SOURCES

ANIL MITRA PHD, COPYRIGHT © 1989, REVISED June 2003

Document status: June 1, 2003

This document is for engineering education and understanding

No action for Journey in Being


OUTLINES

Epistemology and Metaphysics    |    Evolutionary Epistemology    |    Sociology of Knowledge    |    Outlines of Knowledge    |    Human Nature    |    Social Philosophy, Planning    |    Education    |    Research Management    |    Industrial Productivity


SOURCES

The purpose here is to indicate some of the main literary sources of influence on my style and emphasis in thought. Sometimes it is more useful to mention an individual rather than specific works. Accordingly, I have included both works and individuals

A detailed list of sources is in the bibliographies mentioned in the references for the Appendix “A Program for the Integration of Human Understanding and Action”

Epistemology and Metaphysics

Immanuel Kant

Kant’s influence derives from his works and his influence on other thought. Kant stood at one of the main focal points in the development of modern imaginative and constructive thought. Despite the limitations in Kant’s work, which resulted, in part, from his limited vantage point in the evolution of modern ideas, the lines of development he initiated or focused are significant. Particularly significant is the development of the “percept-concept” system. This separation of the reflection into an innate part and a free part is approximate. Yet it is significant because it provides an anchor in the natural world through perception [perception having origins in and relating to the natural world] and also provides a foundation for human freedom in thought. Although other thinkers contributed to the development, we may think of Kant as a symbolic and actual point of focus. Kant provided significant elaboration and synthesis in the “understanding of human understanding”. The lines of development, based in the percept-concept system continue today

Plato

Plato’s philosophy of knowledge, the Theory of Ideas, is, in metaphorical form, the outstanding precursor to Kant in the development of thought in Classical Greece

Whitehead

Whitehead’s concept of nature as an organic system has relations to my development of a concept of nature which includes all orders of existence [“matter”, “mind”, “knowledge/knowing”] as co-evolving. Beyond this my philosophy finds the notion of co-evolution [and emergence] and interaction of the orders of existence as a first step towards a conception of existence as primarily unitary [at least: having explanatory basis in unitary systems of understanding] and dual in its [apparent] manifestations. This leaves open the possible lacks of distinction between appearance and reality – appearance being the actual perception-conception and reality being, perhaps, the ideal perception-conception. [Regarding the lack of distinction, an example: is emergence in evolution real or a facet of perception-conception of modern science and philosophy?]

Evolutionary Epistemology

Samuel Alexander, Space, Time and Deity, 2 volumes, London: MacMillan, 1920

Konrad Lorenz, Behind the Mirror: A Search for Natural History of Human Knowledge, 1973

Gerard Radnitsky and W. W. Bartley III, eds., Evolutionary Epistemology, Theory of Rationality, and Sociology of Knowledge, 1987

Sociology of Knowledge

Anarchistic Tendencies in Philosophy and Epistemology

An anarchistic tendency, in the positive sense, is not destructive; rather anarchism [in the field of epistemology rather than politics] is a reasoned argument that the claims of order, synthesis, or rationality in the setting of epistemic systems – or in the ability to set up epistemic systems – are overstated [according to some standard philosophy or system of philosophies]. In their origins, the sociologies of knowledge were significantly anarchistic; in the more recent phases – for example, Micro-Sociology of Knowledge which studies epistemology from the points of view available by an analysis of the development of knowledge in small research groups – sociology of knowledge has been more constructive

Although there is significant disagreement between the rationalists [for example, Evolutionary Epistemology: objectivity, unity, philosophical foundation in knowledge is meaningful and possible] and anti-rationalists [for example, a number of schools of Sociology of Knowledge: objectivity not meaningful, meaning possible only in the context of “speech communities”, etc.], I believe that the outcome will be a constructive synthesis. While the anarchistic arguments may show the limitations of given philosophical frameworks and at given points in the history of knowledge, the constructive-empirical arguments may show that the limitations can be overcome – for example, by constructive, evolutionary process in knowledge

Here, it is not possible to do justice to the many schools of the sociology of knowledge

The schools originating with the focal works of Karl Marx, Karl Mannheim, and Ludwig Wittgenstein are significant I the development of the Sociology of Knowledge

A modern anarchist work [which is also anti-rationalist]:

Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, 1979

Outlines of Knowledge

The fifteenth edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985 printing, has an interesting outline of modern knowledge. Despite deficiencies of the Encyclopaedia Britannica system, I have used it as a source of information and as one starting point for a systematic foundation for classification

Among the classical authors, Aristotle stands out as an organizer of the modern systems of knowledge [despite deficiencies due to his limited vantage point, much of modern classification can be traced back to Aristotle]. Given the fact that he synthesized much of what he wrote – he was far more than a mere organizer and recorder. He probably represents the high point in the history of the organization of knowledge in Western Civilization

The following work contains interesting suggestions toward a dynamic synthesis of knowledge which incorporates all orders of being:

Ernest Becker, The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problems of Man, 2nd edition, 1971

Mortimer J. Adler, A Guidebook to Learning, 1986,

Is a work on the history of attempts to organize-synthesize Human Knowledge

Human Nature

Jung’s work is significant in showing, from a modern perspective, the unity and depth of the human enterprise and of human nature. His work ties in with the evolutionary frameworks

The work, cited above [item 4], written by Ernest Becker, forms an interesting synthesis of modern depth psychology [incorporating the works of Freud, Adler, Otto Rank, and others] and the content of the mythic-religious systems

Social Philosophy, Planning

Two significant schools are “free enterprise” and socialism. Modern philosophical foundations of free-enterprise have been provided by F. A. von Hayek and Karl Popper. Modern foundations of socialism stem from Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

The following work is a contribution to the philosophical and sociological-empirical foundation of planning:

John Friedman, Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action, 1987

The next work describes a number of “Institutions” that have [largely since World War II] linked political decision with academic thought. The institutions described are both “conservative” and “liberal”

Joseph G. Peschek, Policy-Planning Organizations: Elite Agendas and America’s Rightward Turn, 1987

Education

The empirical foundation of my thinking in education is my personal experience in a variety of higher educational settings over a period of about twenty years with eight years on the faculties of a number of universities in the United States. The conceptual foundation derives from a personal history of reflection, an interest in social and educational policy-planning and research in these areas. Literary influences in educational philosophy include the works of A. N. Whitehead and John Dewey

Thinking on education should be derived from [as far as external influences are concerned] a combination of experience in education, knowledge of social conditions and general and social philosophy. A specific source of some aspects of a number of my examples [Section 3] is the California system of higher education. The first in a series of California State Master Plan [for Higher Education] publications was:

A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, Master Plan Survey Team, 1960

Research Management

The art of research management involves, always, creating and providing the appropriate support [financial and other] and the appropriate atmosphere/environment through encouragement, facilities, conditions, communication, and personal rewards; and, especially for applied research and for research and development, in the provision of general direction through evaluation and selection [and termination ] of areas and projects and coordination of efforts. These aspects of research management are brought out by:

Sir John Cockroft, The Organization of Research Establishments, 1966

Industrial Productivity

Michael L. Dertouzos, Richard K. Lester, Robert M. Solow and The MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge, MIT Press, 1989

Industrial productivity is one area where technology and engineering [among other factors] can contribute to social-economic strength and human life. There are others such as agriculture, construction, transportation, information and communications, urban community technologies, earth and space exploration technologies, and, importantly, basic/appropriate [vs. inaccessible-centralized] technologies. The text of the essay has discussed some of these aspects and the various balances and associated values. The reference, above, from The MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, is a detailed evaluation of industrial productivity in America

The reference discusses both macroeconomic and industry-specific factors at the base of performance of [American] industry. The work identifies: six areas of weakness, five areas of strength of the best United States firms, three long-term trends significant for future long-term productive performance, and five imperatives “which should be at the core of any national effort to achieve high productive growth”


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