16: Weird Lit Tales: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a terrible father.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a prominent 18th-century writer, educator, and philosopher, but a negligent father. He lived with Thérèse Levasseur without marrying her and had five children, all of whom he sent to public orphanages immediately after their birth. None of his children survived beyond the first few months of life. Having children was an inconvenience for him because they would prevent him from continuing his work as a philosopher and writer. As he put it, he did not want to lower himself to take on a job he considered degrading. In his book, The Social Contract, Rousseau emphasized the need to create a paternalistic state dedicated to education from early childhood. And that's hardly surprising, coming from a philosopher whose motto was that happiness is doing nothing you don't want to do.