Pursuing an Educational Philosophy Chapter 8
170 117 My philosophy is • Live for today, tomorrow we die. • Reach for the stars. • Expect little and you won’t be disappointed. • It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.
Branches of Philosophy • Metaphysics…what is the nature of reality • Epistemology…what can be known • Axiology…ethics and aesthetics: the good, the true and the beautiful • Logic…principles of right reasoning: induction and deduction
The value of philosophy • Brings new interpretation and syntheses as well as analyzing, refining, modifying existing concepts and procedures • Acts as a clearinghouse for analyzing and clarifying ideas and problems • Offers a source of ethical guidance • Induces habits of mind like tolerance, impartiality, and suspension of judgment
Philosophy • Love of wisdom , the quest for knowledge • Philosophers often concerned with such things as power, provocation, personality offering ideas to people caught up in the whirlwinds of social crisis, ideological arguments • Philosophers of education concerned with questions of schools and society
Western philosophy • Thales, 6th century B.C.E., founder of western philosophy…searching for the unity of things in the world…not satisfied with religious and mythical answers, but sought “scientific” answers • Themistoclea, a priestess of Delphi significant in Pythagoras’ development of ideas of deductive ethical doctrines
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle • Socrates (470-399B.C.E.) philosophy was a way of life to Socrates Socratic dialogue, dialectic method of questions and answers…what makes humans sin is the lack of knowledge • Plato (427-347B.C.E.) founder of the Academy The Republic outlines a plan for a perfect society ruled by the philosopher king, knowledge consistent with temperance and justice…for women as well as men • Aristotle (384-322B.C.E.) founded the Lyceum, the first person to classify knowledge by dividing and subdividing, developed syllogistic, deductive logic
5 0 All fish can swim. This is a fish. Therefore…. • This is a Platonic dialectic • This is Socratic questioning • This is Aristotelian logic
Far Eastern Philosophy • 21st century technology, global commerce, and population demographics demand that we know something of Eastern philosophy • Confucianism…concerned with ethics and morality (foundation of Chinese civilization) five key relationships: ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, friend and friend • Confucius (Kung Fu-tzu, 551-479B.C.E.)those most capable, should govern…moral and ethical men make the best rulers, principle of li…courtesy and ceremony • Confucianism…a language of morals and laws • Taoism…oneness with nature, noninterference
Indian Philosophy • Karma…what a person does influences what will happen to that person in the future • Study, meditation, yoga can lead one to transcend cares and suffering • Buddha…Siddhartha Gautama (6th century B.C.E.)…all suffering is based on an inability to discern what is real and what is fictitious • Gandhi (1869-1948) nonviolence toward living things Satyagraha…holding fast to the truth
Educational Philosophies • Perennialism…there are absolute truths and standards…related to idealism, experiences are a mental representation rather than a representation of the world, classical humanism refers to the Greek philosophers dedicated to discovering reason and truth for humankind • Essentialism…preserve the basic elements of human culture and transmit them to the young
Educational Philosophies • Experimentalism…the primary purpose of school is to teach children to think effectively…analyze, criticize, select between alternatives, propose solutions • Experimentalism…progressivism…pragmatism Dewey, Peirce, William James • Social Reconstructionism…change society through education…George Counts, Theodore Brameld, Paulo Freire
Existentialism • What is it like to be an individual living in the world • Passionate encounter with the problems of life and the inevitability of death • Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Buber, Simone de Beauvoir • Important decisions with limited knowledge
Postmodernism • Roots in 1950s world of art • Themes including truth, language and its relation to thought, human nature and the self, the Other • “What kind of power is embedded in educational issues, problems, and traditions?” • Michel Foucault, Cleo Cherryholmes
Philosophy of Education • The nature of the learner • The nature of the subject matter • The nature of the learning process
Philosophies of Education • Perennialism…stresses intellectual attainment and the search for truth • Idealism…all material things are explainable • Realism…propositions are true only if they correspond with known facts • Pragmatism…search for things that work • Reconstructionism…seeks to reconstruct society through education
Philosophies of Education • Existentialism…importance of the individual, subjectivity, inner nature • Postmodernism…de-centers the subject
