolish all the privileges

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Reformed worldview perspective

of the nobility. His ideas were put into practice by Robespierre during the
French Revolution, and from there Rousseau was given the nickname the
‘storm bird of the French Revolution’. As a volksman, Rousseau was able
to articulate the feeling of the people in an inspiring way. As Taylor (2003:7)
puts it: “I would argue that Rousseau’s great popularity comes in part from
his articulating of something that was already happening in the culture.”

3. Rousseau’s view of religion

Rousseau’s religious conviction is described by Praamsma (1979:71) as that
of a sensitive deist. Rousseau finds no contradiction in speaking of a Good
Creator and of God at a distance. Rousseau presents God as an unknowable
being that he knows exists but that is not recognizable.
If I have succeeded in discerning these attributes of which I have no absolute
idea, it is in the form of unavoidable deductions, and by the right use of my
reason; but I affirm them without understanding them, and at bottom that is
no affirmation at all. In vain do I say, God is thus, I feel it, I experience it, none
the more do I understand how God can be thus. In a word: the more I strive
to envisage his infinite essence the less do I comprehend it; but it is, and that
is enough for me; the less I understand, the more I adore. I abase myself,
saying, Being of beings, I am because thou art; to fix my thoughts on thee is to
ascend to the source of my being. The best use I can make of my reason is to
resign it before thee; my mind delights, my weakness rejoices, to feel myself
overwhelmed by thy greatness (Rousseau, 1962:249).
Rousseau was not against religion, but rather against religious institutions
such as the church and orthodox faith. Rousseau broke with orthodox
Christian faith, which held on to the confession of Scriptural authority. For
example, he explains his rationalist stance on the miracles in Scripture. He
says that, earlier, according to the prophets, fire came down from heaven,
now children can do the same with a piece of burning glass; further, Lazarus’s
resurrection by Jesus did not really happen, because Lazarus may never
have died (Rousseau, 1829:231).
In Rousseau’s time, the Christian faith was the general faith, and because the
Christian faith, which, according to Rousseau, did not appreciate the state,
but focused on the individual person rather than the person as a citizen, the
religion of the state must be different than the religion of the Christian church.
The religion of the state must promote the nationalism of the state; it must
be a purely civil religion. Rousseau makes room for other religions, but they
may not contain anything that is in conflict with the religion of the state. This

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type of state is known as a totalitarian state. The state becomes the new
ubiquitous, caring god (Nisbet, 2014:137).
Any deviation from the state’s constitution or the law of citizens is considered
by Rousseau (1829:231) to be a sin. The constitution is the supreme
authority, and no religion can be above the constitution. The highest form of
morality is the maintenance of the constitution, and this morality must also
be taught to citizens.

4. Rousseau’s anthropology
Rousseau’s anthropological philosophy forms the point of departure for his
educational philosophy. The whole way in which he views man affects almost
every aspect of his educational theory. According to Rousseau, the goodness
of the deistic god remained in the nature of man, and therefore, the point of
departure for Rousseau’s educational theory is radically different from that
of the Reformers. Where the Reformers emphasised the depravity of man,
Rousseau emphasised the goodness of man. These differing anthropological
views produce two distinctly different educational systems.
According to Rousseau (1962:126), man’s natural goodness should be
pursued (from now on reference is made to the page number of Rousseau’s
work Emile). Education and instruction should be directed towards the
pursuit of the natural person and the protection of the child against the
evil of society. It is the nature of man that determines morality. “Rousseau
frequently presents the issue of morality as that of our following a voice of
nature within us” (Taylor, 2003:27). If one can come into full contact with
his natural inner man (le sentiment de l’existence), he should, according to
Rousseau, become a perfect moral being.
Another aspect that greatly influenced Rousseau’s anthropological view is
his view of man as an individual. According to Rousseau, human nature is
to be a non-bound living being that is not bound by any community. The
community is only an adjunct to man, and the true man can only be understood
separate from his community (p. 126). These two entities, the individual and
the state, dominate Rousseau’s political philosophy. In his mind, they are
both sovereign. This sounds like a paradox, and Rousseau is also accused
of being inconsistent by considering both the state and the individual as
sovereign (Nisbet, 2014:130). Rousseau’s solution to the problem was to
free man from the influence of society. According to Rousseau, man should
be protected from the corruption of the community. Rousseau regarded the

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community as the church, family, and the community in which man lives as
chains that take away the individual’s freedom. Rousseau wants to separate
the individual from these chains through the state (Rousseau & May,
2002:27).
The way in which man submits himself to the state is through the General
Will. The General Will is today considered a democracy where the majority
vote is the General Will. However, this is not how Rousseau understood the
General Will. For Rousseau, the General Will is an analogue of the human
mind, a type of universal law written on all people’s hearts. As such, the
General Will must be uniform, just like the human mind. The General Will
requires every individual to have unqualified obedience to the state. Only
through total obedience to the state will the individual be free. “The individual
lives a free life only within his complete surrender to the omnipotent State”
(Nisbet, 2014:134). Even the family must pursue the requirements of the
state. Because morality is the essence of civil society health, the family
should not be given the vital task of education. According to Rousseau, the
responsibility of education is too great for a family. The educational task must,
therefore, be transferred from the family to the state (Nisbet, 2014:139).
All areas of society (church, family, the community in which man lives) must
be geared towards the General Will of the people, as Nisbet (2014:138)
explains: “Hardly less than religion the family itself, as a corporate entity, must
be radically adjusted to meet the demands of the General Will.” Rousseau
regarded the community as an adjunct to the individual, and that man is
“naturally” a free-spirited individual. The real and genuine person can only be
understood separately from his community. The real person is a person who
precedes his own community. This understanding of man as a free-spirited
individual separate from his community was a radical redefinition of man.
Rousseau brought forward a new anthropological view of what man sees as
a cosmic unified being. This new anthropological view made it possible for
Rousseau to look at education in a new way.

5. Natural inclination as a fundamental principle in

Rousseau’s concept of education
The above discussion of Rousseau’s cultural context (Background),
directional or religious thought (Rousseau’s view of religion) and a structural
discussion of Rousseau’s anthropology serves as the basis for the discussion
of Rousseau’s ideas about education. When Rousseau writes about the
purpose of education, he writes about the importance of knowledge about

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life. Education for Rousseau is not a fragmented transfer of content, but

a process of learning about life and through life. All situations in life offer
the opportunity to learn, and education is therefore not just limited to the
classroom or training for a profession. The primary purpose of education is
to teach a boy, like the fictional character Emile, how to be a man (p.125).
Rousseau’s view of education’s purpose as learning through life brings him
to his familiar idea of the natural development and discovery of a child’s
natural inclination. It is crucial to understand Rousseau’s concept of “nature”
to understand his thinking about education. Rousseau (1962:124) does
not see nature simply as habit. A habit can also be learned from specific
circumstances. For example, a tree could learn a new habit of growing
because it was forced by circumstances to grow differently, but it is not the
natural growth of the tree. By nature, Rousseau (1962:124) refers to the
tendencies of man from birth: “We are born capable of sensation and from
birth are affected in diverse ways by the objects around us. As soon as we
become conscious of our sensations we are inclined to seek or to avoid
the objects which produce them: at first, because they are agreeable or
disagreeable to us, later because we discover that they suit or do not suit us,
and ultimately because of the judgments we pass on them by reference to
the idea of happiness or perfection we get from reason. These inclinations
extend and strengthen with the growth of sensibility and intelligence, but
under the pressure of habit they are changed to some extent with our
opinions. The inclinations before this change are what I call our nature. In
my view everything ought to be in conformity with these original inclinations.”
In his educational purpose, Rousseau combines the two ideas of learning
about and through life and the development of man’s natural inclination.
According to Rousseau, the purpose of education should be the discovery of
true happiness. True happiness can only be discovered by living according
to one’s own nature or, acting according to one’s natural inclination. The
purpose of education cannot be to lead a person to financial wealth, but to
lead one to do the things he is naturally good at (natural inclination) (p. 151).
As discussed above in Rousseau’s anthropological philosophy, Rousseau
believes that there is no original sin in man and that the inclination of human
nature is always right (p. 128). Only when a person does things according to
his natural inclination will the person find true happiness.
Because the child was not born in sin and the child’s natural inclination is
only good, the ‘self’ and the child’s focus on the ‘self’ is of great importance.
The child’s ‘self’ is at the centre of its existence and from the ‘self’ the child
must learn to look at the world. Rousseau’s political ideas on the promotion

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of equality among all people also played a role in his view of the child. The
child is thus not subordinate to the adult, but occupies a unique place (p.
123). This place is to be a child and act according to the natural inclination of
being a child. Rousseau’s emphasis on children who should be children and
not adults brought a new focus on childhood. Rousseau placed a magnifying
glass on childhood that opened up the possibility of rethinking the stages of
development of a child (Eby, 1964:354; Moore, 2001:200).
The stages of a child’s development play a key role in Rousseau’s ideas
about education. Rousseau sees the stages of development as the natural
development of a child, and every phase should be appreciated. In these
stages of development, children should be left alone, and interference should
be avoided. The best thing to do in education is nothing (p. 124). Rousseau
compares the growth of a child with that of a tree that bears fruit. The child
should not be depressed, but the educator should wait with patience until the
child reaches a new stage of development (p. 127). Every phase of human
existence has its place, and so also the phase of childhood has its unique
place. We must regard the man as a man and the child as a child (p. 126).
According to Rousseau, the natural course of the child is that children should
be loved and helped, but not that children should be feared, nor should the
children fear the educator (p. 126). Rousseau expresses himself vigorously
against authority structures that must be obeyed. Rousseau’s ideas regarding
authority and relationships are radically different from the old traditional
view of the educator who, hierarchically, has higher authority than the child.
According to Rousseau (p. 127), a child should never do something out of
obedience, but rather out of necessity. According to Rousseau, the words
“obedient” and “command” must be banned from humanity’s vocabulary.
Children must be disciplined without issuing orders. Children should instead
understand the implications of their behaviour. For example, if a child breaks
the window of their room, the educator should not fix the window. Instead,
they must let the child experience the consequences of their behaviour by
keeping the hole in the window and let the child experience the cold. In this
way, they will better understand the error and consequences of their actions
(p. 130).
As the child is forced to learn through experience and the necessities of
life, so should the child’s curiosity be stimulated to find out more about a
subject. The most important rule in education is not to save time, but to waste
time (p. 128). Part of learning through experience is the importance of the
child’s experience by getting in touch with nature. Rousseau believed in a
Creator, but the personal involvement of his Creator in man was lacking. He

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writes about man’s relationship with God, but rather in rationalistic or even
naturalistic terms. In the child’s study of nature, he comes to the knowledge
of the Author (God) (p. 142). Learning takes place primarily through the
child’s experience of nature and the experience of other people. Two further
concepts that can be emphasised from Rousseau’s ideas about education
are his conceptualisation of the distinction between teaching boys and
girls, as well as his social or political philosophy’s influence on his ideas on
education. In this article, however, the focus is only on Rousseau’s concept
of natural inclination.

6. Assessment of Rousseau’s concept of natural

inclination from a Reformed worldview perspective
From the rich content of Rousseau’s ideas about education, only one
core element, namely natural inclination, is going to be assessed from a
Reformed worldview perspective. In this article, Reformed worldview refers
to the broad framework for a worldview as it developed from the historical
tradition that originated from Calvin and Calvinistic thinkers (Van der Walt,
2014:20). Reformed worldview in this article also refers to specific Reformed
confessions of faith, namely the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg
Catechism, the Canons of Dordt and the Westminster Confession of Faith.
C.S. Lewis (1967:13) refers to the term “natural inclinations” as “dangerous
senses of words because they trick us into misreading”. The use of the
words natural inclination is indeed dangerous because of the variety of
meanings attached to them. Furthermore, it is also the blending of the two
words ‘natural’ and ‘inclination’ that further complicates the concept. For
example, Mill (1874:64) refers to the two most dangerous notions of the
concept of ‘nature' in English: Nature means 1) “the entire system of things.
. . [and] all their properties” or 2) “things as they would be, apart from human
intervention”. In this light, Mill (1874:84), as an Englishman, says that the
South Europeans have a natural tendency to be ‘cruel’, and this cruelty must
be restrained by reason.
The natural inclination of man is a crucial concept in education. The natural
inclination of man is found in concepts such as a person’s talents or gifts.
One can also refer to people’s natural ability, or natural skill. Natural
inclination also refers to the things one loves to do. Inclination can be seen
as a choice between two issues, such as a person who is more likely to read
than jog, because their ability, talent and development in reading are better
than jogging. Human inclination can change or develop. A person who has

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received more exposure in a case tends to do that thing more easily (Gorski,
2017:61). For example, a child who received more exposure in playing with a
ball tends to have better ball skills than a child who has never touched a ball.
It is precisely in this aspect of the child’s natural inclination that a clear
paradox emerges within Rousseau’s thinking. On the one hand, Rousseau
believes that the best method of education is the method of doing nothing.
“What can be done to produce this very exceptional person? In point of fact
all we have to do is prevent anything being done” (p. 125). By this, Rousseau
explains that the child must be left to discover his own natural inclination
and that all instruction must be in line with the natural inclination of man.
From this, his idea arises that children should be taught less and given more
opportunity to play, to discover themselves and the world around them.
On the other hand, Rousseau says that man must be formed by other people,
people who are capable of educating others. He says when one is left alone
at birth to grow up, one will be the unhappiest creature. “Plants are fashioned
by cultivation, men by education” (p. 123). The task of educators is to protect
the child from social institutions on earth. The educator must form the natural
inclination of man and not allow man’s nature to be corrupted by the examples
of society. These two ideas, on the one hand that the child should not be left
alone like a plant to grow on its own, and on the other hand, that the child
should be left alone to discover and develop their natural inclination, lead to
a lack of coherence in Rousseau’s ideas on natural inclination.
Thomas Aquinas (2002:ST II – II, q. 85, a. 1.) explains that man has a number
of natural inclinations. He includes, among other things, that man has the
tendency to protect his life and the life of others, or to seek the truth and
that the best way to do so is to live in peace with society. This creational law
Aquinas calls the natural law. By natural law, Aquinas does not mean a law
that is separate from God, but a created law, as referred to in Romans 2:14-
15 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing
one another.”1 Unlike Aristotle, who detaches the natural law from the law of
God, Aquinas also binds the natural law to the law of God (Cunningham,
2012:185). Aquinas shows that the law of God (the Bible) guides man’s idea
of the law of nature. Part of the nature-grace debate in which Aquinas is

1 For an analysis of Aquinas’s concept of ‘natural inclination’ refer to: Cunningham, S.B., 2012,
July. Aquinas on the Natural Inclination of Man to Offer Sacrifice to God. In Proceedings of
the American Catholic Philosophical Association (Vol. 86, pp. 185-200).

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quoted as the main figure is the view that the law of God (the Bible) is a
higher grace than nature, with the result that nature and grace are being
separated. Cunningham (2012) argues that this is a misunderstanding of
Aquinas and that, for example, Aquinas would have added natural inclination
to grace, within the nature-grace classification.
According to Van der Walt (2014:98), the Reformed position on the nature-
grace distinction is that grace renews and restores nature. The need for the
restoration of nature is because nature, which includes creation and man,
has fallen into sin. Carson (2012:55) shows that the danger of the concept
of natural inclination as a natural law is that, in the case of Rousseau, it
is detached from God’s Word. The Reformed view, however, holds that
natural inclination is part of God’s creational order, but once it is detached
from God’s Word it becomes a law without a source. Without the authority
of God’s Word, man’s natural inclination loses its value. To exalt the natural
inclination of man as an all good, self-contained law, separate from God
and God’s Word, causes self-justification. Man becomes the judge of his
own unknowable inner natural inclination. With each person as his own
judge, the enforcement of law and order is a difficult task, and this makes the
application of discipline in, for example, the classroom even more difficult.
This is why Rousseau’s view of discipline in education is highly criticised
by Reformed thinkers such as Berkhof and Van Til: “Though it is generally
admitted that the teacher is clothed with moral authority, which is no authority
in the strict sense of the word, it is frequently assumed that he has no judicial
authority. Modern pedagogy, while avoiding the extremes of Rousseau, has
imbibed all too much of the views of the erratic Frenchman” (Berkhof & Van
Til, 1990:108).
In contrast with Rousseau, Rosenstock-Huessy explains the dangers of
natural inclination within human beings. Huessy (2001:95) shows that a
good teacher cannot be left to act within his natural inclination. He says
that the purpose of a teacher’s development is precisely to overcome his
natural inclination. Huessy explains that every part of society strives to follow
the path of least resistance because they act within their natural inclination.
According to Huessy (2001:100), the only thing that can save man from
natural inclination is rebirth. Huessy explains that this rebirth is the death of
the evil and a beginning of the good. “This is none other than the Christian
faith in death and resurrection”. Huessy says that this is not a popular thing
to say today, but death is the only way man can come to real life. “Something
bigger than ourselves must lift us beyond ourselves and our natural
inclination. People who eliminate the end of the world from their thinking
cannot do anything about the world’s resurrection. But this resurrection is

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our daily task. To die to our natural inclination and begin over in time; that
is the secret of timing, of presence of mind.” What Huessy points out is that
Rousseau’s idea of developing a person’s natural inclination also poses the
danger of aimlessness. Development, change and renewal lie in the death of
an inclination and the development of a new person.
As already shown, Rousseau regards man and his natural inclination as
good. According to Rousseau, education should be aimed at the pursuit of
the natural inclination of a child and the protection of the child against the
evil of society. According to Rousseau, it is the nature of man that determines
morality, and when one can come into full contact with his natural inner man,
he becomes a perfect moral being. However, Taylor (2003:63) indicates that
this assumption of Rousseau is false. The demands of self-truth, contact with
myself or peace with myself are entirely different from moral action towards
others. Self-love can also lead to wrong actions towards others. Therefore,
knowledge and contact with my natural inner self do not make me a perfect
moral being.
On the other hand, the Reformed confession proclaims man’s nature as sinful.
Man is naturally inclined to hate God and his neighbour. Man, according to
the Reformed tradition, tends to sin in all moral actions, because man has
fallen into sin. Man is born into sin and is therefore naturally inclined to sin
(Bavinck, 1954:68). This confession goes directly against that of Rousseau,
who sees the nature of man as good. Bavinck (1954:104) points out that the
gospel shows two possibilities for man: the man who grounds his being in
himself or the man who grounds his being in Christ. The man who grounds
his being within himself is left to the “foundations of his own nature”. Bavinck
points out that the foundation of human nature is bound by sin and the power
of darkness. However, the person who finds his meaning in Christ is a person
who, in the depths of his lostness, seized Christ, the great Saviour of man’s
life. Christ is the One who causes the evil inclination of man to die, in order
to raise a new human being, with a new inclination.
Coetzee (1939:160) points out that Rousseau’s anthropology stands at the
core of his educational philosophy and is the driving force behind Rousseau’s
concept of natural inclination. In antithesis to Rousseau, who regards man
as sinless and good, Coetzee (1939:219) says: “The confession of the sinful
nature of man determines our beliefs about education. Man is not pure, not
innocent, not responsible, he is by nature sinful and corrupt, by nature he
goes against the will of God.” For this reason, Coetzee explains, one of the
main tasks of education is not to guide man in the fulfilment of his natural
inclination, but rather to lead man away from his natural inclination, in a path

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of justice, the demise of himself towards a new way of knowing God.

Knight (2011:207-109) explains that Christian educators do not deny the
created order of man’s natural inclination, for example, a natural way in
which man develops or a natural tendency of man to act in a particular way
in specific circumstances. However, Knight (2011:208) warns that Christian
educators cannot detach the natural order of man from the human condition:
“The biblical view of human nature has no parallel in secular theories of
education and is the main obstacle to the Christian’s adopting any such
theory wholesale. The elements of a Christian approach to education must
always be consciously developed in the light of human need and the human
condition.” The human condition, according to the Reformed confessions, is
sinful in nature. It is for this reason that secular educational theories, such
as those of Rousseau and those who follow in his footsteps, should not be
blindly accepted by Christian educators by uncritically incorporating these
secular educational theories into study material for students.
Christian education works with renewing and restoring nature, to break the
natural sinful tendency of man and bring forth a new nature: a nature that
has undergone a metamorphosis (transformation). Where Rousseau says
that the child must be left to discover his own natural inclination, Christian
education teaches that the child’s natural inclination will be sinful and that the
child must be helped in Christ to renew and restore his natural inclination,
and in this way become a new human being.

7. Conclusion
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s influence on educational philosophers after him
has become evident over the past almost three hundred years. He is an
unavoidable thinker who exerts a significant influence in various fields of
science. Similarly, Rousseau’s influence within Christian higher education
institutions that train teachers is evident. Rousseau’s theories have especially
made a valuable contribution to the field of education. What is worrying,
however, is that Christian higher education institutions training teachers do
not always critically deal with the underlying philosophy of Rousseau and
those who followed in his footsteps.
What the article shows is that Rousseau’s anthropology forms the basis of
his educational philosophy and his understanding of natural inclination. In an
assessment of Rousseau’s concept of natural inclination from a Reformed
worldview perspective, it becomes clear that he does not make a distinction

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Assessment of Jean-Jacques Rosseau’s educational concept “natural inclination” from a
Reformed worldview perspective

between the creation order of God and the development of man to find true
happiness. This lack of distinction can be seen in Rousseau’s ideas on the
child who must be left alone to develop himself and discover his natural
inclination.
Rousseau’s notion that one must develop according to his natural inclination
must therefore be qualified. If one talks about a child’s natural inclination,
referring to the child’s ability, gifts and talents, that is also a Scriptural
principle. The way God created man with different tastes, ideas, brain
profiles, qualities, talents and gifts is good and forms part of the diversity
of God’s creation. These gifts of diversity and variety are found in believers
and unbelievers. Christian teaching should make full use of all the different
techniques and methods to discover, develop and deploy the variety of
teaching methods.
On the other hand, Rousseau proclaims that true happiness lies in the
discovery and development of the natural inclination of man. Scripture,
however, directs man’s thoughts in a different direction. Even though a
person could have all the gifts and skills in the world, but the person, for
example, lacks the gift of love, he has nothing. The source of true love is
God. God is love, and when a person is implanted in Him, they will also
experience and share true love. In that sense, a person can also have all the
gifts in the world, discover and develop his/her own natural inclination, but
that does not mean that the person will experience true happiness. According
to the Reformed tradition, true happiness resides only in Jesus Christ and
a living relationship with Him. Man is made to develop his gifts and talents
to the glory of God, and this brings more happiness than applying those
gifts and talents to self-glorification. The task of Christian education is much
more than only discovering and developing a child’s gifts and talents; it also
includes the application of those gifts and talents to the glory of God.

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