PHILOSOPHICAL

FOUNDATIONS
OF EDUCATION
FO U R TH EDITION

Howard A. Ozmon
Samuel M. Craver
Virginia C o m m o n w e a l t h University

Merrill, an imprint of
Macmillan Publishing Company
New York
Collier Macmillan Canada, Inc.
Toronto
Maxwell Macmillan International Publishing Company
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~1

Idealism and Education

I d e a lis m is p e r h a p s th e o ld e s t s y s tem a tic p h i l o s o p h y in Western culture,

dating b a c k at lea st as e a r ly as Plato in a n c ie n t G re ece. Of cou rse, th ere was
p h il o s o p h y a n d th e re w ere p h i l o s o p h e r s b e f o r e Plato, but it was P la to w h o
d e v e l o p e d one o f t h e m o s t influential p h i l o s o p h i e s dealing with education.
G enerally, id e a lis t s b e l ie v e that i d e a s a re th e o n ly true reality. It is not
that all idealists reject m a tter (the m a t e r ia l w orld), but rather th e y h o l d that
the m aterial w orld is c h a r a c t e r iz e d by c h a n g e , instability, a n d uncertainty,
while some ideas are enduring. Thus, idea-ism might be a more correct de
scriptive term f o r this p h i l o s o p h y than id e a lis m . H ow ever, w e must guard
against o v e r s im p lific a tio n a n d a ttem p t to get at a f u lle r a n d more w id eranging understanding o f this c o m p l e x p h ilo s o p h y .
In ord er to a c h i e v e a m o r e adequate understanding o f i d e a l is m , it is
n e c e s s a r y to examine th e works o f s e le c t e d o u tsta n d in g p h i l o s o p h e r s w h o
a re usually a s s o c ia t e d with this p h i l o s o p h y . No tw o p h il o s o p h e r s e v e r agree
on every point, so to understand id e a lis m o r a n y o th e r school o f thought
properly , it is w ise to examine th e v a rio u s approaches o f in d iv id u a l philoso
phers. This will b e a c c o m p l i s h e d b y an e x p lo r a t io n o f th ree a r e a s : Piatonic
idealism, reiigious idealism, and modern idealism and its characteristics.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDEALISM

One of the leading thinkers of ancient Greece was Socrates ( 4 6 9 - 3 9 9 B .C .) , who
challenged the material concerns of his contemporaries. Socrates went about
Athens questioning its citizens, and particularly the Sophists, for their unex
amined way of life. Socrates saw himself as a kind of gadfly who prodded
people into thinking. He was later brought to trial in Athens, and in 399 B .C .,
was executed for his beliefs. Although Socrates ideas were only transmitted
orally through a dialectical question and answer approach, Plato wrote them
down and illustrated both the Socratic method and Socrates thinking. It has
often been debated whether Plato added to these dialogues, since he wrote
about them many years after they occurred. The general view is that Plato
added a great deal and put the dialogues in a literary form that has had endur
ing value. Since the ideas of both Socrates and Plato are considered almost
indistinguishable today, scholars generally refer to these writings as Platonic
philosophy.

Platonic Idealism
Plato ( 4 2 7 - 3 4 7

B .C .)

Plato was a Greek philosopher who started as a disciple of Socrates and re

mained an ardent admirer throughout his life. Plato is largely known for his
writings in which Socrates is the leading protagonist in a series of dialogues
dealing with almost every conceivable topic. Two of his most famous works are
the R e p u b lic and the Laws. After Socrates death in 399 B .C ., Plato opened up
his own school, the Academy, where students and professors engaged in a
dialectic approach to problems.
According to Plato, men should concern themselves primarily with the
search for truth. Since truth is perfect and eternal, it cannot therefore be found
in the world of matter that is both imperfect and constantly changing. Mathe
matics demonstrated that eternal truths were possible. Concepts such as
2 + 2 = 4 or the definition that a perfect circle is one where all points on the
circumference are equidistant from the center are ideas that always have been
true (even before man discovered them), are true, and always will be true.
Mathematics shows that universal truths with which all men can agree can be
found, but mathematics comprises only one field of knowledge. Plato believed
that we must search for other universal truths in areas such as politics, religion,
and education; hence, the search for absolute truth should be the quest of the
true philosopher.
In the Republic, Plato wrote about the separation of the world of ideas
from the world of matter. The world of ideas (or forms) has the Good as its
highest point the source of all true knowledge. The world of matter, the
ever-changing world of sensory data, is not to be trusted. People need, as much

as possible, to free them selves from a co n c ern with matter so that they can
ad van ce toward the Good. T h is can be done by transcending matter through the
use of the dialectic (or critical d iscu ssio n ) in w h ich one moves from mere
o p in io n to true knowledge.
W e might describe the d ia lec tic as follows: All th in kin g begins with a
thesis or point of view su ch as W ar is e v il. W e might support this view by
po in ting out that war causes peop le to be killed, disrupts fam ilies, destroys
cities, and has adverse moral effects. As long as we e n c o u n ter o nly people of
sim ilar persuasion, we are not likely to alter our point of view . However, w hen
we en co u n ter the antithesis (or o p p o site point of view) that W ar is good, we
are forced both to reexamine and to defend our position. A rgum ents advanced
to support the notion that war is good may includ e the belief that war promotes
bravery, helps keep down p opu lation , and produces many te ch n ica l benefits
for us through war research. S im p ly put, the dialectic looks at both sides of an
issue. A ssu m ing that our antagonists are philosophers serio u sly interested in
getting to the truth of the problem of w h ether war is good or evil, they will
engage in a dialogue in w h ic h both ad v a n ce m en t and retren ch m en t may occur.
Plato believed that, given am ple tim e to argue their position s, the two d isc u s
sants would come closer to agreem ent, or synthesis, and th erefore closer to
truth (w h ich may be that there are bo th good and bad aspects of war). T his kind
of d ialectical discussion could not be a cco m p lish ed by tho se w ho simply ar
gued to w in or who w ould not m a in ta in a critical perspective. It is for this
reason that Plato thought preparation in the dialectic should in volve a lengthy
period of education beginning w ith studies in mathem atics. He was p articu
larly critical of inexperienced p e o p le who used the d ialectic, for he believed
that they were not mature enough for training in the d ialectic until age thirty.
Plato saw the dialectic as a v e h ic le for assisting people in moving from a
c o n c e rn w ith the material w'orld to a co n c ern with the world of ideas. S u p p o s
edly, the dialectic crosses the d ivid ed lin e between matter and idea. T h e
process begins in the world of m atter with the use of the brain, the tongue,
gestures, and so forth, but it ends in the world of ideas w ith the discovery of
truth. In the Allegory of the C a v e , Plato depicted prisoners chained in a
w orld of darkness, seeing only sh ad o w s on a far cave w all that they took for
reality. Imagine one of these prisoners freed from his ch a in s, advancing up a
steep slop e and into the sunlight, and eventually able to see the sun, realizing
it as the true source of heat and light. He would be happy in h is true knowledge
and w ould w ish to contem plate it even more. Yet, w hen he rem em bers his
friends in the cave and returns to tell them of the real world outside, they will
not listen to someone who ca n n o t now' com p ete with them in their know ledge
of shadow's. If the fortunate one in sists upon freeing the prisoners, they may
even kill him. The m eaning of the allegory is this: we ourselves are living in a
cave of shadows and illusions, ch a in e d by our ignorance and apathy. W hen we
begin to loosen ourselves from our c h a in s it is the beginning of our education,
and the steep ascent represents th e d ialectic that will carry us from the world

CHATTER 1

of matter to the world of id e a s even to a contem plation of the Good repre

sented by the sun. Note P la to s ad m o n itio n that the man, now the philosopher,
w ho has advanced into the realm of true know ledge must return to the cave to
bring en lig h tenm ent to his fellow m en. T his points to P la to s strong belief that
p h ilo so p h izin g should be not o nly an intellectual affair, but that the ph iloso
pher also has a duty.to share his learning with other men, doing this even in the
face of adversity or death.
Plato did not th in k that peop le create knowledge; rather, people discover
it. In another interesting myth, he conjectured that the h u m an soul once had
true k now led ge but lost it by being placed in a material body that distorted and
corrupted that knowledge. Th u s, people have the arduous task of trying to
rem em b er w hat they o n ce knew. T h is Doctrine of R e m in is c e n c e " is illustrated
by Socrates, w ho spoke of h im s e lf as a midw ife w ho found m en pregnant with
k now ledge, but know ledge that had not been born or realized. Through his
d iscu ssio n s with people, So crates sought to aid them in giving birth to ideas
that in so m e cases they never knew they had. Plato described S o cr a te s meeting
w ith a slave boy in the M eno, w h ere through skillful questioning, the p h ilo s
opher sh o w s the boy that he know s the Pythagorean theorem even though he
does not know that he k no w s it.
In the R epublic, P lato proposed the kind of education that would help
bring about a world in w h ic h individuals and society are moved as far as they
are cap able of moving toward the Good. He understood fully that most people
do b elie v e in matter as an o bjective reality, that there are individual differ
ences, and that inju stice and in hu m anity are ways of life. He w ished to create
a world in w h ic h outstanding peop le such as Socrates could serve as models
and w ould be rewarded instead of punished. In essence, Plato suggested that
the state m ust take a very active role in educational matters, and that it must
offer a cu rricu lu m leading bright students from a concern with concrete data
toward abstract thinking. It is interesting to note that Plato thought both girls
and boys sho u ld be given an equal opportunity to develop them selves to the
fullest in this respect, but tho se w ho showed little ability for abstractions
should go into pursuits that w ould assist in the practical realities of running a
so ciety (such as industry, b u sin ess, military affairs, and so forth). Those who
dem onstrated proficiency in the dialectic w ould continue their education and
b ec o m e p h ilo so p h ers in po sitio n s of power to lead the state toward the highest
good. Plato believed that u ntil ph ilosophers w ere the rulers, states would never
pursue the highest ideals of truth and justice.
P la to s idea was that the philosopher-king must be not only a thinker but
a doer. He m ust supervise th e affairs of the state, and like the philosopher who
m ade his way out of the ca ve and yet returned to teach others, he must see that
his w isd o m pervades every aspect of state life. Needless to say, such a ruler
w ould have no interest in m aterialism nor even in ruling itself, but he would
rule out of a sen se of duty and obligation because he is the most fit to rule. Such
a ruler co u ld be either a m ale or a female, and Plato seriously cham pioned the

ID K A IJSM A M ) K D U CATKJN

notion that w o m en should occupy equal positions in the state, in clu d in g all
levels of military life. Plato's philosopher-king would not only be a person of
w isdom but also a good person, since evil stem s more from ig norance tha n from
anything else.
Even though P la to s theories about society have never been fully im p le
m ented, he did attem pt to establish su ch a society under the patronage of
D ionysius II of Sy racu se that failed w h en the tyrant finally realized w hat Plato
was doing. T h e value of P lato s ideas is that they have stimulated a great d eal,
of th inking about the m eaning and purpose of man, society, and ed u catio n and
1 have even entered into m odern thinking and practice in many subtle ways.
W ho w ould not, for exam ple, want the best person to lead our state, assum ing
we k new what b e s t really means. Today, w e provide an educational system
with great state in vo lvem en t that has m u ch to say about what o cc u p a tio n a
person w ill eventu ally pursue as a result of the education he receives; and we
recognize the trem endou s influence of social class in education, as in P la to s
utopian society, w h ere he separated peop le into the three classes of workers,
military person nel, and rulers.
Plato influenced alm ost all philosoph ers who cam e after him , w hether
they supported or rejected his basic ideas. Indeed, there is a great deal of merit
in the observation by Alfred North W h iteh ea d that modern philosophy is but a
series of footnotes to Plato.

Religious Idealism
Idealism has exerted a great amount of influence on Christianity. For one thing,
Judaism , a precursor of Christianity, co n tained many beliefs com p atible w ith
idealism. T h e idea of on e God as pure Spirit and the Universal Good ca n be
readily recognized as com p atible with idealism . For another, Greek culture was
spread across the M ed iterranean world by A lexander the Great. W herever there
was a solid Greek influence, there were also Greek schools; consequently, m any
of the writers of the New Testam ent had been at least partially influenced by
Greek culture and p hilo so p h y. Paul, w ho wrote a co nsid erable portion of the
New T estam ent, w as born Sau l of Tarsus, and Tarsus was a city heavily influ
enced by Greek (or H ellenistic) culture and thought. One can find a heavy tinge
of id ealism in P a u ls w ritings, stemming from both the Jew ish and Greek tra
ditions.

Augustine (3 5 4 - 4 3 0 )
T h e founders of the R om an Catholic c h u rc h were also heavily influenced by
idealism . A u gu stine was bo rn into, and reared under, the in fluence of H elle
n istic culture. In th e Confessions, he described his early life of paganism and
the debauchery of his y ou th until his co nversion to Christianity. Although
A ugustine thought h is co n versio n was a m ovem ent away from Greek paganism,

CNACTO 1

one can find allu sio n s to Greek philosophy and literature, specifically to Plato,
interspersed throughout his Christian writings.
Augustine w as very m uch co n cerned w ith the con cept of evil and b e
lieved that since m an in herited the sin of A dam , he was co ntinu ou sly engaged
in a struggle to regain tho kind of purity he h ad before the fall. T h is id ea is akin
to P la to s m yth about tht? star where souls that lived near the Good w ere exiled
to the world of m atter to suffer pain and death and struggle to return to the
spiritual ex iste n ce they once had.
He readily acc e p to d Platos notion of the divided lin e b etw ee n ideas
and matter, but he referred to the two w orlds as the World of God and the
World of Man, T h e W o rld of God is the w orld of Spirit and the Good. T h e
World of Man is the m aterial world of darkness, sin, ignorance, and suffering.
Needless to say, A u gu stin e believed one sh ould , as m u ch as possible, release
o n eself from the W orld of Man and enter into the World of God. A lthough no
one was able to do th is in any final sen se u ntil after death, a person could
transcend this world by concentration on God, through meditation and faith.
Augustine, like Plato, fe lt that people do not create knowledge: God h as already
created it, but peop le c a n discover it through trying to find God. S i n c e h um ans
have souls, they are th e closest things p eop le have to divinity, and A ugustine
believed that we s h o u ld look w ithin our souls for the true k now led ge that
exists there. He thus prom oted an intuitive approach to education and agreed
with Plato that c o n c e n tr a tio n on physical phenom ena could lead us astray
from th e path of true know ledge. Like Plato, Augustine was a strong supporter
of the d ialectical m e th o d of learning, and there are a num ber of w ritten d ia
logues betw een A u g u stin e and his illegitim ate son Adeodatus w h ere b y the
d ia lectic is used to fa cilita te discovering true ideas about God and man. A u
g u stin e s ideas about t h e nature of the true Christian found more a cc ep ta n ce
am ong those w ho leane-d toward a m o n astic co n cep tio n of Christianity. S u ch
m o n a stics believed that the Christian sh ould cut him self off from w o rld ly c o n
cerns and meditate. T h e r e is a m onastic order of Augustinians still in ex iste n ce
today.
It is not s u rp risin g that idealism and religion have been clo sely inter
tw ined . Christianity, in particular, prom otes the idea of God as tran scend ent
and pure Spirit or Idea. Furthermore, there is the Christian co n c ep t that God
created the world out o f Himself or out of S p irit or Idea. T h is is very sim ila r to
the P la to n ic co n c e p t th ^ t true reality is, after all, basically idea.
A u g u stin es p o s i t io n was influenced by Plotinus, a p hilo so ph er of the
third century, w ho b e lie v e d that the prim ary purpose of teaching w as to lead
people back to an a w a re n e ss of a u nio n w ith the source from w h ic h all things
c o m e the O ne or the Good. To ach ieve s u c h a union requires perfect moral
purity and in tellectu al effort. Plotinus b elie v ed that the Good (or God) is so
great that it can not c o n t a i n itself and overflows into various levels, th e highest
level being pure spirit .and the lowest level w h at we call matter. S u c h a view
in d icates very clearly h o w the ideas of P lato might be applied to Christian

IDEAL ISM AND E D U C A T IO N

thought, and P lotinus had a co nsid erable in fluence on Christian and Islamic
philosophers.
It is not surprising that religious id ealism exerted trem endous influence
on education and schooling. Early C hristians were qu ick to realize that Chris
tianity would fare better if its adherents were given so m e kind of systematic
teaching. W hen th ey established scho o ls, they established them in patterns
with w h ic h they were familiar. Th u s, m any Jew ish and Greek ideas about the
nature of hum anity, society, and God w ent into the C hristian schools along
with the d istinctly C hristian ideas. For centuries, the C hristian church was the
creator and protector of schooling, and the generations educated in those
schools were ind octrinated with the idealist point of view.
T h e mutuality of idealism and Judeo-Christian religion was brought to
gether in a unity of European culture by the M id d le Ages and afterward. This
may help explain several characteristics of modern thought. To Plato, ultimate
reality is idea, and our bridge to it is the mind. To the Judeo-Christian, ultimate
reality is God and our bridge to it is the soul. It is a logical step to co nn ect Idea
and God on the one hand, and m ind and soul ou the other. Th u s, m a n s contact
with ultimate reality is by means of m ind and soul (or their congeners, self,
co nscio usness, and subjectivity).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN IDEALISM

By the beginning of the modern period (here arbitrarily set with the rise of the
"sc ie n tific revolu tio n in the fifteenth and sixteenth centu ries), idealism had
com e to be largely identified with system atization and su bjectivism ; and this
was encouraged by the writings of R en Descartes. George Berkeley, Immanuel
Kant, Georg W. F. Hegel, and Josiah Royce.
R en D e s c a r te s ( 1 5 9 6 1 6 5 0 )

Born in the small town of La Haze, France, Descartes was educated by the
Jesuits, for whom he retained adm iration but with w hom he developed dissat
isfaction because of th eir doctrinaire teachings. Although his philosophical
thinking challenged Catholic d o ctrine on many points, it seems that he re
mained sincere in his Catholicism .
It is difficult and m isleading strictly to classify an original thinker such as
Descartes by a p h ilo so p h ical school. Certainly, much of his ph ilosophy may be
characterized as idealism , but he also contributed a great deal to philosophical
realism and other thought systems. For present purposes, the significant works
of Descartes to be considered are his celebrated Discourse on Method and
M editations on the First Philosophy.
It was principally in the D iscou rse that Descartes explored his method
ical d o u b t, w hereby he sought to doubt all things, in clu d in g his own exist
ence. He was searching for ideas that are indubitable, and he thought that if he

co u ld d isc o v er ideas that are clea r and d istin ct, then he would hav solid
fou n d ation upon w h ic h to build other true ideas. He found he co u ld throw all
things into doubt ex cep t o n e that he him self was doubting or thin king. A l
thou gh h e co u ld doubt that h e was doubting, and although this factor was a
m irro rlik e infinite regression, D escartes could still not doubt that he was th in k
ing. In this m ann er, he arrived at the famous Cartesian first p rin cip le : Cogito,
ergo sum , I think, therefore I a m .
T h e Cartesian cogito has served to stimulate quite a bit of p h ilo so p h ic a l
thought s in c e D esc a rte ss time. T ra c e s of it may be found in m an y m odern
ph ilo so p h ie s. However, the cogito is solidly in the tradition of id e alism , for it
reaffirms th e centrality of m ind in the relation of the hum an being and the
w orld.
D escartes realized that even though the cogito was indubitable, he could
not easily m o ve from that stage to other indubitables. Objects outsid e the cogito
are grasped by the senses, and the senses are notoriously su bject to error.
F u rth erm o re, any particular idea or thought depends upon other ideas. One
ca n n o t th in k of a triangle, say, w ith o u t considering angles, degrees, lin es, and
so forth. Th u s, Descartes en co u n tered the necessity of one idea referring to
another. He w anted to arrive at th e idea at w h ich further reference stopped. He
found it im p o ssib le to arrive at any id e a even the indubitable cogito that
did not refer to som ething other than itself, except the idea of P erfect Being.
D escartes thought he had, by arriving at Perfect Being, encountered God, the
in finite and tim eless Creator, the source of all things.
T h u s, Descartes arrived at the two principles upon w h ic h he b ase d his
system : the cogito and the Deity. He had the indubitability of h u m an thought in
the cogito, and the foundation for all the objects of thought in the Deity. From
th ese p rin cip le s, he proceeded to build a philosophy that has, in on e w ay or
another, in flu en ced practically all philosoph y since. T h at som e of th ese prin
cip le s are w ith in th e tradition of id ealism can be readily seen: th ere is finite
m ind c o n tem p latin g objects of thought founded in God, or w e may say in
P la to n ic term s, h u m a n mind co n tem platin g the ultimate reality of Ideas. For
D escartes, it was the m anner in w h ic h he arrived at his prin ciples, the m ethod
of his an aly sis, that brought n ew life into philosophy. T h e Cartesian m ethod
was ex ten d ed into num erous fields of inquiry, including the natural scien ces.

George Berkeley (1 6 8 5 -1 7 5 3 )
B e rk e le y w as born in Ireland, edu cated there, and spent m o st of h is profes
sion al life as a m iniste r in the E p is co p a l Church of Ireland. W h ile still a young
m an, h e d evelo ped m ost of his inn o vative ideas, writing a n u m b er of treatises
on p h ilo so p h y , in clu d in g The P rin c ip le s o f Human Knowledge. B a sic a lly , B er
k e le y s p o sitio n was that all e x is te n c e is dependent on some m ind to k n o w it,
and if th ere are no m inds, then for all intents and purposes nothing w o u ld exist
u nless it is perceived by the m ind of God. Berkeley was attacking the v iew of
p h ilo s o p h ic a l realism that th ere is a material world existing in d e p e n d e n t of

Itll AIISM AM) MM'CATIOS

o
Miind. A cco rd in g to Sir Isaac Newton, the universe is com posed of materia!
bodies moving in space and controlled by mathem atical laws such as the law
of gravity.
Berkeley held that no one had ex p erien ced su ch matter firsthand, and
further, su ch a theory is really a co n c ep tio n of mind. Berkeley thought people
made a co m m o n error in assum ing that objects such as trees, houses, and dogs
exist where there is no mind to perceive them. Instead, to say that a thing exists
means that it is perceived by some mind, o. esse est percipi (to be is to be
perceived). To the cla ssic question, Does a tree falling in the middle of a forest
make som e sound if there is no one around to hear it?", Berkeley w ould answ er
no, if we rule out the idea of it being perceived by God. There is no existen ce
without p ercep tio n , but things may exist in the sense that they are perceived
by God.
B erk eley s p h ilo so p h ical view s were strongly conditioned by his religious
views. He held that im material substance (ideas or spirit) has been profaned by
science, and s c ie n c e has brought on the m onstrous systems of a th e ists. What
exists or has being is not matter: it is Spirit. Idea, or God. B erk eley s efforts may
be viewed as a kind of last-d itch stand against the en cro achm en ts of scien ce
and scientific realism that hold s to the m aterialistic thesis.
Berkeley refuted matter by showing that matter cannot exist except as a
form of mind. W e can know things only as we co n scio u sly co n ceive them, and
when we th in k of the universe existing before finite minds can co n c eiv e it, we
are led to assu m e the ex isten ce of an O m nipresen t M ind lasting through all
time and eternity. Th u s, we might say that although people nay not be c o n
scious of the trees falling throughout eternity, God is. Berkeley was a ch am p io n
of ideal realities and values w h o se main purpose is to make evident the e x ist
ence of God and to prove that God is the true cause of all things.
It was the Scottish -b orn p h ilo so pher David Hume, however, w ho proved
to be the greatest antagonist to the ideas of Berkeley. Hume was born at E d in
burgh. studied law, and later served in France as a m ember of the English
embassy. His w ritings were not w idely received at their in ceptio n and a cc o rd
ing to his ow n acc o u n ts fell deadborn from the press. His m ajor work, T re a
tise upon H u m an Nature, w ritten w hen he wras only twenty-six, was one of the
strongest attacks on idealism ever written. W h ile Hume began w ith an a c c e p
tance of the B e rk e le ia n p rin ciple that esse = percipi, h e drew the co n c lu sio n
that since all w e can know are our own im pressions and ideas, we have no real
basis for asserting the reality of either material or spiritual substances; and we
cannot d iscover anything that justifies necessary co n n ectio n or causation. To
connect one o cc u rr e n c e with another, Hume pointed out, is merely the habit of
expecting one event to follow another based upon an indefinite series of su ch
happenings. All we can really k no w is that we have ideas and im pressions, one
following another in a kind of ch ao tic heap. W h ile Berkeley believed his p h i
losophy had adequately dealt w ith atheism, Hume felt that there was no more
justification for the existence of a deity than for the ex isten ce of matter. Thu s,

just as Berkeley thought he had destroyed atheism and materialism, 0 Hume

believed he had also destroyed the co n c ep t of mind and God. Hume recognized
that his theories resulted in skepticism that affected both religion and scien ce,
but he was unable to r e c o n c ile the paradox of a seemingly sen sib le world with
the logic of h um an thought.
T o d ay, B erk eley s ideas may appear strange to us, but the co n c ep ts he
d eveloped have in fluenced scholars in m any fields. His n o tio n of the centrality
of su b je ctiv e m ind, and of the existen ce of anything b ein g d epend ent upon a
perceivin g m ind, has h elped in fluence scholars to study further the nature of
percep tio n and the o bjects of thought.

Immanuel Kant ( 1 7 2 4 -1 8 0 4 )
Kant was born in hu m b le conditions, the son of a saddler. Educated in the
scho o ls of his hom etow n, Knigsberg, he eventually rose to b eco m e perhaps
the most famous professor that the University of Knigsberg ever had. W ithout
a doubt, Kant is generally recognized as one of the w o rld s great philosophers.
A m on g other things, K a n ts work was basically a critiq u e of past systems
in w h ic h he sought to pull off a Copernican revolution in the field of p h i
losophy. T w o im portant works he a cco m p lish ed in this effort were Critique o f
Pure R eason and Critique o f Practical Reason, in w h ic h he sought to bring
order to the divergent and warring p h ilo so p h ic cam ps of rationalism and
em p iricism .
T h e rationalists sought universal truths or ideas by w h ic h a coherent
system and structure of know ledge could be deduced. T h e y distrusted sense
pe rce p tio n because its results are so individualized and erratic. On the other
hand, th e em piricists held to the im m ediate perceptions of e x p e rie n ce because
these are practical and co n n ected with everyday life. T h e y rejected ratio nalism
becau se it is so abstract and d isco n nected from the practical. Kant saw that the
sk irm ish es between th ese divergent p h ilo so p h ic views w ere getting now here.
B asic ally , he accepted th e validity and reliability of m o d ern sc ie n c e and b e
lieved that the constant bickering betw een the two positions was doing nothing
to further science through the developm ent of a co m p atible p h ilo so p h ic view
of know ledge. This set the stage for K a n ts philosophical task.
K a n ts idealism co m es b asically from his con cen tration on h um an thought
processes. The rationalist, he held, thinks analytically w h ile the em piricist
th in ks synthetically. He worked out a system based on a posteriori (synthetic)
and a priori (analytic) logical judgments that he called sy n th etic a priori jud g
ments.
He thought he had arrived at a new system w hereby w e could have a valid
kno w ledge of hum an ex p e rie n ce established upon the scien tific laws of nature.
In short, w e would have the best of both rationalist and em p iricist insights
gathered together in a unified system. T h is would give s c ie n c e the u n d e rp in
nings it needed, for Kant recognized the scientific need for an em pirical ap
proach w h ile at the sam e time acknow ledging s c ie n c e s c la im to discover u n i

IDEALISM A N D E D U C A T IO N

versal laws. He recognized the im portance of the hum an self or m ind and its
thought processes as a prime organizing agent in a cco m p lish in g this system.
Kant had to face the problem of the th in king subject and the object of
thought. He rejected Berk eley 's position that things are totally dependent on
mind, for this notion w ould reject the possibility of scientific law. He was also
caught by the problem of how su bjective m ind co u ld know objective reality. He
co n clu d e d that nature, objective reality, is a casual co n tinu um , a world c o n
nected in space and tim e with its ow n internal order. Su b jectiv e m ind cannot
perceive this order in itself or in totality, for w hen su bjective m ind is co n scio u s
of something, it is not the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich). M ind is co n scio u s
of th e e x p e rie n ce of the p h e n o m e n o n of the thing-in-itself. T h e thing-in-itself is
th e no u m en o n. E ach e x p e rie n ce of a thing (phenom enon) is one small ad d i
tional p iece of know ledge about the total thing (noumenon). Thu s, all we know
is the co n ten t of ex p erien ce. W h en we go beyond this, we have entered into the
rationalist argument and into sp ecu la tio n on the ultim ate or no um enal reality
of things-in-them selves, or else we have b ec o m e engaged in moral and ethical
considerations.
Kant explored the moral and ethical realm primarily in Critique o f Prac
tical Reason. His effort was to arrive at universal postulations co ncernin g what
we may call moral ideals, moral imperatives, or moral laws. T h is aspect of
K a n ts thinking was not tied to nature, so we might call this his sp iritu a l side.
M any of Kant's efforts were directed toward refuting the sk epticism of
David Hume, for Kant wanted to sho w that real know ledge is possible. His
efforts to do this were cloud ed by the uneasy m an n er in w h ich he united
apparently opposing them es, su ch as p h e n o m e n o n and no u m en o n, the pure
and the practical, and subjectivity and objectivity. T h e two Critiques illustrate
this conflict, for one speaks to the logic of thought, and the other to its prac
t i c a l applications. In the Critique o f Pure Reason, the result ends up very close
to H u m e s skepticism , sin c e Kant found it im p o ssible to make absolutely u ni
versal and necessary judgm ents about h um an e x p e rie n ce purely on rational
and scientific grounds. In essence, he had to sw itch gears and go to the
p ra c tica l side, the moral and ethical side, in Critique o f Practical Reason
where, he thought, universal judgments co u ld and should be made. T h u s, his
moral or p ra c tic a l p h ilo so p h y consists of moral laws that he held to be
u niversally valid, laws that he called categorical im p eratives such as, act
alw ays so that you can will the m ax im or the d eterm ining prin ciple of your
actio n to beco m e a universal la w .
T h is line of thinkin g perm eates K a n ts writings on education, a matter he
con sid ered to be of primary moral co ncern . He held that . . . the greatest and
most difficult problem to w h ic h m an can devote h im self is the problem of
e d u ca tio n . O ne of the categorical im peratives he established in his moral
ph ilo so p h y was to treat each person as an end and never as a mere means. T his
im perative has greatly influenced subsequent thought about the im portan ce of
ch aracter d evelopm ent in education. Most of his educational statem ents are

m a x im s derived from his categorical imperatives. He held that h u m a n ! are the

o n ly beings who need ed u catio n and that d isc ip lin e is a primary ingredient of
ed u catio n that leads peop le to think and seek out the g oo d . C hild ren should
not sim ply be educated for the present, but for the possibility of an improved
future condition that Kant called the idea of h u m anity and the w h o le destiny
of m a n k in d . For the m o st part, he thought ed u catio n should co n sist of d isci
p lin e, culture, d iscretion, and moral training. T h e e ssen ce of ed u catio n should
not be simply training, however, for to Kant the im portant thing was enlight
e n m e n t or teaching a ch ild to th in k accordi.ng_to p rin cip le s as opposed to mere
ran d o m behavior. T h is is 'closely associated to-his n o tio n oTwTTL TheF'education
of w ill means living acco rd in g to the duties flowing from the categorical im
peratives. In fact, Kant thought that an im portant part of the c h i l d s education
w as the performance of duties toward oneself and others.
W e can readily see K a n ts idealism in his co n cen tratio n on thought pro
ce sse s and the nature of the relation between m ind and its objects on the one
h an d , and universal m oral ideals on the other. Even though his attempts to
bring about a C op ern ican re v o lu tio n in p h ilo so p h y failed, his systematic
thought has been greatly influential on all su b sequ en t W estern philosophy,
id e alistic and otherwise.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrick Hegel (1 7 7 0 -1 8 3 1 )

Hegel is perhaps the cap sto ne of idealistic p h ilo so p h y in the m odern era. He
w as born in Stuttgart, Germany, and led a rather norm al and uneventful life as
a youth, receiving h is edu catio n until the age of eighteen in his native city. He
th e n w ent to the U n iversity of T u bing en and majored in theology, graduating in
1 7 9 3 . He showed no particular prom ise as a budding ph ilosopher, accord in g to
h is professors, and for the next several years he w orked as a tutor w ith little
e c o n o m ic success. He co ntinu ed to study, and after receivin g a sm all in heri
ta n c e from his father, his efforts beca m e more su ccessful. For a w h ile h e was a
lectu rer at the U niversity of Jena, then rector of a second ary scho o l u ntil 1816.
He was a professor at the U niversity of Heidelberg for two years, and in 1818
b e c a m e a professor of p h ilo so p h y at the University of B erlin, rem aining there
u n til his death. A lthough practically all his major works were w ritten before he
w e n t to Berlin, it w as th ere that he becam e a pro m in en t and overriding figure
in philosophy. One ca n find elem ents of his thought in su ch disparate recent
p h ilo so p h ie s as M arx ism , existentialism , and A m e ric an pragmatism. In exam
in in g Hegel, we w ill lo o k at three major aspects of his system: logic, nature, and
spirit. Som e of his im portant books are P h en o m en o log y of Mind, Logic, and

P h ilosop h y o f Right.
One of the striking characteristics of H egels p h ilo so p h y is his logic. He
thought he had developed a perfect logical system that su pposed ly corrected
the inadequacies of A ristotelian logic. The word d ia le c tic best fits H egels
lo gic, and it has often b ee n portrayed as a rather m e c h a n ic a l warring between
th e sis and antithesis, w ith the result being a syn thesis. Yet, his logic was not

IDEALISM AND KU1K:AT1()S

quite that inflexible, for it in cluded m any variations and shadings of the triadic
categories. Even more to the point, Hegel co nceived of thought as a co n tin u u m ,
not a series of m e ch a n ic a l sy n th etic unions. W e could say that the co ntinu u m
is ch a racteriz ed by a moving constan t sy nth esizin g , a moving, growing, everchanging thought process.
Hegel m ain ta in e d that his logical system, if applied rigorously and a c c u
rately, w o uld arrive at Absolute Idea. T h is is, sim ilar to the notion of u n c h an g
ing ideas. T h e difference is that Hegel was sensitive to change (even though
some of his critics charge that his exp la n ation of change is a failure). Change,
develo pm en t, and m ovem ent are all central and necessary in H e g e ls logic.
Even A bso lu te Idea is really the final stage on ly as it concerns thought process,
for A bso lu te Ideas have an antithesis Nature.
T o Hegel, Nature is the o th e rn e ss of Idea, its opposite, or w e may say,
the d ifference betw een value and fact. He did not view Idea and Nature as
finally separate, a dualism at w h ich Descartes arrived, for to Hegel, dualisms
are in to lerable as any final stage: there must be a final synthesis. In h o ld ing this
view, Hegel was not denying the ordinary facts, stones, and sticks of everyday
life; rather, these are a lower order of reality, and not the final synthesis.
T h e final stage of synthesis of Idea and Nature is Spirit, and this is where
the final A bso lu te is encountered. Absolute Spirit is manifested by the h isto r
ical d ev e lo p m e n t of a people and by the finest works of art, religion, and
ph ilo so phy. Yet, these m anifestation s are not Absolute S p ir it they are only
its m an ifestations. Hegel did not th in k this final and perfect end had been
reached , but he did think th ere was a final end toward w h ic h w e m ove, h o w
ever slo w ly and tortuously, and h o w ever m any backslides we m ight make. It is
in this v iew that Hegels id ealism is m ost ap paren t the search for final A b
solute Spirit.
O ne of the major features of the Hegelian system is m o v e m e n t toward
richer, m o re co m p lex , and more co m p lete syntheses. To Hegel, h istory show ed
this m o v e m e n t ju st as m u ch as logical thought processes did. It is as if all the
u niverse, in H egels view, is moving toward co m p letio n and w h o len e ss. Thus,
in H e g e ls system , if we ex am in e any one thing, we are alw ays referred to
so m eth in g else conn ected to it. S u ch was the case with the d eve lo p m e n t of
civ ilizatio n ; that is, history moved in a d ialectical, rational process. T h o se who
are fam ilia r with the thought of Karl M arx will note sim ilarities w ith Hegel, for
M arx w as very m u ch indebted to him .
H e g e ls thought no longer holds the preem in ent p osition it o n c e held. One
reason for this is that his system led to a glorification of the state at the expense
of ind ivid u als. It led some of his follow ers to believe in a m y stical, foreor
dained d estiny in the face of w h ic h individuals are pow erless. In this view,
in d iv id u als are mere parts or aspects of the greater, more c o m p lete and unified
w hole, the state.
Hegel has had considerable influence on the ph ilosophy a n d theory of
ed u catio n . Ivan Soil has attempted to show some of Hegels co n tribu tio n s to

p h ilo so p h y o f ed u catio n, contributions that must be viewed against the grand

m ann er in w h ic h Hegel saw p h ilo so p h ical problems. B asically, Hegei seem ed
to th in k th at in order to be truly ed ucated , an individual must pass through the
various stages of the cultural evolution of mankind. T h is idea is not as prepos
terous as it m ay seem at first glance, for h e h eld that ind ivid u als benefit from all
that has g o n e before them. We can illu strate this by referring to the d ev e lo p
m ent of s c ie n c e and technology, to an individual w h o lived three hundred
years ago, ele c tricity was an unk now n th ing except perhaps as a raw natural
o cc u rr e n c e s u c h as lightning. Today, p ra c tica lly every person depends on e l e c
trical p o w er for everyday usage and has a working, practical knowledge of it
entirely o u tsid e the experience of a p erso n three hundred years ago. A c o n
temporary p erso n can easily learn elem e n tary facts about electricity in a re la
tively short tim e; that is, he can pass th r o u g h or learn an extrem ely im portant
phase of o u r cu ltural evolution. Hegel thought it was possible (if not alw ays
probable in every case) for at least so m e in dividuals to k no w everything e s
sential in th e history of man's co lle ctiv e co n scio u sness. Today, because of the
k now led ge e x p l o s io n and the in creasin g com p lexity and extent of h um an
know ledge, su ch an encom passing e d u catio n al ideal is naive. Yet Hegels po
sition still reta ins som e credibility, for th ere is still the need to pass on the
cultural heritage and develop an u nd erstand ing of p e o p le s paths to the
present. E ven to Hegel, the attainment of su ch a universal and en c y c lo p e d ic
know ledge w as an ideal, possible o nly to the elite.

Josiah R o y c e (1 8 5 5 -1 9 1 6 )
One of the m o st influential spokesm en for Hegelian id ealism at the turn of the
century in A m e ric a was Josiah Royce. R o y c e m aintained that the external
m eaning of a thing depends entirely on its internal meaning, that is, its e m
bodim ent of p u rp o s e . He argued that em b od im en t of p u rp o se is the crite
rion of m e n t a lity , and thus the internal e s s e n c e of anything is mental. Royce,
like most id ealists, saw his philosophical view s as having great co rrespo nd en ce
with religious teachings (the Christian religion in his case), and he spent m u ch
effort in d em o n stra tin g their com patibility.
R o y ce b elie v ed that ideas are essen tially purposes or plans of action, and
the id e a s fu lfillm en t are plans that have b ee n put into action. Thus, purposes
are in c o m p le te w ith ou t an external world in w h ich they are idealized, and the
external w o rld is m eaningless u nless it is the fulfillm ent of such purposes.
W hose pu rp o ses are fulfilled? Royce an sw ered in very Hegelian terms that it is
the A b s o lu t e s purposes. He believed that on e of the most important things for
man to d evelo p is a sen se of loyalty to m oral principles and causes. T h is
implies a sp iritu al overtone in w h ich one ach iev e s the highest good by b e c o m
ing a part of th e u niversal design. O ne can see the in fluen ce of this kind of
thinking in the ed u catio nal enterprise in term s of teach in g people not only
about the p u rp o ses of life but also about h o w they can b ec o m e an active in
gredient in s u c h purposes.

IDEALISM AND EJMJCAnON

F ollo w ing Kant and Hegel, there was a co n tin u in g interest in idealism in
a n um ber of c o u n tries. Germ an idealism influenced an im portant m ovem ent in
England, seen in th e w ritings of Coleridge, W ord sw orth, Carlyle, and Ruskin.
T h e English s c h o o l of id e a lism in clu d ed su ch p h ilo so p h ers as T h o m as Hill
Green w hose w ritings in c lu d ed suggestions for eth ical, po litical, and eco n om ic
reforms; and F ra n cis Herbert Brad ley who argued strongly against em piricism ,
utilitarianism , and natu ralism .
*
In the U nited States, in ad d itio n to the work of R oyce, there was m u ch in
the writings of R alp h W ald o E m erson that reflected id ealist philosophy as did
the tran scen d e n talism m o v em e n t in general. W illia m T. Harris was another
A m erican p h ilo so p h er and ed u cator involved w ith id ealism in the United
States. Harris later becam e the director of the C onco rd S c h o o l of Philosophy
where he was very active in an attempt to merge New England tra n scen d e n
talism with Hegelian idealism .

IDEALISM AS A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

In general, id ealists have sh o w n a great co n cern for ed u catio n, and many have
w ritten ex ten siv ely about it. Plato made ed ucation the central core of his u to
pian state, the R ep u b lic. A u gu stin e gave ex ten sive attention to the need for
Christians to b e c o m e aw are of the im portance of education. Kant and Hegel
w rote about ed u ca tio n or referred to it a great deal in th eir writings, and both
m ade their living by being teachers. In more re cen t tim es, there have been
idealists su ch as W illia m T o re y Harris, Herman Horne, W illiam Hocking, G io
vanni G entile, and J. D onald Butler, who have tried sy stem atically to apply
idealist p rin cip le s to the theory and practice of education.

Aims of Idealist Education

Idealists generally agree that ed u catio n should not on ly stress developm ent of
the mind but sh o u ld also encourage students to focus on all things that are of
lasting value. A lo ng w ith Plato, they believe that the aim of ed ucation should
be directed tow ard the search for true ideas. A no ther im portant idealist aim is
character d evelo p m ent, as th e search for truth d em an d s personal disciplin e
and steadfast character. T h is aim is prevalent in the w ritings of Kant, Harris,
Horne, Gentile, and others. W h a t they want in so ciety is not just the literate,
know ledgeable person, but the good person.

The Search for Truth

O ne of the m ajor em p h a ses of idealist philosoph y is th e search for truth. Plato
thought that truth ca n n o t be found in the world of m atter b ecau se su ch a world

CHAPTKR t

is im p erm an e n t and ever changing. At the Academ y, students were oncouraged

to re ach out toward the co n cep tu al world of ideas rather than the perceptual
on e of sen se data. T h e material w orld is not a real w orld anyway but is a n a l
ogous to the shadow s and illu sio n s w ith w h ic h th e prisoners in the cave c o n
tented them selves. Plato believed that one must break away from the chain s of
ig n orance, greed, or apathy. S u c h a person w ould th e n be on the road to e n
lig h ten m e n t and might beco m e a philosopher. In P la to s view, p h ilo so p h ic
w is d o m or the c o n c ep tio n ol true ideas is the highest aim of education and one
tow ard w h ic h all peop le should strive.
Idealists have alw ays stressed the im portance of m ind over matter. S o m e
id e alists, su ch as Berkeley, reject the idea that m atter exists by itself, whereas
o thers, like Augustine, take the p o sitio n that matter may exist in a generally
d etrim en tal way. P laton ic idealists m aintain that a proper education will in
c lu d e ex am in ing su ch areas as art and science, w h ic h should lead the student
to th e m ore specu lative and abstract subjects of m a them atics and philosophy.
In any event, idealists place less stress on the study of physical and concrete
areas than they do on the n o n p h y sic a l and the abstract. T h e im portant thing for
the id ealist is to arrive at truth, and truth can n ot be ever-shifting.
T h e re are som e idealists, w ho w h ile not adhering strictly to the P laton ic
idea that truth is eternal and perfect, do believe that it is substantial and rela
tively perm anent. Th u s, for su ch id e alists there m ay be many truths, even
co n flictin g ones, but they art; truths of a more lasting nature; con sequen tly,
m an y idealists favor studies in religion and the classics, two areas that co n tain
en d u rin g ideas.
Augustine, who was h im s e lf a n eo-Platonist, agreed with Plato that the
h ig h est aim is a search for th e truth, but he believed even more strongly than
P lato that truth has o v erw h e lm in g sp iritu al im p lica tio n s. T h e search for Truth
is a search for God. A true e d u ca tio n lead s one to God. S in c e God is pure idea,
th e n God can be reached only through co n tem p la tio n of ideas; therefore, a true
e d u ca tio n is one that is c o n c e rn e d w ith ideas rather th an matter.
O ther idealists have m a in ta in e d th at there may be levels of truth. Kant, for
ex a m p le , m aintain ed the truths of b o th pure reason and practical reason. Hegel
thought that truth is in d e v e lo p m e n t, m oving from the simple to richer and
m o re co m p le x ideas. A great n u m b e r o f religions in th e world claim that their
ideas are true, even though th e y are in conflict w ith e a c h other. T h is is w h y
m a n y idealists feel that it is n o t truth p e r se that is im portant, but the search for
truth. E ven Socrates seem ed to im ply th i s position by stating that all ideas are
o p e n to ch allen ge, and a lite ra l read in g of the term p h ilo so p h er is not that on e
is a d isco v ere r of truth but a se a r ch e r for it.
S o m e m od ern ed u cators, w ho s h a r e m any things in co m m o n w ith idealist
p h ilo so p h y , have co m p iled lis ts of G rea t B o o k s that co ntain disparate points
of v iew ranging from the B i b l e to M a r x s Das K ap ital, and from A u g u stin es
C o n fessio n s to V o ltaires C a n d ide. T h e id ea beh in d using such books is not that

IDK.M.ISM AM) Hit C A I I d S

;mv or aiI of them contain the final truth, but rather that they contain some of
the best ami most lasting ideas conceived by man. Even though the books are
different, m any of the selectio n s co m p lem ent each other. What is most n o tice
able. how ever, even with the books on scien ce, is that they extol thinking and
ideas rather than mere sense data, and they con cen trate on great concern s
rather than on mere particulars. One of the books often found on such lists is
Herman M e l v il le s Moby Dick. T h e reader w ould go awrry if he found the book
to be only a sea story or only concentrated on su ch things as the kinds of ships
used or the n um ber of fish caught. Moby Dick is a work containing great ideas
about life, justice, evil, and courage, truths that one needs to ponder. T h e aim
is not to see this or any other su ch book as a literal rendering of events, but as
so m eth in g that provides insight into ourselves and the universe of w hich we
are a part. T h e value of any major work in art or sc ien c e lies in its carrying us
to a higher point in our thinking. We should not use literature and art only as
v ehicles for moving us into the world of ideas, but into the realm of great ideas,
ideas of substantial value to us in understanding truth.
N eedless to say, idealists conceive of people as thinking beings, having
m ind s cap able of seeking truth through reasoning and of obtaining truth by
revelation, T h e v see them as beings who breathe, eat, and sleep, but above all
as th in kin g beings whose thoughts can range from the ridiculous to the su b
lime. For ex am p le, Plato believed that the lowest kind of thinking should be
called mere o pinion. On this level, p e op les ideas are not well thought out and
are usually contradictory. People can aspire to W ' i s d o m , m eaning they can
im prove not only the way they think, but also the qu ali'y of their ideas. They
can obtain ideas that are of substantial value and endurance, if not perfect and
eternal. P eople can co m e clo ser to this ideal by using the thinking of others or
w ith the assistan ce of their writings. T h e im portant point is to direct our th in k
ing toward m ore universal concepts than those em ployed in the perfunctory
matters of day-to-day living. Reading the daily new spaper, for exam ple, may be
useful in learning what is happening in the world, but the new spaper is not of
great assistan ce in understanding why it is happening. T his not only demands
thought on our part, but the ability to relate the thinking of others to a critical
und erstand ing of the problem. Some have co n ten d ed that the Bible, Moby Dick,
and the R ep u b lic do not speak to our present co n cern s about pollution, the
arm am en ts race, and racial bigotry, but the idealist would reply that although
individ u als mav not find any particular answ ers to a particular problem in such
works, they can find issues dealt with in a general way that is more cond u cive
to an u nd erstand ing of specific problems and their solu tions. T h e Bible, for
exam ple, deals with the problems of war and bigotry, and a book such as Das
Kapital speaks at length about many e c o n o m ic problems that still have c o n
temporary significance. Our failure to deal adequately with our present prob
lems is not from a lack of facts, but from not using the facts in relationship to
great and en co m passin g ideas.

Self-realization
T h e idealist e m p h a sis on the mental and spiritual qualities of h um an beings
has led m any idealist philosophers to c o n c en tra te quite heavily on the c o n c e p t
of in d ivid u als and their place in education. T h is flavor of idealism gives it a
co nsid erable su b je ctiv istic orientation as o p p o sed to its more objective aspects.
T h e s u b je ctiv istic side is held by many to be o ne of id e a lism s most redeem ing
features, e s p e c ia lly in regard to education.
J. D onald B utler, a contemporary edu cator, holds that the co ncern for the
individ u al is o n e of the primary ch aracteristics that makes idealism still viable

> for m odern peop le. His analysis of the problem , in Idealism in E d ucation,
ind icates that self lies at the center of id ealist m etaphysics, and w e may c o n
clude, at the ce n te r of idealist education. A cco rd in g ly , he finds that the self is
the prime reality of individual experien ce; that ultim ate reality may be c o n
ceived as a self and that it may be one self, a co m m u n ity of selves, or a U n i
versal Self; and h en c e, education b e c o m e s prim arily concerned w ith selfrealization. He quotes G iovanni Gentile that self-realization is the ultim ate aim
of education.
S u c h a th e m e has its roots deeply em bed d ed in the idealist tradition.
Descartes placed the thinking self at the very base of his m etaphysical sch e m a
and his m e th o d o lo g ical search with his fam ous cogito: I think, therefore I a m .
S o m e scho lars date m odern subjectivism from this development. Th in k e rs
su ch as B erk eley further developed the n o tio n of subjective reality that led to
so lip sism on the o ne hand, or skepticism o n the other. B erk eley s notion that
things do not ev e n exist unless perceived by th e su bjective individual m ind, or
th e m ind of God, gave quite a bit of im p etu s to the subjectivistic trend of
id ealist e d u ca tio n a l thought. S in c e th in kin g and know ing are central in e d u
catio nal c o n c e rn s , it is little wonder that id e alism has exerted so m u ch influ
en c e on ed u ca tio n al view s about individual m ind and self.
Even tho u gh su bjectivism is a m ajor w ing of idealism , we must not forget
an oth er eq u ally pow erful idealist n o tio n th e relation of the part to the w hole
or the sy m b io tic relation ship of the self to society. Plato could not even c o n
ce iv e of the in d iv id u a l apart from a specific p lace and role in society. T h is sam e
th em e, alth o ug h en u n ciate d differently, ca n be seen in A u gu stines view of the
c o n n e c tio n of finite m an to infinite God. In th e m o d ern era, perhaps this them e
w as most fully d evelo ped by Hegel. He held that the individual must be related
to the w h o le, for it is o nly in the setting of the total relationship that the reaL
significan ce of a sing le individual can be found. T h is led Hegel to assert that an
in d ivid u al finds his true m eaning in serving th e state, a statement very clo se to
P la t o s idea. Hegel w o uld even go so far as to say that one must relate o neself
to the total of e x iste n ce , the cosmos, in order to gain true understanding of
oneself.
T h e im p a ct of these ideas on ed u cation is readily apparent in the writings
of Horne, G entile, and Harris, all of w h om have in fluenced modern education.
Horne, an A m e ric a n id ealist in the early tw en tieth century, m aintained that

IDKAIJSM AND EDI CATION

(*>

education is an a c c o u n t of people finding th em selves as an integral part of a

universe of m ind . T h e learner is a finite personality growing into the liken ess
of an infinite ideal. B ecau se of the learn ers immaturity, it is the role of the
te acher to guide the learner along the co rrect paths toward the infinite. T h is
calls for the te a c h e r to be a w ell-inform ed person, one who must possess the
know ledge and p erso nal qualities necessary to a cco m p lish this feat. T h e e d u
cation of w illp o w e r b eco m es central ^iere, for it is easy for the learner to w an d er
away from the d esired path by the siren ca lls of corruption and untruth, a
d ilem m a often referred to by Augustine and other religious thinkers. F or Horne,
ed u cation sh o u ld encourage the will to p e rfe c tio n for the pupil, and it is an
activity w h ere by o n e shapes o neself in to the likeness of God a task that
requires eternal life for its fulfillment.
Gentile, th e Italian idealist, thought that the individual is not o nly a part
of a co m m u n ity of m ind s but co n nected w ith the mind of God; h en ce, all
ed ucation is religious education. He m aintained that one of the primary fu n c
tions of e d u ca tio n is to open the soul to God.
- Harris, an A m e ric a n educator and p h ilo so p her, proposed that ed ucation
should lead p e o p le to what he called a third level of en lig h te n m en t. T h is
involves the ind iv id u al becoming aware of the spiritual nature of all things,
in clu d ing u n io n w ith God and personal im m ortality. T h e influence of H egels
thought is very p ro m inent in Harriss ed u cation al philosophy, particularly
w h ere he r e c o m m e n d s taking the student up through insight into the personal
nature of th e A bso lu te. For Harris, h u m an d evelopm ent and ed u catio n are a
series of d ia le c tic a l experiences.
C on sequen tly, w e may co nclu d e that self-realization is a central aim of
.idealist e d u ca tio n , but this does not im ply that the self is realized in isolation.
T h e ind ivid u al self is a part and can o nly have m eaning in the larger context.

C haracter Development
Idealists have given considerable attention not only to the search for truth, but
also to the p e rso n s w ho are involved in it. T h e teacher who idealists favor is the
vjnore p h ilo s o p h ic a lly oriented persofr, o ne w ho can assist students in ch o o sing
im portant m aterial and infuse them w ith a desire to im prove their th in king in
the deepest p o ssib le way. Perhaps the best w ay to understand this is by looking
at Socrates as a prototype of the kind of te ach e r the idealist w ould like to have.
SocrateS^spent a great deal of time analyzing and discussing ideas with others,
and he w as d ee p ly committed to actio n based on reflection. T h e idealistoriented te a c h e r w o uld seek to have these S o cra tic characteristics and w ould
encourage stu d en ts to better their thinking, and to better their lives based u po n
su ch thinking. Idealists are, in general, greatly co n cern ed with ch aracter de
velopm en t, and they believe that a good ed u catio n would make this one of its
foremost goals.
Idealist p h ilo so p h y is also very m u ch co n cern ed with the student as on e
w h o has e n o rm o u s potential for growth, both m orally and cognitively. T h e

CHAPTER 1

0
id ealist tends to see the in d iv id u al as a person whose moral values need to be
co n sid ere d and developed by the school. W h ile the idealist m ay not always be
w illin g to give e v il an o b jectiv e existence, yet it is there in the sense that
stu d en ts may choose things that are harmful. Therefore, idealists m aintain that
th e sc h o o l has an obligation to present students with m odels for developm ent
and they would agree w ith P lato that religious ideas should be presented in
w ays that students can use th em for guidance. It could be said that the teacher
from the perspective of the idealist, is in a unique and im portant position. It is
th e duty of the teacher to en co urag e students to ask questions and to provide a
su ita b le environm ent for learning. T h e teacher exercises jud gm en t about the
k in d s of materials that are the m o st im portant and encourages diligent study of
m aterial that is of more u ltim a te worth.
T h e idealist position has ramifications for the way we look at the in d i
vidual. Rather than seeing p e o p le sim ply as biological organisms in nature
id ealists see them as the p o ssessors of an inner light, a m ind or soul For re
ligious idealists, the student is im portant as a creation of God and carries w ith
in so m e of the godliness that the scho o l should seek to develop. M ost idealists
w h eth er religious or not, have a deep feeling about the in ner powers of an
ind ivid u al, such as intuition, that must be accounted for in any true education
T o o m u ch of what passes for education deals with filling the person with
som ething, rather than bringing out what is there, the truths that already exist
As d iscu ssed earlier, Plato speaks of the Doctrine of R e m in is c e n c e , whereby
the soul regains the true k n o w led ge it lost by being placed in the prison
h o u s e of the body. T h e d ia le c tic is the tool for regaining this lost w isdom
Augustine thought that truth was inherent in the soul of the individual.
E d u c atio n is the process of bringing these truths to the surface, and sinc e many
of th e se truths are directly related to God, education is the process of salvation
Ed u cation can be conceived as not only consisting of the d ialectic, but also the
te c h n iq u e of meditation to bring out truths already possessed by the soul. This
ou tlo o k on education was ch aracte ristic of m onastic education in the Middle
Ages w here salvation was to be ach iev e d not by direct action but by meditation
Even today, many religious in stitutio n s practice such an approach as a part of
the s tu d e n ts formal training. S o m e ch u rch schools still set aside a portion of
tim e for pupils to meditate u po n the ultimate m eaning of things.
M an y idealists are c o n c e rn e d with moral character as an outgrowth of
th in k in g and thoughtful action s. T h e m ovem ent toward w isdom itself, the ide
alist w ould argue, results from a moral conviction. Augustine thought of God as
the highest wisdom, and the m ov em e n t toward w isdom (or God) the highest
m oral principle. This c o n c e p t is probably best expressed by Hegel w ho de
scribed the dialectic as a m o v e m e n t going from the sim ple to th e co m p lex in
term s of Spirit trying to u n d erstan d itself. Hegel believed that the individual
can know' God, and he argued against theologians who say that God is u nk n o w
able. O n e achie\es one s fullest stature w h en one understands the movement
toward w isdom and fully particip ates in it.

i m AIJVkl

A M I Hlt'l A I I O S

O n of tin; mure p r o m i n e n t a d v o c a t e s of c h a r a c t e r d e v e l o p m e n t as a
p r o pe r a i m of e d u c a t i o n wa s I mma n u e l k a n l . Hi; m a d e r e a s o n , not Go d , the
s o u r c e of moral law; c o n s e q u e n t l y , the onl y tiling m o r a l l y v a l ua b l e is a good
wi l l. A c c o r d i n g l y , p e o p l e w h o have a good wi l l k n o w w h a t t he i r dut y is a nd
c o n s c i e n t i o u s l y s ee k to do that duty. Kant p r o mo t e d w h a t he c a l l e d t h e c a t
e g or i ca l i m p e r a t i v e " ; tha t is, one s h o u l d never act in a n y m a n n e r o t he r t ha n
o n e w o u l d h a v e all o t h e r p e o p l e act. T h e pr o pe r f u n c t i o n of e d u c a t i o n , t h e n , is
to e d u c a t e pe opl e to k n o w a n d :o do the i r duty in w a y s t h a t r e s p e c t t h e c a t
e g or i ca l i m p e r a t i v e . T h i s is c ha r a c t e r e d u c a t i o n , and i d e a l i s t s g e n e r al l y a gree,
as J. D on a l d But l e r h a s p o i n t e d out. that any e d u c a t i o n w o r t h y of the n a m e is
c h a r a c t e r e d u c a t i o n . T h e e d u c a t i o n of c h a r a c t e r i n c l u d e s not on l y the s e n s e of
dut y , b ut a l so the d e v e l o p m e n t of w i l l p o w e r and l oyalt y.
H e r m a n Hor ne put e m p h a s i s on the e d u c a t i o n of the wi l l. By t h i s he
m e a n t that s t ude nt s s h o u l d be e du c a t e d to resist t e m p t a t i o n s and to a p p l y
t h e m s e l v e s to useful t a s ks . T h e e du c a t i on of the will i n v o l v e s effort, for H o r n e
b e l i e v e d that e d u c a t i o n is d i r ec t l y pr o por t i o n a l to the
s o m e e d u c a t o r s m a i n t a i n that c hi ld r e n s ho u l d o n l y
Ho r n e h e l d that the d e v e l o p m e n t of w i l l p o w e r e na b l es
m a v no t be pa r t i c u l a r l y i nt e r e s t i ng but are e xt r e m e l y

effort e x p e n d e d . W h i l e
f o l l o w thei r i nt e r e s t s ,
a c h i l d to do t h i ng s that
v a l u a bl e. E ve n t h o u g h

a p e r s o n m a y not be p a rt i c u l a r l y i nt e l l i ge nt . Hor ne m a i n t a i n e d that effort

w o u l d e n a b l e one to a c h i e v e far b e y on d the point m e r e i nt e r es t w o u l d h a v e
t a k e n one .
I de a l is ts s uch as G i o v a n n i Ge nt i l e , w h o s up p o r t e d t h e F a s c i s t r e g i m e of
B e n i t o M u s s o l i n i , h a v e e m p h a s i z e d the d e v e l o p m e n t of l o y a l t y as an i m p o r t a n t
a s p e c t of c h a r a c t er e d u c a t i o n . Al ong w i t h Hegei , G e n t i l e t ho ug ht that t h e d e s
t i ny of t h e i nd i vi du a l is t i ed to the d e s t i ny of the state; c o n s e q u e n t l y , it is
n e c e s s a r y for the i n d i v i d u a l to have a s t rong s en s e of l o y a l t y to t he state. P r o p e r
c h a r a c t e r e d u c a t i on w o u l d t hus have t he attribute of l o y a l t y, for an i n d i v i d u a l
w i t h o u t l oy al t y wo u l d be i nc o m p l e t e . W h e n the t e a c h e r a ct s a c c o r d i n g to the
i nt e r e s t of t he state, t h e t r u e interests of the s t ud e n t are b e i n g met. By t he s a m e
t o k e n , a s t ud e nt ' s p r o p e r r o l e is to a b i d e by the a u t h o r i t y of t h e te a che r.

Methods of Education
M o s t i de a l is ts who l o o k at ou r s choo l s t oda y are greatl y d i s m a y e d at w h a t t h e y
find. T h e y s e e s t ud e nt s r e g i m e n t e d i nto s t ud y i ng facts, l at er b e c o m i n g s p e c i a l
ists of s o m e kind, a n d u s i n g t hose s p e c i a l i t i e s w'ith l ittle h u m a n e c o n c e r n for
t h e i r f e l l o w h u m a n b e i n g s . M o de r n s t u d e n t s s ee m l ik e r o b o t s s u r v e y i n g bits
a n d s c r a p s of e ve r yt hi ng , t he r e b y o b t a i n i n g an e d u c a t i o n w i t h little d e p t h ,
o p e r a t i n g on the b a s i s of r u l e s rather t ha n on i nn e r c o n v i c t i o n . I deal i sts l ea n
t o w a r d s tu d i es that p r o v i d e depth, and t he y w o u l d s t r o n g l y suggest a m o d i f i
c a t i o n of t he view that t h i n g s s hou l d be s t udi ed s i m p l y b e c a u s e t he y are n e w
or r e l e v a n t . T h e y find tha t m u c h of t he great l i t e r a t u r e of t h e past ha s m o r e

CHAPTER 1

pertin en ce to co n tem po rary problems than what is considered " n e w " and
relev an t. A lm ost any contem porary problem, idealists would argue, has its
roots in the past. Problem s su ch as the relation of the individual and society
have been debated exten siv ely by great philosophers and thinkers. To ignore
w h at great m inds have to say in these areas is to ignore the most relevant
, writings about them.
As has been ind icated in the aims of education, idealists do not favor
specialized learning as m u ch as learning that is holistic. T h e y ask us to see the
w h o le rather than a d isjointed co llectio n of parts. T h e h olistic approach leads
to a m ore liberal attitude toward learning. A lthough subjects like the natural
sc ie n c e s are useful, they are of m axim u m value only w hen they help us to see
the w h o le picture.
Plato believed that the best method of learning was the dialectic. Through
this critical method of thinking, he believed the individual could see things en
toto. T h e Republic, w h ic h is essentially the fruit of dialectical thinking, at
tem pted to integrate a w id e range of learning into a meaningful w hole. E s s e n
tially, Plato believed that we can develop our ideas in ways that a ch ieve sy n
theses and universal co n cep ts. T h is method is one that can be learned, but it
requires a critical attitude, a background in m athem atics, and extended study.
T h e d ia lectic is a w in no w in g -o u t process in w h ich ideas are put into battle
against each other with th e more substantial ideas enduring the fray.
A lthough one does not see a great use of this method in schools today, the
d ia lec tic was w id ely used as an educational techn iqu e throughout the M id d le
Ages. It cam e to be a matter of disputation w h ere ideas were to be placed in the
arena of battle and only if they emerged victorious would there be some reason
for b elievin g in them. C h u rc h m e n such as Peter Abelard used it in vindicating
the truths of Christian doctrine. A b elard s famous Sic et Non w as a way of
looking at both sides of th e question and allow in g the truth to emerge.
In addition to d ialectical method, som e idealists m aintain that truth is
, also received through intuitio n and revelation. Augustine practiced the d ia le c
tic, but he also put great stress upon the intuitive approach to knowledge. His
argum ent was that God, th e inner light of h u m a n beings, could speak to us if we
m ad e ourselves receptive. A ugustine b elieved that we need to reject any m a
te rialistic co n c ern s as m u c h as possible so w e can attune ourselves with God.
O n e still finds this ap p roach used in m onasteries or in religious orders that are
b asica lly co n tem p lativ e in nature. Even outside strictly religious sch o o ls, most
id ealists advocate a c o n c e p tu a l method that in clu d es both the d ialectic and the
in tu itiv e approach to learning. Plato held that one does not learn as m u ch from
n ature as from dialogues w ith other people. Augustine believed that though
o n e be b lin d and deaf, in c ap ab le of any feeling in his senses, one c a n still learn
all the im portant truths and reach God.
M an y m odern id ealists ch am p io n in spirit the idea of learning through the
d ia le c tic or co n tem p latio n , but these m ethods are not as w idely used in p ra c
t ic e as th ey o n ce were. T od ay, som e idealists lean more toward the study of

II I #!

ideas tlmniRh the use of classical works or writings and art that express g reat'
ideas. T h e Great Books of the Western W orld, a program that began at the
University of C hicago in the 1950s, achieved wide attention and is still in
operation today. Although this program has been ch am p io n ed by co n te m p o
rary ad herents of classical realism , it is seen by some idealist educators as a
veh icle for encouraging stud en ts toward learning of a more co n cep tu a l nature.
Idealists do b elieve, how ever, that any study of the Great B o ok s should be
undertaken w ith ex p e rie n ce d leadership and with an em p h asis upon the c o m
prehension of ideas rather th an the mere m em orization and classification of
information. T h e y w ould insist on a sem inar type of instru ction with o p p o r
tunity for am ple dialogue b etw ee n teacher and student. Furtherm ore, idealists
attracted to a Great Books approach w ould em phasize those ideas that have
perennial value, that is, ideas that have w ithstood the test of tim e across the
centuries.
One re cen t them e that has resurrected the hopes of Great Books advocates
has been T h e P aid eia Proposal by M ortimer Adler. Adler has proposed a basic
cu rricu lu m for all students that would inclu d e a study of cla ssic writings. M ost
notable about A d l e r s approach is that he is proposing this for all students, not
just those w ho are acad e m ic ally gifted.
A lthough on e might easily see howr this idealist approach can be applied
to college-level ed u cation, it m ay not be so apparent how it could be used in
elem entary and seco n d ary scho o ls. To begin with, one m u st be clear on the
purpose of learning. T h e id ealist is not prim arily co n cerned w ith turning out
students having specific te c h n ic a l skills but with giving th e m a broad u n d e r
standing of the world in w h ic h they live. T h e curricu lu m revolves around
broad co n c ep ts rather than sp ecific skills. In elementary and preschool e d u c a
tion, students are encouraged to develop habits of understanding, patience,
tolerance, and hard work that will be of assistance to th em later w hen they
undertake studies of a more substantial nature. T h is is not to say that students
can not learn so m e im portant ideas at any age, but the earliest years are b a s i
cally preparatory in acquiring the skills to undertake more in-depth work at a
later stage.
T h e id ealist believes that the teacher is an im portant ingredient in the
instruction of the young. T h e teacher should not only understand the stages of
learning but should also m aintain constant concern about the ultimate p u r
poses of learning. S o m e id ealists stress the im portance of em ulation in le a rn
ing, for th e y feel that the te ach e r should be the kind of person we want our
ch ild ren to beco m e. Socrates has been used by idealists, not o nly as a prototype
of learning but also as a m o d el for em ulation.
Butler m aintains that m od ern id ealist educators like to th in k of th e m
selves as creators of m ethod s rather than as mere imitators. T h e y prefer alter
native ways of approach ing learning, but they still like to see at least an in fo r
mal d ialectic in operation. In questioning and discussing sessio n s where the
d ialectic really operates, the teacher should help students see alternatives they

'S

might o therw ise h ave m issed. Th u s, w h ile it may be an inform al dialectical

process, it should not b e c o m e a mere pooling of the ig norance of im mature
stud ents, for the te ach er should participate to maintain the integrity of the
process.
T h e lecture m eth o d still has a place in the id e alists m ethod ological tool
kit, but lecture is view ed m ore as a m eans of stim ulating thought than merely
p assing on information. In fact, some id ealist teachers discourage note taking so
that students will co n c en trate o n the basic ideas. To the idealist, the ch ief
p u rpo se for giving a lecture is to help students com prehend ideas. Idealists also
use su ch methods as projects, supplem ental activities, library research, and
artwork. T h e im p o rtan ce of su ch diverse methods must be, how ever, that they
grow out of the to p ic of study at hand. T h is illustrates the id e alists desire to
sh o w the unity of kno w led ge and their dislike for random and isolated activity.
O ne of the cardin al o bjectives of idealism and id ealistic ed u cation is the
a n cie n t Greek notion to k n o w th y self. Self-realization is, as noted above, an
im po rtant aim of ed u catio n ; h en ce, idealists stress the im p o rtance of self
activity in education. In essen ce, they believe a true ed u catio n occurs only
w ith in the individual self. W hile teachers cannot get insid e c h ild r e n s m inds,
th ey can provide m aterials and activities that influence learning. It is the re
s p o n se of the learner to these materials and activities that constitutes ed u ca
tion. T h e sources of this a ctio n are personal and private, for in id ealism all
e d u ca tio n is self-education. T h e teacher must recognize that he cann ot always
be presen t w hen learning o ccurs and should attempt to stim ulate the student so
that learning co n tinu es even w hen the teacher is not present. T h e project
m etho d might be on e co n c re te exam ple of self-activity. T h e idealist insists only
that th e nature of any su ch activity be on a high plane of thought.

Curriculum
W h ile not u n derem p hasizing the developm ent of a cu rriculum , idealists stress
that th e most important factor in ed ucation at any level is to te ach students to
think. T h e psychologist, Jean Piaget, and others have sh ow n that it is not
u n reaso n able to ex p ect students to demonstrate some critical regard for the
m aterial they are exposed to at various stages of development, even with nurs
ery tales that are read to them .
Idealists are generally in agreement, however, that m any of the ed u ca
tional m aterials used by ch ild re n are inadequate. Although th e materials may
h elp te a ch skills su ch as reading, idealists do not understand w hy su ch skills
ca n n o t be taught in w ays that develop conceptual ability as w ell. O ne might
argue that the M cG uffey readers that were w idely used in sch o o ls seventy years
ago taught the ch ild so m ethin g in addition to reading. T h e y fostered ideas
about parental relationsh ips, God, morality, and patriotism. A cou nterargu
m ent might be that th ese are the wrong kinds of concepts, but are the more

cu rre n t sterilized readers portrayed by tbn Dick and Jan e types an im pro ve
m ent? W h ile most id ealists claim th;it they ore opposed to the use of reading
material for ind octrin ation , they do not see why reading m aterial cannot, w hile
it is h elp in g a child learn to read, encourage thinking about ideas involving
b ro therho o d, truth, and fair play. Although there is a dearth of books and
materials that express su ch ideas for children, idealists still b elieve that the
te a ch e r should en courage a consid eration of ideas in the classro o m . Even with
a D ick and Jane type of book, for exam ple, a teacher sh o u ld help a child to
ex p lo re the materials for meanings su ch as the purpose of fam ily, the nature of
peer pressures, and the problems of growing up.
W ith older ch ild re n , one can use materials that are m o re appropriate to
th is kind of learning. T re asu re Island. The Adventures o f Tom Sawyer. Peter
P an , all co n tain m aterial that is well written and lends itself adm irably to a
d is c u s s io n of ideas. W ith high school students, there is even more material at
o n e s disp osal that is idea engendering: The Iliad; H am let; Twice-Told Tales;
and Wind, Sand, an d Stars. S in c e these materials are already w id ely used, one
m igh t w onder what is so special about the way id ealists w ould use them.
Id ealists charge that te ach e rs are not alw ays equipped to use su ch materials for
the ideas con tained in them. Su ch books may becom e, in th e eyes of teachers
and students, another h urdle to get over, another b e n c h m a rk or list of books to
be read.
Idealists b elieve that ideas can change lives. C hristian ity was o n ce merely
an idea, and so was M a rx ism , but such ideas have transform ed w ho le societies.
Id ealists th ink that h u m a n s can becom e more noble and rational by developing
th e ability to think. T h e use of the classics for h um anizin g learning experiences
h as b ee n encouraged by idealists. W hatever factors are invo lved in the hum an
r a c e s evolutionary past, the idealist holds that the m ost im portant part of o n e s
b ein g is o n e s mind. It is to be nourished and developed. It h as a potentiality for
an acc u m u la tio n of facts, and it has the ability to co n c e p tu a liz e and to create.
Idealists charge that the schools neglect this im po rtan t consid eration of
m ind . Even w hen the classics are taught, students are often required to m e m
orize dates and n am es w ithou t due attention to the creative aspects of the mind.
C reativity will be encouraged w hen students are im m ersed in the creative
th in k in g of others, and w h en they are stimulated to th in k reflectively. T h is can
c o m e about only in an en vironm ent that promotes the u se of the mind.
W h ile idealist educators stress classical studies, th is does not mean that
su c h studies are all th at they stress. Indeed, some id ealists re co m m en d studies
th at are distinctly m o d ern in tone. F or example, W illiam T. Harris developed a
c u rric u lu m plan centered around five studies: (1) m a th e m a tics and physics, (2)
biology, (3) literature and art, (4) grammar, and (5) history. Herman Horne
suggested seven m ajor studies: physics, biology, psy cholog y, m athem atics,
grammar, literature, and history. Both Harris and H orne felt that these areas
w ere im portant en ou gh to be considered on every cu rricu lu m level and broad
enough to contain even elective studies. It should be noted that the scien ces are

heavily represented in both of these recom m end ations. This points to the fact
that idealists s u c h as Harris and Horne did not disregard the development of
new k no w led ge or the needs of tw entieth-century society. Neither Harris nor
Horne saw any in co m patibility betw een studies in the liberal arts and the
natural sc ie n c e s. In fact, they m aintained that a more co m p lete understanding
of the u niverse n ecessitates studies in both the arts and the scien ces.

CRITIQUE OF IDEALISM IN EDUCATION

Idealism is often co n sid ere d a conservative philosophy of ed u catio n because
m uch of its thrust is to preserve cultural traditions. T his is borne out by e x
am ination of the id e a lis ts concern for perennial and ultim ate truths and their
notion that e d u ca tio n is largely a matter of passing on the cultural heritage.
Many ad herents p o in t to the strengths of idealism , su ch as (1) the high cog n i
tive level of e d u ca tio n idealists promote, (2) their co n cern for safeguarding and
promoting cu ltu ra l learning, (3) their great co n c e rn for morality and character
developm ent, (4) th e ir view of the teacher as a person of respect central to the
educational pro cess, (5) th eir stress on the im portan ce of self-realization, (6)
their stress u p o n the h u m an and personal side of life, and (7) their co m p re
hensive, sy stem atic, and holistic approach.
Historically, the in fluence of id ealism on ed ucation has been of su ch
proportions that e v e n today it is hard to find schools that do not in some way
reflect id ealist p rin cip le s. W h ile id e a lism s influence has suffered in recent
decades, probably no other single philosophy has affected ed ucation for as
great a period of tim e as idealism . Beginning w ith Plato in th e fourth century
B.C., through sc h o la s tic is m in the M id d le Ages, to Kant and Hegel, and up to the
tw entieth century, id e alism has been a dom inant force with w h ic h to reckon.
Several factors have contributed to a w eakening of id ealism in contem porary
affairs: indu strialization and technological advances have taken their toll, d e
velopm ents in th e field of sc ien c e have brought about fundam ental challenges
to idealistic p rin cip le s, the renewed vigor of realism and naturalistic p h ilo so
phies has put m ore e m p h asis on the material as opposed to ideal aspects of life,
and the co ntem po rary em phasis on n ew ness as opposed to cultural heritage
and lasting values has eroded the idealist position.
M any id ealists counter that certain ideas contained in traditional w rit
ings, some w ritten over 2 ,0 0 0 years ago, are as relevant today as ever. Th ey
maintain, w ith E cc le siastes, that Th ere is nothing really n ew under the s u n ,
for m any co ntem po rary problems we face today are problems philosophers and
others faced long ago. Plato, for example, dealt extensively w ith the problems
of democracy, ind ivid u ality, and language. T h e B ib le discusses topics such as
human suffering, greed, w ealth, and h um an purpose. W h en H erman M elville
wrote Moby Dick, he drew upon central B ib lic al them es of good and evil that
still provide h u m a n guidance. There are a num b er of sem inars, based on the

UlhAli^M

AM#

AI H* S

Groat Hooks program, c o n d u c t e d today that deal vvitli s u c h t h e me s , and from

tilt; point of vi e w of s o u k ! idea 1i st s . provide; m o r e i ns i ght t han do most hoo k s on
the b e s t - s e l l er list. S u c h s e m i n a r s have found t he i r w a y into s c h o o l s , libraries,
r e adi ng ci r c l e s , a n d e v e n i nto a dul t e du c a t i on p r o g r a m s in m a n y p r i s ons . Ma n y
of the p e op l e w h o a t t e n d e d t he Great B o o k s p r o g r a m in t he 1 9 5 0 s . w h e n it
b egan, still l oo k b a c k on the i r e x p e r i e n c e wi t h a s e n s e of nostal gi a. T o d a y , the
E n c y c l o p a e d i a B r i t a n n i c a p u b l i s h e s the Great B o o k s for h o m e use. a nd the
a c c o m p a n y i n g S y n o p t i c o n pr o v i de s a ^ey to h e l p the re a d e r l ocat e and u n d e r
stand the c e n t r a l i de a s of the books. M a ny p e o p l e are a m a z e d that so ma ny
i ss ues we t h i n k are n e w , s u c h as e u t h a n a s i a a n d a b or t i on, are treated e x t e n
s i v e l y by e v e n t h e a n c i e n t aut hors. S t u de n t s of the Great B oo k s of t en find
fl ashes of i n s i g h t f r o m t he i r r e a di ng s that s t i m u l a t e t he i r t h i nk i ng a l ong ne w
paths.
O p p o n e n t s of i d e a l i s m h a v e l ooked to t h e o n s l a u g ht wi t h jov. for thev
h a v e l ong s e a r c h e d for wa v s to get around wh a t to t h e m is the l ethargi c nature
of i de a l is m. W h a t t h e y o b j e c t to pri mari l y are its f u n d a m e n t a l pr e mi se s . For
e x a m p l e , the i d e a l i s t n o t i o n of a fi ni shed a n d a b s o l u t e u n i v e r s e w a i t i ng to be
d i s c o v e r e d has h i n d e r e d progress in s c i e n c e a n d t h e c r e a t i on of n e w i deas and
p r o c e s s e s . If o n e a c c e p t s t h e c o n c e p t of a b s o l u t e i deas , it is not p o s s i b l e to go
b e y o n d t ho s e i de a s w i t h o u t q u e s t i o n i n g or d o u b t i n g t he i r a b s o l u t e n e s s . T h i s
wa s o ne of the c h i e f p r o b l e m s mo d e r n s c i e n c e ha d in g a i ni ng a c c e p t a n c e , for
s c i e n c e is p r e m i s e d o n t e nt a ti ve ne s s and h y p o t h e s e s rat h er t ha n 011 stabil ity
a n d a x i o m s . I n d e e d , c o n t e m p o r a r y s c i e n c e is l argel y c h a ra c t e r i z e d by H e i s e n
b e r g s p r i n c i p l e of i n d e t e r m i n a c y " that says, in effect, w e c a n n o t be certai n
a b o u t an y t h i ng . E i n s t e i n s t h e o r y of relat ivity h a s b e e n us ed to c h a l l e n g e the
i de al i s t as s e r t i o n of a fi xed un i v e r s e . Sti ll a n o t h e r c a u s e of the w e a k e n i n g of
i d e a l i s m is t h e h i s t o r i c a l d e c l i n e of t r a di t i o na l r e l i gi ou s i n f l ue n c e in c o n t e m
po r ar y affairs. B e c a u s e i d e a l i s m has b e e n i n t i m a t e l y l ink e d wi t h tradi ti onal
r e l i g i on, the w e a k e n i n g of t he o n e has in turn l ed to the w e a k e n i n g of the other.
H o w e ve r , t h e r e a r e s i g ns that the d e c l i n e in r e l i g i on ma y be changi ng.
W h i l e t he i n f l u e n c e of t r a d i ti o n a l or gani zed r e l i gi on ha s d e c r e a s e d, there has
b e e n a r e c e n t r e n e w a l of i nt e res t in m y s t i c i s m , e a s t e r n r e l i g i ous tho ug ht , and
va r i o u s f o r ms of m e d i t a t i o n that take n e w d i r e c t i o n s fr o m the m o r e tradi ti onal
r e l i gi ous vi e ws . In a d d i t i o n , there; has b e e n a r e s u r g e n c e in e va n g e l i ca l C h r i s
t i ani t y i n r e c e n t ye ars w i t h a great deal of e m p h a s i s on e d u c a t i o n of the young.
T h e s e d e v e l o p m e n t s u s u a l l y h a v e i de a l is t i c u n d e r p i n n i n g s , e s p e c i a l l y in thei r
vi e w s on the p r o p e r a i m s and c o n t e n t of s c h o o l i n g .
F r o m t he s t a n d p o i n t of e d u c a t i o n , it s e e m s t he r e are s everal i s s u e s that
n e e d further s c r u t i n y . T h e i de al i s t i n f l u e n c e 011 e d u c a t i o n ha s b e e n of great
m a g n i t u d e , but t h e r e are s e r i o u s r e s er va t i on s a b o u t w h e t h e r that i n f l ue n c e has
a l wa y s b e e n b e n e f i c i a l . W h i l e i deal ist e d u c a t i o n h a s e m p h a s i z e d the c og ni t i ve
s i d e of h u m a n k i n d , it h a s t e n d e d t oward i n t e l l e c t u a l i s m to the d e t r i m e n t of the
a f f ect i ve and p h y s i c a l side. Not onl y has it of t e n i g nor e d the a f f ect i ve and
p h y s i c a l side, b ut it h a s i gno r e d the large n u m b e r of p e o p l e w h o find its cog-

CHAPTER I

n itiv e e m p h a s i s n a rro w and p e d a n tic. T his has m a d e idealism tend to w a rd

d e v e l o p i n g an in tellec tu a l elite.

T h e problem of elitism goes deep into id e alism s roots. Plato advocated an

in te lle c tu a l elite of philosopher-kings. Augustine argued for the superiority of
the m o n a s tic life over the secular b ecause of the h igher quality of m ind and
in t e llig e n c e to be found there: m onks were a select group set aside for sp e cial
treatm ent. Idealists have te nded to view formal ed ucation not for the m asses
bu t for a ch o s e n few w h o could understand and appreciate it properly; c o n s e
q u en tly , th ey have concentrated on education for the upper classes of society,
p articu larly for those going into leadership positions in government or the
c h u rc h . T h is factor has often h elped formal education to be viewed as a lu xury,
a v ailab le o nly to the privileged few. To the extent that idealist regimes have
tried to extend at least som e formal schoolin g to the public, the view has been
that v o catio n al and te c h n ic a l studies are sufficient for the masses, w hile liberal
stu d ies are fit o n ly for the elite. W h ile not all idealists have felt this way, the
te n d e n c y toward elitism has been generally recognized.
Jo h n Paul Strain states that one has to go back several years in the journals
on e d u c a tio n to find an article on idealism . One might think this co n sp icu o u s
a b s e n c e in d icates that id ealism is no longer a viable philosophy of edu cation ,
yet the reverse is true, Strain states. W h en people refer to idealism as a p h i
lo so p h y of ed u catio n they generally have in mind Hegelian idealism , w h ic h
w as d o m in a n t in the n ineteen th century and influenced such thinkers as John
D ew ey an d H erman Harrell Horne. Although it is difficult today to find p h i
lo so p h e rs of ed u catio n w ho are true idealists, id ealism does exist in the
th ou gh t patterns of A m e ric an education. These thought patterns influen ced the
w ritin g s and w ork of W illiam T. Harris, w ho was a United States C om m ission er
of E d u c a tio n and Su p erin ten d en t of the St. Louis Sc h o o ls in the late nin e te en th
ce n tu ry, as w ell as e ssen tialists w ho promoted strong traditional values in
ed u ca tio n . Strain believes that the philo so p h y of the Council of B a sic E d u c a
tion is a perfect synop sis of id ealism as a philosophy of education, that is, that
e d u c a tio n should focus on the heritage and culture of the race, reading and
w riting, in tellig e n ce , and morality. W e might also add to this list su ch things as
re sp ec t for parental authority, law and order, d iscipline, and patriotism. Strain
says that the thought pattern of id ealism also encourages progress, strong in
stitu tio n s, self-control, d isciplin e, and the im portance of education.
S t r a i n s view s do reflect w hy m any philosophers of education have not
w ish e d to be identified with idealism with its religious character on the one
h and and its su bservience to political authority on the other. Hegel believed
that th e b es t form of government was a constitutional monarchy and Strain
favors a s im ila r approach to government today. Strain is correct w h en he says
that id e a lis m still flourishes as a h istorical pattern of thought that exerts a
p o w erfu l, often subtle in fluence on our thinking.
In sp ite of its generalist approach to studies, idealism is susceptible to the
charge of shortsightedness with regard to the affective and physical side of

ii>i

i-.M \\;i i ! m < s in

i n d i vi du a l s . It we iiicludi' in our def i ni t i on ot " a f l e c t i v e " not onl y the a e st het i c

hut a l so tin; e m o t i o n a l and pe r s o na l - s o c i al s i d e of life, t he n s u c h a charge; gains
cre:eli;nce;. T he 1 ide;alist c u r r i c u l u m is ovesrly boeikish, a nd w h i l e attt; nding to
boe>ks is not had in itself, if we fail to r e c og n i z e e m o t i o n a l and soc i al needs,
then w e are not re;allv a t t e n d i n g to the c o m p l e t e pe r s on. I deal i s t s c l a i m to be
h o l i s t i c a n d u n i v e r s a l , vet in thei r e x t r e m e c og n i t i ve a n d b o o k i s h a ppr o a c h,
(he y s e e m to fail to take; thei r o w n a d v i c e in this regard. F o r e x a m p l e , it is one
t hi ng to l ear n a b o u t h u m a n nature from /eading e n d u r i n g s c ho l a r l y treati ses on
the; subje;c.t, but it is qui t e a no t he r to e ngage p u r p o s e f u l l y in s oci a l r e l a t i o ns h i ps
wi t h f e l l o w h u m a n bei ngs in the e ve r y d a y worl d. C o n s e q u e n t l y , i dealist
k n o w l e d g e is of t e n onl y " a r m c h a i r " k n o w l e d g e rather t ha n the dee p i nsight
that c o m e s f r o m i n t e r a c t i o n wi th ot he r pe opl e .
In r e c e n t years, the idealist c u r r i c u l u m ha s i n c r e a s i n g l y c o m e u n d e r at
t a c k for l a c ki n g relevance;. I deal ists ha v e of fered s o m e r a t h er c o m p e l l i n g d e
f e n s e s. but t h e r e is still an e l e me n t of truth in the c ha r g e that wi l l not go away.
T o the e x t e n t that i de al i s t s c o n c e n t r a t e o n l y on wo r k s of the past, the charge
gai ns c r e d i b i l i t y . Ce r t ai nl y , there are i ns i ght s in the great wr i ti ngs of the past,
but of t e n t h e y are too general to aid in d e a l i n g wi t h s pe c i f i c c on t e m p o r a r y
p r o b l e m s . It is true that we s ho u l d s t ud y great i deas f r o m t he past, but this does
not m e a n that we s h o u l d i gnore c o n t e m p o r a r y i deas and writi ngs. O n e of the;
c r i t i c i s m s l e v e l e d at e d u c a t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i on s s u c h as S a i n t J o h n ' s of Annapedi s
is that t h e y deal too m u c h wi th the past a nd t oo little w i t h the pres en t and the
future. A l t h o u g h d e f en d e r s of these pr o g r a ms m a i n t a i n that (here is a l l o w a n c e
for m o r e r e c e n t l iterature, it still r e ma i n s true that m o s ' of the r e a di ng is h u n
dr e ds or t h o u s a n d s of y ears old. T h i s a p p r o a c h t e n d s to i gnore or d ow n g r a d e a
large b o d y of c o n t e m p o r a r y ma t e r i al s in m a n y areas s u c h as art, s c i e n c e , p h i
l o s o p h y , l i t e rat ure , and the ma s s me di a .
O n e of t h e c l a i m s ma de by i deal i s t s is that t he y give m o r e a t t e nt i on to the
d e v e l o p m e n t of charae;ter than do a d v o c a t e s of o t he r p h i l o s o p h i e s . T h i s is
p r o b a b l y true, but t he re are s e r i ous q ue s t i o n s to be rai sed as to w h y ide a l is t s are
so c o n c e r n e d wi t h c h a ra c t e r d e v e l o p m e n t a nd wh a t k i nd of c h a r a c t er they
w a n t to d e v e l o p . Of t e n what parades for c h a r a c t e r d e v e l o p m e n t in idealist
p h i l o s o p h y is c o n f o r m i t y and s u b s e r v i e n c e on the part of t he l earner. Harris,
for e x a m p l e , said the first rule; to be taught te) s t u d e n t s is order; p u pi l s s h o u l d
be t au g ht to c o n f o r m to the general s t a nd a rd s a nd to re pr e s s e ve r y t hi ng that
i nt e r f e r e s w i t h the f u n c t i o n of the s c h o o l . M o r e e xp l i c i t l y , pu pi l s s h o u l d ha ve
t h e i r l e s s o n s r e ad y on ti me, rise at the tap of t h e b el l, a nd l ea r n habi t s of s i l e n c e
a n d c l e a n l i n e s s . O n e mi ght wel l q u e s t i o n w h e t h e r t h i s is c h a r a c t er d e v e l o p
m e n t or t r a i ni ng for doc i l i ty. T h i s k i nd of c h a r a c t e r t rai ni ng m a y assist i n
e d u c a t i o n a l a n d soci al stability, but it is of t en at the e x p e n s e of c re a t i vi t y and
s e l f - d i r e c t i o n . T h e ki nd of c h a ra c t e r t r a i ni ng i de a l is t s p r o mo t e ma y al so resul t
in the g u l l i b i l i t y of s t ud e nt s to a c c e p t r e a d y - m a d e i de a s wi t h o u t s e r i o us e x a m
i na t i o n. M a n y of the s o- c a l l ed great i deas , for e x a m p l e , rest on p r e mi s e s or
a s s u m p t i o n s that are q ue s t i o n a bl e, and i n t h e final a n a l ys i s, ma y be s oc i al l y

-*

CHAPT1CK \

harm ful. G iovanni G entile and Josiah Royce, for exam ple, spen t a great deal of
tim e dealing with the concept of loyalty as central to the d evelopm ent of ch a r
acter. W h ile loyalty may be so cially useful in some cases, it can also be harmful
w h e n it encourages the learner to submerge all qu estio ning and intellectual
in d e p e n d e n c e w ith regard to co n c e p ts involving chu rch, state, or school.
S o m e idealists, su ch as B utler, em phasize the self-realization aspect of
ch ara cter education, yet such self-realization is often seen as a derivative of a
u niversal self; h ence, even under a softer idealist approach, the individual self
is su b su m e d under a larger and m ore im portant concern, that is, the universal
self or God. T h is line of reasoning can be traced back to Hegel who saw the
in d iv id u al person ach ieving m eanin g by serving the state.
A n o th e r aspect of idealist p h ilo so p h y that deserves attention is the co n
te n tio n that the primary function of ph ilo so phy is to search for and disseminate
truths. O n e finds this view elaborated by Plato, for ex a m p le, w ho believed that
truth is both perfect and eternal. E ven today, idealists point out that the search
for w isd o m is really a search for truth, an ongoing pursuit ea c h new generation
of stud ents must do, although the final answers may alw ays be the same. This
v iew p o in t leads to a type of staticism . T h e assumption is that w e have the truth
already at hand in great works of th e past. The danger in th is belief is that it
d iscourages a search for new ideas and develops a kind of dogmatism and false
sen se of security. W h ile idealists m a in tain that m o dern ind ivid u als are too
relative and tentative in their thin king, the absoluteness of m any idealists may
be a m ore serious w eakness.
W h ile this attitude may ch ara cterize a number of idealists, some have a
m ore plu ralistic co n cep tio n of truth, maintaining that th ere m ay be not one but
m an y truths that people should ponder, not only for the sake of knowledge but
for the in tellectu al stim ulation provided. Idealism, of course, like all other
p h ilo so p h ie s, has m an y shades and meanings, and it w o uld be grossly unfair to
lu m p all idealists together. Each w riter describes or reinterprets ideas in the
light of his experien ces, and thus no two are the same. However, there are
certain te n d en cies toward areas su ch as character developm en t and education
in general that idealists share, and the purpose of this ch a p ter has been to point
out th ese general trends.

Plato

THE REPUBLIC
T h e Republic has often been considered one o f the greatest expressions o f idealist
philosophy and Plato's most thorough statement on education.* Writing in the fourth
century, B . C . , Plato described his utopian view o f human society. It was not unusual for
him to depict central ideas in allegorical fo rm at. In this selection, h e shows Socrates
attempting to explain how achieving higher levels o f thought (i.e., thinking philosoph-

ii'dllv). I* dJun lo prisoners i'm uping from i h i ir s h n d i i n y pns on n i <i i in <\ I'loht i l r m
onst ml es liolli the pmnful <f111k u/1\ of (lie uscent lowurd wisdom mid its pofrnfi<i/h'
dungerous consequences. .\funv scliolurs believe the story ponil/els Socniles' (IWII life
und deuth.
And now, 1 said, let me s ho w in a figure how far
our nature is enl i ght e ne d or une nl i ght e ne d:
Hohold! h uman beings l iving in an underground
den, whi c h has a mo ut h o pe n t owards the light
and reachi ng all al ong the den; here they have
been from their c hi l d h o o d , and have their legs
and necks c h a i n e d so that they can not move,
and can only see before t hem, bei ng prevented
by the c ha i ns from turni ng round their heads.
Above and be hi nd t he m a fire is blazing at a
distance, and be t we e n the fire and the prisoners
there is a rai sed way; and you wi ll see. if you
look, a low wal l built al ong the way, like the
screen wh i c h ma r i onet t e pl ayers have in front of
them, over w h i c h they s h o w the puppets.
I see.
And do you see, I said, m e n passi ng along the
wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and
figures of a n i ma l s ma d e of wo o d and stone and
various materi al s, w h i c h appe ar over the wall?
S o me of t h e m are talking, ot hers silent.
You have s h o wn m e a st range image, and
they are strange prisoners.
Like oursel ves, I repl i ed; and they see onl y
their o wn s hadows , or the s h a d o ws of one a n
other, w h i c h t he fire t hrows on the opposite wall
of the cave?
True, he said; h o w c oul d they see anyt hi ng
but the s ha d o ws if t hey we re ne ve r al lowed to
move their heads?
And of the obj ect s w h i c h are being carried in
like ma n ne r t he y wo ul d o nl y see the shadows ?
Yes, he said.
And if t hey we re abl e to c onver se with one
another, wo u l d they not s u ppo s e that they were
na mi ng what was a c t ua l l y bef ore them?
Very true.
And s u ppo s e further that the prison had an
e c h o wh i c h c a me f rom the other side, woul d
t hey not be sure to f ancv wh e n one of the
passers-by s poke that the voi c e whi c h they
heard c a me f rom the passi ng shadow?
No quest i on, he replied.

T o t hem, 1 said, the truth woul d be literally

not hi ng but the s ha d o ws of the i mages.
That is certain.
And n o w look again, and see what will nat
urall y follow' if the prisoners are rel eased and
di sabused of their error. At first, wh e n any of
t hem is liberated and c ompel l ed s udde nl y to
stand up and turn his neck round and wal k and
look towards the light, he will sutfer sharp
pains: the glare will distress him, and he will be
unable to see the realities of whi c h in his former
state he had seen the shadows; anil then c o n
cei ve s ome one saving to him, that what he saw
before was an i llusion, but that now. whe n he is
a ppr oac hi ng nearer to being and his eye is
turned towards mor e real exi st ence, he has a
clearer visi on. what will be his reply? And
you may further imagi ne that his instruct or is
poi nt i ng to the objects as they pass and requir
ing hi m to na me t he m, will be not be per
pl exed? Wi ll he not fancy that the s hadows
wh i c h he formerly saw are truer t han the objects
whi c h are no w s h o wn to him?
Far truer.
And if he is c ompe l l e d to look straight at the
light, will he not have a pain in his eyes whi c h
will make hi m turn away to take refuge in the
obj ect s of visi on wh i c h he can see, and wh i c h he
will c on c e i v e to be in reality clearer than the
things w'hich are now being s h o wn to him?
T r u e , he said.
And s uppo s e o n c e more, that he is r e l uc
tantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and
held fast until he is forced into the pres ence of
the sun hi mself , is he not likely to be pai ned and
irritated? W h e n he appr oaches the light his eyes
will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see
a nyt hi ng at all of what are no w cal l e d realities.
Not all in a mome nt , he said.
He will require to grow a c c u s t ome d to the
sight of the upper world. And first he will see
the s ha dows best, next the ref l ect i ons of me n
and other objects in the water, and t hen the ob-

ji ' ds t he ms e l ve s ; Hum hi- will gaze upon th<;

light of tin* m o o n and the stars and the spangl ed
heaven: and he will see the sky and the stars by
night better t han the s un or the light of the sun
by day?
Cert ai nl y.
Last of all he will be abl e to see the s un, and
not me r e ref l ect i ons of h i m in the water, but he
will see h i m i n his o wn proper place, and not in
another; a nd he will c o n t e mpl a t e hi m as he is.
Certai nl y.
He wi l l t he n proceed to argue that this is he
wh o gives t he season and the years, and is the
guardian of all that is in t he visible worl d, and in
a cert ain w a y the c a us e of all things w h i c h he
and his f el l o ws have b e e n a c cus t o me d to b e
hold?
Clearly, he said, he woul d first see the sun
and t hen r e a s on about hi m.
And w h e n h e r e me mb e r e d his old habi t at ion,
and the w i s d o m of the den and his fell owprisoners, do you not s uppo s e that he woul d
felicitate h i ms e l f on the change, and pity t he m?
Cert ai nl y, h e woul d.
And if t he y were i n t he habit of conf erri ng
honor s a m o n g t he ms e l ve s on those wh o were
qui c ke s t to o bse r ve the pas si ng shadows and to
remark w h i c h of t h e m we nt before, and w h i c h
fol l owed after, and w h i c h were together; and
who we re t heref ore best able to draw c o n c l u
sions as to t he future, do you t hi nk that he
woul d care for s uc h ho no r s and glories, or e nvy
the po s se s sor s of t he m? Wo u l d he not say wi t h
Homer,
Bet t er to be the poor servant of a poor
mast er,
and to e n d u r e anyt hi ng, rather than t hi nk as
they do and l i ve after t hei r manner?
Yes, he said, I t hi nk that he woul d rather s uf
fer a ny t hi ng t han ent ert ai n these false not i ons
and l ive in t hi s mi s er a bl e manner.
I magi ne o n c e more, I said, such a one c o mi ng
s ud de nl y out of the sun to be replaced in his old
situation; w o u l d he not be certain to have his
eyes full of darkness?
T o be sure, he said.

And if thorn wont n emi t m l . and hn hud to

c ompe t e in meas ur i ng thi? dimlown with the
pri soners who had never mo v e d out of the den,
whi l e his sight was still weak, and before his
eyes had b e co me st eady (and the ti me whi c h
woul d be needed to a c q ui r e this ne w habit of
sight mi ght be very cons i der a b l e ) , woul d he not
be ri dicul ous? M e n wo u l d say of hi m that up he
we nt and do wn he c a m e wi t hout his eyes; and
that it was better not e v en to t hi nk of ascendi ng:
and if any one tried to l oos e anot her and lead
hi m up to the light, let t h e m o nl y cat ch the of
f ender, and they woul d put h i m to death.
No question, he said.
T hi s entire allegory, 1 said, you may n o w a p
pend, dear Gl aucon, to the previ ous argument;
the pri son- house is the wo r l d of sight, the light
of the fire is the sun, and you wi l l not mi s a ppr e
he nd me if you interpret t he j our ney upwards to
be the ascent of the soul into the intell ectual
worl d accordi ng to my poor belief, whi c h, at
your desire, I have e xpr e ss e d whe t he r rightlv
or wrongl y God knows. But, whe t he r true or
false, my opi ni on is that in t he worl d of k n o w l
edge the idea of good a ppears last of all, and is
s een onl y wi t h an effort; and, w h e n seen, is also
inferred to be the uni versal aut hor of all things
beauti ful and right, parent of light and of the
lord of light in this vi si ble worl d, and the i m
medi ate source of reas on and truth in the i nt el
lectual; and that this is t he po we r upo n wh i c h
he who w'ould act rat i onal l y ei t her in publ i c or
private life must have his eye fixed.
1
agree, he said, as far as I a m able to un d e r
stand you.
Moreover, I said, you mus t not wo nd e r that
t hose wh o attain to this beatifi c visi on are u n
wi ll i ng to descend to h u m a n affairs; for their
soul s are ever hast eni ng into t he upper world
wher e t hey desire to dwe l l ; w h i c h desire of
theirs is very natural, if o ur allegory ma y be
trusted.
Yes, very natural.
And is there anyt hi ng s urpr i s i ng i n one who
passes from divi ne c o n t e mp l a t i o n s to the evil
state of man, mi s beha vi ng h i ms e l f in a ri d i c u
l ous manner; if, whi l e hi s eyes are bl i nki ng and
before he has b e c o me a c c u s t o m e d to the sur-

ftiunilmi; darkness. he is <( t mpf l l rd In light in

i outl s of law. m ot her pl.ii -s. about tin- im.lUis nr the s h a d o ws >I images ol justice. .uul is
<mug In meet the iun.s ot llio.se
who have never vet seen absol ute justice?
Anything but s urprisi ng, lu: replied.
Am' iu wh o has c o m m o n sense will r e memI ht tli.it the b e wi l d e r me n t s of the eyes are of two

the soul whi c h i.miies from bel ow into the light,

kinds, and arise from two causes, ei ther from

was net there before, like sight into bl i nd eyes.

T h e y undoubt edl y say this, he replied.
Whereas, our argument s ho ws that the power
and capaci t y of learning exi st s in the soul al
ready; and that just as the eye w as unabl e to turn
f rom darkness to light wi t hout the who l e body,
so too the instrument of knowledge c an o nl y by
the mo v e me n t of the whol e soul be t urned from
the worl d of b e comi ng into that of being, and
learn by degrees to endure the sight of being,
and of the brightest and best of being, or in other
words, of the good.

there will be more reason 1 1 1 this than in the

laugh whi c h greets him who returns from above
out of the light into tin! den.
That , he said, is a very just distincti on.
But t hen, if I am right, cer t ai n professors of
e duc at i on must be wrong w h e n they say that
they can put a knowledge into the soul whi c h

M i m i n g out of the light or from going into the

11 1 1. whi ch is true of the mi nd' s eye. qui te as

much as of the bodi l y eye; and he who re memIxirs this when he s ee s a ny one whos e visi on is
perplexed and weak, wi ll not be too ready to
I.nigh; he will first ask whe t he r that sold of man
ha.s c o m e out of t he bri ghter life, and is una bl e to
see because u n a c c u s t o me d to the dark, or havi ng
turned from d ar knes s to the day is dazzled by
excess of light. A n d he will count the one h a ppy
in his c ondi t i on a nd state of being, and he will
pity the other: or, if he have a mi nd to laugh at
* S e l e c t i o n f r o m P l a t o , T h e R e p u b l i c . t r. iH"

B. l o w e t t ( N e w Y o r k : D o l p h i n B u n k s . 1 9 6 0 ] . p p . 2 0 5 - 8 .

Kant

EDUCATION
Kant be l i e ve d t hat e d u c a t i o n is the greatest a nd most d i f f i c ul t probl em to whi ch man
c a n d e v o t e h i m s e l f , " a n d in t h e f o l l o w i n g s e l e c t i o n , h e s h o w s h o w e du c a t i o n c a n be
u s e d to s h a p e h u m a n c ha r a c t e r t hrough m a x i m s , or e nduri ng pri nci pl es f o r h u ma n
a ct i vi t y. * Al t hough written in the e i ght e e nt h cent ury, this essav shows a d e c i d e d l y
c o n t e m p o r a r y c o n c e r n f o r c h i l d d e v e l o p m e n t a n d l earni ng t h r o u g h act ivi ti es. Kant
stressed c h a r a c t e r deve l opme nt and a c o m m i t m e n t to d ut y . T h i s c once r n is illustrated
in his d e s c r i pt i o ns o f v a rious m a x i m s a n d how they s h o u l d g i ve c e r t a i n re sul t s .
Moral cul t ure mu s t be based upon ' m a x i m s . '
not upon d i s c i pl i ne ; the one prevents evil h a b
its, the other t rai ns t he mi nd to think. W e mus t
see, then, that t he c hi l d shoul d a c c u s t o m h i m
self to act in a c c o r d a n c e with m a x i m s , and
not f rom cert ain e ver - cha ngi ng springs of action.
Through d i s c i pl i n e we form certain habits,
moreover, the f orce of whi c h becomes l essened
in the course of years. T h e child shoul d learn to
act a c cor di ng to ' ' ma x i ms . ' ' the re a s onabl ene ss
of whi ch he is abl e to see for himself. One c a n

easily see that there is s o me difficulty in carry

ing out this pri nci ple with yo ung c hi l dre n, and
that moral cul ture d e ma nd s a great deal of i n
sight on the part of parents and teachers.
S u p p o s i n g a child tells a lie, for i nstance, he
ought not to be puni shed, but treated wi t h c o n
tempt , and told that he wi l l not be beli eved in
the future, and the like. If you p u n i sh a chi l d for
be i ng naughty, and reward h i m for bei ng good,
he will do right merel y for the sake of the re
ward; and whe n he goes out into the worl d and

finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor

wickedness always punished, he will grow into
a man who only thinks about how he may get on
in the world, and does right or wrong according
as he finds either of advantage to himself.
Maxi ms ought to originate in the human
being as such. In moral training we should seek
early to infuse into children ideas as to what is
right and wrong. If we wish to establish moral
ity, we must abolish punishment. Morality is
something so sacred and sublime that we must
not degrade it by placing it in the same rank as
discipline. The first endeavour in moral educa
tion is the formation of character. Character c on
sists in readiness to act in accordance with
maxi ms. At first they are school maxims,
and later max i ms of mankind. At first the
child obeys rules. Ma x i ms are also rules, but
subjective rules. They proceed from the under
standing of man. No infringement of school dis
cipline must be allowed to go unpunished, al
though the punishment must always fit the
offence.
If we wish to form the characters of children,
it is of the greatest importance to point out to
them a certain plan, and certain rules, in every
thing; and these must be strictly adhered to. For
instance, they must have set times for sleep, for
work, and for pleasure; and these times must be
neither shortened nor lengthened. With indiffer
ent matters children might be allowed to choose
for themselves, but having once made a rule
they must always follow it. We must, however,
form in children the character of a child, and not
the character of a citizen. . . .
Above all things, obedience is an essential
feature in the character of a child, especially of a
school boy or girl. Thi s obedience is twofold,
including absolute obedience to his masters
commands, and obedience to what he feels to be
a good and reasonable will. Obedience may be
the result of compulsion; it is then absolute; or it
may arise out of confidence; it is then obedience
of the second kind. Thi s voluntary obedience is
very important, but the former is also very nec
essary, for it prepares the child for the fulfilment
of laws that he will have to obey later, as a cit
izen, even though he may not like them.

-1

\' P

C H A PT E R 1

Children, then, must bo subject to a certain

law of necessity. This law, however, must be a

general o ne a rule which has to be kept c on
stantly in view, especially in schools. The mas
ter must not show any predilection or prefer
ence for one child above others; for thus the law
would cease to be general. As soon as a child
sees that the other children are not all placed
under the same rules as himself, he will at once
become refractory.
One often hears it said that we should put
everything before children in such a way that
they shall do it from inclination. In some cases,
it is true, this is all very well, but there is much
besides which we must place before them as
duty. And this will be of great use to them
throughout their life. For in the paying of rates
and taxes, in the work of the office, and in many
other cases, we must be led, not by inclination,
but by duty. Even though a child should not be
able to see the reason of a duty, it is nevertheless
better that certain things should be prescribed to
him in this way; for, after all, a child will always
be able to see that he has certain duties as a
child, while it will be more difficult for him to
see that he has certain duties as a human being.
Were he able to understand this also which,
however, will only be possible in the course
of years his obedience would be still more
perfect.
Every transgression of a command in a child
is a want of obedience, and this brings punish
ment with it. Also, should a command be dis
obeyed through inattention, punishment is still
necessary. This punishment is either phy sical or
moral. It is moral when we do something derog
atory to the chi l ds longing to be honoured and
loved (a longing which is an aid to moral train
ing); for instance, when we humiliate the child
by treating him coldly and distantly. This long
ing of children should, however, be cultivated
as much as possible. Hence this kind of punish
ment is the best, since it is an aid to moral
training for instance, if a child tells a lie, a
look of contempt is punishment enough, and
punishment of a most appropriate kind.
Physical punishment consists either in refus
ing a chi lds requests or in the infliction of pain.

I In' lir .l i'i .ikI(i In miir.il |ni:ii Wiiiirnl . 1 1 1 1 i is nl

.t
11 \i kind I hr si'i i ii if 1 I( ii ill must lie ii-.ril
with i .iiiliun. Icsl .in iliiliWrs :,i'M Wi.s s houl d hr
thi ii'Mlll. Il is (it lid usr lo give < 11 iI(Ir<'i 1 re
winds; llns makes them si'llish. anil _ni\'ir.s rise to
<in indoles h i c k ci Ki nd.
Further, o b e d i e n c e i.s ei ther lhat of tin: child
(ir thill of the y o u t h . Di sobe di e nc e i.s a l wa ys fol
lowed by |>i)iii.shmt1 1 1. T hi s is ei ther a really ncitunil jiui ii shi nent. whi c h a man brings upon
l umsel f bv his own behavi our
tor i nstance,
h e n a chi l d gets ill from overeat ing and this
V-i i k I of p u n i sh m e n t i.s the best, s i nce a man is
mbjecl lo it t hroughout his life, and not mer el y
during his c h i l d h o o d : or, on the other hand, tilt:
puni shment i.s artificial. Bv taking into c o n s i d
eration the c h i l d ' s desire to be loved and re
spected, s uc h pu n i sh me n t s may be c h o s e n as
will have a lasting effect upon its character.
Physical p u n i s h m e n t s must merel y s uppl e me nt
the i ns uf f i ci ency of moral puni s hme nt . II moral
puni shment have no effect at all. and we have at
last to resort to physi cal puni s hme nt , we shall
find after all that no good c haract er is f ormed in
this way. At t he begi nning, however, physi cal
restraint ma y serve to take the pl ace of ref l ec
tion.
Pun i s h me n t s inflicted with signs of unger are
useless. Ch i l d r e n then look upon the p u n i s h
ment s i mpl y as the result of anger, and upon
t hemsel ves me r el y as the vi ct i ms of that anger;
and as a general rule pu ni s hme nt must be i n
flicted on c hi l d r e n wi t h great c aut i on, that they
may unde r s t and that its one aim is their i m
provement. It is f ooli sh to cause c hi l dren, whe n
they are pu n i s h e d , to return thanks for the p u n
i shment by ki s si ng hands, and onl y turns the
child into a slave. If physi cal p u n i s hme nt is of
ten repeated, it makes a chi ld stubborn: and if
parents p u n i sh their c hi l dren for obst i nacy, they
often b e c o m e all the more obstinate. Besi des, it
is not a l wa ys the worst men wh o are obstinate,
and they wi l l often yield easily to kind r e m o n
strance.
T h e o b e d i e n c e of the growing vouth must be
dist inguished f rom the obe di e nc e of the child.
The former c onsi s t s in s ubmi s si on to rules of
duty. To do s ome t hi ng for the sake of duty

IlllMII.S obeyi ng ll'.lson It I'. Ill \.un lo speak to

chi I di en ol duty. They look upon It in the end as
s ome t hi ng whi c h il not lullilled will be f oll owed
by the rod. A chi ld may be guided by mere i n
stinct. As he grows up. however, the idea of duty
must c ome in. Also the idea ol s h a me s houl d not
be made use of with c hi l dre n, but onlv wi t h
t hose who have left c hi l d ho o d for vouth. Fo r it
c a nno t exist wi t h t hem till the idea of h o no u r
has firs, taken root.
T h e s ec ond principal feature in the f ormati on
ol a chi l d' s charact er is truthfulness. T hi s is the
foundat i on and very ess e nc e of character. A man
who tells lies has no character, and il he has anv
good in hi m it is merely the result of a cert ain
kind of temperament . S o m e c hi l dren have an
i ncl i nat i on towards Ki ng, and this frequent ly
for no other reason than that they have a lively
imagi nat i on. It is the father's b us i ne ss to see that
they are broken ol this habit, for mot hers g e n e r
ally look upo n it as a matter of little or no i m
port ance. even finding in it a flattering proot of
the c l evernes s and ability of their chi l dren. T h i s
is the ti me to make use of the sense of s hame , for
the chi l d in this case will underst and it well.
T h e bl ush of s ha me betrays us whe n we lie, but
it is not al ways a proof of it. for we often bl ush
at the s ha me l e s s ne s s of r thers who ac c u s e us of
guilt. On no c ondi t i on must wre puni s h c hi l d r e n
to force the truth from t hem, unl ess their telling
a lie i mme di a t el y results in s ome mi s chi ef ; then
they may be puni shed for that mi schi ef . T h e
wi t hdrawal of respect is the onl y fit p u n i s hme nt
for lying.
Pun i s h me n t s may be divi ded into negat ive
and positive puni shme nt s . T h e first may be a p
plied to l aziness or vi c i ous ness ; for i ns t ance, l y
ing, di s obedi enc e. Positive p u n i sh m e n t ma y be
appl i ed to acts of spit ef ulness. But above all
things we must take care never to bear c hi l dr e n
a grudge.
A third feature in the c hi l d' s c harac t er is socirib/eness. He must form f r i e ndshi ps wi t h other
chi l dren, and not be al wavs by hi mself . S o m e
teachers, it is true, are oppos e d to these f ri end
shi ps in school s, but this is a great mistake. C h i l
dren ought to prepare t he ms e l ve s for the s w e e t
est e nj o y me nt of life.

If ,i t eacher a l l ows hi ms rl l to prefer oni' chi ld

to another, it must lie on ac count ol its character,
and not for tfit: sake of any talents the chi ld may
possess; o t he r wi s e j eal ousy will arise, wh i c h is
oppos e d to f r i endshi p.
Chi l dren ought to be open- hear t ed and c h e e r
ful in their looks as t he sun. A joyful heart al one
is able to find its ha p p i n e s s in the good, A rel i
gion wh i c h make s p e o p l e gl oomy is a false rel i
gion; for we s houl d serve God with a joyful
heart, and not of c onst raint .
Chi l dren s ho ul d s o me t i me s be released from
the nar row c ons t r a i nt of school , ot herwi s e their
natural j oyo us nes s wi l l soon be que n c h ed.
W h e n the c hi l d is set free fie soon recovers his
natural elasticity. T h o s e games in wh i c h c h i l
dren, enj oyi ng perf ect freedom, are ever trying
to out do one anot her , will serve this purpose
best, and they will s o o n make their mi nds bright,
and cheerf ul again. . . .
Chi l dren s houl d o nl y be taught those things
wh i c h are sui t ed to thei r age. M a n y parents are
pl eased wi t h the p r e c o c i t y of their offspring; but
as a rule, no t hi ng wi l l c o me of s uc h c hi l dren. A
c hi l d s houl d be cl ever, but o nl y as a chi ld. He
s houl d not ape the ma n n e r s of his elders. Fo r a
chi l d to provi de h i ms e l f with moral s en t e nc e s

proper to manhood is to k " uml e beyond his

pr o vi nc e and to b e c o me mer el y . 1 1 1 mutator. He
ought to have merel y the unders t andi ng of a
c hi l d, and not seek to di s pl ay it too early. A
pr e c o c i o us child wi ll ne v e r b e c o me a man of
insight and clear unders t andi ng. It is just as
m u c h out of place for a c hi l d to follow all the
f as hi ons of the time, to curl his hair, wear ruf
fles, and even carry a snuf f - box. He will thus
a c qui re affected ma n ne r s not b e c o mi n g to a
c hi l d. Polite society is a b ur de n to hi m. ami he
ent i rely lacks a man' s heart. For that very reason
we must set ourselves earl y to fight against all
signs of vanity in a c hi l d; or, rather, we must
give hi m no occasi on to b e c o m e vain. Thi s eas
ily happens by people prat t l i ng before chi ldren,
tell i ng them how beaut i f ul they are. and how
wel l this or that dress b e c o m e s them, and p r o m
i si ng t hem some finery or ot her as a reward. F i n
ery is not suitable for c hi l dr e n. T h e y must a c
cept their neat and s i mp l e c l ot hes as necessari es
merel y.
At the same ti me the parents must not set
great store by their o w n clot hes, nor admire
t hemsel ves; for here, as ever ywher e, e xa mpl e is
all-powerful , and ei ther st rengt hens or destroys
good precepts.

S e l e c t i o n f r o m I m m a n u e l K a n t , E d u c a t i o n , t r a n s . A n n e t t e C h ar te r n ( A n n A r b o r : A n n A r b o r P a p e r b a c k s . T h e
U n iv e r s ity of M i c h i g a n P r e s s , I 9 6 0 ) , pp. 8 3 - 9 4 .

SELECTED READINGS
B u tler, f. D onald. I deal i s m in E d u c a t i o n . New' York; Harper & Ro w, 1966. A c ompact
and insightful t reat ment of phi l o s o ph i c a l idealism in c o n t e mpo r a r y educati on. A
good starting poi nt for e x a m i n i n g i deal ism in education.
H orn e, H erm an H. The D e m o c r a t i c P h i l o s o p h y o f E d u c a t i o n . Ne w York: Ma cmi l l an,
19 3 5 . Thi s bo o k was wri t t en as a chal l e nge to the growing strength of pragmatic
ph i l o s o p h y in e duc a t i ona l circl es. It makes a case for ret ur ni ng to basic ideals and
e duc a t i ona l pract i ces as the best way to achieve and ma i nt a i n democr acy.
K ant, Im m an u el. E d u c a t i o n . Anne t t e Chart on, ed, Ann Arbor: Uni versi t y of Mi chi gan
Press. 196 0. A hi s t or i c al l y i nfl uenti al work that e x a mi n e s e duc at i on as both a
t heoret i cal and pract i cal endeavor, this book introduces t he Kant i an i nf l uence into
ma ny aspect s of e du c a t i o n from di s ci pl i ne to curricul um,
P lato. Republ i c. Ne w York: Oxf ord Uni versi t y Press. 1945. O n e of the most famous
treatises on e duc a t i o n ever wri tten, this work has i nf l ue nc e d c ount l ess people