John Ruskin's Idealised Vision of Goodness

Idealised Vision of GoodnessAbstractJohn Ruskin suggested a unique way to fight against "the dragon" in the nineteenth century via his endevour to build an ideal community, St. George's Guild.As the name shows, it represents his strong respect for the spirit of old England, and his hope for exterminating the evils.What led him consider such a community was the negative aspects of society on which he focused especially in his later years.Although most people of his days welcomed the outcome of industrialisation, what Ruskin really saw was not the bright aspects.He was worried about labourers who worked as if they themselves were machines, and worsening environmental conditions particularly represented as the darkened sky.For Ruskin, who praised the mediaeval ages, nineteenth-century society was far from ideal one.He argues that the most possible cause of such an unfavourable state behind the prosperity was human mind, and therefore society eventually would be improved if the people regain cheerfulness.Especially in "The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century", lamenting the status quo, he puts emphasis on the unlimited potential of human beings, and insists that the recovery would be up to human beings themselves.What is then required is giving people a proper guide which way to go, in other words, giving education.What the word "education" meant for Ruskin, however, was not "the three R's-reading, writing, and arithmetic" as generally defined.Getting knowledge was not of unimportance, but not so much important as cultivating "a strong mind."His philosophy on education is strongly based on the moral aspect, and thus he put great emphasis on what to be taught to foster strength to overcome hardships instead of being released from heavy labour or burden no matter how technologies would progress.This paper aims at examining Ruskin's notion from his schemes on the Guild of St. George, what should be done to make people gain the power to tell right from wrong, so that they could get through a gloomy situation.