Philosophy in Education
I may have few or no responses, but i was interested to see that there had been no "tags" for philosophy, and decided to try writing about it, and applying it to students, teachers, adults in general, and myself. Firstly, definitions are nice, so thanks to Wikipedia:
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on . The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".
Interesting. The love of wisdom-and wisdom is defined by? Wikipedia:
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time and energy. It is the ability to optimally (effectively and efficiently) apply perceptions and knowledge and so produce the desired results. Wisdom is also the comprehension of what is true or right coupled with optimum judgment as to action. Synonyms include: sagacity, discernment, or insight. Wisdom often requires control of one's emotional reactions (the "passions") so that one's principles, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions.
So essentially, philosophy is the love of understanding people, and the past, present and future are fundamental for that understanding. This ties directly with the past humanities discussion in that it is applied to students, it means history, literature,etc. Humanities. Do students ask themselves questions- about the past, present, and the ever important future? I certainly do.
Do adults still ask questions? The ones we need the answers to, and may already have without knowing? I hope so.
The questions we ask, especially those of "existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language" drive us to a curiosity that bites until we find an answer, one that satisfies our logic. I thought philosophy was simply asking questions, and more often then not, in a backwards way. Such as why?- but the philosopher would say, why not? No, the philosopher doesn't ask the questions, he studies them.
I ask questions all the time. Mainly sarcastic and rhetorical ones. But have I studied them?
Do adults study them? Do my teachers? I can say that at school it does not seem so, the instructor is there to provide an answer if possible, to give a certain knowledge, but where did the studying go? These questions that pertain to the "comprehension of what is true or right"- should I even be asking them at such a young age? Yes, I realize we are young, but we are capable of so much. Maybe that's somthing, too- another topic. I feel, as astudent, that as a whole we are underestimated. While standards for getting into a college may (or may not) have gone up, the intense and raw questions that all humans deal with have been dropped. Maybe I am really wrong, and school is not a place to study the important questions of life,values, and actual understanding. Rather, school is where I merely attend for the sake of having a life, not living one. To live life is to ask questions about these things. Whether we find the answer, right or not, the studying and curiosity that propelled us means everything. Yes, that is a hyperbole. Hey, I'm young, and can't possibly have the intellect to comprehend adults' perceptions and differing truths on life, can i? It's something I want to know, yes, at this age, and I should be allowed the privilege of learning about these things at school within the classes.
I'm sorry if my sarcasm is offensive. I do not mean accuse any adults--who may be prone to stereotyping student's ability of not only amassing knowledge, but using it for a purpose-- to be a philosopher as the human ought- who said, "i think therefore I am"?, and I am definitely not accusing teachers.
I am going to step off my invisible soap box now. Back to my poorly written disscussion- Philosophy?
Is it something that I think can be taught in schools?
Of course not. The key word is study.
Do I not realize that if I really wanted to, there is probably a class that i could take (which I will) on this topic?
I do realize, but why can't it be integrated into learning. Give our education a purpose. I'd wager that any student that was stopped in a hall and asked, "why are you in school?" they would say one of these things: I don't know. To go to college (i guess). Because my parents make me. Because I want to be successful.
Would any of them really say, because i want to study? I want to study my brains out and have a never expiring knowledge? Maybe a student would say, for the sheer enjoyment of education. But I doubt it. And what would you say? If you are not a student, what would you have said? Maybe you didn't know.
Am I saying it is wrong to not know?
No.
But I do believe it is wrong to have students, people, doing things that they don't believe in and not understand why they are doing them. Philosophy questions our motives. Besides a student's attitude, there has to be a motivation. This, if nothing else, I know well.
So. There are my many questions to you (who ever you are)- in a very long, most likely flawed, maybe not even coherent piece.
Philosophy?
Tags: education, philosophy
Views: 97
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Grace Hein on -
Kim~ You are very lucky to have met such an incredible man.
Science adjacent to religion, yet meant to be in tandem... These answers lie in the past- in history? Perfect. I must further the search. . .
Thinking about the questions makes you better in some way- how so? Being thankful? Questioning life and then answering death- how does that help? It is something I write about often, but I don't ever get to a conclusion, other than question life, answer death. That's the ending to one of my poems...
So that's it- deciphering the world--the encryptions of beauty and truth and things to be discovered and rediscovered because it is life. Why is it hidden? I suppose there would be no fun in life if it were all handed to us. It hides by its own will? Hmm..... The quest is worthwhile. Yes, it is a quest, and ultimately there is a goal. Divine the meanings behind people (understanding, which is a part of philosophy) and the things encompassed in the very full (or very vague) word: life. For others, look for a world to come. Even more still, to simply live it and no questions asked. (I pity those people...but I guess it's their choice to not get up and search through the wonders of the world. I find it very hard to believe that people simply don't care...)
So you, and I'm sure many others, have not been able to come to much certainty about any of these questions. (By the way, I would never have guessed you were above 30!) Aren't people annoyed, at least slightly? Provoked in some way to find an answer, or at least make a fellowship of people who study and search? Yet, I am forgetful of that green monster that controls people's hearts and minds; money. Progress and ideas of the future have become ideal, have we pushed away the ideas of the past and ignored history and old philosophers? Maybe I forget that I haven't been on this old earth that long, and I simply haven't been tuned in to the right community. (I just might have had the luck to run into it here...) Although in my defense besides my age, with students and even teachers constantly adding to the din of this world, it might be a while until i can fully tune into something great. Or maybe I won't have to tune in. I'll sing my own tune. Figure it out on my own. Come up with my own answers? That seems ludicrous to me. . .
Maybe the idea or pure reality of life is more like philosophy. (I just had the good luck to re-read my other response:)
So my purpose for philosophy(insert "life")? Well, why not? It doesn't hurt, it makes you think critically about yourself and provides a different perspective. And I know it is beneficial- and can be to everyone- changing as a person for the better can't be harmful, can it? That is to say if philosophy (insert "life") were studied. But to just grasp at its morphing edges and ask some simply interesting questions- you're right, what good does that do?
"Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think." ~ (Ancient Roman poet. 65 BC-8 BC) (Have to love carpe diem.... reminds me of the awesome movie Dead Poets Society!!)
Thanks for your response!
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Permalink Reply by Grace Hein on
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"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Has anyone actually found their own why? Or is it simply sorting through others' "whys" and piecing together our own? There had to have been first "whys". (I mean, before philosophers, but then again, this goes back to the question of the beginning...)
Anybody want to tell me their why? I'm trying to gather my why into intelligible thoughts. . . Did Thoreau find his "why" in his "simplify,simplify" and Walden hiatus?
What about someone who doesn't have a why. how do they cope with the how? Would they even need to?
. . . .
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Permalink Reply by Ken Egan on -
Freud said that our lives are about love and work. Not sure I can do much better than that. We need affiliation, connection, a sense of place brought by the bonds of love. We also need purpose--what can we do to make a difference to the planet and other human beings?
Thoreau is one of my great heroes because he cut through the illusions of daily life to confront the ultimate questions. He "deconstructed" his culture's (and our culture's) means for distracting us from the fundamental concerns. He's on to something when he asserts "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." And he presciently observed how mass culture--newspapers and spectacles, for instance--blinds us to what really matters. "The Pond in Winter" chapter of "Walden" is one of my all-time favorite reads, as Thoreau slows down to record, describe, appreciate a world at a vast remove from Concord. Yes, simplify, both the questions and the answers. Thoreau helps us remove the obstacles to those goals of love and work.
I also thought you might enjoy this article at Slate--one philosopher's list of the books that help us understand "why": http://slate.me/gSP7KX
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Permalink Reply by Grace Hein on
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Thank you, Ken, for the article.
Freud said that our lives are about love and work. What is love? I am at a young and influential age, and this word being a motivation in living is not a surprise to me, but a puzzler. I have a grasp on the love of family, the love of friends, the love of this or that. But what is its essence, and how does one show love? The simple things in living for each other, does this create the bond of love? I, who knows nothing of its essence, would like to say it is the deep understanding of another. A shared passion, respect, and complete understanding.
To love is not to look at one another, but to look together in the same direction. ~Antoine de Saint- Exupery
Now I must do some further research on Freud. . .
We covered Walden in my English class, but only bits and pieces. I believe I am going to read it now. Thoreau, here I come!
Thanks a million!!! -- that article list looks interesting. . . Richard Dawkins makes me laugh. I hope to read some of those, too!
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Permalink Reply by Ken Egan on
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You define love beautifully, both in your own words and through Saint-Exupery. Love can take any number of forms, but for me it returns to the words I use above: affiliation, connection, a sense of place. I'd add a sense of belonging, a common purpose, a deep knowledge that we matter. Nothing seems scarier to me than the human being cut off from any knowledge of his or her worth. Some of our greatest literature has been born out of the exploration of this very condition of disconnection and weightlessness. Heck, I'd say the entire Harry Potter series is dedicated to that question! Contrast Harry and Voldemort! Or consider poor Ahab in Moby-Dick, Holden in Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, King Lear. . . .
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Permalink Reply by Grace Hein on
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Thank you. I have written many poems on different perceptions of love. . .
I like your words for it. And your connection of all those- brilliant!! The alienation is startling and so intriguing in these novels- something we never tire of reading about probably because we have most of those needs, affiliation, connection, and a sense of place, fulfilled. But when we lose our grasp on those things, we become restless.... at least I do. And the problem mainly lies in the "sense of place" area.... A deep knowledge that we matter..... that is the perfect statement for a common feeling of necessity in humans. Brilliant.
So, affiliation, connection, a sense of place. . . Is it this then that brings a passion? Ignites our ideas of something worth fighting for, worth living and dying for? stirs up our thoughts of amour? Intense love. . . this is why we need fellow humans. Exactly why- for your words which i seem to be wearing out. . .
It's also why Bartleby the Scrivener is such an oddity. . .
Anyway, is this, besides necessary, always present? I mean, I am thinking of Thoreau.... You seem to know a great deal on him, so I'll ask- Was his hiatus a sort of.... you don't know what you've got til it's gone? I found that he said this:
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
. . . I'm still pondering these things.... I am going to read it- eventually!! And thanks for your comments!
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Permalink Reply by Ken Egan on
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Bartleby--great example. "I'd prefer not to." The Dead Letter Office. For what it's worth, I've often thought of Bartleby as Melville's image of himself as an exhausted, "failed" writer--cut off from sources of imaginative and financial support, he collapses into apathy and despair.
As for Thoreau: He discovered that meaning resides in a natural world saturated with divine beauty. (He was a Transcendentalist, after all.) He found love in nature. (More than one contemporary observed that he looked like a moose--he also seemed to prefer their company to that of people!) Walden shows how one human being peels away layers of culture (money, status, work) to uncover a world of natural delight. Of course, there's also "Brute Neighbors"--Thoreau doesn't completely ignore the darker strains of the natural world, but he certainly emphasizes moments of creation and joy in chapters such as "Spring."
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Permalink Reply by Grace Hein on
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I love Bartleby. The moose thing made me smile! Love in nature-- I've found that to be common. As in poets use nature analogies, writers from centuries ago, songs captivate that sense too. . . Maybe it's something we inherently identify with-- a sort of calm beauty that rages at seemingly random times. You called it divine beauty. What really is divinity?
Perfection- a godlike perfection. What is perfection? (Besides mostly boring...) Just some philosophical musings... which could then spawn the ideas of who decides what is perfect, is it truthful and justified? What is truth? The absence of lies? Who is to determine what is just, when there will always be unjust?
Oh, and I must point out that I was reminded of Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant- just the love and nature combination. But that poem also goes into the numbing depths of death...
It's odd to think that there's nothing that hasn't been experienced already, and yet every man will experience it on his own, and most likely differently. While we learn from others, we learn for ourselves.
And now I really must read Walden...
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