TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

I. Chapter One: The Modern Dialog

            Introduction……………………………………………………………………......1

            A. Part One: Techno-Scientific Society……………………………………….......9

                        Background………………………………..................................................9

                        Education: A Question of Purpose……………………………………….11

                        Education in the Twentieth Century…………………………………..…16

B. Part Two: Views of the Crisis………………………………….…………..…25

20th Century Literature…………………………………………………...25

The Crisis from the

Perspectives of Other Milieus……………………………………………37

A Crisis of Metaphysics………………………………………………….42

II. Chapter Two: Triumph of “The New Learning”

            Introduction………………………………………………………………………47

            A. Part One: Chaos to Crisis..…………………………………………………....49

                        Fourteenth Century Chaos…………………………………………….....49

                        Famine and Plague…………………………………………………….....50

                        War…………………………………………………………………….....52

New Non-Military Technologies………………………………………...57

Taxes, Bad Government, and Insurrection……………………………....60

Schism in the Church………………………………………………….....63

The Rise of Capitalism…………………………………………………...67

Fifteenth Century Crisis……………………………………………….…73

            B. Part Two: The Humanist Response……………………………………….......77

                        Italian Humanism……………………………………………………...…77

                        Pedagogy of the Early Humanists……………………………………..…94

                        Lorenzo’s Brand of Humanism………………………………………....100

                        Final Thoughts on “The New Learning”……………………………….101

III. Chapter Three: Enlightenment and the Birth of Romanticism

            Introduction……………………………………………………………………..105

            A. Part One: From Renaissance to the Age of Reason………………………....112

                        The Northern Renaissance…………………………………………...…115

                        Culture of the Baroque………………………………………………….117

                        Church Decline in France……………………………………………....119

                        The Scientific Revolution……………………………………................121

                        The Enlightenment: Science’s Next Step……………………................124

                        The Triumph of Materialism…………………………………………... 137

                        The Crisis of the Eighteenth Century…………………………………...139

            B. Part Two: The Romantic Response………………………………………….141

                        The Birth of Romanticism……………………………………...............141

                        Rousseau and Metaphysics……………………………………………..148

                        The Pedagogy of Rousseau……………………………………………..151

                        The Role of the Humanities in Education……………………................164

                        The Renaissance Revisited……………………………………..............176

                        Rousseau’s Legacy……………………………………………...............178

IV. Chapter Four: A Case Study in American Transcendentalism

            Introduction……………………………………………………………………..181

            A. Part One: Nineteenth Century American Crisis…………………………..…187

                        The Romantic Connection……………………………………………...190

                        The Transcendentalist Response………………………………………..195

                        Metaphysics Return in Transcendentalism……………………………..198

            B. Part Two: Transcendentalist Pedagogy……………………………………...206

                        Amos Bronson Alcott…………………………………………………..219

                        Margaret Fuller…………………………………………………............231  

                        Henry David Thoreau…………………………………………………..235

                        The Transcendentalist Legacy………………………………………….239

                        Conclusion……………………………………………………………...242

V. Chapter Five: Wisdom for Our Times

            Introduction……………………………………………………………………..245

            A. Part One: The Modern Crisis from an Educational Perspective…………….251

                        Lessons from the Past…………………………………………………..258

                        Twentieth Century Humanist Contributions:

Adler, Dawson, and Schwehn   ……………………..…………………....268

            B. Part Two: Conclusions……………………………………….……………...278

                        Higher Education on the Local Level………………………….……….285

                        Model Humanities Programs for the Twenty-first Century………….…287

                        The New Intellectualism:

Defining Humanism for the Twenty-First Century…………………….293

Final Thoughts………………………………………………………….299

Chapter Five Charts…………………………………………………….302

Appendix

            Appendix A: Discussion of Jung’s Psychosis…………………………………..309

            Appendix B: Federal Spending on K-12 Education…………………………....310

 

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………311