Abstract

The Philosophy of education is a field of applied philosophy that examines the aims, forms, methods, and results of education as both a process and a field of study. It is influenced both by developments within philosophy, especially questions of ethics and epistemology, and by concerns arising from instructional practice. The subject is often taught within a department or college of education, rather than within a philosophy department. Philosophical treatments of education date at least as far back as Socrates, but the field of inquiry only began to be recognized as a formal sub discipline in the nineteenth century. Though the field often seems to lack the cohesion of other areas of philosophy, it is generally, and perhaps therefore, more open to new approaches.