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ARMAGEDDON OR EVOLUTION?
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The Scientific Method and Escalating World Problems
Bernard Phillips
Contents
Preface
Part I Introduction
The Scientific Method
The Aspirations-Fulfillment Gap
Theoretical Framework
Plan of This Book
Part II Physical and Biological Structures
1 Flatland Versus Spaceland/Timeland
2 Invisible Man Versus Visible Man
Part II I Personality Structures
3 "Heart": Alienation Versus Expressive Orientation
4 "Head": Stratified Versus Evolutionary Worldview
5 "Hand": Addiction Versus Meaningful & Expressive Rituals
Part IV Social Structures
6 "Heart": Anomie Versus Cultural Value Fulfillment
7 "Head": Bureaucratic Versus Scientific Worldview
8 "Hand": Stratification Versus Conscious Evolution
Part V The Situation
9 "Heart": Negative Versus Positive Reinforcement
10 "Head": Stereotypical Versus Hypothetical Ideas
11 "Hand": Conformity Versus Praxis
Glossary
References
About the Author
Chapter 11 "Hand": Conformity Versus Praxis
Readers should note that it is in this chapter that two crucial ideas will be introduced: "deep dialogue" and the "East-West strategy" for confronting the problems of everyday life. Those ideas were briefly previewed in the Introduction. And they are developed further in Confronting Fundamental Social Problems. They both help us to extend our usage of the scientific method to everyday-life situations from one moment to the next. It is the insights of the educator Paulo Freire on dialogue that is much the basis for my development of the concept of deep dialogue, which brings in the importance of social science knowledge to the conversational situation, It is defined in the glossary as "An egalitarian conversation where participants follow scientific ideals, reflexively uncover hidden assumptions, and move toward praxis." As for the East-West strategy, this is my effort to make full use of my discussion of Eastern thought in almost all of the preceding chapters. Given the emphasis on Western ideas throughout the modern world--even including the Far East--an East-West strategy can help us to achieve more balance in our lives and work against our growing aspirations-fulfillment gap. In the glossary it is defined as "An individual's approach to everyday or world problems by lowering aspirations until they are close to fulfillments (East) and then continuing to raise both aspirations and fulfillments (West)."
Just as in Chapters 9 and 10, we shall begin with concepts centering on the situation. Our first section emphasizes the concept of "conformity," viewed as linked to a stratified worldview. And our second section focuses on "praxis," seen as an element of an evolutionary worldview. These situational concepts can help us to understand how structures like worldviews are constructed and how they might be changed. Yet this is the last chapter of the book. Much has been written that bears directly or indirectly on how one might use the scientific method in everyday life. In this chapter the final section will point in this direction and will emphasize the integration of key ideas presented earlier. For example, it will bear on questions such as these: How are the ideas of head, heart and hand linked to a broad or evolutionary approach to the scientific method? Just how do situational occurrences work to create structures? How does perception tie in to the development of structures?
Yet these questions should not lead us away from awareness of the book's title, "Armageddon or Evolution?" There is little question in my own mind that time is running out for the human race. We have experienced many basic failures. For example, we have failed to become aware of how far scientific practices depart from scientific ideals, of the nature of our worldview, of our growing aspirations-fulfillment gap, and of the mammoth social and personal problems which that gap fosters. In other words, figure i-2--which includes all of these phenomena--remains invisible to our eyes. And so do figures 4-1, 6-1 and 9-1, for they have to do with the extraordinary language of social science, by contrast with our everyday language. What makes matters far worse is that social scientists themselves--who are responsible for the task of learning the nature of human behavior and human problems--have developed interests that are far too specialized to confront the broad phenomena portrayed in those figures. As a result, we have all learned to bury awareness of social problems portrayed in the media or our own personal problems with such procedures as techniques of particularization and the falsification of memory. Just as in the case of the Springdalers--described in Chapter 1--this "self-deception" and "self-avoidance" does often succeed in that it "permits some degree of satisfaction, recognition and achievement" in our day-to-day lives. Yet in the long run it is a formula for catastrophe.
Yet we humans may still have time to create another scenario, and I will briefly depict my own vision of that direction in the final section of this chapter, "The Scientific Method in Everyday Life." Just as in the case of global warming, we may have only a small window of opportunity, and it may already be too late. Yet we can hope that, following Thornton Wilder's play, we can somehow still manage to escape from a catastrophic future "by the skin of our teeth." Just as occurred in that play, awareness of mounting threats to our continuing survival can motivate us to confront our fundamental problems rather than continue to hide from them. As human beings with language, we have infinite potential to learn the nature of our problems, problems that we ourselves have created. And we also have the potential to act decisively and move toward solving our problems. What is involved, however, is nothing less than our most fundamental assumptions, our metaphysical stance, our worldview. For that worldview points us toward a narrow scientific method that prevents us from reaching more than a superficial understanding of our situation.
Conformity
Let us look to the extraordinary language depicted in figure 9-5 in order to locate "conformity"--or conforming behavior within a given momentary situation--in relation to personality and social structures. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four--discussed in Chapter 10--describes many situations where individuals conform to the dictates of Big Brother, such as everyone's watching the Two Minutes of Hate on all of the telescreens and expressing the required hate against Big Brother's enemies. In Orwell's final paragraph his hero, Winston Smith, finally sobs after a lifetime of failed efforts to rebel against Big Brother's ruthless tyrannical regime:
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breeeast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother (1949: 245).
Winston's attempts at "deviance" from the dictates of Big Brother took place against a background of conformity in a great many situations, such as his attendance at the sessions of the Two Minutes of hate, and his doing what was required by his superiors while working at the Ministry of Truth., such as revising history so that it conformed to the requirements of the Party. But the real triumph of Big Brother is illustrated in that quoted paragraph above: altering Winston's beliefs and values, with reference to Big Brother,: from hate to love. And this is achieved not just by the patterns of social organization within Oceania, as exemplified by the torture Winston experienced in Room 101. Let us not forget that the culture of Oceania--as illustrated by the language of Newspeak--along with Oceania's patterns of social organization, pushed its inhabitants toward conformity. In other words, it was Oceania's social structure as a whole, and not simply the actions of Big Brother and his henchmen. As a result, there is enormous pressure toward conformity--on pain of death--with respect to thinking, feeling and acting, or head, heart and hand. Winston must be taught not merely to act in accordance with Big Brother's wishes: he must learn to love Big Brother, just as those watching their two-way telescreens must exhibit appropriate emotions. And that change in Winsotn's personality structure has further consequences. For that change, in turn, influences Winston to conform willingly to the many requirements of Big Brother.
Yet all of this is fiction. What about real life? For example, can the individual be induced to conform to acts that go against his or her fundamental values and beliefs? Among the many studies on this subject, the Milgram series of experiments on obedience to authority stand out in their clear demonstration of just how far the individual can be influenced to conform without being forced to conform, as in the case of Big Brother's Oceania. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist working at Yale University, secured the participation of subjects for his experiments by advertising in a local paper as well as by inviting people randomly from a telephone directory, and paying for services rendered. As a result, he secured 500 subjects, and he described his experiment as having to do with the process of teaching and learning. The subjects would play the role of "teacher" and the "learner" would be someone who--unknown to the participants--had been carefully coached on how to behave. He was a 47-year-old man whom subjects later described as "mild-mannered and likable."
The experiment called for the learner to remember pairs of words, and to be given an electric shock each time he failed. The "shock generator" was, unknown to the subjects, actually a bogus instrument, with voltages supposedly ranging from 15 to 450. Teachers were required by the experimenter--a stern-looking individual in a gray technician's coat--to increase the voltage in increments of 15 volts for each additional incorrect answer. Milgram set up four different experimental conditions, ranging from a remote condition with the learner in an adjoining room to a situation where the teacher is required to place the learner's hand on the shock plate. As for the results of the experiment, 65 percent of the teachers continued to shock the learner up to the maximum of 450 volts, with that percentage declining to 62.5 percent, 40 percent and 30 percent in the three experimental conditions representing ever closer degrees of proximity between teacher and learner. Teachers continued to shock the learner with what they knew were potentially lethal voltages all the while the learner was screaming in agony.
These remarks made by a teacher in the remote condition illustrate the contradiction between his words and his actions of continuing to shock the learner:
. . .these are terrific volts. I don't think this is very humane. . .Oh, I can't go on with this; no, this isn't right. It's a hell of an experiment. The guy is suffering in there. No, I don't want to go on. This is crazy (Milgram, 1974: 32). Milgram described his experiment to audiences, all the while withholding any information about the results he obtained. He posed a question: Would the teachers refuse to give potentially lethal shocks? All of the 110 people in those audiences who responded indicated that the teachers would refuse to go past 300 volts. And most of them indicated that no one would go past 150 volts. How are we to explain this great disparity between the predictions of those audiences and the actual results Milgram obtained? Why did most of those predictions indicate rebellion at the relatively low voltage of 150 volts? And why did every respondent in those audiences conclude that no one would continue past 300 volts?
Despite the vast numbers of social science studies indicating the existence of powerful patterns of social stratification throughout contemporary society, those audiences appear to have remained ignorant of those findings. Similarly, they appear to have been ignorant of a stratified worldview operating behind the scenes of the experiment, a system of fundamental assumptions that supports hierarchical behavior in all areas of life throughout contemporary society. Those concepts and those findings alert us to the power of authority figures--such as professors like Milgram at Yale University as well as individuals in gray technicians' coats--to influence our behavior, given the credibility that they have. This widespread ignorance of the findings of social scientists extends far beyond this lack of understanding of the power of social stratification in modern society. And it even extends to social scientists themselves, as illustrated by the 44 Sections of the American Sociological Association with minimal communication among the specialists in these Sections, let alone communication with individuals in other social sciences.
Yet there appears to be more to an explanation of the gap between the predictions of those audiences and Milgram's experimental results. If we recall the discussion of cultural values in Chapter 6, people-oriented values included individual personality and equality, suggesting the importance of treating the learner with concern for his health. Those values, then, would presumably work to influence the audiences to predict limitations on the severity of the electric shocks that teachers administered. Overall, then, the gap between the audiences predictions and the experimental results is yet another example of the wide aspirations-fulfillment gap throughout contemporary society. Our cultural values call for egalitarian behavior respecting the ultimate worth of the individual. Yet the experimental results indicate that actual behavior departs very far from those values. And we are surprised when alerted to this gap, for we are accustomed to burying any awareness of it with our techniques of particularization and our falsification of memory.
Given the power of social stratification--and social organization in general--in modern society, what about the power of culture to induce conformity? In particular, we might recall the importance of work-related cultural values--as discussed in Chapter 6--especially those of "material comfort" and economic "progress." We might see our materialistic civilization as built largely on the basis of the incredible successes of biophysical science technologies, giving us the ability to shape our physical environment over the past five centuries as never before in human history. Yet it is our one-sided emphasis on materialistic values--given the failure of social science to develop far enough to yield the basis for effective social technologies--that is closely linked to the full range of our social problems, to our stratified worldview, and to our patterns of conformity.
We might review here Schumacher's indictment in chapter 8 of our one-sided materialistic economy:
What is the meaning of democracy, freedom, human dignity, standard of living, self-realization, fulfillment? Is it a matter of goods, or of people? Of course it is a matter of people. . .If economic thinking. . .cannot get beyond its vast abstractions, the national income, the rate of growth, capital/output ratio, input-output analysis, labour mobility capital accumulation; if it cannot get beyond all this and make contact with the human realities of poverty, frustration, alienation, despair, breakdown, crime, escapism, stress, congestion, ugliness, and spiritual death, then let us scrap economics and start afresh (Schumacher, 1973: 70).
Although the breadth of Buddhist economics contrasts sharply with Western economics, as Schumacher explains in Chapter 6 above, nevertheless he claims: "The choice of Buddhism is purely incidental; the teachings of Islam, or Judaism could have been used as well as those of any other of the great Eastern traditions" (1973: 49).
A sign that I recently saw in front of a church reads: "The best things in life are not things." This is a well;-intentioned effort to oppose modern materialism, yet it is a very feeble effort compared to the multi-billion-dollar advertising campaigns throughout the media that point in the opposite direction. \Not only are advertisements located everywhere but they are becoming ever more ubiquitous. Few among us would confess to being influenced by advertising, given that such conformity goes against cultural values like freedom, equality and individual personality. Yet why would corporations spend many billions on advertising if that spending did not produce results? Advertising is the key to the furthering of an economy that depends on mass sales. And that economy is in turn intimately linked to the full range of social structures throughout modern society, as depicted in figure 9-1, social structures that are in turn linked to all of our personality structures. Advertising is linked to much more than contemporary culture, as figure 9-5 suggests. Following Schumacher's indictment of our materialistic economy, advertising is also linked to such problems as "poverty, frustration, alienation, despair, breakdown, crime, escapism, stress, congestion, ugliness, and spiritual death."
Looking once again to figure 9-1, it is time to shift this analysis from "conformity" to "praxis," a word based on the Greek root "prak," meaning "to effect," "to do," with similar words that depend on this same Greek root such as "practical," "practice," "pragmatic" and the philosophy of "pragmatism." It is that philosophy more than any other that is the basis for the broad approach to the scientific method that I am adopting throughout this book. Let us recall from Chapter 4 some of the ideas of Charles Peirce, the founder of pragmatism: "The irritation of doubt is the only immediate motive for the struggle to attain belief. . .With the doubt, therefore, the struggle begins, and with the cessation of doubt it ends." Just as Neitzsche's The Gay Science (Chapter 3), Peirce makes emotions central to the scientific method. Let us also recall Peirce's rule "which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry." Science, from this perspective, becomes an evolutionary process, yet, unfortunately, contemporary social scientists have yet to discover how to follow this fundamental rule of the scientific method. Yet we should not ignore Peirce's view of the centrality of metaphysics for the scientific method, and his lament about the present state of this body of knowledge (Chapter 7): "There is and can be no doubt that this immature condition of Metaphysics has very greatly hampered the progress of. . .psychology. . .linguistics, anthropology, social science, etc. To my mind it is equally clear that defective and bad metaphysics has been almost as injurious to the physical sciences." I am hopeful that my own approach to metaphysics throughout this book and earlier ones, contrasting a stratified worldview or metaphysical stance with an evolutionary worldview, will prove to provide a better basis for the scientific method.
Praxis
We might begin by seeing "praxis" as action that fulfills a wide range of values. Just like "conformity," "deviance" and "social interaction," praxis is momentary action within a given situation, by contrast with physical, biological, personality and social structures. this distinction is crucial for understanding both how situational behavior can, over time, yield structures, and also just how structures can yield behavior within a given scene. My approach here is quite similar to that of Anthony Giddens. Giddens' theory of "structuration" is oriented to give attention to both situational actions by individuals--or, more generally, "agents"--and social structures, although his many theoretical contributions extend considerably beyond that idea (see for example Giddens, 1984; www.lse.ac.uk/Giddens.publications.htm). If we look to figure 9-1 we can see the above definition of praxis as including both the values of the individual as well as those values that are widely shared, such as cultural values, thus invoking both individual structures and social structures. And if we look to the right-hand side of figure 9-1, we might see praxis as linked to both rituals and social rituals. Although praxis is a situational action, when it persists over time it can yield rituals and social rituals that are very meaningful and expressive. By contrast, the action of conformity--at least within a stratified and bureaucratic society or group--would over time yield rituals that are far less meaningful and expressive. As for the aspirations-fulfillment gap of the individual as well as anomie throughout society, the action of praxis points toward narrowing that gap and reducing anomie, given that it "fulfills a wide range of values."
The concept of praxis is fundamental to the educational theories and practices of Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator who taught literacy to Brazil's peasants, often achieving significant results in as little as 30 hours of instruction. Freire was appointed director of the Brazilian National Literacy Program in 1963, but he was jailed after a military coup in 1964 and then went into exile only to return in 1979 to found the Workers Party. His major work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), can help us to understand not only the nature of praxis but also a range of the concepts in figure 9-1. Freire's focus is on how to change social structures in order to solve social problems, and he illustrates a Western orientation to praxis. We shall follow this brief analysis by taking up an Eastern orientation to changing personality structures and solving certain individual problems. We shall take up The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, as developed by Gichin Funakoshi and written up by Genwa Nakasone. These guiding principles do not emphasize the specific moves within patterns of fighting, but rather karate's Buddhist ideas and values, thus illustrating praxis as well as other concepts within figure 9-1. Combining these two analyses, what emerges is an East-West orientation to praxis and an evolutionary worldview that meshes with earlier treatments in this book of Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian ideas.
Central to Freire's thought is what he sees as the basic theme of modern society:
I consider the fundamental theme of our epoch to be that of domination--which implies its opposite, the theme of liberation, as the objective to be achieved. . . .While the problem of humanization has always. . .been man's central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern. . .The current movements of rebellion, especially those of youth. . .place consumer civilization in judgment, denounce bureaucracies of all types, demand the transformation of the universities. . .propose the transformation of reality itself so that universities can be renewed. . . .The central problem is this: How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation? . .Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one. The man who emerges is a new man, viable only as the oppressor-oppressed contradiction is superseded by the humanization of all men (93, 27, 33).
Freire first published this book in Portuguese in 1968, during the height of the countercultural movement in the United States and elsewhere, His language of "domination" and "liberation" adds a good deal to the rather bland concepts in figure 9-1, such as "social stratification." His language illustrates a deep sense of problem, just as Mills' language illustrated. That sense of problem is better represented in figures i-1, i-2 and i-3 than in figure 9-1. His problem of achieving "humanization" and "liberation" is much the same as the fundamental problems presented in those figures: How to change from a stratified to an evolutionary worldview and from an increasing to a decreasing aspirations-fulfillment gap, with both changes as working to reduce a range of threatening social and personal problems.
As an educator, Freire has much more to say about how to achieve humanization and liberation, based on his own experiences. For example, he focuses more specifically on the nature of the problem of domination:
. . .banking education. . .mirror[s] oppressive society as a whole:(a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught; (b) the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing; (c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about. . .(h) the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it. . . .Self-depreciation is another characteristic of the oppressed, which derives from their internalization of the opinion the oppressors hold of them. So often do they hear that they are good for nothing, know nothing and are incapable of learning anything--that they are sick, lazy, and unproductive--that in the end they become convinced of their own unfitness. . . .One of the characteristics of oppressive cultural action which is almost never perceived by the dedicated but naive professionals who are involved is the emphasis on a focalized view of problems rather than on seeing them as dimensions of a totality. In "community development" projects the more a region or area is broken down into "local communities," without the study of these communities both as totalities in themselves and as parts of another totality (the area, region, and so forth)--which in its turn is part of a still larger totality (the nation, as part of the continental totality)--the more alienation is intensified (59, 49, 137-138).
Freire specifies other problems as well. For one thing, he sees domination and oppression not just as a matter of social stratification, but also as a matter of cultural oppression. Thus, his analysis stretches over both culture and social organization in figure 9-1. To illustrate, there is the "focalized" or narrow view of "dedicated but naive professionals." We might think here of social scientists in general and sociologists in particular, recalling the splitting up of the American Sociological Association into no less than 44 distinct Sections with little communication among their members. This has to do with bureaucratic aspects of a stratified or bureaucratic worldview, given the emphasis of bureaucracy on specialization with limited communication. Yet,, given the enormous complexity of human behavior, it becomes essential to build bridges connecting all of these specialized areas--and reaching out to the other social sciences and the humanities as well--to gain a sense of the "totality" of human behavior. We might view such specialization with limited communication as illustrative of the "cultural repression" of students, and of their instructors as well. And we might view Freire's examples of "banking education" as exemplifying repression by means of social organization. As for the "self-depreciation. . .of the oppressed," who are all of us, we might come to see this as a product of both kinds of domination. Questions have been raised as to whether Freire's analysis applies to first-world as well as third-world countries, yet it appears that his work does apply to contemporary society in general.
Granting that praxis involves a recognition of fundamental problems in society and oneself, it also calls for action to confront those problems effectively. We should remember that Freire was extremely effective in teaching peasants literacy, and that he wrote a time of widespread and fundamental problems in society--the counterculture era--when many were very optimistic about the possibilities of achieving fundamental changes., How is it that the individual can proceed, through praxis and dialogue or "social interaction," to transform self and society so as to move toward liberation or humanization?
As we attempt to analyze dialogue as a human phenomenon, we discover something which is the essence of dialogue itself: the word. But the word is more than just an instrument which makes dialogue possible; accordingly, we must seek its constitutive elements. Within the word we find two dimensions, reflection and action, in such radical interaction that if one is sacrificed--even in part--the other immediately suffers. There is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world. . . .When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, reflection automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating "blah." It becomes an empty word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without action. On the other hand, if action is emphasized exclusively to the detriment of reflection, the word is converted into activism. The latter--action for action's sake--negates the true praxis and makes dialogue impossible (75-76).
To understand Freire's argument here, let us substitute "useful word" for "true word," given that the social sciences have indeed produced a great many "true words," but by failing to integrate them so as to confront human complexity--and by failing to confront their own patterns of social stratification--they have also failed to produce few "useful words." From this perspective, Freire's critique cuts to the bone of the social sciences at this time in history. Their continuing to cling to their ivory towers, largely avoiding responsibility for what is now happening in the world, converts their many truths into "idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating 'blah.' As for those activists throughout the world who focus on "action for action's sake" while avoiding "reflection," their activism "negates the true praxis and makes dialogue impossible." We might see such activists as including a variety of different groups, all of whom proceed--and have proceeded in the past--in their efforts to change the world with little understanding of what is involved. For example, there were the students and others within the countercultural movement of the 1960s who believed that they already were in possession of the truth and required no additional knowledge of human behavior, thus negating the many achievements--granting their lack of integration--of the social sciences. There are the contemporary political figures in the West who presently hold the reins of power--as well as many of the talking heads in the mass media--who believe, similarly, that they are already in possession of the truth and can safely ignore whatever the social sciences have discovered.
Freire goes on to examine the nature of genuine or authentic dialogues that point toward egalitarian "social interaction," humanization and liberation:
Dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world. . . .If it is in speaking their word that men, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which men achieve significance as men. Dialogue is thus an existential necessity. . .dialogue cannot be reduced to the act of one person's "depositing" ideas in another, nor can it become a simple exchange of ideas to be "consumed" by the discussants. Nor yet is it a hostile, polemical argument between men who are committed neither to the naming of the world, nor to the search for truth, but rather to the imposition of their own truth. . .it is [rather] conquest of the world for the liberation of men. . . .Dialogue cannot exist, however, in the absence of a profound love for the world and for men. . .Domination reveals the pathology of love: sadism in the dominator and masochism in the dominated. . . .On the other hand, dialogue cannot exist without humility. The naming of the world, through which men constantly re-create that world, cannot be an act of arrogance. . . .Dialogue further requires an intense faith in man, faith in his power to make and remake, to create and re-create, faith in his vocation to be more fully human (which is not the privilege of an elite, but the birthright of all men). . . .Nor yet can dialogue exist without hope. Hope is rooted in men's incompletion, from which they move out in constant search--a search which can be carried out only in communion with other men. Hopelessness is a form of silence, denying the world and fleeing from it (76-80).
Freire's vision of dialogue is most egalitarian, by no means abandoning the cultural achievements of the West with their emphasis on the cultural values of equality, freedom, democracy and individual personality, as discussed in Chapter 6. Yet that vision has no place for the West's--and the East's--development of patterns of social stratification and bureaucracy that work to trash those values. Further, his focus is on the small group and the individual, given his personal involvement as a teacher of literacy to peasant groups. Thus, his concern is with large-scale and small-scale social structures, and also with personality structures. Yet, following figure 9-1, his overriding emphasis is on the situational act of praxis. For him, "naming the world" is not the empty verbalism to be found in the academic world, where so-called dialogues are "consumed" by the participants with no movement toward action to solve problems and change the world. Such consumption of ideas is closely linked to the West's materialistic way of life along with our advertising juggernaut that has become a driving force for that way of life. These so-called dialogues--that we encounter so often in today's world--are "hostile, polemical argument between men who are committed neither to the naming of the world, nor to the search for truth, but rather to the imposition of their own truth." Freire links the kind of dialogue that embodies praxis to the emotions of "love," "humility," "faith" and "hope." For him, praxis not only includes head and hand but also includes heart as well. This is a most scientific stance if we are to follow the ideas of Peirce on the importance of "the irritation of doubt" (Chapter 4) and Nietzsche's idea of "gay science" (Chapter 3).
Freire's vision of the incredible power of language to "name the world" and, by so doing, to transform the world--by contrast with using words for the purpose of "consumption"--may sound like a strange idea. How can language and dialogue possibly change the world? Yet let us bear in mind that it is language that--more than anything else--distinguishes us human beings from all other forms of life. It is also language that is our most powerful tool for solving problems. Also, it is language which gave us the basis for carrying forward that power by developing the scientific method. And it is language that gives us the basis for continuing to develop our head, heart and hand without any limit.
If we turn to the glossary at the end of this chapter, we can begin to give credibility to Freire's idea. of using language to transform the world, which is the basis for his concept of praxis. Note for example how "individual" is defined: "A human being with the potential for continually developing "head," "heart" and "hand." That definition, then, points a direction for changing all individuals and, by so doing, changing the world. As another example, we might look to the definition of "language": "A system of concepts, widely shared throughout society, for solving problems by means of its dichotomous, gradational and metaphorical potentials for understanding and communicating experience." Yet my argument throughout this book is that the individual has not traveled very far down the road of utilizing those three potentials, and thus the definition once again points a direction for changing the world. Still another example has to do with the six definitions for the economic, educational, family, political, religious and scientific institutions. Those definitions all define institutions as centering on solving a given problem. Yet my argument throughout the book, indirect as well as direct, is that they have largely failed us in their efforts to solve those problems. Thus, those definitions hold out to us the problems that are yet to be solved and, as a result, give us a direction for changing the world.
My approach to dialogue in the glossary is an effort to build on Freire's ideal that dialogue should be egalitarian, that it should be a search for truth, and that it should yield praxis. I call such dialogue "deep dialogue," with this definition: "An egalitarian conversation where participants follow scientific ideals, reflexively uncover hidden assumptions, and move toward praxis." Note that I have added the idea that participants in a deep dialogue "reflexively uncover hidden assumptions." This constitutes deep learning on their part, for such assumptions have to do with our worldview. And if our worldview is not uncovered, we continue to remain prisoners of it from one moment to the next.
Let us now turn from the West to the East, building on ideas from Hinduism, Buddhism--including those of Gandhi--and Confucianism that we have already examined in Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11. Many of us are familiar with Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West"--as quoted in Chapter 4--which includes this stanza:
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat:
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though' they come from the ends of earth!
Generally, we may not think of Kipling as an advocate of East-West interaction, paying attention to the first two lines of the ballad, but the second two lines suggest the possibilities of such interaction. And I believe that this interaction is absolutely vital at this time in history. As I've sketched in Chapters 2 and 3, it is an East-West synthesis that provides a strategy and tactics for moving toward an evolutionary worldview.
Gishin Funakoshi was the father of modern karate--one of the martial arts--on the island of Okinawa at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1922 he was invited to Tokyo by the Ministry of Education to demonstrate this new martial art, and he stayed on there in an effort to popularize it. While teaching karate at universities, at police headquarters and in other places, Funakoshi proceeded to study Zen Buddhism. And as a result he developed further the spiritual or humanistic aspects of karate, "Do" means "Way," as in "Bushido," or the Way of the Warrier." and "karate" means "Empty Hand," for those who follow karate-do --"the Way of the Empty Hand"--have no weapons other than their own bodies. The possession of weapons had been banned in Okinawa, and karate had been developed among warriors as a substitute for weapons and as a matter of self-defense. Our purpose here is by no means to discuss the specific moves or "kamae" and "kata" associated with karate-do, but rather to illustrate the nature of praxis and of an evolutionary worldview from an Eastern perspective. Our focus here will be on seven of The Twenty guiding Principles of Karate--retaining their original numbers--although all of them are closely related to an evolutionary worldview.
1. Do not forget that Karate-do begins and ends with Rei. . . .Rei is often defined as "respect," but it actually means much more. Rei encompasses both an attitude of respect for others and a sense of self-esteem. When those who honor themselves transfer that feeling of esteem--that is, respect--to others, their action is nothing less than an expression of rei. . . .It should also be noted that although a person's deportment may be correct. without a sincere and reverent heart they do not possess true rei. True rei is the outward expression of a respectful heart (Funakoshi and Nakasone, 2003: 19-20).
We can draw a parallel here between rei and Gandhi's techniques of civil disobedience, as discussed in Chapter 8. We might recall that Gandhi treated Lord Irwin, the British Viceroy--along with the British army--with great respect. For example, he refrained from any form of verbal or physical violence toward them and taught his followers to do the same. He told them of his plans, refrained from acting to humiliate them, initiated personal interaction with them, adopted an attitude of trust toward them, and he attempted to achieve a high degree of empathy with respect to their values and beliefs. Looking to figure 9-5, rei thus has to do not just with the individual's momentary behavior but also with personality and small-scale social structures. The personality structures of values, beliefs and rituals must become involved, focusing on egalitarian behavior. And this implies, on a larger scale,the importance of cultural values along with social rituals that are meaningful and expressive. More generally, Gandhi's behavior along with rei suggest movement toward an evolutionary worldview.
3. Karate stands on the side of justice. . . .Human beings are at their strongest when they believe they are right. The strength that comes from the confidence of someone who knows he or she is right is expressed by the saying, "When I examine myself and see that I am in the right, then whether I am faced by one thousand or ten thousand opponents, I must press onward." To avoid action when justice is at stake demonstrates a lack of courage (29-30).
Funakoshi sees karate-do as involving nothing less than the entire individual, for the integration of the individual--including head, heart and hand--is essential for the development of the "confidence" that is essential for success in this martial art. The evolutionary worldview coupled with all of the concepts in figure 9-1 taken together--are oriented toward helping the individual learn to integrate head, heart and hand along with biological and physical structures. There is also the idea of self-sacrifice involved in this orientation to justice, for it requires the individual to confront any number of opponents simultaneously if he or she determines that this is the correct course of action. We might think here of Hitler's subordinates within Nazi Germany who claimed that they had to follow orders to kill millions of civilians during the Holocaust, or they themselves would have been killed. We might also think here of Gandhi's orientation to making visible sacrifices for his cause, such as his long periods of fasting that carried him to the point of near-death.
4. First know yourself, then know others.. . .Karate practitioners must be completely aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and never become dazzled or blinded by conceit or overconfidence. Then they will be able to assess calmly and carefully the strengths and weaknesses of their adversaries, and create an ideal strategy (33-34).
Funakoshi is referring to the importance of personality structures no less than social structures, as depicted in figure 9-1. More specifically, our stratified and bureaucratic worldview points us outward in our perceptions within everyday life, by contrast with the inward-and-outward orientation of an evolutionary worldview. We have seen the importance of the latter orientation in relation to Levin's experiment, as described in Chapter 4. There, the self evaluators with their inward-outward orientation id not increase their levels of prejudice against Puerto Ricans upon being frustrated. More generally, it is that inward-outward orientation to perception that which can work to place us--figuratively--on a stairway pointing toward our continuing evolution. We shall see the importance of this in our final section on the scientific method in everyday life.
6. The mind must be set free. . . .our mind should be allowed to move about freely, even if it seeks muddy recesses. The lotus blossom is not sullied by the mud in which it grows. . . .To reign in the mind tightly takes away its freedom. To keep our mind in close confines may be a necessary beginner's habit, but doing so for our entire life prevents us from rising to a new level, and will result in a life of unfulfilled potential (43, 45).
An emphasis on "conformity"--whether to the wishes of others or to cultural norms or widely-shared expectations--chains the mind to very narrow tasks. Indeed, there are a great many ways in which we chain the mind so that we fail to make use of more than an infinitesimal fraction of the mind's full potential. For example, our stratified worldview keeps us locked into one narrow compartment of human experience or another. As another general example, we all tend to emphasize language's dichotomous potential (emphasized within social science) in our everyday thought and speech, yet all the while we largely ignore language's gradational potential (emphasized within biophysical science) and language's figurative or metaphorical potential (emphasized within the humanities). Figure 9-1 suggests the possibilities that language holds out to us for learning to make use of more and more of all three linguistic potentials as we go about our business in everyday life.
8. Karate goes beyond the dojo. The objective of karate-do is to polish and nurture both the mind and body. The cultivation of one's spirit and mental attitude begun during practice in the dojo (training hall) should not cease after the physical and mental exertions end for the day. Rather, this should continue outside the dojo, in our daily routine.
In order for there to be a change from situational to structural behavior, there must be behavior that is repeated over and over again, and that is exactly what the eighth principle of karate-do calls for. This transition is particularly important for martial arts, since the individual must respond with lightning speed in order to be effective. Thus, there is very little time to think about what to do when an opponent makes a move. However, once a principle becomes part of an individual's personality structure, it becomes available on the instant.
9. Karate is a lifelong pursuit. There is no single point that marks the completion of karate training; there is always a higher level. For this reason practitioners should continue training throughout their life. . . .Walking this endless road, becoming better today than yesterday, and then better tomorrow than today--throughout one's life--is a true image of the Way of Karate.
This figure or metaphor of an endless road is an image that applies to an evolutionary worldview as well as to the scientific method. Another useful figure--that can be applied to karate-do, to an evolutionary worldview and also to the scientific method--is that of a pendulum swinging in ever-widening arcs. To one side there is increasing awareness of problems, and to the other side there is ever more progress on understanding and solving the problem. But since every problem is linked to every other problem, and since we become increasingly aware of problems, we are never in a situation of having solved any problem completely.
16. When you step beyond your own gate, you face a million enemies. Negligence is a great enemy when we leave the safety of our homes. If we are not in peak form in both our body and attitude, we will attract troublemakers and problems. Consequently, we should adopt the attitude that when leaving our gate we are entering into the midst of many potential enemies and should stay mentally alert.
The title of this book--Armageddon or Evolution?--reveals my own sense of the magnitude of world and personal problems. Those problems are everywhere, including inside our gates as well as outside of them, and--following figure i-1--they are increasing. Those problems are illustrated in figure 9-1 by such concepts as alienation, aspirations-fulfillment gap, addiction, negative reinforcement, relative deprivation, conformity, anomie, social stratification and bureaucracy. Yet we can learn to change our negative to positive reinforcements, adopting an East-West strategy of lowering our aspirations in the short run so as to narrow the gap (Eastern orientation), and thus learning to integrate head, heart and hand. And we can then learn to follow this by raising both aspirations and their fulfillment in the long run (Western orientation).
The Scientific Method in Everyday Life
The title of this book, "Armageddon or Evolution?" suggests my own belief that fundamental problems in modern society--like the relatively invisible aspirations-fulfillment gap and its links to the visible problems such as dangers from small groups with weapons of mass destruction--are escalating, and that a continuation of these developments even threatens the continuing existence of the human race. What is equally dangerous, in my view, is that political leaders along with their experts appear to be largely ignorant of the scope of these problems, their nature, or how to confront them effectively. Yet the book's title also suggests the possibility that these problems can be solved. And it is the subtitle, "The Scientific Method in Everyday Life," that is more specific in pointing to a direction for solving them. Figure i-2 is still more specific in charting that direction, where a broad scientific method can yield the change from a stratified to an evolutionary worldview, and that change in turn can narrow the aspirations-fulfillment gap (figure i-1) with the result of enabling us to confront social and personal problems ever more effectively.
I might roughly categorize my argument throughout the book into seven areas, which I will briefly examine in the remaining pages with these headings: (1) Evolution-do Versus Stratification-do, (2) Perception and an East-West Strategy, (3) Heart, (4) Head, (5) Hand, (6) From Situational Behavior to Structures, and (7) Some Concluding Remarks. As I write these words, I'm aware that I am accentuating the positive more than the threatening aspects of modern society's present situation, granting the deepening problems that presently exist and the lack of any political direction that I see for meeting those threats effectively. Yet I do believe that optimism is called for in these times, provided that it is based on realism. And my experiences lead me to believe that the directions I have put forward in this book and will summarize here are in fact realistic.
(1) Evolution-do Versus Stratification-do or Bureaucracy-do
Throughout this book I have attempted to shed light on the question of how we can all move from our stratified and bureaucratic worldview to an evolutionary and interactive one. The "do," taken from Japanese, indicates the "Way" or a way of life, and these contrasting worldviews are indeed contrasting ways of life. "Evolution-do" is much the same as "the Way of the empty hand" in that the individual must take personal responsibility for changing self and world, by contrast with relying on leaders to do the job for him or her, just as warriors not practicing karate-do rely on weapons in their hands. Evolution-do is illustrated in this final chapter by all of the principles of karate-do summarized above as well as by those principles not summarized here. For example, there are the first and third principles. The first, "Do not forget that Karate-do begins and ends with Rei," points up the importance of heart-felt egalitarian relationships between opponents or, more generally, between any two individuals. And this is exactly Freire's approach to dialogue, for such egalitarian interaction points toward liberation. The third principle of karate-do, "Karate stands on the side of justice," suggests that this martial art should stand for value fulfillment by contrast with alienation, anomie and a one-sided emphasis on materialism.
(2) Perception and an East-West Strategy
The East-West strategy I've put forward is to lower one's aspirations in the short run so as to narrow the aspirations-fulfillment gap and, as a result, shift away from negative reinforcements and toward positive reinforcements, thus following a Buddhist orientation. Given that narrowed gap, the individual can then learn, in the long run, to continue to raise both aspirations and their fulfillment, following a Western orientation. This orientation also follows the ideals of Confucius, who saw "the path of duty in what is near," while "men seek for it in what is remote." This approach meshes with the fourth karate-do principle, "First know yourself, then know others." For being able to perceive one's own weaknesses within a given situation would lead to the lowering of one's aspirations to a more realistic level, thus enabling them to be fulfilled more easily. More generally, by emphasizing one's perception of the realistic possibilities within any given situation--by contrast with inattention to the momentary scene--one can proceed to do the same.
(3) Heart
Commitment to addressing a problem is not only the first step of a broad approach to the scientific method: it is by far the most important one. And far more generally, the same commitment to the problems encountered in everyday life, both personal problems and world problems is crucial for moving toward solutions. Unfortunately, given our stratified worldview, we have all learned to repress such problems to varying degrees. That worldview has stood in the way of understanding the nature of fundamental problems--by professional social scientists along with everyone else--and we thus have no effective direction for confronting them. Yet with the aid of the extraordinary language of social science, as illustrated in figure 9-5, we move into a position to confront our problems effectively. Following (2) above, narrowing the aspirations-fulfillment gap can help us to express our emotions and become deeply committed to solving our problems.
(4) Head
Movement toward an evolutionary worldview will help us to utilize language's dichotomous, gradational and metaphorical or figurative potentials. That movement also will teach us the importance of learning social science's "extraordinary language," as illustrated in figure 9-1. That language can in turn help us to integrate our ordinary language to an increasing extent, and that integration can in turn provide the basis for improving our ability to express emotions and commit to problems (heart). All of this adds up to penetrating the complexity of current fundamental social problems, by contrast with the present relative helplessness of our leaders. And it also adds up to a vision of "man-the-scientist," by contrast with our present view of the ordinary individual as unable to do more than support specialized scientists in their work. It is a vision that also includes the idea that one day we will all learn to be poets, philosophers and scientists.
(5) Hand
For Freire, language that does not achieve theoretical reflection is no basis for genuine dialogue, liberation or humanization. Rather, it meshes with empty activism, just as Funakoshi saw an approach to karate without an emphasis on spirituality in the same way. Similarly, words that are merely consumed and lead nowhere become mere verbalism that goes nowhere. By contrast, language can be used to "name the world." Thus, words can and should be translated into actions that change the world. This is the nature of praxis. Yet much more than dialogue is involved within praxis, such as love, humility, faith and hope. Just as social structures generally have shaped individuals, it is also extremely important for the reverse to occur to a much greater extent: the shaping of social structures by individuals. Indeed, that is essential if we are to move from a stratified to an evolutionary worldview.
(6) From Situational Behavior to Structures
Funakoshi's principles (8), (9) and (6) all have to do with the transition from situational behavior to the development of structures. For the latter requires the repetition of behavior in one situation after another. Such repetition is fostered in principle (8) when the student continues with his or her training in everyday life outside of the training hall. It is further fostered by following principle (9), when karate-do becomes a lifelong pursuit. As for principle (6), once the individual develops structures and need no longer focus the mind narrowly on following the principles of karate-do, he or she is able to relax and free the mind. All of this is similar to learning to use social science's extraordinary language--as illustrated by figure 9-5--in everyday life. Initially, one learns to focus the mind narrowly on learning to use those concepts in more and more situations. Then, over time, the individual alters his or her linguistic structures and is then free to relax the mind.
(7) Some Concluding Remarks
The end of our journey in this book is also the beginning of the next journey. For this book is no more than the dojo or training hall for evolution-do. Following principles (8) and (9), moving toward the structures required by evolution-do involves both practice beyond the dojo and practice as a lifelong pursuit. The development of the structures of evolution-do, following principle (6), will then free the mind. and that relaxed mind will continue to evolve without any limit. That continuing evolution suggests the operation of the pendulum metaphor. Commitment to problems (heart) gives the pendulum motivation to swing further in the direction of understanding (head) and solving (hand) those problems. For example, the individual can learn to address the problem of bringing his or her negative emotions to the surface (heart), and then learn to gain momentum by coming to reinforce self positively for doing so, and thus achieve greater understanding of those emotions (head) and greater ability to express self (hand). The extraordinary language of social science--invoking perception in the momentary situation, and sensitivity to physical, personality and social structures--would necessarily be involved in head within this sequence in order for the individual to penetrate the complexity of any given momentary scene. And hand would have to succeed in converting negative to positive reinforcements. As a result, those head and hand achievements would in turn yield greater momentum to bring emotions to the surface in other situations, leading over time to developing personality structures for doing so. As for the question, "Armageddon or Evolution?" unfortunately it still remains a question, for there is no guarantee that social scientists and the rest of us will move through our small window of opportunity and learn to confront our escalating problems ever more effectively.
But I do not want to end this book on a passive note. We human beings have infinite potential to evolve intellectually, emotionally, and in the effectiveness of our actions. Our most powerful tools--language and the scientific method--give us the potential to solve our most difficult problems, including our present stratified or bureaucratic worldview and scientific method. And that potential can carry our development ever further, far beyond present-day problems. The ideas of deep dialogue and the East-West strategy provide a direction for using our linguistic and scientific tools from one moment to the next in our everyday lives. In my view, what is at stake is not just those of us who are now struggling with increasing problems but also all future generations. All of us--social scientists and everyone else--are responsible for what happens now and what will happen in the future. And it is up to all of us to shoulder that responsibility. If we succeed in doing so--based on our learning the nature of our situation, envisioning ways of solving our problems, and engaging in praxis so as to solve them--then there is no limit to how far we humans can evolve.