The Purpose of Education
Kant: Purpose of Education
The famous line
Man can only become man by education.
Five objectives of education
- Respect for morality.
- Respect for humanity.
- Trust in science.
- Reverence for God.
- Prevalence of peace.
Kant’s full purpose
The mission of education is to develop people’s natural gifts in a harmonious way and to cultivate those who can act freely while following moral laws.
Perfection of humankind
Education should not aim at adjustment to any particular society. It should aim more generally at the perfection of humankind.
Rid humans of evil
Kant believed all human beings have a radical evil in their nature; education works to rid humans of this evil.
Two kinds of duty children must learn
- Their duties to themselves.
- Their duties to others.
Kant gives education an unusually large purpose. It is not just to fill students with information or to train them for adult work. It is the activity through which a human being actually becomes a human being. The claim is dramatic, and Kant means it.
Man can only become man by education
Kant’s most famous educational line is short and dramatic. Man can only become man by education.
The claim is metaphysical, not just rhetorical. Kant believes that humans are different from other animals because they have the capacity for rational autonomy: the capacity to give themselves moral law and act on it. Other animals do not have this capacity. But unlike with animals, this capacity does not arrive automatically with biological maturity. A human must be developed into it. Education is the development.
A human who has not been educated, in this strict sense, has not yet become a human in the full meaning of the word. Their body is human; their capacities are not yet realised. They may walk and talk and work, but they are not yet the rational autonomous moral being that Kant means by “human.”
This is why Kant places such a high value on education. The school is not just useful. It is necessary. Without it, the species cannot become what it is capable of being. Each generation has to be brought into full humanity through deliberate work. The work cannot be skipped.
Man can only become man by education
Humans have the capacity for rational autonomy, but the capacity does not arrive automatically. It must be developed through education. A human who has not been educated has not yet become a human in the full meaning of the word. Education is the activity that completes the species.
The five objectives
Kant lists five objectives of education. They give shape to what becoming human actually requires.
Respect for morality. The educated person takes the moral law seriously. They do not treat it as one preference among many.
Respect for humanity. The educated person values human beings as ends in themselves. This is the humanity formula of the categorical imperative in another form.
Trust in science. The educated person can engage with the scientific understanding of the world. They do not retreat into superstition or magical thinking.
Reverence for God. Kant is a religious thinker in his own complex way. The educated person, in his picture, has a sense of the transcendent that anchors the moral life.
Prevalence of peace. The educated person works toward peace. They do not glorify war, conflict, or domination.
A careful reader will notice that these five objectives are not separable. A person who has respect for morality but contempt for humanity is not really doing morality. A person who trusts science but has no peaceful aim has misused science. The five objectives are five angles on a single thing: a developed human life that is rational, ethical, scientific, religious, and peaceful at once.
Respect for morality, respect for humanity, trust in science, reverence for God, prevalence of peace
The five are not separable. Morality without humanity is empty. Science without peace is dangerous. Religion without science is hostile to reason. The five together form a single developed human life: rational, ethical, scientific, religious, and peaceful at once.
The full mission
Beyond the five objectives, Kant gives one summary sentence for the mission of education.
The mission of education is to develop people’s natural gifts in a harmonious way and to cultivate those who can act freely while following moral laws.
Two pieces stand out.
Develop natural gifts harmoniously. Every person arrives with some natural capacities. Curiosity, sociability, physical ability, particular interests, certain temperaments. Education’s job is to develop these gifts. The word harmonious is important. The gifts should develop together, not in a way that destroys other capacities. A brilliant mathematician with no moral life has been over-developed in one direction. A kind but ignorant person has been under-developed elsewhere. The aim is harmony across all the gifts.
Cultivate people who act freely while following moral law. This is Kant’s deepest pedagogical aim, repeated here in compact form. Free action and adherence to moral law are not opposed. The fully educated person does both at once. Their freedom is not the freedom to do whatever they want; it is the freedom that comes from acting on principles they have endorsed.
Develop natural gifts harmoniously and cultivate people who act freely while following moral laws
Education develops every person’s natural capacities, with attention to harmony across them. The aim is people whose freedom and adherence to moral law are not opposed: people whose freedom comes from acting on principles they have endorsed.
The perfection of humankind
Kant adds a striking claim about scope. Education should not aim at adjustment to any particular society. It should aim more generally at the perfection of humankind.
This is a deliberate rejection of nationalism in education. A school whose aim is to produce loyal citizens of a particular country has set a smaller goal than Kant wants. The educated person belongs to humanity, not just to their country. The school should be aiming at perfecting the species, not adjusting children to the local arrangement.
The claim has practical consequences. A curriculum aimed at the perfection of humankind teaches universal moral principles, world history (not just national history), science as a universal enterprise, literature from many traditions. A curriculum aimed at local adjustment teaches national pride, the country’s specific history, a particular religious tradition, the local language only.
The two approaches produce different graduates. The first produces a person who can live wherever humans live and contribute to the wider human project. The second produces a citizen well-suited to one country and less well-suited to anywhere else. Kant prefers the first.
The perfection of humankind, not adjustment to any particular society
A school whose aim is to produce loyal citizens of a particular country has set a smaller goal. The educated person belongs to humanity, not just to their country. The school should aim at perfecting the species, not adjusting children to the local arrangement.
Radical evil and the work of education
Kant adds a darker note about why education matters so much. He believed all human beings have a radical evil in their nature.
This is not a casual claim. Radical evil in Kant means a deep-seated tendency to prefer one’s own immediate inclination over the moral law. Humans are not naturally good in some pre-fallen sense. There is something in human nature that pulls against moral life. Education is the work of fighting this pull.
A society that does not educate its members is not just under-developing them. It is leaving the radical evil free to operate. Untrained humans default to selfishness, cruelty, and short-sighted choices. Trained humans can be conditioned out of some of these behaviours, but the conditioning is shallow. Educated humans can recognise the radical evil in themselves and resist it through their own reason.
This puts a heavy weight on the educator. The work is not just developmental, like raising flowers from seeds. It is also corrective, like cleaning a wound. A child who is not educated will not just remain undeveloped; they will manifest the radical evil over time. The educator is fighting against this every day.
Radical evil
All human beings have a deep-seated tendency to prefer their own immediate inclination over the moral law. Humans are not naturally good in some pre-fallen sense. There is something in human nature that pulls against moral life. Education is the work of fighting this pull.
Two kinds of duty
Kant closes by naming what children must be specifically educated to perform. Two kinds of duty. The list is familiar from earlier chapters; he repeats it here as the heart of what education aims at.
Duties to themselves. The duty to develop one’s own dignity, to refuse to be degraded, to care for one’s own body and mind.
Duties to others. The duty to recognise the dignity of others, to act justly toward them, to never treat them as mere means.
Education aims at both. A graduate who can perform their duties to themselves and to others has reached the practical goal of Kantian education. They are a developed human being, capable of acting morally in any situation that calls on them.
The two duties cover the whole moral life. There are no third or fourth categories that need adding. A person who reliably performs both kinds is a complete moral agent. Education does not need to do more than this; it cannot do less.
Duties to themselves, and duties to others
A graduate who can perform both is a developed human being, capable of acting morally in any situation. The two duties cover the whole moral life. Education does not need to do more; it cannot do less.
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