Download NURS 774 Educational Theory & Philosophy for Nursing

NURS 774 Educational
Theory & Philosophy for
Nursing
Module 2
Ancient Philosophers
Margaret Louis, RN, PhD, BC
Objectives for Module
• Comparison of ancient philosophers
• Discussion of how these philosophers
impact or influence education today
• Discussion of impact on nursing
knowledge and education
Ancient Map of Mesopotamia
Ancient World
• Preliterate societies
– Mesopotamia 7000 BCE
– Sumerians 3000 – 2250
• Egyptian civilization legacy
– Consider papyrus with black ink still legible
5000 years later. Will digital be accessible in
5000 years?
• Ancient China
– Confucius 551-479 BCE
Ancient World -• Ancient China
– Confucius 551-479
BCE
• China's most famous
teacher, philosopher,
and political theorist,
whose ideas have
influenced the
civilization of East
Asia.
Confucius Quotes
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
Study the past if you would define the future.
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without
moon and star.
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Some of these struck me as timely for this discussion
and course. Especially the first one.
Ancient China
Ancient Philosophers
• Quest for knowledge = throughout history
• Aristotle in Metaphysics “All men[sic] by
nature desire to know”
– Do you see this with nurses? Give example of
how this is supported or not supported
Time Periods
• BCE = Before Common Era
• CE = Common Era or current historical
period
Cosmology
•
•
•
•
Pre-Socratic Greeks
Interest in Cosmos (world around them)
Mostly Deductive
Underlying unity and diversity
– Problem of the one and the many
– In health care - Who gets the treatment?
• One with great need costing $$$$ or
• Many who can be helped in prevention for much
less per person?
Classical Greek
• Greek
– Socrates
• Academic freedom of
right of teacher to teach
and learner to learn
without arbitrary
political authority or
countering public
opinion
Socrates • Socrates: “Wisest is he
who knows he knows
not”
Plato &
Aristotle
– Plato
• Idealist
• Probed meaning of
life
– Aristotle
• Realist
• Purpose of education
to cultivate human
excellence
• Higher education
started at 21
Knowledge concerned with
universal
• Level of existence surpassed physical
reality
• Plato
– Forms
• Socrates
– Ideas
Aristotle
• Built on Socrates and Plato
• Speculative (theoretical) sciences = goal of
creating knowledge
– 1st philosophy (metaphysics) physics, mathematics
– Practical Sciences - focus on ability to act in light of
knowledge ethics, politics & economics
– Productive Sciences - goal to produce something
– Fine arts, medicine, architecture, rhetoric
Greeks
• “knowledge for knowledge sake”
• True of nurses? Majority?
– Why true or not?
Shift to Sophists
• Used empirical, inductive
• Looked for practical ends
• Search for Absolute Truth =
– Universally True, without doubt, not subject to change
• Relative Truth =
– Dependent on context, ‘relative’ to specific context or
situation
• Which do you fit with?
• Which do most nurses you know fit with?
Practical End!!!
Key with Ancients
• Sought to achieve universal, objective
Truth about the world,
• To be certain about what they knew to the
greatest degree possible
• Same as today???
Syllogism
• Thank Aristotle for them
• Derive Truth from fundamental element of
logic
– 3 statements (simplest truth, basic and final
more comprehensive truth or general
conclusion and middle connects the first and
last)
Syllogism
Classical Roman
• Quintilian
– Self control and discipline
– Father primary teacher of children
– Power of Oratory
• Consider commercials, political debates etc.
• Use in Nursing and Health care?
– Greek slaves tutored the Roman children
Philosophy of Education
• Look at development in relation to life & times of
the philosopher
• Confucius - response to time of social unrest &
practical turmoil
• Plato - multidimensional nature and basic
human questions
• Aristotle - Natural Realism and ideas on
schooling
• Quintilian - rhetorical education, Roman who
incorporated Greek concepts about education
Ancients Today?
• What is the enduring impact of
– Egyptians
– Greeks
– Romans
• What if any of these can we use in nursing
education today?
• What of the following “All men by nature
desire to know” The metaphysics by
Aristotle
– Is this quote true of Nurses today? Why, Why
not?
Issues for Consideration
• How does nursing use or not use Ancient
Philosophy?
• What Education Philosophy of Ancients would
you say is useful today?
– Why? How? In Nursing?
– What of folklore, myths, legends?
• What is your Philosophy of
– Education related to Nursing?
• Any influence from ancients? Which ones and why?