The Aims of Education in Kazimierz Twardowski's Thought

Abstract

The philosophy of Kazimierz Twardowski is well known to those who are interested in the subject. Unfortunatelly the same cannot be stated with regard to his pedagogical views which have been to a large extent forgotten. Wincenty Okoń included Kazimierz Twardowski in his work Wizerunki sławnych pedagogów polskich in this way showing his appreciation towards the didactic skills of Twardowski. In this way Okoń acknowledged Twardowski as one of the greatest Polish pedagogues of the 20th century. In my article I recreate only the chosen aspects of the pedagogical thought of Kazimierz Twardowski. Above all, I concentrate on the aims of teaching that he placed in his didactic work. I will start with a general definition of the term “aim of teaching” and present the way it was understood by Kazimierz Twardowski. In the following part I will remind his division of the teaching aims and in the end I will present the figure of a perfect student proposed by the philosopher. The figure of a perfect student will be presented from two perspectives; both from the objective one, concentrating on the totality of knowledge that should be obtained by a student during his education and from the subjective perspective, that is the skills and personal characteristics that should be imprinted in the student. The reconstruction is based on: the works of Twardowski that are directly connected wih the discussed issue, not-published lectures in didactics, notes, and his publications concerning ethics, logic and psychology. In the article I also remind excerpts from the written assessments which Twardowski prepared for his students. This will allow for gaining insight into his didactic-pedagogic work.