Pansophism as John Amos Comenius' idea of lifelong learning

Abstract

Pansophia (omniscience) is John Amos Comenius' philosophical idea which, related to his idea of lifelong learning, can be described by the words To teach everybody... everything... about everything… with all the senses... with the use of natural methods... forever. These are the key thoughts of John Amos Comenius' two leading and closely interrelated ideas. According to the author, the idea of pansophism does not exist without the idea of lifelong learning, and the other way round: the idea of lifelong learning cannot exist without the idea of pansophism. In the article, the author attempts to present pansophism as the thinker’s idea of lifelong lear-ning, including the idea of self-cognition as a foundation of pansophic education, which lasts throughout everybody's life. Such education has two dimensions: institutional and symbolic with a philosophical overtone. The author mainly refers to the issues analyzed within her seven years' comeniological research, as well as to previous interpretations and reinterpreta-tions of available works by Comenius and about Comenius, aware of their deficiency.