Introduction to Philosophy of Education

1. PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION
EDUCATION 1st LEVEL
SELF-MADE NOTES

2. PHILOSOPHY
DEFINITIONS(BRANCHES)
• Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Axiology
• Aesthetics/ethics
• Epistemology
• Phenomenology
• Logic

3. METAPHYSICS
• It is the study of fundamental nature of reality and existence of essence of things.
• Metaphysics is been divided into two categories, ontology and cosmology
• Ontology- it is the study of being.
• Cosmology- it is the study of the physical universe
• It relates to teaching in terms of thoughts about educational goals, the selection of
appropriate content and educational goals, and attitudes towards the general nature of
learners
• Reality is spiritual and unchanging

4. PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophy literally means ‘ love for wisdom and has traditionally implied the
pursuit of wisdom.”
• It is a comprehensive, holistic and logical investigation on human thoughts in
the field of religion, arts, science and education

5. AXIOLOGY
• It deals with the nature of values and relates to the teaching of moral values and
character development. The axiology is divided into two forms ethics and
aesthetics.
• Ethics concerns human conduct, character, and values. It studies the nature of
right and wrong and the distinction between good and evil.
• Aesthetics deals with the creation and principles of art and beauty. It also
studies our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes when we see, hear, or read
something beautiful

6. EPISTEMOLOGY
• Epistemology aims to determine the nature, basis, and extent of knowledge.
• It explores the various ways of knowing, the nature of truth, and the
relationships between knowledge and belief
• This deals with basic questions of what is knowledge and how do we reach
it. What is truth? Is it intuitive

7. PHENOMENOLOGY
• This branch of philosophy is more concerned with human experiences acquired
over time in different stages.
• It holds that what a human knows and understands is due to his ordinary
historicised experiences (schematic theories).
• It deals with how did we get to know things in the world, what knowledge have
our experiences brought us, and what way can we use our experience to achieve
in present and future.

8. Arguments, Premises And Conclusions
• Logic is the science that evaluates arguments.
• An argument is a group of statements including one or more premises and one
and only one conclusion.
• A statement is a sentence that is either true or false, such as "The cat is on the
mat." Many sentences are not statements, such as "Close the door, please" ,
"How old are you?“
• A premise is a statement in an argument that provides reason or support for the
conclusion. There can be one or many premises in a single argument.
• A conclusion is a statement in an argument that indicates of what the arguer is
trying to convince the reader/listener. What is the argument trying to prove?
There can be only one conclusion in a single argument.

9. LOGIC
• Logic is the study of the principles and methods of reasoning.
• It explores how we distinguish between good (or sound) reasoning and bad (or
unsound) reasoning
• An argument consists of a set of statements called premises together with a
statement called the conclusion
• An instance of reasoning is called an argument or an inference

10. Logical fallacies
• Over the ages people have been teaching, preaching, and learning as life goes on.
Philosophizing has been taking place as people try to make sense of the world
and life in it
• Fallacies are faults in logic that then impact the reasonability of argument. It can
also be a factor that differentiates quacks and preachers from teachers and
philosophers

11. Ad Populum (Argumentum)
• Ad Populum (Argumentum) – this is the type of argumentative fallacy whereby
someone defends his utterances as truth simply because many people believe
what he says/ believes. It is about the following like ideologies.
• Example: John walks and tell his friend to believe that Jesus died for his sins and
the sins of all people to be forgiven. When his friend asks him why should that
be believed as a truth, John simply says that the whole of his family and 7b
people in the world are Christians. And he went on explaining how bad it is to
reject what multitudes believe etc.

12. Ad Hominem (Argumentum)
• Ad Hominem (Argumentum) – this is the type of argumentative fallacy where a
person chooses to leave the unsolved argument and attack the one who argues
against him. This can be done by manner of making the subject matter of
argument seem like it is imprinted or emblazoned upon the face of your
argumentative opponent
• Example: when Amanda came late to the class and argued that she was stuck at
the traffic jam and she became late because of that. Her teacher just looked at
her and said “you know what? It is just written all over your face that you are
lying, you have been asleep because of lot of drinks yesterday”

13. Ad Verecundium (Argumentum)
• Ad Verecundium (Argumentum) – a logical fallacy that appeals to authorities.
One argues without any better reason than relying upon the statements and the
views of those that are viewed as superpowers or superiors
• Example: Elizabeth argues that humans evolved from apes and she wants Ayub
to believe that story of hers. Ayub argues that he does not come from being a
monkey, and he asks anxiously “why do you even think that’s a good thing to
believe and take serious?” Elizabeth tells Ayub that she listened to Professor
Richard Dworkins’ lectures, a world’s renowned American Biologist

14. Straw Man
• Straw Man- a fallacy whereby the person reinvents the initial argument with the
aim to find loopholes in it and attack it on its demerits. Sometimes one may even
extend the argumentation issue to look absurd and then collapse it.
• Example: in most debates you will find people bringing their views of what the
actual argument is. In stating it in their own words they sometimes emphasize
points that were not emphatically stated and they expose weaknesses of the
whole argument with the aim to attack it on its demerits. At the end the whole
argument looks absurd.
• *Poisoning the well (is a child of straw-man)

15. Thwackun
• Thwackun – a fallacy in argumentation whereby a person knows only one
ideology or view, for which then whatever he hears is supposedly only that
which he knows e.g. if one knows only one religion, then every time he thinks
of a religion and religious people he thinks of his own religion and religious
people who are nothing different from him
• Example: Jane heard people arguing that there is no hell/ heaven and she got
very angry as she is a Christian that was an insult to her. She even advanced to
challenge them and say “how dare you people! How dare you say there is no
hell/ heaven. At that the two gentlemen were surprised because they’re religious
but their religion is Buddhism.

16. False dilemma
• False dilemma – a fallacy where in an argument one puts his opponent into a
situation of discomfort by presenting both sides as unlikely to bring comfort.
Then the other argument party gets stuck because it would seem that winning
the argument will not give the desired peace.
• Example: Hilson was in an argument with Ferguson about the Nazi Germany
and holocaust. Ferguson argues that the existence of Hitler and his movement
was not needed and it was a mere destruction to the world peace. Hilson says for
Germany’s industrialization to happen it was either you have or never have
development that you now enjoy. *love it or leave it to suffer!

17. Begging the question-
• Begging the question- a fallacy where a person comes into an argument already
knowing the conclusion and he only fights to prove that the conclusion he holds
is correct. He does not bother about how did it come about.

18. Heresy
• Heresy fault where a person takes the argument with excitement and run with it
without checking and verifying its authenticity. He runs with it to the extent of
ridiculing people who do not hold it as true, it is commonly garnished with
insults and vain appraisals

19. TYPES OF REASONING
• Deductive reasoning is used to explore the necessary consequences of certain
assumptions
• Inductive reasoning is used to establish matters of fact and the laws of nature
and does not aim at being deductively valid

20. EDUCATION
• General sense- is a process of social enculturation
• Enculturation- is the process by which people learn the requirements of their
surrounding culture.

21. CURRICULUM
• Subject-matter curriculum- arranged coarse of study
• Process orientated curriculum- concerned with the process of learning rather
than with the acquisition of information
• METHODOLOGY OF INSTRUCTION
• Refers to the process of learning and teaching.
• Practice teaching is designed to provide the teacher with experience in
integrating content and methodology

22. PHILOSOPHIES OF EDUCATION
• IDEALISM
• It was invented by the Greek philosopher Plato.
• Plato taught that only ideas are real and that all other things only reflect ideas.
• Reality is mental and unchanging.
• Idealist stressed on the importance of mind over matter.
• It denies the possibility of knowing anything beside ideas.

23. IDEALIST EPISTEMOLOGY & EDUCATION
• The process of knowing is of the recognition or the reminiscence of latent ideas
• IDEALISM AND EDUCATION
• Challenge for teaching and learning – to bring this latent knowledge to consciousness
• interested in the search for truth through ideas…with truth comes responsibility to enlighten
others, “education is transformation: Ideas can change lives.”
• Role of the teacher is to bring out what is already in student’s mind: reminiscence
• IDEALISM CURRICULUM
• Curriculum is hierarchical and it constitutes the cultural heritage of mankind; it is based on
learned disciplines, illustrated by the liberal arts curriculum
• The most general subjects are philosophy and theology; mathematics is important with history
and literature being sources of moral and cultural models. Natural and physical sciences are
lower down the hierarchy while language is an important subject for communication and
facilitates conception of thought

24. REALISM
• The theory that physical objects continue to exist whether they are perceived or not.
• We live in a world of real existence in which many things, such as persons and objects,
exist.
• The objects of reality exists regardless of our wishes or preference about their existence
and the uses that we make of them.
• By using our reason, it is possible for us to know something about, to have some
knowledge of these objects.
• Knowledge about these objects, the laws that govern them, and their relationship to
each other is the most reliable guide to human conduct.
• REALISM AND EPISTEMOLOGY
• Human beings can know these objects through their senses and reason.
• Cognition/knowing involves an interaction of the human mind and the world outside
of the mind
• Sensation is about the material components of an object about matter. It is the
beginning of knowing , it is not the end of knowledge

25. REALISM AND CURRICULUM

26. PRAGMATISM
• General sense- The process of dealing with problems in a practical way, rather
than by using theory or abstract principle.
• Philosophy sense- is the doctrine that truth consists not in correspondence
with the facts but in successful coherence with experience.
• Reality is the interaction of an individual with the environment or experience
and it is also changing
• Dewey viewed education as a process for improving the human condition

27. CURRICULUM AND EDUCATION
• The curriculum is for based on the child’s experiences and interests and prepares
him or her life’s affairs and for the future
• The subject is interdisplinary ; the stress is on problem-solving
• Pragmatists consider teaching and learning to be a process of reconstructing
experience according to the scientific method. Learning takes place in an active
way as learners solve problems
• Education is a deliberate process of instructing children in symbolic and
linguistic tools required for group interaction & communication.
• Student based curriculum
• Means of communication must accommodate all people
• Teacher centred curriculum should be rejected, as well as subject matter
curriculum

28. EXISTENTIALISM
• Is a philosophy which stresses the importance of human experience and says
that everyone is responsible for the result of their own action.
• students firstly exist before their essence, after coming to the scene they face a
situation whereby they have to create their individual essence
• a human choice is made without any guide, it’s a free choice which is free from
such entities as God/ gods.
• It consist of atheistic and theistic existentialist.
• Their view is that from a young age a person faces a ‘angst’ which is an anguish
that comes when a person is faced with choosing freedom. *You are doomed to
be free!

29. EXISTENTIALISM AND
EPISTEMOLOGY
• Individual is responsible for his or her own knowledge.
• Human situations are build of both rational(realistic ) and irrational(senseless)
components.

30. EXISTENTIALISM AND CURRICULUM
• Existentialists prefer to free learners to choose what to study and also to
determine what is true and by what criteria to determine these truths.
• Learners are free to choose from the many available learning situations
• Existentialist curriculum would consist of experiences and subjects that lend
themselves to philosophical dialogue and acts of choice making
• The curriculum would stress self-expressive activities, experimentation and
methods and media that illustrate emotions, feelings and insights.

31. IDEOLOGY AND EDUCATION
• A set of beliefs, especially the political beliefs on which people, parties, or
countries base their actions.
• The set of beliefs by which a group or society orders reality so as to render it
intelligible.
• It is a collection of ideas, a comprehensive vision, a way of looking things, or a
worldview that embodies the way a person or a group of people believes the
world should be organized and function.

32. IDEOLOGY AND CURRICULUM
• Are the curriculum visions, philosophies, doctrines, opinions, conceptual
framework, and belief system of educators
• CURRICULUM IDEOLOGIES
• The scholar Academic ideology
• it believes that over the centuries our culture has accumulated important knowledge that has
been organised into academic disciplines found in universities
• The purpose of education is to help children learn the accumulated knowledge of our
culture, that of the academic discipline
• The Social Efficiency ideology
• It advocates the believe that the purpose of schooling is to efficiently meet the need of the
society by training youth to function as future mature contributing members of the society
• The educators job is to determine the needs of society. The things that will fulfil these
needs are called the terminal objectives of the curriculum.

33. LIBERALISM AND EDUCATION
• Is a believe in gradual social progress by changing laws, rather than by
revolution.
• A political philosophy advocating(supporting) personal freedom for the
individual, democratic forms of government, gradual reform in political and
social institutions.
• Originates from America and supported by some philosophers from France.
American philosophers like Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, John Locke etc. got on
board with the spirit of liberalism. In France philosophers like Voltair got
involved as well “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to death your
right to say it”. Liberalism as a theory came after progressivism by scholars like
John Dewey and William James. Bernie Sanders was one of the forunners of
this movement, liberalism in America against the forces of control and
government.

34. BELIEFS OF LIBERALISTS
• Individualism
• Personal liberty
• Equality of opportunities
• Self-ownership
• Determined to govern yourself
• Rule of law
• Free market
• laissez-faire
• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of press
• Freedom of speech & thought
• Political freedom
• In a democratic society

35. IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
• Individualism
• Everyone as a human individual is entitled to personal rights. She must be her self-master
• You’re all free as students to make your own choices that are suitable for you *and be
responsible_ Jaen-Paul Sartre
• Curriculum must never be exclusive of others while it’ll be taught to all. *Inclusive
education
• No racist, Sexist, discrimination against some different others must be totally forbidden in
schools. All kinds of people must be accepted and be made to feel welcomed
• Rule of law
• Freedom of expression for all students
• economic freedom= students should be economically aided.
• Rights of teachers and students must be upheld in all schools.
• Justice as fairness * a just society is a fair society!
• Right to fair trial_ students are innocent until proven guilty. There must be a disciplinary
council in the school
• Law of Harbinger states “Deal with the innocent, presume innocence until you get
convinced otherwise”