E-Journal of Philosophy of Education:
International Yearbook of the Philosophy of Education Society of Japan, Vol. 1, 2016

Education, Philosophy and University:
A Consideration thorough Jan Amos Comenius and Jan Patočka
Shinichi SOHMA
Hiroshima Shudo University
Abstract
This article deals with the requests to open higher education through the works of Jan Amos Comenius
and the contemporary interpretation of his works. Whilst his ideas suggest an image in which openness
in education was pursued to the apex, it is easy to criticize his ideas in terms of multiculturalism insofar
as his request for unconditional opening is seen as monism. Nevertheless, we can hardly oppose therequests to open because education, which correlates to the transmission of knowledge and technology,
is nothing but an emergence of openness in a broader sense. Therefore, it is necessary to assess thevalidity of the requests to open. In Czechoslovakia during the cold war era, when the freedom ofspeech and academic research were strictly restricted, twentieth century Czech philosopher Jan
Patočka gave some significant lectures at the so-called Underground University. He regarded
Comenius as a thinker of the open soul, who experienced itself as something which is innately
dependent on unparalleled otherness. Insofar as human existence was understood as the openness
towards the world, education cannot be an action to form the human into a vessel and fill it withknowledge and skills. Education is founded on the conversion or the turn through overcoming selfcenteredness, turning around and meeting otherness outside of the self. At present, the more scientifictechnology penetrates all the aspects of human life, the more education is reduced to technologicalmatters. In this sense, attention should be paid to that which Patočka researched, within philosophicalthinking, the possibility to restore the nature of human existence. The Open Soul, which was brought
to him through his interpretation of Comenius, might be paraphrased as ‘Openness Within.’ It implies
that any openness is never activated without philosophical thinking as Openness Within.
Keywords
Higher education reform, Openness, Comenius, Patočka, Philosophy of education

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57

University exposed in the requests to open
Today, universities are under pressure for further reform to respond to the global
transformation in politics, industry, sciences and education. In the trend for higher
education reform based upon the requests for open and access, there is, among
intellectuals and academics, a concern that research will be reduced to mere form.
However, these feelings are not always shared with the public, probably because thisscepticism on the part of intellectuals is perceived as self-interest. In fact, such a slogan“Towards an Educating University” captures the demand for universities to make all
possible efforts to accept various students, to incorporate more diverse content ineducation, and to open the organization towards the society.
In this article, I will try to consider the requests to open higher education through theworks of Jan Amos Comenius, a seventeenth Century philosopher, and the contemporaryinterpretation of his works. In spite of the fact that this approach is seemingly aroundabout way, Comenius’ works are full of suggestions for the reconsideration ofhigher education. For example, universities in the time of Comenius could not adequately
respond to the political, religious and cultural crises because of conservatism in education.
In fact, most intellectuals who contributed to the scientific revolution of the seventeenth
century were neither professors nor alumni of traditional universities. Nevertheless, there
were various ideas and practices in higher education in the century that deserve attention.
As for Comenius, he dealt with higher education within the lifelong process of humantransformation through his unique philosophical concept, Pansophia. Two Comenian
texts are noteworthy to understand his ideas of higher education. In the main work in his
later years entitled, De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica (TheGeneral Consultation on the Emendation of Human Things), he considered the universal
reform of society including religion, politics, sciences, languages and education. The
fourth part of the work, Pampaedia should be regarded as the climax of his educational
ideas. Although in Pampaedia, Comenius elaborates on education in academia aftergymnasium (high school), there are no references to research activities in this work.
However, he mentioned that the location of academia ‘is desirable also for colleges’[Comenius 1966=1986: 154] and he elaborated the collegium (colleges) in the sixth partof the work, Panorthosia, which dealt with the reform of sciences, politics and religion.
In short, the college is seen as a research organization and academia as an educational
function in the university today. His ideas of education are summarized as universalism
seen in his motto, ‘all men are taught all subjects in all thoroughness (Omnes, Omnia,
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Omnino doceantur).’ [Comenius 1966=1986: 19] His thought is, curious to say, affinitive
to the present trend of higher education reform.
Openness in Admission
Comenius, who was a successor of the tradition of Czech Reformer Jan Hus, had toconfront the entrance barrier for higher education because of the religious intolerance ofthe period. He was not accepted by the institutions of higher education in Prague such as
Charles University (the oldest university in central Europe), and Clementinum, foundedby the Jesuits, and therefore he studied at two institutions in Herborn and Heidelberg inGermany. Although academia in Herborn is non-existent, it played a significant role inthe scientific revolution owing to its tolerant atmosphere. When he later considerededucation as a lifelong process, he emphasized that ‘no man may be exempted, much lessdebarred from the pursuit of wisdom and the cultivation of his mind.’ [Comenius
1966=1986: 30] Thus, he argues that ‘academies should therefore be founded in every
kingdom and or sizeable province,’ [Comenius 1966=1986: 154] and wished for theexpansion of opportunity in higher education. It is worth pointing out that the opennessof admission has been a main principle of educational reform. We may acknowledge thatthe contemporary challenges in higher education originate through responding to theopenness of admission. Thus, it is clear that openness in higher education was a primaryconcern addressed by Comenius in seventeenth century Europe.
Openness in Curriculum
In the philosophical concept of Comenius, Pansophia, human knowledge waspremised on the parallelism between World, Mind and the Bible as the Three Books ofGod (tres libri Dei) between Sense, Reason and Belief. Therefore, Comenius tried todeduce the didactic principles through the philosophical analysis of the nature in theworld and human. As emphasized in the mutual relations between mind, tongue andhands, Comenius positioned reason within the inseparable connection to language andaction. He thought that Pansophia should be learned at all stages in human life. This canbe interpreted to mean that the higher education curriculum should be open, contrary to
the traditional curriculum, in which philosophy was positioned after mastering liberal arts.
Moreover, since he positioned academia as a transitional stage between the private andthe public, he was consistently critical about contemplative thinking. He composed thecurriculum in academia of three classes as Universal Wisdom, Universal Books andThematic Research: Higher Education as a Field of Philosophy of Education: Frontiers of Philosophy of Education

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Universal Preparation and added them to Foreign Travel and the choice of career. Whilst
his idea is distant from professional education, it cannot simply be positioned in thehumanism tradition. Given that he grasped human development in the process throughtheory (theoria), practice (praxis) and use (chresis), it is likely due to the fact that hestressed the ability to apply skills in higher education.
Openness of University
In Comenius’ work for the reform in politics, sciences and religion, Panorthosia, hestated that ‘we have multiplied schools and studies and selfish scheming for advancement,
but we have not yet added to the true joys of life.’ [Comenius 1966=1993: 38] Suchnegative evaluation can be attributed to his scepticism of intellectualism. In the work forthe reform in education, Pampaedia, he explained two ways to present teachingmaterials; ‘philosophical rigidity’ and the ‘popular way.’ [Comenius 1966=1986: 89]
Whilst the former is ‘to present teaching matters in the form of rigid decrees,’ the latter‘uses appeal, persuasion and encouragement.’ He criticized that the former ‘insults orthreatens intelligent minds and thereby intimidates them’ and appreciated that the latter‘inspires the inborn light to burst into flame.’ As inferred from his attitude tointellectualism, he believed that the college as a scholarly institution should be thoroughly
open to the public. In Panorthosia, he proposed three international councils taking
responsibility for the reformation in philosophy, politics and education and positioned theCollege of Light ‘to exercise control over all human knowledge, curbing its excesses ordefects or any tendency to go astray at any stage or in any circumstances, seeking ever toincrease and improve the dominion of the human Mind over the real world, and to spreadthe light of Wisdom throughout the minds of nations all over the world.’ [Comenius
1966=1995: 221] Whilst the incorporation of each college and academia into theinternational council might be oriented to realize the openness of higher education, it
implies the restraint of freedom in each institution.
Openness and Education
Within Comenius’ reference that ‘the colleges of light will use the power of light tobanish the darkness of error,’ [Comenius 1966=1993: 142] we are able to perceive theimplication of the Enlightenment despite the fact that his optimistic trust in light wasbased upon his belief that his design on universal reform included the conversion of theJewish and the Turkish to Christianity. Whilst his ideas suggest an image in which
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openness in education was pursued to the apex, some points cannot be exempted fromcriticism. It is easy to criticize his ideas in terms of multiculturalism insofar as his request
for unconditional opening is seen as monism. Nevertheless, we can hardly oppose therequests to open because education, which correlates to the transmission of knowledge
and technology, is nothing but an emergence of openness in a broader sense.
Despite that a contemporary of Comenius, Descartes, was critical of education in
the Jesuit College where he was educated, when he was asked about the teaching methodof philosophy, he highly appreciated the Jesuit methodology of education because of theordered and varied materials. [Descartes 1936: 74] The Jesuit schools, which rapidlyprevailed in the seventeenth century because of paying much more attention to education
than research, is well associated with ‘the Educating University’ today. Apart from thedifference in denominations, it is obvious that Comenius also emphasized the educational
function in higher education institutions.
Philosophy as Openness Within
It is apparently not easy for us as intellectuals and academics to depart from thepresent trend towards an Educating University, since it is accompanied by the requests tobecome more open. However, we have to assess the validity of the requests to open, apartfrom Comenius who attributed this legitimacy to his beliefs. At this point, twentiethcentury Czech philosopher Jan Patočka and his study of Comenius provides a lot ofsuggestions. In Czechoslovakia during the cold war era, when the Communist regime
imposed an embargo on the freedom of speech and academic research, Patočka wasexpelled from Charles University for almost twenty years and gave lectures onphilosophy privately from the 1950s. The main work in his later years, Kacířské eseje ofilosofii dějin (Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History), which had a decisive
impact on Jacques Derrida, was created from his informal lectures at the so-called
Underground University. He was known not only as a phenomenologist, who was under
the instruction of Husserl and Heidegger, but also as an interpreter of Comenius. Hisinterpretation of Comenius drastically changed from the end of 1960s.
In his article entitled ‘Comenius und offene Seele (Comenius and the Open Soul)’,Patočka revealed the historical view and positioned the era after the seventeenth centuryas ‘the epoch of closed-ness.’According to his consideration, all phenomena, in the epoch,
are seen as things which are inducted from reason which is hierarchically above thephenomena and thereby knowledge is deemed as a power to manipulate all things.
[Patočka 1970: 63] By contrast, he regarded Comenius as a thinker of the open soul
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through his interpretation. As stated by Patočka, the open soul experiences itself as
something which is innately dependent on unparalleled otherness. [Patočka 1970: 63]
Insofar as human existence for Comenius was understood as the openness towards theworld, education cannot be an action to form the human into a vessel and fill it withknowledge and skills. Education is founded on the conversion or the turn throughovercoming self-centeredness, turning around and meeting otherness outside of the self.
Such an interpretation is based upon Patočka’s insight to the transformation ofeducational concepts through modernization. He shared the view with Heidegger, whoanalysed the Greek concept of education, Paideia, in his lecture on Plato's Cave,mentioned the situation in which Paideia came to represent culture and education, anddescribed it as ‘the worst of the nineteenth century.’ [Heidegger 1988: 116] Taking thetransformation of educational concepts toward modern times into consideration, it might
be natural for the Neoplatonism philosopher that learning was to realize the worldopenness in humans and therefore mastering knowledge and skills was necessary toarrange the conditions toward the openness.
Through these reflections, Patočka stated that ‘the original meaning of future
education is in conversion.’ [Patočka 2011: 283] Moreover, he discussed ‘universal
conversion’ which Patočka said should be realized by the highbrow intellectuals to attaina prospect for the transition from the closed-ness to openness through emancipating
themselves from the closed soul, since they are nothing but the bearers of the knowledge
as power. [Patočka 1996: 134] The author of The Velvet Philosophers, Barbara Day
summarised his view of the significance of philosophy as ‘a tool for diagnosis, thus
enabling him [man] to recover his instinctive sense of the reality of the natural world.’[Day 2008: 201]
At present, the more scientific technology penetrates all the aspects of human life,
the more education is reduced to technological matters. In reality, learners are assessed
according to the degree of their proficiency in responding to the stimulus which isarbitrarily constructed. However, not a day passes without watching scandals in which
the intellectuals are involved. Although a young Japanese biologist was the object of theworld’s attention on her sensational discovery two years ago, the discovery was revealed
as fraud in just a few months. If this incident ironically shows that artificiality becomesnatural or unconscious manner in natural science, it must suggest the technology-oriented
education is in a deadlock. In this sense, attention should be paid to that which Patočka
researched, within philosophical thinking, the possibility to restore the natural sense. TheOpen Soul, which was brought to him through his interpretation of Comenius, might beparaphrased as ‘Openness Within.’ If my interpretation was not far distant from theE-Journal of Philosophy of Education: International Yearbook of the Philosophy of Education Society of Japan, Vol. 1, 2016

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essence of the both thinkers, it implies that any universality or openness is never activatedwithout philosophical thinking as Openness Within.
Even if school education was adequate to obtain philosophical knowledge as
Descartes noted, learning philosophy is not identical with doing philosophy. Patočka’spractice in the Underground University must show another possibility of the openness ofuniversity. In its long history, the university has been able to continue throughcomprehending plural orientations which were so often in severe conflict. In this sense,
the future of the university might depend on whether we commit ourselves to informal
and voluntary endeavours even if they were not officially acknowledged. Comenius
found the light in the darkness of his time when it is often deemed as the century of crisis.
Whilst the time of normalization was seemingly illuminated by scientific positivism,
Patočka’s lectures, which were conducted secretly, must have been a light for the people
who were obliged to select multiple faces according to circumstances. It is common forboth Comenius and Patočka to look through the darkness within the de facto publicness
which was seemingly light, and at the same time, find out the light within appearing
obscurity or darkness. Whether we are open to such vision or not remains a question.

References
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O. Dobbie. Dover: Buckland Publications Ltd.
―, (1966=1993). Panorthosia or Universal Reform. Chapters 19 to 26, Translated byA. M. O. Dobbie. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
―, (1966=1995). Panorthosia or Universal Reform. Chapters 1-18 and 27, Translated
by A. M. O. Dobbie. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Day, Barbara, (2008), International Aspects of the ‘Underground University’ inCzechoslovakia, 1948-1989, in Jahrbuch für Universitätgeschichte. Stuttgart.
Descartes, René, (1936). Descartes-Correspondance, publiées par Charles Adam &Gaston Milhaud, 3ième volume. Paris: P.U.F.
Heidegger, Martin, (1988). Gesamtausgabe. Band 34. Frankfurt am Mein: Vittorio
Klostermann.
Patočka, Jan, (1970). Comenius und die offene Seele, in J. A. Komenský, Wirkung eines
Werkes nach drei Jahrhunderten, Klaus Schaller (hrsg.). Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer.
―, (1996). Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History, Translated by ErazimKohák. Chicago: Open Court.
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63―, (2011). Korespondence s komeniology, díl I. Vyd. V. Schifferová, I. Chvatík, T.
Havelka, Sebrané spisy Jana Patočky. sv. 21. Praha: Oikoymenh.
* This article was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 24930577.

E-Journal of Philosophy of Education: International Yearbook of the Philosophy of Education Society of Japan, Vol. 1, 2016