What Do You Believe?

Dr. V. K. Maheshwari Ph.D,  Former Principal K.L.D.A.V College Roorkee, India Dr. Suraksha Bansal,Ph.D Sr. Lecturer D.I.M.S Meerut, India

 

On Ideals and Idealism

​

The educational approach of this philosophy is of a holistic nature. In which self-realization and character development is strongly supported. The idealist feels that with the growth of a fine moral character as well as personal reflection, wisdom is gained. The holistic approach is supported instead of a specialized concentration on a specific targeted area. By combining experiences gained through critical thinking and dealing with broader topics, the idealist creates an environment in which a learner can rationalize information across curriculum. Idealism as a philosophy had its greatest impact during the nineteenth century. Its influence in today’s world is less important than it has been in the past. Idealism is the conclusion that the universe is expression of intelligence and will, that the enduring substance of the world is the nature of the mind, that the material is explained by the mental. Idealism as a philosophy stands in contrast with all those systems of thought that center in nature (naturalism) or in man (humanism)." According to idealism "to be" means to be experienced by person. Idealism holds that the order of the world is due to the manifestation in space and time of an eternal and spiritual reality. As to knowledge, idealism holds that knowledge is man thinking the thoughts and purposes of this eternal and spiritual reality as they are embodied in our world of fact. As to ethics, idealism holds that the goodness of man's individual and social life is the conformity of the human will with the moral administration of the universe. Idealism as an educational philosophy is generally linked to the work of H.H.Horne and William Hocking. In the Forty-first Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, entitled Philosophies of Education, H.H.Horne lists ten grounds for accepting an idealistic philosophy of education. Among the more persuasive of these arguments are:

 

1. The mind is the principle of explanation and knowledge of any-thing, even of the mind itself, is a product of the mind.

 

  2.  The mind is of a different nature than matter. It is composed of a different substance.

 

3.    There can be no object without a subject thinking about tithe last of these three arguments is directly related to  the position taken by Bishop George Berkeley. This will be discussed in more detail in a later section of this    chapter. Perhaps the fullest picture of the educational concomitants of idealism can be gained by studying the  educational system of Italy as it was reformed by Giovanni Gentile. Between 1922 and 1924 Gentile was Minister  of Education in the Mussolini government. Gentile also developed a theoretical justification for Italian fascism and the conception of man’s subservient relationship to the state. This places the state in the position of being a closer approximation of the Ideal than the individual, and for this reason the individual owes his allegiance to the state. Idealism and realism in education are often considered together in educational philosophy under the  name essentialism. This is in part because, although their of the universe differ radically, their view concerning the nature of truth are similar. Both of these positions, as we shall see, view truth as immutable, permanent, and unchanging.

 

Definition and meaning of Idealism

 

The main tenant of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. Many things in the world change, but ideas and knowledge are enduring. Idealism was often referred to as “idea-ism”. Idealists believe that ideas can change lives. The most important part of a person is the mind. It is to be nourished and developed. Pronunciation: [I-'Dee-ê-Liz-me]Definition: (1) (From "idea") The Platonic theory that ultimate reality lies in areal beyond the real world, that the real world is a by-product of mental or supernatural states; art that rejects realism for the world of imagination. (2) (From “ideal") The practice of living according to a set of ideals; overly optimistic hopefulness.

 

Plato, who taught in the Grove of Academes (or simply "Academia") in Athens, argued that only concepts are real since they do not change over time as do the objects they represent. Nothing exists until the idea of it exists, hence some supreme power must have conceived of the universe before it came into existence. Real objects are the concepts in one's mind, which must be delivered by the teacher, a kind of mental midwife (see "maieutic" in the Archives). This was the original, philosophical meaning of "idealism," seldom used any more outside the philosophy classroom. Etymology: From Greek idea "form, shape" from *weed- also the origin of the "his “in his-tor "wise, learned" underlying English "history." In Latin this root became videre "to see" and related words. It is the same root in Sanskrit Veda "knowledge as in the Rig-Veda. The stem entered Germanic as witan "know," seen in Modern German wissen "to know" and in English "wisdom" and "twit," a shortened form of Middle English atwite derived from æt "at" +witen "reproach."  In short Idealism is a philosophical position which adheres to the view that nothing exists except as it is an idea in the mind of man, the mind of God, or in a super – or supra-natural realm. The idealist believes that the universe has an intelligence and a will; that all material things are explainable in terms of a mind standing behind them.

 

Historical Retrospect of Idealism Pre-Christian Origins: Plato

 

The origin and development of the Platonic doctrine of Ideas is one of the most effective and fruitful processes in the entire history of western philosophy. Plato was a follower of Socrates, a truly innovative thinker of his time, who did not record his ideas, but shared them orally through a question and answer approach. Plato presented his ideas in two works: The Republic and Laws. He believed in the importance of searching for truth because truth was perfect and eternal. He wrote about separating the world of ideas from the world of matter. Ideas are constant, but in the world of matter, information and ideas are constantly changing because of their sensory nature. .The beginnings of the idealist philosophical position are generally attributed to Plato, but may be traced back to the thought of his teacher, Socrates. Wilhelm Wideband in his book, History of Philosophy, points out the importance of the Platonic position for future thinkers.

 

Wideband points out that “there is no question that the opposition between Socrates and the Sophists formed the starting-point for Platonic thought. Theocratic rejection of the Sophists was based on the feeling that it was immoral to argue either or both sides of the question without commitment or concern as to right as to right or wrong. This sense of the immoral led to the Platonic search for a higher system of values. In his writings Plato is most concerned with separating the permanent from the temporary, the real from that which is merely illusory. To this end, Plato separates the day to day reality of things seen and felt from the eternal reality which can only be known through the thought processes. Those things that we see and feel and experiences are simply temporary, they are merely reflections as Plato points out in his allegory of the cave. A.  There is a cave in which men are chained facing a wall. On a ledge, behind those who are chained, another group of men walk carrying things. Behind theme on the ledge is a fire which casts their shadows on the wall for the chained men to see.  B. Plato’s analogy indicates that he world we know, the world of our senses, is like the shadows. It is unreal but we believe it to be the true reality because of habit and because it is the only reality with which we are familiar. The Real-world, the World of Ideas, is of a different order, just as the men on the ledge are of a different order than their shadows. C. A more contemporary analogy might be made with the movies. If a person were forced to spend his whole life watching black and white movies, benign fed intravenously and having all of his sensations controlled so that the only experience available to him was the screen convinced that what he saw was reality. Experiments in sensory deprivation have shown that a person deprived of sensory stimulation can be made to believe almost anything. Thus, when our film viewer is finally taken out into the bright world of color he would, according to Plato, be so shocked, upset, and disturbed that he would be unable to believe that this was the reality and at first would want to return to the other existence of the cave (or motion picture theatre) because it would be the only reality he could stand. D. Plato distinguished between the use of reason and the use of the senses. His position was that in order to know something of the Real World (the realm of pure Ideas) we need to withdraw from the use of our senses and rely on a purely intellectual approach. Plato, then, was the first philosophy to lay the logical groundwork necessary to support a theory of immaterial reality. This is clearly seen in his explanation of the allegory of his friend Glaucon.  The prison house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent  of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed – whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in his visible world, and the immediate source of reason untruth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific visionary unwilling to descend to descend to human affairs; for their souls ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell……It is from the above position that Plato arrived at his won that if we are indeed tube virtuous we cannot depend on opinions rooted in perception. The senses will deceive us and make us believe that the purely transitory world in the Real Worland therefore we must suppress the senses as much as possible. At first this will be extremely difficult and like the prisoner in the cave, we will want to return tithe security of the familiar but before long we will come to realize the difference between the transitory world and the World of Ideas. The position which advocates the use of reason or the intellect alone is usually referred to by the technical name of rationalism. In Plato’s opinion Idealism holds that only ideas are the truest form of reality. In his approach to finding answers to his questions, he sought to separate the world of matter from the world of ideas. For him and his followers including Socrates, dialectic observations to find the true meaning of points of view were best examined through open ended discussions and debates. It was his belief that given enough time for discussion, those involved in the debate would eventually meet in a middle ground and that a bridge of understanding would eventually surface. Thus the respect for each other’s point of view would ultimately be shown. For the idealist, Plato served as the father for thought. All who followed in this field were influenced by his original quests to find the answers. 

 

 

AIMS OF EDUCATION

 

The purpose of education is to contribute to the development of the mind and self of the learner. The education-imparting institute should emphasize intellectual activities, moral judgments, aesthetic judgments, self-realization, individual freedom, individual responsibility, and self-control in order to achieve this development.  In an idealistic education system emphasis should be placed on developing the mind, personal discipline, and character development. A person should be literate and of good moral character The aim of education is to brings the child as close to Absolute Truth as possible. Allot the aims of the idealist as educator find their ground in the conception of Ultimate Reality and the students’ relation to this Reality. In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual’s abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society.   More specifically, the school can take a leading role in defining and refining our knowledge of Truth and the Absolute. The school has a responsibility to find and to train future leaders. As will be seen, much of the curriculum for the idealist is based on the study of earlier leaders. Certainly the distinguishing between and the development of, leaders smacks of education for followership (or subservience tithe state) is found in the Gentile reforms instituted in Italy in the 1920’s. The school, as one of the social institutions concerned with the Absolute must make judgments as to what is right and what is wrong; thus, one of the aim of education would be to develop morality. Another aim of education is the maintenance and transmission of the established values of the past. Once we have established that something is good, or true, or beautiful, it is a responsibility of the school to pass it one to succeeding generations. The Concept of Student There is much in idealism of the “personality cult.” As Horne has pointed out, “No civilization or culture of a people surpasses that of its greatest leader.” The learner is a spiritual being in the process of becoming. His is a finite personality which, with prober molding and guidance, might more like the Ideal or the Absolute. Man is, in a sense, a small representation of the Absolute Self. The student must bring himself closer to the Absolute through imitation of the exemplar (the teacher) and through study of those subjects (the humanities) which best represent or symbolize the true ideas of which the human race has knowledge.

 

The learner, if he is an idealist himself, or if the idealist philosophy can be inculcated into his being, tries to do the very best he can, striving constantly toward perfection. Horne has described the “Idealistic Pupil” as follows: The Idealistic pupil is characterized by that admirable trait, the will to perfection. Whatever he does as well as he can. He is ambitious to deserve honors in scholarship. He wants to grow in knowledge and wisdom, to appreciate the aesthetic things in life to deserve approbation, and to be a worthy person…. He strives for perfection because the ideal person is perfect. The Concept of Teacher Idealists have high expectations of the teacher. The teacher must be excellent, in order to serve as an example for the student, both intellectually and morally. No other single element in the school system is more important than the teacher. The teacher must excel in knowledge and in human insight into the needs and capacities of the learners; and must demonstrate moral excellence in personal conduct and convictions. The teacher must also exercise great creative skill in providing opportunities for the learners' minds to discover, analyze, unify, synthesize and create applications of knowledge to life and behavior. The idealist holds the role of the teacher to be that of an important position. The teacher serves as a model for the student by teaching through example and guidance the lifelong habits of patience, tolerance and perseverance towards goal. It is the teacher’s responsibility to encourage the students and to provide them with materials to encourage them to work to achieve higher goals Just as personality is a major factor in the idealist view of the student; it plays major part in the idealist view of the teacher. The teacher is seen as having perhaps the most important single role in the educative process. The teacher serves as living ideal or model for the student and represents, to some degree, what the student can become. The idealist teacher “tries to be the right sort of person himself and to develop the right sort of personality in his pupils. The teacher should be close to the Absolute and should be, in a very real sense, a co-worker with the Absolute in developing the pupil’s capacities and guiding him closer to knowledge of the Ideal. The teacher should be close to the Absolute in developing the pupil’s capacities and guiding closer to knowledge of the Ideal. The teacher should set an example that the student will follow. This is, of course, compatible with the notion that the real world (the world of the senses) is a copy of the Absolute. Thus, the closer we are to come to the Absolute, the more we must model our behavior upon those persons that we know are paradigm cases. Since idealists believe in character development, they also believe that the teacher should be a role model for students to emulate. Teaching is considered a moral calling. The teacher’s role is to be a skillful questioner who encourages students to think and ask more questions in an environment that is suitable for learning the curriculum.

 

The important factor in education at any level for idealists is teaching children to think. Teachers should help students to explore texts for ideas about the purposes of life, family the nature of peer pressures, and the problems of growing up. Idealists believe that ideas can change lives and that classical literature can be used and explored to help solve problems in today’s world. Creativity will be encouraged when students immerse themselves in the creative thinking of others and when they are encouraged to reflect The idealist curriculum which places a considerable emphasis on the study of history and the reading of biographies. Both of these are evidently reflections of the Hegelian influence on American education. Certainly it is assumed by the idealists that through the study of the past, we can find appropriate truths around which to model our present behavior. Along with history and biography, the idealist curriculum emphasizes the study of the humanities. Underlying the selection of materials is the concern for selection of subject matter that deals with ideal man and ideal society. Thus, we find the idealists strong in their belief that the “proper study of mankind is man” and interpreting this to mean the history of the human race. Books are the source of this subject matter, the subject matter of ideas. To understand society and life we must study history. To understand man we must study literature and the humanities. The idealist wants to see the entire and absolute pattern of life and, in order to do this, history and the humanities are the most important subjects. The curriculum is based upon the idea or assumption of the spiritual nature of man. This idea in turn leads to an idea of the nature of the larger units of family, community, state, earth; the universe, and infinity. In preserving the subject matter content, which is essential for the development of the individual mind, the curriculum must include those subjects essential for the realization of mental and moral development. These subjects provide one with culture, and they should be mandated for all pupils. Moreover, the subject matter should be kept constant for all. The idealist tradition of subject matter is basically literary and places its primary emphasis on the subject matter of books, especially hose literary pieces considered the masterworks of information about ideas. Because of the idealist’s reliance on the world of the mind, their curriculum calls for little contact with the experiential universe. The idealist educator has little place in his curriculum for field trips and empirical or sensory data. Instructional Methodology Plato’s idealism suggested moving from opinion to true knowledge in the form of critical discussions, or the dialectic. All thinking begins with a thesis. The dialectic looks at all points of view. At the end of the discussion, the ideas or opinions will begin to synthesize as they work closer to truth. Knowledge is a process of discovery that can be attained through skillful questioning Idealist education involves depth of learning, a holistic approach that involves teaching the whole rather than its parts. The best method of learning for Plato was the dialectic, a process where ideas are put into battle against each other, with the most significant idea winning the battle. Knowledge was not important just for the material needs that it met. Idealists would feel that much of the great literature of the past would be useful in the solving many of today’s problems. The idealist is not concerned with turning out students with technical skills so much as having students with abroad view and understanding of the world in which they live. Idealism emphasizes the role of the teacher, a skillful questioner, who should be a model for the person we want children to become. While the lecture method is still important in an idealist’s education system, it is considered more of a way to convey information and to help students comprehend ideas. Self-realization and self-education are very important in idealism. While teachers cannot always be present when learning occurs, they must attempt to stimulate students so that learning occurs even when they are not present. Project based learning is on example of a self-directed learning activity where learning can occur without a teacher’s presence. As the curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through lecture, discussion, and Socratic dialogue (a method of teaching that uses questioning to help students discover and clarify knowledge). Introspection, intuition, insight, and whole-part logic are used to bring to consciousness the forms or concepts which are latent in the mind. Character is developed through imitating examples and heroes The classroom structure and atmosphere should provide the learners with opportunities to think, and to apply the criteria of moral evaluation to concrete within the context of the subjects. The teaching methods must encourage the acquisition of facts, as well as skill in reflecting on these facts. It is not sufficient to teach pupils how to think. It is very important that what pupils think about be factual; otherwise, they will simply compound their ignorance. Teaching methods should encourage learners to enlarge their horizons; stimulate reflective thinking; encourage personal moral choices; provide skills in logical thinking; provide opportunities to apply knowledge to moral and social problems; stimulate interest in the subject content; and encourage learners to accept the values of human civilization. The methods preferred by the idealists are the logical outgrowth of their acceptance of the doctrine of the primacy of ideas. If experience, as he have seen, is an inferior of the primacy of ideas. If experience, as we have seen, is an inferior reflection of Reality, the only purpose experience has for the idealist is to distort the Truth. Since the Truth can be reached through the abstract activities of the mind, it is in these that method must lie. Methodology, for the idealists then, consist for the most part of lectures, discussion, and imitation. Learning is an exercise in stretching the mind to its fullest so that it can absorb and handle ideas. Imitation should be of some exemplary person or persons who by their behavior give evidence that they are close to the nature of reality. All three methods employed by the idealists are open to criticism. All rely on ideas that are already known and allow little or no opportunity for the student to explore new ideas and new areas of interest. Because of this there is a tendency to reinforce the cultural lag between education and the society.

 

Criticisms of Idealism.

 

Idealism has been influential in education for a considerable amount of time. It is considered a conservative philosophy because of its emphasis in preserving cultural traditions. The strengths of idealism include encouraging thinking and cognition, promoting cultural learning, and providing for character development of students. Teachers are considered valuable parts of the educational process who should strive to provide a comprehensive, systematic, and holistic approach to learning that stresses self-realization. Science today has challenged idealism and brought about challenges to idealistic principles. Science is based on hypothesis and tentativeness, but idealism promotes a finished and absolute universe waiting to be discovered. Idealism has often been linked with traditional religion. The weakening of religion has led to the weakening of idealism as a philosophy. Through Plato’s ruler kings, and Augustine’s emphasis on the monastic life, it has been said that idealism leads to intellectual elitism. In the past, education was considered important for the upper classes of society, marking education as a luxury. Vocational and technical studies were considered good enough for the general public. Idealistic education was considered bookish and lacking relevance. It is argued that the character development aspect of the philosophy involved conformity and subservience on the part of the learner. This type of character development was considered to stifle creativity and self-direction, making students gullible and ready to accept ideas without serious examination. The emphasis on the importance of knowledge and ideas in the idealist philosophy originally led me to believe that much of my philosophy of education included idealistic tendencies. James Madison’s quote that knowledge is power, which sits front and center on my class webpage, seems to agree with this premise. Because I believe strongly in project based education as a way to have students discover and learn new information, I also began to view the idealism in my thinking. However, as much as I value these things and continue to believe in the importance of continually gaining knowledge, the fact that I view science and technology as valued part of all education, sets me apart from the philosophy. While the idealist considered science and technical studies good enough for the general public, I consider them an integral part of any education. However I do believe in the importance of teaching children to think, for not doing so results in children with book learning and no common sense. Critics of the idealist philosophy of education have been vocal and consistent, and there is, indeed, no lack of arguments opposing the position both philosophically and educationally. Here then are a set of the most common criticisms of this philosophical school.

 

1. Sets Unobtainable Goals

 

For the educator who is concerned with having the child reach out and grasp the Ideal there are two significant problems. First, if perfection is unreachable there is very little desire on the part of most to become perfect. For the idealist student the goals are often too far away. Second, the idealists have set up a final goal: to know the Ideal and become part of it. This implies a finite tend and as such means that we have a final end in view. It argues strongly against those who take the point of view that man is infinitely perfectible.

 

  2. Ignores the Physical Self

 

The body cannot be ignored. If we try to ignore the body it soon intrudes itself upon us. We do, whether we like the idea or not, react to and fake into our mind an deal with, on the intellectual level, such question as whether or not we are hot, cold, hungry, tired, happy, or sad. We will often give our greatest thought to changing or modifying our physical realm, particularly where we are trying to avoid discomfort. In the classroom the teacher who would forget that the student has a body as well as a mind will soon be faced with discipline problem as youthful spirits react to bodily demands. Thus, to try to separate mental activity from the physical and to try to place Ideas in a realm unrelated to the existent world becomes nothing more than an exercise in futility.

 

  3. Deemphasizes Experience

 

Many ideas cannot have meaning apart from experience. The ideas of heat and cold are not simply logical constructs, but ways of describing certain sensations found only in experience. This is not meant to imply that all things must be rooted inexperience. If this were true, we would have great difficulty in dealing with the study of sub-atomic particles, and the whole field of mathematics might well be called into question. But, most ideas do find their roots in experience, and to deny the validity of this experience is to make the universe sterile.4. Leads to Totalitarianism Some of the critiques of idealism is that is discourages the progress of science and our modern discovery. It also serves as somewhat of an elitist view in that although the classics have merit for use in the classroom, they are not necessarily the choice for all students. To only concentrate on the classic writings is to waste a vast writings and art. Furthermore; creating a society in which students are taught tube docile and accept without challenging those areas held to be absolute could essentially be creating an environment in which students are subservient and quick to confirm The whole doctrine of idealism may lead to a rigid and often totalitarian social order. It may become the very antithesis of Democracy since it argues that the best equipped for leadership are those who are closest to the Ideal. Plato, in the Republic, sets up a perfect society in which the leaders are the Philosopher-Kings; of the Ideal. Gentile, in twentieth century Italy, provides another example of the dangers of what can happen when the social theory inherent in the idealistic

 

  4.  Emphasizes Humanities

 

The idealist philosopher demands that all must conform to the laws which are the immutable working of the Ideal. There is, in idealism, the assumption of a universal morality which will lead to the perfect moral and ethical order. Since much, if not all, of this has an optimistic, humanities oriented outlook, it may lead to a rejection of the whole concept of a technological society which is mechanistic and “scientifically” oriented.6. Overlooks possibility of Error Perhaps the greatest failing of any philosophical system is that it fails to take into account the possibility that it may be in error. This is especially true of idealism since its truth is immutable and unchanging. Even were the Ideal to change, as long as the notion of the Ideal is accepted as such then idealism has built into it its own verification. One final comment seems called for before moving on to the next philosophical –educational system. Idealism, like many other systems, is dependent at any given time for its definition of truth upon certain spokesmen who would seem to be better able to know the Ideal. This can often lead to conflict as to the Truth of one world system as opposed to another. The whimsical sight of two idealist scholars standing off and yelling at each other, “My Truth is right, your truth is wrong,” is tempered somewhat by the picture of two hydrogen bomb holding despots standing off and yelling the same thing at each other.