Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Education

QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC

JUDGMENT and REASON

Intelligence divorced from judgment produces nothing but foolishness. Understanding is the knowledge of the general. Judgment is the application of the general to the particular. Reason is the power of understanding the connection between the general and the particular. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education

Reason is one of the very feeblest of Nature's forces, if you take it at any one spot and moment. It is only in the very long run that its effects become perceptible. Reason assumes to settle things by weighing them against one another without prejudice, partiality, or excitement; but what affairs in the concrete are settled by is and always will be just prejudices, partialities, cupidities, and excitements. Appealing to reason as we do, we are in a sort of a forlorn hope situation, like a small sand-bank in the midst of a hungry sea ready to wash it out of existence. But sand-banks grow when the conditions favor; and weak as reason is, it has the unique advantage over its antagonists that its activity never lets up and that it presses always in one direction, while men's prejudices vary, their passions ebb and flow, and their excitements are intermittent. ~ William James, "Remarks at the Peace Banquet," 1904

Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment. ~ Rita Mae Brown

Greater conversation with its philosophical roots would help educational psychology shift its emphasis from the accumulation of facts in the pursuit of universals to the cultivation of judgment—a process that I believe could provide the discipline with an opportunity to overcome its derivative and divided character and to place the study of human functioning within an integrated view of the study of all material reality. ~ Frank Pajares, In Search of Psychology's Philosophical Center

All our arts and sciences and institutions are but so many quests of perfection on the part of men; and when we see how diverse the types of excellence may be, how various the tests, how flexible the adaptations, we gain a richer sense of what the terms "better" and "worse" may signify in general. Our critical sensibilities grow both more acute and less fanatical. ~ William James, "Social Value of the College Bred"

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

Not to speak, not to move, is one of the most important of our duties, in certain practical emergencies.~ William James, Talks to Teachers

To construe all personal views as mere opinion would be to lump the judicious with the foolish; and contrary to a widespread stereotype even an opinion can be a "fact": truth is not always arrived at by rigorous procedures. ~ Robert Audi, On the Ethics of Teaching and the Ideals of Learning

Imagination finds subtle differences and discovers new similarities; judgment is needed to balance the two. ~ Robert Audi, On the Ethics of Teaching and the Ideals of Learning

A small force if it never lets up will accumulate effects more considerable than those of much greater forces if these work inconsistently. The ceaseless whisper of the more permanent Ideals, the steady tug of truth and justice, give them but time, must warp the world in their direction. ~ William James, "Social Value of the College Bred"

Creativity develops best when imagination has the raw materials of wide knowledge, and is tempered by good judgment. ~ Robert Audi, On the Ethics of Teaching and the Ideals of Learning

Nobody gets to be intellectually sophisticated without going through a stage of pseudo-sophistication first. ~ Richard Rorty, "Hermeneutics, General Studies, and Teaching"

Humility cannot demand that I submit myself to the arrogance and stupidity of those who do not respect me. What humility asks of me when I cannot react appropriately to a given offense is to face it with dignity. The dignity of my silence, of my look. ~ Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Freedom

In most matters of achieving mastery, we also want learners to gain good judgment, to become self-reliant, to work well with each other. And such competencies do not flourish under a one-way "transmission" regimen. ~ Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education, p. 21

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Last updated:
April 19, 2009 11:57 AM