chatper 2, human nature from ways of knowing through the realms of meaning by william allan...

Copyright © 2011 by William Allan Kritsonis/All Rights Reserved

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HUMAN NATURE

INSIGHTS

1. The educator needs to understand human nature.2. A comprehensive view must allow for the many-

sidedness of man.3. Humans are beings who discover, create, and

express meanings.4. Meaning refers to the inner life, or the life of mind.5. The objective is to understand the inner life that is

the center and substance of human existence and from which all distinctively human actions spring.

6. Each type of meaning that has demonstrated generative power is the special province of a company of experts who make the preservation and advancement of that sort of meaning their professional business.

7. Varieties of productive meanings correspond to the varieties of scholarly disciplines.

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24 PART ONE: MEANING AND HUMAN NATURE

8. Meanings wax and wane, as do the disciplines responsible for them.


9. The symbols of the disciplines are essential to scholars for analyzing, criticizing, and elaborating their domains of meaning.

10. The educator needs to understand the kinds of meaning that have proven effective in the development of civilization and to construct the curriculum of studies on the basis of these meanings.

11. The purpose of classifying meanings in education is to facilitate learning.

12. Every cognitive meaning has two logical aspects, namely, quantity and quality.

13. An intimate connection exists between education, the nature of man, and the scholarly disciplines.

____________________

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HUMAN NATURE

Education is a means of helping human beings to become what they can and should become. The educator needs to understand human nature. He needs to understand people in their actual- ities. In their possibilities, and in their idealities. He must also know how to foster desirable changes in them.

THE STUDY OF HUMAN BEINGS

For the required understanding one naturally turns to the scientists and scholars who have made the study of human beings their concern. It is evident at once there are many different classes of investigators interested in the exploration of human nature. No one type of expert has a monopoly on knowledge about man. Each kind of investigator sees a man from a particular perspective. Each is well quipped to elucidate certain aspects or dimensions of what human beings are.

Physicists And ChemistsPhysicists and chemists usually do not study man as

such. They usually assume that he is part of the general matter-energy system of nature. They often assume that a person as a material structure con- forms to the same physcochemical laws as rocks, plants, animals, and all other existing things. Some physical scientists hold that the phenomena of mind that are not found in developed form except in man, need to be considered even within natural science in order to explain the observed non-random organization of energy in the natural world.

BiologistsBiologists consider man as one species of animal, the

most highly developed of all forms of living things within the evolutionary sequence. Biology deals with distinct living organisms. Biologists draw attention especially to the extraordinary adaptive powers of Homosapiens that result from the extensive elaboration of the nervous system.

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PsychologistsPsychologists divide into two principal groups in their

view of human nature. One group, oriented toward the biologists, concentrates on the physiological, chemical, and neurological structures and functions required to explain human behavior. The other group approaches the study of man from the standpoint of his inwardly perceived mental states, using such concepts as consciousness, intention, purpose, value, choice, and the like. Both kinds of psychologists see man as an organism with mind. They differ in the ways in which they interpret the meaning of mind and the data they use to explicate it.

SociologistsSociologists and social psychologists see man as a

social animal. They describe and try to explain the many patterns of social organization and transformation that human beings exhibit. Sociologists scientifically analyze social institutions as they specifically relate to various sectors of society.

EconomistsEconomists describe man as a producer and consumer

of material goods and services. They see man with wants that always outrun resources, and with the need to invent social mechanisms for the allocation of the limited resources. The economist is a specialist in economics that is primarily concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of various goods and services.

Political ScientistsPolitical scientists see man as a seeker after power or

influence. They describe the many ways, such as force, reason, propaganda, threats and promises, and economic and social pressures, in which people influence and are influenced by one another. The political scientists is concerned with the accurate description and analysis of


political episodes especially as they specifically relate to various govern-mental entities.

AnthropologistsAnthropologists describe the many types of human

beings, with regard to both physical characteristics and cultural patterns. They study the varieties of languages, customs, beliefs, rituals, laws, and forms of social organizations that man has developed. They see human beings as having certain basic biological and social needs that are satisfied in a great many different ways, according to the circumstances of environment and historical development. Anthropologists investigate human beings in relation to distribution, origin, classification, and interrelationship of races, physical characteristics, social relationships, cultural, and environmental interdependencies.

LinguistsLinguists view man in his distinctive capacity for

speech. They describe the many ways human beings have invented to communicate with one another. Linguists analyze the formal patterns that characterize the languages of humankind. The linguist is one who speaks and understands several different languages. The linguist is a person who is an expert in languages.

GeographersGeographers study man in relation to his earth habitat.

They show how human behavior is conditioned by such factors as climate, food supply, ease of transportation, distribution of natural resources, and population. The geographer is an expert in dealing with the earth and its life. They describe sea, land, and the distribution of plant and animal life including humankind's industrious activities.

Natural And Social Scientists

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For the most part, the natural and social scientists are concerned with describing the distinctive behavior of classes or kinds of human beings, rather than of individual persons. They are also not generally concerned with the inner or subjective life of man except as a means of explaining observed behavior. Other groups of experts on human nature are interested in understanding man more directly from the inside. Natural science is also concerned with any of the sciences like chemistry, physics, or biology that deal with matter, energy and their inter-dependence and transformations with objectified phenomena that is distinctly measurable.

ArtistsArtists see man as a being with a rich and variegated

life of feeling. They attempt to objectify the most significant kinds of human feelings through various types of works of art, including musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, buildings, dances, poems, play, and novels. Artists also regard man as a creative agent, and they exemplify the range and power of human creativity through their own works. The artist is one who practices imaginative art forms. An artist is also skilled in deception

BiographersBiographers set forth the unique individuality of the

person. They show how, through the interplay of many factors, a singular life develops toward its particular consummation. Biographers write an account of the life of something.

MoralistsMoralists portray man as a moral agent, with a

consciousness of right and wrong. They see him as free and responsible, fashioning his own destiny through a continuing series of moral decisions. Moralists describe the great moral visions of humankind, by the light of which the way of each person is illuminated and judged. Moralists are concerned


with moral principles, problems, and opportunities. Moralists are also concerned with regulating morals of other people.

Historians

Historians see man as a being living in time, with memory of the past, anticipation of the future, and the freedom of a creative present in which both past and future meet. They try to understand the real mean-ing of past events by imaginatively reconstructing the conscious life of the persons who brought these events to pass. The historian produces synthesis through scholarly investigation.Theologians

Theologians regard man as dependent for his being upon God and as having a spiritual nature rendering him capable of entering into relationship with the divine. Theologians believe that human beings possess the power of infinite self-transcendence, living in nature but also able by virtue of imagination to look upon natural existence from an exalted transcendent standpoint. Theologians are expert in theology. They study God and his relation to worldly endeavors.

People of KnowledgePeople of knowledge investigate human nature using a

variety of methods and from a great many different perspectives. The natural scientists, by and large, are interested in types of observable human behavior. They refer to the inner life of man chiefly to render the outer phenomena intelligible. On the other hand, the humanistic scholars are more immediately concerned with the inner life of man. They consider the outer conditions of existence mainly as the background and context for understanding the particular forms of subjectivity. All the different groups of investigators are concerned with the same human reality. What, then, is humankind?

PHILOSOPHERS ATTEMPT A COMPREHENSIVE

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INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN NATURE

It is the special task of the philosophers to attempt a comprehen-sive interpretation of human nature. Philosophers try by incorporating and coordinating the work of inquirers from other scholarly specialties with the results of their own reflection. A comprehensive view must allow for the many-sidedness of man. Man is everything the various special inquiries show him to be: He is a complex energy-system; an intelligent adaptive organism with highly developed neurophysiological mechanisms and the power to perceive, think, and purpose; an organized social animal with demands for goods and power that need intelligent allocation; a maker of culture and a user of language; a being who lives in a natural and social environment with which he must cope; a creature of feeling and a creator of interesting forms to objectify them;

Like many of the animals on earth, humans are caring, nurturing, protecting,

and providing beings. Most animals prepare

their offspring for independence by teach them


to hunt and protect themselves, thereby insuring survival of the species. Humans

exhibit thisdrive as well. What are the things that

humans teach their children that are not absolutely necessary for their survival? Why are we as concerned with them?

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Picture


a unique self; a doer and judge of good and evil; a dweller in time, who remembers, anticipates, and celebrates deeds done; a creature of God partaking of the divine nature through the power of boundless self-transcendence.

Is this all the philosopher can say of man, that he is the sum of all the things that specialists say of him? Is there any unifying idea of human nature of which the experts' testimonies are partial aspects. A classic philosophical answer is that man is a rational animal, that his unique property is the ability to reason, that his distinctive quality is in the life of mind. According to this view, each of the aspects of man described by the various specialists is a manifestation of the life of mind. Even as a matter and energy system, man is of a peculiar sort, determined by the power of thought. His organic adaptations are based on thought. His social and cultural forms are expressions of reason. His arts, his individuality, his morality, his history, his worship—all are embodiments of reason. This power of thought distinguishes man from everything else in the creation. In human nature reason is of the essence.

This philosophical answer suffers from the limitation that such ideas as rationality, reason, and mind tend to be too narrowly construed as referring to the processes of logical thinking. The life of feeling, conscience, imagination, and other processes that are not rational in the strict sense are excluded by such a construction. The idea of man as a rational animal in the traditional sense is accordingly rejected for being too one-sided. The philosopher is a person who seeks wisdom, clarity, understanding, and enlightenment. The philosopher is a scholar and thinker.

THE UNIFYING CONCEPT IS MEANING

This difficulty can be avoided by using a unifying concept that expresses the broader connotations of the idea of reason. The concept proposed is meaning. This term is intended to express the full range of connotations of reason or mind. There are different meanings contained in activities of organic adjustment in perception, in logical thinking, in

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purposive decision in oral judgment, in the consciousness of time, and in the activity of worship. All these distinctive human functions are varieties of meaning, and all of them together—along with many other varieties of meaning, and all of them together—along with many others—comprise the life of meaning, that is, the essence of the life of man.

The proposed philosophic answer to the question about the nature of humankind is that humans are beings who discover, create, and express meanings. Human meanings extend across a broad spectrum, encompassing all the unique qualities of mind described by the scientists and scholars who study human nature.

FOUR DIMENSIONS OF MEANING

The importance of this fundamental concept may be made clearer by explaining four dimensions of meaning.

The first dimension is that of experience. A meaning is an experience, in the sense that it pertains to human consciousness. Meaning refers to the inner life, or the life of mind. This inner life has the peculiar quality of reflectiveness, or self-awareness. Automatic reaction to environmental stimuli is not the characteristic human mode of response. The unique human response is one in which the person is aware of his responding. He acts consciously rather than mechanically. As the psychologists say, thought is a "mediating process" intervening between stimulus and response. Reflective mediation is the basis of meaning.

As a reflective experience, meaning presupposes a basic principle of duality, or of self-transcendence. In self-consciousness a person both is himself and yet, so to speak, stands outside himself. He is at one and the same time both subject and object, knower and known, agent and patient, observer and observed. This duality is what enables a person to know anything at all. One knows something if he is at one and the same time distinct from and identified with what he knows. All perception of relationships is based on this duality. A relationship is identity-in-difference: two things are


united in the one act of consciousness in order that their nonidentity may also be recognized.

All the varieties of human meaning exemplify this self-trans-cendence. It is the secret of man's unique adaptability. Because of it he can make judgments of truth and falsity, of beauty and ugliness, of right and wrong, of holiness and profanity; he can predict and control events, use tools, create interesting objects, make laws, organize socially, know the past, and project purposes. In short, this inherently dual quality of experience is the source of all that is characteristically human.

Meanings are experiences in the inner life. The humanistic scholars give a more intuitively acceptable picture of essential human nature than do the scientific interpreters, for whom the inner life is inference rather than testimony and direct objectivism. Both are valuable and mutually corrective sources of knowledge about man. Direct readings of the inner life need to be checked against inferences from observable behavior. Outward manifestations need to be humanized and individualized by recognition of the inner sources from which they spring. No matter which method of study is adopted, the objective is the same. The objective is to understand the inner life that is the center and substance of human existence and from which all distinctively human actions spring.

The second dimension of meaning is rule, logic, or principle. The many types of meaning are distinguished from one another by some difference in characteristic form. Each type of meaning has its own rule that makes it one kind of meaning and not another. Each is defined by a particular logic or structural principle. Meaning is not an undifferentiated experience of awareness. Consciousness is differentiated into a variegated array of logical types.

Intention meanings follow a different rule from memory meanings. Social meanings have a different logic from artistic meanings. Moral meanings are based on a different formation principle from language meanings. Each item in

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the long endless list of evidences of human mentality has its particular defining characteristics.

The third dimension of meaning is selective elaboration. Theoretically, there is no limit to the varieties of meaning. Different principles of meaning formation can be devised ad infinitum. New combinations and nuances of rule can be imagined without limit. Not all of these possible kinds are humanly important. From the endless variety selection occurs. The types that are significant in actual human life are the ones that have an inherent power to growth and lead to the elaboration of the enduring traditions of civilization. These are the kinds of meaning that have proven fruitful in the development of the cultural heritage.


One could attempt an a priori analysis of possible classes of meaning and attempt to forecast that would prove most fertile. It seems far better to benefit from the long experience of humankind and to regard as most significant the forms of meaning that have actually demonstrated their fruitfulness.

These selected types of meaning that have been elaborated into the traditions of civilization can be identified by means of the classes of specialists who serve as the guardians, refiners, and critics of the cultural heritage. These specialist consist of the scientists, scholars, savants, or "wise men" who are recognized as the authoritative interpreters of the human inheritance. Each of these men of knowledge belongs to a community that is for the most part invisible, comprised of persons bound together by common responsibility for a particular kind of meaning. Each such community has its characteristic discipline or rule by which the common responsibility is discharged. This discipline expresses the particular logic of the meaning in question.

The kinds of meaning that have been selected for their proven capacity for elaboration are to be found by reference to the world of disciplined scholarship. Each type of meaning that has demonstrated generative power is the special province of a company of experts who make the preservation and advancement of that sort of meaning their professional business.

For the elucidation of meaning we return to the same source to which we turned for knowledge of human nature. Earlier we asked what these men of knowledge knew about man. Now we ask more broadly what the men of knowledge know. What the wise ones know are meanings, and the varieties of productive meanings correspond to the varieties of scholarly disciplines. The operative kinds of meanings are revealed in the work of linguists, mathematicians, scientists of various types, artist-critics, moralists, historians, theologians, and philosophers, who together inhabit the world of scholarship.

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It should not be assumed that the universe of meanings is exhausted by the particular collection of meanings that have been elaborated in any given civilization at any given stage in its history. It should not be assumed that meanings are represented by a

Children are not always as naïve as manyadults would like to believe. Not every

aspectof human nature is pleasant, and though

children may not understand why a conflict

exists, they often understand the emotional

atmosphere that surrounds it. When suchan atmosphere is present in the home,will that affect the student at school,

and if so, how will the teacher'sunderstanding of human nature allow

him/her to deal with the child?

HUMAN NATURE 41

Picture


corresponding collection of scholarly disciplines. Meanings wax and wane, as do the disciplines responsible for them. On this account, any conclusions drawn about man and his meanings on the basis of actual cultural elaborations must be regarded as tentative and incomplete.

The fourth dimension of meaning is expression. Meanings that have civilizing power are communicable. They are not private property. The communication of meanings takes place through symbols. Symbols are objects that stand for meanings. The possibility of symbolization is dependent on the unique human power of self-transcendence, for the dual quality of reflective awareness is required to understand a symbol. The essence of a symbol is that it is both identified with its referent and distinguished from it. For example, the word symbol "tree" is not a tree, and yet by the power of thought the symbol stands for a tree. Symbolization also presupposes self-transcendence in the awareness of a common world. Symbols are taken as having the same or similar connotation to oneself as to others into whose being one imaginatively projects oneself.

The symbolic expressions of meaning are of particular concern to the communities of scholars representing the various types of meaning. Each kind of meaning has its distinctive expressions, the symbolic forms of each corresponding to the peculiar rule or logic of the type. The symbols of the disciplines are essential to scholars for analyzing, criticizing, and elaborating their domains of meaning.

In summary, these are the four dimensions of meaning: the experience of reflective self-consciousness, the logical principles by which this experience is patterned, the selective elaboration of these patterns into productive traditions represented by scholarly disciplines, and the expression of these patterns by means of appropriate symbolic forms. These dimensions all pertain to the idea of meaning and help to explicate it.

CLASSIFYING MEANINGS IN EDUCATION FACILITATES LEARNING

HUMAN NATURE 43

In order to simplify this task of curriculum planning, it is necessary to divide the many scholarly disciplines into broad categories so that a balanced allocation of studies may be made. There is no single basis of categorization that any body of material forces on the investigator. Classifications are to some extent arbitrary, depending on the uses for which they are intended. The purpose of classifying meanings in education is to facilitate learning. It is desirable to organize the disciplines along lines of general similarity of logical structure. In this manner certain basic ways of knowing can be described. These may be used to allocate studies for general education and for the education of persons in their essential humanness.

DISCIPLINES DIVIDED INTO NINE GENERIC CLASSES

A study of the logical patterns of the disciplines shows they may be divided into nine generic classes on the basis of logical structure. This can be demonstrated as follows: Every cognitive meaning has two logical aspects, namely, quantity and quality. Knowledge consists in a relation of the knower to some range of things known, and each such relation is of some kind. There are three degrees of quantity: singular, general, and comprehensive. In other words, knowledge is either of one thing, of a selected plurality, or of a totality. There are three distinct qualities of meaning that can be designated as fact, form, and norm. In other words, the meanings may refer to what actually exists, to imagined possibilities, or to what ought to be.

The nine generic classes of meaning are obtained by pairing the three quantity aspects with the three quality aspects in all possible combinations. Each of the nine classes may now be briefly characterized and associated with the discipline or disciplines to which it applies.

1. General form. This class includes the disciplines that are concerned with the elaboration of formal patterns of general application in the expression of meanings. They comprise the various symbol systems of ordinary language,


of mathematics and logic, and of gesture, ritual, and other nondiscursive symbolic conventions. Together they constitute the realm designated "symbolics."

2. General fact. When general forms are related to actuality, they express the kind of knowledge that is the special province of the sciences. These disciplines, designated by the term "empirics," are concerned with material truth expressed in the general laws and theories of the actual world as studied in the natural and social sciences.

3. Singular form. This class includes meanings perceived in imagination, without any necessary reference to actual fact and as embodied in unique particular objects. This class of meanings is basic to the various arts and is designated by the term "esthetics."

4. Singular fact. These meanings arise out of concrete existence in direct personal encounter. They are reflectively elaborated and expressed in existential philosophy, religion, and psychology, and in those parts of the literary enterprise designed to portray the uniquely personal dimensions of existence. Individual psychology and the various types of individual psychotherapy, counseling, and guidance also aim at an understanding of singular fact. All these disciplines, or parts of disciplines, may be designated by the term "synnoetics."

5. Singular norm. This class comprises particular moral obligations within a given situation where one seeks for knowledge of what he really ought to do. The discipline of morals is concerned with the methods of making and justifying such decisions.

6. General norm. Generalizations concerning moral conduct and the development of moral principles are usually assigned to the discipline of ethics. Knowledge of singular norms and knowledge of general norms are commonly associated closely since the latter is appealed to in justification of the former, and the former is considered as the necessary source for the latter. Both singular and general norms are distinguished by the quality of obligation,

HUMAN NATURE 45

setting them apart from both facts and formal conventions or constructs. While the ethical realm is not commonly divided into constituent disciplines, such a division is possible for theoretical analysis. For example, the methods and categories of social ethics differ from those of personal ethics. Each of these domains may be divided into ethical disciplines dealing with decisions in various aspects of life, such as family, business, intellectual pursuits, technology, and political affairs.

7. Comprehensive fact. The study of actuality from a comprehensive standpoint, including both the singularity of the unique event and the relationships of that event with other events, is the province of the discipline of history. The historian integrates symbolic, empirical, esthetic, and ethical meanings into a synoptic perspective on what happened in the past.

8. Comprehensive norm. When all kinds of knowledge are comprehended within a synoptic perspective controlled by the normative quality, the resulting discipline is religion. Religious knowledge is regarded as an apprehension of the Ultimate Good—a Harmony of the Whole, A Complete Truth—that is not contained in any of the more limited ways of knowing. Religious knowledge is usually thought to require an act of faith by which a total commitment is made to whatever is regarded as ultimately worthy of devotion. In this essentially normative act all the various classes of knowledge are synthesized.

9. Comprehensive form. A formal consideration of knowledge in all its kinds belongs to the discipline of philosophy. The philosopher's task is to interpret meanings in any realm or discipline by the use of concepts of wide generality, thus affording a synoptic view of all the ways of knowing.

In the present analysis the two normative classes will be treated together under the category designated "ethics" and the three comprehensive classes will be treated together under the category designated "synoptics," thus


yielding six realms of meaning. The resulting logical classification of meanings is summarized in Table 1.

HUMAN NATURE 47

Table 1

LOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF MEANINGS

Generic classes Realms ofQuantity Quality Meaning Disciplines

General Form Symbolics Ordinary language, mathematics, non discursive symbolic forms

General Fact Empirics Physical sciences, life sciences, psychology, social sciences

Singular Form Esthetics Music, visual arts, arts of movement, literature

Singular Fact Synnoetics Philosophy, psychology, literature, religion, in their existential aspects

Singular Norm Ethics The varied special areas

General Norm of moral and ethical concern

Comprehensive Fact Synoptics HistoryComprehensive Norm ReligionComprehensive Form Philosophy


DISCIPLINES ARE NOT ALWAYS ASSIGNABLE TO ASINGLE REALM OF MEANING

It is evident that disciplines are not always clearly assignable to a single realm of meaning. Some disciplines have inner tensions that incline some scholars working in them toward one logic of meaning and other scholars toward another. Part of the confusion in the social sciences is due to the fact that some social scientists are committed to a rigorously empirical program, while others believe they should also be concerned with ethical meanings. Some psychologists incline toward the synnoetic realm in their concern for individuals in their subjective life, while others hold to a strong empirical line. Historians differ as to whether their discipline belongs in the empirical social sciences or in the synoptic class with philosophy.

INTIMATE CONNECTION BETWEEN EDUCATION,MAN, AND SCHOLARLY DISCIPLINES

In this chapter, an attempt has been made to show the intimate connection between education, the nature of man, and the scholarly disciplines. Education can only be conducted effectively on the basis of knowledge about human nature in its actuality and possibilities. A survey of the relevant fields of scholarship shows there are many different critical perspectives on man. A working philosophical synthesis of these different perspectives may be achieved by modifying the classic formula that man is a rational animal to read that man is an animal that can have meanings. The variegated content of meaning is contained in the various distinctive aspects of human nature exhibited by the many specialized studies of man.

Analysis shows the meanings by which human nature is defined are conscious experiences with structural principles, some of which prove capable of elaboration as cultural traditions with corresponding symbolic expressions. These traditions of significant meaning may be found in the most refined and articulate form in the various scholarly disciplines. For purposes of education these disciplines may

HUMAN NATURE 49

be assigned to six basic logical classes, or realms of meaning. The realms of meaning indicate the general kinds of understanding one must have if one is to function well within the civilized community. The purpose of the present text is to explicate these ways of knowing and to show how they may be used in the curriculum of general education.

WAYS OF KNOWING

1. Why is it important for a teacher to understand human nature?

2. Many scholars have written books and articles that have contributed to building and strengthening a solid knowledge base. How does a teacher draw content from this knowledge base?

3. What distinguishes humankind from other animals?4. Explain meaning of life.5. Why should the proper aim of education be to

promote the growth of meaning?6. How does a teacher establish meaning for living?7. As an educator, how does a teacher help students

establish a personal definition of "the meaning of life?"

chatper 2, human nature from ways of knowing through the realms of meaning by william allan...

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