Of course, Rousseau is not responsible for the evil of others, but his ideas did provide justification for some of the worst villains in human history. That is why it’s so important to study ideas, including bad ones.

A meme on social media quotes my colleague Glenn Sunshine as saying, “If I had a gun with two bullets, and I was in a room with Hitler, bin Laden, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, I’d shoot Rousseau twice!” Glenn insists he never said that, but then quietly admits he wishes he had.

Jean Jacques Rousseau was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the last 500 years. A defining figure of the Enlightenment, his ideas have especially infected the arenas of philosophy, education, and politics. And not in a good way. Another colleague insists that the world deserves a real-life version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” about Rousseau. Only, if we knew how much better history would have been without Rousseau, we’d never want to go back.

Rousseau’s idea of the natural innocence of children, especially from his book Émile, has shaped modern notions of being “child-centric.” In this view, parents and teachers shouldn’t restrain children or push them toward any particular views. Rather, they should be encouraged to discover truth through their own experiences. Rousseau, by the way, left all five of his own kids at an orphanage.

He was also behind another idea that has come to be known as the “noble savage.” In this view, evil doesn’t originate in the human heart but from society. Thus, the further people get from civilization, the better they will be. In his book Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau imagined prehistoric and tribal peoples living in utopia with no marriage, no government, no property, and no morality.

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