10 Modern

Philosophers and their

Contribution to
Education
The following article is a guest post from Ryan De Guzman, a fellow writer
and colleague. Visit his own blog Nevermore Nonsense to read more of his
posts.
Two and a half millenniums ago, Plato stated that knowledge is justified true
belief, an influential notion that shaped educational theories across time.
Since then, modern thinkers had never stopped seeking knowledge about the
human psychology, development, and education. Here, are the ten greatest.
John Locke and the Tabula Rasa
Locke (1632-1704), an English philosopher and

physician, proposed that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. This
states that men are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge comes
from experience and perception, as opposed to predetermined good and evil
nature, as believed by other thinkers.
On his treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education, he emphasized that
the knowledge taught during younger years are more influential than those
during maturity because they will be the foundations of the human mind. Due
to this process of associations of ideas, he stressed out that punishments are
unhealthy and educators should teach by examples rather than rules.
This theory on education puts him on a clash with another widely accepted
philosophy, backed by another brilliant mind

Immanuel Kant and Idealism

They never lived at the same time, but history always

put Locke and Kant on a dust up.

A famed German thinker, Kant (17241804) was an advocate of public
education and of learning by doing, a process we call training. As he reasons
that these are two vastly different things.
He postulated Above all things, obedience is an essential feature in the
character of a child. As opposed to Locke, he surmises that children should
always obey and learn the virtue of duty, because childrens inclination to earn
or do something is something unreliable. And transgressions should always
be dealt with punishment, thus enforcing obedience.
Also, he theorized that man, naturally, has a radical evil in their nature. And
learning and duty can erase this.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Emile

 Plato said that each individual is born with skills

appropriate to different castes, or functions of society.

Though Rousseau (1712-1778), a Genevan intellect and writer, paid respects
to the ancient philosopher, he rejected this thinking. He believed that there
was one developmental procedure common to man; it was a built-in, natural
process which the main behavioral manifestation is curiosity.
On his book, Emile, Rousseau outlines the process of an ideal education
through a hypothetical boy of the titular name, from twelve years of age to the
time he marries a woman. Critics said this work of his foreshadowed most
modern system of education we have now.

Mortimer J. Adler and the Educational Perrenialism

Adler (1902- 2001) was an American philosopher and

educator, and a proponent of Educational Perennialism. He believed that one

should teach the things that one deems to be of perpetual importance. He
proposed that one should teach principles, not facts, since details of facts
change constantly. And since people are humans, one should teach them
about humans also, not about machines, or theories.
He argues that one should validate the reasoning with the primary
descriptions of popular experiments. This provides students with a human side
to the scientific discipline, and demonstrates the reasoning in deed.

William James and Pragmatism

William James (1842-1910), an American psychologist

and philosopher, ascribed to the philosophy of pragmatism. He believed that

the value of any truth was utterly dependent upon its use to the person who
held it. He maintained that the world is like a mosaic of different experiences
that can only be interpreted through what he calls as Radical empiricism.
This means that no observation is completely objective. As the mind of the
observer and the act of observing will simply just affect the outcome of the
observation.

John Dewey and the Progressivism

Dewey (1859-1952), an American philosopher, psychologist and educational

reformer, was a proponent of Educational Progressivism.
He held that education is a participation of the individual in the social
consciousness of the race, and that it has two sides; the psychological, which
forms the basis of the childs instincts, and the sociological, on which the
instinct will be used to form the basis of what is around him. He postulated
that one cannot learn without motivation.

Nel Noddings and the Ethics of Care

A notable American feminist, educationalist, and philosopher, Noddings (1929-

Present) is best known in her workEthics of Care .
The Ethic s of Care establishes the obligation, and the sense, to do something
right when others address us. We do so because either we love and respect
those that address us or we have significant regard for them. In that way, the
recipients of care must respond in a way that authenticates their caring has
been received.
The same goes for education. As teachers respond to the needs of students,
they may design a differentiated curriculum because as teachers work closely
with students, they should respond to the students different needs and
interests. This response should not be based on a one time virtuous decision
but an ongoing interest in the students welfare.

Jean Piaget and the Genetic Epistemology

 Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss developmental

psychologist and philosopher, was recognized for hisepistemological studies

with children, and the establishment of Genetic epistemology. It aims to
explain knowledge, on the basis of its history, its sociogenesis, and
particularly, the psychological origins of the notions and operations upon
which it is based.
Piaget concluded he could test epistemological questions by studying the
development of thought and action in children. Because of this, he
created Genetic epistemology with its own approaches and questions.

Allan Bloom and The Closing of the American Mind

American philosopher, classicist, and academic Allan

David Bloom (1930-1992) is notable for his criticism of contemporary

American higher education in his bestselling 1987 book, The Closing of the
American Mind.
He stresses how higher education has failed democracy and impoverished
the souls of todays students. For him, this failure of contemporary liberal
education lead to impotent social and sexual habits of todays students and
that commercial pursuits had become more highly regarded than love, the
philosophic quest for truth, or the civilized pursuits of honor and glory.

Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophy

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (1 861-1925) was an

Austrian philosopher and social reformer, and founder of Anthroposophy. His

philosophy highlights a balanced development of cognitive, artistic, and
practical skills.
He divides education into three developmental stages. Early childhood, where
teachers offer practical activities and a healthy environment. Elementary,
which is primarily arts-based, centered on the teachers creative jurisdiction.
And Secondary, which seeks to develop the judgment, reasoning, and
practical idealism.

Philosophy of Education
Educational Philosophy / Teaching Philosophy
 Truth & Reality as the Foundations for Critical Thinking,
Reason and Education
Quotes on Teaching Philosophy of Education from Famous
Philosophers
Albert Einstein, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Michel de
Montaigne, Plato, Aristotle & Confucius

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without

accepting it. (Aristotle)

Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to
learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in
truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the
greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in
that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.
(de Montaigne, On teaching Philosophy of Education)

Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we
need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we
need judgment. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when we
are grown is given us by education.
(Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, On Philosophy of Education)

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our

wholeeducational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive
attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive
success as a preparation for his future career. I am convinced there is only one
way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist
economy, accompanied by a educational system which would be oriented toward
social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society
itself and are utilised in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts
production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done
among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman
and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate
abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-
men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
(Albert Einstein, 1949, On Education)

Introduction - Albert Einstein / Philosophy of Education - Plato / Education - Jean Jacques

Rousseau / Education - de Montaigne / Philosophy of Education - Educational Quotes by
Famous Philosophers - Links Educational Philosophy - Top of Page

Introduction
(Philosophy of Education / Educational Philosophy / Teaching
Philosophy)
My dear children: I rejoice to see you before me today, happy youth of a sunny and
fortunate land. Bear in mind that the wonderful things that you learn in your
schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and
infinite labour in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your
inheritance in order that you may receive it, honour it, and add to it, and one day
faithfully hand it on to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in
the permanent things which we create in common. If you always keep that in mind
you will find meaning in life and work and acquire the right attitude towards other
nations and ages. (Albert Einstein talking to a group of school children. 1934)

This page on Educational Philosophy has some lovely intelligent philosopher's

quotes on both the importance of education, and what is a good education.

As a philosopher it is clear to me that teaching people how to think correctly

and to use language carefully (to work out the truth for themselves) is a
pretty good start for education (i.e. by teaching philosophy to students from
a young age). However, I realise that this is an unfashionable view in our
postmodern times of 'no absolute truths' - where all knowledge is
incomplete, evolving, and relative to some cultural construction - thus
teaching philosophy is seen as some abstract and largely useless exercise. If
you browse around this website you will quickly realise that I do not support
this current paradigm, which I see as being very destructive in both its
affects on the individual and our collective society.

There are clearly many problems with our current education / teaching
system, an evolutionary philosophy of education has important contributions
to make to improving things. Below you will find a short introduction and
then an excellent collection of education quotes from many of the greatest
minds in human history. And as Aristotle so astutely observed;

"All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that
the fate of empires depends on the education of youth." (Aristotle)

Geoff Haselhurst, Email

Philosopher of Science, Metaphysics, Theoretical Physics.

PS - I am currently re-writing all the main philosophy / physics pages. For

these education pages I hope to write a short treatise on how we can
improve our educational system, founded on one simple principle.
All things in the universe are interconnected and evolving
(the dynamic unity of reality).
The central thesis is that education should be founded on truth and reality,
and in particular how this relates to the interconnection of Mind (cultural
knowledge and truth), Matter (biological knowledge and how our bodies are
interconnected with other matter around us) and Space (our environment,
society). These three things are clearly interconnected (in physical reality),
so you could call this an evolutionary / ecological approach to education,
founded on a metaphysics of Space / wave structure of matter.

On Teaching, Educational Philosophy, What is a

good education.
To begin, it is useful to briefly summarise my upbringing as this further
explains my interest in education.

I believe I learnt more in 14 months of traveling through Europe in a van

when I was ten years old, than in any other year at school. (I was most
impressed by the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe, and the old ruined castles.) I
was a rebellious but generally kind student. I failed first Year University
Physics, largely due to non-attendance of lectures. I have a Bachelor of
Education (majored in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics). I taught
Science for 4 years. Both my parents were teachers/lecturers. Probably the
most important reason for taking education seriously though comes from my
love of philosophy, which clearly realises that Education is the most
important factor in the evolution of both the individual and society.

I think there are some good things happening with the new Outcomes based
curriculum that is currently being implemented in the West Australian state
schools I was involved with this at Nyindamurra Family School. What this
means is that rather than prescribing a curriculum based upon certain
content that must be studied, instead we prescribe the outcomes that we
want. (e.g. A child can add up numbers in their head, or appreciate the
importance of Nature and the interconnected ecology of life.) Now the way
to teach these skills is open. You could go down the beach and count
seashells by the seashore if you wanted.

And this is how I bring up my children every day I use daily things around
us to educate them to all sorts of different knowledge. For example, we
recently built a giant swing - and children can learn a lot by building and
playing on swings (pendulums and pendulum clocks are interesting
phenomena, a very great philosopher Christiaan Huygens first studied
pendulums at the time of Newton and Leibniz in the late 1600s.). They have
to be creative how do you get a rope over a branch ten meters off the
ground? how do you build a tower using materials in the bush around you,
such that you have a platform to jump onto your swing from (using gravity
to push you!)?

I should add that an outcomes based system also has numerous problems,
as it is difficult to ensure a uniform quality of education. The real solution is
to consider both the curriculum used, and the outcomes you hope to achieve
- combined with intelligent use of the internet so that the best curriculums
that show empirically that they work (produce desired outcomes) can be
shared / adapted by teachers from all over the world (we do not need to
keep re-inventing the wheel).
I certainly do not believe in just sitting in a classroom which is unnatural,
unhealthy, and should be limited. It is obvious we did not evolve to learn by
sitting in classrooms, in segregated age groups - but to be active, out and
about doing things, talking, watching and learning from other people and
other objects around us. (This is what I would call an evolutionary approach
to teaching / philosophy of education - and getting kids more active at
school would also greatly help to combat the obesity epidemic of the western
world.)

I particularly agree with Einstein, that education (and teaching students

philosophy from a young age) has two central functions relating to the
individual and their society.

i) To educate the individual as a free individual To understand and use

critical thinking skills for determining the Truth for themselves.

ii) To educate the individual as a part of Society Virtually all our

knowledge, our clothes, our food is produced by others in our society, thus
we owe Society and have a responsibility to contribute back to Society (that
everyone must give as well as take.) This is ultimately why I began to study
Physics and Philosophy, and why I have now read most of the great
philosophers, because I believe that Nature is being destroyed on this
planet, and that the truth is that this is very foolish and dangerous to
humanity. That we evolved from Nature, thus we depend upon Nature for
survival. This is not just the obvious concern of global warming and climate
change, but the very food we eat, the air we breath, the water we need, all
these things are produced by Nature and are being forever changed. Of
concern is the obvious fact that there are limits to our evolution as to how
far we can change our environment before it starts to adversely affect us
(we are well past that point now I think.)

I also strongly agree with Einstein that education should be fun rather than
forced that force and punishment play no part in a good education. Thus I
detest the attitude of punishing children for not doing their homework!

I think a lot of education problems could be solved by giving everyone 100

great books to read and discuss with their children - from philosophers like
Plato, Aristotle, de Montaigne, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, Tolstoy, Einstein
etc. There are many great minds through human history, and I largely agree
with Nietzsche that education is often corrupted by educators that we
should seek the source of great knowledge, not the corrupted interpretations
of it from lesser minds. (Read the original works!)
I further agree with Friedrich Nietzsche that:

There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything
else has only secondary value.
This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be
deceived? Is it the will not to deceive?
One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious,
dangerous, or fatal to be deceived. (Nietzsche, 1890)

The fundamental principle of education is to understand the truth for oneself.

The fundamental principle of philosophy is to realise that all truth comes
from reality. Thus educational philosophy must be founded on the truth of
what exists. Recent discoveries of the properties of Space and the Wave
Structure of Matter shows that we can understand reality in a simple and
sensible way.

Geoff Haselhurst

Introduction - Albert Einstein / Philosophy of Education - Plato / Education - Jean Jacques

Rousseau / Education - de Montaigne / Philosophy of Education - Educational Quotes by
Famous Philosophers - Links Educational Philosophy - Top of Page

Albert Einstein on Knowledge & Philosophy

of Education
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. (Albert Einstein)

Knowledge of the history and evolution of our ideas is absolutely vital for
wise understanding. It is also important to read the original source (not a
later interpretation which often leads to misrepresentation and error) and
that these original quotes should give confidence to the truth of what we
say. As Albert Einstein astutely remarks;

Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors
looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is
completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never
gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without
being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the
best case rather paltry and monotonous.
There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good
taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the
most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity
(Plato, Aristotle, etc.) that the people in the Middle Ages could slowly extricate
themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more
than half a millennium. Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's
snobbishness. (Einstein, 1954)

As Philosophers, Scientists and Educators we have a responsibility to

maintain great knowledge from the past, for as Einstein beautifully writes;

... knowledge must continually be renewed by ceaseless effort, if it is not to be

lost. It resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is continually
threatened with burial by the shifting sand. The hands of service must ever be at
work, in order that the marble continue to lastingly shine in the sun. To these
serving hands mine shall also belong. (Einstein, On Education, 1950)

When, after several hours reading, I came to myself again, I asked myself what it
was that had so fascinated me. The answer is simple. The results were not
presented as ready-made, but scientific curiosity was first aroused by presenting
contrasting possibilities of conceiving matter. Only then the attempt was made to
clarify the issue by thorough argument. The intellectual honesty of the author
makes us share the inner struggle in his mind. It is this which is the mark of the
born teacher. Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive,
in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the
essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior
position. (Einstein, 1954)

My dear children: I rejoice to see you before me today, happy youth of a sunny and
fortunate land. Bear in mind that the wonderful things that you learn in your
schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and
infinite labour in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your
inheritance in order that you may receive it, honour it, and add to it, and one day
faithfully hand it on to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in
the permanent things which we create in common. If you always keep that in mind
you will find meaning in life and work and acquire the right attitude towards other
nations and ages. (Albert Einstein talking to a group of school children. 1934)

I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often

directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to
the impairment of ethical values. I am not thinking so much of the dangers with
which technical progress has directly confronted mankind, as of the stifling of
mutual human considerations by a 'matter-of-fact' habit of thought which has
come to lie like a killing frost upon human relations. Without 'ethical culture' there
is no salvation for humanity. (Einstein, 1953)

Albert Einstein On Academic Freedom

Numerous are the academic chairs, but rare are wise and noble teachers.
Numerous and large are the lecture halls, but far from numerous the young people
who genuinely thirst for truth and justice. Numerous are the wares that nature
produces by the dozen, but her choice products are few.
We all know that, so why complain? Was it not always thus and will it not always
thus remain? Certainly, and one must take what nature gives as one finds it. But
there is also such a thing as a spirit of the times, an attitude of mind
characteristic of a particular generation, which is passed on from individual to
individual and gives its distinctive mark to a society. Each of us has to his little bit
toward transforming this spirit of the times. (Einstein, 1954)
Albert Einstein On Freedom of Thought
The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in general
requires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterised as inward
freedom. It is this freedom of spirit which consists in the independence of
thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as
from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general. This inward freedom is an
infrequent gift of nature and a worthy objective for the individual.
..schools may favor such freedom by encouraging independent thought. Only if
outward and inner freedom are constantly and consciously pursued is there a
possibility of spiritual development and perfection and thus of improving man's
outward and inner life. (Einstein, 1954)

Albert Einstein on Philosophy of Education in

Schools
The school has always been the most important means of transferring the wealth
of tradition from one generation to the next. This applies today in an even higher
degree than in former times, for through modern development of the economic
life, the family as bearer of tradition and education has been weakened. The
continuance and health of human society is therefore in a still higher degree
dependent on the school than formerly.
Sometimes one sees in the school simply the instrument for transferring a certain
maximum quantity of knowledge to the growing generation. But that is not right.
Knowledge is dead; the school however, serves the living. It should develop in the
young individuals those qualities and capabilities which are of value for the welfare
of the commonwealth. But that does not mean that individuality should be
destroyed and the individual become a mere tool of the community, like a bee or an
ant. For a community of standardised individuals without personal originality and
personal aims would be a poor community without possibilities for development. On
the contrary, the aim must be the training of independently acting and thinking
individuals, who, however, see in the service of the community their highest life
problem.
To me the worst thing seems to be for a school principally to work with methods of
fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound
sentiments, the sincerity, and the self-confidence of the pupil. It produces the
submissive subject. it is no wonder that such schools are the rule in Germany and
Russia.
..the desire for the approval of one's fellow-man certainly is one of the most
important binding powers of society. In this complex of feelings, constructive and
destructive forces lie closely together. Desire for approval and recognition is a
healthy motive; but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more
intelligent than a fellow being or scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic
psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for
the community. Therefore the school and the teacher must guard against
employing the easy method of creating individual ambition, in order to induce the
pupils to diligent work. (Einstein)

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction
have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little
planet, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it
goes to wreck and ruin without fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the
enjoyment of seeing and searching can be prompted by means of coercion and a
sense of duty. On the contrary, I believe that it would be possible to rob even a
healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a
whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if
the food handed out under such coercion were to be selected accordingly. (Albert
Einstein on Education)

Introduction - Albert Einstein / Philosophy of Education - Plato / Education - Jean Jacques

Rousseau / Education - de Montaigne / Philosophy of Education - Educational Quotes by
Famous Philosophers - Links Educational Philosophy - Top of Page
 Plato, Quotations on
Education
..for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty. (Plato)

'And once we have given our community a good start,' I pointed out, ' the process
will be cumulative. By maintaining a sound system of education you produce citizens
of good character, and citizens of sound character, with the advantage of a good
education, produce in turn children better than themselves and better able to
produce still better children in their turn, as can be seen with animals.'(Plato)

'... It is in education that bad discipline can most easily creep in unobserved,' he
replied.

'Yes,' I agreed, ' because people don't treat it seriously there, and think no harm
can come of it.'

'It only does harm,' he said, 'because it makes itself at home and gradually
undermines morals and manners; from them it invades business dealings generally,
and then spreads into the laws and constitution without any restraint, until it has
made complete havoc of private and public life.'

'And when men who aren't fit to be educated get an education they don't deserve,
are not the thoughts and opinions they produce fairly called sophistry, without a
legitimate idea or any trace of true wisdom among them?'

'Certainly'.

'The first thing our artist must do,' I replied, ' - and it's not easy - is to take
human society and human habits and wipe them clean out, to give himself a clean
canvas. For our philosophic artist differs from all others in being unwilling to start
work on an individual or a city, or draw out laws, until he is given, or has made
himself, a clean canvas.'
'Because a free man ought not to learn anything under duress. Compulsory physical
exercise does no harm to the body, but compulsory learning never sticks to the
mind.'

'True'

'Then don't use compulsion,' I said to him, ' but let your children's lessons take
the form of play. You will learn more about their natural abilities that way.' (Plato)

Introduction - Albert Einstein / Philosophy of Education - Plato / Education - Jean Jacques

Rousseau / Education - de Montaigne / Philosophy of Education - Educational Quotes by
Famous Philosophers - Links Educational Philosophy - Top of Page

Jean Jacques Rousseau, On the Philosophy

of Education
Plants are shaped by cultivation and men by education. .. We are born weak, we
need strength; we are born totally unprovided, we need aid; we are born stupid, we
need judgement. Everything we do not have at our birth and which we need when
we are grown is given us by education. (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile)

I will say little of the importance of a good education; nor will I stop to prove that
the current one is bad. Countless others have done so before me, and I do not like
to fill a book with things everybody knows. I will note that for the longest time
there has been nothing but a cry against the established practice without anyone
taking it upon himself to propose a better one. The literature and the learning of
our age tend much more to destruction than to edification. (Jean Jacques
Rousseau, Emile)
 Introduction - Albert Einstein / Philosophy of Education - Plato / Education - Jean Jacques
Rousseau / Education - de Montaigne / Philosophy of Education - Educational Quotes by
Famous Philosophers - Links Educational Philosophy - Top of Page

Michel de Montaigne,
Philosophy Quotes on Education
I would like to suggest that our minds are swamped by too much study and by too
much matter just as plants are swamped by too much water or lamps by too much
oil; that our minds, held fast and encumbered by so many diverse preoccupations,
may well lose the means of struggling free, remaining bowed and bent under the
load; except that it is quite otherwise: the more our souls are filled, the more they
expand; examples drawn from far-off times show, on the contrary, that great
soldiers ad statesmen were also great scholars. (de Montaigne)

I think it better to say that the evil arises from their tackling the sciences in the
wrong manner and that, from the way we have been taught, it is no wonder that
neither master nor pupils become more able, even though they do know more. In
truth the care and fees of our parents aim only at furnishing our heads with
knowledge: nobody talks about judgement or virtue. When someone passes by, try
exclaiming, Oh, what a learned man! Then, when another does, Oh, what a good
man! Our people will not fail to turn their gaze respectfully towards the first.
There ought to be a third man crying, Oh, what blockheads!' (de Montaigne)

We readily inquire, Does he know Greek or Latin? Can he write poetry and prose?
But what matters most is what we put last: Has he become better and wiser? We
ought to find out not who understands most but who understands best. We work
merely to fill the memory, leaving the understanding and the sense of right and
wrong empty. Just as birds sometimes go in search of grain, carrying it in their
beaks without tasting it to stuff it down the beaks of their young, so too do our
schoolmasters go foraging for learning in their books and merely lodge it on the tip
of their lips, only to spew it out and scatter it on the wind. (de Montaigne)

Their pupils and their little charges are not nourished and fed by what they learn:
the learning is passed from hand to hand with only one end in view: to show it off,
to put into our accounts to entertain others with it, as though it were merely
counters, useful for totting up and producing statements, but having no other use
or currency. Apud alios loqui didicerunt, non ipsi secum [They have learned how to
talk with others, not with themselves] (de Montaigne)

Whenever I ask a certain acquaintance of mine to tell me what he knows about

anything, he wants to show me a book: he would not venture to tell me that he has
scabs on his arse without studying his lexicon to find out the meaning of scab and
arse.
All we do is to look after the opinions and learning of others: we ought to make
them our own. We closely resemble a man who, needing a fire, goes next door to
get a light, finds a great big blaze there and stays to warm himself, forgetting to
take a brand back home. What use is it to us to have a belly full of meat if we do
not digest it, if we do not transmute it into ourselves, if it does not make us grow
in size and strength? (de Montaigne)

If our souls do not move with a better motion and if we do not have a healthier
judgement, then I would just as soon that our pupil should spend his time playing
tennis: at least his body would become more agile. But just look at him after he has
spent some fifteen or sixteen years studying: nothing could be more unsuited for
employment. The only improvement you can see is that his Latin and Greek have
made him more conceited and more arrogant than when he left home. He ought to
have brought back a fuller soul: he brings back a swollen one; instead of making it
weightier he has merely blown wind into it. (de Montaigne)

And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul
askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots. (de Montaigne)

Learning is a good medicine: but no medicine is powerful enough to preserve itself

from taint and corruption independently of defects in the jar that it is kept in.
One man sees clearly but does not see straight: consequently he sees what is good
but fails to follow it; he sees knowledge and does not use it. (de Montaigne)

.. since it was true that study, even when done properly, can only teach us what
wisdom, right conduct and determination consist in, they wanted to put their
children directly in touch with actual cases, teaching them not by hearsay but by
actively assaying them, vigorously molding and forming them not merely by word
and precept but chiefly by deeds and examples, so that wisdom should not be
something which the soul knows but the souls very essence and temperament, not
something acquired but a natural property. (de Montaigne)

But in truth I know nothing about education except this: that the greatest and the
most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which
treats how to bring up children and how to educate them. (de Montaigne)

Socrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first; they spoke
afterwards. Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent. [For
those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who
teach] (de Montaigne)

Those who follow our French practice and undertake to act as schoolmaster for
several minds diverse in kind and capacity, using the same teaching and the same
degree of guidance for them all, not surprisingly can scarcely find in a whole tribe
of children more than one or two who bear fruit from their education.
Let the tutor not merely require a verbal account of what the boy has been taught
but the meaning and substance of it: let him judge how the boy has profited from
it not from the evidence of his memory but from that of his life. Let him take
what the boy has just learned and make him show him dozens of different aspects
of it and then apply it to just as many different subjects, in order to find out
whether he has really grasped it and made it part of himself, judging the boys
progress by what Plato taught about education. Spewing food up exactly as you
have swallows it is evidence of a failure to digest and assimilate it; the stomach
has not done its job if, during concoction, it fails to change the substance and the
form of what it is given. (de Montaigne)
The profit we possess after study is to have become better and wiser. (de
Montaigne)

Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles. (de
Montaigne)

Teach him a certain refinement in sorting out and selecting his arguments, with an
affection for relevance and so for brevity. Above all let him be taught to throw
down his arms and surrender to truth as soon as he perceives it, whether the truth
is born at his rivals doing or within himself from some change in his ideas. (de
Montaigne)

As for our pupils talk, let his virtue and his sense of right and wrong shine through
it and have no guide but reason. Make him understand that confessing an error
which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act
of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues; stubbornness and
rancour are vulgar qualities, visible in common souls whereas to think again, to
change ones mind and to give up a bad case on the heat of the argument are rare
qualities showing strength and wisdom. (de Montaigne)

In his commerce with men I mean him to include- and that principally- those who
live only in the memory of books. By means of history he will frequent those great
souls of former years. If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it
can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price. (de
Montaigne)

The first lessons with which we should irrigate his mind should be those which
teach him to know himself, and to know how to die and to live. (de Montaigne)

Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to
learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? (de
Montaigne)

Any time and any place can be used to study: his room, a garden, is table, his bed;
when alone or in company; morning and evening. His chief study will be Philosophy,
 that Former of good judgement and character who is privileged to be concerned
with everything.
(de Montaigne)

For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and
duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely
through gentleness and freedom. (de Montaigne)

Learning must not only lodge with us: we must marry her. (de Montaigne)

A huge subject broken down into manageable chunks

Random Quote of the Day: I dont know why we are here, but Im pretty sure it is not in order to enjoy ourselves Ludwig
Wittgenstein

By Branch / Doctrine > Philosophy of... > Philosophy of Education

Introduction | Ancient Era | Modern Era

Back to Top
Introduction
Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. It can be
considered a branch of both philosophy and education. Education can be defined as the teaching and learning of
specificskills, and the imparting of knowledge, judgment and wisdom, and is something broader than the societal institution
of education we often speak of.

Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far removed from the practical applications of the real world to
be useful. But philosophers dating back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and
there is little doubt that their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia.

Back to Top
Ancient Era
Plato is the earliest important educational thinker, and education is an essential element in "The Republic" (his most
important work on philosophy and political theory, written around 360 B.C.). In it, he advocates some rather extreme methods:
removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, and differentiating children suitable to the
variouscastes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less
able. He believed that education should be holistic, including facts, skills, physical discipline, music and art. Plato believed
that talentand intelligence is not distributed genetically and thus is be found in children born to all classes, although his
proposed system of selective public education for an educated minority of the population does not really follow a democratic
model.

Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces to be cultivated in education, the ultimate
aim of which should be to produce good and virtuous citizens. He proposed that teachers lead their
students systematically, and that repetition be used as a key tool to develop good habits, unlike Socrates' emphasis
on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas. He emphasized the balancing of
the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught, among which he explicitly mentions reading, writing, mathematics,
music, physical education, literature, history, and a wide range of sciences, as well as play, which he also considered
important.

During the Medieval period, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his work "De Magistro".
Perennialism holds that one should teach those things deemed to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere,
namely principles and reasoning, not just facts (which are apt to change over time), and that one should teach first
aboutpeople, not machines or techniques. It was originally religious in nature, and it was only much later that a theory
of secular perennialism developed.

Back to Top
Modern Era
During the Renaissance, the French skeptic Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592) was one of the first to critically look at
education. Unusually for his time, Montaigne was willing to question the conventional wisdom of the period, calling into
question the whole edifice of the educational system, and the implicit assumption that university-educated philosophers were
necessarily wiser than uneducated farm workers, for example.

In the late 17th Century, John Locke produced his influential "Some Thoughts Concerning Education", in which he claimed
that a child's mind is a tabula rasa (or "blank slate") and does not contain any innate ideas. According to Locke, the mind is to
be educated by a three-pronged approach: the development of a healthy body; the formation of a virtuous character; and the
choice of an appropriate academic curriculum. He maintained that a person is to a large extent a product of his education,
and also pointed out that knowledge and attitudes acquired in a child's early formative years are disproportionately influential
and have important and lasting consequences.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the 18th Century, held that there is one developmental process, common to all humans, driven
by natural curiosity which drives the child to learn and adapt to its surroundings. He believed that all children are born ready
to learn from their surroundings so as to grow into virtuous adults, but due to the malign influence of corrupt society, they
often fail to do so. To counter this, he advocated removing the child from society during education. He also believed that
human nature could be infinitely developed through a well-thought pedagogy.

John Dewey was an important progressive educational reformer in the early part of the 20th Century. For Dewey, it was
vitally important that education should not be the teaching of mere dead fact, but that the skills and knowledge which students
learn beintegrated fully into their lives as persons, citizens and human beings, hence his advocacy of "learning-by-
doing" and the incorporation of the student's past experiences into the classroom.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was another very influential educational reformer, and his Waldorf Education model emphasizes
a balance of developing the intellect (or head), feeling and artistic life (or heart) and practical skills (or hands), with a view
to producing free individuals who would in turn bring about a new, freer social order.

Other important philosophers of education during the 20th Century include the Italian Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952), the
SwissJean Piaget (1896 - 1980) and the American Neil Postman (1931 - 2003).
John Dewey | Philosophy and Education

1858-1952

More eyes are now fixed upon the University Elementary School at Chicago than
upon any other elementary school in the country and probably in the world

Dr. A. B. Hinsdale, 1900

National Council of Education

By the turn of the century, John Dewey's experiment in education had captured the
attention of teachers at every level of the teaching system. Its radically new teaching
practices represented a turning point, not only for formal education but also for larger
views of childhood learning.

Dewey came to the University of Chicago at the urging of James Hayden Tufts, a
colleague at the University of Michigan who joined the Chicago faculty in 1892.
Appointed to head the Department of Philosophy, Dewey's experimentalism blended
well with the views of George Herbert Mead and Tufts. In addition to fulfilling his
departmental obligations and administering the School of Education, Dewey
published several books and articles on education and philosophy. The School and
Society (1899) became a classic among progressive educators.

Trained as a philosopher at Johns Hopkins, Dewey was intrigued by the relationship

between the individual and society. Firmly committed to a democratic outlook, he
considered the school a laboratory to test his notion that education could integrate
learning with experience. The University Elementary School or Laboratory School
established by Dewey grew quickly. Parents were attracted by a curriculum that
emphasized the child instead of the subject matter, where the learning process was at
least as important as what was learned, and where curiosity was encouraged.

Dewey's success could not overcome his disagreements with administrators and other
educators. His relationship with William Rainey Harper deteriorated as Harper's plans
to consolidate the Elementary School with Colonel Francis Parker's Chicago Institute
under the control of the University infringed on Dewey's freedom of action. Dewey
assumed that he would be given control of the curriculum and the merged school
administration, leaving the funding problems in the hands of the University. This was
clearly not Harper's view, and when controversy arose over the appointment of Alice
Dewey as principal of the University Elementary School, John and Alice Dewey
resigned and left for Columbia University.

Dewey's interest in education shifted after leaving Chicago and he never again
organized a school. For the next half century he concentrated upon philosophical
issues, publishing extensively and with great influence upon political, aesthetic,
ethical, and epistemological questions. He clung to his liberal humanism, eloquently
defending democratic ideals during periods when world and national events seemed to
undermine the basis for his beliefs.