Philosophical insights for teachers and trainers A must read book on the much neglected subject ‘philosophy’

To fulfill the high demand after the quick sale of the first edition, a revised edition of the publication ‘PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHTS FOR TEACHERS AND TRAINERS’ is now out. The author Francis D’Almeida, who counts more than five decades of teaching and training, moulding over eighteen thousand children, youth and adults in Sri Lanka and abroad, has spent much time and effort to make available a much readable form of the somewhat neglected subject ‘philosophy’. Even though universities, monasteries and seminaries run such courses, the question still remains as to how to put “life into philosophy and philosophy into life”.

D’Almeida has brought to bear his multifaceted personality as a visiting lecturer, basketball coach, corporate trainer, choral/vocal trainer, labour educator and advertising guru to bring to the fore the lives and work of ancient, medieval and modern philosophers. He commences by explaining what pedagogy and epistemology means and goes onto reveal the intricacies of teaching and training in pre-history and adds the genesis of human cultural activities in expanding man’s thinking process.  

His work covers ‘ancient’ Babylonian Cosmology, Hindu philosophy and the teachings of Persian Sage Zoroaster, Chinese philosophers Lao Tzu, Confucius as well as Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha. He also covers ancient Judaism and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and Prophet Mohamed.  

There is a substantial coverage in what is considered as a must in the study of philosophy - the Greek philosophy, which includes; forerunners of Greek philosophy, Hellenic Schools of philosophy, the Milesians, the forerunners of Metaphysics, the Atomists, pre Socratic school, post Socratic school which covers Plato’s teachings and includes a comprehensive section on the teachings of Aristotle, considered the most influential among the Western philosophers. The author includes a rare section on the influence of Buddhism on ancient Greek thinkers.  

The consolidation of the Roman Empire and its effect on Hellenic thought, according to the author is profound. Conversely, the impact of Greeks and the East on the Western part of the Roman Empire, together with the influence of Christianity thereafter too is highlighted. The teachings of St. Augustine of Hippo (who was influenced by Plato) and the early medieval Islamic Philosopher Avicenna are comprehensively dealt with.  

The era of scholastic philosophy begins with the involvement of St. Thomas Aquinas (a follower of Aristotle’s philosophy) in the thirteenth century that gave the complex Christian Theology a firm philosophical foundation. He used Aristotle’s philosophy and logical thinking to justify faith based Roman Catholic teachings.   

The entire system of human thinking changed with the dawn of new European Renaissance which caused an astonishing cultural explosion. This paved the way for the breakup of Roman Catholicism with German Theologian Martin Luther introducing the Protestant (protest) Christianity. What followed was the post scholastic philosophy which divested itself from religious presuppositions.  

The author then goes on to bring to fore the prominent European thinkers including Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Wilhelm Leibniz, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. The next section includes what the 18th and 19th century philosophers arduously propounded. They include Jeremy Bentham, Wilhelm Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Stuart Mill, Karl Marx and Wilhelm Nietzsche. These thinkers developed their own schools of thought which the author deals with in depth.   

The section goes on to expose the thinking of Jacobi, Turgenev, Schlick, William James, Frege, Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Wittgenstein who is now considered the philosopher of philosophers. Perhaps his professional engineering expertise enabled him to think differently. Also highlighted therein the teachings of John Dewey who propounded the educational reforms in USA, philosopher Bertrand Russell the author of mathematical logic, Martin Heidegger who is said to have developed a philosophical foundation for German Nazism, Jean Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir, Thomas Kuhn and Jean-Francois Lyotard known for his post modernism thinking.  

Finally, getting out of the box, the pride of place is given to Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of Ahimsa which paved the way for bloodless social and political revolutions in modern history.   

The author concludes his writing by propounding his own philosophical thoughts with the ardent plea for the “need for a new humanism.” Our world is in dire need for overall renewal even as it is being torn apart by the horrors of barbaric armed conflicts, super exploitation of the masses and callous devastation of our environment. The Greeks gave us the term “philosophy” which means “love for wisdom”. There is an urgent necessity for the emergence of a profound global human wisdom that philosophy begets to heal the world.  

(More details of the book can be obtained by visiting the Catholic Book Shop on Professor Nandadasa Kodagoda Road, (adjacent to the Colombo Catholic Press) or by contacting Chrysanthi on 0779791735)