54 EDUCATIONAL THEORY 



from within, due to the nature of our daily life and to the course of 

 the world's routine, obstacles that can be overcome only by strenuous 

 activity. To this end that education is efficient which proceeds on 

 rational lines in accordance with the dictates of pedagogical science. 



It is concerned with the molding of the race that is now coming 

 to maturity, and therefore prepares the way for a state policy which 

 shall, in like manner, seek to apply the principles of ethics to its modes 

 of influencing the immature. Though educational activity is in the 

 first place directed toward the minds of individual youths, yet it 

 turns its glance at the same time toward the social conditions amid 

 which those individuals later must move. Therefore it is always 

 carried on in connection with investigations into social phenomena. 



Because of this close connection between ethics and pedagogy it is 

 necessary for the latter to consider with care what ethical standpoint 

 it should adopt. For the character of a pedagogical system is deter- 

 mined by its ethical foundation. This raises the question, what 

 ethical system should serve as the foundation for pedagogy. Only 

 a brief consideration can be given to the difficulties involved. 



The well-known skeptical attitude of Schleiermacher, who refused 

 allegiance to any particular ethical system on the ground that there 

 is none that all accept, has recently been revived, e. g., in Dilthey's 

 essay published by the Akademie der Wissenschaften: it is urged 

 that ethics cannot define an end of life that shall be valid for all, 

 for such ends always appear under historical conditions that make 

 them of only relative validity. They vary with the successive epochs 

 of civilization; and the educational purpose that depends on such 

 life purposes must in consequence suffer from the same historical 

 conditions. 



This skeptical ethics is without doubt right in urging that an end 

 which is conditioned historically cannot claim to be universally valid; 

 but no less certainly is it wrong in failing to mark amid the transient 

 ideals of education the elements that persist through all. And it is 

 just those elements that evolution presents to us with a character of 

 inner necessity, that a positive ethics must bring to light, sharply 

 distinguishing between the absolute and the merely relative. 

 Throughout the several historical epochs relativity has clung to the 

 changing ideals of education, to the several applications within the 

 actual world of those values that ever remain the same. But the 

 absolute is to be found in those successive evaluations which have 

 maintained their fundamentally identical character throughout 

 the past, in the decalogue, for example, and in the moral teachings 

 of Jesus. 



From such constituent elements ethics constructs a system of 

 all that is valid for morality. To appreciate that system we must 

 listen to the inner voice, whereby we may appreciate the truly good, 



