Chapter 23 2. Emile is 18 years old: the age of fraternity

We have finally entered the second stage of adolescence, when we have morality in our heads.If, at this stage of life, morality is worth mentioning, I shall try to point out how conscience breaks through the layers of psychic activity to make its first cry, and how the ideas of good and evil emerge from emotions that consist only of love and hate. rose from the ground. "Justice" and "benevolence" are not two abstract concepts, nor are they supposed to be moral entities.They are not rational love, but spiritual love inspired by reason, which is our most authentic emotion.

At the same time, I would like to point out that, apart from conscience, it is impossible to establish the laws of nature by reason alone.Natural rights should be based on human needs, otherwise, it is nothing but a raving. Here, I don't want to make any kind of exposition, metaphysics or ethics discussion. My purpose is just to point out the sequence of emergence and respective development process of those emotions or knowledge related to our nature. At present, Emile still only thinks about himself. The reason why he wants to attract the attention of those who are similar to him is to compete with them.Stimulated by this comparison, he developed a desire to be the first in every way.In this way, vanity invaded his heart and replaced self-love, and then all the desires related to vanity came overwhelming.

In order to understand whether these new desires are philanthropic tolerance or insidious jealousy, we must first know what position he wants to achieve in human society, and what obstacles he needs to overcome in order to achieve his goal. In order to further guide him, in addition to letting him see the common situation of human beings, let him know the differences between people and what order they should follow in life in society. Equality in the state of nature is true equality, because the differences between people are too small to make one person dependent on others. Equality in civilized society is a false equality, and the means by which human beings use to maintain this equality aggravate this inequality.In addition, the strong oppress the weak under the guise of public power, destroying the original balance between people beyond recognition.Along with this inequality, various potential or apparent contradictions in human society have emerged.

Sacrificing the interests of the majority and the public for the interests of the minority, those so-called justice and order are actually tools for the minority to rule violently or seek their own interests. Those ruling classes make great fanfare to promote the welfare of the people, but in fact all their actions are for themselves.They all wear hypocritical masks on their faces, and behind these glamorous masks are selfish and sinister hearts. We want to tear off the masks of these rulers and show their true colors to young people.Of course, our purpose of doing this is not to make young people hate them, but to pity them, so as not to learn from them.This is the most real emotion of human beings, and it is also the most common sense.

In the past, we taught children to learn based on their own experience, but based on the above point of view, we need to change the previous education method and let him acquire knowledge from other people's experience. I want to carefully draw a social circle for him, so that those who have bad conduct will not have the opportunity to contact him; I want him to see the world clearly, and to prepare for the worst when encountering anything; Believe that man is inherently good, and judge his neighbor without any prejudice; I will also tell him that society is full of temptations to evil, and that these temptations are rooted in human weakness.

I hope he respects those outstanding individuals instead of blindly following the vulgar masses; I hope he knows that anyone may wear a mask on his face, but the smile behind the mask may be much more beautiful than the mask itself. I admit that this approach is somewhat difficult to implement and has many disadvantages.Because let him understand human nature too deeply too early, he will think that the world is full of evil, and even regard good things as evil. When he became accustomed to the depravity of human beings, he would stop exhorting himself.Over time, he will form such a mentality: Since everyone is doing this, why can't I?

In order to avoid such a situation, I decided to let him get in touch with people from different time and space, so that he can observe from the perspective of a bystander, and maintain his innocence while understanding others.It was time for him to study history. Compared with philosophy, history allows him to gain insight into people's hearts in a relatively simple way.He is neither an accomplice nor an enemy of anyone, so he can evaluate historical events and characters in a completely objective manner. There are downsides to this approach, though, because it can be so difficult to do justice to others.Historical records have a big disadvantage: whether it is historical events or historical figures, there are much more negative descriptions than positive descriptions.

Once a disaster or a revolution occurs, the recorders of history will start to write long stories and write close-ups, but for the period of peace and prosperity of the country, they have only mentioned it in one stroke, and there are few records.Almost all national histories begin with descriptions of decline, followed by wars with neighbors. Bad guys can always be passed down through the ages, but good guys are easily buried or become people's after-dinner pastime.In this way, history continues to vilify human beings, just as philosophy does. The history we see is not what it is, but processed by those historians and influenced by their personal preferences.So, history is full of prejudice.

No historian can bring readers back to the past and let them experience those historical events.Either because of ignorance or prejudice, they have written history beyond recognition, even if it has not been distorted, it will lose its original appearance in either a grand or narrow background of the times. Whether a big tree exists, whether a rock is on the left or right, which direction a gust of sand is blowing from, how many battles have been won or lost by these trivial details?But those self-righteous historians don't think about these at all, but analyze the root causes of winning and losing in a serious manner, as if they were on the battlefield at that time.

It is their so-called unfathomable that leads us away from the truth of history.What's the point of studying something if we can't learn from it if we don't know why it happened?Those hype comments are all fabricated or imagined by historians. Even if some analyzes seem to be sound, they are nothing more than reasonable lies. Some people think that we don't need to ask historians to record social customs or write biographies, as long as they don't distort people's hearts, the authenticity of historical events is irrelevant.After all, how useful is it to us to know every detail of what happened two thousand years ago?

If they can faithfully restore the true colors of history, then such remarks are understandable.But if most of the narration comes from the imagination of historians, then we have to face the problem that we just got rid of, that is, to put on historians the sacred cloak that was taken off from teachers. If my student must be exposed to such a history, I would rather make up a picture for him personally, at least I know what kind of thing is really suitable for him. The worst influences on young people are historians who carry too many personal opinions.the truth!Just give them the truth and leave the rest to them.They have their own judgment, and only by themselves can they truly understand human behavior. If they are always swayed by the author's subjective opinion, they will never learn to see with their own eyes.Once they leave the guidance of others, they can't get anywhere. I don’t advocate teaching modern history, firstly because modern history is bland and unremarkable, and secondly because it contains more prejudices of historians than ancient history, and is farther away from the truth. Under normal circumstances, ancient historians described less about historical figures, and when evaluating historical events, personal intuition accounted for a larger proportion than moral judgments. Thucydides is an example of such a historian.When he narrates historical events, he never makes subjective judgments, but he never omits any scene for readers to express their opinions. He does not intervene in the relationship between history and readers, but stands aside with an attitude of staying out of the way, presenting history to readers like a picture scroll.The history he wrote can give readers a strong sense of substitution, as if they were there. The only shortcoming is that his history only records wars, but the educational significance of wars is the lowest among all historical events. Similar historians include Herodotus, who is quick in thinking and fluent in writing.His two books "Retreat of Ten Thousand People" and "Critical Biography of Caesar" describe the history very well, but they have the same advantages and disadvantages as Thucydides' history. It is a pity that his book is too naive and simple, otherwise, he can be regarded as the best historian who uses history to educate young people.Therefore, if you do not have a high appreciation ability, it is better not to read his book. Levy is also a man worth mentioning, a man not only a great statesman but also a fine rhetorician.His books are not suitable for young people of this age to read, and I will refer to him later. Most historical descriptions are flawed. They focus on those important events with a clear time, place and person, and ignore those events that are not of great significance.In the narration of major events, what they involve is only the superficial, and the reasons for their cumulative outbreak or development are rarely mentioned. People are always used to attributing the outbreak of revolution to the success or failure of a war. In fact, the revolution would come without that war.Every revolution does not come suddenly, it must have a long brewing process, and that war only heightened the effect of things caused by spiritual causes.This is an important point that has been overlooked by most historians. What needs to be added is that the focus of history is on the description of human behavior, rather than the excavation of human beings themselves. It only pays attention to specific moments in a certain person's life and studies his role in historical events, but ignores this person's private life and social circle.Therefore, what we see is only the behavior or performance of historical figures, and it is impossible to have a comprehensive understanding of them. Only by tracing the personal lives of historical figures can we gain insight into their true nature.If historians are careful enough, the words and deeds of those historical figures cannot escape their eyes. Montaigne once said: "I prefer to read biographies. History only tells the process of events or the behavior of characters, while biographies can reveal people's thoughts and reflect people's hearts. Therefore, I like to read Plutarch writings." People in groups have very different personalities than people alone.Because people will be affected by the group environment, only by putting people in groups for research can we have a comprehensive understanding of him. But this view also has its legitimate elements: only by studying an individual can one be prepared to grasp his dispositions, and thus to foresee his role in a crowd and the extent of his influence over it. Plutarch's grasp of details is quite accurate, which is what other historians lack.His writing is beautiful, and he is able to see the details, and he can show the greatness of the characters through only a small event. He is good at choosing these details, and often only needs a smile, a gesture or a word, and he can describe the character of the character vividly. When the warriors were languishing, Hannibal needed only a joke to cheer them up; Ajacila riding on a log made me feel close to the conquering king; Alexander 1 Without saying a word, he swallowed the pill silently. He had never experienced such a wonderful moment. There are no heroic feats, no grand narratives, and describing their temperaments from the details is the real description of characters. If we go one step further, our goal will be achieved.Vanity can be good or bad for us, it can drive people forward or it can hurt people. Compared with others, Emile's advantage is very obvious.He often attributed my successes to his rationality, and believed that his happiness in life was all his own. He said to everyone he met: "I am the smartest person in the world, and everyone else is simply a fool." This kind of defiant attitude is really terrible. Be a cocky guy. If vanity can be eradicated once and for all, it is best done by harnessing the power of experience.The growth rate of vanity is very fast, and we must find ways to kill it in the cradle.Don't tell him the big truths, let alone try to comfort him that there are no perfect people in the world, and you don't need to pay too much attention to your own shortcomings. If you want him to correct his shortcomings, he must first realize that this shortcoming exists in him.To let him know that he is the same as everyone else and not superior, I will give him some surprises.Of course, this is contrary to my educational principles. If those who compliment him try to take advantage of him, I will not be offended; if someone encourages him to take risks, I will not stop him;As long as it's not those lustful women who tempt him, I won't intervene. Of course, my students would never make such a mistake. I tend to plan for the worst in everything, so that if the worst does happen, I will not panic. I can't help but expose the base vanity of those teachers.In order to show their knowledge, they always treat students as children, and let them do this and that, always maintaining a superior attitude. Teachers should encourage students more to improve their courage and confidence, and grow together with them.If the students are not as good as the teacher, the teacher should lower their attitude and give them more guidance; if the students surpass the teacher, the teacher should not be ashamed of it, but should be proud of it. Teachers should establish such a consciousness that the glory of students is their own glory, and the shame of students is also their own shame.Therefore, when a child makes a mistake, the teacher must not shirk responsibility, but bear it together with the child. If I was slapped in the face to protect Emile, I would never feel humiliated by it. I believe that anyone will respect my behavior. If a young man makes a mistake, we can enlighten him with a parable.Compared with telling him the truth, the educational significance of fables is much stronger, and it will not make him rebellious.He already has the ability to connect the fable with his own situation, and then deeply reflect on his behavior. If a child has not experienced being deceived, it is difficult for him to understand the moral of "The Fox and the Crow".On the other hand, if a child had been taken in by those smooth talkers, he would have known at once that the crow was a complete fool. learn from mistakes.That being said, there is a good chance he will continue to make the same mistakes even after learning the hard way.At this time, the fable can serve as a warning and help him keep the past experience in his heart. From his own experience or from other people's experience, he can easily learn those things that have to do with morality.Let him seek from history those experiences which require some adventure, but if it does him no great harm, let him experience them himself. We can compile those more classic cases into aphorisms, but we must not explain the meaning of the aphorisms to him.Fables usually end with a paragraph explaining the moral, which seems to me to be superfluous.The joy of reading fables is to experience the meaning of them by yourself, but the author deprives this opportunity of thinking. The highest state of education is to make the educated like what you teach.Before I take La Fontaine to young people, I delete that passage at the end of each story.This outstanding fabler has said all the truths clearly in his story, and the explanation at the end is really superfluous. If he can understand, he can understand without explanation; if he doesn't understand, no matter how much explanation is given, he still can't understand.Again, fables are for grown-ups, who have the capacity to learn from them.At this age, Emile can also begin to learn fables. In order to cultivate the so-called speculative ability, young people dedicate the best time of their lives, and then devote themselves to intense and busy careers. This practice violates human nature and the laws of nature. Those young people, whether they are capable or not, rarely know how to behave in the world.Teachers teach the arts, but never the art of action.Under the banner of cultivating talents for the society, they can use their educational methods to cultivate people who spend all day thinking or daydreaming, and once they go out of the study, they are simply useless. In your view, as long as he learns to say some polite and polite words, he has the ability to live.I want Emile to know how to make a living as well as how to live. But if you want to live independently in this world, it is far from enough.He also has to learn how to get along with people, how to use tools, how to correctly analyze the pros and cons of personal interests, and how to predict the development of things. I am a firm believer in the saying that only good deeds make good people.Therefore, you have to let your students do as many good deeds as possible within his ability, to help others or to support the justice of this society by paying money or labor.This positive attitude and kind heart made him dedicated to mediating disputes and paying attention to the pain of others. As long as he has a kind heart, puts it into action, and summarizes and reflects on his behavior afterwards, he can gain a lot of knowledge from this process.This kind of knowledge is connected with practice, so it is more meaningful than the knowledge learned in school. Love others with self-love, and self-love becomes a virtue.This virtue exists in everyone, it is just waiting for us to discover it.We give our love to others, and the less intimate they are to us, the less we think of our own interests.If we can treat the interests of others as we treat our own interests, society will become more and more just. To love humanity is to love justice.Therefore, only by letting Emile completely put aside his personal interests when doing things, can he become a person who loves the truth and has the courage to explore the truth.Only by caring more about others can he have the concept of right and wrong, good and evil, and become more and more intelligent and optimistic. We need to prevent him from making judgments about whether he likes or dislikes the people around him based on his personal prejudice. He has no right to sacrifice the interests of another in order to protect one person.It is what he should do to strive to seek happiness for everyone and bring benefits to everyone with an impartial attitude. A truly wise person should put the collective interest above the personal interest, because the collective interest involves the whole human being, while the individual interest only involves a certain individual. Compassion may evolve into cowardice, and to avoid such a situation, it is necessary to extend the object of compassion to all human beings.In this way, when our compassion appears, we will first think about whether it will violate justice if we sympathize with some people.Know that justice is a virtue which is most conducive to the welfare of mankind. Our reason and our self-love tell us that we have to sympathize with humanity as a whole, not with our neighbors.We must keep in mind this sentence: pity for bad people is cruelty for good people. After proposing these methods, I will talk about the effect that will be produced.A grand and magnificent vision gradually appeared in his mind: noble sentiments suppressed the growth of those small desires, and a great soul can never give birth to desires beyond a certain limit. He knows that when faced with someone who is inferior to him, a truly outstanding person will lower himself to the same height as the other person.What sound reason and clear judgment he has possessed!What is justice?What is beauty?What is morality and what is order?These concepts have been deeply imprinted in his mind. He knows that everything has its place, and that when it changes there must be a reason.He knows what works and what doesn't.Although he still doesn't know what affliction is, he has vaguely seen its phantom and felt its effect. If I say that I haven't told Emile about religion until now, I believe many people will be surprised.At the age of 15, Emile did not know the existence of the soul.When he is 18 years old, I still don't plan to let him know what religion is, because the earlier he knows, the less his understanding will be, and the easier it will be for him to misunderstand religion. How foolish it was for a Mr. Donghong to answer a child's doctrinal questions with seriousness!There is no better way to dull a child than to teach him doctrine. You may question me that the teachings of Christianity are too profound and mysterious. If you want him to understand, you have to wait until he grows up, and you have to wait until the person is dead before teaching him. True, the teachings of Christianity are occult, but it is also mind-boggling.I see no point in teaching him the doctrine other than to teach him to lie at an early age.Furthermore, the child cannot correctly grasp the mysterious meaning.There is nothing mysterious about a child who thinks everything is mysterious. Don't tell the truth to a man who doesn't know what truth is, for him truth is no different from error.I'd rather keep him out of God than let him insult or blaspheme God. Plutarch is a very loyal person, he once said: "I would rather people not know my name than to hear them say that I am a prejudiced, narrow-minded and indifferent person who always uses things that are not at all. People who make things difficult for others that they cannot do.” It is easy to misunderstand the image of God when he is a child, and this misconception is difficult to correct, and it is likely to stay with him throughout his life.When I was in Switzerland, I saw a mother who never taught religion to her son because she was afraid that he would be satisfied with this superficial knowledge and would not deepen his understanding of religion when he was an adult . When he heard others talk about God, this child always looked in awe, but when he wanted to express his views on God, everyone immediately blocked his mouth. They thought this topic was too much. Sublime, not suitable for a child of his age to talk about. The more things he is not allowed to know, the easier it is to arouse his curiosity, and driven by his self-esteem, he has a strong desire to understand these mysterious things.He felt that God was everywhere around him, but everyone just didn't tell him about God, let alone allow him to talk about God. I feared that this mystical attitude would overstimulate his imagination and overwhelm his reason.As a result, instead of becoming a devout believer of God, he became a crazy worshiper of God. However, such a thing would certainly not happen to Emile.He always avoids what he doesn't understand.If certain problems bother him, it is not because others force him to face them, but with the development of his rationality, he has developed his own interest in research. Speaking of this, I have encountered a huge difficulty. The reason why I say it is huge is not because the difficulty itself is too difficult, but because the people who will face this difficulty are too cowardly. Every child's growth will be influenced by his father's religion, because this is the only religion he can come into contact with, and there are a lot of evidence to prove that this religion is reasonable, so he will reject other religions Psychology, even thinks they are all stupid. Humans are especially susceptible to prejudice in matters of religion.Of course, I don't want Emile to be bound by prejudice, and I don't want him to be squeezed by authority, so which religion should I make him believe in?This question is extremely simple, I will not impose my opinion on him, but let him make his own choice under the guidance of reason. As long as we are independent of the prejudices of society or the authority of others, and are always in a state of nature, we can understand what natural religion is by our own reason.What I have to say to Emile also falls within the bounds of natural religion.If he was of another religion, I couldn't instruct him very well. The education of man and the education of nature should be coordinated with each other.Nature is responsible for cultivating his body, we are responsible for forming his soul, and the two processes are different.No matter how well we do it, the shaping of the soul cannot keep up with the growth of the body.When his body is already very strong, his soul may still be in a state of ignorance. In cultivating his instincts, I let his sensibility be under the control of reason.Only by getting rid of the domination of the senses, can he explore the essence of things, and then raise his level to a higher level, from studying nature itself to seeking who is the creator of nature. If we do this, we have found a new way to engage students.At this time, even without the supervision of others or the constraints of laws and regulations, he will do good deeds from the bottom of his heart.He is just, has all the virtues in him, and does his duty at all costs. The reason why he did this was not only out of love for society, but also out of love for God.Combining this kind of love with self-love, he gained peace of conscience and began to know how to reflect on the supreme being. As long as he makes good use of this life, he can enjoy eternal bliss both in this world and in the next life.