Lectures on PedagogyImmanuel Kant

Kant's Lectures on Pedagogy (Über Pädagogik), published in 1803 from student notes edited by Friedrich Theodor Rink, collect his teaching on education. He divides education into physical culture (care and discipline of the body and the lower faculties) and practical culture (skill, prudence, and morality). The child must be disciplined before being instructed; without discipline, man remains wild. Moral education aims at character: acting from principles.

Kant holds that education is the means by which humanity improves itself across generations. The art of education is still incomplete; each generation must advance the project. The lectures sit beside Rousseau's Emile and the tradition from Locke; they apply the moral philosophy of the critical works to the forming of persons who can use their freedom well.