philosophy of education

1. Unit # 5
GREEK PHILOSOPHERS’
PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION
Shahid Mobeen Ali Anjum
Resource Person
AIOU Islamabad
Whatsapp:03024251700

2. Philosophers
Socrates, 469-399
Believed that one arrives at the truth by questioningthe
assumptions on which all things arebased
Plato, 428-347
Student of Socrates
Aristotle, 384-322
Student of Plato

3. Greek Philosophy & Its Origins
Philosophy =love ofwisdom
Egyptians contemplated how the
natural world around them
worked
Early Greeks (time of Homer,
c.800 BCE) used mythological
stories to explain the natural
world
7th Century BCE –Greeks looked
for new, more practical
explanations

4. Socrates (469-399 BCE)
What little we know comes from his student, Plato and
his enemy,Aristophanes
Humble birth
Wrote nothing down
Founded no formal school –taught in the agora Believed
material things would not bring happiness Died for his
principles

5. So Many Questions…
What should we do? (i.e. how should webehave)
What is the meaning of life?
What is the meaning of happiness? Is
perfection possible?
What constitutes the good or justlife?
What is virtue?
How should a man best conduct hislife?

6. Socratic Method
Method of elenchus (i.e. rigorous questioning
technique)
Designed to “sting” people into realizing their own
ignorance
Provoke genuine intellectual curiosity
True knowledge gained only by constantly
questioning assumptions that underly all wedo
To achieve truth is to engage in a permanent stateof
critical thinking

7. THE DIALECTICAL METHOD
• Socrates did not wish to convince others about the
validity and correctness of his views.
• Rather he wanted that everybody should be;
• His own philosopher
• Should be critical and think for himself
• He was convinced that every person had in him the germ
for rational thought
• He wanted to draw attention of others to the crucial
significance of philosophy for the life
• The approach of Socrates is summed up in two words—
Dialectical Method.

8. Cont…
• According to Socrates, “Knowledge is virtue".
• Knowledge is vision of universal truths.
• To discover this knowledge Socrates used dialectical
method.
• He has nowhere given a systematic description of this
method.
• His style of developing philosophical ideas was unique.
• He would direct the course of conversation.
• This method was dialectical because to all proposed
meanings and definitions of concepts, Socrates would
bring out the defects in people and thus persuade his
debater to modify his definition to rectify the defects
pointed.
• At the end a really satisfactory definition was found.

9. SALIENT FEATURES OF
DIALECTICAL METHOD
Dialectical method as employed by Socrates
clearly displays the characteristics of
1. Methodological doubt;
2. Intellectual dialogue;
3. Semantic precision, and
4. Deductive and inductive determination of truth
5. Theory of knowledge
6. Theory of concepts
7. Reason and definition in knowledge
8. Knowledge and virtue

10. Fundamental Principles of Socratic
Education
1. Knowledge is the Goal of Life.
2. Virtue can be taught.
3. Virtue is one.
4. Virtue is Bliss.

11. Legacy
Socrates used the claim of wisdom as his moral basis
Chief goodness consists in the caring of the soul
concerned with moral truth and understanding “Wealth
does not bring goodness, but goodnessbrings
wealth and every other blessing, both to theindividual and
to the state”
“Life without examination (dialogue) is not worth
living”
“Iam a citizen of the world”
“Iknow nothing except the fact of my ignorance”
He would want you to evaluate society and your own life
regularly!

12. Plato (429-347 BCE)
The “idealist” or “dreamer”
Born into a wealthy family in the second year ofthe
Peloponnesian War
Name means “high forehead”
Student of Socrates
Left Athens when Socrates diedbut
returned to open a school called theAcademy in
385 BCE
Wrote 20books, many in the dialectic style (a
story which attempts to teach a specific
concept) with Socrates as the maincharacter

13. Plato’s Ideas
Idealist, believes in order and harmony, morality and self-
denial
Immortality of the soul
Virtue as knowledge
Theory of Forms –the highest function of the human soul
is to achieve the vision of the form of thegood

14. Aim of Education
• According to Plato, man's mind is always active.
• Man is attracted towards the things all around.
• The educator should take advantage of this tendency
in the child and educate him.
• He should pay attention to the objects which
surround the child.
• The process of education advances through this
constant interaction.
• Human individual requires positive environment not
only in infancy but through his entire life.

15. Cont…
• According to Plato, the process of education is never
complete.
• Plato has laid the greatest stress on mental development
in education.
• Education aims not merely at providing information but
at training the individual in his duties and rights as a
citizen.
• In Plato's opinion, the aim of education is human
perfection
• He suggests a curriculum which comprehends all
subjects.

16. Curriculum of Education
1. Bodily Development.
2. Educational Impressions.
3. Training in Music.

17. Role of Educator
• Educator is considered to have the greatest importance.
• He is like the torch bearer who leads a man, lying in a dark
cave, out of the darkness into
• the bright light of the outside world.
• His task is to bring the educand out of the darkness of the
cave into the light of the day.
• In his methods of teaching Plato believes imitation to be of
the greatest importance, for he realizes that the child learns a
great deal through imitation.
• He will acquire the behaviour of the people among whom he
is make to live.
• Keeping in mind the status of the child, he should be made to
live among people from whom he can learn good habits and
avoid bad ones.

18. Education According to Classes
• Plato's plan of education does not envisage uniform education
for one and all.
• He accepted the concept of social stratification, and suggested
that since different individuals had to perform different tasks
in society, they should also be educated differently,
• He believes in individual differences
• Faced with the problem of determining the class of each
individual, Plato suggested various kinds of tests to be
conducted at different age levels.
• The successful individual will occupy the highest position in
the land, his word will be the law of the land.
• It is evident that Plato granted the highest place to philosophy
in his educational scheme.

19. Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
• Born in BC 384 in Stagira.
• Joined the famous ‘ACADEMY’ of the
greatest philosopher Plato at the age of
17 year.
• In BC 347 left ACADEMY.
• In BC 342 became the tutor of
Alexander the Great .
• In BC 335 ESTABLISHED
‘LYCEUM’.
• Died in BC 322 in Euboea.

20. ARISTOTLES’S PHILOSOPHY
1. Direct observation of Nature
2. Gave importance to Historical Consciousness.

21. AIM OF EDUCATION
• “The aim of education was not only the attainment of
knowledge but also the attainment of happiness or
goodness in life’’
• “The aim of education was the welfare of the individual.
so as to bring happiness in their lives’’.
• Education is essential for the complete realization of
man.

22. ARISTOTLE’S SCHEME OF
EDUCATION
• The early education is the responsibility of parents.
• Further education is the responsibility of the state.
• At the same time parents are responsible for the
moral development.

23. ARISTOTLE’S CURRICULUM
GYMNASTICS :
• To develop sportsman spirit and to develop good habits
for the control of passions and appetites.
• Music and Literature for the moral and intellectual
development.
• Recommends Mathematics for higher education.

24. ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF
EDUCATION
• Aristotle agrees with Plato on the division of Greek education
into stages corresponding with level and years of schooling .
• He disapproves with Plato’s communism in education .
• In the communism system every individual is moulded in a
single pattern .
• Aristotle is of the opinion that any individual in the state ,
should be given opportunity to develop his talents to the full ,
without any impediment to his progress without censorship
on the type of books he reads or the opinion he holds.
• Aristotle believed that since state is a organic unit and since
the state is to be ruled by men who have been brought ,
through education to a vision of the true form of highest
goodness.

25. ARISTOTLE’S METHOD OF
TEACHING
Aristotle suggested two types of method
1. Deductive Method
2. Inductive Method

26. Legacy of Greek Philosophers
Taught us how to think
Provided a great deal of insight into the natural world
Provided many of the most profound and meaningful
answers to the great philosophical questions that have
befuddled humans since the dawn of civilization
Provided a comprehensive, valid, and reliable method by
which we could test whether or not a given idea is true

27. Reflect
Reflect on Aristotle’s view on education and apply it to the
21stcentury and what education’s role in our society today.