Kuhn maintains that what marks the transition to a science is the ability to carry out ‘normal’ science—a practice he characterizes as abandoning the kind of testing that Popper lauds as the hallmark of science. Examining Kuhn's own contrast with Popper, I propose to recast Kuhnian normal science. Thus recast, it is seen to consist of severe and reliable tests of low-level experimental hypotheses (normal tests) and is, indeed, the place to look to demarcate science. While thereby vindicating Kuhn on (...) demarcation, my recasting of normal science is seen to tell against Kuhn's view of revolutionary science. (shrink)

Katharina Dück widmet sich in diesem Buch dem umfangreichen Doktrinenschatz des Begriffs „Materia prima“ im Spannungsfeld von Theorie und wiederholbarer Praxis in deutschsprachigen alchemisch-naturkundlichen Sachschriften des 16. Jahrhunderts. Sie trägt damit neue Aspekte zur Debatte des Materialismus in der Frühen Neuzeit bei. Untersucht werden Texte sogenannter Meisterdenker als auch Zeugnisse derer, die bisher wenig berücksichtigt wurden. Dem Corpus Paracelsicum und der Strömung des Paracelsismus wird besondere Beachtung gezollt. Drei rasterartig umrissene Grundmuster, denen die „Materia prima“-Vorstellungen zugeordnet sind, werden ausführlich vorgestellt (...) und dabei Kontinuitäten sowie Transformationen von vorhandenen Materie-Konzepten festgestellt.​. (shrink)

In this essay, Duck-Joo Kwak draws on Hannah Arendt's concept of judgment in exploring what it means to teach the humanities as a form of values education in a postmetaphysical age. Arendt's concept of judgment is closely related to Ciceronian humanism, which is concerned with the wisdom to choose one's company while appreciating this pursuit itself, among men, things, and thoughts from the past and present. According to Arendt, this wisdom as a form of judgment can be generated from (...) a unique form of thinking via understanding. Thus, the main focus of this essay is on Arendt's explication of two distinct forms of humanistic thinking, which can be characterized as critical and interpretive, respectively. The educational virtue of humanistic thinking lies in its avoidance of both authoritarianism and nihilistic constructivism, both of which are problematic in the context of postmetaphysical contemporary culture, while also holding the potential to help young people find good company as a way of expanding the boundaries of intersubjectivity in their selfhood. (shrink)

The idea of modernity has been a problematic concept throughout the twentieth century, not only in the self-understanding of the West where the idea originated, let’s say, with the Enlightenment sp...

This paper critically examines the contemporary educational discourse on critical thinking as one of the primary aims of education, its modernist defence and its postmodernist criticism, so as to explore a new way of conceptualizing critical thinking for moral education. What is at stake in this task is finding a plausible answer to the question of how the teaching of critical thinking in moral education can contribute to leading young people to avoid moral relativism while at the same time to (...) develop a coherent way of responding to cultural pluralism. The paper takes Bernard Williams's concept of ‘ethical reflection’ as a possible candidate and explores this concept as a means of accommodating these concerns. (shrink)

This short essay makes a comment on the special issue on Japanese scholars’ responses to modern education in Japan edited by Morimichi Kato. The essay mainly focuses on the historical experiences shared by most of east Asian countries, the establishment of modern education of which tended to be historically forced by the external superpower: the experiences of feeling split between tradition and modernity. From the post-colonial perspective, the essay poses a challenging question of how the east Asian educators are to (...) purse a way of overcoming the split and reinventing their own subjectivities without falling into cultural essentialism or western universalism. (shrink)

This paper attempts to do a comparative study on two traditions of humanistic pedagogies, West and East, represented by the Socratic and the Confucian teachings. It is intended to put into question our common misunderstanding reflected in the stereotyped contrasts between the Socratic self and the Confucian self: an intellectualist vs. a moralist, an active vs. a passive learner, and a political progressive vs. a political conservative. In this attempt, I will focus on the clarification of the idea of ‘self-knowledge’ (...) in each thinker, especially in its connection to our being virtuous or good. This bold attempt will give us a chance to view Socratic and Confucian teachings from an unfamiliar perspective, which will in turn lead us to see where and how the two thinkers’ teachings can converge and diverge in a new light for our humanistic teaching. It will also show how a comparative study in philosophy of education can contribute to constructive intercultural conversations. (shrink)

This paper attempts to explore a pedagogical form of writing in which students are allowed to have more room to converse with themselves, such that their own being is reflected in their work. The attempt is made as a response to the poverty of educationally orientated assessment methods for students' academic performance in the predominant evidence-based assessment culture of schooling today. Taking Lukács' Soul and Form as a good source for this exploration, especially his commitment to essay form as a (...) first-person, soul-searching journey to the truth, the paper tries to reconstruct the way he conceptually connects philosophical practice, our life-form and the essay form of writing. It attempts to provide insight into the ways in which a certain form of philosophical writing can in itself be an educational practice that provides students with a unique way of addressing their life-problems. (shrink)

The human relation to things in the world is at stake in the so-called post-humanist era where the distinction between human and non-human is blurred, as indicated in a term like ‘the nano-self’. How should we understand the nature of our relation to things in this era? Or how can we describe an educationally meaningful relation we as human agents can make in relation to things, artificial and natural, in the face of this technologically hybrid and ever-dehumanizing tendency of society? (...) Well-known for his actor-network theory, Bruno Latour, an influential materialist and philosopher of technology, says that ‘objects’ have agency as much as humans; so we need to be able to translate the language of things into the language of men or vice versa as a way of co-shaping the world we live in. What does this mean and how can we do so? In carefully examining his theory, the essay attempts to explore and reformulate his account of the mediating role of human agency to see if it can provide us with an educationally plausible post-humanist concept of human agency, which can lead us into an ecologically ethical and politically responsible approach to education in general, and science education in particular. (shrink)

Modern schooling in Korea, which was officially established by law in 1949, is well known for its function as an engine of economic success in modern Korea. Although this fact seems to be world-wid...

Since the Korean Philosophy of Education Society was established in 1964, the question regarding the nature of Philosophy of Education as a modern discipline has always been a vexing question to mo...

Newton began his optical studies believing in the modification theory, which was still universally accepted at that time, and in the perception of colour as a physiological process—a process in which the eye responds differently to the different velocities of identical globules. His discovery that white light is heterogeneous led him to switch to considering colour in purely physical terms.A century later, Goethe started out by accepting Newton's physical theory. He soon abandoned it, however, finding modification to be more in (...) keeping with his own insights. One beneficial consequence of this was that he developed an awareness of the importance of the physiological aspect of colour perception, and was therefore able to demonstrate that Newton's theory of light and colours is too simplistic; that there is more to colour than variable refrangibility. (shrink)

As a way of participating in the discussion on the disciplinary nature of philosophy of education, this article attempts to find another distinctive way of relating philosophy to education for the studies in philosophy of education. Recasting philosophical skepticism, which has been dismissed by Dewey and Rorty in their critiques of modern epistemology, it explores whether Cavell's romantic interpretation of it can allow us to conceive of skepticism as an exemplary practice of education, especially internal to the learner. This opens (...) up the possibility of viewing the disciplinary nature of philosophy of education as congenial to other humanities like literature or religious studies, rather than to social sciences as usually considered. (shrink)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was well acquainted with Isaac Newton's work on refraction and his theory of light and colours. Indeed, he had painstakingly repeated those experiments in Newton's Opticks , which clearly demonstrate that light is heterogeneous. Yet Goethe never abandoned his belief that light is immutable and that colours result from the interaction of light and darkness. It is argued here that the origin of Goethe's refusal to accept Newton's theory was not psychological, as is commonly supposed, but (...) theological. It stemmed from his pantheistic belief in the spiritual nature of light, which he believed rendered it unknowable and not open to analysis. (shrink)

The term ‘humanism’ is Western in origin. It denotes the tradition that places special emphasis on cultivation of letters for education. In the West, this tradition was originated with sophists and Isocrates, established by Cicero, and was developed by Renaissance humanists. East Asia, however, also has its own humanistic traditions with equal educational relevance. One of these is a Japanese version of Confucian humanism established by Ogyu Sorai. This tradition is based on the interpretation of Confucius as a lover of (...) poetry and a teacher of rites. In this article, we discuss the main features of East Asian humanism represented by Sorai and Confucius. Then, after an overview of Western humanism, we aim to elucidate both the convergence and divergence of the two traditions. The investigation will help us to envision humanistic education of the twenty-first century. (shrink)

This paper makes a bold attempt to make sense of contemporary Koreans’ common expectation of the educational role of public school teachers by tracing its historical and cultural roots to the neo-Confucian humanistic tradition of the Joseon dynasty in Korea that lasted for about 500 years until Korea began to modernize in the late nineteenth century. In this attempt, the key concepts to be explored as equivalent to the Western idea of ‘liberal learning’ are the Confucian ethics of ‘learning for (...) oneself’ and its relation to schooling and teaching. The discussion focuses on whether and how this ethics of learning can be recovered in such a way as to accommodate the postmodern condition of our society, as the educational legacy of the humanistic tradition of East Asia that can keep the public spirit alive in modern schooling. (shrink)

This study aimed to meta-analyze the relationship between self-management and exercise self-confidence, satisfaction, and commitment in both modern and traditional martial arts among Korean practitioners. We examined the level of sports participation and different martial arts sports as potential moderating variables. In total, 22 studies yielded 299 individual effect sizes and were included in the final meta-analytic pool. The analyses revealed a moderate effect of self-management on exercise satisfaction and self-confidence; and a large effect self-management on exercise commitment. Especially, the (...) effect of the training dimension of self-management was large on exercise commitment and satisfaction, while that of the mental dimension was large on exercise self-confidence. The effects of self-management on exercise satisfaction, commitment, and self-confidence were large in judo, Ssireum, and wrestling, respectively. Finally, the use of self-management was relatively more effective for non-elite participants than for elite practitioners. Our results highlight the effectiveness of self-management to enhance Korean martial arts practitioners’ exercise self-confidence, commitment, and satisfaction, findings that may potentially be extended internationally and to other types of sports; further, they showcase the importance of the promotion of interventions and educational programs on how to incorporate/employ self-management in athletes’ sports training. (shrink)

Ruyu HungNational Chiayi University, TaiwanThis is a collective writing experiment of PESA members, orchestrating the Philosophy of Education in a New Key regarding East Asia. In 2016 the pioneerin...

The present study examined the attitudes of Filipino middle school students toward physical education and the associations between PE attitude and various personal and external correlates of PE. In total, 659 middle school students, aged between 12 and 19 years, participated in the study. The Physical Education Attitude Scale was used to measure affective, cognitive, and motivational/behavioral attitudes of adolescent students toward PE. Results showed that middle school students had moderate general attitudes toward PE. Female students had more favorable attitudes (...) toward PE when their teacher was male than female. When the teacher was female, male students were more satisfied with the PE curriculum than female students. When the teacher was male, female students were more comfortable with the PE curriculum than male students. Finally, students' PE attitude did not decrease as they got older, regardless of student sex. The findings provide a different perspective for the field and underscore the importance of not only the PE curriculum but also the student–teacher relationship. To prevent the decline in students' positive attitude and encourage positive behaviors toward PE and activities, teachers should be very considerate about their interactions with students of the same sex; school administrators, meanwhile, should focus at providing PE teachers with special training courses to enhance both their teaching and communication capabilities. (shrink)