[173] Lettre critique sur l’éducation, Paris, 1751.
[174] Projet pour l’éducation de M. de Ste-Marie.
[175] Report of Villemain on the work of the Père Girard (1844).
[176] Atlantic Monthly, February, 1883, p. 178.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.—CONDILLAC, DIDEROT, HELVETIUS, AND KANT.
THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; CONDILLAC (1715-1780); ABUSE OF THE PHILOSOPHIC SPIRIT; MUST WE REASON WITH CHILDREN? PRELIMINARY LESSONS; THE ART OF THINKING; OTHER PARTS OF THE COURSE OF STUDY; PERSONAL REFLECTION; EXCESSES OF DEVOTION CRITICISED; DIDEROT (1713-1784); HIS PEDAGOGICAL WORKS; HIS QUALITIES AS AN EDUCATOR; NECESSITY OF INSTRUCTION; IDEA OF A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION; CRITICISM OF FRENCH COLLEGES; PROPOSED REFORMS; PREFERENCE FOR THE SCIENCES; INCOMPLETE VIEWS ON THE PROVINCE OF LETTERS; OPINION OF MARMONTEL; OTHER NOVELTIES OF DIDEROT’S PLAN; HELVETIUS (1715-1771); PARADOXES OF THE TREATISE ON MAN; REFUTATION OF HELVETIUS BY DIDEROT; INSTRUCTION SECULARIZED; THE ENCYCLOPÆDISTS; KANT (1724-1804); HIGH CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION; PSYCHOLOGICAL OPTIMISM; RESPECT FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE CHILD; CULTURE OF THE FACULTIES; STORIES INTERDICTED; DIFFERENT KINDS OF PUNISHMENT; RELIGIOUS EDUCATION; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.
338. The Philosophers of the Eighteenth Century.—If there has been considerable progress made in education in the eighteenth century, it is due, in great part, to the efforts of the philosophers of that age. It is no longer alone the men who are actually engaged in the schools that are preoccupied with education; but nearly all the illustrious thinkers of the eighteenth century have discussed these great questions with more or less thoroughness. The subject is far from being exhausted by the study of Rousseau. Besides the educational current set in movement by the Émile, the other philosophers of that period, in their isolated and independent march, left original routes which it remains to follow. From out their errors and conceptions of systems there emerge some new outlooks and some definite truths.