[Lecture One] Philosophy of Education
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes
Course summary: In this lecture series, Dr. Leonard Peikoff explores the nature of education, why contemporary schools do not achieve it, and what the proper basis is. In it, he discusses why education must be conceptual, the principles of proper instruction, and the essential content of a proper education. Read more »
In this lecture: This lecture focuses on the nature and purpose of education. Dr. Peikoff examines five different approaches to education and discusses which are or are not appropriate for rational education. He further investigates how basic philosophic approaches to cognition will impact one’s approach to education. He provides a definition of education and explains the proper philosophic approach to it.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| What is the difference between education and schooling and learning more broadly? |
| Why must education be systematic? |
| Why must a proper education be in certain terms general and not specific? |
| List and differentiate the five main theories of education. |
| Why are the positives and negatives of each of the five theories? |
| How can the theories of education be categorized as direct or indirect? |
| Why is any theory of education dependent on a theory of cognition? |
| Using the three theories of cognition, explain their approaches to education. |
| How might these theories intersect with the five purposes of education? |
| Provide the complete definition of education. |
| What are the two main questions that arise from the definition of education? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 1:06:48 | Are we teaching the child values? |
| 1:07:06 | When do we teach language and logic? |
| 1:07:47 | Why do you use subjectivism to refer to the branch of philosophy that aligns itself with the teaching of reason and not reality, rather than rationalism? |
| 1:09:13 | Is this split in education another example of the mind-body dichotomy? |
| 1:10:53 | Do you think that the attempt to teach abstractions apart from concretes or vice-versa is disastrous? |
| 1:12:28 | What would you say John Dewey was most dead-set against by proposing this progressive philosophy of education? |
| 1:14:33 | Why do you believe that education should not be compulsive? |
| 1:15:35 | In a proper educational system, how would the teacher and parents coordinate their activities? |
| 1:17:56 | How does Dewey reconcile having both the socializing and individuation philosophies? |
| 1:19:50 | Which of these schools would David Hume advocate and why? |
| 1:21:29 | There’s been a lot of talk lately about educational reform. Is the educational establishment genuinely questioning the principle and methods it has been teaching? |
| 1:23:42 | Won’t you be developing the child morally if you develop him intellectually in the ways you’ve indicated? |
| 1:26:04 | In your talk “Why Johnny Can’t Think” you indicated that you think the teachers colleges should be closed down. Why? |
| 1:27:18 | Are you assuming that there is a point beyond which you can’t teach methodology? |