The Concept of the Aim of Education on the Fundamental Law of Education

本研究旨在厘清《教育基本法》中“人格完善”的教育目的概念，并以推动制定《教育基本法》的文部大臣田中耕太郎的人格理念为基础。本文的研究结果可以概括为以下三点：首先，我认为教育目的的起源可以追溯到1937年田中作为法学院院长在东京帝国大学毕业典礼上的演讲。他在演讲中说，政治和人的最终目标是人格的伦理完善。其次，我从田中青年时期的思想开始，跟踪他的哲学变化，直到他对政治和人的终极目标的看法。两种新的材料，在田中以前的研究中没有使用过，被用来描述他年轻时的想法。一篇是田中为一位德国画家的传记翻译写的前言，另一篇是他的演讲，当时他还是一个不信教的基督徒。第三，我证明了田中的人格观很大程度上依赖于法国托马斯主义哲学家Jacques Maritain的人格理论，我认为这是本研究最重要的结果。这一证明主要基于田中写给马里坦的一封信，日期是1931年3月19日，这封信是我在访问法国期间在科尔布斯海姆的马里坦研究中心发现的。

This study aimed at clarifying the concept of the purpose of education, "perfection of personality" in the Fundamental Law of Education, based upon the idea of personality of Kotaro Tanaka, who, as Minister of Education, initiated the enactment of this law. The results of this study can be summarized into the following three pointsFirstly, I showed that the origin of the purpose of education could be traced back to the commencement speech of the Tokyo Imperial University, which Tanaka made as Dean of the Faculty of Laws In 1937. He said in the speech that the ultimate goal of politics and man was ethical consummation of personality.Seondly, I followed the change of Tanaka's philosophy up to his idea of the ultimate goal of politics and man, starting with the thought of his youth. Two new materials, which had not been used in the previous studies of Tanaka, were applied for describing the thought of his youth. One is Tanaka's foreword to the translation of a biography of a German painter, and the other is a speech that he made, when he was a non-church Christian.Thirdly, I proved that Tanaka's idea of personality largely depended on the theory of personality of a French Thomist philosopher, Jacques Maritain, which I think is the most important result of this study. This proof is mainly based on a letter from Tanaka to Maritain, dated on 19th March 1931, which I found in the Maritain Study Center of Kolbsheim during my visit to France.