five

PERENNIALISM
https://www.pendidikandasa
r.com/filsafat-perenialisme/

The Perennialist philosophy of education draws heavily from the Real•

ist and Thornist positions. In regard to metaphysics, the Perenuialists
proclaim the intellectual and spiritual character of the universe and
man's place within it. Following the Aristotelian premise that man is a
rational being, the Perennialists conceive of the school as a social insti•
tution which is specifically designed lo contribute in the
development of man's intellectual or cognitive features, The name
"Perennialisrn" comes from the assertion that the basic principles of
education are changeless and recurrent. In the Perennialist context,
the educational philosopher's first problem is to examine man's nature
and to devise an educational program that is based upon his universal
characteristics. Man's intellect enables him to frame alternative
propositions and to choose those that fulfill the requirements of his
human nature. Since he can frame and choose between rational
alternatives, man is a free agent. However, the basic human values
derive from man's rational power, which defines him as a human
being. Man frames his thought in sym• bolic patterns and
communicates them to his fellows. Although there are cultural
particularities, men everywhere have framed ethical princi• ples that
govern their individual and corporate lives. Throughout the world, men
have developed religious and aesthetic modes of experience and
expression.
Since human nature is constant, so are the basic patterns of education.
Foremost, education should aim to cultivate man's rational powers.
Basically the universal aim of education is truth. Since that which is true
is universal and unchanging, a genuine education should also be univer•
sal and constant. The school's curriculum should emphasize the univer•
s.al and recurrent themes of human life. It should contain cognitive

69
 70 Perennialism

m.ucri.ils which .irt· de:,ir,1H·d tu cu lt i v.itv 1.1tin11.dity; it should bl' highly

logical ,11\d .icqu.rinl students with the use of the symbolic patterns
of tho .1ght .ind conuuunir.u ion It should cultivate cthic.il principles
1

and encourage moral, aesthetic, and religious criticism and appreciation.

The Perennialist educational philosophy, when put into practice,
develops the intellectual and spiritual potentialities of the child to
their fullest extent through a subject-matter curriculum that is inclined
to such disciplines as history, language, mathematics, logic, literature,
the hu• manities, and science. These subccts, regarded as bearing the
funded knowledge of the human race, are the tools of civilized people
and have a disciplinary effect on the mind.
Perennialist educational theory emphasizes the humanities as works
of man that provide insights into the good, true. and beautiful. In these
works, man has caught a glimpse of the eternal truths and values. Such
insights, found in science, philosophy, literature, history, and art, per•
sist as they are transmitted from generation to generation. Works such
as those of Plato, Aristotle, and Mill, for example, possess a quality that
makes them perennially appealing to men living at different times and
in different places. Other ideas which may be popular to a particular
time fail to meet �est of time and are discarded.
These general principles associated with Perennialism can be seen
in the educational ideas of Robert M. Hutchins and [acques
Maritain. Wh\le Hutchins represents a secular variety of classicial
humanism, Maritain has been identified with the religious Perennialism
associated with nee-Thomism. Although there are certain important
variations in the philosophical positions of Hutchins and Maritain, they
agree on the
. followin� basic principles:_ (1) there is a body of �ruth �hich is
univer•
sally valid regardless of circumstances and contingencies; t2) a sound
) education will contribute to the pursuit of truth and to the cultivation
of the permanent principles of right and justice; (.3) truth can best be
t.iught through the systematic study and analysis of man's past-as

U��\\
P?rtraycd in the �re.a t works of religion, philosophy, literature, and
�story. 1.:yv,"J1�0\t

ROBERT MAYNARD HUTCHINS

Robert Maynard Hutchins has long been .1,11 articulate spokesman for
the position that education is properly dl. voted to the cultivation of
man's intellect. Hutchins was born in 1� 19 and received his
higher
education at Yale University. He was a professor of law at Yale from
1927 to 1929. At thirty-one, he became president of the University of
Chicago and served in that capacity until he became chancellor of that
University in 1945. In 1954, Hutchins became president of the Fund
for
 . l '·
Perennialism 71

the Republic. He is now associated with the Center for the Study of
Democratic Institutions, a nonprofit educational enterprise
established by the Fund for the Republic to. promote the principles
of individual
liberty in a democratic society. H� is a frequent speaker and author on
behalf of the cause o'f liberal education. His major educational
works include The Higher Learning in America, 1936; Education for
Freedom,
1934; Con/lief in Education in a Democratic Society, 1953; University of
Utopia, 1953; and The Learning Society, 1968.
When asked his opinion as to the ideal education, Hutchins replied:
Ideal education is the one that develops intellectual power. I arrive at this
conclusion by a process of elimination: Educational institutions are the only
institutions that can develop intellectual power. The ideal education is not
an ad hoc education, net an education directed to immediate needs; it is not
a specialized education, or a pre-professional education; it is not a utilitarian
education. It is an education calculated to develop the mind.
There may be many ways, all equally good, of developing the mind. I
have old-fashioned prejudices in favor of the three R's and the liberal arts,
in favor of trying to understand the greatest work; that the human race has
produced. I believe that these are the permanent necessities, the intellectual
tools that are needed to understand the ideas and ideals of our world. This
docs not exclude later specialization or later professional education; but I
insist that without the intellectual techniques needed to understand ideas,
and without at least an acquaintance with the major ideas that have
animated mankind since the dawn of history, no man may call himself
educated.1
This quotation reveals some of the basic principles of Hutchins' edu•
cational philosophy: (1) cultivation of the basic foundational tool
skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are indispensable for
literate and civilized man; (2) a liberal education should contribute to
man's under• standing of the great works of civilization; (3) professional
and special• ized education should be deferred until one has completed
the requirements of general education, that education which. every
man should have as a rational human being.
In 1936, Hutchins wrote The Higher Learning in America, 2 which was
both a critique of higher education and of general education as well.
Commentary on this work is useful in establishing Hutchins' educa•
tional perspective.
· Hutchins bases his educational philosophy on two basic concepts: (1)
man's rational nature and (2) a conception of knowledge based on
--·-----------------
1. Robert M. Hutchins. A Conversation on Education. Santa Barbara, Calif.: The Fund for
the Republic, Inc., 1963. pp. 1-2.
2. Robert M. Hutchins. The Higher learning in America. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1962.
 Perennialism

eternal, absolute, and universal truths. His educational theory

assumes
the presence in human nature of essential and unchanging elements.
�ince rationality is the highest attribute of man's nature, the
develop•
ment of his intellect by the cultivation of the intellectual virtues is
education's highest goal. The intellectual virtues lead man to discover
the great truths that are to be found in the classic books of Western
civilization.
Unfortunately, American education has lailed to devote its energies
to the nursuit of truth and to the cultivatio 1 of intellectual excellence.
Ameri�an higher education, in particular, has become misdirected be•
cause of confusion in the conditions of life that are external to
educa• tion. Three factors, Hutchins asserts, have contributed to this
general confusion: (1) love of money; (2) an erroneous conception of
democracy: (J) a false notion of progress. Emersed in materialism and
catering to the shifting whims of donors, students, business, alumni,
and politicians,
the university has lost its integrity in the search for operating
funds. Contemporary America has witnessed tne rise
which is
of a university
like a service station. In contrast, Hutchins argues for a university whose
sole purpose is to pursue and discover truth.
Hutchins believes that a confused conception of democracy has re•
sulted in the commonly-held attitude that everyone should receive the
same amount and degree of cduc.uion. He would reserve the opportu•
nity for higher education to students who have the interest and ability
necessary for independent intellectual activity. A false notion of
progress has led to the rejection of the wisdom of the pas.. which has
been replaced by a belief that advancement comes only from empiricism
and materialism. Superficial er:r_1J?Js�ism equates knowledge with the
mere collection of f.1ctt1 ,rnd d,1t,1. Tliisconfusion produces an antiintel•
lectualism which regards the most worthwhile education as that
bring• ing the greatest financial return.
American higher education is not only beset by the confusion that
comes to it from external sources, but it also has its own internal condi•
tions of disintegration that take the form of professionalism, isolation,
and antiintellectualism. Professionalism, resulting from the surrender of
the universities to vocational pressures, is motivated by the perverted
utilitarianism which equates money-making with knowledge. Hut•
chins' attack on premature professionalism is based on three main argu•
ments: (1) the methods of school instruction lag behind actual
practice; (2) it is foolish to try to master constantly changing
techniques; (3) direct experience is the most efficient source of
practical wisdom.
Overspecialization has isolated specialist from specialist. Without the
integrating core of a common education, specialists lack the ideas and
language that come from shared and communicable experience. Antiin-
 Perennialism 7.3

tellectualism stems from an emphasis on the purely utilitarian at the

sacrifice of theory and speculation. Hutchins asserts that theoretical
knowledge is essentijl to man's rational nature.
American educatio� has grown confused. Vocationalisrn and special•
ized education have entered the curriculum prematurely and have dis•
torted the purpose of general education. An overemphasis on the
empirical and the vd(ational has pushed the liberal arts out of the
general curriculum. S9me educators have tied education to specific po•
liticaland social programs that lead either to superficiality or toIndoctri•
nation, rather than to the cultivation of critical intelligence.

The Curriculum: The Permanent Studies Hutchins argues that the cur•
riculum should be composed of permanent studies which reflect the
common elements of human nature and which connect each generation
to the best thoughts of mankind. He particularly recommends the study
._ of the great books-the classics which are contemporary in any age. The
great books of the Western world embrace all areas of knowledge. Four
years spent in reading, discussing, and digesting the great books will
cultivate the intellect and will prepare one for later professional study.
A critical reading and discussing of the great books will cultivate stan•
dards of judgment and criticism and will prepare students to think
carefully and to act intelligently.
In addition to recommending a curriculum based on the reading of the
great books of western civilization, Hutchins recommends the study of
grammar, rhetoric, logic, and mathematics. Grammar, the analysis of
language, contributes to the understanding and comprehension of the
written word. Rhetoric provides the student with the rules of writing
and speaking so that he is capable of intelligent expression: logic, the
critical study of reasoning, enables one to think and express himself in
an orderly and systematic fashion. Mathematics is of general value since
it represents reasoning in its clearest and most precise Ferm.
In order to restore the rule of rationality in higher education, Hut•
chins recommends the revitalizing of metaphysics. As the study" of first
principles, metaphysics pervades the entire range of intellectual pur•
suits. Proceeding from the, study of first principles to the most current
concerns, higher educatior should deal with man's fundamental prob•
lems. While the social sciences embrace the practical scier ces of ethics,
politics, and economics, the natural sciences deal with the study of
natural and physical phenomena.
Hutchins, who is critical of the specialization that: has occurred in
teacher education, believes that prospective teachers should have a good
general education in the liberal arts and sciences. Such an education
contains the basic rules of pedagogy. The liberal arts-i-gramrnar.
rheto-
 /4
Perennialism

ric, logic, and mat hcrnatics=--arc potent instruments in preparing the

prospective teacher to organize, express, and communicate
knowledge.

RELIGIOUS PERENNIALISM
Like their more secular confreres, the ecclesiastical Perennialists, who
are often associated with Roman Catholic education, believe that there
are universal truths and values. They believe in the permanent or peren•
nial curriculum which is useful for all men regardless of the contingen•
cies of differing cultures. The religious Pcrcnnialists, in contrast to their
secular colleagues, believe that the universe and man within were
created by a Supreme Being who is a knowing and a loving God.
They see divine purpose operating within the laws of the universe and
within the life of man. The religious variety of Perennialism finds
expression in the philosophy of Jacques Maritain, who has also been
classified as a neo-Thornist or Integral Realist.

JACQUES MARITAIN
Maritain was born in 1882 in Paris and was educated at the
University of Paris. He was born into a Protestant family but became a
convert to Roman Catholicism in 1906. Dissatisfied with the
skepticism that was popular among academic philosophers, Maritain
was attracted to the philosophy of Henri Bergson. He later came to
urge a reconciliation of faith and reason in philosophy, as exemplified
in the works of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Maritain is an astute
proponent of neo-Thornist inte• gral realism and has written
extensively on that subject. His books include Education al the
Crossroads (1943), Man and the State (1951), On the Use of Phil(lsophy
(1961), and Integral Humanism (1968).

Education al the Crossroads Maritain's philosophy of education is clearly

expressed in his book Education at the Crossroads, where he indicates that
the purposes of education are two-fold: (1) to educate man in those
things which will cultivate his humanity; (2) to introduce man to the
requirements and particularities of his cultural heritage. Priority, how•
ever, is given to the cultivation of the rationality and spirituality which
are man's defining qualities. Particular cultural, vocational, and profes•
sional education is secondary and should be subordinate to the
cultiva• lion of the intellect.
Like Hutchins, Maritain sees modern education beset by a number of
misconceptions which have caused confusion and have distorted its true
purposes. Influenced by Pragmatism and Experimentalism, modern
ed-
Perennialism 75

ucation has overemphasized means and has neglected to distinguish

between means and ends. The concentration on means has resulted in
an aimless, and often mindless, education which has no guiding direc•
tive goals. Maritain asserts that the proper end of education is to educate
man so that he can realize his human potentialities. Genuine education
rests on a true conception of human nature which is derived from the
rellgious-philosoplucal view of the [udco-Christian heritage. According
to Maritain:

We may now define in a more precise manner the aim of education. It is to

guide man in the evolving dynamism through which he shapes himself as a
human person-armed with knowledge, strength of judgment, and moral
virtues-s-while at the same time conveying to him the spiritual heritage of
the nation and the civilization in which he is involved, and preserving in
this way the century-old achievements of generations. The utilitarian aspect
of education-i-which enables the youth to get a job and make a living-·-·
must surely not be disregarded, for the children of man are not made for
aristocratic leisure. But this practical aim is best provided by the general
human capacities developed. And the ulterior specialized training which
may be required must never imperil the essential aim of education."

In emphasizing the cultivation of man's spiritual and rational poten•

tialities, Maritain takes issue with the advocates of what he terms "vol•
untarism." Theorists such as Rousseau and Pestalozzi and their modern
followers have emphasized man's volitional-emotional character. In
seeking to educate the good-hearted man, the voluntarists neglected or
minimized the cultivation of intelligent judgment. In contrast, Maritain
argues that a simplistic emotionalism is inadequate. Indeed, the properly
functioning man is governed by intellect rather than emotionalism.
Even more dangerous than Rousseauean voluntarism is the modern
emphasis that argues for the complete liberation of the emotions and
would make education a matter of feeling rather than thinking.
Maritain sees the teacher as an educated, cultivated, mature person
who possesses knowledge that the students do not have but wish to
acquire. Good teaching begins with what the student already knows and
leads him to that which he does not know. The teacher is a dynamic
agent in the learning process.
The student, a rational and free being possessed of a spiritual soul and
a corporeal body, is endowed with an intellect that seeks to know.
The good teacher is one who establishes an orderly but open
climate of

3. Jacques Maritain. Education al ih e Crossroads. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960.
p. 10.