「ソクラテス式問答」と道徳教育 : カントの教育方法学

Kant divides the methods of education into acromatic and erotematic methods. The latter refers to a method of education based on questions and answers, while the former refers to a method in which the teacher delivers lectures alone. The erotematic method can be further divided into the dialogic (Socratic) method, in which both teacher and students ask and answer each other, and the catechistic method, in which only the teacher asks questions. Although Kant prefers the catechism to the dialog method for moral education, he also argues that the education of children should be conducted in the Socratic manner. According to my interpretation, the background of this contradiction is the ambiguity of Kant’s view of Socrates, with Socrates as a representative of the dialogic method and as the midwife of students’ wisdom. Kant denies the Socratic method in the first sense because he believes students do not know how to ask, and agrees with Socrates in the second sense since the teacher let his students answer based on their own reason, as if he were a midwife. Kant also contrasts moral catechism (in which answers are drawn from the students’ reason) with religious catechism (in which the students answer based on their memory ), and argues that the former must precede the latter. Kant’s moral catechism consists of three parts. In the last part, the students are led to moral theology. In conclusion, Kant intended to arrange the catechism from mechanical to judicious, to establish a religion based on morality, not vice versa.