Fu Songtao
Guided by the method of combining logic with history, this paper puts forward and discusses the proposition, reason, practical significance and theoretical value of "people in real life are the logical starting point of pedagogy", comprehensively and systematically summarizes and analyzes the six basic characteristics of people in real life and their fundamental provisions on the essence of education and various factors, distinguishes the reasonable factors and possible defects of various theories of educational logical starting point, and points out that people in real life are logic.
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Educational theorists have studied the logical starting point of pedagogy from different levels, angles and viewpoints [1]. The author tries to put forward a new logical starting point of pedagogy to educate everyone that realistic talents are the logical starting point of pedagogy.
one
Defining people in real life as the logical starting point of pedagogy is the inevitable result of adhering to the method of unifying logic and history, and also the beneficial enlightenment and scientific choice provided by Marxist social history research premise theory.
Exploring the logical starting point of pedagogy is essentially to find a basic theoretical premise or starting point for pedagogy by using logical methods. Because the logic of science includes "the internal connection of theoretical system or the logical order of theory" and "historical things" include "the movement and development process or law of objective things themselves and the history of human understanding" [2], which are isomorphic, therefore, "the original things in science must also be the original things in history" [3]; "Logical research method" "In fact ... is nothing more than historical research method" [4]; "Where history begins, the ideological process should also begin" [5]. Marx's "political economy begins with commodities, that is, from the moment when products are exchanged by individuals or original public companies". [6] It can be seen that using logical methods to find the logical starting point of pedagogy is actually using historical methods to trace the initial growth point of education and the basic form throughout the history of human society.
Pedagogy as a "historical science" [7] and education as an eternal social and historical phenomenon must, like other historical sciences and general social and historical phenomena, "proceed from tenacious facts" [8] and "proceed from the initial and simplest relationship between history and reality" [9] to determine its own logical starting point and initial. Therefore, "these relationships are always combined with things and appear as things" [10], so the initial social phenomenon of education must reflect this fact. As the carrier or combination of this relationship, the logical starting point of pedagogy is the abstract generalization of this objective thing. What is this objective thing? "They are not dogmas" [1 1], not "what people say? Imagination and imaginary things are not "people who only exist in words, people who think, imagine and imagine", "our starting point is people who engage in practical activities" [12], "some realistic people" [13] and "real and active people". In short, they are people who live in real life. Because "human existence is our actual life process" [16] and "how an individual expresses his own life, so does he" [17], so "the decisive factor of historical process is the production and reproduction of real life in the final analysis" [18], "in front of real life, we can see that
The first person who really lives, "just to survive, has to do it every day (as it did thousands of years ago)" [20], "the production of direct material means of life" [2 1] and "the production of human beings themselves" [22] meet the needs of food, drink, shelter and clothing, which constitutes "all historical" and "already satisfied" This is the first historical activity [25], and this "direct production and reproduction" is "the decisive factor of history" [26], which "restricts the whole social life, political life and spiritual life." [27] People have a definite and inevitable relationship in the social production of their own lives, that is, the production relationship [28]. They exchanged jobs and formed different groups, classes and even classes. Through cooperation and struggle, they engage in the production of means of subsistence, the production of human beings themselves, and political, scientific, artistic and religious activities that determine and serve this purpose, and constantly produce new means of subsistence in the process of meeting their needs. The constant renewal, accumulation, enrichment and internalization of needs and activities have promoted the constant change and recovery of human nature, the increasing enrichment and externalization of human nature, and the human society has changed, continued and developed accordingly. It can be seen that people in real life are indeed the original growth point of human social history, and education, as an eternal part of human society, is undoubtedly the original growth point of people in real life.
It is from the perspective of realistic human beings that the founders of Marxism profoundly saw the decisive role of human needs, subjective initiative and human conscious material production activities and social relations in human social life. Scientifically reveal the essence of human's "needs" and "the sum of social relations" and their dialectical relationship; Just as Darwin discovered the development law of the organic world, he also discovered the development law of human history: "People must have food, drink, shelter and clothing to engage in politics, science, art and religion" [29]. According to this basic fact and principle, the founders of Marxism criticized and surpassed the neglect or misinterpretation of the old materialism on the fundamental defects of people's active life and the conscious production of material means of subsistence, profoundly revealed the subjective process, result and great humanistic value of people's production practice for the first time, and consciously introduced the purpose of people's activities into their historical materialism as an objective existence. The scientific establishment of "practical materialism" and historical materialism philosophy system provides us with effective tools and paradigms for scientifically understanding all social phenomena including educational social phenomena and determining the logical starting point of all social science theories including pedagogy.
two
Taking realistic people as the logical starting point of pedagogy is the only way to reflect and summarize the rich content of educational social phenomena in the most essential, comprehensive and concise way.
No matter how long, complex and diverse the educational social phenomenon is, it has evolved from real people and has the following essential characteristics. Historical reality has included the germ, embryonic form, basic elements and characteristics of all basic aspects and links of various educational forms.
The most basic feature of people in real life is objective materiality, that is, people in real life are "realistic and physical people standing on a solid earth and breathing all natural forces" [30], and they are real people. The subjects engaged in educational activities are objective and realistic people, and their objective and realistic life needs and abilities determine the needs, subjects, purposes, skill content and level of education. Only by proceeding from reality can we objectively grasp the true features and internal laws of social activities in real education. Anyone who ignores, downplays, evades, distorts or even denies the pursuit of meeting needs and exerting abilities tries to understand and grasp educational social phenomena and construct educational theories from the perspectives of "dogma", "what is imagined or imagined" and "people who say, think, imagine and imagine".
The second basic characteristic of real people is survival and development, that is, real people reproduce and create their own lives on the basis of continuous realization, optimization and improvement of their real life contents, methods, quality and efficiency. Needs and abilities based on material organizations and carriers are two basic components of people in real life. The continuous satisfaction and reproduction of demand and the continuous application and renewal of ability are the actual existence process of people in real life. The essential difference between human needs and abilities and those of animals in real life lies in its reconstruction or development. Development is not only the result of people's constant pursuit of survival, but also the basic premise and main content of people's survival. Without development, there is no real existence of people in real life. People in real life, on the one hand, engage in material production activities, on the other hand, engage in educational activities, precisely for this true sense of existence, that is, development consciousness. Therefore, educational activities are not only the result and product of the continuous development of people's needs and abilities in real life, but also the concrete expression, symbol and important means of people's survival and development in real life. The eternal and fundamental purpose of education is to reproduce and rebuild people's development needs and abilities in real life. Only from this perspective can we truly grasp the eternal value and function of education, and any educational activity that ignores or deviates from this fundamental purpose will not have real vitality; Any educational theory that can't face up to this fundamental purpose can't reach the essential understanding of education.
The needs and abilities of people's survival and development in real life are unbalanced and different, that is, the needs and abilities of people themselves or individuals in real life are not corresponding and matched in the intensity, type and structure of development. The "bad development" of the imbalance between demand and ability is not only one of the important sources of personal poverty, pain and social conflict, but also the deep motive force for the emergence, innovation, development and perfection of education: education originates from the reproduction and reconstruction of people's needs in real life and the corresponding cultivation and development of the ability to meet needs. The substantial progress of education lies in that it enables more and more people in real life to have rich, diverse, healthy and reasonable needs and corresponding abilities, which is the result of all human beings' survival and development. Only by proceeding from the reality of unbalanced development of needs and abilities in real life and the historical requirements of balanced development can our pedagogy scientifically reveal the original historical characteristics of educational instrumentality and its objective inevitability, progress and limitations, reveal the substantial value of education, and find the practical role and historical destination of the effective function of education.
The survival and development of people in real life are determined by their historical inevitability, that is, people in real life in any historical period are the epitome and crystallization of human survival and development experience. It is this "sum of productivity, capital and social communication forms undertaken by each individual and each generation as ready-made things" that constitutes the "realistic foundation" of the "entity" and "essence" of real life people [3 1]. In any era, people in social real life are recreating and creating their own real life and history, engaging in their own material production activities and educational activities, constantly updating and enriching their own needs and abilities, accelerating to transcend their own animal limitations and seeking their own better survival and development. It is this historical accumulation of realistic people that makes the generation of education necessary and possible; The emergence and development of education has become the most effective way for people to accumulate experience and history of survival and development in real life. Therefore, those concrete people stripped of historical certainty are by no means real people in the full sense, but at best puppets of real life; Education organized by and for people in this real life has lost its rich historical foundation and value and has become an ornament or tool for people to fiddle with; However, pedagogy derived from such a real-life person can not dig out the rich connotation and historical background of education and guide the effective and reasonable development of education.
The fourth characteristic of people in real life is subjective initiative, that is, on the basis of self-awareness of their own needs, abilities and environmental conditions, they consciously use and develop their own abilities to transform the environment and themselves in order to meet or create their own needs. Initiative is the fundamental characteristic that distinguishes people from animals in real life. It is the original starting point and deep motivation for human beings to actively adapt to and change the environment, transcend animal instinct and produce material means of subsistence, especially to engage in and create educational activities. In other words, education is "conscious life activities that are directly different from those of people and animals" [33]. Consciousness makes people in real life become "conscious people" [34] and "active natural objects" [35], and then makes them "transform natural material forms in a way that is useful to them" [36], "obtain certain external objects through activities to meet their own needs" [37] and "consciously create their own history" [38]. It is this subjective initiative that makes people in real life turn the concept of real life needs and corresponding abilities into educational purposes; Transforming people in real life into the object, subject and goal of education; A large number of material living materials that can be directly consumed in real life can be directly improved or improved in real life, and transformed into educational supplies or expenses that cannot immediately improve or improve the overall real living standard of human beings. The experience, knowledge and skills engaged in direct material production and real life are systematized into educational content. Therefore, people in real life go far beyond the direct production of biological needs, abilities and material means of life directly determined by physical organizations, and directly engage in educational and social activities with the direct purpose of reproduction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and optimization of the subject. People's educatability and consciousness of education are the most full display of people's subjectivity, the most typical expression and the highest realistic form of human nature in real life. Without the full and reasonable display and performance of people's subjective initiative in real life at a certain historical stage, there will be no education and social activities corresponding to the existing and possible high-level real life needs at that stage. Pedagogy, which is not based on the reality of life, can not give the subjective initiative of realistic people the central theoretical position it deserves, so it can not really grasp the essence of education and the logical starting point of pedagogy.
The fifth characteristic of people in real life is production activities, that is, the characteristics of "production reproduction" and "real life" can be exercised through various perceptual activities based on human reproduction and material means of subsistence production. Production activity is the overall dynamic expression of the above characteristics of realistic people, and it is the basic process, way and way of the emergence and development of education. Only through production activities can people in real life actively seek opportunities to create educational activities in the process of continuous development, accumulation and imbalance of human needs and abilities, realize the necessity of educational activities, separate the subjects of educational activities, and choose the conditions and contents of educational activities, so as to organize independent educational activities and show the real existence of real people in educational activities to reproduce and create real life. Any pedagogy that leaves the characteristics of people's production activities in real life, fantasizes and talks about the "ideal" goal and operation of education, and abstractly outlines the social characteristics of education and the attribution of consciousness can only become plagiarism or preaching, and educational activities guided by this can only be futile.
The last feature of people in real life is "dual relationship" [39], that is, "natural relationship" and "social relationship" that occur in the process of production and reproduction in real life. The dual relationship is the static expression of the above characteristics of real people. In real life, people's active life determines that they will have a relationship with nature first, and transform and protect nature to our advantage. The degree and scope of humanization and natural utilization determine and mark the development level and reasonable degree of people's needs and abilities in real life, thus determining and marking the realistic nature and living conditions and level of people. This determines that the development of educational activities first lies in coordinating the relationship between man and nature more effectively, in standardizing and cultivating people's needs and abilities to effectively and reasonably use, transform and protect nature in real life, and in imparting natural science knowledge. Any pedagogy that ignores or denies the basic focus and objective content of people's active participation in educational activities in real life can only put the cart before the horse and seriously distort the objective function of education and the logic of its production and development.
People's active existence in real life determines that they must form social relations with each other and establish "cooperation among many individuals" [40]. Only in this way can people in real life make up for the limitations of individual ability and form a much larger production capacity than individuals acting alone, which is more conducive to meeting everyone's common needs for survival and development. Teaching people all kinds of behavioral norms, requirements and cultures necessary for effective cooperation with each other is an important driving force for the development of education. However, due to the instability of demand and ability development, people in real life will have unbalanced product distribution and possession, and different differentiation and combination will occur in the use and consumption of physical fitness, thus forming different groups, groups, classes and even classes, causing contradictions and conflicts among them, and then distorting and transforming education into a tool or means to satisfy the selfish desires of individuals or groups, suppressing or even depriving others of opportunities and conditions for their needs and abilities, thus marking education with a distinct class brand. Only by starting from realistic people can scientific pedagogy truly understand the essence of norms and standards that teach human beings to organize reasonably and cooperate effectively, expose the inevitability, progress and limitations of education being distorted and transformed into a stage ruling tool by history, reasonably construct an educational system that promotes the optimization of realistic human social relations, and find a logical starting point and structure corresponding to the objective forms and laws of education.
In short, the basic characteristics of people in real life fundamentally determine the essential attributes and basic characteristics of various factors of educational social phenomena. Only starting from people in real life, taking people in real life as theoretical premise and logical starting point, can we organize educational activities reasonably and effectively, scientifically understand and grasp educational social phenomena, and build a logical pedagogy system. From this point of view, we can make an essential, comprehensive and concise overview of education: the so-called education is an activity that realistic people consciously reproduce and recreate themselves and their real life through the dynamic cultivation and renewal of their development needs and abilities according to the objective requirements and subjective reflections of their real life.
three
It is of great practical significance and theoretical value to take realistic people as the logical starting point of pedagogy and reveal the essence of educational social phenomena accordingly.
First of all, this is conducive to correcting the educational purpose under the socialist market economy, changing the educational concept formed under the planned economy, establishing a benign operating mechanism to adapt to and actively promote the socialist market economy and social development, and making education truly become a variety of needs to continuously improve and meet people's growing wealth, cultivate and develop the ability of all citizens, and then reproduce and create social activities and tools to optimize real life. Under the condition of socialist market economy, education can only determine its own goals, objectives and contents from the actual, possible and necessary needs and abilities of people in real life, and design and organize educational activities according to the actual requirements and possibilities of real life.
Obviously, education begins with adoption and develops for realistic people. Therefore, our educational theory research must and must realize a fundamental change: abandon the endless imagination and futile pursuit of ideal personality, and truly investigate and discover the needs and abilities that realistic people should and may have under the conditions of socialist market economy, as well as their overall structure, proportion, content, total amount, change track and trend. On this basis, we should determine the corresponding educational content, scale, target specifications, structure and power mode, and choose the educational methods and methods that can give full play to the initiative of the participants in educational activities, so that the subjects of educational activities can effectively use their abilities, reasonably meet their real life needs, and engage in educational activities in the process of actively reproducing and creating real life. Only in this way can today's education achieve harmonious unity, mutual promotion and coordinated development with the high-level real dynamics of socialist market economy operation and real social life in terms of purpose, subject, content, scale, structure and level.
Taking people in real life as the logical starting point of pedagogy and revealing the essence of education can make our educational theory really close to real life, eliminate the phenomenon of "no one" and "manual work" in pedagogy, and solve the problems of pedagogy such as "too narrow coverage", "not strong theory", "teaching without learning" and "not strict logical system".
In the past, pedagogy unilaterally emphasized the typicality and maturity of educational activities from the perspective of dogmatic and imaginary people, and mechanically defined it as a highly planned and formally organized school formal education, excluding other forms of educational activities of realistic people. The scientific abstraction and generalization of all educational commonness in pedagogy has intuitively turned into a concrete narrative, explanation or visual induction of various forms of formal school education activities, and then narrowed down and concretized into a "school education work manual" based on people in real life and the real education activities they decided. We can scientifically use the method of combining logic with history to effectively get rid of the "historical form and interfering contingency" of educational activities, from the "most stubborn facts" and And scientifically unify "every element" of education with "investigating its fully mature and exemplary development point" [4 1], and conduct extensive empirical research and scientific summary and abstraction on the commonness of all educational forms and modes in the historical process and reality, thus establishing an pedagogy that systematically studies the educational needs, purposes, subjects, objects, modes, modes and cultures of people in reality.
The "essential starting point theory" highlights the inherent requirements of the logical development and construction of the educational theory system. However, the logical starting point is not equal to the essence, but the initial factor that determines the essence, and the essence is the internal connection determined by this initial factor. If we take many things that constitute the essential relationship of education as the logical starting point, it will inevitably violate the original intention of the logical starting point and the original intention of simplification; If the logical starting point of pedagogy must be forcibly defined as some abstract entity of unrealistic people, such as superstructure theory and productivity theory, it obviously violates the essential characteristics of education as a social activity, which will not only lead to logical confusion, but also bring serious distortion and deformation to the scientific understanding of the essence of education and confusion to educational practice.
The fatal weakness of "people-oriented starting point theory" is that the people it talks about are abstract people. These abstractions come from the imagination or fantasy of a class or individual based on its interests or expectations; Or derived from a conceptual dogma; Or infinitely exaggerating or generalizing the specific characters in a certain historical stage into some perfect spatio-temporal abstraction, but it is not a scientific abstraction of the real characters in the historical process. The pedagogy thus constructed is full of metaphysical and empty thoughts and dogmas.
The theory of "the starting point of life" captures the important characteristics of the real existence mode and content of realistic people. However, life is the way of existence of real people, not real people. Especially for Dewey, his life refers to the real life of capitalist society in front of him, not the real life in the historical process. The pedagogy thus constructed can only melt and restrict people with narrow real life, making people Nuo Nuo-oriented and instrumental.
Teachers' starting point theory, educated starting point theory and children's starting point theory all take people as the logical starting point. However, both teachers and educatees are realistic people first, and teachers and educatees are only their specific roles and a means or way to seek real life. Without their characteristics as real people, we can't correctly understand why they play this role instead of other roles, let alone why people engage in education. Comparatively speaking, "children" are closer to "real people". Furthermore, the three are only a concrete part or a way of existence of real people as the main body of educational activities. Only when they act together as real people can they really carry out educational activities and become the growing point of education and even the logical starting point of pedagogy.
The "goal starting point theory" (including the goal and task starting point theory) finds a conceptual materialization as a logical starting point. The educational goal is indeed a direct factor driving people to carry out educational activities and a concentrated expression of people's subjective initiative. However, the factors that fundamentally determine educational activities are not only, even mainly, human goals. In fact, the purpose of education is determined by the actual educational needs, while the latter is an objective reflection of the development needs and abilities of realistic people. Therefore, the starting point theory of real life not only completely covers the original intention of the starting point theory of purpose, but also avoids its narrow connotation and possible ambiguity in understanding and practice.
The theory of teaching starting point summarizes the main ways of education in concise language. It is precisely because of this that deducing education from a certain part of education will inevitably lead to generalizing and it is difficult to cover all the facts logically. This is also the limitation of "sports starting point theory" and "management starting point theory". Moreover, whether it is teaching, physical education or management, its nature, content, application mode and level are ultimately determined by real people. Furthermore, as the concept of relationship and action, teaching is obviously different from the concept of "thing" as the logical starting point.
The knowledge in the "knowledge starting point theory" is neither the materialized object in educational activities-teaching content, nor a certain relationship, nor even a direct starting factor for the occurrence and development of educational activities. Only when people in real life selectively organize teaching contents and apply them according to their real life needs can knowledge be transformed into an organic composition and real existence in educational activities. Therefore, knowledge obviously does not have the logical characteristics of the logical starting point of pedagogy.
In a word, the above-mentioned logical starting point of pedagogy reflects or approaches the growing point of education and even the logical starting point of pedagogy from different angles or forms, but they are not growing points or logical starting points themselves. Only those who pursue the real life needed for survival and development are the growing point of education and the logical starting point of pedagogy. Of course, this does not deny the necessity of taking other aspects as the starting point of personal research, discussion or expression. On the contrary, it is only from different angles or sides or levels that it is possible to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study of education. The significance of the logical starting point of "people in real life" lies only in that it establishes a basic starting point, theoretical premise and reference point for us.
note:
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[2][5] Zhang Editor-in-Chief: "A Review of Hegel's (Logic) Abstract", p. 60, China Renmin University Press 1982.
[3][6] The Complete Works of Lenin, Volume 38, People's Publishing House, 1959, p. 107.
[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [27] [28] [41] Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 2, People's Publishing House, 1972, pp. 122 and/kloc-.
[10] [1] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
[18][22][26] Selected Works of Marx and Engels Volume 4, People's Publishing House, 1972, p. 477, p. 2 and p. 2.
[2 1][29][37] Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 19, People's Publishing House, 1963, pp. 334, 374 and 405.
[30][33] The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 42, People's Publishing House, 1979, p. 167, p. 96.
[35][40] The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Vol.46 (I), People's Publishing House, 1982, p.393.
[36][4 1] The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 23, People's Publishing House, 1972, p. 87.
[38][43] Selected Works of Marx and Engels Volume 3, People's Publishing House, 1972, p. 457.
Author: Hebei University
(Editor: Wang Leyan)