Evolutionism and the development of educational thinking in Belgium before World War I

Abstract

The article attempts to sketch a picture of the often ambivalent way in which psycho-pedagogical theory formation in Belgium was constructed before WW II. We consider Darwinism’s impact on it by means of three positions that we will take as marking the path for the development of our thought on the matter: 1) The “influence” of Darwin proceeded indirectly, via the mediation of other, foreign authors; 2) The ideological fault lines between Catholics and non-Catholics were drawn clearly in the Belgian reception of Darwin.; 3) The central figure in the historical process of “associating” with the theory of evolution in theory formation about education was that of “appropriation” in which diverse elements of evolutionism were taken out of their historical context and were “functionalistically” inserted into an alien environment.