Foundation II

Lesson 2
20 August 2013
 Lesson objectives
• At the end of the lesson, students will be able
to discuss the following concepts:
 Idealism
 Realism
 Rationalism
 Pragmatism
 Idealism(1)

• Idealism is the philosophy that tries to explain

all existence in terms of the mind and its
working.
• Louis Antz refer to idealism as the name which
give priority to mind, spiritual element in man,
the intelligence and reasoning capacity of a
person (Akimpelu, 1981).
 Idealism(2)
• In the Idealists’ metaphysics, all things in the
universe are in the final analysis an expression of
the mind: they exist as ideas in the mind, because
the mind takes notice or thinks about them.
• The mind of the person is identified with God.
Man’s mind is a part the divine spirit and
therefore spiritual.
• A man’s real self is his spiritual self, not his
physical body.
 Idealism(3)
• All external objects must be known by the
mind and pronounced upon before we can say
that they exist.
• The world and everything in it is as the mind
interprets it to be.
• In the idealist philosophy of education,
education is regarded as a process of the
development of the person.
 Realism(1)
• In opposition to the idealism, the realists
assert that the world is not a construct of the
human mind.
• If the object does not exist, then there is
nothing for the mind to know.
• The objectives have a reality independent of
our knowledge or our desire to know them.
 Realism(2)

• The world is real and it is what the sciences tell

us it is, therefore the world is true and real.
• The world exists as a matter of fact and it is
possible to have an objective knowledge of it.
• We can verify whether our commonsense is
true or not by comparing what it tells us with
the actual situation.
 Realism(3)
• In the view of the realists, education is in one
sense the process of development the
capacities of a man to enable him to know the
truth as it is.
• Education is thus both the transmission of
specific cultural values and the subsequent
development of the child’s ability for further
learning.
 Rationalism(1)
• It is the philosophical stance according to
which reason is the ultimate source of human
knowledge.
• How do we come to know objects, through the
sense or through reason? How do we know
that something is a triangle?
 Rationalism(2)
• It is teaching us that every person must choose
what is essential/ important and meaningful for
him/her in the process of existence.
• Every person/individual is seemed/viewed as
being unique and uniquely responsible for
his/her own belief/fate.
 Rationalism(3)

• Rationalism indeed characterizes a wide range

of philosophical topics, three main ones being
personal identity, the nature of causation and
the source of ethical normativity.
• Rationalists typically claim that the self is
known through a rational intuition, which is
irreducible to any sensorial perception of
ourselves.
 Rationalism(4)
• Finally, what is it that makes a certain action
the one that we ought, morally, to perform?
• Kant argued that the ethical worth of an action
can be understood only from a rational
perspective.
 Pragmatism(1)
• This is a way of experimenting the children’s
needs and interests.
• Both the needs and interests can be described
as a source of motivation which can be used
to teach children in any area.
 Pragmatism(2)
• Children develop through good interactions
with the environment.
• The purpose of pragmatism is actually to
develop a child’s ability in order to be able to
think.
• From pragmatism, personal and social growth
of the child should be at a top priority
 Pragmatism(3)
• Learning occurs as the person engages in
problem solving.
• For example, the learner, as an individual or as
a member of a group utilizes the scientific
method to solve both personal and social
problems in an environment he/she is living
in.
• From pragmatism, people learned from other
past experiences/knowledge.
 Pragmatism(4)
• The pragmatism teacher is there to motivate
and encourage learners about the importance of
sharing relevant information for their interests,
concerns and problems with each other.
• In this way, learners will develop or build a sense
of community as they work together to solve
common problems they are facing in a
democratic manner.