Challenges of environmental problems to the philosophy of education

Abstract

We live in an age in which the destruction of the environment has become a major concern. However, until recently, environmental problems have not become a major issue for the philosophy of education. The reason for this is that for a very long time the philosophy of education was intimately related to the concept of nature as the foundation and the model of human activity. We can see such an understanding of nature not only among the philosophers of Ancient Greece, but also among the modern pioneers of pedagogy. If we consider this situation, we may understand the challenge the environmental problem poses to the philosophy of education. Nature in this age of environmental problems cannot function as the foundation upon which an edifice of education can be built. It has become clear that nature is vulnerable to human intervention. Philosophy of education has responded to this turn of events by not paying attention to the concept of nature. This has sometimes taken an anti-foundational and anti-traditional form that is typical of postmodern thinking. More often though, this omission has occurred by way of shifting the discussion of education exclusively to social and political issues. In my opinion, this contemporary trend to exclude or ignore a metaphysical or ontological consideration of nature is too narrow. On one hand, it separates us from tradition, in which a consideration of nature played an important role. On the other hand, it excludes us from the experience of the whole that the Greeks called the cosmos. In this paper we will look for a third way of understanding this problem: one that shows due respect for ontology without falling into the error of considering nature as the foundation that serves as an absolute norm. In turn, this requires a balanced understanding of the dethroning of nature in the modern age.