Comenius, Light Metaphysics and Educational Reform

The importance of Comenius for the debates over educational reform dating from the 1630s onwards is now coming to light, thanks not least to our better understanding of the history of the foundation of the Royal Society. That Francis Bacon played a significant role in these debates needs no emphasis. Bacon, like Comenius, set his programme of reform within a theological framework, but this remained on a modest scale, unlike in the case of the latter, who took his inspiration both from the Rosicrucian idea of a universal reform of humanity and from the encyclopaedic pretensions of his teacher Alsted. Comenius’ theological framework is that of a Platonically derived light metaphysics. Thus, in the middle of the seventeenth century Comenius effects a fusion of Platonic light metaphysics with educational reform.