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Marx, Social Darwinism,
and Freud
Effects on Education
Karl Marx

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Founder of
“scientific
socialism”
Influenced by
Hegel, Feuerbach,
and Henri
Wrote Das Kapital
and Manifesto of
the Communist
Party
Hegel
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Believed all knowledge is human
knowledge. Truth is subjective.
His philosophy is a method for
understanding the progress of
history.
Thoughts are correct for you at a
point in time. They might not be
correct for everyone or for all time.
Truth and reason are dynamic.
Hegel
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History shows that humans are
progressing toward greater
rationality and freedom.
Dialectic process: A tension arises
between two opposite ways of
thinking; it is resolved by a third
thought that accommodates the best
of the other points (thesis,
antithesis, synthesis).

(Gaarder, 1991)
Feuerbach
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“Feuerbach is the only one who has a serious, critical
attitude to the Hegelian dialectic and who has made
genuine discoveries in this field. He is in fact the true
conqueror of the old philosophy”.Marx, 1844
(www.marxist.org).
Feuerbach is best known for his criticism of Idealism and
religion, especially Christianity, written in the early forties.
He believed that any progress in human culture and
civilization required the repudiation of both. His later
writings were concerned with developing a materialistic
humanism and an ethics of human solidarity. These writings
have been more or less ignored until recently because most
scholars have regarded him primarily as the bridge between
Hegel and Marx (plato.stanford.edu).
Claude Henri
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Founder of Saint Simonian
movement, a Christian scientific
socialism.
Social science should be seen as
equivalent to natural science.
Identified industrialism in Europe and
was concerned about laboring
classes (cepa.newschool.edu).
Industrialism
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Economy: most important social
structure.
Industrialism affected the entire
society and all social structures,
including education.
False consciousness versus class
consciousness.
Workers will overthrow capitalists,
and a classless society will emerge.
The Marxist Synthesis
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Social-conflict theory: The group in
power struggles to maintain the
status quo while the oppressed
struggle to change it.
Capitalist-thesis
Workers-antithesis
Classless society: synthesis
Wanted workers to revolt.
Marx and Education
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Schools would change when the economic
structure changed.
Values taught in school would change from
individualism and competitiveness to
egalitarianism and collectivism.
Neo-Marxism: schools are a source of
class conflict.
What would Marx say about tracking?
…
Evolution, Social Darwinism &
Education
Charles Darwin

1809-1882
Theory of Evolution
Life on earth evolved through processes of natural
selection.

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Developed through observation,
experiments, & insight.
1831: Darwin sailed on the Beagle, spent
5 years in the South Atlantic & Pacific
collecting, classifying, and studying a wide
variety of life forms.
bred domestic plants & animals in
England.
His conclusion: Originally simple life
forms had grown increasingly
differentiated through a long progression
…
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Darwin saw nature as a dynamic
process
Within it exists natural selection –
favorable individual differences are
preserved & injurious variations
destroyed.
Survival of the fittest an optimistic
and positive process.
Social Darwinism
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Struggle for existence
• Key argument of the social Darwinists
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Justified economic & social competition
between individuals
Condemned interference with natural laws
as socially disruptive.
Social Darwinists
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Ernst H. Haeckel (1834-1919)
• German biologist and a leading
Darwinist on the Continent.
• Asserted that natural law made progress
necessary, inevitable, and irresistible.
• Claimed that the developing organism
was reliving its evolutionary history as it
passed through stages that
recapitulated those of its ancestors.
…
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Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895)
• Man’s Place in Nature

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894)
• Historian
• Wrote 12 volume History of England
• “superior people have a natural right to govern
their inferiors”
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Nicholas Danilevsky (1822-1885)
• Saw history as a record of particular racial
groups, governed by natural laws, passing
through different stages of development.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

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From childhood he had strong
feelings of individualism that
opposed any restrictions on freedom
by church or state.
Tutored by his father William who
believed existing schools were
ineffective.
• Stressed basics -- reading, writing &
arithmetic. Greatest attention given to
science an math.
• Latin, Greek, ancient history & classical
literature virtually ignored.
…
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Spencer was encouraged by his
father to discuss and analyze all
manner of current issues.
Tutoring featured skeptical
questioning of conventional
assumptions about knowledge and
society.
Spencer
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Civil engineer age 17 to 21
• Read widely in sciences during spare time
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Gained popularity as a journalist and critic
• turned to lecturing.
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His book First Principles of a New System
of Philosophy attempted to apply
biological evolution to society.
Essays, Scientific, Political, and
Speculative reaffirmed his belief in the
importance of science and the need to
limit government regulation.
…
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Operation of the universe involves a
constant distribution of matter and
motion.
Evolution
• Progressive integration of matter
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Accompanied by the dissipation of motion
Dissolution
• Disorganization of matter
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Accompanied by the absorption of motion.
…
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Homogeneous societies develop into more
complex social systems characterized by
an increasing variety of individual roles.
Asserted that the pressures of subsistence
were beneficial.
• Fittest of each generation survive by their skill,
intelligence, diligence& ability to adapt to
change.
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The more intelligent & adaptive will inherit the earth
& populate it with equally intelligent & effective
offspring.
Spencer cont’d
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Supported British liberalism
Opposed
• government privileges for any church
and
• Classically oriented education
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Built his philosophy on the principle
of persistence of force manifested
by matter & motion.
Spencerian Social Darwinism
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Rationale used by those opposed to
• Legislative alleviation of poverty &
• State-supported education, housing, medicine, banking
& postal systems.
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Spencer saw capitalism as culminating in human
prosperity. Marx saw it as a predatory stage in
history.
• Both believed social change is produced by inevitable
universal patterns over which people have little on no
control.
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Spencer opposed those who thought social ills
are the result of some environmental
malfunction.
• Saw sociology & allied social sciences as having both a
descriptive & a prescriptive function.
Spencerian Education
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Conventional schooling seen as
impractical, ornamental, and
irrelevant to the needs of an
industrial society.
Spencer opposed to government
control of education
Wanted a curriculum putting
emphasis on science.
People need to perform a number of
life-sustaining activities effectively.
supporting human life
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Activities directly related to selfpreservation
Activities indirectly related to selfpreservation that secure the necessities of
life
Activities related to the rearing of children
Activities related to the proper
maintenance of social & political
relationships
Activities related to leisure time that
gratify taste and feelings.
Spencerian Education Methodology
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mental discipline and evolutionary
development
• Instruction should follow developmental
stages
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Simple to complex
Concrete to abstract
Empirical to the rational
Education should allow the learner’s
self-development
Victorian Era
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Age of political ideologies, characterized
by clashes between liberals &
conservatives.
Intellectual ferment
• Rise of natural science had challenged religious
orthodoxy and theology.
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There was a clash between scientific and
humanist attitudes.
• Thomas Huxley (1825-95) ----scientific
education
• Matthew Arnold (1822-88)----human nature remains
the same
Social Darwinism in America
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Social Darwinism provided a
scientific explanation for industrial
capitalism.
• Natural laws of supply & demand & open
market
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Calvinist Puritans
William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)
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Professor of political & social science at
Yale University
Education as a process of inducting the
immature individual into the knowledge,
skills, and values of the group.
Social change – gradual evolutionary
process caused environmental changes
that are induced by natural causes or
technological innovation.
• Discounted revolution as an instrument of
major social changes.
Reassertion of social Darwinism
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Neo-Conservative revival (1980s) had
Spencerian content.
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Resurgent individualism
Economic deregulation
Reduction of social programs
More science & math in curriculum
Neo-Conservative policies also
implemented in England at the same time
Soviet Union and its satellite states –
similar policies adopted.
Freud
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Psychoanalytical
theory
Jewish
Socioeconomic
changes
Influenced by
Feuerbach,
Brentano, Brucke,
Clause, and
Charcot
Freud’s Vienna
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Emperor Franz
Josef was tolerant
of Jewish
community and
helped decrease
discrimination
against them. This
allowed the Jewish
people to be
successful.
Brucke
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Physiologist
Could study human behavior through
empirical method.
The scientific method should be
applied to medicine.
Charcot
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Specialized in mental illness
One of the most famous neurologists
of all time
Discovered and described a variety of
neurologically-based diseases.
Was among the first to match
specific anatomical lesions to a
variety of neurological disorders
(www.indiana.edu).
Id, ego and superego
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Id: primitive, instinctual drives such as
sexuality and aggression. The id is present
at birth and requires immediate
gratification.
Ego: finds balance between primitive
drives and morals. The ego is concerned
with person’s safety.
Superego: internalization of cultural
regulations. The superego is a person’s
conscience (en.wikipedia.org).
Freud and Education
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Early childhood is important to adult
mental health.
Education served to teach culture.
Education can help children control their
instincts.
Child’s instincts should be lead to
constructive expression; they should not
be suppressed.
Teachers should be aware of individual
differences.
Freud and Education
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To avoid harming a child
psychologically, schools should find
ways to liberate the child while
conforming to cultural standards.
A child’s instincts should not be
denied but adapted to social reality
(www.ibe.unesco.org).
Anna Freud
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Founder of child psychoanalysis
Focused on the importance of the
ego.
Was important in the field of child
development (www.webster.edu)
References
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http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Da
rwin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin/
http://users.hol.gr/~dilos/prehis/prerm2.htm
http://www.marxist.org
http://plato.stanford.edu
http://cepa.newschool.edu
http://www.indiana.edu
http://www.webster.edu
Gaarder, J. (1991). Sophie’s World. New York: Berkley
Books.