The Relationship between Philosophy and Education
Education is not it, but the turning of the soul! -Plato
First, what is education?
Education is the whole process of training a new generation to engage in social life, and it is also the key link to inherit and carry forward the production experience of human society. Mainly refers to the process of cultivating school-age children, teenagers and young people. Broadly speaking, all activities that enhance people's knowledge and skills and affect people's ideology and morality are education. Education in a narrow sense mainly refers to school education, which means that educators exert purposeful, planned and organized influence on the body and mind of the educated according to the requirements of a certain society (or class) and cultivate them into people needed by a certain society (or class). Types include formal education, adult education, technical education, special education and lifelong education.
In Plato's view, education is a skill, just like the art of war and politics, but it is the most important and beautiful skill. The enlightenment of Plato's proverbs to today's reality is not only to tell us the metaphysical position that education should have, but also that education is intrinsically related to the security and governance of the city-state and has become one of the most important and beautiful issues. And because it is an art, there is a problem of how to make it ideal. One question that education always faces is, what kind of education is good for people and society? Is it in line with the principles of social justice and kindness? -that is, what kind of goals should a truly successful education face? On what basis can we judge whether the present education is successful or not? These are also the educational ideals we want to discuss. Plato thinks that idea comes first, and the primary task of philosophy is to make philosophers follow an idea as truth and perfection to design a model of an ideal country, so that citizens can live a good life in an ideal city-state. Therefore, just as craftsmen make beds and tables according to an ideal form, philosophers need to master the skills of city-state governance through training. After directly participating in the political failure, Plato established an academy outside Athens, hoping to establish its second-class city-state in people's minds through philosophical education. So Plato's revelation is that when we discuss education as a unique skill, we should first ask the ideal form that this skill follows, that is, the concept of education.
Second, what is the concept of education?
At every turning point of social and historical development, the focus of human wisdom will turn to people themselves and education closely related to human destiny. People place enthusiasm and hope on education, but the actual education is often unsatisfactory. How can we get education out of the real dilemma? This requires us to have a deeper understanding of education. In a sense, education problems are all philosophical problems in the final analysis, so the fundamental solution of education problems cannot be separated from the discussion of educational philosophy problems.
Many scholars at home and abroad have discussed the philosophical basis of pedagogy. Herbart once pointed out: "Pedagogy as a science is based on practical philosophy and psychology. The former explains the purpose of education; The latter explains the ways, means and obstacles of education. " From his exposition, we can find that the practical philosophy he said is what we now call ethics. Explaining the purpose of education with practical philosophy is to regard the five moral concepts of ethics as the highest pursuit of education. Although Herbart's practical philosophy and psychology are still immature today, his judgment on the basis of pedagogy points out a way for the future development of pedagogy. In view of Herbart's exposition on the basis of pedagogy, nuttall Pu, a neo-Kantian philosopher, put forward his own views. He believes that the foundation of pedagogy should not be limited to ethics and psychology, but should include all philosophy, the provisions of educational purposes, logic and aesthetics. According to the philosophy system recognized by people at that time, the so-called philosophy is normative science, which actually includes three disciplines: logic, ethics and aesthetics. Whether the foundation of pedagogy is a part of philosophy or the whole of philosophy is the difference between nuttall and Herbart. Today, this difference is negligible. What is important is their consensus on the development direction of pedagogy, that is, their recognition of the philosophical basis of pedagogy.
Mr. Wang Guowei agrees that philosophy is the foundation of pedagogy. After investigating the history of western pedagogy, Wang Guowei clearly declared: "husband philosophy is also the mother of pedagogy." Why can philosophy be the mother of pedagogy? In this regard,