Freedom as a Means and a Goal in Comenius's Philosophy of Education

Abstract

The article examines the philosophical principles of the Comenius’s educational system and compares them with the postulates of contemporary pedagogy. It analyses the goals and methods of the educational process. With regard to educational goals, attention is paid on the one hand to the development of personality and, on the other hand, to social needs and interests. Educational methods are analysed and interpreted in terms of their focus on repetition of actions or on the development of competencies leading to a creative process of authentic self-realisation. Analyses and interpretations of goals and processes are synthesised into the philosophical concept of the human person. In the philosophical explanation, attention is paid to the person and his being. These are to be developed in the process of education and achieved by this process as goals. In the context of the philosophy of education, the question arises whether the goal of education is to create an individual whose actions are a repetition of learned patterns or a person who makes decisions based on moral principles. Emphasis is placed on human freedom, which is a basic precondition for decision-making and action, and which is a necessary condition for accepting responsibility. The diff erent ways of understanding freedom in Comenius’s philosophy of education and in today’s pedagogy are not only a source of criticism of pedagogy, which rejects responsibility and rational reasoning for decisions, but represent also motivation for alternative philosophical interpretation of education in the postmodern environment.