PHILOSOPHICAL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

In Plato’s Republics and in his other writings we see a development of idealism.  According to him, every object of our experience is nothing but shadow.  That is saying that it is not in a pure state of reality.  Whatever we perceive is merely a poor copy of the reality that exists in another world which he designates as the world of Forms or Ideas.  Thus Plato’s Idealism talks of two worlds: the world of shadows and the world of Ideas.  The latter is replete with absolute perfection, real, unchangeable, universal and eternal realities whereas the former is the world of imperfect copies of things residing in the real world of ideas.  The implication is that every material thing must have its true copy in the world of ideas.  Idealist would say that even the pen you are having now is only an imperfect copy or a shadow of the ideal pen in the world Ideas.  Though there may ne various strands of idealism, the basic tenet is the emphasis that existence is explained in terms of the mind and its function.

Other Views on Idealism

Since Plato, there have been many understanding of idealism.  Descartes is one such Idealist.  He holds that the most important element in the nature of knowledge is mind or spirit.  This idea is beautifully expressed in his popular philosophical dictum.  Corgito ergo sum (I think, therefore I exist).  This idealistic statement has so much implication for Descartes who doubted the reality of anything having material nature and would only accept as reality the thought that he is thinking.  Bishop George Berkeley also advanced the school of idealism in modern times by his esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived) . What is real is that which can be perceived, what cannot be perceived is unreal.

To put it more correctly again, the central thesis of idealism is that true knowledge can be derived from reason alone since it is only the faculty of reason that can grasp or extract from material things their spiritual forms or essences.  The faculty of the senses provides the mind with imperfect, unstable and changing knowledge of physical objects.

 Educational Implication of Idealism

1.    For Plato, Education simply means stimulation of the mind to recall that which it already knows before its being in the world.  He taught that the soul I born with innate knowledge which it lost with contact with the material world (human body).  Thus the concept of school and education is to create an enabling environment where students are encouraged to recall and embrace the concept of the Good and the universal truth that already exist in their soul which has been forgotten.  An idealistic educational system would concern itself with ideas of things.  The goal of education should be connected with the lifetime work of searching for true ideas.  It should be to cultivate the human mind.

2.    Idealism prefers the world of the spiritual to the world of material things.  Thus, in education, effort is made to create an enabling environment for the orientation of the youngster towards spiritual things or toward ideas.

3.    As a result of the basic tenet of Idealism, educational curriculum is made of humanities (languages, literature, philosophy, religion, etc) and social studies.  These subject are idea-based.  Thus they are to awaken in students the basic ideas of the universe.  They help in the cultivation of the mind.  Not that idealist do not consider physical training, vocational training and sciences, they consider them but only in the subordinate manner.

Realism

Realism as a philosophy is traceable to Aristotle, the famous student of Plato, (384-322 BC).  He is acclaimed to be the father of realism just as Plato is believed to be the propounder of idealistic tradition in Western Philosophy.

The contention of Realism is that objects of our sensual perceptions are real in themselves, whether the mind perceives it or know it or not.  The basic tenet of realism is that reality and knowledge of things can be acquires independent of the mind that perceives them.  In other words reality is extramentasl and not intramental, i.e. it exists outside the mind and not within the mind as ideas.  The implication of the realist epistemology is that everyday experience is true knowledge.  “Our dependable knowledge if external reality is possible.  Physical reality asserts, as fact, that the actual sticks, stones and trees of the universe exist whether or not there is a human mind to perceive them”.  Ozmon & Craver (1995).  “The realist prioritizes a worl of ‘things; as opposed to a world of idea Jacobsen, (1842-1910).

Some of the proponents of Realism are Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), John Locke (1632-1704), American Philosopher-Psychologist, William James, (1842-1910), etc.

Realism is antithetical to Idealism.  It upholds that the view that matter is real and not shadows or “copies” of the real which exist in the spiritual/immaterial world.  In its proposition, realism says that our concrete materials world is capable of furnishing human mind with reality.  And these realities are independent of the perceiving  mind.  It is in opposition to \berkeleyan theory of esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived) which virtually equares existence with perception such that an object cannot be said to exist if there is no body or some ‘mind’ to perceive it.  Agudosi (2033:58)

Realism is like an umbrella term that covers many other philosophies which can be said to be sub-schools of realism.  These sub-schools believe that reality is perceptible, concrete and outside the mind.  Thus we have the following ‘Realisms’.

1.    Aristotelian Realism

2.    Scholastic Realism

3.    Natural or Scientific Realism

Aristotelian Realism:  This is also known as classical realism because it is the premier realism of western culture.  As the name suggests, it is an intellectual product of Aristotle.  He was a student of Plato, but disagreed with his master on what is the nature of human knowledge.  Do we actually perceive things the way they are, or do we perceive them as they appear to us?  That is to ask if the concrete data of our experiences are real or imaginary?  That is why he wrote on almost all the fields of human knowledge: poetry, rhetoric, ethics, politics, meteorology, embryology, physics, mathematics, metaphysics, anatomy, physiology, logic, dreams and so forth.

“Aristotle viewed reality as a uniting of both actuality (form) and potentiality (matter).  Both must be united in order for something to be real or to truly exist”, and that is the principle of his Aristotelian Hylemorphism.  All things are made of matter.  What makes one matter different from another?  It is the form (morphe), the differentiating or the individuating principle of matter.  It is evident that every object of our daily experience is made up of matter and form and it is this co-existence of matter and form in reality that Aristotle designates as Hylemorphism.  It is then the form that make something what it is, as against or different from what is not.  When both matter and form are not present, knowledge is not possible.

Aristotle described the relationship between form and matter with the Four Causes:

• Material cause – the matter from which something is made;
• Formal cause – the design that shapes the materials object;
• Efficient cause – the agent that produces the object; and
• Final cause – the direction toward which the object is tending.

Through these different forms, Aristotle demonstrated that matter was constantly in a process of change.  He believed that God, the Ultimate Reality held all creation together.  Organization was very important in Aristotle’s philosophy.  He maintained that human beings as rational creatures are fulfilling their purpose when they think, and thinking are their highest characteristic.

Furthermore, realism unlike idealism does not talk about dual world of matter and form in order to explain human knowledge.  For realists, there is only “a world” of reality.

Educational Implications of Realism

1.    Religious realists do not limit knowledge to the phenomenal world alone, but hold that knowledge acquired through the senses is real; rational knowledge does not form the entire domain of reality.  There is a being responsible for their existence.  The cosmos are real, and they point to the existence of a higher Being.  Furthermore, the study of God reveals that man always depends on God for his perfection and self-fulfillment. Therefore, education must recognize and incorporate this fact.  Okafor (1981) writes that this is the basic educational task of scholastics.  “The two domains (the natural and the supernatural) are complimentary elements in man’s effort towards the attainment of his ultimate self-fulfillment and complete actualization”.

2.    The scientific realism sees the environment and the training of the senses for perception as against empty memorization of abstract things.  It is a total rejection of the classical method whereby the child is made to memorizing knowledge by rote system.  The child is given enormous freedom to discover knowledge and is given freedom to think through situations rather than accepting authority as source of human knowledge.  One major criterion for knowledge here is the inductive method of observation, experimentation, formulation of hypothesis and laws which eventually form what is known today as scientific knowledge.  This implies that nay knowledge that cannot be verified inductively is committed to the flames, and more so are dogmas.  Education is better dome God-free.

Appreciable is the influence of Scientific knowledge to life.  It has actually advanced the welfare of man in the society.  But care must be taken not to reduce life to what can be tested, evaluated and decided in the laboratory.  Life is always larger than scientific logic.

Pragmatism

Pragmatism is generally viewed as American philosophy.  It emanated in the later part of the nineteenth century.  The proponents of this philosophical tradition are George Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910) and John Dewey (1839-1914) Pragmatism comes from the Greek word pragma meaning work. Pragmatists hold that activity or experiment is done first, and then on the basis of the result, principles and ideas derived. That is to say that the validity of any philosophical position is tested against its ability to solve current problem.  If a thing works in practice, them it is valuable, desirable, and should be upheld.  The implication is that nothing is absolutely good; everything is subject to change as situation demands.  “Both George Sanders Peirce and William James are often credited to have described pragmatism in part through the biblical allusion.  “By their fruits you shall know them”.  Hence pragmatism is also known as Experimentalism or consequentialism.

It should be noted here that the capacity of an action or theory to solve the problem of an individual does not qualify that action or theory as truth.  It must transcend the needs of an individual to the overall wellbeing of the community.  In other words, an action could be satisfactory to an individual but not for the state, such action is morally evil even though it works for the individual.  Another characteristic of pragmatism is that it does not make any extramental reference to any authority outside the activity that test for sustainability of any philosophical position.  For example in America today, abortion is legally upheld because it serves the individual and helps the state in the management of population size.  In this sense, it is “ok” by their law.  But should reference be made to absolute moral norm abortion would be found wanting and unacceptable.

It is, thus called Experimentalism because pragmatists believe in experiment as the only criterion of truth.  To them truth, reality, goodness and evil are all relative terms.  These concepts are not predetermined and absolute.  They are proved by man’s own experiences, Pragmatists also hold that whatever was true yesterday; need not be the same today.

Pragmatism is called Consequentialism because any human activity is evaluated in terms of its consequences or results.  Change is the basic factor of pragmatism.  No truth is absolute and permanent.  It is always changing from time to time and from place to place.  Pragmatists do not believe in fixed, eternal and absolute values of life to be followed in all times, places and circumstances.  To them, only those ideals and values are true which result in some utility to mankind in a certain set of times.

 The central positions of Pragmatism are schematized as follows:

1.     Faith in the present and future.

2.     Change is the only real thing.  Everything else is provisional in the sense that the usefulness of any theory is sustained as long as it serves the purpose.  Truth is formed by its result.

3.     Values are relative.  There is no such thing as ultimate value.

4.     Critical intelligence is of great importance.  Knowledge obtained at any point in time is never an end in itself but a means to an end.  That is the main idea behind Dewean Pragmatism as Philosophy Instrumentalism.

5.     Problems as the motives of truth.

Educational Implications of Pragmatism

Singh (2007) states that pragmatism is closely related to modern education.  It believes in change in education and opposes traditional education.  Only gaining of knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not the real aim of education.

This philosophy focuses on mental, religious and aesthetic modes of human activity.  Through activities, human being creates their own ideals and values.  Aspects of education should be suitable to human good and human growth.  According to pragmatists, educational process should promote human welfare.  Only flexible educational institutions can remain alive, active and satisfy the changing needs of the society and provide real experiences through activities.