Question

Discuss the relationship between philosophy and education

Answer 1

Relationship between philosophy and education
There is a wide and close relationship between education and philosophy. Both
philosophy and education are integrally and independently related to each other.
The following are a few viewpoints that establish the relationship between
philosophy and education:
View of Ross: “Philosophy and education are the two sides of the same coin;
the former is the contemplative while the latter is the active side”.
View of John Dewey: John Dewey endorses the viewpoint of Ross when he
says, “Philosophy is the theory of education in its most general phase”.
Fichte’s view: “The art of education will never attain complete clearness
without philosophy”.
Spencer’s view: “True education is practicable to true philosophers”.
Gentile’s view: “Education without philosophy would mean a failure to
understand the precise nature of education”.
Education is dependent on philosophy due to following reasons:
Philosophy determines the real destination towards which education has to
go: Philosophy has always inspired educational theory as well as practice. It
determines the real destination towards which education has to go.
In the words of Dewey: “Education is laboratory in which philosophic
distinctions become concrete, and are tested”.
Philosophy is wisdom; education transmits that wisdom from one generation to
the other. Philosophy represents a system of thought; education embraces that
thought in the content of instruction. Philosophy embodies a way of life;
education is the preparation for life. Philosophy is the knowledge obtained by
natural reason; education is the development of that reason and other powers of
mind.
Philosophy determines the various aspects of education: Every aspect of
education has a philosophical base. There is no aspect of education – aims,
curriculum, methods, text books, discipline, teacher etc. which is not influenced
and determined by philosophy. Height and breadth of education is probed by
philosophy. It is philosophy which provides aims to education and these aims
determine the curriculum, the methods of teaching, the text books, the role of
the teacher and the school discipline.
Great Philosophers have been great educationists also: Great Philosophers
have been great educationists in the East as well in the West. We can find the
clearest examples of the dependence of education on philosophy in the lives and
teachings of all the great philosophers from Yajnavalka down to Gandhi in the East and from Socrates down to John Dewey in the West. Philosophers like
Gandhi, Tagore, Radhakrishnan, Aurobindo Gosh, Plato, Socrates, Locke,
Comenius, Rousseau, Froebel and Dewey have been great educators. They
reflected their philosophical views in their educational schemes. Socrates have
given the world his “Socratic method” (Method of questioning & cross-
questioning) of teaching; Plato, the Republic, the first educational classic.
Rousseau, the great French philosopher, held that education should “follow
nature”. John Dewey of America took keen interest in solving the educational
problems of his country. Gandhi ji is the father of Basic Education. In the words
of Ross “If further agreement is needed to establish the fundamental
dependence of education on philosophy, it may be found in the fact that on the
whole great philosophers have been great educationists”.