ABSTRACT

The philosophy and pedagogy of the encyclopaedic tradition were expressed by seventeenth-century writers, especially Comenius. The encyclopaedist view has three main elements. First has been the principle of rationality. The second principle has been universality. The third principle has been utility. The utilitarian principle was relatively neglected during the conservative regimes (both monarchist and republican) of the nineteenth century. The chapter discusses the encyclopaedic view of the curriculum in France as traditional, conservative and unsuited to the needs of students in a democratized school system in an urban industrialized society. The challenge for French curriculum planners is to maintain the undoubted value that the encyclopaedist approach has brought while somehow adjusting teaching in ways that will accommodate the individualist and social aspirations that have been strengthened by wider social and political changes. Encylopaedism is a revolutionary and reformist view of the function of knowledge in transforming society in the interests of the majority of its members.