Philosophy of Education is a field of inquiry, speculation, and application in which philosophical methods are applied to the study of a problem, topic, or issue in education. Characteristic of these methods is the attempt to think as accurately, clearly, coherently, and systematically as possible. Analytical philosophers would say that philosophy of education should end with the attempt to clarif
y and justify educational statements and arguments. In practice, however, the field includes much more than that. There is, much overlap with the field of history of education, and ultimately no clear demarcation can be drawn between the fields, which nourish and illuminate each other in the interconnectedness. Many philosophers of education also go beyond analysis in being concerned with establishing a commitment to value judgments and substantive positions. They take pains to attempt to clarify and justify those judgments and positions on the grounds that clear and substantiated judgments have greater probability of being sound. Motivations to learning are more variable in man than in subhuman species. In other animals learning patterns develop largely through instinctual motivationsThis means that lower animals need less training than humans before they are independent and self-reliant. Human beings are the most dependent of creatures when young, and they take longest to educate for independent activity. It is precisely this long period of dependence and education that constitutes man's superiorly over lower animals, for it is in this period that the growing human being absorbs much of his culture and develops the skills and knowledge that enable him to build on the work of his predecessors. His lower degree of reliance of innate mechanisms also means that man is more flexible in his responses and is capable of adjusting those response in the light of pervious expenses. Thus, he is not condemned to repeat previous patterns of living and thinking but can create change, both in himself and in his culture. So far there have been discovered no limits to man's capacity to learn. From earliest times, however, men in positions of power or influence have suggested that the learning capacity of certain individuals or groups is severely limited and that they should not be expected to profit greatly, if at all, from education. These "ineducable" individuals have usually been members of minority or disadvantages have been removed, these groups have shown that their previous failure to learn has been happened not due to incapacity but due to the lack of fully realized opportunity.
