How do you define an educated individual?

What is the highest purpose of an education?

further knowledge of a certain skill (medicine, music, woodworking, teaching) or topic (history, plants, art, religon, politics),

But how one may use this knowledge may create a differant answer to what their highest purpose of their education is.

What is the definition or nature of knowledge?

to know a deep level of understanding in the above - skill or topic

How do you define the educated individual?

one whom seems to articulate knowlegde in several things, is well rounded and can express their knowlegde to another person showing that they have grasp on idea/topic/skill

to me this can be from formal education, self study, experiance w/in a skill, and experiances in life

eta: An educated person doesn't reflect character, so the use to society this educated person can be very much varies. To me the definition of an educated person is one whom is the above, but is smart enough to see the use of developing their character so that others may be aided by their knowledge, giving back to society, and helping to create a better world.

[madeintaiwan]

Re: How do you define an educated individual?

I came across this brief summary of educational philosophies and these provocative questions.

Plato maintained that an education allowed a man to grasp forms (absoute truths such as 2+2=4), Aquinas that it allowed him to contemplate God, Locke that it filled his tabula rasa with virtue, wisdom, breeding, and learning. Rousseau's educated man was spontaneous and free, Marx's accountable and communal in spirit, Buber's an existentialist. For Dewey, and his fellow pragmatists, education was largerly a social matter, the educated man one who became reflective about his society. Meanwhile, in our own time, B.F. Skinner and the behaviorists have conceived of the educated man as a well-trained product, a result of strict scientific engineering designed to yield a conditioned citizen. In short, theorists and philosophers have never agreed on the purpose of an education.

Hmmm... this is an interesting one. So hard to answer....

What is the highest purpose of an education?

I believe that the highest purpose of education is to give an individual knowledge and an understanding of others and the world in general as well as the devolopment of self-worth, self-understanding, self-purpose, and self-confidence. I believe that '"education" is not limited to what is learned from a text book or in a classroom but also what is learned from observing others. i.e. learning to plow a field and sow crops or soothing a baby by rocking her

What is the definition or nature of knowledge?

To me knowledge is simply knowing and understanding. Knowing that we exist. Understanding that we live and die. Knowing that 1+1=2. Knowing how to sew. Knowing how to read, how to speak. Knowing how to ride a bike or drive a car. Knowing and understanding that if you run into a wall it might hurt.

How do you define the educated individual?

That is a tough one. Having a college degree I consider myself an educated person but I know many people who do not have college degrees or even HS diplomas and I would consider them educated as well. At the same time, despite being considered an educated individual there are many many things/subjects that I have no knowledge of. I guess it goes back to my concept of education being something like an act of learning. I am hitting a wall thinking about intelligence and educated. Many people comment that my mother is very intelligent especially considering that she is not educated (she barely got through 9th grade). It always bothers me when they say this. She is intelligent but I also feel that she is educated as she has learned and obtain knowledge about many things. So I supposed for me an educated person is one who seeks out and obtains knowledge and develops an understanding of that subject/material. I do not feel you have to be an expert at something to be considered educated.

Whew, that was quite a list of questions.

[Rapunzel]

I consider an educated person someone who knows enough to realize how much they don't know!

Knowledge is the accumulation of experience. It can encompass the knowledge built over generations of individuals or of just one individual's personal knowledge experienced in his/her life. Knowledge is based on what HAS occurred - it is factual and expects that at least one individual has had the actual experience involved to be able to say that person "knows". It is not postulation, theories, guesses (however good), or predictions. Knowledge is experience with what is and has been.

The highest purpose of education is the accumulation of knowledge - either through personal experience or the sharing of experience by others.