애덤 스미스의 교육론: 자연철학과 도덕철학의 종합을 위하여
Adam Smith’s Discourse on Education: Towards a Synthesis of Natural and Moral Philosophy
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본 논문은 애덤 스미스가 <국부론> 제5편 제1장에서 전개한 청년들에 대한 교육론을 재조명한다. 이 대목에 대한 지배적 해석에 따르면 교육비용을 교육수요자(학생과 학부모)가 부담하는 사립학교가 공공교육기관보다 더 나은 수준의 교육을 제공한다는 것과 생산성 증대에 기여하는 실용적 직업교육을 인문교육보다 중시한 것이 스미스의 교육론의 중점이었다. 그러나 이러한 해석은 스미스가 교육을 국가의 의무로 본 것은 분업으로 인한 서민층의 도덕적 사회적 판단능력의 쇠퇴를 해결하기 위한 것이었다는 사실과 충돌한다. 구체적으론 두 가지 사항이 간과되었다. 우선 스미스는 교육론에서 고대에서부터 당대에 이르는 도덕철학의 역사적 변천을 상세히 서술하였다. 또한 그는 서민층 교육에서 기하학과 물리학이 ‘가장 숭고한 학문’의 입문이 된다는 지적하여 이 두 과목에 실용적 직업교육 이상의 중요성을 부여했다. 이 두 가지는 도덕철학이 스미스의 교육론에서 무시할 수 없는 중요성을 갖는다는 것을 시사하는데, 종전의 연구에선 무시되었다. 본 논문은 이러한 해석적 결함을 교정하려고 시도했다. 본 논문은 먼저 ‘가장 숭고한 학문’이 당시 유럽 지식인 사이에서 다양한 현상들을 연결하는 원리를 찾아내는 자연철학과 도덕철학을 의미했다는 점을 밝혔다. 그리고 스미스가 ‘가장 숭고한 학문들’의 입문으로 추천했던 기하학과 물리학은 유럽지성사에서 연역적, 귀납적 추론의 도구로 알려져 왔고, 뉴턴에 이르러 실험과 관찰을 강조하는 방식으로 종합됨으로써 자연철학은 물론 도덕철학의 중요한 기초가 되었다. 이러한 지적 전통에 속해 있었던 스미스는 서민층 자녀들이 기하학과 물리학을 통해 귀납적, 연역적 사고를 훈련하여 현실 속의 구체적 인간에 대한 관찰 없는 추상적 사변에 기대었던 금욕주의나, 현실의 다양성에 매몰되어 일관성을 결여한 번잡한 도덕적 규범들만 양산했던 결의론의 오류를 극복한 도덕적 판단력을 갖기를 바랐던 것이다. 자연철학에서 발전한 면밀한 관찰과 체계적인 추론의 방식을 도덕철학에도 적용함으로써 이들이 사회 속의 인간들의 다양한 상호작용 속에서 일관성 있는 도덕준칙을 도출해내고 그것을 구체적인 상황에 적용하는 것을 배우기를 기대했던 것이다. 즉 스미스의 교육적 관심은 서민층 자녀들이 실용적인 직업교육만이 아니라 올바른 도덕적 품성의 습득과 사회 정치적 문제에 대한 균형 있는 판단력을 가질 수 있도록 하는데 있었던 것이다. 끝으로 본 연구는 스미스의 구상이 우리 교육에 주는 시사점들을 제시한다.
Abstract
This article sheds new light on Adam Smith’s discourse on education in Chapter 1 of Book 5 in <Wealth of Nations>. According to dominant interpretation Smith’s discourse on education was focused on proving that private schools at which education customer (students or their parents) bear education expenditures guarantee better education quality than public schools and that practical vocational education as investment in human capital contributing to enhancing productivity is important than literary education. Such a interpretation neglects that it was due to negative effect of division of labor, namely deterioration of moral and social judgement of common people that Smith found government’s education policy necessary. Here two points deserve attention. First, Smith described in detail the historical change of moral philosophy from ancient Greece to his own time. Second, Smith’s proposal that geometry and mechanics should be taught as introduction not only to the most useful sciences but also to “the most sublime sciences,” hints that he meant more than practical vocal education. Both points allude to Smith’s concern for moral philosophy in his discourse, which previous studies have not yet given its deserving attention to. This article tries to make up for this interpretative deficiency. It was at first discovered that “the most sublime sciences” meant in the circle of the European intellectuals natural and moral philosophy which investigate into connecting principles of various phenomena in the physical and human world. And geometry and physics (’mechanics’) which Smith described as introduction to the most sublime sciences deemed in the Western philosophical tradition as instruments for deduction and induction. They were synthesized by Newton into a scientific method which stressed observation and experiment and served as important basis also for moral philosophy. In this tradition Smith expected that by means of geometry and physics children of common people would be trained in deductive and inductive thinking which prevented them from falling into ascetism which relied on abstract speculation without observation of concrete human reality as well as into casuisty which, overwhelmed by complexities of reality, prescribed too many moral rules without coherent principles. By applying methods of careful observation and systematic inference developed in natural philosophy, to moral philosophy young people should learn to observe carefully human interactions in society and infer from the observations general moral rules, which take also peculiarities of human interactions into consideration, and apply these to various situations. In short Smith was not concerned only for practical vocational education of common people but also for educating them to persons with reliable moral character and social and political insights. This article finally derives from this new insight into Smith’s educational concerns some implications for contemporary education.
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