Immanuel Kant's Educational Goals ? Article Squadron

Immanuel Kant thought that his students should learn critical thinking skills and he knew that it was how philosophy was being taught that made a difference in whether students learned critical thinking skills or just imitated their professors. He decided to educate students to philosophize and not just memorize philosophy. First of all, he differentiated between a way of doing philosophy scholastically and a way of doing philosophy in a cosmopolitan way. He maintained: ?one must differentiate between two types of learning: there are minute sciences, which are useless for human beings, and formerly there were philosophers, whose whole science consisted in exceeding each other in ingeniousness, these are called Scholastici; their art was science for the university, but no enlightenment for everyday life could be acquired through this. He could be a great man, but only for the university, without giving the world some of his knowledge.? (Starke, Menschenkunde, p. 1). The philosopher doing scholastic philosophy was meticulous, narrow-minded, and pedantic in his teaching style.

Students learning from scholastic teachers were begin educated to memorize philosophical concepts and regurgitate what they were learning. Kant held that this type of philosophy was founded in historical ways of knowing (cognitio ex datis) instead of begin founded in rational principles (cognitio ex principiis) since the system was already a historical fact. He used Christian Wolff as an example and argued: ?Wolff was a speculative?philosopher?he was actually not a philosopher at all, but rather a great artificer [Vernunftkuenstler], like many others still are, for the intellectual curiosity of human beings? (Philosophische Enzyklopaedie, Gesammelte Schriften, XXIX, 8). Immanuel Kant asserted: ?Anyone, therefore, who has learned (in the strict sense of the term) a system of philosophy, such as that of Wolff, although they may have all its principles, explanations, and proofs, together with the formal divisions of the whole body of doctrine, in their heads, and, so to speak, at their fingertips, have no more than a complete historical knowledge of the Wolffian philosophy? (Critique of Pure Reason, B 864).

Immanuel Kant witnessed students using the ideas they were acquiring cleverly, but their talk was ?blinder than any other self-conceit and as incurable as ignorance? (Nachricht, Gesammelte Schriften, II, 305). These students were imitating their professors rather than thinking for themselves. Their talk was imposing and they could impress others, but they didn?t apply the ideas to new circumstances. The students were failing to be insightful even though they appeared learned [Gelehrt].

To combat this false learnedness, Kant decided to teach students how to philosophize rather than just learn a philosophical system (Nachricht, Gesammelte Schriften, II, 306). He thought that the solution was to be found in his new courses in cosmopolitan philosophy. So he offered courses on physical geography and anthropology so that students would learn to think methodologically. The physical geography lectures emphasized effective causality for natural phenomenon, while the anthropology lectures stressed final causality. Effective causality is the sort of causality analyzed in the natural sciences, while final causality is researched in the human sciences. To distinguish these two types of causality one can differentiate between whether the cause precedes or follows the effect. The cause precedes the effect in effective causality but it follows the effect in final causality. For example, the manufacturer (cause) comes before the effect of a car, but driving the car (end) comes after the making of the car (effect). Both sorts of causality can be thought methodically in a nexus of causes and effects.

Kant was able to teach his students to reflect on their experience methodically through these two courses and hence he discouraged them from memorizing philosophy. Students could take what they were learning and apply it to new circumstances with exciting outcomes. They could find natural causes in nature and purposes in their lives. Both physical geography and anthropology lead students to meditate on the world or on other human beings and this makes imitation impossible. Hence Immanuel Kant valued critical thinking and he risked teaching it to his students at the Koenigsberg University. What to know more? Read my book, Kant?s Pragmatic Anthropology which you can buy from Amazon or Abebooks.

Learn more about Immanuel Kant. Stop by Holly L Wilson?s site where you can find out all about critical thinking and what it can do for you.

Source: http://articlesquadron.com/arts-entertainment/philosophy/immanuel-kants-educational-goals

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