Card 6.3 · Root VI — The Philosophy of X Family
Philosophy of Education
Is education filling someone up, or drawing something out?
Philosophy of education asks what education is for, what should be taught, and what the relation between teacher and learner ought to be.
Where it sits
Under VI. Philosophy of X. Borders 3.2.3 Character-based approaches, 3.4 Moral psychology, 6.4 Political philosophy.
The rival answers
| Position | Education is |
|---|---|
| Transmission | Passing on a body of knowledge and skill |
| Liberal education | Formation of a free mind, valuable for its own sake |
| Progressive | Growth through experience; the learner's activity is central |
| Critical pedagogy | Developing the capacity to question existing arrangements |
| Vocational | Preparation for productive work |
| Confucian cultivation | Formation of a person through ritual, text and relationship |
| Tarbiya and ta'lim | Nurture of character alongside transmission of knowledge |
Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confucius | trad. 551–479 BCE | Chinese | Learning as self-cultivation, not accumulation |
| Socrates | c. 470–399 BCE | Greek | The method of questioning; the midwife image |
| Al-Ghazali | 1058–1111 | Islamic | Ordering of the sciences; knowledge and its purpose |
| John Dewey | 1859–1952 | Pragmatist | Education as growth through experience |
| Paulo Freire | 1921–1997 | Brazilian | The banking model criticised; dialogical education |
| R. S. Peters | 1919–2011 | Analytic | Education as initiation into worthwhile activities |
Connections
→ 6.4, 3.2.3 · ↔ 3.4, 2.2.4, 6.7, 6.31 · ◇ liberal education, progressive education, critical pedagogy · ○ Axial Age; Islamic golden age; Modern; Table 7
→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 252.
On Coordinates of Thought
Conversations about this question in Education:
- Eighteen and on a gap year: should I read the philosophers themselves or an introduction first? 6 replies
- Teaching non-European philosophy as live positions, not museum pieces 6 replies
- Freire’s banking model is unfair to the lecture, and to the teachers who give good ones 6 replies
- Reading group: Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan as a book about learning without teachers 6 replies
- Adab, and the humanism that rarely gets the name 5 replies