EDUCATION AND CIVILIZATION

Transcription

1 EDUCATION AND CIVILIZATION

2 Education and Civilization by JAMES K. FEIBLEMAN 1987 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS a member of t~e KWWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP 1111 DORDRECHT / BaSION / LANCASTER

3 Distributors for the United States and Canada: Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 358, Accord Station, Hingham, MA USA for the UK and Ireland: Kluwer Academic Publishers. MTP Press Limited. Falcon House, Queen Square, Lancaster LAI IRN, UK for all other countries: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, Distribution Center, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Feibleman, Jamu Keen, 1904_ F.ducalion and ctviliz~.io n. Inc l udes ind~ x. I. Educ a lion Uni. ed SlAtes Aims and objectives. 2. Educallon--Unlled S.au. Philosophy. J. United Sta,e. Clv lllz.,ion 19 4 ~_. 4. Civlllz.tlon, Hodun l9}o_ 1. Titl e. ta209.2.f4) \ '.1 81> ISBN-13: DOl: / e-lsbn-13: Copyright 1981 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht. Soficover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1987 All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical. photocopyin8, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163,3300 AD Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

4 v Only Nature is self-taught. Epicharmus of Syracuse

5 VII CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Part II: Part III: Part IV: Part V: The theory of education 1. A philosophy of education 3 2. The institution as educator The educational institution The eminence of scholarship The prevalence of ignorance The range of learning 76 The theory of practice in education 1. Problems in the philosophy of education The education of the academic administrator Falsity in practice 112 The uses of university 1. What happens in college? The college teacher Thoughts about teaching The well-grounded graduate A slower pace for superior students Athletic education 174 The advancement of education 1. Education and the genius The genius versus the American university 196 Education and civilization 1. The cultural conditioning of education The future of the past The hidden philosophy of Americans Education and Western civilization Education and the total culture 231 Notes 235 Index 237 A system of philosophy IX XI

6 IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Some of the material used in this book has appeared in other form in the following journals: "A Philosophy of Education" in Modern Philosophies and Education. Fifty-fourth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (Chicago, 1955); "Institutional Conditioning" first appeared in the Indian Journal of Social Research, Near Bombay Bhawan, Baraut (Meerut) V.P. India, April 1964; "Eminence of Scholarship" was first published in Education for February 1953; Portions of Part II, chapter I, appeared under the title of "Some Problems in The Philosophy of Education" in The Harvard Educational Review, vol. XXVI, No.2, Spring 1956, pp ; "The Education of The Administrator" is reprinted from The Journal of Educational Sociology for March 1959; "Falsity in Practice" first appeared in Tulane Studies in Philosophy, vol. XIV (1965); "The Hidden Philosophy of Americans" first appeared in The Saturday Review for March 10, There remains only to record an immense debt to Stanley C. Feldman for going over the typescript and helping me with his insightful criticisms and many constructive suggestions. James K. Feibleman

7 XI INTRODUCTION It has been asserted that there is no one universal proposition with which all philosophers would agree, including this one. The predicament has rarely been recognized and almost never accepted, although neither has it been successfully challenged. If the claim holds true for philosophy taken by itself, how much more must it hold for crossfield interests, such as the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of science and many others. The philosophy of education is a particular case in point. The topic of education itself is generally regarded as a dull affair, a charge not entirely without substance. The blame for this usually falls on the fact that it has no inherent subject matter. The teachers of history teach history, the teachers of biology teach biology; but what do the teachers of education teach? Presumably how to teach; but this simply will not do because every topic requires its own sort of instruction. If education as such is to be considered, then it will have to be on the basis of another background, one more general than is usually assumed. It will be necessary to step back from it in order to view it with some perspective as an enterprise that has always occupied mankind in one connection or another and been given its peculiar turn by the many other concerns that characteristically surround it. In other words, the broader the consideration, the more incisive the understanding of the process of education. I hope in this book to make that clear by taking as my point of reference the western civilization. When societies are challenged and changing, it is not a time of first urgency for education. Education is a topic not usually regarded from the point of view of a civilization considered as a

8 XII whole, but then the composition of human culture itself is seldom noticed. We tend to live in it and to deal with it piecemeal, ignoring the fact that as a whole it is involved in everyone of its parts. No one is aware that thedifferententerprisesofaculturehaveafamily resemblance, that for instance a school and a business in the United States have more in common than either would have with its opposite number, say, a school in China or a business in India. No one is aware of this for the simple reason that teachers do not engage in commerce nor salesmen instruct in education. Single activities inherit their own peculiar ways and pass them on, but usually on the assumption that they are universal rather than merely local. Histories of civilizations are rare, seldom read and as seldom considered, though they do exist. On the other hand histories of particular institutions are quite common, histories of education for example. The justification for this book in such a crowded field, then, is that it seeks to make a contribution to the understanding of our way of life at a time when it is being seriously challenged. Challenged, that is, or threatened with change; for those who would take over the leadership, by force if need be, have other plans for it. I hope to examine what we have that is valuable and perhaps fine tune the process by which it is preserved. What are its limits and what is most characteristic of it at its center? These are the kinds of questions that must be answered constructively in a work devoted to the place of education in civilization. I should perhaps say by way of a footnote that when I use the term 'man' it is without special sexual reference. It is intended to apply equally to all of humankind and to be understood therefore as including both men and women and even hermaphrodites.