Is the Kantian concept of education still justifiable?

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. The general concept of education

3. The concept of an upbringing according to Immanuel Kant

4. Education in the 21st century

5. How does Kant’s parenting concept fit into today’s educational goals?

6. My summary

7. List of references

1. Introduction

This paper discusses today's relevance of Emanuel Kant's concept of education in regards to the 21st century.

In the first part, the question of, how Kant defines the term education and, what approaches and goals he names, is addressed. Then, the current educational goals are analysed and compared with those of Kant in order to arrive at an answer or achieve a corresponding result with regard to the research question.

But first of all, since it is mainly about Immanuel Kant, biographical and important information, or facts, should be mentioned.

Immanuel Kant is considered the most important German philosopher. His way of thinking brought the Age of Enlightenment to an end and at the same time overcame it. He founded German idealism, and his philosophy formed the starting point for many of the newer philosophical directions.

Kant, born on 22 April 1724, studied philosophy, mathematics and sciences in Königsberg. He worked as a In-home teacher and obtained his doctorate in 1755 at the University in Königsberg. He then worked as a private lecturer and sub-librarian of the Schlossbibliothek. In 1770, he then became a professor and gave lectures in theology, logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, mathematics, physics, geography, anthropology and pedagogy at the University of Königsberg. A few years later, he became a principal of this university.

After conflicts with the Prussian censorship authorities, he began to limit his work as a lecturer in 1794, and for health reasons he gave up giving lectures entirely in 1796. In 1801, Immanuel Kant withdrew entirely from the academic offices. He then died in Königsberg on February 12, 2004. When Immanuel Kant closed his eyes forever, many were aware of his great importance, and even Friedrich Schiller described him as a "Geschenk ohne Grenzen, das unvergänglich ist".

Some of his most important works include "Die Kritik der reinen Vernunft“ (1781), "Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?“ (1784), “Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten„ (1785) “Die Kritik der praktischen Vernunft“ (1788), “Die Kritik der Urteilskraft“ (1790), und seine Schrift "Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft" (1793), to name just a few.

The era in which Immanuel Kant lived was the Age of Enlightenment. With his works and his views, such as: “Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit. Unmündigkeit ist das Unvermögen, sich seines Verstandes ohne Leistung eines anderen zu bedienen. Selbstverschuldet ist diese Unmündigkeit, wenn die Ursache derselben nicht am Mangel des Verstandes, sondern der Entschließung und des Mutes liegt, sich seiner ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen. Sapere aude! Habe Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! ist also der Wahlspruch der Aufklärung" (Ackermann, 2008, p. 85) he contributed to the political, scientific and societal developments and changes, especially in Germany.

2. The general concept of education

With regards to the term, or rather the definition of education, there are several, even different, views that have gradually developed over time.

For example, Johann Amos Comenius defines education as follows: it has the task “Menschen vor Ansteckung und Fäulnis in der Welt zu beschirmen; sie in dem Guten zu erhalten, dessen Samen in ihr Herz gelegt ist, und sie zu glücklichem Wachstum anzuregen.” (Comenius, 1632, p. 12).

Friedrich Fröbel, on the other hand, means "bei der Erziehung muss man etwas aus dem Menschen herausbringen und nicht in ihn hinein". (cf. Böhmann, Schäfer, Neumann, 2004, p. 44)

The German writer, dramatist, journalist and translator Christian Morgenstern says: "Alle Erziehung, ja alle geistige Beeinflussung beruht vornehmlich auf Bestärken und Schwächen. Man kann niemanden zu etwas bringen, der nicht schon dunkel auf dem Wege dahin ist, und niemanden von etwas abbringen, der nicht schon geneigt ist, sich ihm zu entfremden.” (cf. Morgenstern, 2006, p. 115)

The German physicist Albert Einstein also had his own opinion about education, which said: „Das Ziel der Erziehung muss die Heranbildung selbständig handelnder und denkender Individuen sein, die aber im Dienste an der Gemeinschaft ihre höchste Lebensaufgabe sehen“. (Einstein, 1936, Rede in Albany, New York, vgl. Brunner, 2008, S. 4)

With „Unter Erziehung werden soziale Handlungen verstanden, durch die Menschen versuchen, das Gefüge der psychischen Dispositionen anderer Menschen dauerhaft zu verbessern oder seine als wertvoll beurteilten Komponenten zu erhalten“ ( Brezinka, vgl. Renczikowski, 2010, S. 17), Wolfgang Brezinka voiced his opinion on the topic of education.

Despite these differences in opinions and opinions, it can generally be claimed that education and educating someone means building someone’s mind and character and promoting their development. Education also refers to social actions. These social actions aim to intentionally and consciously lead to and support certain learning processes. This results in changes in the behavior of the trainee, which should also persist relatively permanently in order to meet certain specified educational goals.

The persons involved in an education are the educator and the child. Thus, the term education is also defined hierarchically. That is why the concept of an upbringing is often expanded to include self-organised learning processes. Therefore, education is understood as a specific learning process. Furthermore, education helps the process of socialization and enculturation, and serves to build the personality and to bring an individual up.

The goal of modern education was, and still is, to this day, the mature, independent and emancipated person who can shape and plan their life independently. This person has their own center of their life, which processes influences and stimuli and makes them usable for their own life planning. In this respect, the goals of education, according to the current understanding, are the individual growth of competence, the ability to act independently, responsibility, self-determination and emancipation. (cf. Zinnecker, 2000)

3. The concept of an upbringing according to Immanuel Kant

After a brief general overview regarding the concept of education, the views of Kant, starting with a quote, should now be discussed.

„Disziplin oder Zucht ändert die Tierheit in die Menschheit um. Ein Tier ist schon alles durch seinen Instinkt; eine fremde Vernunft hat bereits alles für dasselbe besorgt. Der Mensch aber braucht eigene Vernunft. Er hat keinen Instinkt und muß sich selbst den Plan seines Verhaltens machen. Weil er aber nicht sogleich imstande ist, dieses zu tun, sondern roh auf die Welt kommt, so müssen es andere für ihn tun.“ (Wosniza, 2008, S.8)

Kant therefore assumes that a human’s reason is a natural ability, but nevertheless humans have to work it out or develop it gradually, and through their own efforts. Humanity can only achieve a final state if it allows all dispositions to mature. The task of education arises from these anthropological and historically philosophical foundations. Only through them alone can mankind learn what acting right is, and therefore education is simply essential. On the other hand, it is unnecessary for animals, since their instinct has already ensured the realization of their determination.

„Der Mensch kann nur Mensch werden durch Erziehung. Er ist nichts, als was die Erziehung aus ihm macht.“ (vgl. Benner & Oelkers, 2004, S.34)

3.1 Discipline

Immanuel Kant defines the entire field of education with four central terms. This includes discipline, cultivation, civilisation and moralisation.

Disciplinary training is the first crucial educational measure. For Kant, it represents the negative part of education, but it is also the most significant one at the same time, because discipline or breeding "ändert die Tierheit in die Menschheit um". This means that it makes people really become a human being, and are not caught in their natural instincts. However, discipline for Kant is not only an subservient training or servile drill. For him, it represents an early enforcement of the still unstable nature of the child under the instruction of the reason. Here, reason means that the child only finds resistance, where it impedes the freedom of others. In this way, the child can perceive their own freedom in discipline, since in principle the meaning of the prohibitions is understandable.

3.2 Cultivation and civilisation

Disciplinary work is now followed by cultivation and civilisation. By cultivation, Kant means the conveyance of skills and abilities. This includes reading, writing and calculation, as well as cooking or baking. Through these skills, people acquire the ability to find their way around a technical and cultural world and to continue to drive this world forward in their continuing process.

While cultivation is more focused on the skills and abilities of humans, civilisation is based on the value of humans as citizens, as co-citizens, as members of the public. By doing this, people learn the behaviors that they need in a society, to be able to live with or in it. A civilised person is therefore someone, who masters and understands the corresponding manners and the corresponding behaviors of his time and knows how they can take up others in this way. Nowadays, the term social competence is quite common, and this term probably refers very precisely to what Kant understands by civilisation.

3.3 Moralization

After the cultural and civilisation education, the last one follows, the moral one. While the forms described above refer more on skill or intelligence, the goal of moralization is morality or mortality. With the help of this education, the human being receives "einen Wert in Ansehung des ganzen menschlichen Geschlechts" (Mikhail, 2009, p. 259), because the human being reaches the conclusion "dass er nur lauter gute Zwecke erwähle. Gute Zwecke sind diejenigen, die notwendigerweise von jedermann gebilligt werden; und die auch zu gleicher Zeit jedermanns Zwecke sein können" (cf. Sagou, 2009, p. 47). This should mean that a moral person will not abuse his cultural and social skills. One of Kant’s examples should therefore be mentioned. There is a big difference between a doctor and someone who mixes poison, but it is not the degree of skill that both have for their work, but rather the purposes of how they use their skill and ability, and only the doctor’s skills fulfill a general purpose. For this reason, moral education is also referred to as the peak of all upbringings because it is simply the most difficult.

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