Publication

This paper describes why, by the mid-18th century, many French thinkers believed that education was the vehicle through which the aspirations of the enlightenment could be realized. The author describes how they saw the classroom as a laboratory in which philosophical discoveries could be applied directly to the practice of childrearing, autonomous individuals could be formed, and harmonious social relations fostered. As theorists attempted to translate philosophical ideas into educational practice, they shed light on the fundamental tensions that remained at the heart of contemporary liberal education between nature and nurture, freedom and authority, self-interest and moral virtue, individuality and socialization.