I filosofi precettori del XVIII secolo europeo. Educazione cosmopolita e Illuminismo

This essay aims at reviewing the theoretical premises, and educational practices of some eminent philosophers-educators in eighteenth-century Europe. This span of time is quite interesting for many reasons: first, philosophers such as Locke, Berkeley and Lord Chesterfield were all preceptors of young noble gentlemen; besides, most of them travelled with their pupils to Italy – then universally acknowledged as the place for refining personal culture and taste. In doing so, they revealed the primary importance ascribed to aesthetic improvement in the education of the young gentleman, or virtuoso, which is a particularly relevant topic to the goals of this paper. Lastly, it allows to survey the influence of moral, religious and social ideas of the Enlightenment on the pedagogical theories of the time.