This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.
‘[T]he rule of education is the chief end whereby man is formed under civilization.’ – Immanuel Kant
On Education (1803) is a collection of Kant’s lectures on physical and practical education, pedagogy, and moral culture, and it is the only work in which Kant’s views on education are presented comprehensively.
On Education introduces us to the practical implications of Kant’s theoretical philosophy and instructs us on how to tame and cultivate the excellence in human nature. Fast-moving and engaging,
On Education is highly readable and reminds us that Kant’s pedagogical mission included his interest in ‘teaching [his students] how to live, by recommending a certain way of life.’
About the author
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) has been caricatured as a stiff German professor, whose Stoic habits were so predictable that the people of Königsberg, his hometown, could set their clocks by his daily walks. Kant’s life is best described as a heroic struggle to discover order within chaos or, better, an effort to fix human thought and behavior within it proper limits. He lived and worked during the Enlightenment, a time when political, religious, and intellectual freedom erupted across the Western world.