Abstract

The ends of education are social and individual, promoting self-development of the full potential of each individual in three domains. The first domain is concerned with justice and self-development, the second with theoretical knowledge of abstract and empirical subjects, the third with skill in the fine and the useful arts. Plato emphasizes the role of education in forming a just society, Aristotle the development of the moral and theoretical excellences that fulfill individual roles within society. Both formulate these ends within the limited scope of the Greek polis. ;These basic ends are widened in three ways. First, they are broadened to include all human beings, not just members of the polis. Initially, Augustine and Aquinas include all human beings as worthy of education, as required by a monotheistic religion concerned with justice. Later, Wollstonecraft specifically includes women as rational creatures, potentially the equals of men. ;Secondly, after religious thinkers universalize the concept of the worth of all humans, the ends of education are again made secular. Dante hypothesizes that state must rule over church, and More describes an ideal society in which concerns for justice and self-development do not arise from religion. Later, Kant works out the basis of a rational morality which recognizes the moral worth of autonomous individuals who acknowledge the equal right of others to be autonomous as the limit of their own freedom. Thirdly, Dewey reiterates the classical ends of individual and social development, adding that the technical skills which belong to human beings as tool-makers, in addition to their skills as moral agents and theoretical knowledge-seekers, are equally deserving of development. ;As a purposeful endeavor, education benefits from a clear statement of the ends for which it is conducted. These ends are self-development to their maximum potential all individuals as equal members of society in the practical, theoretical, and technological domains of achievement. A clear formulation of the ends of education, as distinct from formal structures, methods, and materials results in a better understanding of needed educational reform