Vol 25, No 4 (2021): PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY

What is a Philosophy of Education?

Morgan W.J.

Abstract

The article considers what is a philosophy and its relation to education . The modern academic development of philosophy has questioned the theoretical basis of specific aspects of knowledge and human experience, including education. It is an active rather than a passive or descriptive discipline. Education is defined similarly as a process by which knowledge, skills (including collecting empirical evidence and reasoning from it), cultural norms, values, and beliefs are acquired. The development of the modern philosophy of education is considered with its emphasis on conceptual analysis. Education is philosophically the conscious development of maturity requiring capacity for both intellectual and economic autonomy. Issues in the contemporary philosophy of education are then considered, particularly the challenges of post-modernism and post-truth for a philosophy of education in an Internet world. It identifies the need for comparative philosophical perspectives other than Occidental ones and suggests philosophical anthropology and comparative education as potential guides. It concludes that although there is now no consensus on how a coherent contemporary philosophy of education may be developed, analysis of concepts, metaphysical reasoning, and ethics may still provide a basis for a coherent and defensible philosophy of education whatever the comparative cultural setting.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):565-573
pages 565-573 views

Upbringing as an Educational Result: A Value-Based Approach to Assessment in the General Education System

Bryzgalina E.V., Stanchenko S.V.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe the basic parameters of a value-oriented approach to assessing the education results as a possible basis for the methodology for assessment of the educational work in the general system of education. The key methods we used were content analysis of text sources, cross-reference analysis, comparative analysis, and humanitarian examination of juristic documents. The interpretation of education as a unity of teaching and upbringing for the state as a key subject of education, which forms the requirements for the results and organization of the educational process, sets the task of assessing personal, subject and metasubject educational results. The philosophy of education faces a challenge regarding the determination of the expediency of assessing educational results, the conceptual basis of assessment, fixing the orientation of assessment on the conditions of educational organzations' activities, and (or) on the results achieved by students. A practical managerial task is to develop an attitude towards using formalized procedures and methods for assessing educational results. The article proposes a value-oriented approach to assessing the educational work in the general education system of the Russian Federation based on an analysis of key regulatory documents of the Russian education system, the interpretation of upbringing as a process of forming value-semantic attitudes. The approach is based on identifying three main groups of value orientations to build a possible system of indicators that fix educational results: "Value orientations related to life, health and safety"; "Value orientations of social interaction"; "Value orientations of personal development". Values are an essential element in regulating human behavior, which guides the process of defining goals and choosing the means to achieve them. Values acquire a functional character in value orientations and can serve as indicators of education results at the level of students as a collective subject. It seems impossible to single out the contribution of individual actors to the output of education and to avoid contradictions between the value-semantic attitudes that exist in the space of modern culture. For the education system, the subject of assessing the quality of upbringing as a purposeful process can be both the quality of the organization of upbringing work and the outcomes of upbringing efforts. The results of education as a manifestation of value orientations in the activities of students can be considered based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, which is significant for making managerial decisions at different levels.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):574-588
pages 574-588 views

Plutocracy, Platonism and Education in Brazil: Some Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Guilherme A.A., Picoli B.A.

Abstract

The Lancet stated in its editorial on the 9th of May 2020 that the situation in Brazil was very problematic insofar as the COVID-19 pandemic was concerned. More than a year later, Brazil already registered more than half a million deaths from complications of COVID-19, which places it in second place in the world ranking of deaths despite having the seventh-largest population in the world. Despite this utterly tragic situation, in July 2021, almost 40% of the Brazilian population approved of the federal government's role in confronting the pandemic, and the Brazilian elites have defended openly the view that the economy was more important than individuals' lives. Given this context, in this article, we reflect on the issue of plutocracy, demonstrating its platonic authoritarian foundations, in order to understand the Brazilian elites' attitude toward the pandemic, which had no proper regard or care for the most vulnerable in society. Through this philosophical inquiry we indicate the importance of education, particularly of philosophy of education, in encouraging educationists and educational systems to reflect on problematic issues and self-reflect so as to identify possible educational deficiencies and shortcomings that created the conditions for individuals' attitudes of indifference to the victims of the pandemic and the vulnerable in society.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):589-601
pages 589-601 views

Education and Corporeality: Contributions from the Philosophy of Sport

Zimmermann A.C.

Abstract

Corporeality is a subject strongly present in educational discussion nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to present an outline of issues we may address from the philosophy of sport that could foster a fruitful dialogue with the philosophy of education. It is understood that the philosophy of education can benefit from reflections on corporeality and human movement, namely from sports and games. Initially, the article introduces the philosophy of sport as a field of study that addresses reflections on human movement from sports and games. They highlight elements that are not specific to such practices and foster reflexions on different areas. Afterwards, it explores the experience of corporeality and the dialogical dimension of human movement based on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Human movement indicates a unique way of being communicative. Finally, it presents some reflections on playing games as an experience that helps us think about our relationships with others and the environment. From this perspective it is possible to seek some critical features to understand education in the experience of human movement, namely from playing games, such as experience, dialogue, and expressiveness. Thoughts on human movements may reinforce the role corporeality plays in education as a collective experience and the recognition of the body's expressive potential in constructing knowledge.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):602-612
pages 602-612 views

Interrogating Values of Adult Education Practice in Hong Kong

Chan B.T.

Abstract

The practice of adult learning and education (ALE) in Hong Kong is lesser known to the wider community of ALE practitioners due to lack of exchanges with international peers. There is a small community of full-time ALE practitioners working mainly in university continuing education schools but a larger body of uncharacterised or alternative practitioners can also be found. Essentially, both types of practitioners are conservative in their outlook and they adopt strategies that align with market needs and priorities set by public funders. Under the backdrop of neoliberalism which has harmonised ALE practice worldwide, a dominant form of individualised learning makes it difficult to promote group learning for societal advancement. ALE practitioners in Hong Kong are no exception to this influence and have been found to profess philosophical orientations favouring the behaviourist/narrowed progressivist notions of learner empowerment for economic and personal gains. Given recent worldwide renewed enthusiasm in making ALE responsive to societal issues, this paper examines the options and learning areas that ALE practitioners in Hong Kong can make their contributions to, such as: health advocacy, climate justice, and media literacy. Through engaging in these aspects of work, practitioners will have to incorporate methods of facilitating group learning in formal and non-formal ALE programmes and courses. An embrace by practitioners of the original notion of progressivist philosophy in adult education may emerge as one of the outcomes to make ALE practice inclusive, relevant and socially responsible. Even with the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, it is deemed even more pressing to pursue a balanced practice approach that can take care of individual's skills transformation for post-COVID economy as well as developing human bonds that would help to make society progressive as a countercheck to neoliberal-inspired individualistic adult learning.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):613-625
pages 613-625 views

The Problem of Matter of Education in the Digital Age

Sokhranyaeva T.V., Zamotkin I.D.

Abstract

The aim of the article is to philosophically address and expand the contemporary discourse of the increasingly digitalized education by examining the problem of matter of education and its conceptualizations in this context. With the digital transformation of education a significant change occurs not only in terms of what is considered to be a matter of education, but also in the very principles of interaction between the subjects of education. In order to do this, in the first section several examples of conceptual justifications of applying digital technologies in education are examined with the task of demonstrating how in such justifications the activity of education is reduced to the process of learning and what risks such instrumental interpretation engenders. Then, these issues are analyzed and contextualized utilizing the material of the philosophical discussion of the 20th century - the critique of the progressive education in the analytic philosophy of education. By outlining the relevance of the arguments of discussion on manner/matter to realities of digital education, the issue of the dominance of the logic of learning in current education is analyzed. In the last section several adjustments to the contemporary discourse on digitalization of education are proposed, aimed at finding a balance between individual and social dimensions of the problem of matter of education, given the current tendency of mass personalization in education. Particularly, the importance of the idea of education as a common good in the contemporary educational discourse is claimed.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):626-639
pages 626-639 views

Spiritual Exercise as Techne: Philosophy as a Way of Liberating Education

Lin S., Tsai W., Chistyakov D.I.

Abstract

The study of education systems as social phenomena has led scholars to question the role of education in modern society. The question of how to improve education naturally leads to concerns about what is wrong with the present education system. If education is meant to elevate the next generation, how can it meet the goal of ensuring a meaningful existence for those being educated? Scholars have demonstrated that education has been reduced to a process of the construction of objects, where curriculum as techne commodifies students into products with market value. We propose that the tendency of interpreting techne as technology is a perspective of the modern age, and the rules of modern education are based on the rules of modern technology, under the guidance of the paradigm of productivity. We will introduce a broader interpretation of techne which frames it as the cultivation of virtue, i.e., virtue-techne. On this basis, education could be viewed as techne in the sense of praxis (practice, exercise), rather than as fabrication in the sense of production. We highlight the rising rate of student suicides in Taiwan in recent years, where we determine the education system lacks a focus on praxis. This article investigates alternative praxis-oriented notions of education, from Aristotle's cultivation of virtue to Hadot's "spiritual exercises," to advocate for a shift away from the production paradigm. Indebted to Heidegger, we clarify his "techne as revealing" by emphasizing two frameworks for education: The first, modern education being valued by its adherence to metrics based in the paradigm of production. The second, education as a process wherein its value is derived from the life context of the participating individual. Finally, as a comparative study, we explore the current state of education in Russia and Taiwan, and present the case of one high school in Taiwan which has adopted the practice of spiritual exercises in its curriculum, including a required hike to the peak of Taiwan's tallest mountain, to cultivate a sense of (and value for) the liberated life before its students graduate.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):640-655
pages 640-655 views

Trajectories of Education Development: from 1960s to 2000s

Tokareva S.B.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the formal and substantive aspects of the development of education in the process of forming a single European educational space. The formal conditions for the integration of education (the development of common quality criteria, the choice of educational trajectories, the mobility of students and teachers) were considered by default as arising from the European concept of individual rights and freedoms. The content of education in the post-industrial era, when society refuses to impose strict value and behavioral imperatives on the individual, is aimed at ensuring a level of autonomy of the subject that would allow him not only to realize his creative potential, but also to determine his life goals and meanings. In this regard, an important task is to develop the theoretical and conceptual foundations of the leading trends in the transformation of the educational system - personalization, autonomization of the subject, the introduction of projective techniques, recognition of the leading role of creative activity. The conditions for Russia's entry into the Bologna process and the thesis about the alienness of the standards introduced in this regard for national education are analyzed. It is shown that the cognitive foundations of design and creative activity, as well as the ideas of intellectualization of education, developed in the 1960s in Russian philosophy, psychology and pedagogy, can be used as methodological foundations for reforming Russian education. The possibilities of using the activity paradigm as a conceptual framework for developing a teaching methodology, a methodology for the formation of critical thinking and project activity are shown. This allows us to conclude that there is still variability in the trajectories of the development of domestic education, which can be based both on methodological and technological advances, as well as cultural and anthropological perspectives.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):656-667
pages 656-667 views

PHILOSOPHY. LANGUAGE. SOCIETY

The construction of Digital Reality: Intellectual Versus Social

Przhilenskiy V.I.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to compare two models of reality construction and their applicability to explain the various effects of the digitalization process. The evolution of the constructivist ideas about reality is reconstructed in the context of the dispute among realists and constructivists, which was one of the most significant events in the epistemology and philosophy of science of the 20th century. The author points out the differences between the intellectual and the social construction of reality, and carries out a comparative analysis of the philosophical theories and concepts describing the aforementioned alternatives. The intellectual construction of reality, which often takes place in theoretical physics at different stages of its development, is also analyzed. Particular consideration is given to the philosophic-scientific contexts generated by the sociology of knowledge, the theory of speech acts, and the actor-network theory. The article also shows a distinction between the construction and the constitution of reality. The constitution of reality within various types of non-theoretical (pre-theoretical, post-theoretical) thinking, fixed using the means and methods of phenomenological philosophy of science, allows identifying and describing the main contexts through which the word “reality” acquires significance and is endowed with meaning in the present-day intellectual and social practices. Special attention is paid to the concepts of “virtual reality” and “digital reality.” The features of the intellectual construction of virtual reality are described. The difference between the intellectual and the social construction of digital reality is substantiated as between two alternative practices, which determine the meaning, and the prospects of digitalization. This distinction may be of particular interest to those who design digital platforms and implement digitalization in various areas of human life and society, especially in as education, legal procedure, management, economics, and business. Today, when partly spontaneous, partly controlled digitalization is taking place in these spheres, the results of this study make it possible not only to understand the logic of the changes taking place but also to apply forecasting and planning methods actively, i.e., constructing the digital reality.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):668-682
pages 668-682 views

The Problem of Demarcation of Information Conflicts: Philosophical-Methodological Analysis

Zubkov N.A., Nikitina E.A.

Abstract

The phenomenon of information conflict at the moment is an actual research object of many social and humanitarian disciplines. On the other hand, there is a lack of fundamental theoretical, primarily philosophical and methodological, research on this issue. This is expressed, inter alia, in the absence of philosophical and methodological grounds for isolating an information conflict from the totality of all objectively observed communications, i.e. demarcation of the phenomenon. The problem of finding criteria for an information conflict is of key importance in the formation of the methodological foundations and categorical apparatus for studying this phenomenon. In this regard, the need to develop theoretical foundations for the demarcation of information conflict is an urgent research task. The object of this work is the phenomenon of information conflict as part of the communicative process. The subject of the research is the problem of demarcation of information conflicts from all aggregate communications. The purpose of the study is to describe and substantiate the existing object-oriented methodologies that allow for the demarcation procedure. The following tasks are adequately formulated for the purpose of the study: 1) describe the problem of demarcation; 2) identify the communicative grounds of the information conflict; 3) analyze and highlight the main approaches to the problem of demarcation of information conflict. The novelty of the work lies in the systematic description and structuring of methodological approaches to the problem of demarcation of information conflicts, as well as analysis of the boundaries of methodologies and approaches. In the course of the work, it was determined and proved that, relying solely on the theory of communication, it is impossible to adequately carry out the demarcation procedure; it is necessary to use additional, non-communicative demarcation criteria, which is due to the variety of demarcation approaches in various studies. In conclusion, conclusions are formulated about the limitations of object-oriented approaches for solving the problem of demarcation of information conflicts.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):683-694
pages 683-694 views

SCIENTIFIC REVIEWS

Historical and Philosophical Arabic Studies in Russia at the Turn of the Century (the 2nd Half of the XX - Early XXI Centuries)

Kirabaev N.S.

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the most significant results in Russian academic research in philosophy of the Arabic Middle East in the second half of the XX century-the beginning of XXI century. The author consistently examines the contribution of various schools and their main representatives to the field of Arabic studies, in particular, the academic research works dedicated to the Middle East philosophy and history written by the scientists from the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University and RUDN University. The article attempts to show the conceptual findings and results of this academic research on Arabic Islamic philosophy of the Middle Ages considering the problems of understanding and interpreting Arab and Muslim culture, which was held by a number of leading experts during the second half of the XX century, up to the early XXI century. It is equally important to understand the role and place of the historical and philosophical Arabic studies in the dialogue between different philosophical cultures - in the context of striving for responses to the challenges of the modern time. The author of the article proves the idea that overcoming false cultural, philosophical and ideological stereotypes in the unprecedented global interaction of East and West in the late XX and early XXI centuries will significantly expand academic mobility and internationalization in the fields of education and science, open new perspectives for international cooperation in various fields and promote mutual enrichment of cultures.

RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):695-719
pages 695-719 views

SCHOLARLY LIFE

Ontology and Art: Current Tendencies

Kolychev P.M., Patkul A.B., Khakhalova A.A.

Abstract

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RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):720-728
pages 720-728 views

Modern Images of Transcendental Metaphysics

Katrechko S.L., Vladimirov P.A., Perepechina A.S.

Abstract

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RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 2021;25(4):729-738
pages 729-738 views

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