The meaning and dialectics of education, teaching, refinement, urbanisation and civilisation: a Khaldounic point of view

Abstract

This paper had attempted to highlight the meaning and dialectics of some of Ibn Khaldoun's very crux concepts: education teaching refinement, urbanisation and civilisation. It found that education is a natural process. It is somewhat similar to a contemporary concept of socialisation and its purpose as the tool of socialisation can be traced in the meaning of the word tarbiyah which means to educate, to cultivate, socialise and bring up people and things. Teaching is a natural phenomenon in human social organisation. As man by nature needs to eat, drink and have sexual requirement, he by nature needs learning and gaining knowledge, teaching itself is a craft, made perfect by habit (malakah). Refinement is to reach the level of good ethical refinement and leads to the development of a civilisation (hadarah) which is the diversification of luxuries, the cultivation of things, and the education to the crafts that give elegance to all the various kinds of luxuries. Thus is achieved through the human necessity to socialise and refine his crafts in various fields.