Philosophy article

Abstract:

Philosophy is composed of a few different branches, metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology, and together they attempt to answer three questions:

• What is the nature of reality?
• What is the nature of knowledge?
  
• What is the nature of values?

Philosophy can also be broken down into four different philosophies that will be described in the following paragraphs, concentrating on their educational implications.

Idealism:
For idealists, the world of the mind, ideas and reason are most important. They stress mind over matter and that knowledge includes understanding ideas and concepts. They also feel that values are important and rank values from least to most importances. Idealists believe that the purpose of school is to promote spiritual and intellectual, with the overarching goal of each student achieving Ultimate Truth. Much of the idealist curricula includes eternal ideas and include studying great works from the past.

Realism:
Realists hold matter as primary, meaning that things are more important the ideas. Realism stresses physical things and our experience with them. As opposed to Idealists emphasis on God, Realists believe everything is governed by scientific laws. Knowledge is based on perception, rational thinking and sensing. Realists believe that the purpose of school is to teach intellectual and moral virtues in order for students to grasp the concept of the causes of things. A Realists curriculum stresses teaching the basics such as mathematics, science, language, literature and history. Teachers are supposed to model observation, reasoning and experimentations for the students who they view as having the capacity to understand the world of things.

Pragmatism:
Pragmatists believe that truth is not a predetermined answer, but instead can be determined through experiences. Using scientific inquiry, testing and questioning, knowledge can be obtained but no conclusions are ever determined as the one truth. Pragmatists desire morally good consequences and use testing methods as experience to build their values. It is said that Pragmatists view school as demonstrating a democratic society. They build curricula that integrates multiple subjects. Typical instructional methods include learning by doing, problem solving and experimenting with hands-on activities. The student is seen as a active being who is interacting with their environment while the teacher is viewed as a model for the students, showing reflective thinking.

Existentialism:
Existentialist believe that existence, choice and responsibility are of the most importance. Existentialists believe there is no purpose of our existence and because of this belief, we must create our own meaning. It is our own choice to develop our own reality. School's purpose, determined by Existentialists, is to teach students to be responsible and to instill the idea of self-discovery and freedom of choice. Curricula emphasizes the individual learner in a student centered curriculum with the ultimate goal of reaching personal truth.


Reflection:

Overall, I do not think there is one philosophy out of the four that I relate to more than the others. There are parts of Pragmatism and Realism that I relate to more often than the others. I like the idea that the Pragmatists believe that nothing is an absolute truth, instead it is what we make of it from our experiences and testings. The pragmatists believe teacher demonstrates but the student is really in charge of their own learning. I like the Realists idea of teaching the basics, mathematics, science, language, literature and history, but I do not think those should be the only subjects. It is important to include the other subjects. I agree with the Pragmatics view of integrating multiple disciplines. The student being an active being interacting with his/her environment, the Pragmatists view, can be used along with the Realists ideas, the whole time achieving the Existentialist idea of personal truth. Based on values, I agree with the Pragmatism view of testing methods as experience to build their values by reaching desired morally good consequences. I think I must read through this article multiple times and do more research of each before I can fully choose one philosophy as best fit for me. If I had to choose one this minute, I guess I would choose Realism, based on it's ideas of physical matter and logical thinking.