It is therefore possible, roughly speaking, to distinguish the highly general enquiries of metaphysics, together with logic and theory of knowledge (epistemology) from the more particularized philosophies of differentiated forms of enquiry, appraisal and action, such as the philosophy of science, history, mathematics and religion, together with ethics, aesthetics and social philosophy. Manifestly the philosophy of education is of the latter type. But it is not a separate branch of philosophy in addition to them; for ‘educating’ is a very hybrid type of activity.
Philosophy of education, therefore, draws on established branches of philosophy and brings together those segments of them that are relevant to the solution of educational problems. There are philosophers of the former sort who sometimes illustrate some general theme by reference to educational concepts. A good example is Gilbert Ryle, who deals with concepts like those of ‘training’ and ‘drill’ in the course of defending a general metaphysical thesis about the nature of mind.
Generally speaking, however, philosophers of education are specifically interested in educational matters and philosophize in order to get clearer about how things are and about what should be done in this particular realm. In order, however, to philosophize, the philosopher of education can seldom turn to just one branch of philosophy. If he is interested, for instance, in problems of teaching and learning from a theoretical point of view, because he is simply puzzled about why some children learn and others do not, he will be drawn into philosophical psychology which deals with theories of human development, with types of learning and their relationship to teaching, and with theories of motivation and concept formation.
He may also be led into the philosophy of history, mathematics and science in order to get clearer about what is distinctive of these particular forms of thinking. He is more likely, however, to be practically interested as well, in that he is also actively concerned with questions about what ought to be done in education. In this case he will have also to study ethics and social philosophy in order to arrive at clearer answers to questions about what should be put on the curriculum, about teaching methods, and about how children should be treated.
Assuming that the philosopher of education has both a theoretical and a practical interest in education, it can easily be shown in a more formal way what branches of philosophy will be of central interest to him. Educating people suggests developing in them states of mind which are valuable and which involve some degree of knowledge and understanding. It is obvious, therefore, that the philosopher of education will have to go into ethics in order to deal with the valuations and into theory of knowledge in order to get clearer about the distinction between concepts such as ‘knowledge’, ‘belief’ and ‘understanding’.
As knowledge is divided up on a curriculum into branches such as science, mathematics and history he will also have to reflect upon what is distinctive of these different branches of knowledge. Educating people is not done by instant fiat. It takes time, and a variety of different processes of learning and teaching are involved in it. The philosopher of education will therefore have to study philosophical psychology in order to get clearer about the nature of human development and about differences between processes such as instruction, indoctrination, conditioning and learning by experience.
Questions about processes, however, are not purely psychological; there are also questions about how much freedom children should be allowed, about whether or not they should be punished, about the authority of the teacher and the rights of students. The philosopher of education will have to go into social philosophy in order to deal adequately with questions of this sort. In setting out what is central to the philosophy of education in this schematic way we are, of course, fastening on certain features of the concept of education which seem to us to be of particular significance – especially its connection with knowledge and understanding.
We do this here simply to indicate, however briefly, the range of philosophical issues with which the subject is concerned. Such a conception of education must impose its stamp on the curriculum, teaching, relationships with pupils, and authority structure of the school or college community. The hope is that philosophical study as here set out will do something to deepen our understanding of how we are placed as educators and make more explicit the dimensions in which decisions have to be made.
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