Chapter 2
Philosophical Perspective of Education
Philosophy is the study of fundamental nature of
knowledge, reality and existence, especially when
considered as an academic discipline.
the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In
a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people
undertake when they seek to understand
fundamental truths about themselves, the world in
which they live, and their relationships to the world
and to each other.
Every person has a philosophy even though
he does not realize this. This is more so when
we conceive philosophy in a general sense as
a person's sum of his/her fundamental beliefs
and convictions." Moreover, teachers and
students implicitly ask philosophical
questions such as, "Why am teaching? What
is teaching at its best? And student asks,
"Why am I studying this subject? Why am I
going to school for anyway?"
On the other side of the coin, people have
some ideas concerning physical objects, man,
the meaning of life, nature, death, God, right
and wrong. Of course, these ideas are
acquired in varied ways -through family
friends, individuals and groups or they might
be as a result of some thinking, conventions
or emotional bias.
Philosophical Foundations: Education is the result of
civilization , it is continuously developing based on the
ideas and goals of philosophy and outlook In life so it
becomes institutionalized idea of society.
The role of educational philosophy according to
experts Brauner and Burn argue that education and
philosophy cannot be separated, because the goals of
education are the same as the goals of philosophy.
Wisdom and the path taken by philosophy are the
same as those taken by education.
Kupatrick argues that philosophizing and
educating is thinking and considering values and
ideals that are better, while educating is an
effort to realize these values and ideals in human
life and personality.
Educational Philosophy is the branch of applied
or practical philosophy concerned with the
nature and aims of education and the
philosophical problems arising from educational
theory and practice.
Educational Philosophy, then involves among
other things the application of formal
philosophy, to the field of education. Like
general philosophy, educational philosophy is
speculative, prescriptive and analytic.
Educational philosophy is said to be speculative
because it seeks to build theories of human
nature, the nature of society, the nature of the
world, which is very useful in interpreting data as
a result of different scientific research.
Educational philosophy is said to be prescriptive
if the philosophy of education determines the
goals that must be followed and achieved, and
determines the right and correct ways to be
used in achieving these goals. Because it
explicitly determines the educational goals to be
achieved.
It is analytic, if the philosophy of education
explains speculative and prescriptive statements
and their consistency with other ideas. The
analysts test the logic of our concepts and their
inadequacy of the fact they seek to explain.
Those who study philosophy are perpetually
engaged in asking, answering, and arguing
for their answers to life’s most basic
questions. To make such a pursuit more
systematic academic philosophy is
traditionally divided into major areas of
study.
Metaphysics (Ontology)
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy
that considers the physical universe and
the nature of ultimate reality. It asks
questions like, What is real? What is the
origin of the world? What is beyond the
stars? Metaphysics asks, what is reality
and how it differ from mere appearance ?
What is reality and what are the
standards or criteria for what count as
REAL?
The term “epistemology” comes from the Greek words
“episteme” and “logos”. “Episteme” can be translated as
“knowledge” or “understanding” while “logos” means
argument” or “reason”.
How we learn and what we can know? Epistemology which
deals with knowledge and knowing, influences methods of
teaching and learning. It raises such questions as on what do we
base our knowledge of the world and our understanding of the
truth?
