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those by Quick, R. H. (Cambridge University Press, 1895, and Longmans, 1888, respectively); and of Rabelais' Gargantua, that by Besant, W. (Lippincott, Foreign Classics for English Readers). The works of Castiglione, Elyot, Peacham, Brathwaite, etc., are also extant. For an account of the Ritterakademien, see Nohle, E., History of the German School System (Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1897–98), pp. 41 f., and Paulsen, F., German Education (Scribner, 1908), pp. 112-116; and of the academies, Brown, E. E., The Making of Our Middle Schools (Longmans, Green, 1902), chaps. VIII and IX.

CHAPTER XV

SENSE REALISM AND THE EARLY SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT

OUTLINE

In the seventeenth century scientific investigation developed rapidly, and led theorists to introduce science into the curriculum and to advocate a study of 'real things.'

Bacon undertook to formulate induction, and while he did not understand the importance of an hypothesis, he did much to rid the times of a priori reasoning.

On the basis of sense realism, Ratich anticipated many principles of modern pedagogy, but he was unsuccessful in applying his ideas.

Comenius (1) produced texts for teaching Latin objectively, (2) crystallized his educational principles in the Great Didactic, and (3) attempted an encyclopædic organization of knowledge. He wished to make this knowledge part of the course at every stage of education, and, while he was not consistently inductive, he made a great advance in the use of this method.

Through sense realism, rudimentary science was introduced into the elementary schools; the Ritterakademien and the pietist schools stressed the subject; and professorships of science were founded in the universities.

The Development of the Sciences and Realism.-The realistic tendency did not pause with reviving the ideas represented by the words nor with the endeavor to bring Earlier realism the pupil into touch with the life he was to lead. The a transition to earlier realism seems to have been simply a stage in the process of transition from the narrow and formal human

sense realism.

the sciences.

ism to a realism obtained through the senses, which may be regarded as the beginning of the modern movement to develop the natural sciences. Science had started to develop as early as the time of the schoolman, Roger Bacon (1214-1294), but for three centuries it was not kindly received. Even during the Renaissance the Church had continued to oppose it bitterly, because it tended to con- Opposition to flict with religious dogma, although this age did not object to the revival of the classics. Accordingly, the latter subject became strongly intrenched in educational tradition, and its advocates offered the most obstinate opposition to the sciences. Its numerous representatives struggled hard to keep the sciences out of education. However, concomitant with the growth of reason and the partial removal of the theological ban, there was developed a remarkable scientific movement, with a variety of discoveries and inventions. For more than a millennium the Greek developments in astronomy and Development physics had been accepted as final, but toward the close astronomy in of the sixteenth and during the seventeenth century these dicta were completely upset. The hypothesis of a solar system, which replaced the Ptolemaic interpretation, was published by Copernicus (1473-1543); Kepler (1571-1630) explained the motion of the planets by three simple laws; and, through the construction of a telescope, Galileo (1564-1642) revealed new celestial phenomena. Galileo also demonstrated that all bodies, allowing for the resistance of the air, fall at the same rate; by means of the barometer, Torricelli (1608–1647) and Boyle (1627– 1691) proved the existing theories of a vacuum incorrect, and formulated important laws concerning the pressure of gases; and Guericke (1602-1686), inspired by their

of physics and

the seven

teenth century.

Development of anatomy and physiology.

discoveries, succeeded in constructing an air-pump. Investigations of this kind paved the way for the formulation of the law of universal gravitation and the laws of motion by Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), which united the universe into a single comprehensive system and completed the foundations for modern mechanics.

Likewise, about the same time, the other great development in science among the Greeks, anatomy and physiology, was completely revolutionized. Through the discovery of valves in the veins by means of dissection and vivisection, the hypothesis of the double circulation of the blood by Harvey (1578–1657), and the microscopic demonstrations by Malpighi (1628–1694) of the existence of capillaries connecting the veins and the arteries, the old theory of the motion of the blood through suction, which had been promulgated by Galen, was completely shattered, and a great impetus was given to investigations in anatomy and physiology. In consequence of this scientific progress, the educational theorists began to introduce science and a knowledge of real things into the curriculum. It came to be widely felt that humanism gave a knowledge only of words, books, and opinions, and did not even at its best lead to a study of real things. Hence, new methods and new books were produced, to shorten and improve the study of the classical languages, and new content was imported into the courses of study. The movement also included an attempt at a formulation of scientific principles in education and an adaptation to the nature of the child.

Bacon and His Inductive Method. The new tendency, however, did not appear in education until after the time of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The use of the

the deductive

day,

scientific method by the various discoverers was largely Bacon rejected unconscious, and it remained for Bacon to formulate method of the what he called the method of 'induction,' and by advocating its use, to point the way to its development as a scientific method in education. He is, therefore, ordinarily known as the first sense realist. He reacted from deductive logic, which was currently supposed to be the sole method of Aristotle, and took his cue in formulating a new method of reasoning from the many scientific workers of his time. He made a great advance in his rejection of the contemporary method of attempting to establish the first principles of a science, and then deducing from them by means of the syllogism all the propositions which that science could contain. However, his Novum Organum, or 'new instrument,' as he called his treatise, in endeavoring to create a method whereby anyone could attain all the knowledge of which the human mind was capable, undertook far too much, and resulted in a merely mechanical procedure. Briefly stated, his mechanical plan was, after ridding the mind of individual prejudices, to observe and carefully tabulate lists of all the facts of nature, and from these discover the underlying law by comparing the cases where a certain phenomenon appears and where it does not.

but created a

procedure.

But by this method neither Bacon himself nor anyone else has ever made any real contribution to science. It does not follow that, because all observed cases under certain conditions produce a particular effect, every other instance not yet observed will necessarily have the same effect. The true method of induction, which was evident even in the work of Kepler, and came to be more so in the method, discoveries of Harvey and Newton, stresses rather the

He failed to

formulate the true inductive

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