A Philosophy of Education

The purpose of this research is to articulate a philosophy of education. The research will set forth a working definition of the purposes of education and the social and psychological benefits it is meant to provide, and then discuss educational goals and methods, including the relationship between education and truth, the role of human nature in the educational process, the pedagogical environment, and the optimal content of educational curricula.

The fact that education has been an issue of concern to a variety of Western commentators from the ancient period onward implies that its structure and content affect the structure and content of society and responsible participants in it. Although they use somewhat different terminology and although their emphases are somewhat different, both Plato and Aristotle connect the quality of education to the quality of political leadership. Training of leaders determines the quality of the government that a society has as well as the development of personal character, which has to do with ethics and virtue. Plato envisions his ideal Republic (ideally ruled by the fabled philosopher-king) as the product of the quality of education that the youth of a society receive, and Aristotle characterizes politics as the highest and best expression of what he calls the Good. What this comes down to is that the overall purpose of education is to serve the ends of a society characterized by justice in Plato's formu

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enses, even if the mind behaves in a faulty way. Hume specifically criticizes that of Descartes. Cartesian doubt, which supposedly results in certainty of thought and reality, "were it ever possible to be attained by any human creature (as plainly it is not) would be entirely incurable; and no reasoning could ever ring us to a state of assurance and conviction on any subject" (Hume 723). Hume rejects as ontologically irrelevant the distinction between objects and their attributes, for the reality of both can be determined by way of evidence. Material reality, or "visible extension," is so. Imperfect as human rational capacity may be, it functions in a material world, and by encounter with the material world, which has the reality of its own truth, human reason refines itself and affects experience. Asserting that direct, material knowledge of the material world arrives at truth seems to make sense, given Hume's critique of the limits of Descartes' views. The material basis for truth does not, however, entirely dispose of whether truth is absolute or relative. A radically subjective view of truth is articulated by Nietzsche, not as a corrective to the need for evidence but rather as a critique of knowledge that can be interpreted

Category: Philosophy - A