Write an essay on relevance of educational philosophy of any Indian education philosopher?
Answers
Explanation:
One of the important aspects of educational philosophy is
that it helps to construct a comprehensive system of
education. During different periods, India has witnessed
various stages of development. New priorities have
emerged in education with the influences of monastic
scholastic, realistic, idealistic and pragmatic trends. While
education institutions have evolved, there remain several
gaps between the philosophical ideals proposed by
educational institutions and their everyday functioning.
The paper brings forth the urgent need to bridge the gaps
in order to attain a comprehensive philosophy of
education, in principle and in action. The authors posit
that the Indian philosophy of education, normatively
speaking, could extend the culture and tradition of the
philosophical positions of Mahatma Gandhi,
Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Swami
Vivekananda. Such an approach could help in developing
an integrated approach of teachers towards education and
assist in strengthening their role in shaping the inner
potential of a learner in a constructive manner.
Hope it will help
Answer:
The Indian philosophical tradition has one of the longest continuing histories in the civilisations of the world. Beginning with the hymns of the Rig Veda, the tradition continues to this day, covering a wide array of positions and arguments. Noting the broad goals of this volume, my discussion begins with a brief historical exposition of the tradition, followed by the identification of three philosophical topics that can be fruitfully taught in schools, and ending with a consideration of the philosophy of education from the perspective of Indian philosophy.
The Indian Philosophical Tradition: A Brief Historical Exposition
The concerns of Indian philosophy begin with the Vedic tradition. Of the four Vedas—Rig, Atharva, Sama and Yajur—the Rig Veda is most imbued with philosophical resonance. In this text, a collection of hymns composed over a stretch of time, one can distil three distinct metaphysical positions that attempt to give an account of reality. The first position, polytheism, posits a transcendent realm populated by multiple gods,each representing a natural force. The second position, christened kathanotheism by scholar Ninian Smart (1996), operates within a broadly designed polytheistic structure but posits nonetheless that one god rules supreme over the others. In this shift, one can discern a philosophical move that economises the horizon of the transcendent through a gradual privileging of the one over the many. Thirdly, in the developmental history of the Rig Vedic hymns, the Nasadiya hymn (the Hymn to Creation) proclaims that the gods came after creation and that the highest of the gods may or may not know the answer to the mystery of creation (The Rig Veda, trans. O'Flaherty, 1981). Crucially, this hymn injects an attitude of scepticism into early Indian philosophical thinking and, perhaps even more importantly, erases the earlier Vedic inscriptions about the transcendent in order to reopen the question of Being. The open-ended critical spirit of the philosophical enterprise can be located in these early hymnal texts, whereby positions are developed and then critically dismantled to make way for further thinking.
The second important textual constellation, collectively called the Upanishads, attempts to rethink the question of Being in a way that avoids the posture of theism, namely, the belief in god, singular or multiple. The fundamental thesis of the Upanishadic literature posits a structure of reality that grounds the empirical reality of everyday cognition. A pure level of consciousness underlies and holds together the flux of subjective (psychological) and objective (physical) realities, called Atman and Brahman respectively. These metaphysical notions, immensely important for the later development of Indian philosophy, are articulated in the Upanishads in non-theistic lines as they are impersonal entities not to be confused with the personality-endowed gods of the Rig Veda. Brahman, the foundation of the world, is also conceptually different from the supreme singular God of monotheism because such a being, unlike in the Upanishadic position, is also invested with a personality albeit replete with the qualities of omniperfection of potency, knowledge and benevolence. Indeed, the transcendence of Brahman is such that it cannot be captured in the texture of language: “neti, neti”, not this not that, is the Upanishadic descriptor of Brahman. Further, in a seminal philosophically charged move, Brahman and Atman are identified in a famous phrase “Tat Tvam Asi”, translated as “You are that”. The phrase takes the idea of singularity to its logical conclusion: at the deepest level of reality, there is no metaphysical distinction to be made between subjectivity and objectivity. “Aham Brahmasmi,” the Upani shads magisterially states in another juncture: “I am Brahman.” The thesis that reality is one (monism), of course, generates its particular problems and issues, which were systematically taken up at a later time by the Vedantic school of Indian philosophy. The Rig Vedic and the Upan ishadic texts comprise the horizon against which the great drama of India's philosophical thinking is played out.
Classical Indian philosophy is best understood in terms of schools of philosophy, each characterised by a set of philosophical commitments.1 Debates and arguments took place within and across these schools of thinking, leading to the enlargement and refinement of ideas on various issues. The schools in turn are divided into two groups: the orthodox and the heterodox. The former term picks out the schools that do not fundamentally reject the Vedic—Upanishadic position, whereas the latter term picks out those schools that are in sharp disagreement with that orientation.