Assignment No .

Name: Muhammad Shahid Iqbal Khan

Roll # CB648498

Course code: 8609

Program: B.ED (1.5 YEARS)

Semester: Autumn 2021

Subject: Philosophy of Education

ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY,

ISLAMABAD
Question .No.1.

Explain the different branches of philosophy.

Answer :

Different branches of philosophy

These branches of philosophy are as follows:

(1) Epistemology
Philosophy is the search for knowledge. This search is critical. Hence, the first problem which
arises before a philosopher is about the nature of knowledge and its limitations. Therefore,
epistemology is the most fundamental branch of philosophy. It discusses philosophically truth,
falsehood, validity of knowledge, limits of knowledge and nature of knowledge, knower and
known etc.

(2) Metaphysics
This is the study of existence, reality or essence. Its main branches are as follows:
I.Cosmogon
This is a study of creation. Is the world created, or is it eternal? How was world created? Why
was it created? Who created the world? What is the purpose in creation? All these are the
problems of cosmogony.
II. Cosmology

These main problems of cosmology are: Is the world one or it many, or is it both one and many?
III. Ontology

Ontology is the study of ultimate reality. Is the reality one or is it many or is it both one and
many? If reality is many, what is the relation between these many elements? All these are
ontological questions.
V. Philosophy of self

This is mainly concerned with the philosophical analysis of self. What is self? What is its
relation with the body? Is it free of does it depend on the body? Is it one or many? All these are
problems of philosophy of self.
VI. Eschatology

The discussion of the condition of soul after death, the nature of the other world, etc., form the
subject matter of this branch of philosophy.
(3) Axiology
This branch of philosophy philosophically studies value. It has been divided into the following
three branches:
(i) Ethics

Ethics discusses the criteria of right and good.

(ii) Aesthetics

Aesthetics discusses the nature and criteria of beauty.

The subject matter of logic includes the methods of judgment, types of proposition, hypothesis,
definition, comparison, division, classification and fundamental laws of thoughts, etc.

(4) Philosophy of Sciences

This branch of philosophy is concerned with the philosophical examination of the postulates and
conclusions of different sciences.

(5) Philosophies of Social Science

The philosophical problems in different social sciences give birth to different branches of
philosophy of which the main are as follows:
(i) Philosophies of Education
This is concerned with the aim of education and the basic philosophical problems arising in the
field of education.
(ii) Social Philosophy.
This branch of philosophy discusses the philosophical basis of social processes and social
institutions.

(iii) Political Philosophy

This branch of philosophy is concerned with the forms of government, forms of state and other
basic problems arising in the political field.

(iv) Philosophy of History

The subject matter of this branch of philosophy is the nature of historical process, its purpose
and its relations with the cosmic process.

(v) Philosophy of Economics. This branch of philosophy studies the aim of man's
economic activities and the fundamental problems arising in the economic field.
Besides the above mentioned branches of philosophy based on sciences, there may be certain
comparatively lesser branches of philosophy such as philosophy of physics, philosophy of
commerce, philosophy of physical education, philosophy of marriage, philosophy of family etc.
These, however, are not sufficient to form independent branches of philosophy.

(6) Semantics
The most important branch of philosophy, according to the contemporary school of Logical
Positivism, is semantics which is concerned with the determination of the meanings of different
words used in different languages .

Question.No.2.
escribe the curriculum designed on the basis of idealism.

Answer :
Idealism and Curriculum:
Explaining the idealist bases of curriculum as the imparting of spiritual and cultural heritage to
the child along with his self and personality development, Herman H. Horne writes,
"It is better to centre education in ideals for children and the race rather than in children
themselves. After all children are immature, dependent and plastic members of the race.
They are often irrational in their individuality."
As Socrates said in effect to the sophists,
 "Not man but reason is the measure of all things, not individuality but universality, not
percepts, but concepts. Ideals are the norms for all human experience, including that of
children.
 After all, it is still true that obedience to just law is a virtue, that following physical laws
leads to health, that truth is something to be discovered, rather than made, that conformity
is a large element even in creativity, that repression is a necessary phase of expression.
 Under the influence of paidocentrism (what a hybrid), self-expression may easily become
self-explosion.

 "Idealists insist on emphasis being placed on the study of humanities such as literature,
art, religion, morality, etc., along with the teaching of science.
  All the elements necessary for attaining God are included in the curriculum suggested by
idealistic followers of Plato, who laid down that education must aim to realize the ideals
of truth, beauty and goodness.

 Hence, he has suggested the inclusion of all those subjects or disciplines which help in
the realization of these ideals.

Significance :
Most significant among man's activities are the intellectual, the aesthetic and the moral. The
teaching of language, literature, history, geography, mathematics and science will encourage
intellectual activity while the aesthetic impulse can be reinforced through art and poetry. Moral
activities can be taught and instilled in the educand through the teaching of religion, ethics, etc.
This curriculum is determined on the basis of the goals to be realized through education and by
the criterion that it must reflect the experience, culture and glory of the human race.
Man's experiences relate not only to his physical or natural environment but also to his social
experiences, knowledge of which can be obtained through a study of the natural and the social
sciences.
James Ross, the educationist, has classified human activity in two groups

physical actions and spiritual activity

Physical activity includes the entire range of actions relatingto bodily welfare and to motor skills.
The teaching of these must also be a part of education and they can be taught through physiology,
exercise, medicine, hygiene, etc.

Spiritual activity
 comprehends all intellectual, ethical, aesthetic and religious activity, all of which can be taught
through history, geography, science, mathematics, language, ethics, art and religion.
 Herbart, the idealist philosopher of education, grants these subjects the main place in the
curriculum because these subjects can contribute more than any other to the spiritual progress
of man.
 But this is the shortcoming of the idealistic philosophy because it does not attach any
significance to the teaching of science.
 Herbart points out that the part that literature and history can play in the spiritual
development of man, cannot be played by science.

For that reason, scientific subjects such as the natural sciences, mathematics and even history and
geography are granted a secondary role.
T.P. Nunn, another educationist,
has glanced at the idealistic conception of the educational curriculum, and has remarked, "The school is
to consolidate the nation's spiritual strength, to maintain its historic continuity, to secure its
achievements, and to guarantee its future".4 In order to achieve all these goals, education in the school
should consider two kinds of activities. In the first group fall such activities which create conditions by
which the individual and social life is ensured and maintained, and this can be done through physical
health, customs, social organisations, ethical conduct, etiquette,religion, etc.

Education must provide opportunities, therefore, for physical training, ethics, religion, etc. The second
group of activities is the one which is more important outside the sphere of the school. In this group lie
those activities which maintain the cultural life of the community because they are creative. In order to
evolve skills for such activities, educationists advocate teaching of literature, art, music, various kinds of
handicrafts and manual skills, sciences, mathematics, history, etc.

Hence the curriculum must be so designed that it can help to acquaint the individual with his social and
cultural heritage and also to enable him to make some positive contribution to this heritage.

Nunn writes,

 "In the school curriculum all these activities should be represented. For these are the grand
expression of the human spirit, and theirs are the forms in which the creative energies of every
generation must be disciplined if the movement of civilization is to be worthily maintained.”

Question.No.3.
Which philosophy is behind the child centered classroom/ Justify with
examples.
Answer :
The Aim of Education
The aim of education, according to existentialism, is the realisation of inner truth. Contemporary
mechanical and industrial life has alienated modern man. He is full of anxieties, frustrations, fears and
guilts. He is lonely though in the crowd. His individuality is being corrupt. The education should make
him realise his subjective consciousness. The existential aim of education is humanitarian and humanist.
It aims at self-realisation. It provides knowledge of self- existence.

Child-Centred Education:
Existential education is child-centred. It gives full freedom to the child. The teacher should help the child
to know himself and recognise his being. Freedom is required for natural development. Education
should convert imperfection into perfection. Education should be according to the individual's needs
and abilities of the child. The relation of the child to himself should be strengthened by education.
CurriculumExistentialist's approach to education is almost an inversion of the realist
approach. In the field of curriculum while the realists exclusively emphasise science, the existentialists
find out that science and objective education severes our relation with ourselves. Science cannot help in
inner realisation and achievement of peace. This, however, does not mean that science education
should be ignored. It only means that besides science the curriculum must include humanities, ethics
and religion. In keeping with this viewpoint contemporary engineering colleges have included some
philosophy, ethics and social studies, in their curriculum. Without this synthetic approach to curriculum
the aim of character formation and personality development will be defeated.

Discipline
As in the case of curriculum and educational methods, the naturalist philosophers oppose the traditional
concepts of discipline. And more than anything else, they oppose the method of physical punishment for
they believe that this gives rise to undesirable conflictin the child. Rousseau has written, "Children
should never receive punishment.

Freedom
Is not power is the greatest good." If the child makes a mistake he will get his reward

from nature itself, and thus he will learn to distinguish between the right and the wrong through the
consequences of his own actions. For this reason the child should be given every liberty. To the
naturalist, liberty does not imply freedom to interfere with the activity of others. The child can never be
independent in this sense because he is controlled by many rules and laws which unconsciously or
consciously operate in his mind. Only external and obvious discipline should be done away with. All the
work of school administration and organisation should be left to the educand, for then he will learn to
make the rules and to obey them.

Respect of discipline
 is sought to be instilled in the child's mind through natural consequences. Spencer writes,
"When a child falls, or runs its head against the table, it suffers a pain, the remembrance
of which tends to make it more careful; and by repetition of such experiences, it is
eventually disciplined into proper guidance of its movement".
 But, there is a limit to learning through this method. In fact, very often the child is not
able to reason out the relation between his various actions and the total consequences.
 As a result, he repeats even the harmful activity many times. And, hence, in such a
situation, as Dewey has hinted, it becomes necessary to scold the child, to caution it, or
even to punish it.
 As T.H. Huxley observes, "Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the
blow first, but the blow without a word. It is left to you to find out why your ears are
 boxed".2 Hence, it is not enough to abandon the child to learn for itself through these
natural consequences of his actions.
 They do play a significant role in his training, but it is necessary to caution him at times.
He should be warned against certain kinds of activities.

 The system of reward and punishment has been found effective everywhere. But it must
be remembered that the value of the naturalist concept lies in that it hints at the
shortcomings of excessive external discipline, although there is no doubt that the theory
is definitely one-sided.

Question.No.4
Compare the aims of education proposed by naturalism and pragmatism.
Answer :
Aims of Education:
oncerning the aims of education, naturalists adopt a biological and evolutionist attitude. Even
among the different forms of naturalism one finds a variation in the objectives assigned to
education. Mechanical naturalism suggests that education should aim at the efficiency and
perfection of the human machine. But this concept does not represent completely the naturalist
school. Biological evolution uses education to ensure the proper adjustment or adaptation of the
child to his environment. McDougall points out that education aims at the transformation,
synthesis and sublimation of instincts. Darwinists argue that education must train the individual
to struggle successfully for his own survival. Lamarck and his followers agree with the concept
of biological evolution, because for them also the aim of education is to adapt to the
environment.

On the other hand, Herbert Spencer believed education to be a preparation and a training for the
complete life.

Contribution of Naturalism to Education

Like other systems of philosophy of education, naturalism has also made important contribution
to education. It made education paidocentric, psychological, free, self-dependent, related to
nature and society, based upon developmental psychology, democratic, multisided and natural to
the stages of development.
These points may now be discussed in detail.
1. Paidocentric education

 In the naturalistic conception of education, the child is in the forefront while all other
things such as the educator, the books, the curriculum, the school, etc., are all in the
background. Sir John Adams called this the convention pop of paidocentric
education.
 Naturalism stresses the fact that education should be guided by the nature of
the child, that the natural inclination of the child is always good.

 Rousseau said, "Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of
Nature but everything degenerates in the hands of man".
 It is, therefore, argued that the child is naturally invested with all goodness, and all that is
necessary is to protect him from a defective environment. He must be provided with the
kind of environment which will encourage him to develop his innate goodness, his
natural sense of the beautiful.
 He must be enabled to avoid the ugly, to manifest the natural truth inside him so that he
can combat the falsity which is thrust upon him by the defective environment. In this
process, the educator can perform only the function of the guide. Naturalists are not
inclined to transform the child's nature through education or to apply to him the standards
of the adult.
 Education according to them, is not the preparation for life but life itself.
 Children should live like children, because infancy has its own significance, and it is not
meekly a stepping stone to adulthood. The child is not to be prepared and made ready for
his future, but instead to be allowed to enjoy the present. Munro opines that Rousseau
was the first to state the principle, that,
"Education finds its purpose, its process and its means wholly within the child life and
the child experience".
In this manner, it can be summarized that education is the process of living a natural life
and moving towards evolution, because the child has within himself the germs of
evolution.

2. Emphasis upon psychology.

 The influence of naturalism was the cause of the psychological tendency gaining so much
prominence in the field of education. By stressing the fact of the child's nature, it
emphasised the importance of natural development.
 And, in order to determine what is natural and what is abnormal in child development,
the naturalists turned to the psychologists. Thus it came to be understood that education
must study the child and observe him.
 Many psychological researches have established that the child is not a young adult, thathe
has a distinct psychology which differs from adult psychology. It has been established
 that the child's mental activities of thinking, memory, imagination, recall, learning, etc.,
all differ from similar activities in the adult.

Pragmatism in Education:
Pragmatism emerged as the twentieth century revolution against the nineteenth century
rationalism, dogmatism, universalism and monism, etc. On the basis of their philosophy,
pragmatists refuted the doctrines of other thinkers in the sphere of education and presented their
own novel propositions. Some of the more important pragmatic concepts are the following:

1. Importance of human effort

Pragmatists believe that education depends upon the active participation of the child. The entire
form of the universe is based on human effort and man is the architect of his own destiny.

2. Faith in the future. The pragmatic thinker is convinced of the brilliant and prosperous
future of the human race. He believes that by making continuous and dedicated effort in the
sphere of education, man can create a better adjusted and more powerful generation.

2. Empiricism. It is suggested that,

at every stage of education, the educator and the educand should refer every fact to his own
experience and interpret it in that light. Only then can the new piece of information become a
part of his life. Hence, only vocal or verbal education is not enough. It cannot be sufficient until
it is based on and related experience. For this reason, pragmatists believe that the child should be
given oral instruction, but this instruction should be supplemented by experience in the fields
related to each particular subject.

3. Experimentation
Pragmatic philosophy believes in continuous experimentation in every aspect of the educator-
educand relationship and in every sphere of education
These experiments will reveal many new facts which can be useful in modifying the curricula,
educational methods, aims of education, etc. Seen from this viewpoint, the school itself is a
laboratory in which the educator is continuously experimenting.
This approach of the pragmatic thinkers has given immense encouragement to educational
psychology and child psychology, both of which have experienced remarkable progress.
 4. Dualism
Concerning the aims, methods, curricula, etc., of education, pragmatism adopts a dualistic
approach. It demands that every educator is to base his education on his own experience and
philosophy, while every educand is required to acquire an education in keeping with his own
specific inclinations, interests and abilities.

5. Stress on practical success

The only criterion of the propriety of teaching methods, aims and curricula is the individual's
success in later life. Only those principles of education are connect which take the educand to
success. Our only aim is to satisfy our natural desires and to develop life. All that assists in this
process is true and good, and knowledge of this truth can be obtained only through experience
and experimentation.

Question.No .5 .
Comment on the statement? Intuition is a source of subjective knowledge?

Answer :
INTUITION:
Intuitive Knowledge is the ability to utilize and acquire knowledge without the use of reason;
that science is now facilitating and helping explain. It is the faculty of knowing without the use
of rational processes. It is the most personal way of knowing. It is immediate cognition or sharp
insight. It occurs beneath the threshold of consciousness.
Intuitive knowledge is based on intuition, faith, beliefs etc. Human feelings plays greater role in
intuitive knowledge compared to reliance on facts. Intuitive knowledge involves direct and
immediate recognition of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas. It yields perfect certainty,
but is only rarely available to us. Intuition as a mode of knowledge develops on the basis of
immediate apprehension. Bertrand Russel (1912) claimed that all our knowledge of truth
depends upon our ,intuitive knowledge.

According to Ezewu, intuitive way of knowing is that which involves an immediate insight
or eruption into consciousness of an idea produced by a long process of unconscious work. This
simply means that intuition is a way of knowing something that one cannot really explain
because it transcends ordinary sense experience or reason.
Intuition may occur as a sudden arrival of solution to one’ s problem or puzzle, having worked
for some hours or days without arriving at such solution. It may also come in the form of quick
guess of solution to a problem presented by another person. Intuitive knowledge cannot be
verified by the senses or the intellect. The true knowledge that comes from beyond the intellect
and that is the intuitive knowledge.

Everybody has got this ability and we have experienced in our life this gut feeling, knowledge
from somewhere, which you cannot really make out what it is. How many of you have ever
experienced? See everybody. Somewhere you feel this is the right thing to do and something
happens in your tummy. And that knowledge comes up at that time but then we don’ t honor it.
Many times we stick onto the intellect or sensory perceptions.

 Sometimes your intellect says this is wrong what I am doing, but you don’ t listen to the
intellect you keep doing the wrong things
 . How many of you have this experience? What you do? You stick on to the sensory and
ignore the intellectual knowledge.
 And then what happens? You sometimes go beyond your intellect. Your intellect is
saying something but your inner gut feeling is saying something else.
 And you’ re feeling says no, there is something different, something more. And we
ignore that and we stick onto the intellect.
 That’ s how many times your judgments have found to be a failure.
 How many of you feel your judgments have been wrong?
 But sometimes, beyond your judgments you have seen and you have taken a step and
have been happy about it.
 In spite of your intellect saying ‘ no’ , something says ‘ yes’ . Something else triggers
and that is what happens when there is faith and that’ s when the faith comes up you
know.
 Chudn off (1985) said that according to Descartes
we can best learn how mental intuition is to be employed by comparing it with ordinary
vision,’ ’ and throughout his writings he characterizes intuition by drawing analogies
between it and perception. There are various such analogies one might draw: one might,

for example, compare intuitiveand perceptual phenomenology, or intuitive and perceptual

justification. The intuitive knowledge is beyond intellect. The intellect plays on it and
develops it further. Intuitive knowledge is a belief that amounts to knowledge because it is
based on an intuition.
Intuitive knowledge being highlighted not because of what it comes from but because of what it
leads to-namely, cognition of particular things which can give us an especially powerful hold on
the truth that all things are in God. Intuitive knowledge is supposed to be greater, finer, higher,
than the mere exercise of reason; but we are not clearly told why.

 It is said that there are certain truths of which definitions cannot be given; that cannot be
demonstrated by syllogistic reasoning; that must be grasped intuitively.
 The practicing politician censures the abstract theorist who lacks a lively intuition of
how things actually are.
 The educational theorist stresses, first and foremost, the need to assist development by
educating the faculty of intuition.
 The critics holds himself honor bound to set aside, when confronted by a work of art, all
theories and abstractions and to judge it by intuiting it directly.
 The practical man, finally, professes to live more by intuitions than by reasoning.
 But to this ample recognition that intuitive knowledge receives in ordinary life there
does not correspond an equally adequate recognition in the field of theory and
philosophy.
 Of intellectual knowledge there is an ancient science-Logic-the existence of which
everybody admits without bothering to debate the matter; but a science of intuitive
knowledge is barely and timidly admitted by only a few.
 Logical knowledge has taken the lion’ s share, and even when it does not actually kill
and devour its companion outright, it concedes to it only the humble and lowly position
of handmaiden or doorkeeper.-For what on earth could intuitive knowledge be without
the light of the intellect?
It would be a servant without a master;
and if the master needs the servant, the former is even more necessary to the latter, if he is to get
in life. Intuition is blind: the intellect lends its eyes on it.