Objective and subjective knowledge and higher education in agriculture

Abstract

Abstract The way of thinking about nature and the relation between man and nature is considered as a basis for the current problems in agriculture and environment. Distinctive features of this way of thinking are rationalism, empiricism, reductionism and objectivism. Education, especially higher education, is very much aiming at rational and disciplinary development. The intuitive and subjective knowledge does not get a chance to be linked with the rational, objective knowledge. As teachers we try to realise this connection within a subject for students at the Agricultural Teacher Training Institute (STOAS) in Den Bosch and within a subject for students at the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU). In this subject we have the students learn to be aware of their own attitude towards the environment and to get hold of their own instruments for evaluating agricultural systems and agricultural research. The way in which the environment is perceived is an important part of the training. The ordinary methods...