What is the purpose of my life?
What ios the ultimate goal opf my life?
I want to climb that mountain.
The trannscedent grpumnd of being,in which every form,whrgher abtract or cn0vetre,is impliocated/to wjih itis relateds/
in using the ifa conception of the odu as presented by abimbola and elaborated upkm by ohomona,one can decsribe the odu as names of all phenomena in xistence in terms pof the manner in wh9ch phenomenon can be undertsood to be rated to rhew grund ogf being.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
WHY SCHOOL?
There is aneed to rexamine the validity of the metaphysical and epistemological assumptions that underlie the globally domkinat paradigm in education.In terms of metaphsics I rerefer to questions about the nature aof the universed and the humna being and the interelationashipm between them,particularly as this beasrs on questions of the ultimate end of edfucation.
In rfrence to epstermology I refer to questions about fvarious ways of arriving f knolwdge and the need for training in thjose varipus froms rather tha in the nsesided privileging of ratiocinative thiking and the elegating of the necessary emotional,physical,intutive and inmaginative fraeowrks within and in relation to which cognition oerates being left in a sadwo world and totally to the distrction and al lot of the tinme to the ugnioraNCE OF THE LERARNER.
iN TERMS F METAPHYSICAL QUESTIONS AS THEY BEAR UPOPON THE ULTIMATE GAOS OF LEARNING,THERRE IS NEED TO REAXMINE CAREFULLY THE ULTIMATE GAOL OF EARNING AS AN INTITTAIONAL EFFORT.Learning eems to be taken for granted asa means of sociaL integrtion,as means of equiping onself to earn a living,among other things but it does not seem that the queetsion of the ultimaye possibilioty f learnig in relation to the development of an ultimae dorection for one life in relation to which all other goals are subordinated,is not central to the educational enteprise.Its true that the inbsitence on a particular or particular perpectives on ultimate meaning resents a form of dindoctrination rather tha an effort to create the abikliy to think critically andf cretively that is central to the conventinal educational system.At the same time,howedver,a particular indocrtrination oerates subtly,which is that the socail detrerminats of the golas of education are adequte to the task of shaping ones life ad all the individaul nmedds to do is dapt themselves to the pravoling rtegime,find their won place,so to speak,within the preavlibn order.
On the orther hand,it should be possble to trai people in methods f examing questionsabout ultimate meaning,in terms opf styles of thinking,ntrouduction nd guidance in how to examine sch questions from various persptives,studies of those who have explored such questions and arrived at decisive reponses top which they have commited themselves,and leading the filed open fr ther student to either choose to woork at such a quest by yhemselves or choose to let it be,at tgat staghe or aevgen at any staghe of ones life.Whatever the students immediate response,seeds would have been planted that could gernminate later so that ther filed of social;ly conditioned conceptions of and attitudes to the value of edfucation,the maening of living will not be the only options in the filed.
At the prsent moment,the UK has instutionalised the practivce of having gapp year at apiint if ones studies so that the indicvvidual may take break from formal learning and do what they wanht with themsel;ves.I wonder,though,if the dea of suing that time as ,esans of rfelctin on ultyimate directions alon with whatever else one is doing is central to the teythos f gap year.At th same rtime,howedver,I acknowledge that there are different waqsw of arrving at a reseponse to to/a consdered response to the meanin of obes life.Such considerations are often if not most of the time devloped in relation to courtses of acion anmd ways of life thatemerge in the course of living and that to try to institualise this process could stultify it.Ithink,howedver,that the graning in method of exp,lring such issues creates a mental franmeowrk that is more lkely to ener into such inverstogations on ones won initiaive than one that is not so trained,leaving the possbilioty to geater degree of chance,as it were.
We should go beyond one of the rnptions that seems cetral to the educational syem,which is the notion of education as sprimarily ameans of trainuihg to earn a living.This implies that the huamn being hads not risen significatly abobve the level of a survival ethos,where the central gola of lvinmg is simply or fundaetally to keep onself alive,and ny extension of that,participate in the values thyat emnate from theexprience of suirvival.This mioght be part of the roots of what has been described as a consumer culture,in wich the acquisuition and use of objects is definitive of the arcyter and value of the life of the individla and the group.Sucuiide is likely to be dreased when questions of meaning are central to peoples lives and they learnm how to enage with such questions,sintead of beinf fin ding themselves against a seemignly impassable wall when they arte challenged with such questions by existential conditions,and finding no way out,they decide o terminate teir lives.
Its true,of course,that the dervelopment of meaning is to a significant degree,not ratiocinative processberceause the rooots of the self go far beyond rational arrangerments to engae with emotional,physical,imaginative,and a host of consdiretions which ensure that the texure of huamn personality is not redicble to te consderations entered upon throughratiocinative or even through raytional processes.Relattionshps,both immedioae and past,stimulating pursuits,the charcter of ones m,aterail environment,ones individual history,among other non ratiocinative edpriences,are to a significant degre,funadental,in v]degrees varying with each person,to peoples ense of the meaning f theier lves,. Peope can be introdued to and guided in the deliberate develppment of such eaning developing contexts rathe than tis most significant of the huamn developmental process,the deverloppkenmt of meaning,be l;ef6t to chance,as it is at prsent.
In rfrence to epstermology I refer to questions about fvarious ways of arriving f knolwdge and the need for training in thjose varipus froms rather tha in the nsesided privileging of ratiocinative thiking and the elegating of the necessary emotional,physical,intutive and inmaginative fraeowrks within and in relation to which cognition oerates being left in a sadwo world and totally to the distrction and al lot of the tinme to the ugnioraNCE OF THE LERARNER.
iN TERMS F METAPHYSICAL QUESTIONS AS THEY BEAR UPOPON THE ULTIMATE GAOS OF LEARNING,THERRE IS NEED TO REAXMINE CAREFULLY THE ULTIMATE GAOL OF EARNING AS AN INTITTAIONAL EFFORT.Learning eems to be taken for granted asa means of sociaL integrtion,as means of equiping onself to earn a living,among other things but it does not seem that the queetsion of the ultimaye possibilioty f learnig in relation to the development of an ultimae dorection for one life in relation to which all other goals are subordinated,is not central to the educational enteprise.Its true that the inbsitence on a particular or particular perpectives on ultimate meaning resents a form of dindoctrination rather tha an effort to create the abikliy to think critically andf cretively that is central to the conventinal educational system.At the same time,howedver,a particular indocrtrination oerates subtly,which is that the socail detrerminats of the golas of education are adequte to the task of shaping ones life ad all the individaul nmedds to do is dapt themselves to the pravoling rtegime,find their won place,so to speak,within the preavlibn order.
On the orther hand,it should be possble to trai people in methods f examing questionsabout ultimate meaning,in terms opf styles of thinking,ntrouduction nd guidance in how to examine sch questions from various persptives,studies of those who have explored such questions and arrived at decisive reponses top which they have commited themselves,and leading the filed open fr ther student to either choose to woork at such a quest by yhemselves or choose to let it be,at tgat staghe or aevgen at any staghe of ones life.Whatever the students immediate response,seeds would have been planted that could gernminate later so that ther filed of social;ly conditioned conceptions of and attitudes to the value of edfucation,the maening of living will not be the only options in the filed.
At the prsent moment,the UK has instutionalised the practivce of having gapp year at apiint if ones studies so that the indicvvidual may take break from formal learning and do what they wanht with themsel;ves.I wonder,though,if the dea of suing that time as ,esans of rfelctin on ultyimate directions alon with whatever else one is doing is central to the teythos f gap year.At th same rtime,howedver,I acknowledge that there are different waqsw of arrving at a reseponse to to/a consdered response to the meanin of obes life.Such considerations are often if not most of the time devloped in relation to courtses of acion anmd ways of life thatemerge in the course of living and that to try to institualise this process could stultify it.Ithink,howedver,that the graning in method of exp,lring such issues creates a mental franmeowrk that is more lkely to ener into such inverstogations on ones won initiaive than one that is not so trained,leaving the possbilioty to geater degree of chance,as it were.
We should go beyond one of the rnptions that seems cetral to the educational syem,which is the notion of education as sprimarily ameans of trainuihg to earn a living.This implies that the huamn being hads not risen significatly abobve the level of a survival ethos,where the central gola of lvinmg is simply or fundaetally to keep onself alive,and ny extension of that,participate in the values thyat emnate from theexprience of suirvival.This mioght be part of the roots of what has been described as a consumer culture,in wich the acquisuition and use of objects is definitive of the arcyter and value of the life of the individla and the group.Sucuiide is likely to be dreased when questions of meaning are central to peoples lives and they learnm how to enage with such questions,sintead of beinf fin ding themselves against a seemignly impassable wall when they arte challenged with such questions by existential conditions,and finding no way out,they decide o terminate teir lives.
Its true,of course,that the dervelopment of meaning is to a significant degree,not ratiocinative processberceause the rooots of the self go far beyond rational arrangerments to engae with emotional,physical,imaginative,and a host of consdiretions which ensure that the texure of huamn personality is not redicble to te consderations entered upon throughratiocinative or even through raytional processes.Relattionshps,both immedioae and past,stimulating pursuits,the charcter of ones m,aterail environment,ones individual history,among other non ratiocinative edpriences,are to a significant degre,funadental,in v]degrees varying with each person,to peoples ense of the meaning f theier lves,. Peope can be introdued to and guided in the deliberate develppment of such eaning developing contexts rathe than tis most significant of the huamn developmental process,the deverloppkenmt of meaning,be l;ef6t to chance,as it is at prsent.
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