Philosophy is a search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. It signifies a natural and necessary urge in human beings to know themselves and the world in which they live and move and have their being. Western philosophy remained more or less true to the etymological meaning of philosophy in being essentially an intellectual quest for truth. Hindu philosophy is intensely spiritual and has always emphasized the need for practical realization of Truth. Philosophy is a comprehensive system of ideas about human nature and the nature of the reality we live in.
It is a guide for living, because the issues it addresses are basic and pervasive, determining the course we take in life and how we treat other people. Hence we can say that all the aspects of human life are influenced and governed by the philosophical consideration. As a field of study philosophy is one of the oldest disciplines. It is considered as a mother of all the sciences. In fact it is at the root of all knowledge. Education has also drawn its material from different philosophical bases. Education, like philosophy is also closely related to human life.
Therefore, being an important life activity education is also greatly influenced by philosophy. Various fields of philosophy like the political philosophy, social philosophy and economic philosophy have great influence on the various aspects of education like educational procedures, processes, policies, planning and its implementation, from both the theoretical and practical aspects. In order to understand the concept of Philosophy of education it is necessary to first understand the meaning of the two terms; Philosophy and Education.
MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY & EDUCATION
Meaning of Philosophy The word philosophy literally means love of wisdom; It is derived from two Greek words i. e. ‘phileo’ (love) and ‘Sophia’ (wisdom). This tells us something about the nature of philosophy, but not much, because many disciplines seek wisdom. Since times immemorial there have been various pursuits for unfolding the mystery of the universe, birth and death, sorrow and joy. Various ages have produced different thoughts throwing light upon the mystic region.
The ultimate truth is yet to be found out. This eternal quest for truth ‘lends the origin of philosophy. A love of wisdom is the essence for any philosophy investigation. On the standard way of telling the story, humanity’s first systematic inquiries took place within a mythological or religious framework: wisdom ultimately was to be derived from sacred traditions and from individuals thought to possess privileged access to a supernatural realm, whose own access to wisdom, in turn, generally was not questioned.
However, starting in the sixth century BCE, there appeared in ancient Greece a series of thinkers whose inquiries were comparatively secular (see “The Milesians and the Origin of Philosophy”). Presumably, these thinkers conducted their inquiries through reason and observation, rather than through tradition or revelation. These thinkers were the first philosophers. Although this picture is admittedly simplistic, the basic 3 distinction has stuck: philosophy in its most primeval form is considered nothing less than secular inquiry itself.
The subject of philosophical inquiry is the reality itself. There are different schools of philosophy depending on the answers they seek to the question of reality. It is the search for understanding of man, nature and the universe. There are different branches of philosophy-Epistemology, Metaphysics, etc. There are different fields of philosophy such as educational philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, economic philosophy etc. There are also different philosophical approaches such as idealism, naturalism, pragmatism, materialism, and so on.
Meaning of Education Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) “bring up”, which is related to educere “bring out”, “bring forth what is within”, “bring out potential” and ducere, “to lead”. Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.
Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching (now that’s really useful, isn’t it? ) Educate is further defined as “to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of… ” Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was about drawing out what was already within the student. (As many of you know, the word education comes from the Latin e-ducere meaning “to lead out. ) At the same time, the Sophists, a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to gain positions with the city-state. Thus we see that there are different views and understandings of the meaning of the term education.
Philosophy takes into its orbit, all the dimensions of human life. Similarly education also reflects the multifaceted nature of human life. Therefore, education is closely related to various aspects of human life and environment. Hence, the term education has a wide connotation. It is difficult to define education by single definition. Philosophers and thinkers 4 from Socrates to Dewey in west and a host of Indian philosophers have attempted to define education. However education can be understood as the deliberate and systematic influence exerted by a mature through instruction, and discipline.
It means the harmonious development of all the powers of the human being; physical social, intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual. The essential elements in the educative process are a creative mind, a well integrated self, socially useful purposes and experience related to the interests of the individual, needs and abilities of the individual as a of a social group. In the historical development of man, education has been the right of a privileged few. It is only in recent centuries that education has come to be recognized as a human right. All have equal right to be educated as education has become sine qua non of civilization. Our discussion of the concept of education and the concept of philosophy form the basis of arriving at the definition of philosophy of education.
CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
All human societies, past and present, have had a vested interest in education; and some wits have claimed that teaching (at its best an educational activity) is the second oldest profession. While not all societies channel sufficient resources into support for educational activities and institutions, all at the very least acknowledge their centrality—and for good reasons.
For one thing, it is obvious that children are born illiterate and innumerate, and ignorant of the norms and cultural achievements of the community or society into which they have been thrust; but with the help of professional teachers and the dedicated amateurs in their families and immediate environs (and with the aid, too, of educational resources made available through the media and nowadays the internet), within a few years they can read, write, calculate, and act (at least often) in culturally-appropriate ways.
Some learn these skills with more facility han others, and so education also serves as a social-sorting mechanism and undoubtedly has enormous impact on the economic fate of the individual. Put more abstractly, at its best education equips individuals with the skills and substantive knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals, and also allows them to participate in the life of their community as full-fledged, autonomous citizens. Equips individuals with the skills and substantive knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals, and also allows them to participate in the life of their community as full-fledged, autonomous citizens.
But this is to cast matters in very individualistic terms, and it is fruitful also to take a societal perspective, where the picture changes 5 somewhat. It emerges that in pluralistic societies such as the Western democracies there are some groups that do not wholeheartedly support the development of autonomous individuals, for such folk can weaken a group from within by thinking for themselves and challenging communal norms and beliefs; from the point of view of groups whose survival is thus threatened, formal, state-provided education is not necessarily a good thing.
But in other ways even these groups depend for their continuing survival on educational processes, as do the larger societies and nationstates of which they are part; for as John Dewey put it in the opening chapter of his classic work Democracy and Education (1916), in its broadest sense education is the means of the social continuity of life (Dewey, 1916, 3). Dewey pointed out that the primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of each one of the constituent members in a social group, make education a necessity, for despite this biological inevitabilitythe life of the group goes on?
The great social importance of education is underscored, too, by the fact that when a society is shaken by a crisis, this often is taken as a sign of educational breakdown; education, and educators, become scapegoats. It is not surprising that such an important social domain has attracted the attention of philosophers for thousands of years, especially as there are complex issues aplenty that have great philosophical interest. abstractly, at its best education equips individuals with the skills and substantive knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals, and also allows them to participate in the life of heir community as full-fledged, autonomous citizens.
But this is to cast matters in very individualistic terms, and it is fruitful also to take a societal perspective, where the picture changes somewhat. It emerges that in pluralistic societies such as the Western democracies there are some groups that do not wholeheartedly support the development of autonomous individuals, for such folk can weaken a group from within by thinking for themselves and challenging communal norms and beliefs; from the point of view of groups whose survival is thus threatened, formal, state-provided education is not necessarily a good thing.
But in other ways even these groups depend for their continuing survival on educational processes, as do the larger societies and nationstates of which they are part; for as John Dewey put it in the opening chapter of his classic work Democracy and Education (1916), in its broadest sense education is the means of the social continuity of life (Dewey, 1916, 3).
Dewey pointed out that the primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of each one of the constituent members in a social group ake education a necessity, for despite this biological inevitability the life of the group goes on (Dewey, 3). The great social importance of education is underscored, too, by the fact that when a society is shaken by a crisis, this often is taken as a sign of educational breakdown; education, and educators, become scapegoats. It is not surprising that such an important social domain has attracted the attention of philosophers for thousands of years, especially as there are complex issues aplenty that have great philosophical interest.
These problems mainly include interpretation of human nature, the world and the universe and their relation with man, interpretation of aims and ideals of education, the relationship of various components of the system of education, relationship of education and various areas of national life, educational values, theory of knowledge and its relationship to education. The above mentioned problems constitute the scope of philosophy of education and explain its nature. Thus, the scope of philosophy of education includes following. a] Aims and Ideals of Education Philosophy Education critically evaluates the different aims and ideals of education. These aims and ideals have been prorogated by various philosophers in different times.
They are character building, man making, harmonious human development, preparation for adult life, -development of citizenship, -utilization of leisure, training for civic life, training for international living, achieving social and national integration, -scientific and technological development, education for all, equalizing educational opportunities, strengthening democratic political order and human source development.
These and other aims of education presented by educational thinkers in different times and climes are scrutinized and evaluated. Thus, philosophy of education critically evaluates different aims and ideals of education to arrive at. The philosophical picture, therefore, is more broad as compared to the picture of man drawn by biology, sociology, psychology, economics and anthropology and other human science. Educational Values:Value is typically a philosophical subject since it is more abstract, integral and universal. Philosophy-of education not only critically evaluates the values but also systematizes them in a hierarchy.
Educational values are’ determined by philosophical values. Educational values propagated by different philosophers have been derived from their own world, view and their outlook on the purpose of human life. Therefore, a scrutiny of the world views, outlook, beliefs is the specific function of philosophy and it is necessary for the philosophical treatment of the values. Theory of Knowledge:Education is related to knowledge. It is determined by the source, limits, criteria and means of knowledge.
The discussion of all these falls within the jurisdiction of epistemology, one of the branches of philosophy, therefore, an important area of the functioning of philosophy of education is related to theory of knowledge. e] Relationship of education and various area of national life and various components of the system of education:One of the most important contributions of the philosophy of education to the cause of education is the provision of criteria for deciding the relationship of state and education, economic system and education, curriculum, school organization and management, discipline etc. These problems have led to the evaluation of different philosophies of education.
The criteria of judgment everywhere are determined by philosophy, therefore, philosophy of education provides the criteria for critical evaluation and judgment in these fields. 1Nature of Philosophy of Education Philosophy of education is one of the areas of applied philosophy. There are three branches of philosophy namely ‘metaphysics, epistemology and axiology.
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of things. Metaphysicians ask what kinds of things exist, and what they are like.
They reason about such things as whether or not people have free will, in what sense abstract objects can be said to exist, and how it is that brains are able to generate minds. Axiology: the branch of philosophical enquiry that explores: Aesthetics: the study of basic philosophical questions about art and beauty. Sometimes philosophy of art is used to describe only questions about art, with “aesthetics” the more general term. Likewise “aesthetics” sometimes applied even more broadly than to “philosophy of beauty” :to the “sublime,” to humour, to the frightening-to any of the responses we might expect works of art or entertainment to elicit. Ethics: the study of what makes actions right or wrong, and of how theories of right action can be applied to special moral problems.
Subdisciplines include meta-ethics, value theory, theory of conduct, and applied ethics. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. It attempts to answer the basic question: what distinguishes true (adequate) knowledge from false (inadequate) knowledge? Practically, this question translates into issues of scientific methodology: how can one develop theories or models that are better than competing theories? It also forms one of the pillars of the new sciences of cognition, which developed from the information processing approach to psychology, and from artificial intelligence, as an attempt to develop computer programs that mimic a human’s capacity to use knowledge in an intelligent way.
When we look at the history of epistemology, we can discern a clear trend, in spite of the confusion of many seemingly contradictory positions. The first theories of knowledge stressed its absolute, permanent character, whereas the later theories put the emphasis on its relativity or situation-dependence, its continuous development or evolution, and its active interference with the world and its subjects and objects. The whole trend moves from a static, passive view of knowledge towards a more and more adaptive and active one. As you can tell, the different branches of philosophy overlap one another. A philosopher considering whether people ought to give excess wealth to the poor is asking an ethical question.
However, his investigations might lead him to wonder whether or not standards of right and wrong are built into the fabric of the universe, which is a metaphysical question. If he claims that people are justified in taking a particular stance on that question, he is making at least a tacit epistemological claim. At every step in his reasoning, he will want to employ logic to minimize the 10 chance of being led into error by the great complexity and obscurity of the questions. He may very well look to some of the ethical, metaphysical, and epistemological writings of past philosophers to see how his brightest predecessors reasoned about the matter.
Aspects of each branch of philosophy can be studied in isolation, but philosophical questions have a way of leading to other philosophical questions, to the point that a full investigation of any particular problem is likely eventually to involve almost the whole of the philosophical enterprise. One view on education believes or subscribes to the view that philosophy of education comes under the umbrella of axiology. As a branch of philosophy it utilizes philosophical methods for the solution of philosophical problems with a philosophical attitude to arrive at philosophical conclusion. In this comprehensive process it includes facts concerning education and synthesizes them with values. The other school of thought believes that education as a discipline utilizes or needs to incorporate all modes of philosophical inquiry; metaphysical, axiological and epistemological.
As individuals involved in the process of education right from the aims, purpose, functions and building theory we need to look at any body of knowledge or generate new knowledge based on the three modes of philosophical inquiry.
FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Philosophy of education performs various functions. They area discussed below:
- Determining the aims of education Philosophy of education provides original ideas regarding all aspects of education particularly educational aims. It is said that educational philosophy gives different views, but this situation is not harmful, rather it helps in providing education according to the need of society. The difference in view of philosophy of education reflects the multiplicity and diversities of human life. Philosophy of education guides the process of education by suggesting suitable aims from the diversities of life and selecting the means accordingly.
- Harmonizing old and new traditions in the field of educationIn the process of social development the old traditions become outdated for the people. They are replaced by the new traditions. But this process of replacement is not always smooth. It is faced with lots of opposition from certain orthodox sections of the society. At the same time it must be kept in mind that every ‘old’ is not outdated and every ‘new’ is not perfect Therefore, there is a need of co-coordinating the two in order to maintain the harmony between both. This function can be performed by philosophy of education.
- Providing the educational planners, administrators and educators with the progressive vision to achieve educational development:Spencer has rightly pointed that only a true philosopher can give a practical shape to education. Philosophy of education provides the educational planners, administrators and educators with the right vision which guides them to attain the educational goals efficiently.
- Preparing the young generation to face the challenges of the modern time: Social commentators have given many labels to the present period of history for some it is the information age and for others it is post modernity, later modernity, high modernity or even the age of uncertainty.
One more addition to this list may be that ‘present age is an age of Globalization as a phenomenon arrived on the economic scene in the 1990 in India. This watchword has had its implications in the social political, economic fabric of the country of which education is a part. Philosophy of education is a guiding, steering and liberating force that helps young people to and society at large to face the challenges of the modern time.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING AND TEACHING STYLES
Philosophy guides the process of education in different ways. A teacher approaching education philosophically needs to answer four basic questions that guide the teaching learning process. They are: What is the nature of the learner?
What is the nature of subject matter? How should one use the subject matter to guide students towards meaningful learning activities? What behavior trend should one exhibit in order to carry out one‘s philosophical position? The answers to these questions only will help the teacher to identify a series of preferences, as opposed to a set of behavior that belong to mutually exclusive categories for the following questions. An attempt to answer these questions is nothing but philosophy of teaching.
These concepts are not mutually exclusive categories, but rather matters of emphasis and preferences. In order to illuminate factors involved in any teacher‘s decision to emphasize cognitive or affective learning activities it is useful to consider the following addendum. Cognitive Domain – fact, concept and generalization Affective Domain- belief and value Evidence abounds that students bring into the classroom attitudes which influence the way they perceive facts, concepts and generalizations. Sometimes teachers are fortunate to have students who bring with them positive attitudes towards the subject matter at hand. Most often we have students who bring with them not very positive attitudes.
In such situations the teachers‘ role will be to help students think critically by transforming generalization, beliefs and values into hypotheses that can be tested. Then the teacher resorts to the affective domain. o Behavior trend in order to carry out one‘s Philosophical Position The terms authoritarian and non-authoritarian are two extremes of the continuum, but should be understood as not merely being strict‘ or permissive‘. These words should go beyond the aspect of classroom management as it is more inclusive approach to classroom management. It is an over view of the student and the subject matter which this indicator has been designed to examine.
For instance, suppose some teachers encourage students to view subject matter only as experts in that field might view it; hence these teachers habitually accept for each major question under examination only one right answer which all students are excepted to adopt and understand. We can thus say that these teachers are said to encourage convergent thinking and hence in this context we can term them as authoritarian‘ teachers. The converse can be said of non authoritarian teachers‘ Teacher need to be aware of the Philosophical Positions‘ that they take and have taken while they enter into classrooms or plan to enter into classrooms Philosophical positions affect the way they interact with students and facilitate learning in learners individually or collectively. Thus we see that the way we answer the questions of nature of learner, subject matter etc. definitely affects our teaching style.
Whether a teacher is authoritative or non authoritarian, whether teaching methods are constructivist or lecture method are influenced based on the philosophical position that they hold. Background for approaching the educational problems effectively. Therefore, it is essential for the educators to have the deep insight into the philosophy of education.
