Essay on an Idea About Learning: Plato, Combs, and the Importance of Experience

Rebekah Leopold
Boston University, School Of Education, SED 100
Professor and Teaching Fellow Sherri Sklarwitz
Also edited by James Stults
October 14, 2014

Essay on an Idea About Learning: Plato, Combs, and the Importance of Experience
The way our minds learn has always been of much debate. Prevailing theories include those
that insist our minds are empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge, to those that insist all
our knowledge is already inside of us waiting to be revealed, and everything in-between. Many
ideas about how individuals learn have stood the test of time, such the idea that personal
experiences are an integral to the learning process. Thousands of years ago, Plato (trans. 1956)
discussed how one must look upon things with the whole self that is, experience them in
order to gain knowledge and know truths. A bit more recently, Arthur W. Combs (1982)
expressed similar ideas by contending that one derives personal meaning from new information
by connecting it to experiences in order to learn more deeply and fully. The implications of these
arguments at their root are the same people have the capacity to learn and grow for themselves,
and the best method for them to do so is through personal experiences.
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato (trans. 1968) discusses many things about education,
including the process of learning and becoming enlightened. He likened the process by which
people learn things to being dragged out of a cave as we gradually discover new and more truths
about the real world throughout our lives. One critical piece of Platos Allegory is his idea of
how individuals learn. According to Plato, people are initially ignorant of reality and must first
be forced to learn but they will eventually take it upon themselves to continue the learning
process. He says people are not simply empty vessels waiting to be filled with information by
teachers, as was one prevailing theory at the time. Instead, Plato argued, everyone already has
the power to learn within his or her soul. Because of this, one of the most important ways people
learn is by going out and exploring the world.

Arthur W. Combs was a twentieth-century psychologist and educator. In his work Affective
Education or None at All Combs (1982) stated that affective education, which incorporates the
feelings, attitudes, and beliefs of students, helps students learn more effectively and deeply. He
held that people are exposed to new knowledge and experiences from which they derive personal
meaning, and that learning is maximized when the four factors of affective education are taken
into account. These four factors are self-concept, challenge or threat, values, and feelings of
belonging. A critical part of Combss research and writing focused on the impact of experiences
on learning.
In Platos (trans 1968) allegory, the protagonist is taken from his dark cave out into the world
not all at once, but instead gradually. He is dragged out of his initially more comfortable, captive
state and when he comes to the fire he assumes he now understands things more fully because he
knows what was illuminating his prior visions on the cave wall. Plato says that when we initially
begin to learn we think we understand things, but our understanding is really only rudimentary
and opinionated. Only when we go outside into the real world and experience things for
ourselves do we being to really understand and know truths. Plato describes the man in his
allegory as learning about the world outside of the cave through looking, touching, and
experiencing things for himself. The man first looks at reflections in the water, shadows of trees,
and eventually the things themselves in order to learn how they truly are. This symbolizes how
we must experience and learn about the context of things and their important place in the world
first if we wish to truly learn about things themselves. The implication of this is that it is
necessary for individuals to experience education and the process of learning for themselves in
order to gain true knowledge and enlightenment. Merely learning through books, lectures, and
vicarious experiences will not do.

The man in Platos (trans. 1968) allegory is first presented to us as being in a captive,
motionless state with his entire head and body chained. The only conclusions he was able to
draw about the world were from the limited visions right in front of him. Plato emphasizes the
importance of an individuals experiences for his or her learning is through his protagonists
transformation from a motionless existence to being able to turn his whole self around to look at
and explore everything in the world and beyond. By the end of the story, the man was able to
turn his whole body around to explore and learn any infinite number of things about the world.
As Plato states,
the instrument with which each learns just as an eye is not able to turn toward the light
from the dark without the whole body must be turned around from that which is coming into
being together with the whole soul until it is able to endure looking at that which is and the
brightest part of that which is. (p. 197)
With this, Plato contends that learning involves ones whole being from using ones senses to
uncover concrete facts of things to ones emotions to discover the meaning of it. He says that our
minds must be turned away from the impermanent to the permanent, and from the ephemeral to
the eternal. Thus Plato ends his argument by again concluding that learning is based on
experience.
Arthur Combs (1982) similarly held the idea that experiences are an integral part of
students learning process. Combs contended that our brains exist for the purpose of discovery
and creation of meaning (p. 495). He said our minds constantly seek meaning in every
experience, from the boring everyday routines to the spectacular events of our lives. This is why
it is important for individuals to learn from their own experiences both because their minds are
capable of making meaning and because this is the only certain way of learning something most

fully. Combs argued that the learning process involves two steps: first, exposure to new
knowledge or experiences and second, the personal discovery of what the new information
means to oneself. Combs argued against the popular idea that learning should be an objective
process. Instead, he said that the most important phases of the learning process occur when a
learner is having subjective, personal experiences in the world. This is similar to Platos
argument that it is necessary for one to learn for his or herself, rather than being given only
objective information with which they are unable to make a personal connection. Just as first
discovering the shadows and reflections is important for Platos protagonist, discovering the
context and connection of information to oneself is integral to education for Combss learners.
One must use both their senses to uncover new truths and their mind to determine the meaning of
it in the context of the greater world.
Combs (1982) also said that new information effects a persons future behavior according
to the degree to which that person has contemplated and determined the personal meaning in the
information. Combs maintained that feelings and emotions of a learner were important indicators
of the meaning of the information being learned. The degree to which anything is personally
significant to a learner can be concluded from his or her feelings and emotions towards that
knowledge. Essentially, emotions tell the learners mind how important the new information
being acquired is. Stronger emotions attached to an experience indicate a greater importance of
the knowledge gained through it in ones own life, and a perception of closeness to an event
leads to a greater experienced affect. Combs stated that, Learning without affect is unlikely to
influence behavior and an educational system that rules out feeling and emotion guarantees
ineffectiveness (p. 495). This is similar to Platos argument that one must use the whole self in
order to learn and experience the world. Plato said we must take into account all of our senses,

visions, and emotions when we experience things. Combs attaches the same importance to all the
ways we can learn and know about the world.
Thousands of years apart, both Plato (trans. 1968) and Combs (1982) realized the
importance of individual experiences in the learning process. Both educators emphasized the
importance of learning for oneself through experiences as well as using all of ones objective and
subjective abilities (senses and emotions) in order to gain full knowledge of something. Their
arguments are still held and methods still practiced by many successful educators today.

References
Combs, A. W. (1982). Affective education or none at all. Educational Leadership, 39, 495497.
Plato. (1968). The republic of Plato (A. Bloom, Trans., 2nd ed., pp. 193-199). New York: Basic
Books.