Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education

QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC

HUMAN AGENCY

A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes—within the limits of endowment and environment—he has made out of himself. ~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 157

You can be an artist without visual images, a reader without eyes, a mass of erudition with a bad elementary memory. In almost any subject your passion for the subject will save you. If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it. If you wish to be rich, you will be rich; if you wish to be learned, you will be learned; if you wish to be good, you will be good. Only you must, then, really wish these things, and wish them with exclusiveness, and not wish at the same time a hundred other incompatible things just as strongly. ~ William James, Talks to Teachers

Men's happiness or misery is [for the] most part of their own making. ~ John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. ~ Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, p. 333

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never-so-little scar. ~ William James, Talks to Teachers

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. ~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 154

Our beliefs are really rules for action. ~ William James, Pragmatism

My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing, and I can only do one thing at a time. ~ William James, Psychology: Briefer course

Authority is granted to people who are perceived as authoring their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts. ~ Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

The proper end of teaching is to lead our students toward autonomy. ~ Marshall Gregory, "Pedagogy and the Three Loves"

The specifically human capacity for language enables children to provide for auxiliary tools in the solution of difficult tasks, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution to a problem prior to its execution, and to master their own behavior. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society

There is reason to believe that voluntary activity, more than highly developed intellect, distinguishes humans from the animals which stand closest to them. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society

It may be said that the basic characteristic of human behavior in general is that humans personally influence their relations with the environment and through that environment personally change their behavior, subjugating it to their control. ~ Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society

If I am a pure product of genetic, cultural, or class determination, I have no responsibility for my action in the world and, therefore, it is not possible for me to speak of ethics. Of course, this assumption of responsibility does not mean that we are not conditioned genetically, culturally, and socially. It means that we know ourselves to be conditioned but not determined. ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

This capacity to go beyond the factors of conditioning is one of the obvious advantages of the human person. ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

It's really not possible for someone to imagine himself/herself as a subject in the process of becoming without having at the same time a disposition for change. And change of which she/he is not merely the victim but the subject. ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

[Humans'] capacity to intervene, to compare, to judge, to decide, to choose, to desist makes them capable of acts of greatness, of dignity, and, at the same time, of the unthinkable in terms of indignity. ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

We cannot, even given our most imaginative efforts, construct a concept of Self that does not impute some causal influence of prior mental states on later ones. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 15

We need to conceive of ourselves as "agents" impelled by self-generated intentions. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 16

"Thinking about thinking" has to be a principal ingredient of any empowering practice of education. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 19

The agentive mind is not only active in nature, but it seeks out dialogue and discourse with other active minds. And it is through this dialogic, discursive process that we come to know the Other and his points of view, his stories. We learn an enormous amount not only about the world but about ourselves by discourse with Others. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 93

Agency presupposes choice. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 136

One must exploit the asynchronies that have befallen one, link them to a promising issue or domain, reframe frustrations as opportunities, and, above all, persevere. ~ Howard Gardner, Extraordinary Minds, p. 135

No individual can be in full control of his fate—our strengths come significantly from our history, our experiences largely from the vagaries of chance. But by seizing the opportunity to leverage and frame these experiences, we gain agency over them. And this heightened agency, in turn, places us in a stronger position to deal with future experiences, even as it may alter our own sense of strengths and possibilities. ~ Howard Gardner, Extraordinary Minds, p. 152

How can we dare to predict the behavior of man? We may predict the movements of a machine, of an automaton; more than this, we many even try to predict the mechanisms or "dynamisms" of the human psyche as well. But man is more than psyche. ~ Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p. 155

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Last updated:
September 19, 2008 4:23 PM