How do Blake and Rousseau's ideas align and differ (themes to consider are slavery, religion and education)?

How do Blake and Rousseau's ideas align and differ (themes to consider are slavery, religion and education)? 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau a Genevan philosopher, writer and composer and William Blake an English poet, painter and printmaker lived during the period known as the Age of Enlightenment that advocated freedom, democracy and reason as the primary values of society.  

Opposed to exploitation from the rich and powerful monarchy and Church that served its own interests, Rousseau and Blake used their tools of words and images transforming them into a language of liberation, compassion and prophetic revolution. 

Both Rousseau and Blake believed people are innately good. Blake’s “Infant Joy” from his “Songs of Innocence” supports this natural state of goodness which opposed the Christian doctrine at that time of original sin.  

 “I have no name I am but two days old.— What shall I call thee? I happy am, Sweet joy befall thee! ” 

Rousseau didn’t follow the Christian doctrine that the soul of man was born burdened by sin either. He was an atheist and believed that the soul of a baby is a blank slate and it is society that inscribes upon that baby the potential to turn out good or bad. Humans could be perfected by their own efforts and don’t need Gods help (Mountford, 2020). Rousseau argued that individuals should play a more active role in how they organize themselves collectively by keeping Individual and General Free Will together, a Common Will, which he believed civilized political society was about. Consequently, a new civil order based on natural law, a republican model of government elected by representatives of the people to allow mankind to achieve progress and perfection. 

Rousseau in his published “The Social Contract” of 1762, opens with the line 

 "1.1.1 Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they." 

This resonated with Blake and is a common theme throughout his “The Songs of Innocence and of Experience” the idea that we are born free and are corrupted by civilization. He saw poverty and suffering all around him in London and wrote this in his poems like “The Chimney Sweeper”, “The Little Boy Lost”, “Earth’s answer”, “Holy Thursday” etc.  

Rousseau set out his views on Education in his “Emile” (1762). The aim of education, he argued, is to learn how to live righteously, and this should be accomplished by following a guardian (preferably in the countryside, away from the bad habits of the city) who can guide his pupil through various contrived learning experiences. Blake was home schooled by his mother and self-taught in many subjects. He placed a special emphasis also on learning by experience and natural education through his poem “The School Boy”, a criticism of formal education. 

In his “The Social Contract”, 1762, Rousseau denounced slavery stating: 

(¶1.4.14) So, from whatever aspect we regard the question, the right of slavery is null and void, not only as being illegitimate, but also because it is absurd and meaningless. The words slave and right contradict each other, and are mutually exclusive. 

Blake’s “The Little Black Boy” from “The Songs of Innocence” 1789, deals with the issues of racism and slavery however Blake’s stance is ambiguous.  

My mother bore me in the southern wild, 

And I am black, but O! my soul is white; 

White as an angel is the English child: 

But I am black as if bereav’d of light. 

The black child, like the Chimney Sweeper, teaches that life is something to escape from, which means in many ways it portrays a tragic vision.  

Rousseau and Blake shared a revulsion against and established religion. Blake expressed his struggle of the soul to free itself from reason and organized religion. He was an English Dissenter who believed man could communicate directly with God without the intercession of a priest or the church and rebelled against the authorized version of Christianity promoted by the Catholic and Anglican Church which he regarded as satanic in nature. (Mountford, 2020) Rousseau was an atheist, that said he could see the Church could have a positive dimension, a civil religion. The church socialized in a certain way that bought people together through festivals and other gatherings to help shape the psychology and process of people becoming better citizens through socialization, participation and education. 

REFERENCES

Mountfort, P. (2020). Literature/Desire. Learning Tasks [ Week 7: ONLINE LECTURE (three parts)]. ENGL600¬_2020_01 (Literature/Desire(s1,2020). Retrieved from http://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

Mountfort, P. (2020). Literature/Desire.Critical Reader. ENGL600¬_2020_01 (Literature/Desire(s1,2020). Retrieved from http://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

The Basics of Philosophy, (2020). Retrieved from https://www.philosophybasics.com/historical_enlightenment.html 

The Basics of Philosophy, (2020). Retrieved from https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_rousseau.html