How Darwinism has affected Catholic as well as non-Catholic psycho-pedagogical constructs in Belgium from the 1870s to the 1930s

• Autores: Marc Depaepe, Raf de Bont, Kristof Dams
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 48, Nº. Extra 1, 2012 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Discoveries of childhood in history), págs. 51-66
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • On the basis of their individual preliminary studies, the authors consider in this article the impact of Darwinism on psycho-pedagogical constructs in Belgium in the period before the Second World War. Their findings are put together around three positions, which are, in fact, hypotheses for further research: (1) The �influence� of Darwin on Belgian psycho-pedagogical theory did not proceed in a straight line but generally indirectly, that is, via the mediation of other, foreign authors, such as, for example, Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel; (2) The ideological fault lines between Catholics and non-Catholics � in particular between Catholics and atheists or free-thinkers � were drawn very clearly in the Belgian reception of Darwin, also with regard to the formation of psycho-pedagogical constructs. In general, however, the Catholics did not condemn Darwinism as such � indeed, they often developed their own Catholic evolutionism � but they were very unwilling to expand the principle of evolution to include the human or social sciences. Many were of the opinion that this would imply a denial of the �soul�; (3) The central figure in the historical process of �associating� with the theory of evolution was that of �appropriation� in which diverse elements of evolutionism were taken out of their historical context and were �functionalistically� inserted into an alien environment.