Transcript File - Syed Arshad Ali

What is a Philosophy of Education?
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Philosophy centers on three major questions.
What are these?
◦ What is real?
◦ What is true?
◦ What is good and beautiful?
What is Philosophy?
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_philosophy.html
http://www.philosophypages.com/index.htm
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Love of wisdom; pursuit of wisdom
Offers an avenue for serious inquiry into
ideas, traditions, & ways of thinking
Help develop new insights into educational
problems
Role is to examine critically the intellectual
disputes & suggest different ways of viewing
things
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Activites
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Prescribing
Speculation
Analysis
Synthesizing
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Attitudes
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Self-awareness
Comprehensiveness
Penetration
Flexibility
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Metaphysics – what is real to you
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Epistemology – how do we know
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Axiology – values
Ethics – morality, behavior
Asthetics – beauty, comfort
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Philosophical conflicts
Look beyond the obvious =
analysis
philosophical
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Taken as true
Example: If a student does well on the TAAS,
ACT, SAT, etc., they are educated.
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A considered guess or hunch in regard to
which some pertinent data are available; a
trial answer to be tested.
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Instinct – feel something
Low level – gut feeling
Based on past experiences
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“A theory is an instrument, a guide to
thought, not necessarily a guide to direct
practice.” Richare Pratte, Contemporary
Theories of Education (1971).
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Invites argument and counterargument
Organize ideas for eventual practical activity
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Provides raw materials and testing grounds.
Experiences shared, critically analyzed for
improvement, taken back into practice for
testing
Serves to expand theory and direct it toward
new possibilities
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What is the relationship between theory and
philosophy?
Is theory a set of assumptions? Explain
Explain how questions such as why, what,
how, etc. build a theoretical basis from which
to operate.
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The view that reality exists beyond the
observable world
Conceived to be transcendental to
humankind’s sensory experience
Beyond, independent of, superior to, &
separate from the world of experience
Metaphysics Resources;
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Metaphysics-Principles-Reality.htm
http://websyte.com/alan/metamul.htm
◦ Cosmology-order in being
universe?
Human?
◦ Teleology- final causes, end
◦ Theology – study of God
◦ Anthropology – study of humankind
◦ Ontology-existence, nature of being
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Order in being
Study of the origin, nature & development of
the Universe
Our picture of the order & priority of values in
the structure of the Universe
More on Cosmology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology
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Study of purpose of being
Is there an end?
Afterlife?
Three Views Outline
Fetus by: Leonardo da Vinci
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Theological questions
◦ How do I answer questions I have about God?
◦ Can God allow evil if he is good?
Examples of Theological Questions and answers if God
were a computer programmer:
http://www.meyerweb.com/other/humor/theology.html
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Two views:
◦ Judeo-Christian
human beings have worth & dignity
Free will
◦ Scientific
determined by our environment
No free will
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Study of being
Existence, nature
What are the essential qualities of the human
being?
Value - priority
More on Ontology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology
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What does it mean “to be”?
When does life begin?
Is this a dream or reality?
When does life end?
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Perception
Reliability of sense data
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Symbol = red
Referent = what you think about
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Language is a catalogue of symbols
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Characteristics of cultures
◦ Universals – society agrees on these
◦ Specialties – some people know
◦ Alternatives – society disagrees on these
Universals > Alternatives = static
Alternatives > Universals = dynamic
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Culture is static = subjects used for study are
static
Culture is dynamic = subjects used to teach
people to think
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What is true?
The nature of truth and knowledge
The source of truth and knowledge
Quotes on Truth and Wisdom:
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_wisdom.html
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Metaphysics – deals with content
Epistemology – deals with instruction,
strategy used to deliver content:
◦ direct instruction, cooperative learning, inquiry
learning, etc.
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Knowledge - Truth – Epistemological – Is
truth an absolute?
Intuition - Gut feeling; you just know; innate
sense of knowing; information is immediate
w/o any reasoning involved; react
spontaneously w/o knowing why
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Simple Awareness
Scientific Intuition
Artistic Level
Religious Intuition
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Truth vs. truth
Vicarious vs. Direct Learning
Objective vs. Subjective Knowledge
a priori vs. a posteriori
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Is there an absolute truth in the Universe? Are
there absolutes? What are absolutes?
Something that NEVER changes
“T”
Classical Phil
Truth changes - small “t”
Contemporary Phil
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Vicarious – indirectly through others
Direct – experience, by doing
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Objective - Knowledge is out there to be
discovered. How can I discover knowledge?
Subjective – Knowledge is inside everyone.
How can I create knowledge?
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Deductive knowledge based on principles that
are self-evident apart from observation or
experience.
Independent of sensory experience
Proposition is necessarily true or false based
on purely logical or semantic (meaning in
language) grounds
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Knowledge gained as a result of experiences
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Sense data
Common sense
Logic
◦ Syllogism
◦ Dialectic
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Intuition
Science
Choice making
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Rationalism – the basic source of knowledge
is reason.
Adherents think that each person either is or
has a mind that has the ability to know truths
directly.
Things need not be perceived by the senses.
◦ idealism, classical realism, dualistic theism
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Empiricism – the basic source of knowledge is
experience, not reason.
Adherents emphasize that human learning
centers on perceptual, sensory experience
instead of being centered on the mentalistic,
speculative reasoning or rational process.
◦ behavioral experimentalism, logical empiricism,
cognitive-field experimentalism
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What is good and beautiful?
A general theory of value
Primary concepts are ought, duty, right and
wrong
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Ethics = a theory of behavior
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Morality = a practice of behavior
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Growth of mass society
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Depersonalization
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Alienation
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Law of Interchangeable Parts
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Cloning
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Good “G” vs. good “g”
◦ Free choice vs. determinism on the other
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Means vs. Ends
◦ Do ends justify the means?
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Conceived vs. Operative Behavior
◦ What you believe you should do vs. what you do
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Morality vs. Religion
◦ Varied agreement of morality vs. rules
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Beauty
“Feeling good part”
Who are you? What do you like?
Taste – good or bad
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Euphoric state
Beauty of something overwhelms you
Transcend self
Lost in the experience
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Art for Art’s sake – something is done for the
purpose of beauty-nothing else
Art for our sake - decide what it is to be
used for, then design it.
◦ Form follows function
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Identify major 20/21st century problems
relative to education, such as:
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National standards
High Stakes Testing
Vouchers
Federal dollars to religious organizations
others
THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
ATHEISM
PANTHEISM
THEISM
1. Why is there
something
instead of
nothing?
Something always
existed. The
universe is mere
time, space +
chance
Everything that
exists is God (apersonal)
particularized in
the universe.
An infinite
personal God
created all that
exists from nothing (ex-nihilo)
2. Why does man
exist?
Man is only a
product of chance
in a closed
universe.
Like all existence
man is a
manifestation of
God (Brahman)
Man was created
by God, distinct
form all creation.
3. What is the basis
for human
dignity?
Finally nothing.
Relatively, man is
the highest form of
evolution.
Nothing. Man’s
uniqueness
separates him
from oneness with
God.
Made in the
image of God,
man exists for
personal relationship with creator.
4. What is the basis
of personality:
that man thinks,
wills, has
emotions?
Finally nothing.
Relatively:
a. genetic
formation
b. Conditioning
Personality is
illusion. Man must
deny personality
to enter into the
unity of God.
God is personal.
God thinks, wills,
feels, etc. Man is
made in divine
image.
Dr. J. Scott Horrell Dallas Theological Seminary
THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
ATHEISM
PANTHEISM
5. What is the basis
for reason and
rationality?
Finally, nothing.
Relatively:
a. Genetic
formation
b. Language
c. pragmatism
6. What is the basis
for moral
feelings, i.e.,
conscience?
Social
conditioning.
Nothing.
While divine
Reason is illusion. reason is beyond
Final reality (God) ours. God is
is a-rational. Truth rational; the laws
is known by
of logic are based
in the nature of
gnosis
(illumination).
God.
In the final sense, Although fallen
Moral conscious(conditioned)
ness is illusion.
moral feelings
reflect the image
of God.
7. What is the basis
of ethics, morals
and values?
Only relativism:
a. social-State
democracy,
communism,
etc.
b. individual (I’m
OK, you’re OK)
Finally nothing.
Relatively, laws of
karma..
Dr. J. Scott Horrell Dallas Theological Seminary
THEISM
The moral nature
of God, revealed
in the Torah,
Bible or Koran
THREE BASIC WORLDVIEWS
8. Why is there evil
in the universe?
9. What is the basis
of happiness,
pleasure and
aesthetic
appreciation?
10. What is the
place of the
individual in the
universe? (The
problem of unity
and diversity)
ATHEISM
PANTHEISM
THEISM
a. Physical evil is
normal
(plagues)
formation
b. Moral evil is
relative to individual or social
perception
Genetic formation
and social
conditioning
Because God is
everything, there
is no real evil.
Laws of karma are
arbitrary.
a. Moral evil derives from free
will of finite
persons;
Satan, Adam
b. Physical evil is
a judgement of
moral evil.
In the imago dei,
man has an
innate aesthetic,
given to enjoy his
God and creation.
a. Human pleasure separates
from God.
b. The true bliss is
only through
unity with God
(nirvana).
a. All is unity: man Ultimately there is
has no freedom. only unity; all
Determinism.
individuality is
b. All is diversity,
mere illusion.
man floats in an
absurd
universe.
a. Islam; fatalism,
determinism
b. Christianity:
God as Trinity
includes unity
and diversity.
Both have