INTRODUCTION
Education
and philosophy are closely inter-related. Philosophy is love of knowledge and
education is acquisition of knowledge. Philosophy is the corner stone of the
foundation of education. Education is practical activity of philosophical
thought. Without philosophy, education would be a blind effort and without
education, philosophy would be crippled. Philosophy answers thousands of
questions pertaining to the whole field of education.
Philosophy of education can refer to either the academic field of applied philosophy or to one of any educational philosophies that promote a
specific type or vision of education,
and/or which examine the definition, goals and meaning of education.“The art of
education will never attain complete clearness without philosophy’’ Fichte.
“Education is the Dynamic side of philosophy’’ James Rose.
Idealism is the oldest
philosophical thought. Human life has two dimensions- Spiritual and Material.
When the emphasis is on the spiritual life, it is called Idealism. The word
idealism is derived from two distinct sources- the idea and the ideal. Idea
means true and testified knowledge. The word ideal stands for the perfected
form of an idea or ideas. An idealist does not have considerations for material
values of life. A thinker who idolizes ‘Mind and Self’ is an idealist. Protagonists
of idealism are- Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Burkley, Kant, Fitche,
Schelling, Hegel, Green, Gentile (the Western); From Vedas and Upanishads to
Aurobindo Gosh (the Eastern philosophers).
DEFINITION OF IDEALISM
To make the meaning of Idealism more
clear give below some important definitions as given by eminent scholars-
i.
“Idealism holds that ultimate reality is spiritualism.’’ D. M. Dutta
ii.
“Idealistic philosophy takes many and varied forms, but the
postulate underlying all this is that mind or spirit is the essential world
stuff, that the true reality of is of a
mental character’’ J. S. Ross
p
p
iii.
FUNDAMETAL PRINCIPLES OF IDEALISM
The
fundamental principles of idealism are as under-TWO FORMS OF THE WHOLE WORLD
Idealism believes in two forms of the
world-(1).Spiritual world (2).Material world.
Idealists give more importance to spiritual world in comparison to
the material world. They believe that spiritual world is real and the ultimate
truth where as the material world is transitory and mortal. To know the reality
of the spiritual world is to know the reality of mind and soul. It is a sort of
self- realization – the main aim of human life. According to Horne- “Idealism
holds that the order of the world is due to the manifestation in space and time
of an eternal and spiritual reality.”
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According to Idealists, knowledge of
mind and soul can be obtained through ideas only. Hence, they have given more
importance to ideas over the objects and material or later. In the ideas are
realities and ultimate entities of the material world. In the words of
Plato-“Ideas are of the ultimate cosmic significance. They are rather the
essences or archetypes which give form to cosmos. These ideas are eternal and
unchanging.”
IMPORTANCE OF MAN OVER NATURE
To Idealists, man is more important
than material nature. It is because man can think and experience about material
objects and material phenomena. Hence, the thinker or the one who experiences
is more important than the object or the phenomena experienced. Man is endowed
with intelligence and a sense of discrimination. Thus, he is not a slave of the
environment as animals are, but the moulds and transforms the environment for
his on good and welfare of the society. In short, he creates his own world of virtue
and his creativity achieves higher and higher levels of art in many areas. The
following words speak this truth-“The spiritual and cultural environment of
man’s own making, it is a product of
man’s creative activity.” – R. R. Rusk
FAITH IN SPIRITUAL VALUES
According to Idealists, the prime
aim of life is to achieve spiritual values. They are- Truth, Beauty and
Goodness. These spiritual values are undying and permanent. The realization of
these values is the realization of God. In the pursuit of these absolute values
man rises higher and higher in the moral plane till he attains Divinity. For
the achievement of these spiritual values of all the capacities of man are to
be harnessed to the full. These capacities are – knowing, feeling and willing.
By the fullest use of these capacities man can achieve the highest spiritual
values and thus realize his true and ultimate self. J.S. Ross also
opines-“Goodness, truth and beauty are seen to be absolutes each existing in
its own right and entirely desirable in it.”
IMPORTANTS OF PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT
Idealists give much importance to
the Self of the individual. Hence, they insist upon the fullest development of
the personality of an individual. According to them the development of
personality means achievement of Perfection. Plato rightly speak that each
individual has an ideal Self. He tries to develop that ideal Self more and
more. This is self- realization in the true sense of the term. It may be noted
that self -realization means knowledge of the self or soul. The self
-realization can only be achieved in society. In short, Idealism believes in
the welfare of whole human community.
FULL SUPPORT TO THE PRINCIPLE OF
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
Idealists give full support to the
principle of Unity in Diversity. This underlying divine force maintains the
existence and working of all entities. Idealists call this power as God, the
Supreme Force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. Realization of this Supreme
force in one’s Self is to attain divinity and fullest development of
personality which may be called spiritual fulfillment.
IDEALISM AND AIMS OF
EDUCATION
The following are the aims of education
according to the philosophy of Idealism.
3.1
SELF REALIZATION OR EXHALTATION
OF PERSONALITY
According to Idealism, man is the
most beautiful creation of God. Hence, the advocates of Idealism lay great
stress on the exhalation of human personality. By exhalation of human
personality, they mean self-realization. Self-realization involves full
knowledge of the self. Hence, the first aim of education according to Idealism
is to develop the ‘Self’ of the individual higher and higher till
self-realization is achieved.
3.2
TO ENSURE SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Idealists give greater importance to
spiritual values in comparison with material attainments. Thus, according to
them, the second aim of education is to develop the child mentally, morally and
above all spiritually. Thus, the teacher should so organize education as to
develop the child spiritually.
3.3
TO CULTIVATE TRUTH, BEAUTY AND GOODNESS
Idealists assert that to develop
spiritual values in the individuals, pursuit of highest ideals namely- Truth,
Beauty and Goodness should be encouraged more and more. The more an individual
realizes these ideals, the more spiritually developed he will become. Hence,
education should strive its utmost in developing the child morally and
spiritually so that he achieves self-realization.
CONSERVATION, PROMOTION AND
TRANSMISSION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
The cultural heritage is of immense
worth and value. It belongs to whole humanity and it is the purpose of
education to preserve, deserve, develop and transmit it. It is for education to
acquaint the child with cultural heritage so that he conserves, promotes and
transmits it to the rising generation. This is done through the process of
self-estrangement.
CONVERTION OF INBORN NATURE INTO
SPIRITUAL NATURE
Idealists hold the view that the
inborn instincts and inherent tendencies of the child should be sublimated into
spiritual qualities and values. This is real development of the individuality.
Only then, it will be possible for the individual to attain fullest and highest
development of personality.
PREPARATION
FOR HOLY LIFE
In the words of Frobel “the object
of education is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolable and hence holy
life”. This may be possible by developing courtesy i.e. politeness good
breeding, urbanity, docrum, modesty, respect for public opinion, liberty etc;
Justice i.e. honesty, speaking truth, integrity, uprightness etc; respect for
low.
DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE AND
RATIONALITY
Adams has defined education from the
point of view of an Idealist. According to him there is a purpose in all
objects and natural phenomena. He has further said that the world is planned
and well-organized. There are set principles working in this creation. An
Idealist always tries to discover and understand this principle so that on the
basis of moral elements the world remains organized.
EDUCATION TO THE LEVEL OF
CAPACITY
The individual aim of education has
been clearly expressed by Sir Pery Nunn; “Nothing good enters into the human
world except in and through the free activities of individual men and women,
and the educational practice must be shaped to accord with the truth’’.
‘Education’, therefore must serve for everyone “the conditions
under which individuality is most completely developed’’.
IDEALISM AND CURRICULUM
While structuring curriculum,
Idealists give more importance to thoughts, feelings, ideals and values than to
the child and his activities. They firmly hold that curriculum should be
concerned with the whole humanity and its experiences. These experiences can be
imbibed by two ways namely- (1) from the physical environment and (2) from
contacts with other fellowmen. In this way, in an Idealistic curriculum, both
the scientific subjects as well as the humanities are included. In the
following discussion we are throwing light on the ideas of Plato, Herbart, Nunn
and Ross about curriculum.
A.
PLATO
Plato was staunch idealist. According
to him, the aim of life is to realize God which is possible only by pursuing
high ideals namely Truth, Beauty and Goodness. These high ideals can be
attained by three types of activities namely intellectual, aesthetic and moral.
B.
HERBART
According to Herbart the Idealistic
aim of education is the promotion of moral values. Hence, he gave prime
importance to subjects like Literature, History, Art, Music, Poetry, together
with other Humanities and secondary place to scientific subjects.
C.
NUNN
Views of Nunn about curriculum are
also based on the philosophy of Idealism. According to him, it is the function
of schools to promote and maintain morality and the historical tradition to
preserve and develop its achievements more and more. This is possible only when
the school includes those activities and subjects in its curriculum which
reflect the achievements of human culture and civilization. Hence, Nunn
emphatically advocates the inclusion in the curriculum, those attainments which
reflect the highest creations of human mind and those activities which involve
the noblest expressions of human ingenuity and creative intelligence. Nunn has
divided these activities into two categories: (1) Physical, Social, Moral and
Religious and (2) Literary and Aesthetic.
D.
ROSS
He holds the view that one can
develop spiritually when he is developed physically and these are both
important for physical skill and health education. He wanted to teach physical
exercise, intellectual exercise with the help of literature, language, history,
geography, science and mathematics along with ethics for moral development. For
spiritual development he wanted aesthetics to be taught with fine arts and
religion with religion and metaphysics.
IDEALISM AND TEACHER
In the realm of Idealism, the role
of teacher is very important and glorious. Idealistic philosophy believes that
this planned creation has two parts-(1) The teacher and (2) The child as
student. Both aims at one target only- The development of the individual child
in a spiritual way. The realization of this great aim is possible only through
education and the essential agent, the teacher. In reality an Idealist teacher
is imbued fully with high degree of self-knowledge, self-dynamism and essential
qualities of spiritualism. By his own model of life, he tries to shape the
individuality of the child to a life of purity, virtue and great achievements.
He creates a wholesome conducive atmosphere by his own activities and planned
experiences for the child. He guides the child with such genuine love,
affection and sympathy that he attains his full mental and spiritual
development. J. S. Ross aptly remarks- “The Naturalist may be content with the
brains, but the Idealist wants fine roses. So the educator by his efforts
assists the educand, who is developing according to the laws of his nature to
attain levels that would otherwise be denied to him.’’
IDELISM AND TEACHING METHODS
The aims of Idealism are concrete
and definite. But there is no specific method for achieving them. Socrates used
Question-Answer method Plato emphasize Discourse Method and Aristotle advocated
Inductive-Deductive method. In the works of Hegel, Logical Measuring is
evident.
Descrates employed the device of
Simple to Complex. Pestalozzi laid stress on education of the physical
organs and allied activities. Herbart advocated Instruction Method. Frobel
insisted upon Play – way Method. Not only this, other Idealists advocated many
more methods namely – Discussion, Lecture, Talk in groups. In this way,
according to Idealists no specific method is to be adhered to. In their opinion
any and every method may be employed to realize the ideals set and determined
before. Butler has rightly remarked – “Idealists consider themselves as
creators and determiners of methods, not devotees of someone method”.
IDEALISM AND DISCIPLINE
Discipline is to be inculcated
through morals for which the following needs to be remembered.
·
Moral education is training in habits and not an inculcation of
mere theoretical views.
·
A mechanical virtue, in which a youth exercise a minimum moral
choice and obeys an external rule prescribed for him, is to be inculcated. In
this lowest species of moral discipline the youth learns self denial and self
control. There are to be inculcated as an elementary base of moral code of
discipline.
Lack of discipline in a school scope the moral character of the
pupil. It allows him to work merely as he pleases, and he never can reinforce
his feeble will by regularity, punctuality and sympathetic industry. He grows
up in such a way that neither he does unreasonable and nor allows others to do
so.
Too strict discipline undermines moral character by emphasizing
too much the mechanical duties and especially the phase of obedience to
authority, and it leaves the pupil in the state of perennial minority. He does
not assimilate the law of duty and makes it his own. The law does not touch his
heart but is on his lips only. He fears it but not love it. The tyrant teacher
produces hypocrisy and deceit in his pupils. Even when there is simple implicit
obedience in the place of fraud, there is no independent character development
to take correct decision.
The best help that one can give to his follows is that which
enables him to help them. The best school is that which enables the teachers to
help themselves. The best instruction is morality makes the pupil a law up to
himself.
IDEALISM AND SCHOOL
School is a place where the
capacities of logical thinking, reasoning and evaluating of the child are
progressively sublimated and developed by teachers and the school environment
into desirable channels so that high spiritual ideals and values are gained.
Such noble mission, according to Idealism may be achieved through proper
guidance of teacher given in school. Hence, Idealists considered school and its
impressionistic environment as greatly essential
EVALUATION OF IDEALISM
Proper evaluation of Idealism is
possible only when one reviews its merits and demerits in greater detail.
DEMERITS OF IDEALISM
The common criticism regarding
Idealism is that it is an abstract and vague doctrine. It avoids the present
realities and prepares the child for the next world. It is concerned with the
ultimate end of life. It avoids the real problem day to day living. Education
should be such as to make individuals capable to solve the problems to confront
them from time to time and are able to lead happy and contented life. Idealism
lays more emphasis on thinking and mental activities. This increases the
importance of intellectualism unnecessarily. It emphasizes upon the achievement
of immortal VALUES NAMELY, Truth, Beauty and goodness. These values are not
absolute. Idealistic education gives more importance to teacher in relation to
the child. Modern psychology emphasizes the prime and central importance of
child. Idealistic methods of teaching
emphasize cramming and rote memory. In modern education, these methods are
given little importance. In idealistic education humanities are given greater
importance for the spiritual development of the child, while the present age of
science lays great stress upon scientific subjects in the curriculum.
MERITS OF IDEALISM
In the realm of aims of education,
Idealism has made signal contribution. It is only this philosophy wherein a
detailed exposition of aims has been emphasized. Idealistic education
emphasizes the inculcation of highest values namely, Truth, Beauty and
Goodness. This will lead to the development of a moral character of the child.
It aims at self – realization of all individuals by one’s own efforts. Hence,
it promotes universal education. In the process of idealistic education, the
teacher assigned a very important role. The teacher influences the child by his
high ideals of life and by his sympathetic encouraging behavior. This achieves
the fullest development of child’s personality. Idealism respects the
individuality of the child and tries to stimulate his creative energies. Thus,
Idealism has influenced other philosophies as well. Idealism emphasizes the
principle of self-discipline. This principle leads to the development of the
‘Self’ of an individual. Because of the Idealistic philosophy and education,
the school has grown into an important social organization.
The above discussion clearly shows
that Idealism has merits as well as demerit. In the present world of today
which is full of stresses, strains, conflicts, envies and material struggles,
the need of idealistic education is greatly essential for peaceful living of
human beings devoted to social good and national welfare.
CONCLUSION
Idealism is basically a
philosophy of life and it has exercised, like all philosophies of life, a
general rather than a specific influence on education. In philosophy it has taken
many forms but all of them agree to the view that the universe is an expression
of intelligence and will; that there are certain absolute and eternal truths of
life; that the ultimate reality is in the nature of mind rather than in the
nature of mater. The latter is perishable and changing; it is an external
manifestation of a reality which is not affected by the phenomenon of change.
Through the whole of the universe is running a spirit which along is a reality,
and knowledge of and reconciliation with that spirit of the individual’s soul
is real knowledge. That is the real truth. Appreciation of that truth in its
various forms is real art- a thing of real beauty. Conformity of the human will
with the moral administration of the universe is real goodness. The difference
between idealism and materialism is fundamental-whereas idealism regards mind
as the sole explainer of reality, materialism regards that as a phenomenon of
matter.
Idealism lays emphasis on the study
of all subjects but stresses the importance of literature, ethics and religion
which are recognized to that degree by other philosophies. The teacher has a
very important role in education for it is he who leads the individual from
darkness into light and who helps him to exalt his personality. As a philosophy
idealism with its old form has been sometimes dubbed as rigid and conservative
but the modern idealistic outlook is broader and the world is fast realizing
how a rejection of the eternal values of life is creating a vacuum into which have
crept in so many evils and which may be ultimately fatal to the whole
civilization. In India idealism in the form of spiritualism was developed very
early as the sole philosophy of life and throughout the ages the same
philosophy has kept inspiring the Indian mind and evoking a reverence for it.
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