The main question of the philosophy of education

The article postulates the fundamental importance of the educational ideal in the socio-philosophical discussion on the topic of education and in the disciplinary discourse of the philosophy of education. The key milestones in the evolution of the concept of “educational ideal” are described, capturing the ideas that had a strong influence on changing its configuration. The theoretical origins of the study of the phenomenon of the educational ideal can be traced back to the times of antiquity, when the ideas of anthropocentricity and universality of the educational ideal and the duality of its form (meaning and purpose) arose. In subsequent eras, the educational ideal is discussed along these same substantive lines, with some adjustments to the spirit of the times. The ideas of the Enlightenment era became a turning point: the possibility of a universal educational ideal was called into question, and the contradictory idea of its sociocultural and historical-political conditionality was strengthened. The institutional substantive line of the educational ideal is developing. The attitude, rooted in the ideas of the utopians, to think of the ideal through its counter-ideal, which most often was the current state of the system, is being consolidated. The term “educational ideal” appeared in the writings of social thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries. And it became the object of scientific analysis only in the second half of the 20th century, with the strengthening of the autonomous status of the philosophy of education. In the article, the educational ideal is considered a concatenation of meanings crystallized in the course of the historical development of social thought, reflection on the processes and content of education. The educational ideal is understood as an image of perfection that regulates ways of knowing and acting in the field of education, embodying in all its manifestations the idea of education and objectified in its purpose. The study of historical transformations of the concept “educational ideal” made it possible to determine its characteristics: ontology, invariance of the value core, simultaneous historicity and ahistoricality, conceptuality of content, and ideality of form.