| Authorship Notes |
Rousseau's dissertation on travel features in book V (pp. 347-422 within volume 4 of the first edition) of his influential dissertation on the "natural" education, 'Emile, ou de l'Education'. Emile, after having met the ideal partner, Sophie, is taken on a two-year trip by his mentor.
Clearly inspired by Muralt's 'Lettre sur les voiages', Rousseau condemns traditional educational travel as commonly performed. He is rather restrictive on who should travel - it seems more or less limited to his fictional creation. Travel pushes the pupil's character to the extreme: those leaning towards good will be improved by it, those leaning towards evil will become worse.
Some ideas on mobility feature in other sections of 'Emile' as well. Rousseau's well-known ideas on walking as preferable mean of transportation because of the freedom it allows feature not here, but in the previous volume of the work. It would be technically impossible to follow the programme imagined (visiting 10 states within 2 years) while walking. They are to visit these states, representative of various political regimes, which gives an opportunity to Rousseau to present most of the content of his 'Contrat social'. In order to grasp the national character, they should avoid capital cities, melting pots with no character: the true national character is to be found in the countryside. But, beyond meeting men and nations, the ultimate goal of the trip is to meet Man - to understand mankind beyond local variation.
An imagined dialogue presents the results of the trip. To the question of the tutor on what he has learnt during the travels, if the travel was correctly performed, Emile should answer: ‘What course have I chosen? To remain what you have made me and voluntarily to add no other chains to the one with which nature and the laws burden me’. The travel experience's ultimate goal is return to the self - a return made possible, however, only by the experience of the Other. |
