The Educational Meaning of Self-Development and Mental Awakening in A. N. Whitehead's Symbolism

The purpose of this study is to analyze the meaning of self-development and mental awakening in A. N. Whitehead's ‘Symbolism’ and to explore its educational implications. Whitehead calls symbolism including direct recognition(ie, causal efficacy, presentational immediacy) and symbolic reference. According to him, symbolism through direct recognition is infallible, but errors arise from symbolic reference that connects two types of perceptual experiences to symbols and meanings. He argues that self-development and mental awakening occur in symbolic reference and criticizes two errors in education based on this. One is the education of inert ideas, which is caused by the lack of self-development in knowledge education, and the other is that there is an error in the claim that the purpose of knowledge education is to sharpen the mind. The cause of the claim is due to putting knowledge ahead of mental awakening. Therefore, this study analyzed Whitehead's theory of symbolism and explained self-development and mental awakening. The concept of self-development and mental awakening in symbolism analyzed in this study can be used as a theoretical basis for the constrution of subjective learning focusing on the interest and curiosity of learners.