Herbart's philosophy is influenced by Kant, Fichte and Leibniz, especially Leibniz's "monism". Leibniz believes that the origin and foundation of all things in the world is a spiritual entity called "list". Kant, on the other hand, put forward the concept of "thing itself", thinking that there is an unknown ontology in the universe, which exists independently and has no consciousness. Herbart absorbed and integrated the above viewpoints and developed a set of metaphysical realism theory. He believes that the universe is composed of countless eternal "realities" that people cannot understand. The "real" world is absolute and has not changed. Reality is eternal, but there are various relationships and interactions between reality and reality. These different relationships and interactions constitute the changeable shape of the universe, which leads to all kinds of illusions and hallucinations when people understand the universe. Therefore, when people study educational phenomena, they must build on their own understanding of "reality". Herbart's metaphysical realism has a considerable influence on the philosophical circles in the19th century. At the same time, Herbart absorbed the theory of British materialism and empiricism represented by Locke, regarded the human mind as a "whiteboard" and insisted that psychology and cognition originated from feeling and experience.
Psychological view Herbart advocates the establishment of educational methodology on the basis of psychology. He first declared that psychology is a science; It is argued that psychology should be separated from philosophy and study its own specific object in a special way. He also believes that "most of the defects in our pedagogy are due to the lack of psychology", so he devoted his life to the great attempt to establish pedagogy on the basis of psychology.
Herbart's philosophy holds that the universe is composed of many independent, unchangeable and indestructible spiritual entities-"reality", and the human mind (or soul) is such a simple entity that people can't understand its essence. The human mind can interact with various realities of the outside world through sensory media, and get the initial "concept" in people's minds through mutual influence and conflict. "Concept" is a common vocabulary in Herbart's psychology, some of which are translated as "concept" or "representation", which generally refers to the impression that things are presented to the senses and remain in consciousness. He believes that concept is the most basic element of psychological activities. Without concepts, there is no psychology. Psychology is a science that studies concepts, and it is a science about the emergence, combination, agglomeration, dispersion, struggle and weakening of concepts. He also believes that the formation and movement of various ideas determine all the contents of human consciousness, including cognition, emotion and desire.
Herbart initiated the concepts of "consciousness threshold", "unconsciousness", "apperception" and "consciousness" when expressing his conceptual psychology.
On the threshold of consciousness, he explained that there are countless ideas in people's consciousness, and some ideas are suppressed because of their small strength and intensity. "If an idea wants to enter the state of realistic idea from a completely suppressed state, it must cross a boundary, and these boundaries are the threshold of consciousness." He believes that consciousness and unconsciousness can be transformed into each other. With the change of time, the concept on the threshold of consciousness can be transferred to the threshold of consciousness and become unconscious. or vice versa, Dallas to the auditorium His theory became the origin of Freud's "subconscious" theory in the 20th century. Herbart tried to explain complex psychological phenomena with his above theory. For example, forgetting is that an idea is rejected by other powerful ideas and suppressed under the threshold of consciousness; Memory, on the other hand, is that the squeezed ideas are attracted by some ideas and reappear on the threshold of consciousness; Happiness is the harmony and cooperation between two concepts. In a word, Herbart attributed all kinds of psychological activities to ideas and their movements.
About apperception Herbart thinks that ideas have their own way of existence, they attract or repel each other and try their best to maintain their integrity. Synaesthesia refers to the process of children absorbing and assimilating new concepts on the basis of original experience and forming a conceptual system. When people pay attention to a thing, the mind (reality) interacts with what they know each other (reality) to form an idea, which is a single idea. If this concept is consistent with the original concept in consciousness, it will be absorbed and assimilated, and concepts and concepts will form a concept group, and then it will continue to expand to form a concept system, which Herbart calls "apperception group". In Herbart's psychology, apperception occupies an important position. He believes that promoting apperception is related to the success or failure of teaching, so teachers should master the relevant laws well so that new ideas can be better absorbed and assimilated by apperception groups in teaching.
About Interest Herbart's interest refers to the active and extensive movement of students' psychology and thoughts, as well as their inner psychological state of high attraction and high concern for what they have learned. He believes that "interest is generated by all kinds of interesting objects and assignments." If students are interested in learning, they will ask to consolidate and expand their knowledge, and they can actively choose and satisfy their knowledge. So he suggested that teaching should focus on interest.
Herbart's conceptual psychology is based on theoretical assumptions. He denied the knowledge of psychological essence and the study of psychological and physiological basis, and his theory was full of contradictions. But at that time, his theory destroyed the dominant functional psychology, and put forward that human psychology is an organic whole composed of activities of various concepts, and human emotions, wishes and wills are determined by the dominant apperception groups. He tried to reveal the law of people's inner psychological activities, and asked pedagogy to take it as the basis, so that educators could explore the mechanism of people's inner activities, study the formation of knowledge and experience, and find the law of education from it, which was very valuable.
The core of Herbart's ethical thought is to emphasize that everyone should have five moral concepts, one of which is the concept of "inner freedom". It requires that one's own opinions and actions can be judged by inner rationality, and there will be no contradiction and struggle between will and behavior. The second is the concept of "perfection". Everyone should have perfect ideals and perseverance to realize their ambitions. This is the basis of realizing moral education and coordinating contradictions. The third is the concept of "kindness". A person is required to seek welfare for others selflessly, so that his will can be coordinated with the will of others. The fourth is the concept of "justice", which is actually the concept of "obeying the law". The fifth is the concept of "fairness or return". Let people know that good is rewarded and evil is rewarded, reward good deeds and resolutely punish evil deeds. Herbart pointed out that these five moral concepts are not parallel and equally important. A perfect concept should precede other practical concepts ... because it can be applied continuously. Education should pay special attention to the concept of "perfection".
Herbart believes that these five eternal "virtues" are "eternal truths to consolidate the world order" and the code of conduct to maintain the existing social order. "Five moral concepts" is not only Herbart's ethical creed, but also an important basis of his educational theory.
Herbart is the first educator who clearly put forward that ethics and psychology should be the basis of educational theory system. In the preface to the Outline of Pedagogy, he said: Education, as a science, is based on practical philosophy (ethics) and psychology. The former points out the purpose of education, while the latter points out the means and methods to achieve it. Therefore, western educational historians call him "the founder of scientific pedagogy".