As the new millennium is approaching, it may remind some reflective mind of pondering on what will be the mantle assumed by human civilization in the next century. With little doubt, science and technology, the movement of globalization which as capitalistic economic system as its backbone, the democratic and bureaucratized society, and the strong appeal for a secularized and postmodernized popular culture which have been defined the twentieth century will remain the major themes in the century to come. However, the perversity of modern civilization will thereby go unrestrained as an unavoidable consequence of the above-mentioned cultural tendencies. This pessimistic statement is made from classical outlook based on he philosophy of culture under the following considerations. First of all, natural science began as a theoretical purist of objective truth and pure understanding of nature, whereas the development of technology founded on scientific knowledge has set its goal to control, to conquer and eventually to exploit the nature. Neither the “matters of fact” as the justification of scientific truth nor “efficiency” as the criterion of judging the value of the application of a technology has much to do with human values and humanity which exemplify themselves in the development of the history of ideas/ideals. In the rigid discourse of science and technology there is sparely any room for humanistic or ethical considerations. Consequently the most devastating thing for the main culture of twentieth century was that some important human traditions, especially the ideals of humanity, morality and high culture are all languished under the sway of science and technology. Secondly, the gaining power movement of globalization that took on the form of international commerce and multinational business has been trading a superficial and popular consumers’ culture. Along with it, the individualism, fetishism, and hedonism prevail which contribute greatly to the mental disorder and corruption of modern man. Thirdly, the democratic society taking pluralism, tolerance (many a time connivance), and liberty as its keynote, has made values of all kinds neutralized and thereby dismissed as subjective preference. Also reutilized daily life of modern man in a bureaucratized society makes him a part of societal mechanism described by Max Weber an “iron cage” that encases “specialists without spirit” and “sensualists without heart.” All this makes modern life a purposeless and meaningless bagatelle. Finally, by overemphasizing the function of the irrational part of human nature postmodernism has denied the traditional idea of natural reason, questioned the instrumental reason which engineers the development of technology, and eventually turned into nihilism by an overall negation of ideal, meaning and value enshrined in human tradition. With such an anti-humanistic atmosphere, what one can expect from education to play a role in the postmodern culture? What would be the civil function of education? To answer these questions we must at first make clear what is education? What is the relation between culture and education? This paper is an attempt to discuss these issues from a classic outlook of the philosophy of culture to define the essence of education by distinguishing a philosophy of culture from a science of culture. It intends to examine the predicaments of modern education by exploring the anti-humanistic as well as anti-educational elements in modern civilization.