Edinburgh Napier University

  Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas can still inspire education in the East as well as in the West today. In this
paper, I survey Tagore’s philosophical anthropology and argue that there is more coherence to his
philosophy and pedagogy than is usually seen. For Tagore, the highest goal is to make the world one’s
own, as well as to enlarge one’s self to encompass the world. The educational practices through which
this ideal can be reached can be classified as “creative action,” “love,” and “freedom.” On the basis of such
an ideal, realms such as the arts, nature, and movement no longer remain expendable additions to the kind
of knowledge-driven education that aims primarily at making everyone economically productive.One of
the problems with such a pedagogical strategy is that it treats human beings as means and not as ends.
Tagore’s educational approach (his “method of nature”) refrains from turning children into adults as soon
as possible and accepts the deceleration of learning and the simplification of living asmost forward-leading
approach to a successful and comprehensive education.