Philosophy Warning!!!: Basic Anthropology as a Foundation for an Educational Philosophy

Its difficult to write down accurately something you believe, there are so many threads of understanding and perspective that are woven into belief that it is impossible to express them all. However, I will give my best attempt in this perspective on an anthropology aimed towards laying the foundation for an educational philosophy.

For brevities sake I will lay it out in a bullet point format:

• Humanity as a whole can be viewed in two main abstract ways: 
• 1. The Community 
• Humanity in groups: the married couple, the family, the group of friends, the tribe, the village, the city, the nation, and eventually the whole of the human race 
• The individual comes about through the community of a man and woman 
• 2. The Individual 
• What all the above groups are composed of, who each of us who reads this is, like the individual cells of the body that make up the whole 
• When dealing with anthropological issues, or really with anything concerning or effecting humanity, both of these aspects need to be kept in mind 
• Indeed, when humanity is considered through these aspects neither can be given preference over the other, for to value one over the other would actually be to value neither 
• What I mean by saying to value one more is in actuality to value neither, is that in valuing one to the detriment of the other both are devalued for one would disvalue what allows the one valued to exist (the individual makes up the community, the community brings forth the individual) and so in effect neither is valued, put another way: 
• As the one proceeds from the other, and one is composed of the other, they are not only interconnected, but almost indistinguishable, they can be abstractly divided to aid in thinking and speaking clearly, however, one aspect cannot be considered divorced from the other in thinking if thought is to reflect reality, thus, one cannot consider one without the other, and in valuing one, one values both, or in disvaluing one disvalues both 
• This is a very basic outline of my overall understanding of humanity, but as you have probably already realized, this understanding within the ethical realm rejects anything like Utiliarianism which focuses primarily on the community, as well as anything like Hedonism which focuses primarily on the individual 

Any thoughts or comments? I would very much appreciate critique.

-sDB

We see here what I am talking about: a community as a whole, but made up of individuals. To disvalue the individual would lead to disvaluing the community, and vice versa.