The Study On Cousin's Comparative Education Thought

Victor Cousin was born in Paris in the Quartier Saint-Antoine, November 28,1792, the son of a watchmaker. Cousin was not only a famous philosopher and educator in France but also the representative of Comparative Education in the 19th century.On August 6,1830, Cousin was appointed by the Ministry of Public Instruction as one of the eight members of the Superior Council of Public Instruction, and he began to exercise his great influence on the French education. Soon Cousin's familiarity with Prussia would relate itself to proposed reforms of the primary school. In 1831 he set out on his famous trip to study the Prussian school system. Then he wrote the Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia, and made a deep impact on the world of primary education. In 1836 he also went to Holland to follow up Cuvier's earlier trip to study the education system of Holland. As an educational administrator and policy-maker, Cousin's only reason to study foreign institutions was to apply foreign solutions to French social problems.This paper studies Cousin's comparative educational thought in an objective way. Because the formation of this comparative educational thought has its own specific historical background and philosophical theory, the paper analyzes these factors to explore the theoretical basis for the formation of his thought from an objective starting point. Secondly, Cousin set out on his famous trip to study the school system of Prussia and Holland, and so the paper describes the investigation of these two countries'education to find the basis of Cousin's thought. Thirdly, the paper discusses the purpose of Cousin's comparative education, research methodology, the objectives of his study, and also analyzes his ideal "Tertium Comparationis". Finally, this paper evaluates his contribution to comparative education and the limitations of his educational thought.