In the first half of my treatise I have tried to clarify the indispensable role religion plays in the formation of man's moral character, and the consequent necessity of religious principles in moral education. I have at the same time described the present condition of religious education in Europe. However, it is also a fact that, concerning the relationship between religion and politics, there have been movements, through history, to secularize education in various parts of the world.
In this half of my treatise I have attempted to explain the separation of Church and State which took place in France and in the United States. The moral education of France exercised a great influence on that of Japan since the early years of Meiji, while that of the United States become influential after the Second World War. However, whether the moral education carried on in France or the courses in ethics and religion given in the United States are adaptable without any change to Japan is a question still to be answered. Before attempting to solve this problem a thorough study should be made of the history of the separation movement in Japan, which developed in a fashion quite different from similar movements in France and the United States.

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The period in which Willmann was active as a philosopher and educator was still under the deep influence of the Enlightenment. Education was no exception.
The exponents of the Enlightenment disdained the Middle Ages, looked on the thoughts of the time as 'ancilla theologiae', and proclaimed themselves as the givers of illuminating new light. Cutting, thus, the historical continuity, they abandoned the precious moral and spiritual heritage of the past. They made man and his subjective reasoning the highest norm of all judgments. In promising man's intellectual liberation and development, they fell into a quagmire of self-delusion, opening the way to individualism, subjectivism, naturalism, relativism, secularism and materialism, etc.
Otto Willmann devoted his whole life as philosopher and educator to fight against the world-view of the Enlightenment, i.e. present Nominalism and its influence on educational ideologies. Starting from the individualistic education of Herbert and tracing backwards up the stream of history, Willmann reached on the opposite side of the Enlightenment, namely the heights of the Greco-Christian idealistic world-view and educational Ethos. The Greco-Christian Idealism is not like German subjectivistic idealism seen in Kant, Fichte, Schilling and Hegel. This Idealism is the Idealism of Logos founded and developed by Plato, Aristoteles, St. Augustinus and St. Thomas Aquinus. The Greco-Christian Idealism according to Willmann possess the eternal creative life and substance (teaching of everlasting values (μεγιστον μαθημα, unum necessarium)) and leads man toward eternal God. Therefore, it is 'philosophia perennis' and 'paedagogia perennis'.

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It was during the Victorian Era that Spencer brought forth his theory of social organism, based on the equality and the freedom of man. An individual has the liberty to pursue happiness and to use his faculties for that end. Such individuals, during the process of their gradual adjustment to society, improve their own faculties, and in turn help society to prosper. The theory of social organism aims at the happiness of the individual, and in this differs from the theory of biological organism.
Spencer's educational ideas were based on this sociological point of view. Man needs education in order to adjust to society. Education aims at equipping man for a perfect life, and for that end must endeavour to develop his mental and physical faculties in a well-balanced fashion. Moral education must be based on intellectual training. And the method of education should be such that would encourage an individual to use his capacities voluntarily to acquire knowledge.
Spencer advocated an education which placed importance on the individual and which aimed at a harmonious adjustment of man to society.

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“A Treatise on Man, his intellectual faculties and his education” by Helvétius published in 1772 included an attempt to establish a science of education. It was a plan to build a new science concerning man, using methods of natural science.
According to Helvétius, what formed man was not natural environment but social conditions, or rather “education” in a broad sence. In order to recognize the effects of such “education” and to improve it, a science of education was necessary. The aim of this science is none other than to establish a sound political system which would make possible ideal education for the young.
The promotion of such a science would greatly benefit a country, since though power may temporarily impede the progress of education, society inevitably changes, and truth eventually will triumph as a thing most beneficial to man.

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