Prativa Devi's main concern is to bring clarity and understanding to the goals and ideals of education. She brings together and compares two very different approaches, humanistic psychology and the philosophy of the Upanisads, and finds significant and interesting parallels and similarities. The vigour and clarity of her writing commands the attention, and leads the reader through the intricacies of both views, and their respective antecedents.
The "ideological" goals in any system of education are of the utmost importance, and it is vital therefore that these be exposed, clearly understood and critically examined. Humanistic psychology has been very influential in the understanding of human learning and experience in modern Anglo-American thinking. The Upanisads have moulded the Hindu culture over the millennia. Both require, and deserve, careful thought. Whichever may be the base from which one starts from India or the USA one will benefit from Dr. Devi's analysis and exposition of the other view. It is exciting to find that someone else saw some of author's insights more than 2000 years ago or that the classic insights she prize were recognised afresh more than 2000 years later. In both cases one understands better, and is led on to new understanding.
In this exciting and ground-breaking work Prativa Devi brings together two disparate philosophies of education: the ancient Indian Upanisads and the modern American Humanistic psychology.
With exemplary conciseness, Dr. Devi sets forth the Upanisads basic educational principles. This work will be of interest not only for educationalists but for anyone who wishes to understand the basic doctrines of the Upanisads. Of special interest is the removal of a number of confusions about the dating of the Upanisads.
In a remarkably short space she explains the growth and development of humanistic educational psychologies of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, Gordon Allport, Henry Murray and Gardener Murphy.
The highlight of this work is the comparison between the educational theories of the Upanisads and Humanistic psychologies, showing their fundamental similarities insofar as they both have an immanent ontology, a naturalistic epistemology, and a humanistic ethical theory.
Readers will find other rewards in this study. For instance, a surprising similarity is shown between Maslow's peak experience and the Upanisads and how many of the theoretical gaps in humanistic educational psychology can be rectified with insights drawn from the Upanisads.
As a result of this work, the groundwork has been laid for a rich and productive dialogue between the east and west on humanistic education.
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