Educational Help

Running Head: PHILOSOPHY 1

PHILOSOPHY 4

Branches of Philosophy

Name

Institution

Professor

Course

Date

Introduction

Philosophy tends to differ from other types of fields. This is due to the fact that it is unique within its methods as well as in its nature plus the breadth of its given subject matter. The philosophy field gets to pursue questions within all dimensions of human life while its techniques are applicable to challenges within any endeavor or field of study. This field is a reasoned pursuit of the basic truths, an understanding quest in addition to it being a study of conduct principles. It aims at establishing standards of evidence, for providing rational means of conflict resolution as well as creating techniques meant to evaluate arguments plus ideas. Philosophy is known for developing the capacity to view the world from other people’s perception plus other cultures, it improves the ability of an individual to perceive the relationships in between different fields of study, it also gets to deepen the sense of meaning of an individual plus various human experiences.(Biesta, 2019).

Importance of philosophy in Education

Basically, Philosophy is considered to be an art of thinking. It has an objective of training the judgement of a person via critique, self-critique in addition to analysis, to be attentive to distinctions as well as identify the patterns that are underlying plus get the see the complete beyond the sections. In education, philosophy happens to be a systematic reflection on reality plus reason, the studies within Philosophy offers a good foundation for studying different disciplines and professions in need of analytical skills plus an intellect that is creative. Being a subject, it gets to develop the intellectual abilities of the students making them to be more awakened and critical. It aims at developing the consciousness of a person while they question, analyze, wonder plus think.

In addition, Philosophy assists the students in developing their capacity as well as their personal inclination to perform critical thinking. Additional disciplines aid in fulfilling this particular function, though philosophy gets to contribute intensively, extensively plus distinctively to the ability of a student to have critical thinking. Most philosophy departments mostly offer a course that is exclusively devoted to the critical thinking topic. The philosophy courses within ethics, political and social Philosophy, law philosophy, bioethics, philosophy of medicine, aesthetics in addition to environmental ethics prepare the students to be discriminating, responsible and thoughtful citizens. (Ozmon, 2012).

These departments in a standard manner provide courses on introductory ethics whereby the students get to be exposed to the dominant reasoning methods regarding ethical matters and to some aspects of contemporary moral issues. Via philosophy, it is possible to make sure that the students retain their academic knowledge from all their accomplished grades at the same time develop a sense of ethics plus human values. The personal values end up providing an enhanced upbringing for the students to cope within later years in their life.

Branches of Philosophy

The extensive philosophy subfields are in most occasions are considered to be ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics plus the history of Philosophy. These branches are;

Logic – it focuses on providing sound methods meant to distinguish the good reasoning from the bad one. It aids in evaluating how well the premises support the conclusions, to find out what people are committed into accepting whenever a perception is taken, in addition to avoiding the adoption of beliefs which people lack sufficient reasons. Logic also assists in finding arguments where people might a times see a set of statements that are loosely related for the discovery of assumptions that people were not aware that they were making, alongside formulating the minimum claims that just be established if a point is to be proven.

Ethics - this is the second Axiology component. It gets to answer philosophical questions regarding wrong or right, morality plus assessment of ethical standards by cultures or people. With ethics, it gets to evaluate moral justifications for inactions or actions as well as why people are able to advocate for or understand what is wrong or right. Additionally, ethics comprises of concepts that are in relation to justice, especially how justice is defined and the fair administration of justice. Ethics is also broken down into well known disciplines depending on the professions such as medical ethics and business. Bioethics happens to be a qualified subset of ethics. Ethics is known for taking up the meanings related to personal moral concepts like justice, appropriate action and obligation hence formulating the principles used in guiding moral decisions may it be in public or private life.

Metaphysics – it aims at finding fundamental criteria used to determine the type of things that are considered real. It gets to answer whether there are physical, abstract and mental things like numbers, or if there is only the spiritual and physical or just energy and matter. Metaphysics gets to address the philosophical questions that are on being as well as reality. It gets to evaluate who people are and their place within existence. It aims on giving responses on questions that are related to material world. For instance, it there exists an afterlife, and if there is existence beyond the physical forms of people. The basic question of concern within metaphysics happens to be the soul concept. Therefore, the questions related to God’s existence, or a being that is higher, plus who it gets to shape people’s soul into a purposeful reality are all under the metaphysics. Unique topics in it comprise of identity, human nature plus the meaning of life.

Epistemology – this is all about nature plus the knowledge scope. It majors on knowing the truth as well as the nature of the said truth. There is also the sort of things that are to be known and which might be justified within people’s personal beliefs on what happens beyond the evidence of people’s senses, like the inner lives of events of the previous past.

History of Philosophy - is a field that gets to study the major philosophers plus the whole periods within the philosophy development like the Modern, Ancient, Nineteenth century, medieval plus the twentieth century era. It aims at understanding huge figures, the impact they have on others as well as their significance in contemporary matters. This field within a single nation is mostly studied on its own same to the American Philosophy case. The history of philosophy is used in providing insights into different philosophy subfields, it also gets to reveal most of the Western Civilization foundations (Biesta, 2019).

Aesthetics – it is an Axiology component know for addressing philosophical questions related to art and beauty. This field gets to investigate the manner in which taste or beauty is defined, gets to appreciate art as well as recognize the connections in between the forms available in nature plus Mathematics to expressions that are artistic all over the arts. The aesthetics evaluate valuations regarding the good as it is exemplified by the beauty definitions. The well known topics within aesthetics happens to be composition within the arts as well as the cultural ideas regarding fashion plus physical attractiveness.

The advantages associated with these branches are;

Ethics helps in resolving the questions related to human morality through defining the concepts of right or wrong, evil or good, crime and justice as well as vice and virtue. With the logic its advantage is that when used appropriately it enables an individual to extrapolate reliably the new knowledge from different initial knowledge. When logic is utilized, it helps in solving problems at the same time enabling one to make sense as well as think appropriately. The metaphysics enables individuals to add additional privileges to consciousness at the same time give an explanation on the rare occurrences. The epistemology within philosophy has the benefit of having huge significance as it helps in evaluating what people perceive or see. It aids in determining the truth from lies and aids people in gaining knowledge that is productive, such as knowledge that can be used in benefit oneself plus other individuals.

The history of philosophy is in general of relevance to the human affairs for a similar reason that the history of any other thing is of relevance. Getting to understand people’s origin helps in understanding where people are and offers some rough idea where people might be heading to. With the aesthetics, the philosophers have the believe that getting to learn what a particular group or culture recognizes as aesthetically pleasing may be of help in better understanding what is of value, the manner in which they interact with one another as well as make decisions.

The disadvantages of these branches include;

With ethics, the disadvantage is that not every person agrees on what is right or wrong morally ethically. This leads to contradictions. With logic, it is only possible to get lots of extrapolate truths which means it is a limited amount of truths. In that sense, logic gets to be limited to what is as well as what cannot be utilized in establishing anything that a person wants. Another disadvantage is that it might result into conclusions that are wrong depending on logic and a times it overanalyzes things due to how much one uses logic. With metaphysics, the human minds are not in a position to understand the structure of anything, in addition, each single philosophical system gets to fail. It is not possible to change the fundamental orientation towards the globe (Carr, 2021).

Epistemology has the disadvantage of issues that are related to arising within the consideration of skepticism, and radical versions which gets to challenge the probability of knowledge regarding the fact matters, knowledge of the external world plus knowledge of the existence as well as natures of different minds. The main challenges to the history of philosophy revolves all over the challenges of sources, explanation, choice of subject, knowledge, plus the weird challenges of the contemporary history. The aesthetics has a disadvantage of it tends to be difficult in identifying as it is extensively broad and gets to cater for a massive range or an aspect. For instance, our responses to mountains or music cannot be said to be just leisure time activities as they offer meaning to life.

Modern philosophies in Education

They are classified into five these include:

Perennialism -tend to be instructors feeling that the knowledge that has gotten passed across the ages is supposed to be in continuation as the curriculum foundation, same to the classic works of Einstein and Plato. These philosophies have their teachings based on logic, analytical thought as we as reason. The only information that is of relevance is the one that has been able to stand the test of time. They fail to illicit student input. The most probable classes to take into consideration within this approach include math, religion, science and history classes.

Essentialism – the essentialists have the believe that there exists a universal knowledge pool that all students need. The teaching fundamentals are the curriculum’s basis which include; foreign language, math, history, English and science. The vocational classes are not considered as an essential section of the educational training. The classrooms tend to be teacher-centered, formal with the students being passive learners. Assessments predominantly are via testing and they are few, in case of any portfolios or projects. The instructors with ease accept the Act of No Child Left-Behind as test scores are the major sorts of assessment.

Progressivism – this instruction is a student-centered whereby the students adhere to the scientific questioning method plus searching for the response. The assessments comprise of portfolios and projects. The present events are utilized in keeping the students interested within the intended subject matter. The student are perceived to be active learners contrary to the passive learners. Teachers are facilitators instead of being centers of educational procedures.

Reconstructionism – it is a philosophy that is student-centered aims at instilling the desire to ensure the world is generally better. The philosophy focuses on controversial global matters and utilizes present issues in form of springboard specifically for the said thinking process. People learn the essence of operating together in achieving change. Global events are incorporated with classroom occurrences.

Humanism/ Existentialism – it is a philosophy that is student-centered as well. Its based on the notion that students are supposed to get presented with options regarding their learning procedures. Students are engaged within every single aspect of learning and also operates alongside their peers and teachers in developing an evaluation plus curriculum system that enables personal abilities and interests.

The advantages and disadvantages associated with the Modern Philosophies

With the humanism the advantage is that it gets to put emphasis on socially interactive as well as process-oriented learning that is hands on enabling work collaboration for expansion and revision of knowledge base. The disadvantage is that it fails to focus on other areas of learning and life or global beliefs. Reconstructionism has the benefit of striving towards ensuring the world becomes a better place. This is through the interaction in between what people already think of and already know plus alongside new experiences plus ideas. The disadvantage is that the new knowledge might not be substantial enough for use which limits the achieving of desirable outcomes (Noddings, 2018).

The benefits of essentialism is at the moment considered to be the style that is leading of public education within the United States. Additionally, it becomes the teaching of fundamental skills that with time have been proven to be essential within the society. The disadvantage is that a times, the skills that are perceived to be essential might not be of any essence in the society. The perennialism is beneficial as it has its focus on teaching of the works that are great. The disadvantage with this philosophy is that what is termed as great works might not be the case since the universal perceptions get to differ. The progressivism has its focus on the development of an individual’s moral compass. The disadvantage is that with progressivism, it fails to focus on the society at large which might hinder the progress of a society’s morals.

School of thoughts

Behaviorism can be defined as the theory that every behavior gets acquired through having interactions with the environment. This is different from other Philosophies known for stating that behaviors tend to be an innate biology part. It focuses on predicting and controlling behavior. It has the assumption that there exists no difference in between humans and different biological organisms plus their capability to learn as per the environment. Its objective is identifying the possible simplest explanation instead of getting conflated with most variables plus complexities. The philosophy makes psychology to be open to the experimental means with outcomes that might be replicated in the same manner as other given scientific experiment.

Humanistic Psychology – gets to teach that psychology should comprise of looking at people as well as their motivations. The hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow gets to exemplify this particular approach. System of necessities like self-esteem, love plus goody, gets to determine the behavior of a person, being able to meet these necessities results into a self-satisfaction sense hence solving psychological challenges.

Cognitivism – this philosophy adheres to behaviorism through being able to understand the mind via scientific experimentation, however, it gets to differ from the theory of behaviorism through I being aware that the psychologists are able to study as well as understand the mind’s internal workings plus mental procedures.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Philosophies

Though behaviorism is not an entire Psychology picture, there is the possibility to learn a lot regarding the mind of q person depending on their principles. For instance, in case an individual stays next to the railroad and has a tendency of eating exactly whenever the train roars by, they find that each time a train goes and they fail to eat, they become hungry. Individuals are able to understand how they get to respond to a given stimuli and the manner in which it tends to affect them. The major advantages associated with this theory include; it is capable of generating outcomes that are predictable that are measurable and tested. It might be utilized within therapy to aid in changing behaviors away from the ones that are negative to the positive ones. Among the major disadvantage of behaviorism is the fact that, it is known for not taking into consideration critical thinking plus decision making skills. People are able to make changes whenever they wish. It is basically a free will concept, that takes place whenever an individual does what they desire. On the contrary, behaviorism aims at explaining each option that is taken in response to stimuli that is external (Ozmon, 2012).

With the humanistic psychology, its greatest advantage is that it gets to emphasize on personal responsibility and choice. In addition, it gets to satisfy the perception of most individuals in relation to the meaning of humans as it gets to value individual ideals in addition to self-fulfillment. Its disadvantage is the fact that it is extremely positive in terms of human behavior. This is an indication that it has the assumption that people are good intrinsically hence choosing positive paths for their personal lives, nevertheless, the free will and choice happens to be limited for various people. An example of this philosophy is when a therapist is seeing a patient for their first time for a given therapy session plus making use of the Maslow’s needs hierarchy into determining the level of the client on the hierarchy as well as get to identify the needs that were getting met and those that the client did not meet.

The advantages of cognitivism is that it helps in the development of cognitive skills which enables students to build on the previous ideas and knowledge. It educates students to have connections plus apply concepts that are new to what they are already aware of. Having an in-depth understanding regarding topics plus stronger skills for learning, the students are able to approach their schoolwork with confidence and enthusiasm. Its disadvantage is that, since it only observes the causes of a behavior within the thought processes of an individual, this approach is perceived to be a reductionist. Meaning it ignores the probable root of a behavior that might be due to our biology or the social environment. An example is, whenever a student gets to learn of subtractions and addition, they are capable of transferring the said knowledge when they use it in creation of a budget to assist him in saving finances for something that he intends to buy for himself (Tesar, et.al, 2021).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the knowledge on philosophy of education might be of benefit to the administrators, the teachers, students as well as the policy makers at every level. It is also beneficial to the citizens and parents in general. The societies that are considered to value education and also have the desire for it to be carried out in am informed and thoughtful manner, are known to ignore the philosophy of education at their own expense.

References

Biesta, G. (2019). Philosophy, exposure, and children: How to resist the instrumentalisation of philosophy in education. In Obstinate Education (pp. 68-82). Brill. https://brill.com/view/book/9789004401105/BP000005.xml

Carr, W. (2021). Introduction What is the Philosophy of Education?. In The RoutledgeFalmer reader in philosophy of education (pp. 1-14). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003209317-1/introduction-philosophy-education-wilfred-carr

Noddings, N. (2018). Philosophy of education. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429494864/philosophy-education-nel-noddings

Ozmon, H. (2012). Philosophical foundations of education. Pearson.

Tesar, M., Hytten, K., Hoskins, T. K., Rosiek, J., Jackson, A. Y., Hand, M., … & Jackson, L. (2021). Philosophy of education in a new key: Future of philosophy of education. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1-22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131857.2021.1946792