The Research On British Utilitarian Educational Philosophy In The Nineteenth Century

This paper, drawing on utilitarian education, analyzes the British utilitarian educational thought in the19th century from the theoretical-practical and general-specific points respectively. By examining the background, theory and practice of utilitarian education, the paper aims to explore the rationality of utilitarian education and the limitations of the generalization of utilitarianism, thus providing theoretical support for the educational reform in China.In theory, the paper focuses on the value of utilitarian education, which has shifted the19th-century British education from the non-practical Church's and gentleman's education to the practical utilitarian education. The utilitarian education not only advocates liberty and put emphasis on authority, with private liberty being the ultimate purpose of education, and social authority being the main channel to obtain personal value and the prerequisite for social stability. Founded on the empiricism, the utilitarian education focuses on practice, science, and experience. It not only argues for knowing the world but also demands to change the world by reform. In parallel with respect for authority, it can break the authority and pursues its own liberty, which demands putting liberty and authority within a reasonable limit.In practice, the paper centers on the relationship between the utilitarian education and the development of society as a whole. From the perspective of social development, the utilitarian education, in line with the social-historical development, has provided intelligence support for the social development, promoted the development of the industrial revolution, and contributed to the advancement of technology as well as pushed forward the democracy. From the perspective of personal development, the utilitarian education has argued for general education, compulsory education, secondary education, tertiary education, and vocational education, which has provided people with more educational opportunities. Moreover, it has helped to improve people's knowledge in science and culture, raise people's political awareness, and push personal liberty moving forward. Improving people's scientific and cultural knowledge, inspired by a popular political consciousness, personal liberty has made a big step forward.The social status quo of the19th serves not only as the major cause but also the social background for the utilitarian education. On the one hand, the industrial revolution calls on the utilitarianism education, and the utilitarians has found the contradictions between social development and reality, and thus proposing the education theory, and advocating the educational reform. On the other hand, the democratic development needs utilitarian education. To be more specific, the education reform and education thought is provides the education background for the utilitarianism, while the public school reform, the mentoring system and the national intervention on education has been the main content of the educational reform. In addition, the dialogue between utilitarianism and the three trends of thoughts, including classical humanitarian education, scientific education and Utopia socialism education, has promoted the development of the educational thought. Furthermore, the tradition of philosophical empiricism has provided the soil for the utilitarian education, and the associationism psychology has provided the theoretical basis for the utilitarianism educational psychology. In Actual fact, the utilitarian education has its own premise. Firstly, humanity is logical beginning of utilitarianism education. Humanity is diverse, and it has selfishness, avoidance bitter, non-constant, and self-perfect. This proved the truth that people is teachable and can inherit knowledge and civilization. Secondly, empiricism provides philosophical base for utilitarianism education, as empiricism can depart from experience, and focus on reality. More importantly, it can break authority easily and help people obtain their liberty. Thirdly, happiness is value demands of utilitarianism education, in which pleasure and liberty are the core of happiness, and the combination of personal well-being and social well-being is the valid road to happiness. Fourthly, utility is the main criterion for evaluating utilitarian education. Lastly, the association psychology is the psychological foundation for the utilitarian education.Utilitarian education includes both theory and practice; it is the unity of theory and practice. The utilitarians claim that environment is the main factor affecting the formation of human's character. Bentham has explored the impact of environment on people's temperament, James Mill has insisted on environmental determinism, and John Stuart Mill has advocated soft determinism. They has set off from the experience, and found it is impossible to prove the existence of God. Meanwhile, they have rejected firmly the sectarianism in education, and advocated liberty of religion and belief. Specifically speaking, state's intervention in education should be moderate, and be largely confined to the scope beyond people's capability, and more importantly, one of the principles is not to interfere individual liberty; the universities should be the place to pursue truth, beauty and goodness where the principle for teaching should be the integration of scientific education and liberal education personality should be the main driver for social development, ethical promotion and personal liberty.As an educational thought, there is a plight in utilitarian education, that is, it does not include all of the people for the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. As teleology, utilitarianism is unable to harmonize processes and outcomes, so elitist education becomes the core of utilitarian education. Moreover, utilitarianism overstates the utilitarian value when assessing the relationship between fact and value. Furthermore, although utilitarianism has drawn upon naturalism to set the utilitarian value of pursuing happiness and avoiding bitterness as its criteria, yet it has led to the generalization of utility because it take utility as the standard for people well-being and social development.In actual fact, we are against the generalization of utilitarian education, but we are for the reasonable application utilitarian education. It is worth noting that social inequality leads to the utilitarian education, so education should make personal development, social development and national stability collaborate with each other in an order way. More importantly, the utilitarian education is closely associated with the development of our nation, so it is of significance to explore its reasonable application, which could not only lend theoretical support for the educational reform, but also enrich the educational theory.