Philosophical Questions about Education; Clip 5 Video Lecture | Philosophy of Education: Introductory Course - Self Help Learning

all right let's go back to a statement
of our output goal here and add all
human being capable of functioning in
the real world we just looked more
closely at these two words here what it
is to be a human being now I want to
pick on three other words and just focus
on them and do the same sort of exercise
to pull out some philosophical
implications we're gonna pick in this
case the last three words we want those
human beings to be able to go forth into
the real world to leave the relatively
sheltered world of their parents home
and in the school alright so what's the
real world when we say we're going to
send students forth into reality what is
that thing okay lots of answers again
possible here but suppose we said the
following we say well in the real world
we know that there is there are things
like trees and there are rivers and
there are rocks which can hurt you if
you bang your toe on them there are
things like the weather there is looking
more broadly afield there are various
planets and beyond that there are
galaxies so we start from our immediate
environment here and scale out we might
also notice that in our immediate
environment there are other people
besides ourselves there are part of the
real world they develop various kinds of
technologies
so there are refrigerators and
automobiles and when we go forth in the
real world we need to know about those
things computers there are various kinds
of institutions school right being an
institution they're legal institutions
business institutions religious
institutions sporting institutions right
and so forth okay so we might then say
as one answer to the question when we
are preparing students for the real
world
we want them to be knowledgeable about
all of this and be able to navigate all
of this alright so this then is reality
okay that's a lot of complicated stuff
in there of course is that it is that
the whole story right of reality is it
the case that everything in here this is
something we can put in a under a
broader heading the natural world people
being a part of nature trees and
galaxies and so on being part of nature
and so what we're then doing as
educators is telling a very complicated
naturalistic story and preparing
students for dealing with the
complicated world right of nature but
end of story right there of course that
then immediately bumps us into a huge
philosophical divide between those who
say that is in fact the whole story we
can expand it to the number of things
that we include in this box here because
nature's is more expansive than just
this minimal list here but one side of
the divide is going to say just to focus
on this is to miss at least half of the
story and perhaps the more important
part of the story because the truth of
reality is that beyond nature or above
nature or behind nature is a more
important reality that is not anything
like this nature here that in fact there
is a realm that is superior to nature so
well that the super natural realm all
right and in that realm instead of there
being various sorts of complicated
physical and material types of things in
the supernatural realm what we have are
beings that are spirits or a single
spirit if we're monotheistic or Souls or
minds and so forth and that rather than
operating according to various kinds of
physical and mechanical laws as this one
does this operates according to mental
laws or laws of will or the laws of God
or the gods depending on the version
right
okay now this is of course the
traditional question in in philosophy of
whether God really exists or the gods
really exist and depending on how you
answer that question you come down on
one systemic side philosophically a
naturalistic side or you come down on
the side more religiously and
theologically the supernatural istic
side so is it the case really that the
important facts about reality are that
there is a God for example that God
created the natural world and governs
the natural world and so if we're
properly going to educate students and
in addition to or perhaps even more
importantly than getting them into a
right relationship with the natural
world and being able to deal with it is
getting them into a right relationship
with the supernatural world and putting
them in a position to be able to deal
with it now if we answer the question
that way that then is going to take our
educational system in one direction by
contrast if we answer the question the
other way we say look there is the
natural world that's reality
but the realm of super nature doesn't
exist there are no ghosts there are no
spirits there are no gods all of that is
a primitive belief that has been
outmoded say in the modern world and so
we are doing our students a disservice
if we teach them this stuff we're
interested in teaching reality and so
reality is the natural world and that is
what and only what our educational
system should be about now this in
philosophy is what we call an issue of
metaphysics when we're asking questions
of water but it is to be a human being
those were questions of human nature
this is a question of metaphysics and
this may be the first new piece of
terminology that you're being introduced
as you are you're listening in on this
course the term metaphysics comes from
the Greek meta Phocis and the idea here
is the the fuzes what we now call
physics is to look at reality or the
natural world and try to step back from
it that's the meta part to try to step
back from it and try to discern its
general features or what underlying or
fundamental truths can be said of all of
reality of whatever it is that we take
all of reality to be and so the question
then is do we see reality essentially in
mono terms and there's one reality the
natural world with all of its
complexities or is it the case that we
should see the world metaphysically in
dualistic terms that there is a natural
world but in addition to that beyond
that and more importantly there is a
supernatural world and we should stand
study both of those realities so the
educational implications of that are of
course deep one of the great battles in
philosophical history and I'm certainly
an educational philosophy as long as
we've been doing philosophy and
educating other human beings is this
divide between those who take that
essentially naturalistic approach to
reality and those who take an
essentially religious approach to
reality and having an informed opinion
on that as a professional educator is
absolutely a job requirement because
that's going to have huge implications
for almost everything that we do in our
educational system