The Philosophy of education isn’t as straightforward as one would
like it to be. Its almost like a treasure of questions, and you have to go deep
inside it to hunt the answers down. You could lose your way in the middle, feel
directionless, feel lost, but, you would eventually arrive at the answers and
then maybe the process might make sense to you.
Today’s session was exactly that. Who would have
imagined(except of course a student of philosophy) that to unfold a concept as
familiar as ‘knowledge’ would require layers and layers of unpacking to be
done. Every answer leading to another
question and each of those questions taking us a step forward to understand what
exactly knowledge is.
Concluding knowledge as a set of validated beliefs is
what most of us consented to after endless rounds of heated discussions. All very well, I
think to myself. But what do schools
today do? Do they give their students knowledge or just truckloads of things to
believe in! Do they justify what they teach or do students just go back in the
belief that what was taught to them was probably what is correct. Maybe the
answers to these questions will emerge subsequently. Maybe why we did what we
did today would be make sense eventually. But till then, the question that
haunted us in the session still pretty much remains. WHY???
"Knowledge’s are set of validated beliefs"
ReplyDeleteBeliefs once validated as knowledge are time and again tested to check if, it still hold valid in the present context. When trying to validate any beliefs in the absence of concrete truth but choosing the best available truth, are we not tempering the validation process? Taking the complex nature of any philosophical consideration when making any validation. For example, “Doing Things Right vs Doing the Right Thing” which statement is more valid and under what weightage? What I am trying to say is that answer to any question may not flow subsequently. But yes, your conclusion “WHY” is important but this “WHY” should carry positive connotation as validation of beliefs is complex but, nevertheless impossible.
Honestly, I don't know if my 'why' comes with any connotation at all. All philosophy is complex. The more you try to think the more there is to think. My only hope is that some day the philosophy behind the philosophy of education would dawn upon me. I am not seeking answers of all questions in the world, just those ones for which maybe I will find answers to in the coming few months.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that,I completely agree with you that these "validated beliefs" could be very contextual and may or may not be validated authentically. But in the field of education,it is possible to validate these beliefs to the maximum possible extent and thus converting that reservoir of information into knowledge.