I started this assignment by asking myself: Is indoctrination a form of brain washing? Does it have to involve beliefs? Is it a process? Must it be a bad thing? I previously thought that indoctrination related dictators and radical leaders whose mission was to get others to believe their views without question. But, having engaged in this course and with relevant readings I soon realised that this wasn’t the case. By writing this essay, I hope to answer these questions to the best of my ability. At the start of my engagement with this course I wondered what the answer was to these questions but after much research I hope to find myself understanding fully – what is indoctrination? As John white exclaims “Indoctrinating someone is trying to get him to believe that a proposition ‘p’ is true, in such a way that nothing will shake that belief” (181). Actions, says White, are usually differentiated by intentions and “A person is indoctrinates P (a …show more content…
Education involves the seeking of facts, and learning about what is the truth, and what is not. Indoctrination is aimed at influencing people to believe in facts, without being able to back up these newfound facts with anything but opinion.” Education is designed to help people develop their own belief system. It can be supported and backed up by fact. On the other hand statements that include the words ‘all’ and ‘every’ are not backed up by fact, they are merely opinions but, if you accept it as true, then it no longer an opinion, it is indoctrination. Education is unbiased, It is grounded in fact, and it doesn’t sway people towards a certain belief. Education is development of one’s own beliefs based on the facts that are discovered through learning. Indoctrination has an agenda. It is used to implant another person’s belief system in themselves instead of developing their own