Abstract: Since the 20th century, on the basis of scientism, humanism and scientific humanism, the educational goals of scientism, humanism and scientific humanism have been formed. They have their own different philosophical foundations and basic characteristics, and also played a leading role in different historical stages. However, the opposition between scientism and humanism leads to the opposition between science education and humanities education, and also leads to the one-sided pursuit of educational purpose and the imbalance of education. Nowadays, with the development of the world and society, people need a complete and purposeful education more and more. Therefore, we must adhere to the guidance of Marxist anthropology and system holism to integrate scientism education with humanism education.
After human society entered the 20th century, with the development of philosophy, humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and educational sciences, as well as the change of people's values, the view of educational purpose has also shown a diversified trend, among which there are three most representative views, namely, humanistic educational purpose view, scientism educational purpose view and scientific humanistic educational purpose view. This is based on three cultural trends of thought that have existed for more than one hundred years, namely humanism, scientism and scientific humanism. At present, most scholars admit that in the modern world civilization, there has always been opposition and integration between scientific culture and humanistic culture, and the two cultures are increasingly showing the trend of mutual integration. The author discusses the philosophical basis, basic spirit and characteristics of these three educational aims, as well as the integration of science education and humanities education, aiming at providing some theoretical and practical basis for establishing a scientific and correct view of educational aims in the future.
First, the philosophical basis and basic characteristics of the humanistic view of educational purpose
The humanistic view of educational purpose is a people-centered view of educational purpose, with the improvement and development of people themselves as the starting point and destination. Since the 20th century, the schools of educational thought that hold this view of educational purpose mainly include eternal education and existential education.
(A) the philosophical basis of the concept of humanistic education purpose
Eternism holds that the basic principles of education are unchangeable or eternal. Because human nature is unchangeable, so is the essence and purpose of education. The remarkable feature of education is rationality, so education should focus on developing people's rational ability; The only adaptability that education should cultivate is to adapt to the universal truth; Education is not completely equal to life, but preparation for life; The younger generation should learn some basic courses, which will make them know the eternity of the spiritual world and the material world.
Existentialism holds that finiteness is the most important feature of human environment. It should be pointed out to students that existence for existence is not higher than all other values, and teachers should motivate students by describing models; It is very wrong to educate students in groups rather than individuals; We should give full play to our personal talents; Students must personally care about the full development of their own nature and "dare to be themselves"; The task of teachers is not only to stimulate students' potential creativity, but also to encourage students to realize their importance.
To sum up, humanists believe that human nature is beautiful and eternal, and the essence and fundamental purpose of education is to cultivate human nature so that beautiful human nature can be displayed and brought into play. No matter when and where, human nature remains unchanged and education remains unchanged. Humanists claim that rationality is the highest value of human beings, and this rationality refers to value rationality, not instrumental rationality and scientific rationality. In the view of humanism, the reason why the world in which human beings live is an orderly world lies in that human beings are rational. Man's rationality transcends man's biology and sociality and is the most precious wealth in human nature. Therefore, the highest purpose of education is to cultivate and develop rationality in human nature, which is not only the premise of rationalizing the human world, but also the fundamental guarantee for people to get an ideal life. Reason is the soul, the guide and the highest value of human nature. Without reason, the principle of truth, goodness and beauty in human nature will be lost. Whether human nature can develop perfectly depends on rational self-restraint and corresponding ability training and exercise.
Humanism attaches great importance to personal value, which is higher than social value, and its highest level is personal self-improvement and self-realization, in order to form perfect humanity and obtain a better spiritual life, rather than to obtain personal means of livelihood and meet material life. Humanism holds that society is valuable only when it contributes to personal happiness. The highest standard to measure the value of any human activity, including educational activities, lies in whether it is conducive to enhancing personal value. From the above point of view, it can be seen that humanism values individuals over society, internal over external, spiritual over material, and humanities over science.
(B) the basic characteristics of the concept of the purpose of humanistic education
The philosophical basis of humanistic view of educational purpose determines that it has three basic characteristics: First, it pursues eternal educational purpose. The purpose of education depends on human nature, which is eternal, and so is the purpose of education. Humanism education advocates traditional culture, obviously values humanities over science in educational content, and thinks that science can only help people decide facts, and only humanistic spirit can decide how to deal with these facts. The center of the course can only be humanities, not empirical science. Humanistic education generally opposes adapting to the current society, and holds that the "ultimate goal" of education is to cultivate students' ability to adapt to the truth, followed by adapting to the changing objective world. It lashes out at pragmatism's "adaptation theory", arguing that "adaptation theory" destroys the stability of school curriculum, reduces the quality of teaching, has no value orientation, is too negative, violates the independence of education and will lead to the destruction of the essence of education; Second, the pursuit of idealized educational purposes. Humanism pays more attention to surreal non-utilitarian purposes and despises realistic utilitarian purposes. It adheres to the philosophical world outlook that spirit is higher than matter, and thinks that spirit is often a surreal ideal existence. People who wholeheartedly pursue reality and material things are too secular and mediocre, and the purpose of education should be as far away from real life as possible and closer to spiritual life. With the development of productivity and science and technology, humanism also advocates that education should prepare for personal future livelihood and social responsibility, but at the same time, it believes that utilitarian livelihood education can only be carried out on the basis of implementing humanistic education; Third, pursue the educational purpose of humanization. This feature is the most prominent in the philosophy of existentialism education, which takes the liberation of human beings from mechanical civilization as its own responsibility and holds that improving the value of human existence is the core of educational purpose. Education should be regarded as a means of self-development and self-realization, not as a tool to prepare students for their career. We should pay attention to humanities education, life education, emotional education, personality education and freedom and responsibility education. Too specialized education will reduce the importance of people, so the whole focus of the course must be shifted from the world of things to the world of personality.
Second, the philosophical basis and basic characteristics of the view of the purpose of science education
The scientific view of educational purpose is a utilitarian view of educational purpose with social needs as its starting point and destination and science as its center. It is produced with the development of science and the increasingly obvious role of science. Since the 20th century, the schools of educational philosophy that hold this view of educational purpose mainly include pragmatism education and discipline structuralism education.
(A) the philosophical basis of the view of the purpose of science education
Pragmatism holds that the purpose and method of education must be flexible and always easy to modify. The purpose and method of education should be based on relevant facts and values, not just speculative reasoning. Education is life, not preparation for life. Human nature is plastic, and education must fully develop personality. Students must be taught how to adapt to the needs and ideals of others wisely in a group life composed of many people; Values are relative and there is no absolute standard to rely on. We should cultivate students' democratic spirit and give them as many opportunities for autonomy as possible. Education is not a thing, but a process that never ends.
Under the guidance of pragmatic educational philosophy, the scientific concept of educational purpose emphasizes two aspects: first, it is changeable rather than eternal, and it is not independent of people, so human nature is plastic, and education will inevitably develop and change with the development of society. Values are relative and changeable, so values are created, not based on the essence of things; Second, things should be useful. Science is truth, and the only criterion of truth is usefulness. School education should pay more attention to practice, increase more activities, offer more vocational courses and technical courses, and cultivate students' ability to adapt to society and occupation.
(B) the basic characteristics of the concept of the purpose of science education
The basic characteristics of scientism educational purpose view are mainly reflected in three aspects: First, it attaches importance to the social adaptability of educational purpose. Education should adapt to social changes as much as possible and contribute to social transformation and development. Only by linking education with social change can we eliminate the disadvantages of old education and social isolation. The purpose and means of education must be flexible and should be decided by scientific methods according to all relevant facts and values. Their emphasis on "action", "practice" and "life" all emphasize the social adaptability of educational purposes; Second, attach importance to the social utility of educational purposes. The scientific view of educational purpose attaches importance to realistic people, not abstract people. It opposes the abstract discussion of educational purpose and human self-realization, thinks that the real meaning of educational purpose cannot be explained without social reality, and emphasizes that education must be useful to human social life and social prosperity and progress; Third, attach importance to science education. Since the 1950s, science education has gradually occupied a dominant position, and the movement of discipline structure fully reflects the unilateral attention of the United States and western countries to science education. Education has changed from human-centered progressivism to science-centered essentialism. Mathematics and natural science have become the core of the curriculum, and the cultivation of scientific talents has become the focus of education. In order to improve students' extensive adaptability and develop their intelligence, science education opposes the general emphasis on the mastery of basic knowledge, and even more opposes the mastery of tedious factual materials, but pays more attention to letting students master more abstract basic theories and scientific principles.
Third, the basic spirit of the educational purpose view of scientific humanism
The educational purpose view of scientific humanism is based on scientific spirit and takes humanistic spirit as its value orientation. Scientific humanism not only believes in science, but also advocates humanistic spirit. It is based on science and means, with humanity as its direction and purpose. The highest purpose of scientific humanism is to promote the harmonious development of man and society in material and spiritual aspects in the mutual coordination and complementarity of science and humanities, and to realize the liberation of man on this basis.
(A) the scientific spirit is the basis of educational purposes.
The pursuit of material is endless, and so is the pursuit of science. The progress of material is more and more directly dependent on the progress of science. Therefore, education must be based on scientific spirit and scientific training. At this point, it can only be strengthened, not weakened. Modern science is increasingly becoming the decisive factor of economic development, and the emergence of knowledge economy fully proves this fact. The development of modern science and technology has a profound impact on people's mode of production, lifestyle, way of thinking, ideology and values. Although people need to raise their awareness, the solutions to many catastrophic problems facing mankind must rely on science and technology. Society is becoming more and more scientific. In today's society, scientific and technological competition has become a decisive factor in all-round social competition, and the purpose of education must be based on the scientific spirit.
(2) Humanistic spirit is the value direction of educational purpose.
Although the role of science is increasingly huge, it can't solve all problems, especially science itself can't directly solve the value problem. The belief that science is omnipotent and the idea that technology determines everything are the results of the vicious expansion of human material desires. Science is omnipotent and expects that science and technology can overcome all crises and solve any problems in human society. However, science, technology and materials do not all bring happiness to mankind. While science and technology bring great benefits to mankind, the inhuman use of science and technology also brings great disasters and threats to mankind. With the constant awakening of human reason and the continuous improvement of demand, the gradual exposure of scientific limitations and the revival of humanism, the concept of social development and the concept of educational purpose based on scientific and humanistic values have been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and science education and humanistic education have shown an obvious trend of integration. No matter from the perspective of social development and human development, or from the perspective of the development of educational purpose itself, science education needs the value orientation of humanistic education. This abnormal education, which has long been seriously biased towards science education and neglected humanistic education, must be completely changed.
Fourthly, Marxist humanism and system holism are the basis of the integration of science education and humanities education.
The mission of higher education in the new century is to promote the integration of science education and humanities education. Only in this way can the function of higher education be fully reflected, and the relationship between man and nature, man and man, man and society can be more harmonious. Science education is the pursuit of "facts" and "truth" and the solution of "right and wrong"; Humanistic education is a question of pursuing "value" and "goodness". In essence, the two are integrated. Therefore, the research and practice of the integration of science education and humanities education must be guided by Marxist anthropology and system holism, so as to realize the free, harmonious and all-round development of human beings. The essence of Marxist man's all-round development refers to man's free, full, harmonious and all-round development, which is not only the "free development" of individuals, but also the universal development of all members of society. Marxist system holism holds that objective things are a unified whole, and human being, as an objective existence, is also the unity of matter and spirit, which is "the sum of all social relations", so human development needs the complete unity of spiritual life and material life, that is, harmonious and all-round development. Marxism has repeatedly stressed that everyone's free and all-round development is the "foundation" and "basic principle" for building the future society.
The essence of the integration of science education and humanities education is to solve the problem of people's all-round development, that is, to temper and examine people's development in the whole society and realize the complete unity of people's material satisfaction and spiritual pursuit. Both humanistic spirit and scientific spirit depend on people's initiative, enthusiasm and creativity, and they have internal unity. The integration of scientific spirit and humanistic spirit is the unity of truth, goodness and beauty. There is a scientific basis in humanities, and there is a humanistic connotation in science. The integration of science education and humanities education is the requirement and inevitable result of the all-round development of science and technology, society, education and human beings. The integration of science education and humanities education fully embodies the dialectical unity relationship between truth and value.
Human beings need a complete life, individuals are eager for harmonious development, and society needs a balance between material and spiritual aspects, which is the necessity of the integration of scientism and humanism, as well as the integration of science education and humanities education. The internal consistency of science and morality, matter and spirit is the possibility of the integration of scientism and humanism, and also the possibility of the integration of science education and humanities education. Science and morality, science and humanities are not antagonistic in essence. Scientific development and material progress will neither naturally bring moral progress nor moral degradation. Nowadays, with the development of the world and society, it is increasingly required that we must adhere to the complete concept of educational purpose and build a complete education. Only in this way can we promote the all-round and harmonious development of man and society.
Science education and humanities education are indispensable and constitute a complete education. Each education has its irreplaceable value and its inherent one-sidedness and limitations. The two are complementary. Simply emphasizing any party will lead to the imbalance of education, and then lead to the imbalance of human and social development. This is just as Professor Xu Baogeng of Tsinghua University said: Without humanities education or science education, there will be two kinds of deformed people. One is a' hollow man' who only knows technology and has a pale soul; The second is the' marginal people' who don't understand science and talk about humanities. Whitehead also said in the book "The Purpose of Education" a long time ago: "There is no pure technical education, and there is no pure humanistic education. Both are indispensable. " Einstein once pointed out in view of incomplete education: "It is not enough to teach people only one kind of specialized knowledge and technology. Although it can make people become useful machines, it cannot give people a harmonious personality. " A complete education should include "doing things" and "being a man". Learning to "do things" requires scientific education, and learning to "be a man" requires humanistic education.
Science education and humanities education are both indispensable parts of a complete education, but they are only part of it. Faced with the present educational situation in the 2 1 century and the requirements of the development of human society, we should not only continuously strengthen science education, but also raise the humanities education that has been neglected for decades to its due position, so that science education and humanities education can be substantially integrated, instead of mechanically and simply adding up. Science education and humanities education should be connected and integrated. "Connection and integration are beneficial, while separation is harmful." 2 1 the world calls for "human return" and "people-oriented", so we should not only advocate science, but also carry forward humanities, so that people's scientific quality and humanistic quality can be integrated and promoted, and people and society can develop in an all-round, harmonious and healthy way. The integration of science education and humanities education is to build a complete educational purpose and education, lay a correct foundation for pursuit and form a correct creative overall thinking.