Comparison Between Rousseau and Plato

I think Rousseaus most hard-hitting criticism of Platos is on the importance of family. Both philosophers come oppose views on this issue however I tend to agree with Rousseaus view on family mostly because it is much reasonable than Platos. Rousseau also seemed more concerned that people enjoy life w hereas Plato seemed too tied cut back with the idea of making the world reasonable, that he forgot about individual happiness. consort to Plato there should be no such thing as family. quite we should all be manpower born(p) of the earth.Every unrivalled according to Plato should think themselves to be everyone elses brother or sister. He thinks that children should be removed from the aim upon birth so no attachment is do between start and child. In speaking of peoples education and rearing Plato writes If by being intimately educated they beat sensible men, theyll easily see to all this and everything else we ar now leaving out-that the possession of women, marriage, a nd procreation of children must as furthest as possible be arranged according to the proverb that friends have all things in common. (423e)Again he reiterates the idea of having all things in common when he writes All these women be to belong to all these men in common, and no woman is to live privately with any man. And the children, in their turn, will be common, and neither will a parent hit the sack his own offspring, nor a child his parent. (457d) Rousseau firmly disagrees with Platos view on family. He thinks that having significant family values is the key to becoming a smashing citizen. Since Rousseau is all about taking the infixed flack to education, his view on family values make sense. Family is quite ostensibly in accordance with the laws of nature.A get down gives birth to her child and according to Rousseau it is only natural for the amaze to nurse the child herself. That is the initiatory natural bond that takes place inside the family thus it is necessar y in forming a close family unit. This is seen on rapscallion forty-six when he writes But let mothers deign to nurse their children, moral philosophy will reform themselves, natures sentiments will be wake up in every heart, the state will be repeopled. If you stop here this goes completely against Platos belief that only certain women are made to be nurses and therefore only those women should nurse children.But Rousseau goes on to hypothesize Thus, from the correction of this single abuse would soon result a ecumenical reform nature would soon have reclaimed all its rights. let women once again become mothers, men will soon become fathers and husbands again. Maybe Rousseau exaggerates this idea that by mothers nursing their children family values will be set in place. But to an extent I think this is true, because it is the first way a mother can handle for her child, and by having somebody else do it for her she is giving up this sacred bond a mother should have with her child.Rousseau says We are born weak, we claim strength we are born totally unprovided, we need aid we are born stupid we need judgment. Everything we do not have at birth and which we need when we are grown is given us by education. (pg. 38) This education no division how you look at it starts in the home, and with the family. If a child is to grow psyche needs to be there to guide them. And without a proper family a child will never be educated properly. Rousseaus system on family is much more realistic than Platos.Without having family values or however knowing who your real family is how is one supposed to learn to love and care for one another? If we lived as Plato would like we would not know what it direction to have a close family because everyone would literally be considered your family. There is no way that you would develop the same feeling of love as you would by living in a family as most know it today. Or family in the sense that Rousseau writes about. Plato wa s more concerned with the city being just then the individual, so in that context his wanting to eradicate the natural family makes since.But his education follows that everyone be a professional at one trade. In my opinion that is no way to live life. To spend your wholly life perfecting one thing, and never experiencing what it is to love. Rousseau took a much different approach believing that education was accomplished through centering on apiece person individually. The way a child is raised quite obviously affects who they are when they grow up. If they grow up in a family with strong values children learn if nothing else how to love and respect others. By teaching these values ideally they will one day pass the lessons on to a family of their own.