INTRODUCTION

The rough notes and suggestions furnished in this Syllabus are an attempt (a) to outline the evolution of educational ideas from Rousseau to Froebel as an outcome of the more general movement in social theory, (b) to relate the educational theories of Herbart and Froebel to the wider intellectual movements of Romanticism, Realism, and Idealism. It is assumed that no theory, ethical, philosophical, educational, can be completely understood when isolated from the human conditions which produced it. The evolution of educational opinion is part of the entire intellectual and social movement of a period. The outline aims to trace in a genetic way the emergence of certain ideas within a particular period and the transformation of educational problems by these ideas. It does not, however, underrate the value of the study of the personalities of the men through whom these ideas found their first adequate expression. A syllabus is at best a provisional sketch, — part seen, imagined part. Brevity without injury to clearness is in a very real sense possible only after the most detailed exposition. The syllabus of a period so complex as the one here outlined can be nothing more than a plan of action, serving its ptirpose if it in some small way assist students in the organization of such means of communication as may render easier the transition from one branch of knowledge to another. In the course the attempt is made gradually to formu- late a methodology of the educational problem, and thtis have it serve as an approach to a study of the Philosophy of Education. The syllabtis as a whole aims to indicate the nature of philosophic method in the study of the evolution of educational ideas rather than to increase the store of information concerning them. In the present outline the notes and references may prove suggestive in some directions: they are not intended to be exhaustive in any direction whatever.