The Recognition and Understanding of Man from the Viewpoint of Education

I have considered in this article what is the real and true recognition and understanding of man and how it becomes possible, selecting the case of human relations in education. In the recognition and understanding of man, both the subject and object of recognition is man himself. Therefore within the human relationship itself is contained the relation of challenge and response and thus this relationship of recognition is reciprocal. Naturally this differs from the usual relationship of recognition between man and inanimate things. Especially what is required of the recognizer in his capacity as educator in educational human relations is that he (=the educator) should not only recognize the object of recognition (=the recipient of education) as he really is, but also recognize him as he should be in future. By »he as shonld be in future « I mean his real self which slumbers in him without his being conscious of it. If in the process of recognition the educator succeeds in awakening the recipient of education to his real self, we can say that the relationship of the recognition and understanding of man from the viewpoint of education is complete. In such a relationship what is required of the subject of recognition ? He must ontologically participate in the object of recognition through love and reliance. In this case how can the truthfulness of recognition be guaranteed ? Bearing this problem in mind, I have criticized here the theory of recognition and understanding of man put forward by Max Weber (Wertfreiheit theory) and Dilthey (Verstehen theory) and lastly I have shown that the "participant recognition" suggested by such religious philosophers as Paul Tillich and Martin Buber could be fruitful if applied to this line of research