A New Conatus for the New World: Dewey’s Response to Perfectionist Conceptions of Democratic Education

We argue for a reconsideration of the claim that Spinoza’s perfectionist conception of education was ushering in a form of radical humanism distinctly favorable to democratic ideals. With the rise of democratic societies and the corresponding need to constitute educational institutions within those societies, a more thoroughgoing commitment to democratic social ideals arose, first and foremost in American educational thought. This commitment can be seen especially in Dewey’s philosophy of education. Specifically, Dewey and Spinoza had strikingly distinct conceptions of the overall aims of schooling. While Spinoza takes the aim of education to be the perfection of a student’s original nature, Dewey takes education to involve the collective acquisition of an additional nature, reflecting the norms and expectations of one’s specific community. In this paper, we juxtapose these two distinct conceptions of education alongside one another, with an eye towards illuminating the limitations of a perfectionist theory of education for the individual, as we find it in Spinoza, within a democratic society.

Calculating university education model based on finite element fractional differential equations and macro-control analysis

Firstly, based on the charging theory of ‘education cost-sharing,’ under appropriate assumptions, two basic differential equation models are proposed to describe the problem of college education charges; secondly, through qualitative analysis of the basic model, it is concluded that colleges and universities maintain or impose several conditions for stabilising its education fees; finally, through the analysis of two basic models in three unique models under three situations, some new conclusions and suggestions on the macro-control of college education fees and enrolment scale are given. Also, three extended differential equation models are proposed.

»Philosophy […] Is the Theory of Education in Its Most General Phases«

»Philosophy […] Is the Theory of Education in Its Most General Phases«. Critical Remarks On Some Relationships between Philosophy and Education Following John Dewey In contrast to the widespread view that education is a subfield and field of application of practical philosophy, John Dewey understood philosophy altogether as a general theory of education. The article reconstructs this perspective in Dewey’s main pedagogical work »Democracy and Education« as well as in his 1929 paper »The Sources of a Science of Education«. Afterwards, two other relationships between philosophy and education will be contrasted, the so-called Isms approach and the configuration in which philosophy is one of the so-called ›foundation disciplines‹ dealing with education as an applied field. In an outlook, current changes in the relationship between philosophy and education will be discussed.

Prawidłowości wychowania w świetle myśli pedagogicznej Zygmunta Mysłakowskiego

The Principles of Education in the Light of Zygmunt Mysłakowski’s Pedagogical Thoughts It is quite rare that the term “principles of education” is used in contemporary pedagogy. At the same time, concrete educational activities or processes require the right actions, i.e., actions that will foster participant development within the educational reality. This article constitutes an attempt to decode the principles of education in the light of Zygmunt Mysłakowski’s works, and to pinpoint the determining factors which could have led to their formulation. These conditions influenced the practice of pedagogy in Poland, and were not insignificant for the way in which the principles of education were understood and constructed by pedagogues. The author points to some areas in which Mysłakowski searched for these principles. They are pedeutology, general pedagogy, and the pedagogue’s own theory of education. In the concluding part of the article, values are cited as one of the key categories for Mysłakowski in formulating his principles of education.

Towards a Theory of Education for Social Change: Exploring the Nexus between Transformational Education and the Capability Approach

Education generally is geared towards training the mind and getting the learner to acquire skills and knowledge needed in different sectors in society. However, if we agree that education is a public good, there is need to go beyond its conceptualisation from a utilitarian perspective of being instrumental to society’s economic progress to an understanding of education as instrumental to realising individual’s transformative capabilities and subsequently, social change. Education aimed at achieving social change should focus on not only subjecting learners to cognitive aspects but also getting them to be capacitated to become agents of social change and progress. Exploring this theme and theorising on some mechanics of realising education for social change is the focus of this article. The article adopts qualitative desktop method and utilises secondary data to theorise on realising education for social change, with a consideration of the nexus between two frameworks: Transformative Learning and the Capability Approach frameworks.