IDEALISM AND EDUCATION

Introduction

  • The oldest systematic philosophy in Western Culture which was developed by Plato
  • Idealists trust that ideas are the true reality whereas the material world are portrayed as changing and unstable.
  • These exploration of point of views can be categorised as three areas : Platonic Idealism,Religious Idealism and Modern Idealism (with their characteristics)
  • Socrates
  • Challenged the material concerns of the comtemporaries.
  • Questions the others about their "unexamined" lifestyle.
  • Assume himself as a kind of person who criticize others and stimulated them into thinking.
  • He was also brought to trials for his beliefs.
  • Approched his ideas through question & answer base

Platonic Idealism

Idealism As A Philosophy Of Education

Aims of Education

Search for true ideas

Character development

Develop the mind

Self-realization

Critique of idealism in education

idealism is considered as conservative or even antiquated

it preserves much of lasting triths and cultural traditions

the strengths of idealisms are:

  • high cognitive level of education that idealist promote
  • concern about safeguarding and promoting cultural learning
  • importance for morality and character development
  • teacher as a personal central to the educational process
  • belief in the importance of self-realization
  • stress towards human and personal life

Preservation and transmission of culture

Preparation for whole life

  • Plato
  • An admirer of Socrates ,largely known for his writings in which Socrates was his idol in all of his works.
  • According to Plato,only truth is perfect and eternal hence cannot be found in this world of materials which is changing and imperfect.
  • An example of this is Mathematics,which shows that eternal truths are possible.
  • The search of the truths
    should never be failed no matter in any field such as society,politics and education.
    -The Republic
  • Plato wrote about the separation of the world of material and ideas.
  • People need to overlook on the issue and find the truth in order to find the solution
  • Allergy of Cave
  • We ourselves are are living in a cave of shadows and illusions.The day we start to loosen ourselves from those chains,it is the beginning of the education.
    In Plato's view,people cant create knowledge but can discover them.
  • A leader should have no interest on materials but do things in sense of duty or responsibilities.
  • Plato influenced all philosophers about his tremendous ideas.

Methods and curriculum

Subject-centered

Based upon the spiritual nature of man

Role of the Teacher

in education it is mainly of passing on the cultural heritage

Judge important material

Model appropriate behaviour

To serve as a guide for immature learners

Expected to be an excellend

Thomas Jefferson founded the first secular university (University of Virginia)

the development of science has brought challenges to idealistic principles

idealism has been a strong significant in education

cultural herritage and lasting values futher edroded traditional idealist position

many idealist contained in traditional language

idealism react strongly what they feel conservative nature of idealism

Werner Heisenberg told that one cannot accurately measure the same position of a subatomic participle

Modern Idealism

Idealism had become largely identified with systematization and subjectivism

RENE DESCARTES

George Berkeley (1685-1753 C.E)
• all existence depends on some mind to know it:
if no minds exist, then for all intents and purposes nothing exists unless it is perceived by the mind of God.
• Philosophical realism - that material world exists independent of mind

Religious Idealism

Idealism has exerted considerable influence on religion

historical decline of idealism influence traditional religion

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Augustine 350-430 C.E

Concept of Good : God
Concept of Evil ❌ : Adam

Learning must come from within and all true knowledge comes from God.

Intutive approach to education

He believed that God already created knowledge,and people can discover it through trying to find God.

Augustine believed that senses were unreliable and that belief in God results ultimately on Faith
"We must first believe in order that we may know"

Meditation and faith

Two worlds : man (matter) - bad good

Religion - Good as Universal Good
Idealism -Truth as Universal Good

He contributed much to philosophical realism and other thought system.For current purposes, the significant works of Decartes be considered are his celebrated Discourse on method and meditations on first philosophy.

IMMANUAL KANT

Freire used Hegelian dialectics to analyse the relationships between self-consciousness and social consciousness

idealist philosophy may be conformity and subservience on the part of the learner

J. Donald Butler, emphasise the self-realisation aspect of character education

Plato Republic and Education

Plato has figured if we were en lighted or unenlightened

he shows Socrates attempting to explain how achieving higher levels of thought

Plato demonstrates the painful difficulty of the ascent toward wisdom and its potentially dangerous consequences

scholars believe that the story parallels Socrates’ life and death.

Kant believed that education is “the greatest and most difficult problem to which man can devote himself.

This education concept shows how various result should they give

Children should only be taught those things which are suited to their age

There are punishments in positive and negative way

children should be able to ought open heart and be happy

children sometimes need to take some break or else the joy in the will be squeezed

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  • Plato- Idealists made attention for the need of the education
  • Donald Butler- theory
    -practice of education
  • Bronson Alcott- belief spiritual is real and material things are illusions
    -importance of intuitive knowledge

DAVID HUME

• he discovered 3 conditions are crucial to forming causal impressions :

  1. Cause & effort must be contiguous in space & time
  1. Cause must occur prior to effort
  1. There must be a constant connection between cause & effect.
  • so, basic mechanisms of association formation may have just as much to say about causality detection in
    human beings as they do about conditioning in animals.
  • the purpose of this lesson is we should have a brief idea of how moral thought has developed over a perid of time


  • he encounters that, the moral law which itself does not require a justification, proves not merely the possibility if freedom but that really belongs to beings who recognize this law as binding on themselves.

Josiah royce - he discovered the external meaning of a thing depends entirely on its internal meaning " embodiment of purpose".


  • " ideas are essentially purposes or plans of action & that the fulfilment of ideas is found when they are put into action.

George milhelm

Friedrice hegel - he has been called the " Aristotle " of modern times, & he used his system of dialecticts to explain the whole of the history of philosophy, science, art, politics & religion.

  • he said that, he believes that we are born lacking self-conciousness then come to awareness of ourselves as self.So, what is the process of becoming the self?

How does a human being come to conciousness of itself as a self?

It's through confrontation with the other.