COMPARING AND CONTRASTING BETWEEN THE SOCRATIC AND ARISTOLIAN

PHILOSOPHICAL PERCEPTIONS ON HOW CHILD LEARNS

Some people considers ancient philosophy disciplines to be of less use and belonging to old

libraries but they are of great use as provided us with the knowledge that has been far beyond our

imagination for hundreds of years. These philosophy disciplines are adopted and being applied in

different fields such as education and politics just to mention a few. There are three great

philosophers who contributed much in as far as philosophy discipline is concerned and these are

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates was the great Greek philosopher who lived between

470BC to 399BC. Many of his writings were presented in the dialogues of his student Plato.

Aristotle was the student of Plato born in 387BC and he was the philosopher and polymath

interested in physics, metaphysics, politics, biology and zoology (Lawton & Gordon, 2002). This

paper, will discuss the concept of education presented by Socrates and Aristotle by comparing

and contrasting their philosophical perceptions on how a child learns.

The main comparison which is shown between Socrates and Aristotle is that, they both promoted

learning through reasoning. Though Aristotle was centered much on education through habit he

also encouraged learning through reasoning. To him education through reasoning compliment

education through habit and it aims at imparting knowledge of understand the cause and effect.

For Aristotle, Men of experience know about a certain thing but they don’t know reason why that

thing exists whereas those Men of reasoning know the reason and the cause of that thing (Meres

Martin, 2018). On the other hand, Socrates perceived learning through reasoning since he

believed that children can educate them themselves by thinking critically, questioning believes

and finding answers.

Though Socratic and Aristotelian philosophical perceptions had something in common, there

were also thinking differently on how a child must learn. Socrates was of the view that children

should learn based on questioning fundamental assumptions or the beliefs or ideas of the students

while Aristotle believed that child must learn through habit. Socrates believed that through

questioning the learners, one would draw from them the knowledge required and he was against

the belief that knowledge is acquired by the process of transmission of ideas from the teacher to

the learner (Lawton & Gordon 2001). And according to him, a teacher should be facilitating and

guiding the learning process and assessing where student is and prompting the students own

discovery rather than imparting information to the students. On the other hand, Aristotle believed

that child should learn through habit. Allison & Carr (2014) defines learning by habit as the

process of performing the same actions to strengthen the quality which is attached to specific

noble actions for example, performing speeches regularly will lead to better rhetoric. Socrates

believed that children must learn through classroom dialogue unlike Aristotle who preferred

learning through research approach. According to Socrates, classroom dialogue helps children to

participate in the deliberative process aimed at developing the social and intellectual dispositions

and capacities needed for active citizenship (Gutek, 2004). Aristotle, as the founder of science

he believed that children must learn using research approach where by a problem is introduced

and being discussed in the class by using the scientific investigation methods.

In conclusion, this essay has discussed the comparisons and the differences of the two great

philosophers in their philosophical perceptions on how child learns. But to have balanced

education system, there must be a need to incorporate these perceptions into the education

system. Furthermore, the nurture of the subject will determine which perception to employ

during learning.
REFERENCES

Allison, P & Carr, D. (2014, 27 May). Aristotle, Plato and Socrates: Ancient Greek Perspectives

on Experiential Learning. Pennsylvanian State University. [Online] Available at:

hhps://www.researchgate.net/publication/236896596.

Gutek, G. L. (2004). Philosophical and ideological voices in education. Boston: Allyn and

Bacon.

Mares, M. (2018). The Classical Education Concepts of Socrates, Plato & Aristotle. University

College London. [Online] Available at:

hhps://www.researchgate.net/publication/3271610

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Lawton, D., & Gordon, P. (2002).A history of western educational ideas. London. Woburn Pre