General Philosophies in Education: Idealism, Realism and Naturalism

Idealism:
                Idealism shifts the emphasis from the natural or scientific fact of life to the spiritual aspects of human experience.
Horne define idealism as: “Educational philosophy of idealism is an account of man finding himself as an integral part of a universe of mind.”
Hence, Idealism is related to the ideas or ideals.

Realism:
                Swami Ram Tirth define, “Realism means a belief or theory which looks upon the world as it seems to us to be a mere phenomenon.”
Hence, realism is related to the actual or existing.



Naturalism: (also known as Materialism)
                Premise: Universe is matter.
                It believes that reality and nature are identical and that beyond nature, there is no reality. “Material world is the real world”. It means that nature is everything. Nothing is before, behind and beyond “Nature”. The ultimate reality is nature.
Hocking define,” Naturalism is metaphysics which considers nature as the whole of reality. It excludes what is supernatural or of other world.”

DO YOU KNOW?
1. Idealism------------Plato
2. Naturalism---------J.J. Rousseau
3. Realism------------Aristotle
4. Pragmatism-------charles s pierce
5. Existentialism-----Soren Kierkegaard
Education Philosophies:
1. Pernnialism--------Robert Hutchins
2. Essentialism-------William Bagley (1874-1946)
3. Progressivism-----John Dewey, Kilpartick
4. Reconstructionism--Theodore Bramled