@article{article_1749889, title={An Analysis of the Educational Value of Descartes’s "Rules for the Direction of the Mind" From A Constructivist Education Perspective}, journal={Sinop Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi}, volume={9}, pages={1241–1267}, year={2025}, DOI={10.30561/sinopusd.1749889}, author={Öztürk, Murat}, keywords={Descartes, Yapılandırmacı Eğitim, Eğitim Felsefesi, Aklın Yönetimi İçin Kurallar, İşlemsel Yapılar}, abstract={Abstract
This study examines the rules Descartes established in his work, ’Rules for the Direction of the Mind,’ for directing the mind to arrive at sound and true judgments. The analysis reveals notable parallels between Descartes’s principles and the fundamental tenets of constructivist education. The most significant of these similarities is the shared vision for the ultimate aim of intellectual endeavors. Both approaches define the purpose of education not as informing the student about potential situations or teaching generally accepted judgments, but as developing the individual’s cognitive structures to enable them to accurately evaluate and form sound judgments about any situation they encounter. In this context, the view that transmitting ready-made judgments does not enhance but rather may diminish an individual’s own power of judgment is common to both philosophies. The primary reason for this is the principle that a skill can only be developed through its active and repeated use by the person seeking to develop it. The characterization of constructivist education as "student-centered" and Descartes’s statement that " We would not become philosophers even if we had read all the reasonings of Plato and Aristotle." both point to this necessity for individual and active participation. Another important parallel is the idea that mental skills or operational structures can only be developed through abundant and consistent experience. Therefore, both frameworks strongly emphasize the need to first focus on simple, certain, and clear facts for the development of these skills, and to avoid engaging with complex matters until mastery in these basic competencies is achieved. It is noted that this approach, known in education as the "from simple to complex" principle, is often neglected, which in turn delays the formation of coherent mental structures. Indeed, while engaging directly with more complex subjects may be more appealing as an intellectual display of skill, what is truly required is the repetition of these basic skills on simple matters until they can be applied fluently. Only in this way can the relationships within complex phenomena, which are combinations of many simple elements, be grasped holistically, leading to more accurate judgments. Consequently, it is important for contemporary educational approaches aiming to develop higher-order thinking skills to heed the universal principles established nearly four centuries ago by a philosopher like Descartes, who shared the same objective, as this can strengthen the philosophical foundation of educational practices.}, number={2}, publisher={Sinop Üniversitesi}