Education Theory 12: Objectivism, Rand, and Montessori

15-lecture series by Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks, Rockford University. Part T w e l v e : Objectivism and Education. How does Objectivist philosophy, and Ayn Rand’s thinking in particular, apply to education, and how consistent is it with Maria Montessori’s principles?

Previous lectures in the series:

Part One: Introduction: What is the purpose of education, and what is philosophy’s relevance?

Part Two: Reality: Metaphysics and Education: The Creation Story, the Big Bang Story, and more.

Part Three: Knowledge: Epistemology and Education: If education is about the transmission of knowledge, then what is knowledge? Or if it’s about training young people’s habits of mind, then what about alertness to evidence, skill with logic, and a commitment to reason? Does faith work? Is everything just opinion?

Part Four: Human Nature and Education: Free will and determinism, reason and emotion, the mind and the body, and more.

Part Five: Ethics: If education is to prepare students for living the best possible life, what is that?

Part Six: Integrating Philosophy with Education Strategy: If education is a systematic process of preparing one for life, how does one connect a full philosophy of life to an education strategy?

Part Seven: Idealism, Plato, Kant, and Education: What did the great Idealist philosophers believe and how did they apply it to education?

Part Eight: Realism, Aristotle, Locke, and Education: What did the great Realist philosophers believe and how did they apply it to education?

Part Nine: Pragmatism, Dewey, and Education. What did the leading Pragmatist philosophers, and John Dewey in particular, believe and how they apply it to education?

Part Ten: Behaviorism, Skinner, and Education: What did the leading Behaviorist thinkers, and B.F. Skinner in particular, believe and how they apply it to education? Why must we go “beyond freedom and dignity”?

Part Eleven: Existentialism , S a r t r e , C a m u s , and Education: What did the major Existentialist thinkers—including Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre—believe and how they apply it to education? How are “Existence precedes essence” and “The Myth of Sisyphus” relevant to deciding our purposes in life?

Other lectures in the series forthcoming:

Part Thirteen: Marxism, Marx, and Education

Part Fourteen: Postmodernism, Foucault, Giroux, and Education

Part Fifteen: Education as One’s Mission, and Conclusion

Related: Stephen Hicks’s other posts and publications on Education.

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