The Social and Educational Thought of John Ruskin

Abstract

The thesis of this study is that the aesthetic, social and educational criticism of Ruskin forms an organic unity. Only two full length studies of Ruskin's views on education have been published - William Jolly's 'Ruskin on Education' (1894) and Hilda Hagstotz's 'The Educational Thought of John Ruskin' (1942) - and both these studies have a narrow focus, ignoring Ruskin as a social critic. Chapters 4 and 5 argue in detail that this social criticism runs right through his art criticism, and forms in turn the basis of his educational thought and practice. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 are concerned specifically with the interconnections of Ruskin's social and educational thought which converge in 'Fors Clavigera' (1871 - 1884), a letter series to English working men. Chapter 8 argues that the neglected 'Fors Clavigera' is central to an understanding of Ruskin's social and educational thought and that this work is one of his major achievements; its extreme length and intensely personal nature often being a barrier to proper appreciation. This personal nature of much of Ruskin's writings - he is possibly the most confessional of major English writers - has meant that the first three chapters of this study are not only concerned with placing Ruskin in his social milieu and historical context but also deal with the developments in Ruskin's inner life and the formative intellectual influences on his writings.