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Research Paper Philosophers in Education

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Research Paper Philosophers in Education
How the pioneers of Educational Philosophy help us to shape the plight of education in our country?
What is Philosophy?
Philosophy is the evolution of human thought process. It is how variables like religion, culture, social practices and others ideas have influenced scholars over time and helped them to find meaning to their life and other natural phenomena.
What do Philosopher 's in Education Think?
Socrates (469-399 BC) opened the gateway to self-education. A person 's true learning starts within, when he realizes his own ignorance; there are no teachers, only facilitators. According to him knowledge was the ultimate virtue, best used to help people improve their lives. “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance” he said. Socrates put the responsibility of education on the individual, both a merit and demerit. Similarly, the Socratic Method is questioned as being dangerous for the young minds if started too early “A proper education of the young must begin with a firm grounding in the nature and values of our culture" (Goldman, 1984, p. 60).
For Saint Augustine the ultimate purpose of education was turning towards God. The way to God is to look into oneself and understand ones existence. He divided knowledge into ‘reasoning’ as the learning process of gathering information and ‘examining’ information through reasoning. He further reached the conclusion that some knowledge is inborn which must be present within to start the reasoning process.
Augustine believed in imparting truth to students, rather than supporting their quest for truth. He preached Christianity through the dialogical mode as someone with authority over the truth and considered Christ as the ultimate teacher, a shortcoming of his philosophy.
René Descartes, the father of modern philosophy initiated a major shift away from Aristotle’s philosophical tradition and introduced the ideology of examining problems on your own. ‘He believed that all people possess “good



Cited: AUGUSTINE, S. t. (1968). The Teacher (389), . Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press. AUGUSTINEST. (1952). The First Catechetical Instruction (400). Westminster: MD: Newman Press. Copeland, M. (2005). Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical And Creative Thinking In Middle And High School. Portland, MN, USA: Stenhouse Publishers, 01-Mar 2005. Garber, D. (1998). Descartes, ot the cultivation of the intellect. In A. O. Rorty, Philosophers on Education (pp. 124-138). Published 26th August 1998 by Routledge. Harrison, S. (1998). Augustine on what we owe to our teachers. In A. O. Rorty, Philosophers on Education (pp. 66-87). Published August 26th 1998 by Routledge. Iqbal, A. (2004). PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN. University Of Arid Agriculture/Institute Of Education And Research. Kreeft, P. (2009). Why Study Philosophy and Theology. The Cardinal New Man Society, 33-38. Lloyd, G. (1998). Spinoza and the education of the Imagination. In A. Rorty, Philosophers on Education (pp. 157-172). Published 26th August 1998 by Routledge. Woodruff, P. (1998). Socratic Education. In A. Rorty, Philosophers on Education (pp. 14-30). Published 26th August 1998 by Routledge.

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