2013 World Congress Proceedings Vol. 50, Philosophy of Education Periklis Pavlidis Towards a Marxist-inspired Understanding of Philosophy of Education ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to present a Marxist-inspired approach to the content of philosophical thinking about education in relation to a relevant definition of the specific characteristics of philosophy. Philosophy is conceived as a form of social consciousness, the specificity of which consists in lending meaning to the existence of humans as subjects in their relation to other humans-subjects and within their interaction with objective reality. Philosophy is also presented as the privileged intellectual field for the critical assessment of all aspects of the human condition, in a quest of life prospects and ideals. In connection with that, philosophy is defined as the form of social consciousness which reflects upon consciousness itself. In the paper it is suggested that the content of the philosophical thinking about education mainly consists in the formation of the aims of education, in relation to both the critical examination of the position of education in the social totality and the critical assessment of the inherited knowledge traditions. Within this frame of analysis it is considered of paramount importance the philosophical examination of the relation between education and social labour. KEYWORDS: philosophy, philosophy of education, aims of education, social labour, Marxism In times as ours of deep crisis, affecting in a disastrous way all spheres of social life and culture, including education, when people can no longer tolerate the conditions of their existence, the intellectual and social importance of philosophy is manifested to the maximum. Philosophical thinking is most necessary precisely when the decline of the dominant mode of social relations makes it imperative to look for another world and to develop a strategy for transformative social praxis. What makes philosophy especially important for human praxis is the fact that it does not constrain itself to the knowledge of the world and of humans themselves as something objective. Philosophy, being a form of social consciousness, primarily concerns the reflection on man as a subject, as a conscious and self-conscious being that makes purposeful decisions about how to live and act within the objective reality. Philosophy deals primarily
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with tracing the meaning of human existence, constituting the fundamental purposes of human life and action. Precisely, because humans lack an innatepredetermined “program” of life, they must decide on how to exist, on what should be the strategy of their activity, thus taking responsibility for their lives, functioning as subjects. Of course, for that, people need to know their world. Knowledge about the specific aspects of the human world is the purpose of science and it is invaluable for philosophical thinking. In order to propose strategic attitudes towards objective reality, philosophical thinking is interested in developing a comprehensive view of it, bringing to light the general coordinates of human existence. For this reason, philosophy represents a worldview, a synthetic conception of reality, both natural and social. But, as far as the specificity of philosophy lies in the exploration of possibilities and foundation of strategies for purposeful, transformative praxis, its interest in the world is not confined only to what exists, but also extends to the quest of what can possibly exist, of the latent prospects contained in objective reality. The greatest social significance of philosophy lies in the fact that it does not simply describe the human world in its existing form, but it also explores the prospects for its evolution. Philosophical thinking that explores the possibilities for another, better human condition is the privileged field for the constitution of the ideas of perfection. The conception of perfection refers to humans’ unique ability to ideally reconstitute things in such a way that what is presented to consciousness is not their current but their potential, complete form, which emanates from the knowledge of their inherent evolutionary trends. The perception of perfection as the highest purpose of human life makes up the ideal. The mission of philosophy, as a quest of the ideal, is most intensely and dramatically manifested when there is a strong opposition between human needs and the dominant reality and also a strong wish to overcome the latter. The philosophic reflection of this opposition and the exploration of alternative prospects for human existence is inherently connected with the critique of reality.1 Critique, here, is not understood as something external to the knowledge of things, but as cognitive penetration in their internal relations, as understanding of their internal contradictions and limits. The function of philosophy as a field of critique of the world, is directly linked to the examination of the relation between the content of consciousness and the objective reality, what Friedrich Engels called the “great basic question K. Marx, ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right”’. Introduction, in K. Marx, Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right” (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1982), p.132. 1
Towards a Marxist-inspired understanding of philosophy of education 203 of all philosophy”.2 This implies that, in order for humans to consciously set life aims, they need to explore to what extent those aims can be valid, and therefore to what extent and in what ways they can comprehend the objective conditions for their attainment, to what extent the ideal world of their consciousness corresponds to objective reality. Thus, philosophy as a form of social consciousness is a critical reflection upon consciousness, a consciousness which in a conceptual/general form studies its own content. From this point of view philosophy is a privileged space for critique of false consciousness, of the various forms of ideological mystification that spontaneously and inevitably emerge within the predominantly antagonistic and alienating capitalist reality. Based on the above, I am arguing that the philosophical examination of education cannot be cut off from the wider philosophical investigation of the human world, the position of individuals in it and their relation to it as subjects. Philosophy of education is the field of application, encounter and opposition of the key principles that constitute the broader philosophical currents. Outside this field, the philosophical investigation of education cannot be philosophical. The existence of various philosophical currents with different interpretations of the human condition reflects the latter’s contradictory nature, the existence of different or opposing attitudes towards social reality, covering the entire range from its conformist acceptance to its radical questioning. Given that education is a social phenomenon par excellence, its philosophical investigation is associated with the examination of society as a totality. It is also associated with the examination of education from the perspective of the social ideal, the ideal human condition, the ideal relation between humans and nature, the ideal personality. In this point, the specificity of philosophy meets a specificity of education. Education (excluding the spontaneous daily accumulation of experiences) is associated with the guiding role of certain aims. It is a purposeful activity. In other words, it pursues a desired outcome which has to do with the individual assimilating certain cultural achievements (knowledge, moral principles, aesthetic forms, worldviews), and developing certain cultural characteristics and abilities. In its most general dimension, the outcome of education is that the individual acquires a social/cultural face, he/she becomes a personality. It should be noted that the outcome of education presupposes systematic, pedagogical activities which require specific choices about the knowledge to be transferred and the ways and means for conveying/acquiring it (teaching methods, pedagogical relationships, etc.). Education is a process of transformation/development of the individual. Therefore, the answer to the F. Engels, “Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy”, in K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (Progress Publishers, Moscow 1986), p.593. 2
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question about the desired end of this process, the type of personality that will result as the bearer of certain knowledge and abilities, forms the guiding aims of educational activity, it regulates the choice of knowledge and teaching methods. Thus, the establishment of such aims presupposes dealing with fundamental philosophical issues, such as understanding the historical/social determinants of human existence and formulating the meaning and the ideal of life. A necessary condition for setting the aims of education is the critical evaluation of the inherited cultural/knowledge traditions. In every epoch, the choice of the knowledge and ideas that are worthy of being conveyed is the result of a more or less reflective assessment of the dominant forms of culture in terms of cognitive validity, of their moral and ideological aspects and in relation to their social significance (their correspondence to concrete social interests, to the needs and prospects of society). Therefore a specific task for the philosophy of education can be the revealing and understanding of the specific social determination of the dominant educational aims. Special mention should be made here of the decisive contribution of philosophy as theory of knowledge (i.e., examination of the processes of cognitive penetration into reality) to resolving methodological issues pertaining to the development of the theory of learning and didactics and to curriculum building. If education as a process of teaching and learning requires method, a systematically planned movement from basic to more complex knowledge, an organised pedagogical activity aimed at the child’s gradual intellectual development, then such a method can only be based on the philosophical reflection on knowledge and the ways in which the mind traces and conceptually represents the sides and relations that make up its object. Of course, in every epoch, the aims of education express specific social needs and interests, as these are realized and codified in broader social and educational ideals. The process of realizing such needs and setting the aims of education in relation to shaping perceptions about what is ideal personality, cultivated consciousness, comprehensive knowledge, as well as ideal pedagogical relationship, teaching, and edification, are the main themes of the philosophical discourse about education. It should be emphasized that the philosophical discourse about education is understood as a component of the philosophical discourse about the social totality. This means examining education from the perspective of its position in the social totality, highlighting its specific significance and content in connection with the character of the dominant social relations of the time. This also requires using the knowledge about society offered by certain disciplines such as political economy, sociology, political science, history etc. Starting from the Marxist view that labour is the determinant of human
Towards a Marxist-inspired understanding of philosophy of education 205 existence, the driving force for the evolution of culture and society, I think that the philosophical discourse about education cannot ignore the social role of education in relation to the historically-specific content of labour and the socially crucial contradictions that arise therein. The question of the relationship between education and labour is of special concern for philosophical thinking first and foremost from the perspective of the exceptional importance of labour for human existence. Karl Marx had emphatically pointed out that labour, as a purposeful transformative activity, is the field in which the intellectual abilities and cultural potential of the people are actualized, tested and developed.3 Labour itself as a process, in addition to changing the natural world (transforming it into a cultural one), also shapes human beings, by unveiling and developing their powers. At the same time, under the conditions of exploitation of human by human, labor, being alienated from the workers, causes tremendous deformation and destruction to their personalities. Labour is intrinsically linked to education: education in the sense of creating in every young generation all the required labour abilities (both intellectual and practical) in order for it to be able not only to use the cultural achievements of humankind, but also to develop them further, is an inherently necessary moment of social labour. Nowadays the close connection between scientific knowledge and technological applications (technoscience) and the intellectualization of labour (the transformation into a direct productive force of what Marx called the “general intellect”)4 are bringing education increasingly closer to labour, turning it into a privileged and decisive field of the social production of labourpower. As a result, it is impossible to reflect on the character, the social role and the contradictions of education without dealing with the character and the contradictions of labour in modern capitalist society. And, if the alienation of labour is a phenomenon which permeates and determines the totality of modern social relations, the philosophical examination of the dominant aims, methods and institutions of education cannot overlook their crucial link to the various material and intellectual aspects of alienated labour. Periklis Pavlidis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Hellas
[email protected] K. Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (Progress Publishers, Moscow 1977), p.87. 4 K. Marx, Grundrisse, trans. M. Nicolaus (Penguin Books, London 1993), p.706. 3
