Produced by Katherine Ward, Jonathan Ingram, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE REFORM OF EDUCATION BY GIOVANNI GENTILE AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY DINO BIGONGIARI With an Introduction by BENEDETTO CROCE NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY 1922 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N.J. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction vii I. Education and Nationality 3 II. Education and Personality 18 III. The Fundamental Antinomy of Education 40 IV. Realism and Idealism in the Concept of Culture 63 V. The Spirituality of Culture 85 VI. The Attributes of Culture 110 VII. The Bias of Realism 139 VIII. The Unity of Education 166 IX. Character and Physical Education 192 X. The Ideal of Education 219 XI. Conclusion 246 NOTE Shortly after Trieste fell into Italian hands, a series of lectures was arranged for the school teachers of the city, in order to welcome them to their new duties as citizens and officials of Italy. The task of opening the series was assigned to Giovanni Gentile, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Rome, who delivered the lectures which constitute the present volume. At my request Signor Gentile has rewritten the first chapter, eliminating some of the more local of the allusions which the nature of the original occasion called forth, and Senatore Croce has very generously contributed his illuminating Introduction. The volume as it stands is more than a treatise on education: it is at one and the same time an introduction to the thought of one of the greatest of living philosophers, and an introduction to the study of all philosophy. If the teachers of Trieste were able to understand and to enjoy a philosophic discussion of their chosen work, why should not the teachers of America? J. E. S. INTRODUCTION The author of this book has been working in the same field with me for over a quarter of a century, ever since the time when we undertook--he a very young man, and I somewhat his senior--to shake Italy out of the doze of naturalism and positivism back to idealistic philosophy; or, as it would be better to say, to philosophy pure and simple, if indeed philosophy is always idealism.