"paideia and the "matter of Mind"" Philosophy of Education

Article Review

Histories as Lit.

Due 2/25/11

Article Review

Sheppard, Shelby L. "Paideia and the "Matter of Mind"" Philosophy of Education.

Quotations

"The uncritical incorporation of such ‘theories' of mind and knowledge acquisition in contemporary educational theory and practice suggests that the concept of paideia can be combined with (if not enhanced) by cognitive research on learning and cognitive training to proficiently monitor and control one's own mental processes. This paper takes the position that an assumption is misguided and that the "matter of mind" is and issue which requires clarification for advocates of paideia." Pg1

"In contrast to the cognitivist view that the mind is a "thing" such that it has functions, processes and mechanisms, conventionalists hold that ‘mind' is a term used in our ordinary language to refer to the beliefs, desires, fears, intentions, goals, ect., which characterize human thought. In other words ‘mind' is simply the expression of an abstract concept, similar to ‘truth', ‘beauty', and ‘justice'." Pg2

"Looked at a different way, cognitive development can be described as the development of human discriminatory abilities… The acquisition of knowledge provides new concepts and beliefs with which we are able to make further discriminations. Ultimately, education provides the understanding that is necessary to discriminate between different categories of knowledge." Pg4

Classification

This article is a comparative article. The article shows the reader the modern thought on the contemporary educational discourse, also the conventionalist view and the cognitivist view on the mind and how they relate to paideia. The article sums up all these views and demonstrates the main points clearly. The author first gives us an idea of each point, then shows contrast and how they compare. The article is explaining a social and educational matter, which can be seen as far back as the ancient Greeks.

Summary

In the very beginning, the article it states that paideia is embodied in the traditional sense of a liberal education. The article points out the similarities and the differences in views such as the cognitivist and the conventionalist views on the mind.

There are four parts to this article. In the first, the conventionalist conception of the mind is discussed. This states, the interest in the conventionalist point of view, which is based in logic rather than observed evidence. Then the article's second