Philosophy (2)

7/27/2019 Philosophy (2)

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Pursuing an Educational

PhilosophyChapters 2&3 in Breitborde and

Swiniarski
http://www.morehead-st.edu/colleges/humanities/eflp/graphics/thinker.gifhttp://www.morehead-st.edu/colleges/humanities/eflp/graphics/thinker.gif


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Philosophy of Education

Essential Questions:

What can be known?

What is the good life? What is the nature of the learner?

What is the nature of the subject matter?

What is the nature of the learning process


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Philosophy

Love of wisdom , the quest forknowledge

Philosophers often concerned with such

things aspower, provocation,personality offering ideas to peoplecaught up in the whirlwinds of socialcrisis, ideological arguments

Philosophers of education concernedwith questions of schools and society
http://www.consciousness.it/manzotti/TEM/mind-2520puzzles.gif


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My approach to life is

Live

fortod

ay,tom

o...

Rea

chforthe

stars

.

Ex

pect

littlean

dyo

u...

Itdoe

snt

matterwha

...

0% 0%0%

100%1. Live for today, tomorrow

we die.

2. Reach for the stars.

3. Expect little and you wontbe disappointed.

4. It doesnt matter what you

believe as long as youre

sincere.


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Metaphysics

Greek wordwhat is the nature of reality?

What is realreal nature or ideas?

Is reality absolute and unchanging? Is reality ever changing and evolving?

Some of our understandings are a priori Some of our understandings are a posteriori


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I believe that the world (reality) is

50%50%

Changeless, etern... Evolving, dynamic...

1. Changeless, eternal,

and absolute

2. Evolving, dynamic

and unstable


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Branches of Philosophy

Metaphysicswhat is the nature of reality

For Schools: What is worth Knowing?

Epistemologywhat can be known and what is the nature of what is known

For Schools: What is Learning? What is good teaching?

Axiologyethics and aesthetics: the good, the true and the beautiful

For Schools: What is the role of the school in society?

Logicprinciples of right reasoning: induction and deduction For Schools: What is good thinking?

Politicswhat is just?

What is the role of school in society?


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Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Socrates (470-399B.C.E.) philosophy was a way oflife to Socrates Socratic dialogue, dialectic methodof questions and answerswhat makes humans sinis the lack of knowledge

Plato (427-347B.C.E.) founder of the Academy TheRepublic outlines a plan for a perfect society ruledby the philosopher king, knowledge consistent withtemperance and justicefor women as well as men

Aristotle (384-322B.C.E.) founded the Lyceum, thefirst person to classify knowledge by dividing and

subdividing, developed syllogistic, deductive logic


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Idealism

Roots in ancient Greece.

Reality lies in the mind.

Deductive Reasoningour power to reason

clearly from general principles.


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The opposite of Idealism is

Nihilismthe absolute belief that no meaning

or ideals or understanding can be found by

human beings.

Note: Teenagers often flirt with varieties of

nihilism.


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Plato

From text, The Republic. Plato recounts the

teaching and dialogues of Socrates.

Socratic Dialogue.

The Allegory of the Cave.


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Realism

Reality can be found in the world available to

the senses.

A sensible, orderly functioning.

Empiricism

Roots in Aristotle the forms.

Enlightenment Values EmpiricismFrancis Bacon

Tabula RasaJohn Locke


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Aristotle

Focuses philosophical attention on the real

world.

Perceptionthe senses.

Categories

Logical Propositions. Foundational to Western Scientific Method


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All fish can swim. This is a fish.

Therefore.

25%

25%25%

25%

This is a Platoni... This is Socratic...

This is Aristotel... This is metaphysics

1. This is a Platonic

dialectic

2. This is Socratic

questioning

3. This is Aristotelian

logic (a syllogism)

4. This is metaphysics


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Breitborde & Swiniarskis Isms

Perennialism

Essentialism

Behaviorism

Romantic Naturalism

Progressivism

Existentialism

Reconstructionism

Liberationism


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Versions of Idealism

Perennialismthere are absolute truths andstandardsrelated to idealism, experiencesare a mental representation rather than arepresentation of the world, classical

humanism refers to the Greek philosophersdedicated to discovering reason and truth forhumankind

Essentialismpreserve the basic elements ofhuman culture and transmit them to theyoung

Romantic Idealism.innocence ofyouthtruth in natural world (senses).
http://www.huntington.org/Information/images/perennials.jpg


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Versions of Realism

Behaviorism.behavior can be managed,shaped, reinforced. Learning is the realconsequence of sensory input. Mechanistic.

Pragmatism.a compromise between the Idealand the Realistic.Education should be what

works. In its Progressive form, Pragmatismwas associated with democratic ideals; i.e. thework of John Dewey.


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For me, life is .

25%

25%25%

25%

A trial to be end... A wonderful gift ...

Survival of the f... Without any parti...

1. A trial to be

endured

2. A wonderful gift

from the creator

3. Survival of the

fittest

4. Without any

particular meaning

N ti f Phil h i Ed ti


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Notions of Philosophy in Education

ModernPostmodern

Existentialism.truth is impossible. Life is absurd, onlyexistence. Some existentialism shades toward the ideal; i.e.if we must endure our trial in life, it is best to live as if truth,god, beauty, etc. were possible to achieve.

Reconstructionismseeks to reconstruct society througheducation. Based on Progressive notions, civil rights eralearnings, and multicultural realities of a Postcolonial world.Anticipated by Gandhi.

Liberationism.basis in Marx. Class struggle, politicalliteracy, critical literacy. An impetus toward the dynamic ofcritical reflection.


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Existentialism

What is it like to be an individual living in the world?

What we have is existencenothing else.

Life characterized by absurdity and imminence of

death.

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


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Reconstructionism

Origins in Dewey, so progressive. World

needs workable change (progress). Learning is

about construction of worthwhile societal

structures.

Global, trans-cultural perspective.

George Countsreaction to U.S. Depression:

Something new needed to be built.


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Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the

Oppressed (1970); Liberationism

This then is the great humanistic and

historical task of the oppressed: to liberate

themselves and their oppressors as well.True

generosity lies in striving so that these handswhether of individuals or of whole peoples

need be extended less and less in supplication,

so that more and more they become humanhands which work, and working, transform the

world.


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Philosophies of Education

Postmodernismde-centers the subject

There is no linear path to truth. Truth isvariable, flexible, flattened. The World is

Flat.


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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


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Indian Philosophy

Karmawhat a person does influences whatwill happen to that person in the future

Study, meditation, yoga can lead one totranscend cares and suffering

BuddhaSiddhartha Gautama (6th centuryB.C.E.)all suffering is based on an inabilityto discern what is real and what is fictitious

Gandhi (1869-1948) nonviolence toward living

things Satyagrahaholding fast to the truth
http://www.hippiemuseum.org/ghandi.jpghttp://www.sukhi.com/images/newbuddha.gif


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Far Eastern Philosophy

21st century technology, global commerce, and populationdemographics demand that we know something of Eastern

philosophy

Confucianismconcerned with ethics and morality(foundation of Chinese civilization) five key relationships:

ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elderbrother and younger brother, friend and friend

Confucius (Kung Fu-tzu, 551-479B.C.E.)those mostcapable, should governmoral and ethical men make the

best rulers, principle oflicourtesy and ceremony

Confucianisma language of morals and laws Taoismoneness with nature, noninterference
http://summitpath.net/websitemania/graphics/g-confucious.jpghttp://summitpath.net/websitemania/graphics/g-confucious.jpghttp://summitpath.net/websitemania/graphics/g-confucious.jpghttp://www.himalayanacademy.com/resources/books/dws/images/dws-t-is-one-Taoism.jpghttp://summitpath.net/websitemania/graphics/g-confucious.jpg


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Michel Foucault

Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it acertain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that oneattributes to a complex strategical situation in a particularsociety.

The work of an intellectual is not to mould the politicalwill of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in hisown field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shakeup habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate

conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutionsand to participate in the formation of a political will (where hehas his role as citizen to play).

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Philosophy (2)