Philosophical perspectives on Education

Unit III: Philosophical perspectives on Education

3.1 Concept, branches and functions of philosophy

Concept

The English word 'philosophy' comes from the Greek word 'philosophia' which consists of 'philos' and 'sophia'. Philos' means 'love of' and 'sophia' means 'wisdom'. Hence the meaning of philosophy means love of wisdom. Wisdom consists of knowledge and its inevitable implication in all situations or circumstances.

                'Darshan' is the Nepali word for 'philosophy' and it's derived from Sanskrit language. The word 'Darshan' means 'to see', furthermore the meaning is wisdom of truth.

                Philosophy neither falls in a realm of particular subjects nor does it only concentrate on the specific aspects. Philosophy touches ins and outs of everything no matter whether the things exist materially or spiritually. In fact, each and every human being goes through a variety of events throughout this/her life. Such process leads him into new knowledge and experience. Such knowledge and experiences lead us to realize what is right and wrong what is reality, what is truth, what is relevant and irrelevant and so on. Such process of finding the truth and reality is the very concern of philosophy. Philosophy deals with the most arising general questions 'What', 'Why', 'How' about the universe and our place on it.

                -              Philosophy is a systematic view of all things.
                -              Philosophy is a theory of ultimate or absolute truth.
                -              Philosophy is a system of values.
                -              Philosophy is a significance way of life.
                -              Philosophy is the result of logical thinking

Definition of Philosophy

"Knowledge of the eternal nature of things, which is in fact, knowledge of the true nature of different things, is philosophy."                                                                                                    - Plato

"Philosophy is a science which discovers the real nature of super natural things"       - Aristotle

"Those who are lovers of the vision of truth are philosophers."                                   - Socrates

                Philosophy tries to explain the entire universe. It does not limit its explanations to limited perspectives and angles of analysis.

Branches of Philosophy

                There is nothing in the world which is not related with philosophy. Philosophy, by its nature remains wide and open-ended. Inside its wide canopy, everything comes under. Philosophy keeps in touch with the things that exist materially or spiritually. There are four branches of philosophy

       1.       Metaphysics: Theory of Reality

Etymologically 'meta' refers to 'beyond', 'physics' means 'physical world'. So metaphysic stands for beyond physicality. Metaphysics never believes that truth exists in physicality. It holds the view that spirituality deserves the quality of true reality. Actually what comes after physics or what lies beyond nature is regarded metaphysics. It deals with the most fundamental aspects such as reality, existence, substance and metaphysics studies the factuality of absolute reality not based on sensory experience rather based on rational analysis or insight. Aristotle introduced metaphysics at first. Metaphysics is described in different parts such as

Ontology: The general doctrine of being or existence

Rational Theology: The doctrine of God's existence or attributes god.

Rational Cosmology: The doctrine of world

Rational Psychology: The doctrine of the existence and attributes soul and mind.

     2.       Epistemology: Theory of Knowledge

Epistemology concerns with theories of knowledge. It inquires about the nature and possibilities of knowledge. It searcher the answers to the question - How does a man know? It concerns with the scope and limitations of human knowledge. How the knowledge is acquired or processed is also the area of study of epistemology. Epistemology relates its study with human intellect, intelligence and cognitive power, learning capacity. Epistemology holds the important significance in educational process because education means to discover and disseminate knowledge. Theories of knowledge make the teacher to help students to understand and distinguish what is opinion and what is fact. What is belief and knowledge?

Generally the ways through which knowledge comes are as follows:

a.       Revealed Knowledge

The knowledge that is revealed in the name of god is regarded as revealed knowledge. The god discloses the knowledge for the welfare of human being. Different religions have different revealed knowledge. The Gita, Quran, Bible etc gives the knowledge which accepted as divine truth and which can neither be proved nor unproved empirically.

b.      Authoritative Knowledge

This version of knowledge comes from experts. Dictionary, encyclopedias, formulae etc are some examples of source of authoritative knowledge.  They are propagated through different ways by specialized experts and accepted by all as a fact.

c.       Intuitive Knowledge.

The knowledge which comes from sudden insight of a person is called intuitive knowledge. It is a sudden flash of knowledge occurs on the subliminal level. It comes from beyond the limitation of consciousness. Feeling and emotion are more fertilized place for intuitive knowledge rather than reasoning and thinking. Intuitive knowledge is self conscious knowledge which often regarded as a true source of knowledge. The sudden flash of insight may not be true source of knowledge. That is why intuitive knowledge must be analyzed and verified.

d.      Rational Knowledge

The knowledge that is derived through reasoning is called rational knowledge. Reason is the primary source of knowledge. Reasoning is important aspect through which true knowledge comes. Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and Leibniz are the leading rationalists of 17th century. They believe that knowledge springs from the operations of faculty of reason and conscience. Rationalists emphasize thinking and reasoning. Rene Descartes says 'I think therefore I am' As such he focuses on 'think things through'.

e.      Empirical Knowledge

The knowledge which comes through sense perceptions or experience is regarded as empirical knowledge. It believes that human being can know by aural; listening or hearing, visual; seeing, olfactory; smelling, gustatory; testing, tactile; touching, and felling. The famous empiricists who believe in senses are John Locke, David Hume and George Berkeley. They believe in sense perception and advocate to look and to see to get knowledge.

 
3.       Axiology: Theory of Value

Axiology is derived from the Greek word 'Axia' which means 'value' or 'worthiness'. So Axiology means 'theory of values'. Axiology deals with the ins and outs of human norms and values. Human behavior can be regarded as good or bad, wrong or right. Such values can be changed. Today's good values may be bad tomorrow and vice versa. Values are determined by the personal attitude, too. Somebody's good values may be the worst for others.  In three aspects, values are studies inside axiology.

a.       Logic:

      Logic studies the different values of reasoning, argumentation and orderly thinking. Logic emphasizes to judge the values of all things on the basis of logic. Logic contains a variety of methods. Inductive method, Deductive method, Dialectic method.

b.      Ethics:  

      Ethics studies the moral values and conduct of human being philosophically. Ethics tries to answer the questions, what is right and wrong conduct and value? How ought to a human being behave? What is the good life for all men? It is important fact that all of the values can be evaluated on the basis of ethics.

c.       Aesthetics: 

      The study of nature of beauty is called aesthetics. It is the study of culture in terms of beauty and art.