THE CONNECTION BETWEEN JOHN LOCKE'S EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE CONDUCT OF UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

This paper addresses three fundamental features of John Locke's educational philosophy, crucial to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of Locke's theory of education and the conduct of the understanding. These three features are 1) intimate connection between education and epistemology, 2) role of sensory faculties in the attainment of knowledge, and 3) the nature of ideas. In the first section, I will examine Locke's conception of epistemology and its relation to his theory of education. Being more akin to the corpuscularian view of reality, Locke believes that one should not bother about the knowledge of those things for which one is not capable due to the limits of one's sensory capacities. The second section is devoted to explaining those factors mentioned by Locke in his educational writings, which are crucial to understanding the conduct of understanding and play an important role in a child's mental development. Such as thinking habits, ideas as an object of understanding, the flexibility of mind, history, culture, language, and morality. The third section aims to clarify the meaning and nature of ideas as they are the cornerstone of Locke's epistemology which is intimately connected to his educational philosophy. Being an empiricist philosopher, he reduces man to an experiential plane of life and believes that education aims not to know all things except those that affect our conduct.