philosophical and psychological foundations of education: comparative study of husserl and suhrawardi

methods and principles used in education come from diverse foundations. this paper aims at examining philosophical and psychological foundations of education based on two similar views from the west and the east: the illuminationist philosophy of suhrawardi and phenomenology of husserl. questions of the research deal with philosophical and psychological foundations of education from the standpoints of the two philosophers and a comparison between them. the results show that in husserl’s philosophical foundations, phenomenology gets the main place with two steps. in the first step, the emphasis is on description of human experiences and in the second, the reduction of these experiences is concerned. in the psychological foundation, reflection on psychological states is at the center instead on introspection. in suhrawardi’s philosophical and epistemological view, knowledge by presence takes the main place. in the psychological foundation, introspection gets the central point. comparison of suhrawardi and husserl shows that both of them are under the influence of plato and take a distance from objectivism. in the case of difference, it should be mentioned that in epistemology husserl deals with acquired knowledge whereas suhrawardi is concerned with the knowledge of presence. in the psychological foundation, husserl puts emphasis on reflection whereas introspection is more vital for suhrawardi. such foundations urge the two philosophers toward a sort of intuitionism in education. keywords phenomenology, knowledge by presence, illuminationist psychology, phenomenological psychology, phenomenological and illuminationist foundations of education