PHILOSOPHY

EDUCATION AND PHILOSOPHY
T.C. Thankchan M.A. (Pol.), M.A. (Socio.), M. Ed, M. Phil, Assistant Professor, St. Thomas College of Teacher Education, Pala.

Etymologically the word philosophy is derived from the Greek words ‘philos’ (love) and ‘sophia’ (wisdom) that means love of wisdom. Wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge. Wisdom includes knowledge and goes beyond it to find relationships and to discover implications. In this way, the search of wisdom or truth is called philosophy and the man who engages himself in the search is called a philosopher. Various scholars from various angles have defined philosophy. According to Cicero “Philosophy is the mother of all arts and the true medicine of mind”. Coleridge defines “Philosophy as the science of sciences”. A Philosopher according to Plato is “one who has a taste for every sort of knowledge, who is curious to learn and is never satisfied”. The philosopher is even now interested in the first principles and final conclusions of all knowledge. The meaning of philosophy can be summed up as:
• Philosophy as search for truth
• Philosophy as an activity of analysis – analysis of some of the most difficult problems that mankind has ever faced.
• Philosophy as criticism and clarification
• Philosophy as an activity of synthesis – philosophy is a search for a comprehensive view of nature, an attempt at a universal explanation of nature of things.
• Comprehensiveness, penetration and flexibility are three dimensions of philosophical thinking.
Different Areas of Philosophy
• Problem of Reality (Metaphysics)
• Problem of Knowledge (Epistemology)
• Problem of Values (Axiology)
Metaphysics is concerned with the nature of reality, time and space, origin of universe and purpose of human life. Epistemology deals with questions regarding the nature, structure and validity of knowledge. Axiology deals with Ethics, Aesthetics and logic. Ethics deals with values. It is the science of values. (What is the good and valuable in human life). It discusses the criteria of right and good. Aesthetics deals with the nature and criteria of beauty. The theory of beauty, forms of beauty, relationship between truth and beauty, etc., are discussed under aesthetics. Logic studies truth, methods of judgment, types of propositions, hypothesis, definitions, classifications etc. Logic focuses on the methods of arriving at knowledge.
The characteristics of Philosophy may be summed up as under:
• Philosophy is a way of life
• Philosophy is an art as well a science
• Philosophy is the mother of all arts and sciences
• Philosophy is a dynamic and living force
• Philosophy is a search for reality and truth
• Philosophy is closely related to education
Relationship between Education and Philosophy – Significance of studying philosophy
Education and philosophy are closely inter-related. If philosophy is love of knowledge then education is acquisition of knowledge. Philosophy is the corner stone of the foundation of education. Education is a practical activity of philosophical thought. Without philosophy, education would be a blind effort and without education, philosophy would be crippled. Philosophy answers thousands of questions pertaining to the whole field of education. If the child is to educated why is he to be educated, for what he is to be educated, how is to be educated, by whom is to be educated are questions which are answered by philosophy. Knowledge certified by philosophy enters the curriculum of education. Method approved by philosophy for building knowledge form the basis of methods and techniques of teaching, the truth arrived at by philosophy sets the goals and objectives of education as well as the instruments and end use of evaluation. Great philosophers like, Socrates, Plato, Rousseau, Froebel, Gandhiji, Tagore, Radhakrishnan and so on have been great educators also.
The study of educational philosophy helps an educationist to critically evaluate his own practices and make necessary changes in his practice. Philosophy has the potential for provoking revolutionary changes, revise and reject some of our beliefs, develops analytical and logical skills and reasoning. Educational philosophy clarifies concepts and analyses propositions, beliefs and theories of education. A philosophical vision is essential to understand the new trends in the educational systems especially the contemporary educational movement. Montessory schools of Maria Montessori, Kindergarten system of Education of Froebel, Gandhiji’s Nai Taleem, Jiddu Krishnamurthi’s Rishi Valley Schools, Aurobindo’s International Centre for Education, Pondecherry are some of the educational movements and that can be evaluated only in the background of educational philosophy. Philosophy is also interpreted as an attempt at developing a comprehensive picture, an integral vision, a holistic view, a synthetic understanding, a total picture, a synoptic vision of the universe around us. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan had defined the aim of education in the University Education Commission report, thus, “the aim of education is to give an integrated view of the Universe.”
The relationship between Education and Philosophy can be summed up as follows.
• Philosophy determines what constitutes a life worth living. The chief task of education is to make life worth living.
• Philosophy tells us the goal and essentials of good life. Education tells us the means to achieve those goals and learn those essentials of good life.
• Philosophy is the theory; education is the practice.
• Philosophy is the contemplative side and education the active side.
• Education is applied philosophy.
• Philosophy deals with ends, education with the means and techniques of achieving those ends.
• Philosophy deals with the abstract education deals with the concrete
• All great philosophers are great educators.
• The truth and principles established by philosophy are applied in the conduct of educative process.
• Philosophy is always in the background for shaping things in education.
• Philosophy answers thousands of questions pertaining to the whole field of education.
• There is no aspect of education – aims, curriculum, methods, textbooks, discipline, teacher etc. that is not influenced and determined by philosophy.
• Philosophy sets ultimate values on the basis of which aims of education are determined.
• Height and breadth of education is probed in by philosophy.
“The art of education will never attain complete clearness without philosophy” Fichte
“Education is the Dynamic side of philosophy” James Ross.
“Philosophy is the theory of education in its most general phases”.-John Dewey
Thus, Education and Philosophy are the two sides of the same coin.

METAPHYSICS AND EDUCATION
Philosophy deals with everything in the world an all of knowledge. It is primarily divided into three branches – metaphysics, epistemology and axiology. Metaphysics is the science of existence or reality. It is the study of fundamental nature of reality and existence and of the essences of things. Metaphysics, in brief, deals with reality in man, world and hereafter. Aristotle covered a wide range of studies, one of which was the study of nature (physics); much of it could be subjected to bservation and reasonable inference; some go beyond the testable level and is therefore assigned to metaphysics.
Metaphysics is often divided into two areas - Ontology and Cosmology. Ontology is the study of being. Cosmology is the study of physical universe, or the cosmos taken as a whole. Metaphysics deals with such questions as, What is real? Is the world one or many? What are the fundamental characteristics of creation? What is space? Is there a God? What is the difference between appearance and reality? Does mind have the same sort of being as physical object? Does God have the same kind of being as do molecules and electrons? Is any unchangeable being as well as changeable one? Metaphysics considers all these questions and tries to answer all these. In brief, metaphysics discusses the three aspects of Reality – the world, the self and the God. The main branches of metaphysics are:
• Cosmogony - This is a study of creation. Is world created, or is it eternal? How was world created? Why was it created? Who created the world? What is the purpose of creation? All these are the problems of cosmogony.
• Cosmology – It is the study of physical universe. The main problems of cosmology are: Is the world one or is it many? Is it both one and many?
• Ontology – it is the study of ultimate reality. Is the reality one? Is it many? Is it both one and many? If reality is many, what is the relation between these many elements? All these are ontological questions.
• Philosophy of self – this is mainly concerned with the philosophical analysis of self. What is self? What is its relation with the body? Is it free or does it depends on the body? Is it one many? All these are the problems of pilot of self.
• Eschatology – the discussion of the condition of soul after death, the nature of the other world, etc. from the subject matter of this branch of philosophy.
The meaning of metaphysics can be summed up as follows:
 Metaphysics is an attempt to know the reality.
 It means beyond nature
 Metaphysics is basically the search for what ultimately is real.
 Metaphysics deals with questions related to the theory of what exists and what is real.
 It deals with the nature of existence and the essence of things.
 Metaphysics discusses the three aspects of Reality – the world, the self and the God.
Metaphysics – Education, Man, Nature and Society
Aristotle developed the study of metaphysics to be studied after physics. While physics studies the laws of external form of existence. Metaphysics thinks over the real essence of things. Metaphysics deals with reality in man, world and hereafter. This has a close bearing upon the aims and ideals of education the metaphysical attitude provides the educationists the proper perspective for devising aims and ideals of education. The concept of self is the basis of the development of character, the central aim of education. Know thyself and be thyself is the universally acknowledge aim of education. Moral and religious education is based upon the metaphysical concept of God. It shows that our explanation of the ultimate reality of the total reality, call it God or anything else, has important bearing upon education particularly it aims and ideals and therefore its means and plans. The most important metaphysical theories which have influenced education are: Naturalism, Idealism, Pragmatism and Realism.
Man is a part of great world system. All men share the same human nature and this nature is constant. It does not change. Since all men have the same nature, all men have the same natural powers. By virtue is meant the perfection of a natural power and since all men have the same natural powers, the virtues are the same for all men. Education is concerned with the development of man’s rational powers. i.e, with the formation of the intellectual powers. Since the aim of education is the formation of the intellectual virtues and since these virtues are the same for all men, the aim of education is also the same for all men. Relationship between man and nature is another dimension of metaphysics.
EPISTEMOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Philosophy implies both process of seeking wisdom and wisdom itself. This wisdom is nothing but theoretical and practical knowledge related to problems of life and universe, which is derived out of systematic, critical and reflective thinking. The three important foundations of education are ontological (related to reality) epistemic (related to knowledge) and axiological (related to values) of which epistemic is the most fundamental one. It is only knowledge that reveals reality and facilitates values realization. Philosophy began with metaphysical questions and the answers for metaphysical questions lead to epistemology. The term epistemology has derived from two Greek words episteme – means knowledge and logos – means study, science or discussion. It is the conditions under which knowledge takes place.
One of the important tasks of philosophy is to study the nature and phenomenology of our knowledge and to formulate the norms and criteria of its validity and truth. Thus in philosophy we study, the meaning of knowledge, how it is generated, its nature and how it is validated. This in essence, is the scope of epistemology, as a branch of philosophy. In epistemology, we study different philosophical perspectives held about meaning, origin, source and nature of knowledge and theories of truth. The important areas in epistemology are falsehood, validity, truth, limits, nature, etc of knowledge, knower and known of knowledge etc.
All education ultimately culminates in the realization of values or ideals expressed in the educational objectives. The study of epistemology helps in answering the following questions in a fruitful manner. What are the goals of education? What should be content of education or curriculum? How is the content justified and validated? What are the approaches in transacting the content material and to realize the goals of education? What are the values that need to be acquired? What is their nature and sources? How can they be acquired?. These questions are basically epistemological and answers to these questions may vary according to one’s philosophical perspective.
Fundamental to the realization of educational objectives is imparting and acquisition of knowledge, prior to this process requires one to have an insight into the nature of knowledge in its different forms and structure, the sources of knowledge and the validation of knowledge itself. The study of epistemology helps in eliminating non-essential things and including essentials of curriculum content, which includes different forms of knowledge, fixing the priorities for transmitting them.
Epistemology is directly related with knowledge, its sources, nature, validity, scope, origin etc. According to the opinion of some philosophers knowledge means knowing the external world and it is an act of awareness – a cognitive act involving perception. There was no knowledge before the existence of man, and there will be no knowledge after him. These are the views of some philosophers on epistemology. It is generally accepted that knowledge is power, which things are done and known.
Sources of Knowledge
There are two views or perspectives in the ways of knowing or sources of knowledge –the western perspective and the Indian perspective. The following are the means or sources or pramanas by which we come to ‘knew’ of things according to western perspective.
Sense experience: Here the knowledge is acquired through the sense experience- through the proper use of five senses. It is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting. Through sense experience we can know that physical things and their knowledge exist and what their characteristics are. Adequate sense experience will enable an individual to have awareness about the external things and their experience. There are also internal senses, which help us to acquaint ourselves with our own internal states like feelings, pains, pleasures, attitudes etc. Some times we use some words to describe people’s inner states, like ‘I love’, ‘I dislike’ etc. Sense experiences – external and internal- enables individuals to get correct and first hand experiences about the world and surroundings.
Reason: We come to know that 1+1=2 not by sense experience but by reasoning. On the basis of a set of statements or premises we infer a statement called conclusion of the arrangement. We infer unobservable on the basis of observable. Here we employ reasoning as a source of knowledge. Reasoning can be inductive, deductive or both. Reasoning helps in knowing something not known earlier by any amount of sense experience. Reasoning is what we do, but reason is an ability to think. Reason is prerequisite of all knowledge.
Authority: We come to know of things from some other source, a person or a book written by somebody whom we take for granted without checking the truth of the statements made by him. The authority here is depends on the authenticity of the statement. It may be impossible to check the truth of statements we read or hear within our life span. However, certain precautions are to be observed- a) the person whose word is taken on authority must really be an authority, a specialist in the field of knowledge. b) suspend judgment when authorities themselves disagree. c) there should be a possibility for one to check the truth of another person’s statement on authority. Authority cannot be the primary source of knowledge. Because, it is ultimately sense experience and reason that justify the truth of the statement.
Intuition: Intuition cannot be clearly defined. But it is the ability to perceive or know things without conscious reasoning. It is certain kind of experience –an immediate understanding- that cannot be described. People claim to know by intuition that a proposition is true. They know the solution to a problem by intuition but cannot give out the steps of problem solving. Its validity is low.
Revelation: Sometimes people claim that they had a ‘vision’ or something was revealed to them in a dream or from God and so on. It is communication, by a divinity or by divine agency, of divine truth or knowledge. Some people described this, as God’s manifestation of the divinity or of the divine will to humanity. It is a sort of vision and its validity also is low. E.g. The revelation of St. John the Divine.
Faith: It is an unquestioning belief, complete trust, confidence, or reliance in God, religious tenets, or in knowledge that does not require proof or evidence. E.g. I believe it because I have faith in it. However, the truth of the statements from Intuition, Revelation and Faith suffer the same problem as with ‘authority’ as a source. Thus, sense experience and reason are the primary sources of knowledge.
Ways of Knowing - Indian Perspective
They are referred to as ‘pramanas’, the basis on which we come to know. There are six ways suggested by different Indian philosophies and philosophers, although not all them agree to all the six ways of knowing. They are as follows:
Pratyaksha (Cognition) : this is synonymous with ‘sense experience’ as a source knowledge described earlier, with a few differences. They different sense organs have corresponding substances with which they can associate,. E.g. eyes can see tings that constitute light, tongue can tasted things. Mind establishes the link between the sense organs and the object of perception. Hence without mind nothing can be perceived. Mind or ‘Manas’ is taken as th4e sixth sense organs, which help, in perceiving objects of experience directly including the soul. There are two types of pratyaksha – Loukika pratyaksha and Aloukika pratyaksha.
Loukika pratyaksha involves perceiving things directly (perceived through the five senses). Through the sense of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching etc one can know things and their effect. Aloukika pratyaksha is perception beyoiond direct sense experience. For example, when we see a cow, we see its ‘pious’ nature also and perceive its other characteristics based on previous experience.
Anumana: This is synonymous with inference and reason explained earlier. This is classified as Poorvavat, Seshavat and Saamaanyatho drushtaha. The first one is conclusion or inference derived from pervious experience like inferring fire on the hilltops when one sees a smoke, the second one is also logical inference, and the third involves inference about metaphysical objects based on analogy using objects ordinarily perceivable.
Sabda (Verbal Testimony): to some extend it overlaps with authotity as a source of knowledge described earlier. Nyaya philosophy refers to this as ‘Apta Vakya’ the words of the one who knows the ‘truth’ and report it without any error. Such an ‘Apta’ is no one but God. He is the author of ‘vedas’, who is ‘sarvagna’ i.e. knows all. Hence according to the traditional Indian conept, the ultimate source of all knowledge is ‘Vedas’.
Upamana (Comparison): Here knowledge is derived on the basis of comparison of similar objects. This is one of the ways of reasoning in which similar objects are compared and recognized in such a way.
Arthapatti: Based on premises that apparently appear contradictory, the truth or knowledge not known earlier is derived. This is referred to disjunctive syllogism.
Anupalabdi (Non-cognition): This involves knowing absence of a thing (which is in focus and must have been there).
Thus all sources of knowledge referred by Indian philosophers help in self-realization or knowing the ultimate truth which is spiritual in nature. Almost all Indian philosophers tried to explain the divine force behind all living things in the universe especially the human being. So they tried to make meaning in man’s life through identifying the divine perfection already in man. According them, the true knowledge is identifying the divine spark or divinity in man.
Epistemology, or theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy, which examines questions about the nature of knowledge as how we get it. It attempts to answer the questions- what is knowledge? What are the best ways of acquiring knowledge? One of the central concerns is to investigate whether our means of getting knowledge are trustworthy.

AXIOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Axiology is the branch of philosophy hat deals with the problem of value. It posses the question - What is good? What should man prefer? What are the fundamental values? What is beauty? What is art? What is really desirable? Etc. Every moment of our lives is up with valuing. Without discussing these fundamental problems regarding values, we cannot solve many problems concerning values in our everyday life. Axiology has been divided into the following three branches:
• Ethics – concerns human conduct, character and values. It studies nature of right and wrong and the distinction between good and evil. Ethics explores the nature of justice and of a just society, and also one’s obligation to one self, to others and to society. Ethics asks such questions as, What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? What is good and what is bad? And What are the proper values of life? Problems arise in ethics because we often have difficulty in knowing exactly what the right thing to do is. The central question posed by ethical enquiry is, what should I do? What is right or good? This is referred as moral philosophy deals with judgments of approval and disapproval, rightness and wrongness, goodness and badness, virtue and vice.
• Aesthetics – deals with the relation and principles of art and beauty. It also studies our thoughts, feelings and attitudes when we hear or read something beautiful- in nature or in art. In addition aesthetics investigates the experience of engaging in such activities as painting, dancing, acting and playing. Aesthetics is sometimes identified with the philosophy or art, the process of artistic creation, the nature of the aesthetic experiences and the principles of criticism. But aesthetics has wider application. The central question posed by aesthetics is, What is beautiful? Why are certain forms preferred to others? Is there higher and lower order enjoyment of beauty? In short, it discusses the nature and criteria of beauty.
Aesthetic is the science of beauty, as logic is the science of truth and ethics is the science of good. Education seeks to realize the true, the good and the beautiful. Therefore, it requires not only logic and ethics but also aesthetics. The aim of education is to realize all-round development of the educand. In this development moral and aesthetic development occupy foremost place. While moral development requires knowledge of ethics, aesthetic development requires training in aesthetics. Aesthetics again is the basis of all literary and artistic criticism. It supplies the philosophical basis to literature and art. As literature and art contribute significantly to education, the value of aesthetics in education is clear.
Anything that excites appreciation, attracts man with its innate beauty and crates a feeling of joy and hilarity has aesthetic value. Anything having appeal to the aesthetic yearning of man of man has aesthetic value. Teaching is an art and for a born teacher has an aesthetic value as he enjoys teaching and continues bubbling with enthusiasm. His creativity and ingenuity can create atmosphere of good values. There is a stimulating influence of aesthetic values on the perception and intensification of other of values.
The major area under study (Axiological)
• Different kinds of values – classifications: Traditional Values of India, Constitutional Values, Values under different Religions.
• Different perspectives of Values – Idealistic, Pragmatic, Naturalistic and Existentialist.
• Place of Logic, Ethics and Aesthetics in Education.