Realism in Philosophy of Education. The Powerful Impact

Realism is the pillar upon which sound decision-making regarding health and family safety is based. It is essential to ensure that everyone in the family stays healthy and safe. Uncover the role that realism plays in the philosophy of education and gain a better appreciation for how reality shapes our understanding of learning and teaching.

What is realism? Realism in philosophy of education

Realists accept reality as it is and argue that it is the responsibility of educational institutions to help students adapt to it. As a result, realism has had a significant impact across many pedagogical domains. The rise of realism in education brought the field of study out of the shadows of myth and legend and the ebb and flow of ideal and reality.

To be a realist is to refine the widespread belief that the world is exactly as it seems. It states that everything is exactly as it seems and that our knowledge of the world is unaltered by the things we’ve experienced. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The Philosophy School of Realism

Ideas that come out during almost any kind of discussion may be labeled as either objective or subjective. For example, the question of whether or not a certain dish tastes delicious is often seen as subjective, with each individual entitled to their own view. Conversely, the truth contained in an objective statement is universal.

Mathematical facts like “2 + 2 = 4”, for example, are not just views that might differ from one person to the next. Truths like these, however, convey facts about the world, independent of one’s beliefs. A topic may go beyond the binary of objective and subjective by referring to either real or purely imaginary things.

The Meaning of Realism (Philosophy)

The philosophical school known as “realism” emphasizes discussing topics in an honest and impartial manner. For realists, it’s all about making assertions that hold up regardless of whether you believe them or not. It’s predicated on the principle of mind-independent objectivity, which holds that anything may exist independently of our awareness of it. This also implies that facts apply to any real thing even when no one is observing or thinking about it.

Realism in Aristotle. Realism in philosophy of education

Aristotle was a realist and philosopher from ancient Greece.

Aristotle, a thinker from ancient Greece, was one of the first realists. The fact that he puts the such stock on natural sorts is perhaps the greatest argument for calling his outlook realist. The capacity to classify organisms in accordance with their own, natural notions as opposed to just by convention, is at the heart of the concept of “natural sorts.” Yet, if the labels “dog” and “cat” just reflect social practices that have no objective foundation, then they are not natural sorts.

Aristotle’s realism stresses the need for education to understand one’s environment. A person’s perception of an item or how something appears does not always correspond to the object’s or person’s actual nature. That’s why it’s crucial to train yourself to take things slowly and not to trust your initial perceptions while you’re seeing the world.

Aristotle’s realism was controversial because it was seen as undermining the importance of people’s varied perspectives. Aristotle implies that only those who are wise in the art of government should hold positions of power inside a city. A monarchy, he says in both Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, is the finest form of government in theory—but only when a single family possesses much more virtue and intelligence than the rest of the population.

He goes on to say that constitutional democracy is the worst of the three types of governance in Nicomachean Ethics.

Realistic Teaching Practices. Realism in philosophy of education

How pupils should be taught about a subject matter is profoundly affected by a commitment to realism. If there is an objective world outside of one’s head, then it is up to pupils to learn to see beyond their own preconceived notions and find what things are really like.

Therefore, realist educators place an emphasis on critical thinking, logic, and the scientific method. with the hope that their students will use these tools to seek evidence for their conclusions, overcome their biases, test the consistency of their views, and seek regularity in their experiences as a symptom of objective reality. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Inquiry-Based Science. Realism in philosophy of education

As a metaphysical worldview, realism advocates for a certain set of epistemic (knowledge-generating) procedures for gaining insight into the real world. Each inquiry grounded in realism must provide an explanation of its technique. The scientific method is an example of such a procedure. Briefly, the scientific process entails the following steps:

• The act of watching the world around you
• Putting forth a query
• the process of hypothesizing
• Putting that theory to the test
• Taking a second look at that theory
• By repeatedly putting through tests with increasingly-refined versions of a working hypothesis up to the point when it is confirmed by data, iteratively

Reminiscing. Realism in philosophy of education

Whilst several pre-Christian thinkers tackled physics issues (particularly the early Greek physicist-philosophers Democritus and Leucippus), Aristotle is largely credited with developing the first thorough realistic stance. According to Aristotle, the world may be broken down into its component parts of form and substance. All things have a common ingredient known as matter. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Throughout the 1700s and 1800s:

Knowledge or sense data collection is emphasized as John Amos Comenius’s principal focus. Comenius believed that the human mind mirrored the world around it like a mirror.

Similarly to how Comenius was an educator, John Locke was a philosopher. The concept that ideas are not intrinsic and that all experience is the consequence of impressions produced on the mind by external things was Locke’s most important contribution to both philosophy and the philosophy of education.

His idea of the mind as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, onto which experience may be imprinted, lays out the implications of this. To paraphrase Locke, all ideas must originate in either sensory experience or reflective thought. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The New Realists and the Critical Realists of American Realism

This was a stance opposed by the New Realists, especially the American school. who saw the mind as no different from everything else in nature and hence accorded it no unique importance. Things might enter and leave their sphere of awareness without having any effect on them. They contended that since existence is independent of consciousness. It is no longer the mind that serves as the universe’s fulcrum. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Herbart, a new rationalist, maintained that knowing one thing improves one’s understanding of everything other. What Herbart dubbed the “apperceptive mass” was where connections between new concepts and established ones took place. New perceptions or presentations joined with established ones in the mind and fought their way up to the conscious level.

The Realist Philosophical Case. Realism in philosophy of education

Objects and data are of particular importance to realists. For the most part, realists hold to the view that our sensory experience exists apart from any external reality. They hold the “facts” of the natural and social sciences in high esteem.

Let’s take a look at the timeless riddle of the crashing tree on the isolated island. If there is no one there to hear a tree fall on a desert island, does it make a sound? is a common variation on this theme. How do idealists and realists approach and respond to this subject differently?

Unlike an idealist, who could argue that a tree in the middle of a desert only exists if it is in some mind or if there is knowledge of it, a realist would maintain that the tree exists regardless of whether or not anybody or anything is thinking about it. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The Cosmic Scale (Ontology or Metaphysics)

When it comes to metaphysics, realists have widely divergent views. There is so much divergence among them that they couldn’t be lumped together unless they had certain essential characteristics. They think that all there is to the cosmos is moving stuff. The material universe in which we exist is the foundation of everything that is real.

Even if humans are a little disrupted in the enormous universe, it continues on its way. Whether one chooses to believe it or not, natural principles govern his or her interactions with it. It’s like a huge machine in which humans play both an active and passive role.

Deep thought. Realism in philosophy of education

The realist might hold the view that there is just one substance, hold the view that there are two, or hold the view that there are many. No matter which, he holds the view that all matter has an objective reality apart from the perspective of the observer. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

A member of the realist family is likely to support each of the many possible solutions to the question of God. An atheist may be a realist, of course. People who see the universe in a purely naturalistic light and who describe the mind in terms of matter or physical processes would naturally reject the existence of God.

Wisdom and Facts (Epistemology)

Although proponents of both schools agree that there is a “real” world out there, they approach the question of how we may know it differently. As a group, realists have been very cognizant of epistemological issues.

In the first, presentational perspective of knowledge, we have direct access to the item in question in its actual state. These are the New Realists’ core beliefs. What one sees is what one really sees in the “real” world. Hence, the mind is the connection between the subject and the object.

According to this viewpoint, anything is valid if and only if it has a relationship to the external world. Since that knowledge is essentially correspondence, this must be the case. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The human mind is capable of partially apprehending these things and interactions as they really exist. As far as we can tell, all knowledge has either a deliberate or a relational aspect, as shown by our experiences. Each and every one of our opinions and ideas is based on something.

Ideas on What Is Good (Axiology)

A realist accepts the order of nature. When man learns and abides by natural law, he enjoys the good life. This natural law, or the underlying regularities of the cosmos, underlies everything of human experience. Everyone has a fundamental familiarity with the rules of natural and moral justice.

For realists, the elements of experience that we value and find most appealing have their own intrinsic worth. But, according to the alternative hypothesis, motivation is the decisive factor in assessments. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

According to this perspective, the moral good is whatever leads to most people’s satisfaction.

The importance of religion. Realism in philosophy of education

By revisiting the discussion of realism and theistic determinism, we may get insight into one facet of the relationship between axiology and metaphysics. Those who reject the existence of a Supreme Being to whom we owe adoration, regard, and trust will find it difficult to find meaning in their lives. Without anything solid to cling to, religious beliefs like faith and hope crumble.

An Idea of Beauty (Aesthetics). Realism in philosophy of education

The capacity for appreciating aesthetics is intrinsically linked to the development of more acute sensory faculties. Values, it argues, are not objectively true. In other words, he thinks that there is no such thing as a purely good or evil end or means.

A realist’s appreciation for the ordered conduct of nature is not surprising given the realist’s high regard for the natural law and the moral code as revealed in the behavior or phenomena of nature. A great work of art is a reflection of the cosmos’ inherent logic and order. The purpose of art is to either reflect or remark on the natural order. The more accurately an artistic medium achieves this, the more appealing it is.

Realist Thinking. Realism in the philosophy of education

One can observe that realists adhere to both investigative and deductive logic. Both are necessary for making smooth adjustments to our lives and exercising sufficient agency over our experiences.

Montague posits several “means of knowing,” each of which adds something to the logical canon.

According to him:

• “the big and fundamental source of our learning about other man’s views and about the history must always be the acceptance of authoritative claims of other people.”
• Mystical intuition may also be a source of truth for us, but we must be cautious to verify such insights by objective means.
• The pragmatic test, “how successful it is in practice,” may be a credible source of truth, especially in the field of practical or ethical problems.
• Although skepticism may not lead us to any positive truth, it may prevent us from being arrogant and close-minded and assist us to be accepting of others’ perspectives. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Bertrand Russell, who first studied mathematics before turning to philosophy, has always had a great deal of respect for mathematics as a tool for getting to the truth. Many realists, unfortunately, share this view. He argues that words are too prone to ambiguity to adequately convey logical connections and instead advocates the use of mathematical symbols and equations.

Meaning of Society

What has been said above should make it clear that this philosophy would have a societal status quite similar to that of idealism. This role’s concentration is on preserving cultural artifacts since it is preoccupied with passing on and spreading knowledge.

Under the realist view, society functions according to immutable rules derived from nature. Man will learn about society as much as he learns about the natural law. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education and how reality affects the way we think about learning and teaching.

Education and Realism

Based on this overarching philosophical stance, Realists tend to view the Learner as a sensing mechanism, the Teacher as a demonstrator, the Curriculum as the subject matter of the physical world (emphasizing mathematics, science, etc.), the Teaching Method as mastering facts and information, and the Social Policy of the school as transmitting the settled knowledge of Western civilization.

The realist would prefer a curriculum heavy on practical courses like physics and math, which are relevant to the here and now. The goal of teaching students this knowledge is for them to become experts. The educator would either instruct the class on this fact or provide it for study. Like the natural world, classrooms would be strict and regulated, and students would observe and learn rather than actively participate.

People would see the school’s reforms as a logical progression toward more order and efficiency. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Schools, in the view of the realist, should prepare pupils for life in the world as it is. What we see to be true are the simplest correspondences.

Educational Objectives:

In contrast to idealists, realists reject the concept of a universal curriculum. They argue that each person’s goals should reflect his unique experiences and outlook. Because everyone looks at things from a unique angle. Teaching people the truth rather than the aesthetics of the past is what education should be about if they are to succeed in the real world today. To social realists, education’s end goal is to produce a man who can succeed in the real world.

Scientific realists have spoken out in favor of compulsory education for everybody.

The fundamental goal of the realist educator is to instill in students the knowledge and character traits necessary to succeed in life. The realist, on the other hand, equates happiness with conformity to natural law’s grand scheme. Realists consider the classroom a secure place to preserve knowledge.

John Wild argues that education’s fourfold purpose is to help people do the following:

(1) recognize the truth about things as they actually are:

(2) expand and integrate such truth as is known

(3) acquire such practical knowledge of life and of professional functions as can be theoretically grounded and justified

(4) transmit this in a coherent and convincing way both to young and old throughout the human community. The purpose of a student’s education is to provide him or her with the tools necessary to explore and gain an understanding of the world around them.

Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education and how reality affects the way we think about learning and teaching.

Even in his discussion of classroom goals, Russell uses a similar line of thinking. Similarly, he would not complain if the school helped the kid develop into a happy, successful adult. Yet, he maintains that fostering intellectual growth should serve as the school’s overarching mission. The educated mind already knows the answer to this question. Human intelligence is the capacity for learning. The institution should make every effort to foster intellectual growth.

Indicative of the Learner Concept:

To be realistic about education is to value the kid. A kid is an actual, existing thing. There are emotions, drives, and abilities at his disposal. Education plans must take into account the child’s abilities in these areas. With the use of logic and reason, a child can get very close to the truth. The kid needs plenty of freedom. A child can only learn if directed by education principles and given the skills to make evidence-based judgments.

Broudy elaborates on four concepts that, in his view, make up the heart of the human self in order to explain the student. They include the desire for food, the freedom to choose one’s own path, the opportunity to fully express oneself, and the ability to fully incorporate oneself into one’s own identity.

The first principle, the “appetitive principle,” deals with the biological foundations of character. Our hunger pangs provide a window into the tissue repair and replenishment processes that keep us alive. Without meeting these tissue requirements, physiological life, and by extension, personality life, would be impossible to sustain.

Mindful considerations

Awareness of our tissue requirements is the first step in meeting them (above the bare minimum required by animals), and this awareness leads us to the realization that pleasure and pain play a pivotal role in this process. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The sense of self has both a formal structure rooted in the past and a future-oriented desire. Even though there are lapses in awareness, such as when we are sleeping or under anesthesia, our experience retains some consistency across shifting events and locations.

The self, consisting of form and continuity is a real thing. We don’t have to believe in determinism in the sense that everything we experience is the product of physical forces, but reason does need to acknowledge the validity and reliability of cause-and-effect links. One aspect of human experience that contradicts this form of determinism is our capacity for symbolism.

Concept of Teacher

Self-realization, the third fundamental of selfhood, adds value considerations to freedom itself. To really be freedom, it must be unrestricted in its ability to bring us unhappiness. Good living requires deliberate and thoughtful decision-making about both the how and the what of life’s pursuits.

Elevating the youngster to a god is pointless as he is a creature of this planet. The only training that leads to manhood will do for him. Many realists hold the concept that the student is not free but rather bound by the rules of nature. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Those who identify as realists often support a behavioristic approach to mental health. The student must learn to accept and adapt to the coercive order of nature when he has no choice in the matter, while simultaneously gaining mastery over those aspects of his life over which he does have agency.

Lessons Taught:

Humanistic realists believe that the substance and ideas presented in classical literature are more important than their formal analysis.

Sense realism placed a greater emphasis on the study of the natural sciences and modern social life. Language studies are less important than studying the scientific sciences and modern society.

According to the Neo-realists, the most important fields of study are physics and psychology, but they also recommend learning about sociology, economics, ethics, politics, history, geography, agriculture, a wide range of arts and languages, and so on.

The content of a course is the Real World, the actual cosmos, presented in a manner that reveals the underlying order. When we learn more about the world around us and collect more evidence, we may begin to grasp the basic order of the universe. This kind of order is at its pinnacle in mathematics. As a precise, abstract, and symbolic system, mathematics describes the rules of the cosmos with great accuracy.

As the social sciences are concerned with the mechanical and natural causes that impact human behavior, the realist’s perspective of the world shapes the subject matter as well. E.L. Thorndike’s perspective, held by many realists, is that all knowledge can be reduced to its component parts since everything that exists has a quantifiable quantity.

Old lessons

John Wild’s description of the curriculum’s ordering shows his philosophical leanings toward realism, but it differs significantly from the above interpretation.

The learner should begin by mastering the fundamental tools of knowledge, notably his own language. He has to learn at least one foreign language to obtain a more nuanced perspective on the situation. However, he has to learn some basic arithmetic and reasoning from a compassionate perspective.

He should focus on human history and anthropology as his third priority. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education and how reality affects the way we think about learning and teaching.

Also, Wild argues that the core of subject matter “based on the nature of our human world” should be offered to everyone, along with the ordered character of the cosmos and the possibility of finding certain “solidly founded” moral ideals.

Strategy for Teaching:

Teaching factual fluency as a means to an appreciation of natural law is central to the realist approach to education. Learning the resources and how to use them effectively are two ways to achieve this goal. In reality, the organism doesn’t acquire true knowledge until it figures out how to structure its experience data.

For the realist, inductive reasoning is the method of choice, since it allows them to go from the specifics of experience to the universal rules that may be derived from those experiences. All societies adhere to these overarching rules, which are considered natural laws.

The reality is that the reaction to such a circumstance will be the same no matter where it occurs.

As far as Herbart was concerned, learning meant applying psychological principles. What he came up with was a five-stage process that went as follows:

In order to be ready for new information, it is sometimes helpful to see whether the learner remembers anything from before that could provide context.

Synopsis:

The latest information and data are presented and discussed.

Association:

making a concerted effort to demonstrate parallels and distinctions between the new content and what has previously been learned and assimilated by the apperceptive mass. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education and how reality affects the way we think about learning and teaching.

Definition of “generalization”: extrapolating data in search of a universal principle.

Putting this knowledge to use included solving academic exercises and problems that made use of both the fresh data and the contextually-relevant background details provided by the appreciating mass.

Procedures

“There can be only two methods of inquiry and truth-finding.” For example, “one builds axioms from the senses and particulars by ascending continuously and gradually so as to teach the most general axioms last of all.” “(One flies from senses and particulars to the most general axioms, determining and discovering intermediate axioms from these principles and infallible truths.)” – Bacon.

The realism approach to teaching places the onus of success on the pupil. It’s not hard to do so, as many realists see student motivation as a drive for a commonsense comprehension of natural law. Insightful data organization is what allows us to grasp natural law. Any strategy that relies on either direct or indirect sensory experience is valid in the eyes of the realist.

In addition to the benefits of hands-on learning via field excursions, realists also promote the use of audiovisual aids like films, filmstrips, records, television, and radio to fill in the gaps when firsthand observation is lacking. This is not to say that realists discount symbolic learning.

Teachers must remember

• The learning process needs to go from beginner to advance, and from tangible to abstract.
• The emphasis will be on teaching students to analyze rather than build.
• Classes will be held in the local language.
• It is more valuable to rely on the personal experience and curiosity of an individual than it is to rely on a higher authority.
• Do not resort to mindless cramming. An increased focus on inquiring and gaining insight.
• To ensure that the information is retained, it must be recapitulated.
• Where possible, just one topic should be covered in class.
• The kid should not be subjected to any kind of pressure or coercion.
• The concept of homogeneity ought to underpin all other considerations.
• Words should come after things have been presented.
• All learning comes from doing.
• Educational goals and practical application should go hand in hand.
• The basic guidelines need to be laid down.
• Determine the child’s area of interest and tailor instruction appropriately.

Disciplinary Theory

Discipline is the process of molding a student to fit the curriculum. A singular focus on the subject undermines any pretense of neutrality. To help the kid settle down and get down to business, this is a must. The actual reality is impervious to attempts at alteration. The student is a participant in this scenario. He must face this reality and learn to live with it.

Disciplined students face head-on the world’s cruelties, tyrannies, adversities, and deficiencies and do not hide from them. Withdrawal from life is something that realism has always fought against. It is necessary to readjust oneself to the tangible world. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

A pupil, according to Wild. It is his responsibility to master the laborious processes that may one day show him the truth. An ounce of truth may dispel mountains of myth.

As for the University:

Modern realism may be seen in the way that John Amos Comenius, in his classic didactic, explains the special role of the school. He argued that a person’s biological birth is not the only determinant of his or her manhood. If we are going to turn him into a man. For him to realize his full potential, human society must shape his innate abilities.

Stories of children reared by animals convinced Comenius of the power of education. Comenius realized this, and it led him to believe that male education is as crucial to the formation of man as male reproduction. Hence, he considered school to be “a genuine forging site of man” and characterized education as “formation.”

Analyzing the Effectiveness of Educational Realism:

The scientific realists may be criticized for the following in educational thought and practice:

Metaphysics is deemed worthless by realists. The supernatural realm is not accommodated by realists, who instead adopt an antagonistic stance against it. Much of what is said in classical metaphysics now is completely irrelevant.

Functions such as imaginative rationality have no part in reality. This is due, in part, to the monotheistic belief that the knowing and the knower are essentially the same. In the sense that reason can construct abstractions from sensory data, creative reason plays no role. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Realists have a flawed approach to knowledge. Realists put too much stock in what happens in the background when we learn something.

The egocentric focus of reality is problematic.

Some of them focus excessively on contemporary society’s inherent complexities and interdependencies.

One of the biggest flaws of the old education system is that this concentration often leads to rote memorization.

The creation of a pedagogical theory receives little resources in the actual world. Few members of this school of thought have paid the same amount of effort as Dewey, Broody, Adler, and Martian to establish an educational theory that is compatible with their underlying philosophical ideas.

One of realism’s major flaws is that it places too much value on sensory perception. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The realist denies the existence of any supernatural or extra-rational entities. If something doesn’t exist, how could we possibly prove that it doesn’t? Can there be no nonexistence? There are areas of reality that are empty and nonexistent. The realist is absolute without insight here.

Realist curricula are one-sided. Realist curricula are biased.

Most realists advocate for a one-sided education. The current scientific movement may be directly attributable to the impact of realism. It’s true, but it doesn’t mean we should ignore literature and the arts. An adherent of realism would defend this disregard. Most scientific realists suggest a curriculum that is one-sided since it places empirical knowledge above humanistic subjects. The lack of a well-articulated philosophy of age and art instruction is indicative of this disregard.

Imagination, pure thoughts, and sentiments are unreal.

Imagination, unadulterated thinking, and heartfelt emotion have no place in the actual world. On the one hand, realism allows for genuine emotions and life requirements, but on the other, it rejects any room for sentimentality and fantasy. Oh, the irony! Do the human capacities of the mind, heart, and soul not constitute essential requirements for a living? Do we really want to live if we can’t feel anything? Can one really only live by the facts?

The realist claims to be objective.

To be objective is a basic tenet of the realist’s worldview. For knowledge to be objective, it must rely on the contributions of several individuals. It is always the one who has the most knowledge. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Unless someone insists that only the material world is real, no one can dispute that fact. If there is no supernatural force at work here, then why does it seem to exist at all? Does it exist apart from everything else? Where does the universe end?

Realists disappoint kids and instructors.

Students and educators alike benefit from a healthy dose of realism. Believing in the realities of life while losing hope in ideals is a certain recipe for failure. There is nothing in life except hardship and suffering. The world is a sadder place than most people realize. The sensation is quite disheartening. For this reason, doubters, pessimists, and objectors commonly misunderstand realists. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Realism encourages formalism.

As a tenet of thought, realism advocates for formality. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Herbartian movement was at its height in the United States. This formal approach made it possible for a distant educator to replace skill for understanding.

Its major flaw was that its formal nature encouraged teachers to be dogmatic in their approach to lesson planning and delivery. It’s likely that Herbart would have recoiled in horror at the abuse of what he had originally envisioned as an innovative approach to educating young minds.

New and Critical Realists ignored errors.

The issue of mistake was not adequately addressed by either the New Realists or the Critical Realists. Since direct cognition precludes error, the New Realist position is the weaker of the two. Furthermore, Wild’s justification that “Error is the creation of the erring subject” is highly unsatisfactory if it is assumed that the mind is purely relational and lacks any contents of its own that could give rise to error.

The critical realists have found a solution to the issue of mistakes, but in doing so, they have introduced additional difficulties in identifying and describing the nature of the vehicle of knowledge they have used. Educators face challenges from both perspectives, despite their distinctions.

Elitism is risky.

The risk of fostering elitism exists. In conclusion, realists are susceptible to the same argument leveled at idealists. The risk that some groups of people may assume authority over determining whether issues include absolutes is ever-present.

It doesn’t matter whether these people are priests in an idealist society or scientists in a realist one; either way, they represent an external source of authority in a field where citizens should be engaging in informed speculation, and this creates a situation where an inquisition could easily break out.

The whole essence of a really democratic society is at stake if we empower any individual or group of people to tell us what is Truth and what is not Truth, and grant them the ability to push this point of view on us. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

Causality underpins realism.

Cause-and-effect linkages are crucial to realism. The following argument has to do with the realism position’s underlying philosophy. The rules of nature that realists emphasize are almost entirely based on links between causes and effects. Most scientists and philosophers are wary of such categorical statements. They are more comfortable working with probabilities.

So, it seems problematic to instruct students about moral absolutes and natural laws. Find out what role realism plays in the philosophy of education.

The realists, like the idealists, are fundamentally conservative when it comes to teaching. They care more about maintaining and expanding the system of ordered truth that they have amassed than they do about promoting social change or furthering their own knowledge. This kind of attitude may have been sufficient during a time when there was minimal societal change.

Many teachers, however, believe that education in today’s highly mechanized, industrializing environment requires students to actively engage in problem-solving and the development of novel approaches to old issues. This function seems at odds with the realist’s basic understanding of education’s place in society.

In a nutshell, realists don’t believe in the supernatural, nor do they accept the idea of a split between man’s sensory and intellectual faculties. For realists, inductive experience is the only way for a human to know what’s really going on in the world.