ABSTRACT
The Enlightenment philosophers argued that science and the arts provided the development and improvement of the customs. The contrary position taken by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) produced a great impact so that he received the Dijon Academy Award and was made - after the publication of other works - a defender of nature and of the natural man. Considering the depravity of manners, the author promotes the culture itself as a remedy, as no one can return to the state of nature. All his writings together can, thus, be seen as a bold attempt to use up the arts ("Emile" is a fine example of literary art of the eighteenth century) as a remedy against the evil of civilization, mainly the withdrawal of man from nature
Keywords:
Rousseau; Education; Culture; Enlightenment