On Natural Learning as a Metaphysics of the Will: William Spady’s “Real OBE” and Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Education as a Critique of CHED’s OBE Implementation
ABSTRACT
This research paper will
explore the perspective of Arthur Schopenhauer, one of the most controversial
philosophers of the 19th century, particularly in the aspect of
education. Schopenhauer is considered to be an iconoclast in his philosophical
standpoint that deals mostly with life through a pessimistic lens. He argues
that to understand the meaning of life and existence, one must “see things
aright” by reaching the state of the pure subject of knowing. This will lead to
his idea of education as natural learning in relation to the central theme of
his philosophy: the metaphysics of the will. Education, according to him, tends
to promote independent thinking by returning to the realm of immanence, in
consideration with the movement of the will. Human beings in acquiring knowledge
should give more weight to the process of intuition rather than merely of abstraction.
The latter serves only as a guide or means, but never the end of education. For
Schopenhauer, education should direct individuals to reach the higher state of
consciousness, beyond the phenomena, which he identifies as will less
perception or noumenal experience. The purpose of education, after all, is the
production of geniuses rather than merely scholars of knowledge. To attain
that, he envisions educational pedagogies that appeal directly to aesthetic
experience and the practice of ethics and how these two can be helpful for a
holistic pedagogy. To be more concrete, this is an experience-and-person based approach
that espouses the maturation of knowledge, where there is no more demarcation
between “abstracted ideas” and “intuited ideas”. Portions of the paper will
explain the nature of education as both representation and will together with
its sacred role to confront the paradoxical nature of humans as both rational
and irrational. The said complex nature of humans cannot simply be dealt with
through a singular pedagogical approach; rather, it should appeal to the wholeness
of being – diverse yet autonomous. Moreover, this paper will also tackle and
critique the controversial OBE implementation of the Higher Learning
Institutions in the Philippines based on CMO 46 issued by the Commission on
Higher Education, which, seen from Schopenhauer’s standpoint, would be
antithetical to natural learning. This paper will argue that Schopenhauer’s
natural learning affirms the “real OBE” espoused by William Spady, particularly
his life-approach in the development of the self and culture (Bildung).