Ontology of the Education of the Future: Fundamental Problems and Models of Education

The study of a possible and favorable future for education is, primarily, a task of scientific thinking. The fundamental ontology examines the essential contents of education of the future. The subject matter of the fundamental ontology is the relation of education to being, expressed in a system of primary categories and relations. The constitutive part of the fundamental ontology of education includes the relations to truth, ontological essence, and universals (structural, procedural, psychological, and distributive). Its anthropological part is determined by existentials and societals that define the ontological relations of education to an inner human and an outer human. The analysis of their ontological pairs allows us to identify critical gaps in modern education that hinder its development, as well as reveal the fundamental problems of modern education and develop fundamental models of education of the future with the aim to find their solutions. The first fundamental problem of contemporary education is the cultivation of those who think essentially, i.e., who essentially know and essentially create. The second is the harmonious combination of creative freedom of a person with a social function of thinking and, at the same time, the connection of a cognitive-type individual with a cognitive-type profession. The third is the formation of spiritual knowledge and spiritual education as opposed to simple assimilation of results. The principal fundamental problem of education in its present-day and future image is righteousness cultivation of humanity in the individual and society. Models of the education of the future are considered as Weber’s ideal types, which determine its essential characteristics. As such, this work presents a brief description of memory-retentive, problem-cognitive, cognitive-role, spirit, and righteousness models of education. Based on fundamentals of Russian culture in its historical heritage, the need for redefining Russian education is shown.

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