Romantic origins of Odoyevsky’s pedagogical ideas: On the question of sensual and rational cognition

In this article I analyze the pedagogical ideas of V.F. Odoevsky in their connection with the Romantic ideas about the world and man. The main interest for me here is the connection between the sensual and rational aspects in the process of cognition. Despite the impossibility of a direct comparison of ideas, it is possible to draw parallels through the question of cognition and the concept of education as it was understood by the Romantics (Novalis in particular) and as it is presented and realized in the pedagogical works of V.F. Odoevsky. The influence of Romanticism on Odoevsky can be summarized in the following points: 1) in the outlook, associated with the focus on the individual characteristics of man and child in the pedagogical process. Romanticism actualized in the history of thought the value of the individual. The concrete man and the phenomena of his being become more and more often a material for philosophical research. The focus on the human being increases its value, as well as the need to actualize the individual characteristics of each individual. In connection with this worldview approach, the view of education is also shifting. The goal of preschool education according to Odoevsky is related to the formation and preparation of the apparatus of thinking, which he calls the “spiritual apparatus”. The formation of understanding in a child is the possibility of manifestation of the individual in him. 2) in the understanding that education is self-education in the first place. Odoevsky appeals in many ways to the independence of the child. Indeed, if education is perceived as a transfer of knowledge, it will turn out that the child will always be in a dependent position on the teacher without the skill of forming ideas and the desire to analyze and compare facts independently. In Novalis this aspect is expressed in that “without perfect self-understanding a true understanding of others cannot be achieved”. 3) in the understanding of the correlation between the rational and the sensual in the process of cognition. Despite the lack of obvious continuity between Odoevsky’s pedagogical ideas and the Romantics, one can trace the Romantic source of his reflections: following the Romanticists, he reflects on the theme of thinking and feeling. However, if Romanticism strove to overcome the Enlightenment dictate of thinking, putting sensibility in the foreground, Odoevsky goes further and does not try to think them in opposition. This is indicated by his pedagogical position on the development of thinking in the period of the prevalence of emphasized sensuality in human life, in the period of childhood. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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