루소 도덕 교육론에서의 자연의 개념

The Concept of Nature in Rousseau s Moral Education

루소 「에밀」의 핵심 원리는 ‘자연을 따르는 교육’이다. 도덕교육의 측면에서 이 원리는 교육의 전기와 후기에서 각각 다르게 해석된다. 전기에는 자연의 ‘필연법칙’을 겪듯이 도덕관념을 획득하는 것이고 후기에는 ‘양심’을 따르는 것이다. 이것은 도덕관념의 획득과 표현의 관계이다. 루소는 이 두 관계를 시간상의 선후관계로 분리하고 있다. 그러나 양자는 강조점의 차이를 나타내는 것일 뿐 사실적으로 분리된 관계가 아니고 논리적, 개념적으로만 구분된다. 양심은 비단 청년기에만 획득되고 표현되는 것이 아니다. 도덕의 관념(도덕의 필연법칙)이 아동의 밖에서 안으로 들어오는 과정과 아동이 자신의 본성(양심)을 표현하는 것은 상호 순환적 관계에 있다.

The core idea of Rousseau s Emil is education according to nature . This phrase is often interpreted as the idea of letting children follow what they want to do, and this is considered as the more important than teaching moral rules or principles. Rousseau s description of the early and the later education in Emil is sometimes misinterpreted. He seems to say that education about physical things comes under the early part and moral education under the later part of education. But, actually he thinks moral education is needed even in the early education. : Children have to learn the moral norms of their society through the law of nature. There is another problem about the relation between the early and the later education in Rousseau, i.e., the relation between children following the law of nature (acquiring moral norms) and their following the conscience (expressing moral norms). In spite of Rousseau s suggestion that these two stages are divided temporally acquisition and expression of the norms are not two separate activities following temporal order but two sides of the same activity which are logically connected. They occur in both halves and influence each other logically. There is a circularity in the process of acquiring moral norms and expressing conscience. Conscience does not start in the adolescent ages, but is formed from the interaction between expressing conscience and acquiring the laws of nature.