Learning, empowerment and judgement

Educational Philosophy and Theory 39 (4):418–431 (2007)
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Abstract

Here is a distinction that appears very simple, looks compelling and seems to be deeply rooted in our reflections on learning. 1 The distinction is between activities of learning that involve training and those that involve reasoning. In the former, the pupil is a passive recipient of habits of mind and action. The mechanism by which they acquire these habits is mimesis, not reasoning. In contrast, learning by reasoning involves considerable mental activity by the pupil who has to work out what to think and do. The very mechanism by which the pupil learns is her own capacity to reason, to things work out for herself. In this paper I argue that there is no basis for this distinction. I argue that, contrary to the dominant empiricist thinking about such things, learning by reasoning is the only credible form of learning. I start with a brief characterisation of the distinction and an account of why it seems so compelling. In §2 I review the empirical evidence from developmental psychology for a rationalist account of language learning as learning by reasoning. In §§3 and 4 I provide a philosophical argument against the place of training and in favour of a rationalist model of learning by reasoning

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Citations of this work

Introduction: Exploring the Formation of Reason.David Bakhurst - 2016 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 50 (1):76-83.
Training and learning.Michael Luntley - 2008 - Educational Philosophy and Theory 40 (5):695-711.
Les Hortillonnages.Gian Agbisit - 2022 - Kritike 16 (1):i-i.

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References found in this work

On Certainty (ed. Anscombe and von Wright).Ludwig Wittgenstein - 1969 - San Francisco: Harper Torchbooks. Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe, G. H. von Wright & Mel Bochner.
The logical basis of metaphysics.Michael Dummett - 1991 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Wittgenstein: Meaning and Judgement.Michael Luntley - 2003 - Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Précis of how children learn the meanings of words.Paul Bloom - 2001 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (6):1095-1103.

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