The Contribution of Theodor Litt to Modern Pedagogy

Abstract

Theodor Litt was an active scholar who, through the 81 years of his life, was constantly in search of truth. Basing himself on the historical reality of his times, he led his German fellow-citizens in the right direction. He was not merely a speculative philosopher and educator but one who strove to realize in concrete ways the truth he had ferreted out. Freely using thoughts and ideas of all schools of modern philosophy, he worked out a foundation for educational activities from this broad perspective. He was able to range through many mutually interrelated fields of culture.
It was in the dynamic, mutual relations between being and action, liberty and destiny, theory and practiue, one's mother country and the world, and youth and age that he discovered the possibility and limits of education. Litt's lasting contributions to pedagogy are the following : his giving a philosophical and historical bath to educational theory ; his clarification of the dialectical relations between religion on the one hand and education and culture on the other ; his elucidation of the necessity of unity between science and morality.