First, the logical starting point of the concept of "freedom of learning"

Jaspers' questioning and reflection on the essence of education is not only the basic point of Jaspers' educational philosophy, but also the logical starting point of his view of "freedom of learning". Jaspers thinks that "real education should first acquire its own essence" (P44), and points out that "education can't be without piety, otherwise it is only an attitude of persuading students at most. Devotion to ultimate value and absolute truth is the essence of all education. Without enthusiasm for absolute, people can't live, or people can't live like people, and everything becomes meaningless "(P44).

Based on this, Aristotle made a classic interpretation of "education": "The so-called education is nothing more than the spiritual and physical communication between people (especially between the older generation and the younger generation), including the teaching of knowledge content, the understanding of life connotation, the regulation of will behavior, and the teaching of cultural inheritance to the younger generation through cultural transmission function, so that they can freely generate and enlighten their free nature." (P3) Later, Aristotle further clearly pointed out that "real education must not allow rote memorization, and never expect everyone to become a thoughtful thinker. The process of education is to let the educated practice, learn and grow by themselves in practice, which is characterized by free play and continuous attempt "(P3-4).

In addition, Aristotle also profoundly criticized the misunderstanding of the nature of education at that time: "What was originally a well-trained method to deal with extensive learning materials has now become an empty and boring obligation; Originally, the purpose of students' study was to seek the best development, but now it has become vanity, just to get others' attention and exam results; Originally, it gradually entered the whole with rich connotations, but now it has become just learning something that may be useful. It was originally an ideal edification, but now it is just learning some knowledge that will be forgotten soon through exams. " (P45) In a impetuous and utilitarian democratic society, people are eager to pursue "speed" and "efficiency", so "people have forgotten what education is ... what people understand is that education only trains young people into useful talents" (P49). As Bornoff, a German educator, said, people blindly pursue various external purposes, but forget their own soul, the significance of "man is the purpose" and the importance of self-education. Human education is confined to the isolated island of scientific reason in the air, but the real social life, which is the foundation of human growth, gradually disappears from educational activities and becomes the background, footnote and voice-over of educational activities until it falls silent. In this regard, Aristotle pointed out sharply, "If the increasingly serious nature of education is so neglected, then education will lose its fundamental goal and become unstable and fragmented. What it brings to students is no longer all-inclusive overall education, but mixed knowledge "(P45).

It can be seen that while education is constantly consolidating its "central position" in society, it has also lost its original true meaning to a great extent and is increasingly isolated from "people". Therefore, Aristotle called for educational reform and the return of human nature. He believes that "the future of mankind depends on the success of authentic education" (P50), "but people still can't achieve the goal of educational innovation by money alone, and the return of people is the real condition of educational reform" (P5 1). To sum up, in Aristotle's view, the free generation and return of human beings is the essence of education.

Second, the philosophical basis of the concept of "freedom of learning"

Jaspers' view of "freedom of learning" comes down in one continuous line with his existential philosophy. Based on his existential philosophical foundation of "survival, freedom and transcendence", Aristotle made an incisive exposition on the true meaning of education, including his profound criticism of realistic education in the technological age, which provided us with a rich visual threshold for understanding and understanding his view of "freedom of learning" and guided us to pursue its philosophical significance.

Aristotle believes that man is a possibility of freedom, and life is an internal experience process of man's belief in "God" (that is, man's perfect state). In this process, people's mission is to constantly surpass, so as to achieve the goal and result of "unity with God". He emphasized that the basic task of philosophy is to "observe the reality from the source and grasp the reality through the way I treat myself in my thinking, that is, through my internal behavior". In other words, it is a process of "transcendence" to seek the origin from one's "life" and "experience" and the existence of one's own "authenticity" in order to make people become real people. He believes that only through continuous "transcendence" can people finally realize "all-encompassing, or all-encompassing", that is, "existence" itself. Aristotle takes "subjectivity" as the "first principle" and thinks that human existence or pure self-consciousness "precedes essence", and the surrounding world is opposite to "self", so everyone is isolated and full of "fear of death". In Aristotle's view, "education brings individuals into the whole with the help of their existence." The individual enters the world instead of sticking to his own corner, so his narrow existence is injected into new life by everything. If man is integrated with a clearer and more substantial world, he can truly become himself "(P54).

As an existentialist philosopher, Aristotle's philosophy starts from "Man is an irreplaceable free individual" and is based on "Man can never exhaust himself". Therefore, Aristotle put great emphasis on individual freedom in his philosophical thoughts, and even regarded human existence and freedom as the same essence. In his view, our so-called personal freedom refers to thinking independently and acting according to one's own opinions, thus living in the continuity of maintaining one's own essence. A free man is a man who knows himself historically in a doomed situation with his own choice and its consequences as the content. Obviously, he emphasized the independence of human freedom and the significance of human free choice to life. Under the guidance of this philosophy, Aristotle believes that the growth of students is "natural generation" and "free choice", and education is a discontinuous form of "free choice" for students, not a planned "cultivation". What he said about freedom is neither the relationship between man and nature, nor the relationship between people, but it has the nature of "transcendence" like what he said about "existence". Only when people surpass themselves, engage in dialogue and communication with God and follow actions consistent with God's predetermined reasonable purpose can they gain real freedom and approach the realm of "Complete Works" or "One".

It can be said that Aristotle, based on the philosophical view of "survival, freedom and transcendence", explained the significance of human life belief and freedom to human beings, paid attention to the subjective value and initiative of human beings, and emphasized the continuous improvement and transcendence of human spirit, thus giving birth to his humanistic education view, which is also the ideological basis of his view of "freedom of learning".

Third, the value pursuit of the concept of "freedom of learning"

Jaspers always insists on the recognition and publicity of human subjectivity, which is the basic point of his understanding of human beings in educational activities and the value appeal of his concept of "freedom of learning". In his view, "educational activities focus on how to mobilize and realize people's potential to the maximum extent, and how to fully generate people's inner spirituality and possibilities. In short, education is the education of human soul, not the accumulation of rational knowledge and understanding "(P4). Therefore, "in learning, only what is accepted by the soul will become a spiritual treasure, while other vague things cannot enter the soul and be understood at all" (P5). Obviously, Aristotle regards people's pursuit of the origin of life, the transcendence of life will and the destination of ultimate belief as the ultimate goal of educational activities. In this sense, the ultimate value of education lies in guiding people's soul-the source leading to life.

From this point of view, Aristotle emphasized that "a talented person should choose and decide what kind of person he wants to be through education, and grasp the root of his own life" (P4), and put forward his own unique opinion on the view that "education can only be forced to learn": "Only self-coercion that leads to education will have an effect on education, and all other external coercion will not have an educational effect. On the contrary, it will do great harm to students' spirit and ultimately. (P5) It can be seen that in the actual educational activities, "we must respect children's freedom and let them understand the motivation of learning, rather than learning out of obedience" (P55), because "cognition is possible only if it is voluntary" (P 1 13), otherwise, "if education becomes authoritative, it will fail".

In fact, in Aristotle's view, college students should have the right to "study freely" because "he is no longer a high school student, but a member of a mature institution of higher learning" (P 146). Aristotle is keenly aware that if college students selected under strict conditions still have to take a stable road regulated by the school during the whole study period and then reach their destination, then they are "inevitably ambiguous and lack critical thinking, and will not seek truth in every situation" (P 146). Therefore, Aristotle emphasized that "to cultivate scientific talents and independent personality, young people should take risks" (P 146), which requires universities to "use all tools, fully develop all human potential after thinking, let students make their own choices in all actions and beliefs, and let them fully realize the significance of their responsibilities through cognition" (P 1655). They are mature and don't need the guidance of teachers, because they can control their own lives in their hands "(P 146- 147). The author believes that only under the guidance of the above-mentioned educational ideas can our current universities cultivate "real college students" in Aristotle's eyes: they can actively set their own learning goals, be good at using their brains, and know what work means; They attend classes selectively and listen to different opinions, facts and suggestions so that they can test and decide for themselves in the future; They grew up in communication, but still maintained their own personality.

Students who grow up under the guidance of the concept of "freedom of learning" are not "ordinary people" but "individuals who dare to take risks with themselves". Aristotle believes that "this kind of adventure is both realistic and imaginary. At the same time, it is also a spiritual sublimation, and everyone can feel that they are called the greatest people "(P 147). It is not difficult to find that Aristotle's strong admiration for students' learning freedom is closely related to his view on the nature of education. He wants to return education itself to people and let the subject of education (students) "freely generate".

Fourthly, the concept of "freedom of learning" is questioned in reality.

Jaspers divides education into three types: one is school education, which is knowledge-centered, and the teacher is the intermediary connecting students and knowledge; The second is mentoring education, with teachers as the center, teachers are symbols of knowledge and authority, and students are passive recipients without personality; Third, Socratic education, in which teachers and students are equal, they are both participants and interactors in education. In the process of dialogue, communication and argument, students' potential can be explored, so as to gradually acquire knowledge, know the truth and improve their spirit. Of these three educational methods, Aristotle disapproves of the first two, because they are not conducive to the cultivation of "whole person" and annihilate students' fresh personality, while Aristotle advocates and advocates the third. He believes that only this way of education can make people's spirit grow and talents become "all-round".

Regrettably, our current school education still has a strong flavor of scholastic education and mentoring education to some extent, and there is no innovative spirit. It only gives students "black and white books", "fixed knowledge" and "ready-made conclusions and answers", but in fact it violates the essence of education, and it makes students gradually lose their thinking ability and unique personality. In fact, as Aristotle said, "We need the ability to use our brains to find the necessary knowledge at any time, and we need the ability to think about things from different angles, which cannot be obtained by learning fixed knowledge" (P 153). Of course, this is not against arranging learning materials according to the teaching plan, but "we can get these things by studying books ourselves". Therefore, it is necessary for us educators to remember Kant's words: "Students should learn thinking activities, not the results of thinking." (P 159)

Education certainly needs authority, because "authority is as indispensable as the air people breathe" (P73), but the authority of education should not be power, but should be based on the free pursuit of truth, because "people's original thirst for knowledge" ... can only be experienced in freedom "(P 167). However, in the current school education, how many schools can really give students freedom? The established course objectives, the designated teaching materials, the fixed study plan, the rigorous examination and the ready-made answers make it impossible for students to talk about "freedom of learning" in the process of mechanically repeating and unthinking learning, while our educators seem to forget their real responsibility-teachers cultivate people, not produce products. In this regard, we can use Aristotle's point of view to refute this educational situation. "A fixed study plan reduces the danger that an individual has to experience on the road of finding his own spiritual development. However, without this spiritual freedom adventure, he lost the possibility of independent thinking, leaving only developed professional skills "(P 14 1), and" through a series of examinations, first, this way is very beneficial to all sentient beings who can't think independently, but for those with creative spirit, the examination means the end of free learning "(P