In response to Eric Chan’s post “Ideology of Rousseau and Descartes”, I find similar feelings towards the two philosophers and the way they approach education. Rousseau explains to the reader what he thinks of education, and the three types he categorizes education in, this being: “from man, from nature, and from things”. (Rousseau 1) Throughout the excerpts of “Emile” that we have read, there is a use of the word “nature” to describe how this type of education is how it just happens, something we, as humans, have no control over. It is, according to Rousseau, the best way of learning, because if man is educating you, you are confined and are not allowed to adopt on your own. Similarly, Rene Descartes describes his experience with the so-called “education” which he thinks is best learned through experience, rather than in school. After completing his studies in one of the most prestigious schools, he still states, “For I found myself involved in so many doubts and errors, that I was convinced I had advanced no farther in all my attempts at learning, than the discovery at every turn of my own ignorance”. (Descartes 1)

As a result, Descartes decided to go on his own after that and travel the world, where he thought he learned more than he had ever read and learned in school. “The child who reads cease to think, he only reads, he is acquiring words no knowledge” (Rousseau 14) is what Rousseau writes in the topic of learning through reading. I agree with Eric in that there is only so much information one can grasp through reading and learn through theory. It is only through experience that a student can also make mistakes, which they will later learn from.

It is significant to note that the philosophers did not completely disregard the teachings through someone else, and the things we learn in school, as Descartes states, “I still continued, however, to hold in esteem the studies of the schools. I was aware that the languages taught in them are necessary to the understanding of the writings of the ancients…” (Descartes 1) and Rousseau believes that one type of education is from man. However, both philosophers believe that we should go off on our own and learn from experience to truly understand something, see it for ourselves rather than have an abstract idea about it.