Rousseau: Self, Freedom and Education · Episode 3 of 3
Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson explore education, independence and the tutor’s power in Rousseau’s Emile. This episode page provides the scheduled recording links, episode context and reading references; follow the companion link for the scholarly argument and the Club link to discuss the questions it raises.
The question for this episode
Follow the pupil and the tutor as separate perspectives. Émile’s freedom to learn exists inside an environment managed by an adult. Read that arrangement alongside Sophie’s education to ask how far the promise of independence extends, and whether guidance can prepare a learner to question the guide.
Read alongside us
Émile, Book II, learning through experience; Book V, Sophie’s education. Read short passages from each rather than the whole book.
Follow the conversation
The Rousseau series follows a Monday, Wednesday and Friday release pattern: 12, 14 and 16 October 2026 at 10pm UK time. Use the Listen and Watch buttons above for episode three, “Can Education Save Us from Society?”, with Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson.
A question to discuss
When does guiding a learner’s environment support independence, and when does it become manipulation?
Image: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile, ou De l’éducation, title page, 1762. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source and image details.
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