过程哲学视野下的博雅教育刍议

以怀特海过程哲学为视角审视博雅教育。怀特海过程哲学主张，世界是由相互联系的过程构成的网络，我们是这个网络的组成部分。世界上每一现实存在物都在生成和消亡，生成是潜藏在所有事物之中的终极事实。怀特海还把这种终极事物看作创造性。创造性是标志这种终极事实的共相之共相，是新颖性的本原。宇宙因而是向新颖性迈进的创造性进展。新颖性还内在地与自由相联系。以过程视角审视博雅教育可以看到：博雅教育自身的内涵和外延应当不断丰富和发展；博雅教育应当注重价值观教育；博雅教育应当是终身教育、创新性教育、自由式教育和爱心教育，并应当十分重视美学教育，以培养和造就全面而自由发展的人。在实施博雅教育活动中不应当把博雅教育与专业教育对立起来，也不应当把博雅教育简单地等同于素质教育或通识教育。博雅教育是把学生培养成全面发展的人才的创新性和过程性教育。

Process Philosophy Over Liberal Education

This paper deals with liberal education from the perspective of process philosophy of Whitehead. The process philosophy of Whitehead insists on the world being a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts. Everything that is actual in the world becomes and perishes. Becoming is the ultimate fact underlying all others. Whitehead refers to this ultimate fact, this ultimate character shared by all actual things, as creativity. Creativity is the universal of universals characterizing ultimate matter of fact and the principle of novelty. The universe is thus a creative advance into novelty. Novelty is inherently involving freedom. Viewing liberal education from the perspective of process philosophy, we can see that the connotation and extension of the term of liberal education should be gradually enriched and developed; liberal education should focus on education of values; liberal education should be life-long education, creative education, education of freedom, and education of love, as well as aesthetic education, in order to bring up human beings who are free and all-aroundly developed. In the process of putting liberal education into practice, we should not make professional education contradictory to liberal education, and we should not simply equate liberal education as quality education. The essence of liberal education itself is a creative and process education and its aim is to educate students into free and all--aroundly developed human beings.