Strengths and Limitations of the Various Philosophies Studied

Experimental philosophy is an important 21st-century development in which philosophers

abandon their traditional armchairs and systematically collect data about how people think. I
see 2 main strengths and 3 surmountable limitations in its current practice.

There are two major ways in which experimental philosophy makes valuable contributions. First,
it provides an effective antidote to assumptions of analytic philosophy and phenomenology that
thought experiments and introspection provide insights into how things are and how they ought
to be. Instead of relying on the solitary intuitions of a philosopher about stories that the
philosopher made up, experimental philosophy consults the reactions of numerous people in
populations more culturally diverse than are usually found in philosophy departments. Diversity
in philosophical intuitions has been found for ethnicity, gender, personality, philosophical
background, and age. Experimental philosophy thus serves to undermine the dogmas of
analytic philosophy that I identified in an earlier post.

Second, experimental philosophers valuably extend the range of data relevant to assessing
philosophical theories. Psychologists do many experiments, but their concerns are not always
philosophical, and philosophy should not wait for psychologists to amass evidence relevant to
epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. So experimental philosophy is a valuable source of
additional information for the development of theories in natural philosophy.

However, as currently practiced, experimental philosophy has several limitations that undercut
its relevance. First, almost all published results in experimental philosophy are surveys in which
people, ranging from undergraduates to paid contributors on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, are
asked to give their reactions to various scenarios. Psychologists have long been trained to look
critically at the results of such surveys because of biases, such as the tendency of people to tell
the experimenter what the experimenter wants to hear. Psychologists use a variety of
techniques such as deception and reaction time measures that detect aspects of thought not
reachable by survey questions alone.

Second, with rare exceptions, experimental philosophy has avoided the experimental
techniques of cognitive neuroscience, which are increasingly proving relevant to developing
deeper theories in cognitive, social, development, and clinical psychology. Experimental
psychology has learned that it cannot ignore the brain, and experimental philosophy needs to
gain similar insights by means of brain scans and other neuroscientific methods.

Third, the current findings about what people think obtained by experimental philosophy are of
limited use in developing and evaluating philosophical theories that are general and normative.
Finding out what people think about minds has little relevance for understanding how minds
actually work, just as finding out what ordinary people think about forces and life has little
relevance for physics and biology. Experimental philosophy sometimes seems to have
adopted the dogma of analytic philosophy and phenomenology that ordinary people have
basically gotten it right about how the mind works. But decades of research in psychology and
neuroscience show that people are astonishingly ignorant of the mental mechanisms that
produce thought, so their naïve judgments of little use in figuring out the nature of mind,
knowledge, reality, and morals.

All three of these limitations can be overcome by more sophisticated work in experimental
philosophy. Philosophers can conduct more illuminating experiments using techniques well
understood in psychology and neuroscience. Their experimental results will not have direct
implications for finding answers to philosophical problems, but they can help point to better
theories of mind that will have such implications. When enhanced experimentally and
theoretically, experimental philosophy can play a valuable constructive role in natural philosophy
that goes beyond its already useful debunking role in undermining the introspective methods of
analytic philosophy and phenomenology.

Philosophy makes a central contribution to the educational enterprise through its demands upon
intellectual activity. Education in philosophy involves becoming aware of major figures and
developments in the history of philosophy, learning up-to-date techniques and accepted
answers to philosophical questions, and learning critical, interpretive, and evaluative skills that,
in the overall scheme of things, may be considered to be of greatest value.

Communication Skills: Philosophy contributes uniquely to the development of expressive and

communicative powers. It provides some of the basic tools of self-expression - for instance,
skills in presenting ideas through well-constructed, systematic arguments - that other fields
either do not use or use less extensively. Philosophy helps us express what is distinctive in our
views, it enhances our ability to explain difficult material, and it helps us to eliminate ambiguities
and vagueness from our writing and speech.

Persuasive Powers: Philosophy provides training in the construction of clear formulations, good
arguments, and appropriate examples. It, thereby, helps us to develop our ability to be
convincing. We learn to build and defend our own views, to appreciate competing positions, and
to indicate forcefully why we consider our own views preferable to alternatives. These capacities
can be developed not only through reading and writing in philosophy, but also through the
philosophical dialogue, both within and outside the classroom, that is so much a part of a
thorough philosophical education.

Writing Skills: Writing is taught intensively in many philosophy courses, and many regularly
assigned philosophical texts are also excellent as literary essays. Philosophy teaches
interpretive writing through its examination of challenging texts, comparative writing through
emphasis on fairness to alternative positions, argumentative writing through developing
students' ability to establish their own views, and descriptive writing through detailed portrayal of
concrete examples. Concrete examples serve as the anchors to which generalizations must be
tied. Structure and technique, then, are emphasized in philosophical writing. Originality is also
encouraged, and students are generally urged to use their imagination to develop their own
ideas.

The general uses of philosophy just described are obviously of great academic value. It should
be clear that the study of philosophy has intrinsic rewards as an unlimited quest for
understanding of important, challenging problems. But philosophy has further uses in deepening
an education, both in college and in the many activities, professional and personal, that follow
graduation. Two of these further uses are described below.

Understanding Other Disciplines: Philosophy is indispensable for our ability to understand other
disciplines. Many important questions about a discipline, such as the nature of its concepts and
its relation to other disciplines, are philosophical in nature. Philosophy of science, for example,
is needed to supplement the understanding of the natural and social sciences that derives from
scientific work itself. Philosophy of literature and philosophy of history are of similar value in
understanding the humanities, and philosophy of art (aesthetics) is important in understanding
both the visual and the performing arts. Philosophy is, moreover, essential in assessing the
various standards of evidence used by other disciplines. Since all fields of knowledge employ
reasoning and must set standards of evidence, logic and epistemology have a general bearing
on all these fields.

Development of Sound Methods of Research and Analysis: Still another value of philosophy in
education is its contribution to our capacity to frame hypotheses, to do research, and to put
problems in manageable form. Philosophical thinking strongly emphasizes clear formulation of
ideas and problems, selection of relevant data, and objective methods for assessing ideas and
proposals. It also emphasizes development of a sense of the new directions suggested by new
hypotheses and questions one encounters while doing research. Philosophers regularly build on
both the successes and failures of their predecessors. A person with philosophical training can
readily learn to do the same in any field.

Among the things that people educated in philosophy can do are the following. They can do
research on a variety of subjects. They can get information and organize it. They can write
clearly and effectively. They can communicate well, usually both orally and in writing. They can
generate ideas on many different sorts of problems. They can formulate and solve problems.
They can elicit hidden assumptions and articulate overlooked alternatives. They can persuade
people to take unfamiliar views or novel options seriously. They can summarize complicated
materials without undue simplification. They can integrate diverse data and construct useful
analogies. They can distinguish subtle differences without overlooking similarities. They can
also adapt to change, a capacity of growing importance in the light of rapid advances in so
many fields. And well educated philosophers can usually teach what they know to others. This
ability is especially valuable at a time when training and retraining are so often required by rapid
technological changes.
Establishment, Recognition and Accreditation of School

Accreditation in higher education is a collegial process based on self and peer assessment. Its
purpose is the improvement of academic quality and public accountability. This continuing
quality control process occurs usually every five to ten years.

Accreditation is a term covering both the initial and ongoing approval of a school, postsecondary
institution, or program offering as meeting the standards established by a nationally recognized
accrediting association for membership in the association. Accrediting associations are
voluntary membership organizations that undertake to monitor the academic and administrative
quality of their members, which are either entire institutions or components.

Accreditation is a uniquely American invention. In other countries, ministries and statutory laws
grant recognition afforded to schools and higher education institutions. Accreditation is the
United States’ equivalent of this recognition. The validity of accreditation for such purposes is
recognized by state governments, the federal government, and generally by other countries and
international organizations. Most institutions attain eligibility for federal funds by holding an
accredited status with one of the accrediting agencies recognized by the Secretary of the
USDE.

The United States Department of Education provides the following overview of accreditation:

The United States has no federal ministry of education or other centralized authority exercising
single national control over postsecondary educational institutions in this country. The states
assume varying degrees of control over education, but, in general, institutions of higher
education are permitted to operate with considerable independence and autonomy. As a
consequence, American educational institutions can vary widely in the character and quality of
their programs.

In order to ensure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States
as a means of conducting non-governmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and
programs. Private educational associations of regional or national scope have adopted criteria
reflecting the qualities of a sound educational program and have developed procedures for
evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether or not they are operating at basic
levels of quality.

Functions of Accreditation:

1. Certifying that an institution or program has met established standards

2. Assisting prospective students in identifying acceptable institutions

3. Assisting institutions in determining the acceptability of transfer credits

4. Helping to identify institutions and programs for the investment of public and private funds

5. Protecting an institution against harmful internal and external pressure

6. Creating goals for self-improvement of weaker programs and stimulating a general raising of
standards among educational institutions

7. Involving the faculty and staff comprehensively in situational evaluation and planning

8. Establishing criteria for professional certification and licensure and for upgrading federal
assistance

ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOLS All schools shall be established in accordance with the law.
The establishment of new national schools and the conversion of existing schools from
elementary to national secondary schools or from secondary to.

Provided, that any private school proposed to be established must incorporate as a non-stock
educational corporation in accordance with the provisions to incorporate may be waived in in the
case of family-administered pre-school institution.

Government assistance to such schools for educational programs shall be used exclusively for
that purpose.

DEFINITION OF TERMS “Schools” – are duly established institutions of learning of educational

institutions. “Public Schools” – are educational institutions established and administered by the
government. “Private Schools” – are educational institutions maintained and administered by
private individuals or groups.

RECOGNITION OF SCHOOLS The educational operations of schools shall be subject to the

prior authorization of the government, and shall be effected by the recognition.

In the case of government operated schools, whether local, regional or national, recognition of
educational programs and/or operations shall be deemed granted simultaneously with
establishment.

In other cases, the rules and regulations governing recognition shall be prescribed and enforced
by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports defining there in who are classified to apply,
providing for a permit system, stating the conditions for the grant of recognition and for its
cancellation and withdrawal, and providing for related matters.

APPLICATION FORM FOR PERMIT TO OPEN/ OPERATE A NEW SCHOOL/COURSE

CURRICULUM CONTENT CHECKLIST (SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM) Track and

Strand Academic Track – General Academic Strand HUMSS Strand ABM Strand STEM
Strand

TVL Track – Industrial Arts (IA) Strand Agri-Fishery Arts (AFA) Strand ICT Stand Home
Economics (HE) Strand SPORTS Track ARTS and DESIGN Track

CORE CURRICULUM (SAME CONTENT, SAME COMPETENCIES ACROSS CURRICULUM

OFFERINGS) •Oral Communication •Reading and Writing •Komunikasyon at Pananaliksik sa
Wika at Kulturang Pilipino.
EFFECTS OF RECOGNITION; PUNISHABLE VIOLATIONS The issuance of a certificate of
recognition shall have the following effects: It transforms the temporary permit to a permanent
authority to operate; It entitles the school or college to give the students who completed the
course for which recognition is granted, a certificate, title or diploma; and It shall entitle the
students who have graduated from the said recognized courses to all the benefits and privileges
enjoyed by graduates in similar courses of studies in all schools recognized by the government.

Operations of schools and educational programs without authorization, and/or operation thereof
in the violation of the terms, are hereby declared punishable violations subject to the penalties
provided in this Act.

VOLUNTARY ACCREDITATION The ministry shall encourage programs of voluntary

accreditation for institutions which desire to meet standards of quality over and above the
minimum required State recognition.

EDUCATIONAL FINANCING

The implementation of the right to education requires funding in order to build schools, pay
teachers’ salaries and training, provide teaching materials, etc.

Under international law, states have the obligation to use the maximum of their available
resources to realise the right to education. Even when a state’s resources are very limited, it is
obliged to prioritise certain immediate obligations, such as the introduction of free primary
education and to guarantee education for all without discrimination. It is also obliged to provide
progressively free secondary and higher education and to continuously improve the quality of
education. This means that it must take immediate and progressive steps to fully realise the
right to education and must not take retrogressive measures.

To implement the right to education effectively, states should ensure that a sufficient proportion
of the national budget is allocated to education financing and that the money is used effectively
and equitably to guarantee education for all, as well as redress inequalities.

International Declarations, such as the 2011 Jomtien Statement, recognise that states should
spend at least 6% of their GDP and /or at least 20% of their national budgets on education in
order to achieve quality education for all. In some states, the national education budget is
guaranteed by the constitution or legislation, for example in Brazil, Costa Rica and Indonesia.

This chapter discusses about educational financing. Education in almost all countries is
provided in both the private and public sectors. Education consumes a significant amount of
resources in almost all countries, running between six and ten percent of gross national product.
A certain minimum level of educational provision is generally assumed to be necessary for a
country to attain a reasonably high rate of economic growth. There are three main criteria by
which the systems of educational finance are traditionally judged: whether the level of provision
of educational services is adequate; whether the distribution of educational resources is
efficient; and whether the distribution of educational resources is equitable. These three criteria
are interrelated. The objectives by which adequacy of education is defined also require at least
a minimum level of competence and commitment on the part of teachers. The requirements for
real resources to meet standards of adequacy set, in turn, the financial requirements. There are
two main approaches to the problem of equity in finance of higher education. In Europe and in
most developing countries, the central government pays most of the costs of postsecondary
education, including student maintenance, and the necessary funds are distributed directly to
the institutions.

In 2015, the world leaders committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and the Education 2030 Framework for Action (FFA) within the next fifteen years, the most
ambitious global development agenda in history. For education, this includes the pledge to
‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for
all by 2030‘ – regardless of personal, social or political context.

Such ambitious goals need to be paid for. Since education is central to the achievement of all
the development goals, failing to make adequate investments in education puts the success of
the entire new agenda at risk. Investment in education now is key to fund a better future
tomorrow.

Despite the hope and promises, in 2018, we are still in a global education crisis.

Out-of-school rates for children haven’t budged in years with 9% of children ages 6-11 denied
the right to education

Which means today 263M children and youth are denied education – the vast majority live in the
poorest countries.

Education disparities reinforces world economic inequalities: 20% of children ages 6-11 are out
of school in low-income countries compared to 3% in high-income countries

and education quality is at risk: in low-income countries, there are more than 40 pupils per
primary teachers compared to the average of 14 to 1 in high-income countries

Despite some progress, gender exclusion is still a reality: there are 5M more girls ages 6-11
than boys denied the right to education

Unless we see a radical shift in financing for education, the bold ambitions of the
SDG4/Education 2030 agenda will continue to be at least 50 years off track for achieving
inclusive and quality education for all by 2030.

That is why the Global Campaign for Education has launched a global, multi-layered education
financing campaign, spanning over several years. It originated in 2011 and ran again in 2014
and 2017 with a targeted objective at the Dakar replenishment conference in February 2018 –
Fund the Future: Education Now.

GCE is calling for action to secure significant shifts in education financing – through increases in
aid and domestic finance – to achieve the SDG4/Education 2030 goals. We call for
governments to work harder to meet the huge financing gaps in education, to tackle the
stagnation of aid to education, and a lack of domestic financing for education in low- and
middle-income countries.

The campaign aims to secure:

 Increased domestic resources.

 Increased bilateral and multilateral contributions and
 Global action on tax reform and justice.

At such, the campaign deals with Public-Private partnership, and the growing tendency of
donors agencies to fund low-cost private schools, instead of focusing the effort on strengthening
the public education offer. It is also focused on accountability, and aims to develop and
strengthen civil society evidence-based advocacy by giving them the tools to strictly monitoring
governments’ pledges and spending in education.

In most countries basic education is nowadays perceived not only as a right, but also as a duty
– governments are typically expected to ensure access to basic education, while citizens are
often required by law to attain education up to a certain basic level. This was not always the
case: the advancement of these ideas began in the mid 19th century, when most of today’s
industrialized countries started expanding primary education, mainly through public finances
and government intervention. Data from this early period shows that government funds to
finance the expansion of education came from a number of different sources, but specifically
taxes at the local level played a crucial role. The historical role of local funding for public schools
is important to help us understand changes – or persistence– in regional inequalities.

The second half of the 20th century marked the beginning of education expansion as a global
phenomenon. Available data shows that by 1990 government spending on education as a share
of national income in many developing countries was already close to the average observed in
developed countries.2 This global education expansion in the 20th century resulted in a
historical reduction in education inequality across the globe: in the period 1960-2010 education
inequality went down every year, for all age groups and in all world regions. Recent estimates of
education inequality across age groups suggest that further reductions in schooling inequality
are still to be expected within developing countries.

Recent cross-country data from UNESCO tells us that the world is expanding government
funding for education today, and these additional public funds for education are not necessarily
at the expense of other government sectors. Yet behind these broad global trends there is
substantial cross-country – and cross-regional – heterogeneity. In high-income countries, for
instance, households shoulder a larger share of education expenditures at higher education
levels than at lower levels – but in low-income countries this is not the case. Malawi is a stark
example: tertiary education is almost completely subsidised by the state, yet household
contribute almost 20% of the costs of primary education.

Following the agreement of the Millennium Development Goals, the first decade of the 21st
century saw an important increase in international financial flows under the umbrella of
development assistance. Recent estimates show that development assistance for education has
stopped growing since 2010, with notable aggregate reductions on flows going to primary
education. These changes in the priorization of development assistance for education across
levels and regions, can have potentially large distributional effects, particularly within low
income countries that depend substantially on this source of funding for basic education.

When analysing correlates, determinants and consequences of education consumption, the

macro data indicates that national expenditure on education does not explain well cross-country
differences in learning outcomes. This is indicative of a complex ‘education production function’
whereby for any given level of expenditure, output achieved depends crucially on the input mix.

Available evidence specifically on the importance of school inputs to produce education,

suggests that learning outcomes may be more sensitive to improvements in the quality of
teachers, than to improvements in class sizes. Regarding household inputs, the recent
experimental evidence suggests that interventions that increase the benefits of attending school
(e.g. conditional cash transfers) are particularly likely to increase student time in school; and
that those that incentivise academic effort (e.g. scholarships) are likely to improve learning
outcomes.

Policy experiments have also shown that pre-school investment in demand-side inputs leads to
large positive impacts on education – and other important outcomes later in life. The
environment that children are exposed to early in life, plays a crucial role in shaping their
abilities, behavior and talents.

Governments around the world are nowadays widely perceived to be responsible for ensuring
the provision of accessible quality education. This is a recent social achievement. The
advancement of the idea to provide education for more and more children only began in the mid
19th century, when most of today’s industrialized countries started expanding primary
education. The following visualization, plotting public expenditure on education as a share of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for a number of early-industrialized countries, shows that this
expansion took place mainly through public funding. Our entry on Primary Education and
Schools provides details regarding how this expansion in funding materialized in better
education outcomes for these countries.

ACCESS TO EDUCATION – SCHOOL ADMISSION

The education system of the Philippines has been highly influenced by the country’s colonial
history. That history has included periods of Spanish, American and Japanese rule and
occupation. The most important and lasting contributions came during America’s occupation of
the country, which began in 1898. It was during that period that English was introduced as the
primary language of instruction and a system of public education was first established—a
system modeled after the United States school system and administered by the newly
established Department of Instruction.

The United States left a lasting impression on the Philippine school system. Several colleges
and universities were founded with the goal of educating the nation’s teachers. In 1908, the
University of the Philippines was chartered, representing the first comprehensive public
university in the nation’s history.

Like the United States, the Philippine nation has an extensive and highly inclusive system of
education, including higher education. In the present day, the United States continues to
influence the Philippines education system, as many of the country’s teachers and professors
have earned advanced degrees from United States universities.

Although the Philippine system of education has long served as a model for other Southeast
Asian countries, in recent years that system has deteriorated. This is especially true in the more
remote and poverty-stricken regions of the country. While Manila, the capital and largest city in
the Philippines, boasts a primary school completion rate of nearly 100 percent, other areas of
the country, including Mindanao and Eastern Visayas, have a primary school completion rate of
only 30 percent or less. Not surprisingly, students who hail from Philippine urban areas tend to
score much higher in subjects such as mathematics and science than students in the more rural
areas of the country.

Public schools in the Philippines

Most local Filipino children attend public schools, which are funded by the government and free
to attend. The quality of education at public schools remains poor. Classes are big, teaching
material is lacking and teachers are poorly paid.

For these reasons, expats in the Philippines generally don’t send their children to public
schools.

Private schools in the Philippines

Those who can afford it send their children to private schools. Private schools are not funded by
the government, but follow much the same curriculum as public schools. Many private schools
in the Philippines started as missionary or Christian schools. Classes are smaller than public
schools and facilities and resources are usually much better.

International schools in the Philippines

There are a number of international schools in the Philippines. Most of these schools are
located in Manila, with the most popular catering to American, British, French, Japanese and
German nationals.

International schools generally follow the curriculum of their home country, and subjects are
taught in their own language. Some international schools offer the International Baccalaureate
programme.

Admission to an international school often requires a personal interview. For this reason, expats
might only be able to enrol their children after arrival in the Philippines. Nevertheless, expats
should start the admission process as soon as possible, as space can be limited.
Fees at international schools in the Philippines can range upwards of 8,000 USD per year.
Expats should factor this into any contract negotiations.

Government policy on school admissions and school fees is guided by three basic principles:

 Equity : to make sure that government gives the same basis resources to all government
schools
 Redress: to give more government resources to learners in historically disadvantaged
communities so that they have more money for textbooks and stationery, and it is
possible to build schools in areas where none exist and upgrade existing schools
 Access: to make sure no one is excluded from attending school on the basis of race or
religion or because they cannot afford to pay school fees.

The South African Schools Act says that:

 For both state and private school, no one can be refused admission to a school on the
basis of race or religion.
 All children between the ages of 5 and 15 have to go to school. For both state and
private schools, children can be accepted in Grade R in the year they turn 5 and in
Grade One in the year they turn 6.
 No one registering at a State school can be charged a registration fee or asked to pay
fees up front.
 No child can be refused entry to a state school because his or her parents have not paid
school fees in the past.
 Where possible children should be given access to a state school within 5 kilometres of
their home. In some provinces government assists learners with transport when they live
more than 5 kilometres from school.

The provincial department of education makes regulations guiding admissions.

Practical steps that can be taken if a school tells a learner that it is full:

 Ask the principal if the school had been officially declared full by the Education
Department.
 Ask to see the letter which says the school is full.
 If there is no letter then the school must accept the child.
 If the school refuses permission then contact the district office.
 If the school does have a letter then the department must find a place for the child in the
nearest school to where he or she lives.