In education, what is the importance of philosophy?
A philosophy of education is a system of thinking about what education is for and how it should be done.In order to know how best to do something, you need to be very clear about what it is that you are trying to accomplish.At first glance, the idea of a philosophy of education seems a little like “well, DUH - it’s teaching the students!”But - what do we teach them? How to do a job? To be good citizens? To think for themselves? To cooperate with leaders? To focus on science? To focus on civics? Art? Philosophy? To balance their lives or throw themselves entirely into what is most important? Important to whom - the student? parents? leaders? experts? Which leaders? Experts in what?And here is the problem: The answer to almost every question of that type is YES. But there are a limited number of hours in a day, and for some of those, YES implies NO to another.For example, in teaching math, we can either give students the exact method to do something, or we can guide them to discover the method for themselves. The first is much faster, and leaves more time for practice. But students forget what they have been told, and remember what they have discovered for themselves. And the process of discovering procedures for themselves trains them to be ready for new challenges.Another philosophical question in math education: do we let students use technology, or do we require them to calculate by hand? Calculating by hand develops speed and efficiency in basic calculations, but takes time that could be used learning more advanced math. And using technology is how they will do math outside of school.Questions like these come up often in teaching and in discussing education. By thinking carefully about these questions ahead of time, we are able to act on, and explain, our best ideas and most important values in the moment. When a student is struggling and a parent is asking why you aren’t doing things the classical way or why you aren’t using the latest fad, you need to have already thought about it. You need to know why you are doing what you are doing, and neither “because that’s how we always have always done it” nor “that’s what this book says we should do” is good enough.
What is your philosophy of education?
I believe that beyond teaching just the subject alone, the purpose of teaching children is to give them ALL the skills they will need to be successful adults. This means using research-based methods to teach the course content, yes. But it also means helping them learn the social expectations of our culture, teaching them how to work with others, how to solve problems, how to cope with failure (that's a biggie!), and so on. Their learning these skills along with the core content contributes to their future success within our society and thereby contributes to the success of the society itself. What you've shared are the MEANS by which you hope to teach them. But you haven't really shared WHAT you think you're teaching them or WHY.
What is the importance of philosophy in our society in future?
The Importance of PhilosophyPhilosophic thought is an inescapable part of human existence. Almost everyone has been puzzled from time to time by such essentially philosophic questions as "What does life mean?" "Did I have any existence before I was born?" and "Is there life after death?" Most people also have some kind of philosophy in the sense of a personal outlook on life.Even a person who claims that considering philosophic questions is a waste of time is expressing what is important, worthwhile, or valuable. A rejection of all philosophy is in itself philosophy.By studying philosophy, people can clarify what they believe, and they can be stimulated to think about ultimate questions. A person can study philosophers of the past to discover why they thought as they did and what value their thoughts may have in one's own life.There are people who simply enjoy reading the great philosophers, especially those who were also great writers.Philosophy has had enormous influence on our everyday lives. The very language we speak uses classifications derived from philosophy. For example, the classifications of noun and verb involve the philosophic idea that there is a difference between things and actions. If we ask what the difference is, we are starting a philosophic inquiry.Every institution of society is based on philosophic ideas, whether that institution is the law, government, religion, the family, marriage, industry, business, or education. Philosophic differences have led to the overthrow of governments, drastic changes in laws, and the transformation of entire economic systems. Such changes have occurred because the people involved held certain beliefs about what is important, true, real, and significant and about how life should be ordered.Systems of education follow a society's philosophic ideas about what children should be taught and for what purposes. Democratic societies stress that people learn to think and make choices for themselves. Nondemocratic societies discourage such activities and want their citizens to surrender their own interests to those of the state. The values and skills taught by the educational system of a society thus reflect the society's philosophic ideas of what is important.
What impact did the Ancient Greeks have on Philosophy?
Answer The modern world owes so much to the early Greeks that it is difficult to describe more than one or two issues in any depth. One of the key areas where Greek philosophy has influenced Western ideas is in religion, and one of the most strongly contested is the meaning of the human soul. When science and philosophy started to grow in Greece, many different ideas about souls developed: Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, believed that any object that moved itself under its own power showed evidence that it had a soul. Democritus, who introduced the idea of atoms, proposed that the soul is made of very mobile spherical atoms. Others thought that the soul was a gas or liquid. The weakness of these early attempts to explain the soul in natural terms allowed more spiritual explanations to be proposed: The early Greek cult of Orphism taught that a person is a combination of a soul of divine origin and a body of a much lower nature. During the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, Socrates greatly increased the importance of the soul by treating it, rather than the body, as the real person Plato, possibly influenced by Orphism and Pythagoras, maintained that the soul is spiritual, immortal, and has no parts. He believed the soul is the source of one's mental activities and that it causes the body's movements. He regarded the soul as superior to the body and the most important part of a person. His ideas about the soul had a great influence on early Christian theologians. For Aristotle, body and soul are more of a unity. Christianity has long debated the nature of humanity and the relationship of body and soul. This debate has been strongly influenced by the Greek philosophers, particularly Plato and Aristotle. Augustine, one of the most influential Christian theologians, was strongly affected by Plato's ideas on the soul. But, around the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas adopted Aristotle's ideas and introduced a more unified picture of body and soul, rather than the easily separable body and soul advocated by Augustine and Plato. Then, In the seventeenth century René Descartes shifted church thinking back towards Plato's position of a dual human nature. It is the Descartes model that most now associate with the human body-soul relationship.
What jobs can I get as a philosophy major?
Hey Young Jaguar, What ever job you get you will love the wisdom. The value of philosophy is quite high. On the light side, comedian comes to mind. Unlike medicine, law or veterinary science, philosophy is not a vocational degree – it does not provide automatic entry into specific professions in the non-academic workforce. But your philosophy degree can still be of great benefit when joining the workforce. Studying philosophy will have provided you with an advanced level of generic skills that are immensely useful in a wide range of jobs, in such diverse fields as Journalism and Media, Government and Public Administration, Computing, Law, Education and Research. As a student of philosophy, you will have picked up the following generic skills and attributes: the ability to analyse and evaluate arguments. Philosophy teaches you to be able to distinguish between good arguments and bad arguments, irrespective of their subject matter, and thus to be able to make informed decisions and recommendations on contentious issues. clarity of thought. Philosophy helps you to separate distinct issues, consider them independently and think out the consequences of positions on them. This makes the philosophy graduate an effective learner; you will have the general skills for thinking about problems and tasks, and framing and evaluating solutions. advanced communication skills. Philosophy graduates have had to meet very exacting requirements in communicating their ideas, both in written and oral form. You will have learnt how to frame, express and convey ideas, your own and other people’s, in a clear and convincing way. breadth of vision. Philosophy graduates are accustomed to being exposed to new and confronting ideas, and have an appreciation of the value of different perspectives on life, society and knowledge.
How did the Enlightenment influence the American Revolution?
The period of enlightenment was a period when people started to reason and question the order of things. everything was questioned even down right to religion. one of the most important Philosophes whose writing influenced the American revolution was John Locke. one of the ideas of John Locke- the idea of Natural rights (life, liberty and property) was fundamental to the American declaration of independence, which stated that “…all men… are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;…”. Hence when king George III started imposing taxes on them and punishing those who went against the various Acts , they saw it as an attack on their human rights.Also Locke and Rousseau’s ideas on social contract helped shape the minds of the leaders of the American revolution thereby affecting the revolution itself. in Rousseau’s social contract he argued that the only good government was the one freely formed by the people and guided by the “general will” of the society. John Locke in the Two treatises of government also argued that government should rule based on the consent of the governed. These ideas of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau formed the basis for the American revolutionary movement of popular sovereignty.Locke furthermore said in the two treatises of government that the citizens had a right to revolt against whatever government failed to protect their rights. It could be said that Thomas Paine an American who wrote the pamphlet titled “Common Sense” in 1776 drew his idea from Locke. He attacked the monarchy in his pamphlet and insisted that common Americans had the ability to be their own kings and were far more deserving of leadership posts than those who had worn English crowns. this idea was also reflected in the declaration of independence document wrote by Thomas Jefferson “…that whenever any form of government becomes destructive … it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it…” Hence the Americans felt the need for a revolution to “abolish” the government that had become “destructive”.