PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MAN

Ancient Greek : Cosmocentric Approach

1.1 The Greek were concerned with the Nature and Order of the Universe.

1.2 Man was part of the cosmos, a microcosm. So like the Universe, Man is made up of Matter
(body) and Form (soul).

1.3 Man must maintain the balance and unity with the cosmos.

Medieval ( Christian era: St. Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas ) Theocentric Approach

2.1 Man is understood as from the point of view of God, as a creature of God, made in His image
and likeness, and therefore the apex of His creation.

Modern ( Descartes, Kant) Anthropocentric Approach

3.1 Man is now understood in his own terms, but basically on reason, thus rationalistic.

In a balanced approach to literacy instruction, teachers integrate instruction with authentic reading and
writing and experiences so thatstudents learn how to use literacy strategies and skills and haveopportunities
to apply what they are learning. The 10 components of a balanced approach are:

• Reading

• Phonics and Other Skills

• Strategies

• Vocabulary

• Comprehension

• Literature

• Content-Area Study

• Oral Language

• Writing

• Spelling

Anaximander, (born 610 BCE, Miletus [now in Turkey]—died 546 BCE)

Greek philosopher who was the first to develop a cosmology, or systematic philosophical view of the world.

Immanuel Kant, (born April 22, 1724, Königsberg, Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia]—died February 12,
1804, Königsberg)

German philosopher whose comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology (the theory of knowledge),
ethics, and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the various schools of
Kantianism and idealism.

Pythagoras, (born c. 570 BCE, Samos, Ionia [Greece]—died c. 500–490 BCE, Metapontum, Lucanium [Italy])

Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Pythagorean brotherhood that, although religious in
nature, formulated principles that influenced the thought of Plato and Aristotle and contributed to the
development of mathematics and Western rational philosophy. (For a fuller treatment of Pythagoras and
Pythagorean thought, see Pythagoreanism).

Herbert Marcuse, (born July 19, 1898, Berlin, Germany—died July 29, 1979, Starnberg, West Germany [now
Germany])

German-born American political philosopher and prominent member of the Frankfurt School of critical social
analysis, whose Marxist and Freudian theories of 20th-century Western society were influential in the leftist
student movements of the 1960s, especially after the 1968 student rebellions in Paris and West Berlin and
at New York City’s Columbia University.