F.D.E. Schleiermachers Outlines of the Art of Education

"One must assume we are all familiar with what is commonly called education." This is how Schleiermacher begins his famous 1826 lecture on the Art of Education. But in proceeding furtherand unlike Rousseau or Locke before himSchleiermacher carefully avoids assuming that education is primarily about a return to nature or about "soundness" of mind and body. Education is instead an ethical and political undertaking and a pragmatic art whose ultimate object and morality has differed greatly over time. It is exercised as a form of practical influence of the older generation on the younger: "A significant part of the activity of the older generation extends toward the younger," Schleiermacher reasons, and it "is more complete and perfect the more it is governed by an idea of what should happenthe more it has an exemplar to guide its actionthe more it is an art." This book offers these and other insights on educationlong canonical in Central and Northern Europefor the first time to an English audience. It also provides five chapters by scholars in education and its history that discuss various aspects of Schleiermachers lecture.