Branches of philosophy

Webb, L. D. (2006). The history of American Education. Columbus, OH: Pearson. pp. 4-17.

Three Branches of Philosophy

1. Metaphysics: What is the nature of reality (most difficult to answer)?

• Ontology: meaning of existence (key concept in understanding any philosophy)
  
• Cosmology: origin & organization of the universe

2. Epistemology: What is the nature of knowledge (ways of knowing)?

• Scientific inquiry
• Intuition
• Senses and feelings
• Logic (making inferences, reasoning, or arguing in a rational manner)
  
  • Deductive: reasoning from a general statement or principle to a specific point or example
    
  • Inductive: reasoning from the specific to a more general conclusion
    

3. Axiology: What is the nature of values?

• Ethics: human conduct and moral values (right, wrong, good, bad)
  
• Aesthetics: values in beauty, nature, and the "aesthetic experience"

Traditional Philosophies and Their Educational Implications

1. Idealism (oldest philosophy of Western culture, dating back to Greece and Plato)

• Metaphysics: Mind over matter (the Universal Mind)
• Epistemology: the science of logic (deductive in particular); moving closer to Ultimate Truth
• Axiology: Absolute values
• Leading proponents
  
  • Plato (Greek): the father of idealism
  • Judaism & Christianity (St. Augustine): influenced by Plato, religious idealism
  • Descartes (French): as humans we may doubt everything except our own existence; influenced a number of fields of inquiry, including the sciences
    
  • Kant (German): universal moral laws guide our actions or behaviors; "above all things, obedience is an essential feature in the character of a child" - a primary basis for moral training or character development in education
    
  • Hegel (German): reality as a "contest of opposites" - each idea (thesis) has its own opposite (antithesis) - the confrontation results in a more comprehensive idea (synthesis)
    
• Educational implications
  
  • Purpose of schooling: promote spiritual and intellectual development, produce competent & self-actualized adults who will become useful citizens of the state
  • Curriculum and instruction: stresses the eternal ideas of the past (great works of literature, philosophy, politics, history, & the arts); Preferred methods of instruction: lecture, discussion, reflection, & the Socratic method (dialogue)
  • Nature of the learner: every student has a mind, soul, and spirit capable of emulating the Absolute Mind, absorbing ideas from books & teachers
  • Role of the teacher: role model with logical thinking and reasoning; authority with extensive knowledge about the Great Books

2. Realism (one of the oldest Western philosophies, dating to ancient Greece & Aristotle, antithesis of idealism)

• Metaphysics: The world of things is superior to the world of ideas; reality is external and can be verified
• Epistemology: perception, rational thinking, sensing; Aristotle: deduction (the establishment of a first or major premise, followed by a second or minor premise, and the drawing of a conclusion (syllogism) from them; the scientific method (the systematic reporting and analysis of what is observed and the testing of hypotheses formulated from the observations
• Axiology: natural law and moral law are the major determinants of what is good
• Leading proponents
  
  • Aristotle: the father of realism; reality, knowledge, & value exist independent of the mind
  • Bacon (English): inductive inquiry (scientific form of realism)
  • Locke (English): mind as a blank slate; knowledge is acquired through sensory perception
  • Comenius (Czech): educator and theologian; universal education
    
  • Rousseau (French) (political & educational theories; Natural Man: The social contract) & Pestalozzi (Swiss) (child-centered; training of the whole man): influential on progressive education
    
• Educational implications
  
  • Purpose of schooling: teach moral and intellectual value; develop students' power of reasoning and master the principles of scientific inquiry
  • Curriculum and instruction: focuses on the natural laws; theoretical subjects such as math & the sciences has a higher priority than the "practical arts"; instructional methods: deductive logic; observation, classification, and categorization; the scientific method; curriculum determined by authority figures or experts
  • Nature of the learner: the students as an orderly, sensing, and rational being capable of understanding the world of things; both the teacher and the student are considered learners, and teaching and learning are considered an unending interactive process
  • Role of the teacher: to emphasize and model reasoning, observation, and experimentation. To teach student how to think clearly and understand the material world

Contemporary Philosophies and Their Educational Implications

1. Pragmatism (experimentalism or instrumentalism, focuses on experience)

• Metaphysics: reality as an event, a process, a verb, subject to constant change and lacks absolutes; Meaning is derived from experience
  
• Epistemology: truth is determined by function or consequences (only tentative truth); Knowledge is arrived at by scientific inquiry, testing, questioning, and retesting, never conclusive
  
• Axiology (prgamatism's focus): values are tentative; whatever works is ethically or morally good; democracy (Dewey);
  
• Learning proponents
  
  • Comte (French): science could solve social problems
    
  • Charles Darwin (English): natural selection - reality is subject to change (development)
    
  • Charles Sanders Peirce (American): true knowledge depends on verification of ideas through experience; learning, believing, and knowing as an intimate part of doing and feeling
    
  • William James (American): no absolutes or universals, only an ever-changing universe
    
  • John Dewey (American): influential on American pragmatism; experience, thought, and consequence were interralated
    
• Educational implications
  
  • Purpose of schooling: to model a progressive democratic society; education is to stress function or experience through problem solving and the scientific method
    
  • Curriculum and instruction: integrates several subjects (history, geography, the sciences); instructional methods: learning by doing, problem solving, experimentation, hands-on activities, collaborative learning, deductive thinking, social interaction, group activities
  • Nature of the learner: evolving and active beings capable of interacting with their environment, setting objectives for their own learning, capable of working together to solve common problems, establishing the rules for governing the classrooms, and testing and evaluating ideas fro the improvement of learning and classroom life
  • Role of the teacher: to model the most authentic type of knowledge (i.e., experimental knowledge); research or project director; stresses the application of the scientific method

2. Existentialism

• Metaphysics: existence precedes essence; no meaning or purpose to the physical universe; we must create our own meaning; By our choice we determine reality; cannot escape responsibility to choose, including the choice of how we view our past
• Epistemology: knowing by choice; no absolutes, authorities, single or correct way to the truth; the self is the only authority
• Axiology: determining value by choice; choice is frustrating and exasperating at times
• Leading proponents
  
  • Soren Kierkegaard (Danish): father of existentialism; the reality of God and individual existence
  • Martin Buber (Jewish): both the divine and the human are related
  • Edmund Husserl (German): father of phenomenology (referring to objects, events, or things we perceive or experience)
    
  • Martin Heidegger (German): father of hermeneutics (interpretation of lived experience); Phenomenology had a major influence on the critical theory and postmodern movements that followed
  • Jean-Paul Sartre (French): free choice implies total responsibility for one's own existence; humanity exists without any meaning until we construct our own
  • John Holt, Charles Silberman, Jonathan Kozol: open schools, free schools, and alternative schools that flourished druing the mid-1960s
  • A. S. Neill: founder of Summerhill School that offered an educational experience built on the principle of learning by discovery in an atmosphere of unrestrained freedom
  • Nel Noddings: challenge to care
    
• Educational implications
  
  • Purpose of schooling: prepare students to take responsibility for, and to deal with, the results of their actions; to foster self-discovery and explain the importance of the freedom of choice and the responsibility for making choices
  • Curriculum and instruction: individual and personal learning; student centered; humanities is the preferred subject matter; "personal truth"; instructional methods: nondirective humanistic values education; cognitive discussions along with affective experiences along with the Socratic dialogue
    
  • Nature of the learner: a free individual capable of authentic and responsible choice, of self-discipline and self-discovery and can be responsible for their own learning
  • Role of the teacher: an example of authenticity for students; help students achieve their potential while striving for self-autualization; personal and interactive student-teacher relationship; introspective and reflective; imagination and insight