Philosophy of Education: From Greek Paideia to Rousseau, Dewey, and Freire
What does it mean to form a human being? Few questions run through the history of philosophy with such persistence — and few have consequences so immediate for the life of every person and every society. Is educating a matter of leading someone out of ignorance, or of helping them develop what they already carry within? Is it shaping character according to a model, or freeing a capacity to judge for oneself? This article traces the main philosophical answers to these questions, from Greek paideia to contemporary pedagogies, passing through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Comenius, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Dewey, and Freire. ...