Education - a natural gift or a commercial service
G. I. Petrova, B. V. May
National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
Keywords: philosophy of education, philosophical anthropology, commercialization of education, education as a way of being, education as a service, educational knowledge
Abstract
Introduction. In the context of education modern transformations as a social institution, it is both urgent and important to preserve its authentic essence, especially: its originally philosophical vision as a way of human existence. The article`s methodological platform is philosophical anthropology, which allows us to reveal the ontological nature of education. The specificity of man lies in his reflective openness to the world, which determines his cognitive intention and provides an objective possibility for “growing” (J. Dewey) into the world, i.e., educating oneself from it. The article`s purpose is to substantiate the impossibility of commercializing education if we view it in an ontological perspective, that is, as a way of human being. Discussion. Thanks to the gift of reflexive consciousness, man finds himself in the world through knowledge and, consequently, through constant becoming-education. The social institution of education and pedagogy as a science are created to assist man in realizing his mode of being in specific existences (in a particular historical period, within cultural stages of development, national identity, etc.). Therefore, the ontological specificity of education is the process of man’s continuous self-formation, his self-education. This is the authenticity of both man and education. In revealing its authenticity through education, philosophy since ancient Greece has seen happiness (eudemonia) as central to human life. The philosophical definition of education resonates in pedagogy and justifies the necessary unity of philosophical and pedagogical anthropologies. In the case of this unity, pedagogy is viewed as a humanitarian rather than engineering science (firstly). Secondly, a person in education (self-education as their authenticity) cannot be considered as a subject of commercialization. Conclusion. Since education, having an ontological nature, is also a social institution, its commercialization becomes a fact that violates its authenticity.
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