Editing Philosophy of education (section)

== Definition ==
The philosophy of education is the branch of [[philosophy]] that examines the nature, aims, and problems of [[education]].<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="RoutledgeEducation">{{cite book |first=Randall |last=Curren |editor1-last=Craig |editor1-first=Edward |title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/BEAREO |chapter=Education, philosophy of |access-date=2024-05-31 |archive-date=2021-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116111145/https://philpapers.org/rec/BEAREO |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="OxfordHandbookIntro">{{cite book |last1=Siegel |first1=Harvey |title=The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education |date=30 October 2009 |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195312881-e-001 |language=en |chapter=Introduction: Philosophy of Education and Philosophy |access-date=31 May 2024 |archive-date=19 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319214557/https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195312881-e-001 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=NoddingsPOE>{{Cite book |last=Noddings |first=Nel |title=Philosophy of Education |publisher=Westview Press |year=1995 |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0-8133-8429-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/philosophyofeduc00nodd/page/1 1] |url=https://archive.org/details/philosophyofeduc00nodd/page/1}}</ref> As the philosophical study of education, it investigates its topic similar to how other discipline-specific branches of philosophy, like the [[philosophy of science]] or the [[philosophy of law]], study their topics.<ref name="BritannicaPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="SageHandbookWhat"/> A central task for the philosophy of education is to make explicit the various fundamental assumptions and disagreements at work in its field and to evaluate the arguments raised for and against the different positions.<ref name="BritannicaPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/> The issue of education has a great many manifestations in various fields. Because of this, both the breadth and the influence of the philosophy of education are significant and wide-ranging, touching many other branches of philosophy, such as [[ethics]], [[political philosophy]], [[epistemology]], [[metaphysics]], and [[philosophy of mind]].<ref name="BritannicaPhilosophyOfEducation">{{cite web |last1=Siegel |first1=Harvey |title=Philosophy of education |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-education |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=23 March 2022 |language=en |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324024617/https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-education |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation">{{cite web |last1=Siegel |first1=Harvey |last2=Phillips |first2=D.C. |last3=Callan |first3=Eamonn |title=Philosophy of Education |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=25 March 2022 |date=2018 |archive-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328075115/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/education-philosophy/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="SageHandbookWhat"/> Its theories are often formulated from the perspective of these other philosophical disciplines.<ref name="RoutledgeEducation"/> But due to its interdisciplinary nature, it also attracts contributions from scholars belonging to fields outside the domain of philosophy.<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="SageHandbookWhat">{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=D.C. |title=The SAGE Handbook of Philosophy of Education |date=2010 |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |pages=3–20 |url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/hdbk_philosophyeducation/n1.xml |chapter=1. What is Philosophy of Education?|doi=10.4135/9781446200872 |isbn=9781847874672 }}</ref>

While there is wide agreement on the general topics discussed in the philosophy of education, it has proven difficult to give a precise definition of it. The philosophy of education belongs mainly to applied philosophy.<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="BritannicaPhilosophyOfEducation"/> According to some definitions, it can be characterized as an offshoot of ethics.<ref name="RoutledgeEducation"/> But not everyone agrees with this characterization since the philosophy of education has a more theoretical side as well, which includes the examination of the fundamental concepts and theories of education as well as their philosophical implications. These two sides are sometimes referred to as the outward and the inward looking nature of the philosophy of education.<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/> Its topics can range from very general questions, like the nature of the [[knowledge]] worth teaching, to more specific issues, like how to teach [[art]] or whether public schools should implement standardized curricula and [[Standardized test|testing]].<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="BritannicaPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="RoutledgeEducation"/>

The problem of education was already an important topic in [[ancient philosophy]] and has remained so to the present day.<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/><ref name="OxfordHandbookIntro"/> But it only emerged as a distinct branch of philosophy in the latter half of the 20th century, when it became the subject of a systematic study and analysis.<ref name="RoutledgeEducation"/> The term "education" can refer either to the process of educating or to the field of study investigating education as this process. This ambiguity is also reflected on the level of the philosophy of education, which encompasses the study of the philosophical presuppositions and issues both of education as a process and as a discipline.<ref name="Frankena"/> Many works in the philosophy of education focus explicitly or implicitly on the education happening in schools. But in its widest sense, education takes place in various other fields as well, such as at home, in libraries, in museums, or in the public media.<ref name="StanfordPhilosophyOfEducation"/> Different types of education can be distinguished, such as formal and informal education or [[Private education|private]] and [[public education]].<ref name="Frankena">{{cite book |last1=Frankena |first1=William |last2=Burbules |first2=Nicholas |last3=Raybeck |first3=Nathan |title=Encyclopedia of Education |chapter=Philosophy Of Education}}</ref>