Thoughts Concerning Education In The Works Of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: An Introductory Study In Comparative Education

THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION IN THE WORKS OF GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION IN THE WORKS OF GEORG CHRISTOPH LICHTENBERG AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY IN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION by SVEIN 0KSENHOL T San Diego State College THE HAGUE MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1963 Copyright I963 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN 978-94-015-0430-0 ISBN 978-94-015-1 065-3 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-94-015-1065-3 PREFACE This is an investigation of the thoughts concerning education in the writings of one of the most original educators of the eighteenth century. Unappreciated and largely overlooked - as was Schopenhauer - by the contemporary educators, Lichtenberg nevertheless presented his generation, and generations to come, with some of the most useful (a great life aim of Horace Mann!) suggestions pertaining to education that may possibly be found anywhere in the annals of classical education. Beginning with a biographical sketch of Lichtenberg, it presents an analysis of his philosophy of education, discusses Lichtenberg's thoughts on pedagogy and curriculum, analyzes his conception of morals and religion to the extent that these ideas are specifically related to education, examines his notions of educational psychology, determines Lichtenberg's views on British education in the eighteenth century, compares some of Lichtenberg's educational ideas in the works of contemporary thinkers and educators, notably Schopenhauer, James and Dewey. A concomitant aspect of this book is a portrayal of Lichtenberg as found in his works, viz., as a student, professor, philosopher, educator, moralist, psychologist, comparative educationist, as a searcher for absolute educational truth - attainable only in a world to come. San Diego State College San Diego, California SVEIN 0KSENHOLT, PH. D. INTRODUCTION The book which ought to be prohibited above all other books is the Index.! The philosophical ideas of several seventeenth century thinkers, as well as the core of their philosophical systems, were absorbed and became, in time, part of the intellectual fabric of the eighteenth century. Hobbes' materialism, Descartes' dualism, Spinoza's pantheism, Leibnitz's idealism, and Locke's empiricism, in one way or another, left their imprints on the minds of the intellectuals in the Age of Enlightenment, an e