The Dialectical Development that The Conception of Nature in Philosophy of Education: from Comenius, Rousseau to Dewey

The conception of nature has experienced a three dialectical development process in history of philosophy of education:extrinsic nature, nature within us and interactive nature. The conception of extrinsic nature is represented by the idea of Comenius who emphasizes that nature is namely the common order of things and education should follow it. Rousseau's idea is regarded as the representative of the conception of nature within us which advocates that nature means the natural instincts of human and education should leave it free. The conception of interactive nature is represented by Dewey's thought which attempts to reconcile those two above conceptions of nature, believing that nature is the experience which is produced by the interaction between man as well as environment and education should promote its continuous growth through interaction. They provided diverse perspectives of the relationship among nature, education and people.