Rola sztuki w wychowaniu człowieka w poglądach Stefana Szumana

Abstrakt

Education through art has a long tradition going back as early as antiquity. It is art that exerts an impact on all the psychic spheres of man and may be an overall „educative instrument”. Prof. Stefan Szuman (1887-1972) is an author of the modern conception of aesthetic education in Poland. He has written numerous works bordering on philosophy, aesthetics, pedagogy and psychology.

Principally, the paper seeks to show art in man’s education. Consequently, first the anthropological issues have generally been outlined. Chapter one deals with the tendencies towards perfection and spiritual needs of man. On the other hand, there are egoistic tendencies and limitation of man as well as his experience and realization of ideals: Good, Beauty, and Truth as the only way to integrate the dual character of human nature and the only way leading to personal development.

The second part of the paper depicts the role of art in man’s life, its educative functions, i. e. its aesthetic function and its role in making up one’s outlook, as well as existential function. Communing with art, according to Szuman, endows life with value, satisfies man’s psychical and spiritual needs, and thereby becomes one of the essential ways to the affirmation of life.