On education in a context of social anthropology of the Enlightenment

Abstract

The article considers epistemological, sociopolitical and anthropological motives which affected origin and development of the concept of education in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. The author points out that the transition from natural condition to civil life is a key element in the overall majority of modern theories of education. The philosophy of the Enlightenment approached educational process as the transformation of «a natural person» to a citizen which is capable to use his/her own reason and live in the politically organized society. The article considers pedagogical doctrines of J. Lock and C. A. Helvetius. Lock, an ideologist of the liberal state, insists on indispensability authoritative and even repressive modus operandi. The first aim of educational process is to make a person which is capable to accept freedom and not to admit destructive elements in a society. It means that education represents a true political problem, closely connected with appropriate functioning of social organism. Lock argued that autonomy and spontaneity of the subject, provided by inner experience, guarantees autonomy and importance of educational process, whereas Helvetius approached the subject as a combination of external experience and regarded social processes initiated and developed by political decisions of the supreme authority as a decisive educational factor.

Keywords:

the Enlightenment, education, natural condition, social contract, right, freedom, authority