Great Novels, Great Thinkers, Important Events, Historical Exhibitions and so on, reflect - seemingly objectively - the most important events, people and texts in a particular field and time. They are the canons of a culture. In recent decades, these canons have been recorded in booklets about our heroes and highlights, but canons have always existed. Every culture, every country, every discipline needs heroes. Without heroes, we don't know what is really good, beautiful, true or important. Thus, the canon acts as a benchmark and a measure. Canons are also controversial for this very reason. Especially in plural societies consisting of many population groups with their historical and cultural differences, formulating a canon that should connect everyone is not easy. The study of canons - in all disciplines, cultural expressions and historical periods - can tell us a lot about attitudes, norms, values and self-image of a particular time.
Connecting character
Researching canons provides knowledge about different norms, values and views. This provides starting points for putting into perspective what we consider good, beautiful, meaningful and important. In particular, application of such knowledge in education can contribute greatly to a society open to different values. Here, historical, ethical, philosophical and literary disciplines go hand in hand with sociological and educational psychology or pedagogy. Descriptive research on the nature of canons in different times and normative research on values and beliefs that canons seem to hold are needed to approach this question in its full breadth.
