Educational philosophy

"Pragmatism is a temper of mind, an attitude, it is also a theory of the nature of ideas and truth and finally it is a theory about reality.” William James

The Revolution: A Prehistoric novel


The word pragmatism is derived from the Greek word “Pragma” which means Practice . Pragmatists firmly hold that the meaning of concepts lie in their practical consequences, and knowledge develops from practice.According to Peirce, a great pragmatis, if we need to know the meaning of the word hard , we have to carry out an experiment. The experiment is we have to scratch something and find the effect of scratching. If the thing is easily scratched, it is soft, if not, it is hard.

The Slave: A novel from the prehistoric past of humanity

Theoretical Versus Pragmatic Attitude
Philosophers have identified two different types of human interests that generate knowledge and understanding of something. One is called pragmatic, and the other one is called theoretical. Theoretical interest is rooted …

Introduction:
Khalid (2005) confirms that Imam Ghazali was born in at Ghazala near Tus in 1058 A. D. He is called Ghazali because he was born at Ghazala and also his father was known as ghazali by his profession. His early education took place in Tus and he moved to Jarjan and finally migrated to Nishapur to acquire learning from the most learned man of the time Abul-Maalai. He possessed the great ability of clear expression and of addressing the people. He used to lecture before audiences of three hundred and even more great learned man in his time to their satisfaction. He used to live in Syria Egypt, Mecca and Madina. He used to wandering here and there while contemplating and thinking of the sufferings of mankind at the same time.

Imam Ghazali wrote several books nearly 78 on many subjects like tafsir, jurisprudence, hadith, politics and education. Some of his famous writings are Cheemai-i-Saadat, Mairajus-Salikeen and Aqeedat-i-Misbah and Ihya-ul-Ulummidin. He is regarded as a r…

DARS-E- NIZAMI
According to Ali (2009) the syllabus that he laid down is named after him as Dars-e –Nizami a land mark in the history of teaching of Islamic sciences in India. This curriculum laid greater emphasis on the study of logic, philosophy and other sciences and become the most popular curriculum across the India subcontinent. While it was revolutionary for its time. The prevalence today of a curriculum the predates the industrial revolution might be deemed anachronistic.
Pakistani Madrassha even today use man of the Dars-e-Nizami texts which have their roots in the faranigi, mahal madrassah established in lucknow by Mullah Nizam – al- din Muhammad. Old Arabic and Persian books written in the AD 1500 or even before are used to teach languages. Anzar(2003,p 16) characterizes the curriculum as follow.
The students are made to memorize the rhymed couplets from the ancient texts as well as their explanations. As the explanations in a number of texts are in Persian, Which is also …

The word Islam defined by the Quran itself means submission to the Supreme Being and compliance with His laws, which constitutes Nature. Islam lays special emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge.
Concept of vicegerent of man: According to Quran, Allah has made man as a vicegerent due to knowledge (IIm-ul-Asma), when angels argues about the vicegerent of man than Allah (SWT) taught Adam the names of some things and then Adam told them and hence proved his ability for vicegerent on earth. This shows the importance of acquiring knowledge from the Quranic point of view (Surah AL-Baqra Foruth Ruku). It is obligatory alike for both Muslim male and female.
Knowledge is of two types, revealed knowledge and acquired knowledge. Revealed knowledge has been given to human beings, through prophets by Allah. Acquired knowledge is that which is being acquired by the human beings though the study of natural phenomena, attitude of man and through the study of society. Quran says that for the prosp…

Education is an important human activity. It was born with the birth of the human race and shall continue to function as long as the human races live. The importance of education may be summed up as an essential human virtue, a necessity for society, important for integration of separate entities, gives significance to life, educated men are superior, sign of freedom, a controlling grace and the basis of a good life.
Derivative Meaning of education
It is derivative sense the term Education may be understood as Educare and Educere .Educare is a Latin word and it means to nourish to bring up or to raise. This means, educating a child and nourishing or bringing up the child according to certain ends or aims.
Thinker of the past
According to Aristotle , Education is the creation of a sound mind in a sound body…….It develops a humans’ faculty especially the mind so that it may be able to enjoy the contemplation of supreme truth , goodness and beauty of which prefect happiness essentially con…

Madrassah Education
By Khalid Jamil Rawat
Traditional concept of education demands from the learners that they should learn by heart the ideas that are not a part of their experience and which they do not understand. Knowledge, according to the philosophy followed by traditional education, develops in three phases. First of all, a learner, who does not understand the meaning of an ideal, is expected to have faith in it. He has to believe that such an ideal truly exists. A learner is expected to have faith in an idea before he can understand or experience it. Thus, the first step involved in the development of knowledge in traditional education is to have a blind faith in what the teacher says.

The second stage is the rational understanding of that idea. This second stage does not appear in the lives of the majority of learners. It means that what one initially believed as truth became the object of understanding, of rational knowledge and is finally comprehended with the help of reas…

A phenomenological interpretation of John Dewey’s views on Education
Dr. Khalid, Dr. Shams, Dr. Wasim

Abstract:

[Education in our times is promoting nihilism. The reason for this conclusion is that modern education is largely knowledge based and asks the learner to learn ideas that have nothing in common with the reality of the learner. Knowledge, on the other hand, does not enjoy absolute value, and, to say that a person who has more knowledge is more valuable is wrong. John Dewey’s criticism on traditional education is equally valid for modern education, for modern education is not performing its functions properly. The function of education is to establish a strong relationship between learner and Being. However, modern education through its emphasis on remote ideas and values, is working to weaken this relationship. Dewey’s ideas about education can prove a palliative in this ailing situation. Following article tries to investigate the meaning of nihilism in education and its possib…

Freedom, Truth and Education
By Dr. Khalid Jamil Rawat , Dr. Wsim Qazi, Dr. Shams Hamid
Iqra University Karachi, Pakistan

John Dewey has emphasized growth as the meaning and purpose of education. For him education should result in individual’s growth and empowerment. On the other hand, for Dewey, traditional educational practices based on the philosophy of idealism are not conducive to individual’s growth. Dewey has criticized idealism for its negative role in education and for its counterproductivity towards the individual growth.

Similiarly, there is an important contribution made by Nietzsche and Heidegger towards the cause of individual empowerment. Freedom is essential for the empowerment of individual, and freedom is expressed through choices. It comes when one finds himself or herself free from all externally imposed ideals. Freedom is a both a negative and a positive idea. It is negative in as much as it is a will to move away from a state of affair, a negation of a set of ex…