Philosophical
and Psychological Foundations of Education
QUOTATIONS BY TOPIC
PRAGMATISM
Quotations by Author
The great skill of a teacher is to get and keep the attention of his scholar. . . . To attain this, he should make the child comprehend (as much as may be) the usefulness of what he teaches him; and let him see, by what he has learned, that he can do something which he could not do before; something which gives him some power and real advantage above others, who are ignorant of it. To this he should add sweetness in all his instructions; and by a certain tenderness in his whole carriage, make the child sensible that he loves him, and designs nothing but his good; the only way to beget love in the child, which will make him hearken to his lessons, and relish what he teaches him. ~ John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
But in teaching children we must seek insensibly to unite knowledge with the carrying out of that knowledge into practice. . . . Further, knowledge and speech (ease in speaking, fluency, eloquence) must be united. ~ Immanuel Kant, Thoughts on Education
The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them better. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Our beliefs are really rules for action. ~ William James, Pragmatism
To attain perfect clearness in our thoughts of an object, then, we need only consider what conceivable effects of a practical kind the object may involve—what sensations we are to expect from it, and what reactions we must prepare. ~ William James, Pragmatism
It is astonishing to see how many philosophical disputes collapse into insignificance the moment you subject them to this simple test of tracing a concrete consequence. ~ William James, Pragmatism
The question we would ultimately ask of any work of art is this: Can you live it? ~ Mark Edmundson, Why Read?, p. 129
But if you follow the pragmatic method, you cannot look on any such word as closing your quest. You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience. ~ William James, Pragmatism
Theories thus become instruments, not answers to enigmas, in which we can rest. ~ William James, Pragmatism
[The pragmatic method means] the attitude of looking away from first things, principles, "categories," supposed necessities; and of looking towards last things, fruits, consequences, facts. ~ William James, Pragmatism
Investigators have become accustomed to the notion that no theory is absolutely a transcript of reality, but that any one of them may from some point of view be useful. ~ William James, Pragmatism
Truth in our ideas means their power to "work." ~ William James, Pragmatism
The most violent revolutions in an individual's beliefs leave most of his old order standing. ~ William James, Pragmatism
Ought we ever not to believe what it is better for us to believe? ~ William James, Pragmatism
The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths. ~ William James, Pragmatism
Pragmatism is willing to take anything, to follow either logic or the senses, and to count the humblest and most personal experiences. ~ William James, Pragmatism
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September 19, 2008 4:23 PM