Alloy S. Ihuah, PhD 

When Socrates several centuries ago said the unexamined life is not worth living, he was alluding to the ocular fact that, an open mind that never makes up its mind is an empty mind. In our distressed world today, some people think it is a sign of common sense not to reason about basic issues in life or question things, and others consider it sophisticated to belief in nothing. Even though it if the argued position of some thinkers that a man without the proper use of the intellectual faculties of a man, is if possible, more contemptible than even a coward, and seems to be mutilated and deformed in a still more essential part of the character of human nature, contemporary studies in philosophical cogitation sees it otherwise. It thus argued in the reverse order that, only wisdom not foolishnesses is our portion in life. So, the convinced conclusion of the sages of old is that, “he who knows not, and knows not that he knows not is a fool. But he who knows not, and knows that he knows not and seeks to know, is a wise man”. 

Through philosophy, with philosophy and in philosophy however, even nothing is something. Such is the very reason why it often said that, philosophy is the deposit of the serious thoughts of other men. When and where these serious thoughts are deposited within philosophy, the mother discipline itself, it is termed the philosophy of philosophy. When it is deposited outside philosophy, it is said to be philosophy of infrastructure, i.e. the philosophy of other disciplines. Here understood, philosophy functions as the necessary epistemological principles and techniques of criticism for appraising or re-examining the methods, assumptions, presuppositions and procedures which are employed in the search for knowledge, wisdom and truth in a given field of study. 

Whether it is in the area of science, law, history, religion, psychology, mathematics, literature, political science, philosophy is intent at deploying the human capacity to formulate questions, follow arguments and reveal the epistemological and metaphysical presuppositions (assumptions) in these disciplines in order to ascertain their nature and scope of knowledge claims. This is exactly what the Pittsburgh trained counseling psychologist, the Very Rev. Prof. Moses Mdooyongo Orhungur has brilliantly sketched in his book entitled, Understanding the Philosophy of Education. 

The book essentially undertakes a critical examination of the educational principles and concepts; capturing in the most expansive sense, the etymology of both philosophy, education and the relationship between philosophy and education. Over all, the author places greater premium on matters of knowledge and value with increased attention paid to problems of personal as well as cognitive knowledge and the human as well as academic value of what is learned.  The book articulates from the onset its purpose to be the critical examination of the meaning and place of philosophy in knowledge making (p. xv). Packaged in fourteen chapters, the book may for convenience be divided into four sections, namely;

Ø  i) Conceptual analysis: This section analyses the concepts of philosophy, education and the relationship between Philosophy and education. These concepts find placement in chapters’ One, Two, and Three. 

Ø  i

i)   ii) Applied Philosophy of Education: This section engages in a discourse on the profound contribution of the main branches of Philosophy, namely; Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, and Axiology makes towards the understanding of education. These aspects are dicussed in chapter’s Four, Five, Six and Seven.

Ø  iii) The theories of Education: This section articulates some essential philosophical systems and theories like Pragmatism, Realism, Idealism and Existentialism as they interface education. Here argued, the author employs the instrumentalities of philosophy to interrogate educational ideas thus laying bare the indispensable relevance of philosophy to education. The use of these theories enables the author to justify the basic assumption that, the kind of knowledge philosophy aims to achieve results from a “critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs”. An elaborate discourse on these areas are found in chapters’ Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven

Ø    iv) Theological / Religious Philosophy of Education:  In this section, a bold attempt is made to introduce the educational philosophies of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran and Islamic philosophies of education. The expose of these can be found in chapters’ Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen. 

Clearly, this book is premised on the revolutionary thinking that, philosophy acting as a parent discipline, feeds the other areas of human study with the breast of critical examination and analysis of issues concerning our world and ourselves in order to be more and more human. As a discipline to which all other forms of knowledge systems acknowledge, Fr. Orhungur explores the meaning, characteristics, and methodology of philosophy and education and the application of philosophical tools in education. In this way he says, “Philosophy opens the individual’s horizon by developing the intellect to perceive lucidly the truth”. (p. xiii). In truth, questions that can be answered definitely belong mostly to science; other questions, speculative, prescriptive, and analytic, belong to philosophy. So the author implies in a discourse in this book that, philosophy of education alerts us to the importance of these questions for the theory and practice of education. It enables us to examine philosophic questions for the light they throw on educational problems.           

Painstakingly, and step by step, the author eruditely explains the concepts of philosophy, education and the application of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, axiology and ethics to education. These illuminations are descriptively captured in chapters’ one to three and chapter four to six respectively. In chapters one, two and three, the author records the fundamental objective of philosophy, the parent discipline, as that which involves three modes: the speculative, prescriptive and analytic. Like philosophy, the author argues that, educational philosophy is speculative when it seeks to establish theories of the nature of man, society and the world by which to order and interpret the conflicting data of educational research and the behavioral sciences. It is prescriptive when it specifies the end that education ought and the general means it should use to attain them. It is analytic when it clarifies speculative and prescriptive statements.  The author’s drive in this direction is cryptically captured in the book when he says of philosophy that, “it is dissatisfied with having a fragmented view of reality; it is concerned with seeking to know reality in its entirety”. He pontificates further that,

while other disciplines deal with an aspect of reality, philosophy attempts to have a comprehensive view of reality by trying to cover everything that is knowable … hence philosophy deals with the whole universe while the other disciplines deal with fragments of knowledge (p12-13) 

For the author then, Philosophy, acts as a guide to organize human thought and data, to stand erect before the human court of reason and so to develop analytical skills that will provide humanity with the basic ingredients in his intellectual formation thereby exempting him/herself from the typical deficiency diseases of present day undernourished mind; feebleness of intellectual grasp, misconception of points, vagueness of reason, inability to express oneself, and control of emotions in arguments. This is what philosophy of education anticipates and which for the author is lavishly presented in section four of the book in chapter’s Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen. It borders on the question of the good life. Here argued, the author anticipates Socrates who advocated self-knowledge for humanity when he says, man, know thy self for which one is urged to “think for yourselves, enquire for yourselves, and stand on your feet”. This entails the appropriation by the individual of the best and noblest of the cultural resources of his time. It has meant becoming, in the words of George Kneller, “a connoisseur in every area of human life, so that the individual does not only lives but lives well …” (1964:36) 

From chapters’ four to eleven, the author recoils into a discourse on applied philosophy of education distilling the application of philosophy from the perspectives of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, Axiology, Ethics. The author argues the point that, teachers should be well versed in these aspects of philosophical thinking so as to holistically capture the being of man and the being of other beings since humans come into relationship with other beings through their characteristic consciousness. At this point, the author articulates the meaning of Philosophy of education to be that which examines the rationality of our educational ideas, their consistency with other ideas, and the ways in which they are distorted by loose thinking

Section four of the book treats the relationship between philosophy and theology/religion, namely, catholic theology, Islamic theology and Lutheran theology. This section anchors its assumption on the theory of holism, that, religious institutions (and all human institutions) are established to work for the promotion of the whole person, i.e. the divine and temporal poles. Quoting extensively from the second Vatican document Gravissimun Educationis (1965) professor Orhungur says the Catholic church teaches that, “this (Catholic) education should be suitable to the particular destiny of the individuals, and adopted to their ability, sex and national cultural traditions, and should be conducive to fraternal relations with nations in order to promote true unity and peace in the world.” This, the author further writes is the pedagogical intent of Pope Pius XI who in his Christian Education of Youth pictures correctly the true and ideal Christian education; ...  a form of education that is infallibly efficacious, and capable of preparing the present generations for the earthly happiness which they so ardently desire (186) 

A careful consideration of the issues raised and discussed here leaves no one in doubts as to the explosive, topical, controversial and indeed, thought-provoking contents of the book. Apparently, Professor   Orhungur aims at resolving the problem of understanding the philosophical basis of education. To this end he has brilliantly and excellently achieved his task. He has for example offered a varied but elucidating array of definitions of philosophy ever attempted by even professional philosophers. In fact the devotion of separate chapters in this book on the philosophy of Catholic Education, Islamic philosophy of Education, and the Lutheran Philosophy of Education is a wonderful addition to the subject matter of philosophy of Education. More so, the coverage of difficult philosophical concepts like metaphysics, epistemology, logic and axiology via the use of illustrations and common sense or day to day examples makes the book stand tall in the category of George F Kneller’s second edition of Introduction to the philosophy of education (1964). 

It may not be exaggeration to say that the book, Understanding the Philosophy of Education stands out as a distinct and excellent book in this branch of knowledge in the 21^st century. Bursting with intellectual energy and ambition, the book provides a good account of issues needing debate in our depressed world. In accessible language, Professor Orhungur articulates many of today's key moral, scientific and social issues with methodical and insightful analysis of topics such as located in the educational philosophies of Catholics, Lutheran and Islam. Here captured, the book views education broadly as a process of learning to live as a useful and acceptable member of the community to which one belongs. It is the all-round development of a person physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

In this work therefore, Professor Orhungur not only succeeds in bringing together the various different philosophical concepts on the subject matter in a single volume, he has done so in a comprehensive, lucid, excellent crisp and, above all, readable way. The most admirable aspect of this book is the willingness to confront every important aspect of the educational triad; the child, the home and the school in the most intelligently comprehensive manner. A bald summary of this interesting and passionately argued book does insufficient justice to the subtlety of many of the detailed arguments it contains. 

It must be mentioned however that, a few very important subject areas that must be captured in a book under this title such as the concepts of the educated man, culture, indoctrination, technical education, nursing education, curriculum development, liberal education and some socio-moral issues like rights and duties of teachers and pupils, equality, freedom, punishment and responsibility, leadership, professionalization, and authority and the teacher have escape the author’s mention. While the omission of these and many others issues may not have minimized the academic quality of the book, their inclusion in a reviewed edition will be a plus for this great book. 

It is therefore not in doubt that this book is a master piece in education. It is a persuasive critique of present day theory and practice of education. The author’s analysis herein deconstructs the most difficult read areas in philosophy, i.e. Metaphysics, epistemology and logic, and gives focus to the whole edifice of philosophical education, while at the same time making inroads to sociology of education and Philosophical Anthropology. It must be said without fear of contradiction that, the author has succeeded brilliantly in making the philosophical jargons that are applied to education readable and understandable by students of education. 

Professor Moses Mdooyongo Orhunguur may not be the best expositor on philosophical discourse in the manner of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle or our own encyclopedic Bertrand Russell though, in the educational philosophy, he stands out as one of the best commentators. He thus offers in this book the ripened fruit of sustained reflection on the relationship between philosophy and education which contributes to its accessible form to the intelligentia, teachers and students of education thus upgrading the quality of scholarship that is found wanting in many contributions to contemporary philosophical and educational studies. Those readers interested in an incisive introduction to a crucial debate across the blurred boundary of philosophy and education during the 20th century would do well to pick up this thoughtful and engaging book which should invigorate contemporary scholarship in philosophy and education. It is therefore highly recommended to all serious scholars and the general reader.

 All those who seeks wisdom about human affairs, should read this book. All lovers of knowledge and wisdom who seek and promote total quality human person should read this book. Any politician/ religious leaders who desire to lead men aright should read this book. Anyone who wants to understand the being of man, in the somethingness and nothingness of human condition should read this book.      

Pages: xvi+ 247 

Publisher: Spectrum Books Limited

ISBN: 9789785122152

Price: Not Stated