Sámuel Brassai, the Last Transylvanian Polymath

In: Hungarian cultural studies: e-journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, Band 1, S. 18-35

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce Sámuel Brassai, the teacher, the outstanding scholar of the 19th century. He played a great role in the Reform era. His life, work and activity were inspired by thoughts that nowadays, a hundred years after his death, at the beginning of the 21st century are still valid. These thoughts are in the fields of education, economy, morality, research into the nation's prosperity. He was an excellent linguist, natural scientist, philosopher, critic, mathematician, musician, teacher, essay writer, university professor, and a regular member of the Academy of Sciences. At the centre of Brassai's life-work was his research into the methodological principles of teaching. His pedagogical system is the harmonious synthesis of his educational goals and methods. He was an encyclopaedic scholar, the great teacher of the nation who was continuously searching for the solution to the reform of education.