This encyclopedia charts the influence of philosophic ideas that have had the greatest influence on educational thinking from ancient Greece to the present day.

The present essay grew out of an inte: rest in exploring the relationship be tween "imagination" and "reason" in the history of naturalistic thinking. The essay tries to show something of the spirit of naturalism coming to terms with the place of imagination and reason in knowing, making, and doing as activities of human experience. This spirit is discussed by taking as its point of departure the thinking of five writers: Plato, Aristotle, Giam battista Vieo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Keats. Plato and Aristotle are considered as spokesmen of reason in a world which appeared to be...