论自由教育向通识教育的演变

On the Evolution of the Liberal Education to the General Education

西方高等教育素有自由教育、通识教育的传统,而自由教育是通识教育的古典先驱。从公元4世纪亚里士多德提出自由教育思想到19世纪初有识之士倡导通识教育,在长达15个世纪的历史长河中,自由教育因社会政治经济文化的发展变化,其概念内涵发生着演变。19世纪初以来,自由教育开始向通识教育演变,是历史发展的必然,但这并不是对自由教育的全盘否定。自由教育是通识教育的灵魂,是实施通识教育的教育理念。

Western higher education has the traditional notion of the liberal education and the general education, and the liberal education is the classical pioneer of the general education. From the notion of liberal education brought forward by Aristotle to the notion of general education advocated in the early 19th century, with the development of society, politics, economy and culture, its conceptual meaning has been changed over the past 1500 years. It has been a historical necessity that the liberal education had been evolved into the general education, but, it is not a total repudiation of the liberal education. The liberal education is the soul of the general education and the educational belief to the implementation of the general edulation.