Post date: Sep 28, 2013 5:33:35 PM
Difference between Ethics & Morals?
Ethics: Right / Wrong as discussed by thinkers & intellectuals
Morals: Good / Bad as seen from the perspective of the majority of society (re: MOE's CME framework)
[ which changes according to the culture ]
Multi-layers of Worldview [ compare the East vs West ] :
1. Practices / Culture
2. Ethical Norms
3. Worldview (Thawabit)
Philosophy : Defined by subject matter, it is a method of careful & systematic thinking.
Big Questions... "What exists?" - "How do we know?" - "What are we going to do?"
Epistemology (the study of Knowledge)
Theology (the study of God)
Cosmology (the study of human nature & the world around us)
Axiology (the study of values / ethics)
What's my Philosophy of Education?
1. Everyone can learn.
2. Everyone can be the best that he/she can be.
Martin Luther King's “The Street Sweeper” speech ( New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago, IL, on April 9, 1967 ) :
What I’m saying to you this morning, my friends, even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry; (Go ahead) sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
3. Everyone can have respect for all things and all people.
Modern Philosophy of Education
PRAGMATISM :
1. Nothing is permanent, except change
2. State of flux, like water in a flowing river
3. Knowledge of ultimate reality is impossible (relative)
4. Nearest approach, by sensual experience
The implication on Educational Objective : "How to cope with changes."
Comparison of Pre-Modern vs Modern worldviews
Worldview (as an intellectual lens) :
1. Framework in which our mind operates.
2. Network of interconnected ideas & concepts
Islamic worldview :
1. seen & unseen
2. sensible & spiritual
3. dunya & akhirah
4. thesis & antithesis --> synthesis
characteristics : Permanence, not dialectical
Islamic Philosophy of Education
Purpose is to know God...
God (Exists, Active, not just a "first mover")
Revelations (words of God, messengers, prophets)
Creation & Universe (purposive; Ayat - signs)
Man (al-insan, al-bashyr; Dual nature - body & soul; Dual role - slave ['abd] & vicegerent [khalifah] )
The implication on Educational Objective : "Science" as a process to understand the "Signs" pointing to God
Sources of knowledge :
human knowledge originated from God
--> Ayatullah, from the signs of God
--> Explicit / spoken, from hadith & sunnah
--> Implicit (fi al-Kawn), from al-Quran
Channels of knowledge :
--> Revelation (wahyu)
--> Senses
--> Reason (deduction)
--> True Report
--> Intuition (ilham)