Moral Foundation of Education

Presented by:
Anna Monina dela Cruz

Presented to:
Dr. Elena A. Salinas
“Education is the
most powerful
weapon which
you can use to
change the
world.”

-Nelson Mandela
 Historical Development
"Timeline of Education“

- shows highlights of learning and education

- (especially related to Western education)
Reference:

http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-timeline/education-timeli
ne.htm#1990
 
Basis of moral standard for human conduct
Tested principles
Philosophies
Dogmas
- of different thinkers, philosophers,
theologians, and educators from
antiquity to post modernity
Pythagoras (582-500 BC)

Man’s intellect is higher

than his sensual nature
and the best way of life is
devoted to mental
discipline.
Confucius (551-479 BC)
Human actions are
based on five virtues:

1) Kindness
2) Uprightness
3) Decorum
4) Wisdom
5) Faithfulness
Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC)
Good deeds are inevitably
rewarded and evil deeds
punished.
- karmic process

Life must be devoted to

universal compassion and
brotherhood.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Education can make
people moral.

The unexamined life is not

worth living.

Virtue is good both for the

individual and for the
society.
Antisthenes (444-371 BC)
The essence of virtue is self-
control and that it is
capable of being taught.

Two kinds of good:

1) External good – personal
property, sensual
pleasure, and other
luxuries
2) Internal good – truth and
knowledge of the soul
Plato (428-347 BC)
3 elements of the human
soul
1) Intellect (wisdom)
2) Will (courage)
3) Emotion (self-control)

By acting justly, people live

together with the gods.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
The highest form of human
existence is when man
exercises his rational
faculties to the fullest
extent.

Moral virtues are habits of

action that conform to
the Golden Mean and the
principle of moderation.
Mencius (371-289 BC)

Only when the

people had a stable
livelihood would
they have a steady
heart.
Epictetus (55-135 BC)

Humans are limited and

irrational beings.

God is the only perfect

being.
Epicurus (341-270 BC)
To attain pleasure, one
has to maintain his state
of serenity by
eliminating all
emotional disturbances

Good life must be

regulated by self-
discipline.
Titus Lucretius Carus (C 94-C 55 BC)
Man, by nature, seeks
pleasure and avoids pain.

Man’s goal is to attain

the maximum of
pleasure and the
minimum of pain, but he
will succeed only if he
can overcome the fear of
death and of the gods.
Jesus Christ (4 BC-AD 29)
Emphasized moral
sincerity, rather than
strict adherence to
religious ritual and
memorization of law

Taught that people

should give up everything
in order to obtain what
was most precious.
Saint Augustine of Tagaste
(354-430 AD)
God did not deprive
people of their free will
even when they turned
to sin because it was
preferable to bring good
out of evil than to
prevent the evil from
coming into existence.
Muhammad (570-632 AD)

Each person would be

held accountable for his
moral struggle at the end
of time.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Individual human acts
are not acts in abstract
definition, but acts in
concrete performance.

They will be evaluated to

be either morally good or
morally evil, but never
indifferent.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Moral conduct or good
works is a Christian
requirement, but one’s
salvation comes from
personal faith alone.
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)
Natural law is part of
divine law and is based
on human nature, which
exhibits a desire for
peaceful association with
others and a tendency to
follow general principles
in conduct.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Human life in the state of
nature is solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and short.
Human beings are evil and
need a strong state to repress
them.
People seek security by
entering into a contract in
which each person’s original
power is yielded to a
sovereign, who regulates
conduct.
Baruch Espinoza (1632-1677)
All things are morally
neutral from the point of
view of eternity.

Only human needs and

interests determine what
is considered good and
evil.
David Hume (1711-1776)
The concept of right and
wrong is not rational but
depends on one’s own
happiness, thus,
emotive.

Moral system aims at the

happiness of others and
at the happiness of self.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Reason is the final
authority of morality

The morality of an act

must be judged by its
intention, which is good.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Human actions are
motivated by a desire to
obtain pleasure and
avoid pain.

Highest good is the

greatest happiness of the
greatest number of
people.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

Morality is a matter of
individual conscience.

Concept of budhi
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
The ethical way of life
involves an intense,
passionate commitment
to duty and to
obligations.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Traditional values
represented a slave
morality.
Nothingness or nihilism
– devaluation of the
highest values posited by
the ascetic ideal
God is dead because all
things become
meaningless.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
The problem of good and
evil in each individual us
to struggle between the
drive of the instinctual
self to satisfy all its
desires, and the
necessity of the social
self to control these
impulses.
John Dewey (1859-1952)
The good is that which is
chosen after reflecting
upon both the means
and the probable
consequences of
realizing the good.
George Edward Moore (1873-1958)
The good refers to a
simple, unanalyzable,
indefinable quality of
things and situation.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
Human beings are alone
in the universe, since
God does not exist, and
must make their ethical
decisions with the
constant awareness of
death and
meaninglessness of life.
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Human beings create
their own world by
rebelling against
authority and by
accepting personal
responsibility for their
actions, unaided by
society, traditional
morality, or religious
faith.
Freedom and
Responsibility
Something to ponder on:
The principles and thinking of
Filipinos toward good and bad
were brought into being
through a long and chained
process of colonialism.
Freedom
 A primordial gift of God to man and
other creatures
 Premise: men are equal before the law
and enjoy equal protection from it
 BUT – Freedom also denotes
responsibility for all actions.
Freedom
 Word freedom from Latin liber,
meaning free
 Freedom is the right of an individual to
think, act, or live as he chooses without
being subjected to any restraints
 BUT! – Make sure the freedom of
others is not curtailed.
Responsibility
From the Latin term respondare, which
means give back in return

An act of any individual taking a stance of

being accountable for himself, somebody or
something
Elements connected in the exercise
of freedom and responsibility

1) To oneself
2) To others
3) To the environment
Social Justice
Justice
A moral virtue in which an individual has the
constant and perpetual will to render to
everyone what is due to him
Three features:
1) Conformity to law
2) Action for the common good
3) Natural right
Social Justice
refers to the economic welfare of groups
in society in which demands an equal
share of the nation’s wealth among the
different groups and regions
Social Justice

Can be obtained only in

respecting the dignity of man
 Three prevalent human acts contrary to
the principle of social justice
1) Graft and corruption
2) Dishonesty in trades
3) Unjust wages
Faithfulness and
Truthfulness
Faithfulness
- virtue by which a person remains
true to his conviction, word and
promise, and does not disappoint
another in justified hopes
Truthfulness and faithfulness go
hand-in-hand to attain its goal.
Friendship
is the mutual feeling of trust and
affection and the behavior that
typifies relationship between two or
more people who are friends.
Marriage
Higher than friendship in terms of
mutual relationship because such
union responds to the call of God to
be his co-creator and steward of
creation
3 vital elements of marriage
1) Procreation and education of
children
2) Conjugal fidelity
3) Marital indissolubility or
permanent bond
Thank you very much!