Method and education in John Locke

Abstract

The present text has as its main objective to analyze the impact of the educational method in obtaining knowledge, using as theoretical reference the philosophical thoughts of John Locke. The reflection developed by the autour is based, initially, on the criticism developed in the teaching of Logic and it ends in the moral reflection that runs through his whole work. The author of the Essay on Human Understanding realized that the teaching of the syllogism did not guarantee the production of knowledge. He understood that the education based on the teaching of logic and rhetoric formed pedantic children with encyclopedic knowledge with no use to their practical life.This matter, according to Locke, was related to the discussion about the most appropriate method for obtaining knowledge and the consequences that this new method of education propitiates. What this research seeks to develop is the relationship between epistemology and morality, with education as the fundamental link. This concern arises when is observed the relevance that the teaching method has had in contemporary educational processes, much of it with an end in itself. In selecting Locke as a theoretical reference, what it seeks is to give a moral sense to educational in concerns of methodological order, although the solution presented by the English philosopher requires a proper contextualization. Because it is an eminently qualitative research, the data analysis was done from the reading and summaring of the selected reference, having part of the work of Locke as primary source and those of the chosen commentators as secondary.