Philosophical Analysis of Educational Concepts

Concepts cannot be picked up, seen, brought into a laboratory, or measured. Nevertheless, our perceptions and thoughts are defined by concepts, and furthermore, the birth of new concepts significantly transforms the modes of our experience. It can be said that the characteristic of philosophical activity lies in taking these concepts themselves as the object of consideration.

When taking the concept of education as an object of consideration, a specific difficulty arises. Based on our own experiences, we distinguish what we call "education" from what we do not. The reason why conflicts over "educational issues" often take the form of interpersonal clashes is precisely because the process of an individual's own character formation lies behind the view of education that they take for granted. In such cases, it is possible to temporarily avoid conflict by intentionally adding a restrictive definition to the concept of education and constructing a theory that everyone can agree on. However, in exchange, the concrete process of each individual's character formation is abstracted away. Conversely, one can also move in the direction of expanding the concept of education. Each individual's life is positioned as something that illuminates one aspect of the concept of education and sometimes brings about a transformation in the concept itself.

Currently, I am taking the latter direction. I believe that clarifying the rich implications of the concept of education while continuing to explore the possibility of expansion in new directions is an activity characteristic of the academic field of philosophy of education.