A SYNTHESIS PAPER: CONTEMPORARY PERIOD, POSTMODERNISM, AND
THE PHILOSOPHIES AND THEIR PRACTICE IN EDUCTAION
In continuation of the previous paper regarding the major periods in the history of
philosophy are the periods of opposing views among the philosophers. There was a struggle
between the dogmatic view on philosophy centered on reason, language, and science and the
deconstructive and existentialist views on reality and existence different from the formal
logic. This view allows us to discern on the applicability of those ideologies in varied fields.
Philosophers also addressed how they view the world in the present times. Apart from
developing the mind as being stressed by the ancient philosophers is also the advancement of
knowledge and the creation of many postulates and theorems to ascertain changes in life.
They became more particular with signs and the relationships of objects to address existence.
Further, some also addressed human beings in relation to the society that they blend in.
Societal hierarchy has an effect to humanity in exercising power and knowledge. Thus, a
human person must enrich himself with experiences to be able to address his essence and his
existence in the changing world.
Included further in this paper are the different philosophical ideologies that serves as a
guiding principle in framing the different educational institutions. These ideas create certain
practices specific to certain curriculums in education. However, it is very insinuating to
accentuate these practices as they are being applied in our schools of today’s generation
either in isolation or combination of those principles. It is very thoughtful to revisit the
grassroots of our educational practices as these made who we are today and how we view the
world at present and even in the future.
With all those enlivening concepts, I am sharing to you the synthesis of my report.
I. CONTEMPORARY PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY
The contemporary period of philosophy pertains to the current era in philosophy. This
is the prevailing time philosophers from the late nineteenth century through to the twenty-
first. During this period, you can see a division in the approach to philosophy being taken in
different areas of western philosophy. These divisions constitute the analytic philosophy and
continental philosophy. Analytic philosophy originates in the United Kingdom and North
America. This division focuses on logic, language and the natural sciences which were
predominant that time. Whereas continental philosophy tends to lessen the focus on science
and formal logic. They were mostly based in Europe.
Here are the lists of philosophers under this period who devout themselves more on
analytic philosophy.
1. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 – 1914)
He was born on Sept. 10, 1839 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. and died on April
19, 1914, near Milford, Pennsylvania. He was an American scientist, logician, and
philosopher who is noted for his work on the logic of relations and on pragmatism as a
method of research. Bertrand Russell once said that Peirce was “certainly the greatest
American thinker ever”.
, He was the founder of American pragmatism but later in 1905 referred it as
“pragmaticism”. Pragmatism is a theorist of logic, language, communication, and the general
theory of signs (which was often called by Peirce “semeiotic”). He holds that there were two
utterly distinct classes of probable inferences, which he referred to as inductive inferences
and abductive inferences. This inference is what he called as an educated guess or hypothesis.
One promising line of research has been to automate phases of (Peirce’s concept of) the
scientific method, complete with techniques for hypothesis generation and making
assessments of the costs and benefits of exploring hypotheses. Hence, scientific method is
what he called the “economics (or: economy) of research.” The idea is that, because research
is difficult, research labor-time is valuable and should not be wasted.
He is not accepting naive realism. Scientific method is “fixing belief”. His Hegelian
idealism asserts that the world of appearances “the phaneron,” is a world consisting of signs.
The sign relation is a triadic relation that is a special species of the genus: the representing
relation. Whenever the representing relation has an instance, we find one thing (the “object”)
being represented by (or: in) another thing (the “representamen”) and being represented to
(or: in) a third thing (the “interpretant.”).
2. William James (1842 – 1910)
He was born on January 11, 1842 in New York City, New York and died on August
26, 1910 (aged 68) at Chocorua, New Hampshire. He was an American philosopher and
psychologist, a leader of the philosophical movement of pragmatism and a founder of the
psychological movement of functionalism.
He strongly promoted pragmatism. He proposed that truths are true if they are useful
to be true — they must conform to a coherent body of truth that people must agree upon as
usefully true. In his book on The Principles of Psychology, he assimilated mental science to
the biological disciplines and treated thinking and knowledge as instruments in the struggle to
live. Reality “means simply relation to our emotional and active life…whatever excites and
stimulates our interest is real”. Our capacity for attention to one thing rather than another is
for James the sign of an “active element in all consciousness.
He liked best the adventure of free observation and reflection and not laboratory
works. His studies, which were now of the nature and existence of God, the immortality of
the soul, free will and determinism, the values of life, were empirical, not dialectical. The
fundamental point of these writings is that the relations between things, holding them
together or separating them, are at least as real as the things themselves; that their function is
real; and that no hidden substrata are necessary to account for the clashes and coherences of
the world.
3. John Dewey (1859 – 1952)
He was born on October 20, 1859 at Burlington, Vermont and died on June 1, 1952
(aged 92) in New York City, New York. He was an American philosopher, educator who was
a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer
in functional psychology, an innovative theorist of democracy, and a leader of the progressive
movement in education in the United States.
THE PHILOSOPHIES AND THEIR PRACTICE IN EDUCTAION
In continuation of the previous paper regarding the major periods in the history of
philosophy are the periods of opposing views among the philosophers. There was a struggle
between the dogmatic view on philosophy centered on reason, language, and science and the
deconstructive and existentialist views on reality and existence different from the formal
logic. This view allows us to discern on the applicability of those ideologies in varied fields.
Philosophers also addressed how they view the world in the present times. Apart from
developing the mind as being stressed by the ancient philosophers is also the advancement of
knowledge and the creation of many postulates and theorems to ascertain changes in life.
They became more particular with signs and the relationships of objects to address existence.
Further, some also addressed human beings in relation to the society that they blend in.
Societal hierarchy has an effect to humanity in exercising power and knowledge. Thus, a
human person must enrich himself with experiences to be able to address his essence and his
existence in the changing world.
Included further in this paper are the different philosophical ideologies that serves as a
guiding principle in framing the different educational institutions. These ideas create certain
practices specific to certain curriculums in education. However, it is very insinuating to
accentuate these practices as they are being applied in our schools of today’s generation
either in isolation or combination of those principles. It is very thoughtful to revisit the
grassroots of our educational practices as these made who we are today and how we view the
world at present and even in the future.
With all those enlivening concepts, I am sharing to you the synthesis of my report.
I. CONTEMPORARY PERIOD OF PHILOSOPHY
The contemporary period of philosophy pertains to the current era in philosophy. This
is the prevailing time philosophers from the late nineteenth century through to the twenty-
first. During this period, you can see a division in the approach to philosophy being taken in
different areas of western philosophy. These divisions constitute the analytic philosophy and
continental philosophy. Analytic philosophy originates in the United Kingdom and North
America. This division focuses on logic, language and the natural sciences which were
predominant that time. Whereas continental philosophy tends to lessen the focus on science
and formal logic. They were mostly based in Europe.
Here are the lists of philosophers under this period who devout themselves more on
analytic philosophy.
1. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 – 1914)
He was born on Sept. 10, 1839 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. and died on April
19, 1914, near Milford, Pennsylvania. He was an American scientist, logician, and
philosopher who is noted for his work on the logic of relations and on pragmatism as a
method of research. Bertrand Russell once said that Peirce was “certainly the greatest
American thinker ever”.
, He was the founder of American pragmatism but later in 1905 referred it as
“pragmaticism”. Pragmatism is a theorist of logic, language, communication, and the general
theory of signs (which was often called by Peirce “semeiotic”). He holds that there were two
utterly distinct classes of probable inferences, which he referred to as inductive inferences
and abductive inferences. This inference is what he called as an educated guess or hypothesis.
One promising line of research has been to automate phases of (Peirce’s concept of) the
scientific method, complete with techniques for hypothesis generation and making
assessments of the costs and benefits of exploring hypotheses. Hence, scientific method is
what he called the “economics (or: economy) of research.” The idea is that, because research
is difficult, research labor-time is valuable and should not be wasted.
He is not accepting naive realism. Scientific method is “fixing belief”. His Hegelian
idealism asserts that the world of appearances “the phaneron,” is a world consisting of signs.
The sign relation is a triadic relation that is a special species of the genus: the representing
relation. Whenever the representing relation has an instance, we find one thing (the “object”)
being represented by (or: in) another thing (the “representamen”) and being represented to
(or: in) a third thing (the “interpretant.”).
2. William James (1842 – 1910)
He was born on January 11, 1842 in New York City, New York and died on August
26, 1910 (aged 68) at Chocorua, New Hampshire. He was an American philosopher and
psychologist, a leader of the philosophical movement of pragmatism and a founder of the
psychological movement of functionalism.
He strongly promoted pragmatism. He proposed that truths are true if they are useful
to be true — they must conform to a coherent body of truth that people must agree upon as
usefully true. In his book on The Principles of Psychology, he assimilated mental science to
the biological disciplines and treated thinking and knowledge as instruments in the struggle to
live. Reality “means simply relation to our emotional and active life…whatever excites and
stimulates our interest is real”. Our capacity for attention to one thing rather than another is
for James the sign of an “active element in all consciousness.
He liked best the adventure of free observation and reflection and not laboratory
works. His studies, which were now of the nature and existence of God, the immortality of
the soul, free will and determinism, the values of life, were empirical, not dialectical. The
fundamental point of these writings is that the relations between things, holding them
together or separating them, are at least as real as the things themselves; that their function is
real; and that no hidden substrata are necessary to account for the clashes and coherences of
the world.
3. John Dewey (1859 – 1952)
He was born on October 20, 1859 at Burlington, Vermont and died on June 1, 1952
(aged 92) in New York City, New York. He was an American philosopher, educator who was
a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer
in functional psychology, an innovative theorist of democracy, and a leader of the progressive
movement in education in the United States.
