自由敎養敎育의 論理 = A Conception of Liberal Education and its Justification

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A great deal of contemporary educational discussions proceeds from the distinction between the pursuit of intrinsic and extrinsic values in education. Those activities which seem essentially instrumental are thought an improper concern of the educational system. According to this point of view, education is an activity for its own sake and not for further objectives and interests lying outside itself. This particular conception of education is sometimes labled as ""liberal education"". But the nature and the meaning of it is uncertain. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the essential feature of and the justification for the conception of liberal education.
The notion of liberal education originated from ancient Greeks; espcially from the educational theory of Plato and that of Aristotle. It was rooted in a number of related philosophical doctrines about the nature of knowledge, the mind, the reality, and the relationships among them. For example, that it is the peculiar activity of the mind to pursue knowledge; that the pursuit of knowledge is the fulfilment of the mind and, therefore, an essential element in the good life; that the mind comes to know the essential nature of things and can apprehend what is ultimately real and immutable. From these doctrines there emerged the idea of liberal education as a process concerned simply and directly with the pursuit of knowledge.
A classical justification that the doctrines lend to this conception of education is threefold. First, such an education is based on what is true and not on uncertain opinions and beliefs. It therefore has a finality which no other form of education has. Secondly, knowledge itself being a distinctive human virtue, liberal education has a value for the person as the fulfilment of the mind. Thirdly, because of the significance of knowledge in the determination of the good life as a whole, liberal education is essential to man"s understanding of how he ought to live.
But these doctrines that originally supported the classical conception of liberal education have lost their grounds. Especially, the doctrine of epistemological realism has become not convincing. Because knowledge is no longer seen as the understanding of reality but merely as the understanding of experience. Being deprived of its original philosophical backings however, the classical conception of liberal education never disappeared. There is a constant demand for an education whose definition and justification are based on a permanent ground. Having satisfied this demand, the classical conception of liberal education has constantly reappeared at crucial points in the history of education.
A new argument for liberal education has its ground on the nature of knowledge itself. It is argued that there is a, logical relationship between the concept of ""mind"" and the concept of ""knowledge"", from which it follows that the achievement of knowledge is necessarily the development of mind in its most fundamental aspect. Whatever else in the phrase, to have ""a rational mind"" certainly implies experience structured under some form of conceptual scheme. The various manifestations of consciousness are intelligible only by virtue of the conceptual apparatus by which they are articulated. Thus the relationship between knowledge and the mind seems to be maintained without depending on metaphysical grounds.
But if the relationship can be identified, what then of the question of its justification? The answer is that; the acquisition of knowledge and rational beliefs, as well as development of rational mind can be justified by the way of a ""transcendental argument"". The point of the argument is as follows. To ask for a justification of the pursuit of rational knowledge itself presupposes some form of commitment to what one is seeking to justify. In other words, the questioning itself depends on accepting the very ground

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 問題提起
• 2. 自由敎養敎育觀의 實體
• 3. 自由敎養敎育 正當化의 論理
• 4. 批判的 考察
• 5. 要約 및 結論
• 〈參考文獻〉
• (Summary)