On Enlightenment Of Education And Construction Of Citizens' Personalities

By way of transmission of knowledge and moralization, education enlightens the mind of man. This thesis attempts to discuss, in the aspect of philosophy of education, by what kind of knowledge education can model a man into one with true personalities (this term is used to indicate one's personal belief, moral level and knowledge).The essential task of education is to enlighten. The enlightenment of education, by way of transmission of knowledge and moralization, upgrades a man of ignorance into a state of civilization. But this is still the primary significance of education. Knowledge acquired by way of education forms another form of blind on people. This is regarded as the dialectics of enlightenment. The final and true task of education is to enlighten the man under the new blind.According the August Comte, a French positivism philosopher in 19th, knowledge can be divided into three catalogues: theological knowledge, metaphysical knowledge and positive knowledge of science; and the relations among the three catalogues of knowledge are a kind of linear substitution, by which all the three will end in scientific knowledge. Because the positivist view on knowledge of Comte have achieved a great influence on the formation of educational theories in China and in the West, scientific knowledge has become the main content of modern education. The education system today has been simplified into a system of courses, teaching and assessment. Courses define the useful knowledge, teaching defines the effective transmission of knowledge, and assessment defines the effective realization of the teaching of knowledge.This system has been the origin of the dilemma of our education. The view of education based on the positivist knowledge theory makes us only focus on knowledge instead of belief and morality while constructing our education ideal. The reforms on education in different Countries exhibit fully the demand of positivist knowledge. The justness of education system construction, however, is facing a state of difficulty, i.e. the transcendental premise supporting our education ideal may be flimsy. In effect, the relations among theological knowledge, metaphysical knowledge and positive knowledge of science are not a kind of linear substitution. Instead, they are a kind of diachronic mutual- complementarity.The primary task of education is, according to the free development of each being, to teach everyone to persist in their own true individualities, to teacher the truth to everyone and to teach everyone to be true. Meanwhile, scientific knowledge is a second task. No matter under what occasion, the basic stand of education is to persist in the value of individuality, and to persist in each being's ultimate responsibilities on his own destiny.According to the thesis, knowledge, according to its forms, can be divided into the following three catalogues: scientific knowledge, moral knowledge, and knowledge of belief. The three catalogues will be further discussed in the threechapters, i.e. "On Knowledge", "On Morality" and "On Belief. By way of discussions on the three catalogues and the doctrinal reflection on enlightenment of education, the writer furthers his research into some vital but essential theoretical questions in education to supply some help to the domestic reform on education. Meanwhile, the writer attempts to make some theoretical interpretations on the role of education in the construction of citizens' personalities from the aspect of philosophy.According to the thesis, the goal of education is not only to culture trained experts with scientific knowledge who will learn about and control our nature with their expertise knowledge under the predomination of some kind of world prospect. The goal is to culture citizens with belief, morality and knowledge, then to constitute a society of such citizens. In the education system of an age, the spiritual structure of citizens must be constructed together with the three elements: belief, morality and knowledge. To culture beings with citizen qualities through educationa...