Compare the perspectives of Greek and Western philosophers on education
Question:
Compare the perspectives of Greek and Western philosophers on education.
Answer:
Greek and Western philosophers have different philosophies in education. Greek philosophers are:
- Socrates
- Aristotle
- Plato
Western philosophers are as follows:
- John Lock
- John Dewey
- Herbart
Greek philosophers
Different Greek philosophers are as follows:
Socrates: SOCRATES Born in Athens in 469 B.C. he was a great philosopher. Socrates was the son of poor parents. His father was a sculptor and his mother a midwife. His main topics of discussion were moral aims and ideals and virtues. His range of knowledge and discussion covered almost all aspects of life, theoretical as well as practical. He was not interested in the physical world. Socrates recognized the unscientific nature of the methods of the sophists, his own method was essentially systematic and founded on general principles.
Aristotle: he was born in 384 B.C in Stagira, a city of Greece, Aristotle had a silver spoon in his mouth right from his childhood. His father was the court physician. Aristotle entered the famous Academy of the great philosopher Plato at the early age of 17 years. He stayed there for almost 20 years as a student and a teacher. After the death of his master Plato, Aristotle left the academy and started traveling. He was called by king Philip to look after the education of his son Alexander the Great.
According to Aristotle, “what we meet first is pleased best, for which reasons children should be kept strangers everything” According to him there are two stages of education, from 7 years of age to puberty and from puberty to 21 years of age.
PLATO Plato was born in 427 B.C he was the son of noble parents. He first studied music, poetry, painting, and philosophy with other masters and became a pupil of Socrates in 407 B.C., remaining with him until the latter’s death. He founded a school in the groves of Academus, the Academy, where he taught mathematics and the different branches of philosophy, by means of connected lectures. The life of Plato can be divided into three ages.
- first age he received the education
- He lived with Socrates for eight years
- received instruction and ideas in different fields of human
Aims of Plato is that man must have to remain active all the time and observe things around him. If the objects are beautiful then the child is automatically attracted to that object.
Western philosophers
JOHN LOCK: John Locke was born on 29 August 1632 at Wrington in the county of Somerset in the southwest of England. His father was a lawyer and small landowner. However, at the age of 15 in 1647, he was sent to Westminster School in London. He was a hardworking boy and in 1650 was elected to a King’s scholarship.
Locke’s purpose is to examine nature and human knowledge. He believed that it is important to know about children they’re thinking their mind their needs and all. According to Locke, food and dresses for children should be planned first.
JOHN DEWEY: John Dewey, greatest recognized as the most outstanding philosopher his country has yet produced, made significant contributions to virtually every field of philosophy as well as to such other areas of inquiry as education and psychology.
According to him, a reflective inquiry is most important to identify problems and provide solutions. Experience is also most important near Dewey such as the experience of nature.
HERBART: Herbart was born in 1776 in Germany. His parents were educated. Hence, the early education of Herbart was accomplished by his mother. This so much inspired child Herbart that he began to write about spiritual subjects from his early childhood. Herbart was the first person who combined Ethics with Psychology and gave rise to new educational science. With the help of Ethics, he formulated the aims of education with Psychology. he laid stress upon the methods of teaching. Herbart against the prevalent Faculty Psychology and, developing new psychological Ideology. Herbart had established that the mind is made up of three parts namely:
(1) Knowing
(2) Feeling
(3) Willing
Discuss in detail classical and modern philosophies in relation to education