A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

The conception of life and the world which we call “Philosophical” are the product of two factors:

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Three divergent theories of education all have their advocates in the present day. Of these the
first considers that the sole purpose of education is to provide opportunities of growth and to
remove hampering influences.

Freedom, in education as in other things, must be a matter of degree. Some freedoms cannot be tolerated.

To what extent is freedom possible, and to what extent is it desirable, among human beings who live in communities? That is the general problem which I wish to discuss.

Before we can discuss this subject we must form some conception as to the kind of effect that
we consider a help to mankind.

The connection of science with war has grown gradually more and more intimate. It began with
Archimedes, who helped his cousin the tyrant of Syracuse to defend that city against the
Romans in 2I2 B.C.

Every man has a number of purposes and desires, some purely personal, others of a sort which
he can share with many other men.

I shall assume the following three propositions conceded…

Education in the past has been a haphazard and traditional affair, supposed not to begin until
the child was at least six years old, and to be concerned almost exclusively with the acquisition
of knowledge.