Philippine E-Journals

Reinventing Philosophy of Education Through Physics: Deconstructing Our Didactic, Deflating Our Deontology, Derailing Our Determinism

Alexander Makedon

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

The author uses our new understanding of the universe to deconstruct our positivistic dependence on traditional “science”, historical positivism or unrefined pragmatism. The Promethean physics of space-time introduces humans to a new era of “return to idealism”, including its radical perspectivism of mindful representation of Logos (or any of its playful varieties). The irony of this philosophical itinerary back to its almost theological roots is unmistakable, albeit done through the experimental wormhole of applied mathematics. As the ultimate border guards of curricular innovation, schools from kindergarten to college may sooner or later tilt the balance of learning in favor of expanded humanities and liberal arts programs, in the broader sense of liberating the mind. Ironically, the new physics seem to corroborate the metaphysics of such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle (each in a different way) who were the first to espouse such studies. Instead of relying merely on common sense, including relying singularly on empirical observation, humans must learn to learn “uncommonly” about the newly discoverable reality (such as learning mathematically through the “looking glass” of logic). Imagination, empathy, selflessness and representation become the new skills of the coming “age of space-time”. Through this paper the author builds a bridge with which to connect the landscape of humanities, including philosophy, which has been sometimes maligned or misunderstood in an age of science, with a new physics turned inward toward its own astronomical meta-physics. The significance of such new “discoveries” to understanding humans, including the design of a “universal” curriculum, is cataclysmic: from utilitarian and “economistic” (in the narrow sense of serving myopic social needs) we must become perspectival or altruistic. Our philosophy of education is turned inside out as a result of having to wear a new epistemological attire, albeit in the context of age-old problems.