DESCARTES, MALEBRANCHE, LOCKE; DESCARTES (1596-1650); THE DISCOURSE OF METHOD; CRITICISM OF THE CURRENT EDUCATION; GREAT PRINCIPLES OF MODERN PEDAGOGY; OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE PEDAGOGY; MALEBRANCHE (1638-1715); SENSE INSTRUCTION CONDEMNED; INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT; LOCKE (1632-1704); THE THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION; PHYSICAL EDUCATION; THE HARDENING PROCESS; HYGIENIC PARADOXES; MORAL EDUCATION MORE IMPORTANT THAN INSTRUCTION; SENSE OF HONOR THE PRINCIPLE OF MORAL DISCIPLINE; CONDEMNATION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT; INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION; UTILITARIAN STUDIES; PROGRAMME OF STUDIES; ATTRACTIVE STUDIES; SHOULD A TRADE BE LEARNED? WORKING SCHOOLS; LOCKE AND ROUSSEAU; ANALYTICAL SUMMARY.
199. Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke.—Descartes, a spiritualist; Malebranche, an idealist; Locke, a sensationalist,—such are the philosophers of the seventeenth century who are related to the history of pedagogy. And yet the first two have only a remote connection with it, through their exposition of some of its general principles. Locke is the only one who has resolutely approached educational questions in a special treatise that has become a classic in English pedagogy.
200. Descartes (1596-1650).—Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, does not generally figure in the lists drawn up by the historians of education; and yet, in our opinion, there is no thinker who has exercised a more decisive influence on the destinies of education. The author of the Discourse of Method has, properly speaking, no system of pedagogy, having never directly treated of educational affairs; but through his philosophical principles he has changed the direction of human thought, and has introduced into the study of known truths, as well as into the search for new truths, a method and a taste for clearness and precision, which have profited instruction in all of its departments.
“We now find,” says Rollin, “in the discourses from the pulpit and the bar, and in the dissertations on science, an order, an exactness, a propriety, and a solidity, which were formerly not so common. Many believe, and not without reason, that we owe this manner of thinking and writing to the extraordinary progress which has been made within a a century in the study of philosophy.”[128]
201. The Discourse of Method (1637).—Every system of philosophy contains in germ a special system of education. From the mere fact that philosophers define, each in his own way, the nature and the destiny of man, they come to different conclusions as to the aims and methods of education. Only a few of them have taken pains to deduce from their principles the consequences that are involved in them; but all of them, whether they will or no, are educators.
Such is the case of Descartes. In writing, in the first part of his Discourse of Method, his Considerations Touching the Sciences, Descartes has written a chapter on practical pedagogy, and through the general rules of his logic, he has, in effect, founded a new theory of education.
202. Criticism of the Current Education.—Descartes has given a long account of the education which he had received among the Jesuits, at the college of La Flèche, and this account furnished him occasion, either to criticize the methods in use, or to indicate his personal views and his educational preferences.
“From my infancy letters have been my intellectual nourishment.... But as soon as I had completed the course of study required for the doctor’s degree, I found myself embarrassed with so many doubts and errors that it seemed to me that I had received no other profit from my efforts at learning than the discovery of my growing ignorance.”