教育と哲学―モンテーニュ「教育論」に於ける哲学の意義をめぐって―

Abstract

In his essay on education (Essais, I , 26) Montaigne criticized the scholastic manner of intellectual education prevalent in those days and made an attempt to propose some suggestive educational principles. His intention was to mold children into open-minded and independent men proper for an emerging new epoch. He thought the ultimate purpose of education should be to train them to be men of sound judgment, not of great knowledge, and all sorts of knowledge including the humanities should be utilized for this as means. This new attitude toward knowledge he demanded is closely related with the philosophical (dialectic) method of Socrates. Montaigne, learned much from ancient philosophy and literature, inherited this from Socrates and revived it in the sphere of education. In this paper I give an outline of Montaigne's views on education and examine his intention from several aspects, especially in terms of the relationship between education and philosophy.