Part One - Realm

4

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

INSIGHTS1. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the analytic

philosophers is their personal witness to the im-portance of meaning and their faith in the possibil-ity of making meanings clear.

2. Each symbolic form has its appropriate field of application.

3. The nature of science and its limitations are be-coming increasingly clear.

4. Artistic importance has its characteristic logical forms.

5. The concept of personal meaning is especially important to the Existentialists.

6. We must turn from the personal emptiness of the I-It to the loving, community-creating affirma-tion of I-Thou.

7. Contemporary literature proves further vivid ev-idence of modern man's search for synnoetic meaning.

8. Values are of a different logical order from facts.63

64 PART ONE: MEANING AND HUMAN NATURE

9. Collingwood sees history as a reconstruction of past-events—what must have happened—on the basis of an imaginative identification with the thought of the persons who decided the events.

10. The historian can discover what actually hap-pened by an act of sympathetic understanding.

11. The historian divests himself of his preconcep-tions and enters into the life of the past on its own terms.

12. One of the most impressive signs of the con-temporary search for meaning is this development of religious thought that is taking place.

13. Current curriculum revisions belong to the gen-eral movement toward deeper and more secure meanings.

14. The objective of the present book is to provide a comprehensive orientation to the search for mean-ing in the curriculum, uniting in one coherent ac-count the various strands both from the general thought movements of our time and from the stud-ies going forward in the various disciplines.

15. A human being is in essence a creature who creates, discovers, enjoys, perceives, and acts on meanings.

16. These meanings are of six general kinds: sym-bolic, empirical, esthetic, synnoetic, ethical, and synoptic.

17. A philosophy of the curriculum based on mean-ing is constructed by ascertaining the essential distinct logical types of human meaning, as exhib-ited by the successful fields of disciplined inquiry.

18. The educator can seize the opportunity to battle such areas as fragmentation, surfeit, and tran-sience of knowledge, by showing what kinds of knowledge are required for full understanding and how the essential elements may be distinguished from the unessential ones in the selection of in-structional materials.

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THE SEARCH FOR MEANING 65

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

The attacks on meaning described in the last chapter have not been without countervailing influences. Re-cent decades have also witnessed a sustained and many-sided search for meaning. The results are provid-ing the basis for a renewal of modern man and for an educational program in which human possibilities can be amply fulfilled. Thinkers with widely different inter-ests and orientations are converging in a remarkable way on the problem of meaning. They are opening up new channels of understanding having profound influ-ence both on professional practices and on currents of popular thought.

SYMBOLICS AND MEANING

Meaning and the Interpretation of LanguageIn 1923, C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards published

The Meaning of Meaning1 a work that has since become a classic in the field of the interpretation of language. These scholars demonstrated the wide-spread confu-sion regarding the meaning of "meaning," and they sought by systematic analysis to discard meaningless conceptions and to make proper distinctions among valid modes of interpretation. They discussed and eval-uated sixteen major definitions of meaning. They for-mulated a new theory of signs in which the functions of language were reduced to two, namely, the referential and the emotive. By such a distinction the authors hoped to strike a decisive blow at superstition, obscu-rantism, and "word magic," and to provide a compre-hensive, contextual, and functional basis for the whole range of language meanings. It is doubtful whether this division of language functions into the two types—of referential and emotive meanings—does justice to the full range of meanings. There is no doubt about Ogden 1 Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York, 1923.


and Richards' contribution to a revival of concern for meaning and the stimulus they provided in this and later works to the serious study of the varieties of sym-bolic forms.Meaning in Semantics

One movement in the field of language meaning is semantics. Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity2 be-came the bible of the General Semanticists, who promised solutions to the most vexing problems of hu-mankind through a scientific reconstruction of linguistic meanings. Charles Morris, in his Foundations of the The-ory of Signs,3 developed "semiotics," which was subdi-vided into the fields of "semantics," "pragmatics," and "syntactics." Popularizers of semantics, including Stuart Chase and S.I. Hayakawa, brought to the attention of the general public some knowledge of the pitfalls of lan-guage and of the methods available for the improve-ment of verbal communication.

Meaning and Analytic PhilosophersAnother group of investigators for whom the prob-

lems of meaning are fundamental are the analytic philosophers. These philosophers owe their inspiration to such thinkers as G.E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and their movement currently dominates professional philosophy in England and America. Unlike Existentialists, who are concerned with the "meaning of life" and the problems of selfhood and decision, analytic philosophers undertake the detailed critical scrutiny of various modes of human discourse. In their earlier years the analysts were most interested in the pure constructive languages of logic, mathemat-ics, and natural science. Analytical philosophers have become preoccupied with the problems of ordinary lan-guage. They have tried to show how most of the tradi-tional philosophical puzzles have been created by

2 3rd ed., International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Co., Lakeville, Conn., 1948.3 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1938.


philosophers themselves in using concepts without ref-erence to their generally accepted meanings-in-use.

This philosophic emphasis on distinct logical or-ders of meaning and on the clarification of human un-derstanding by the analysis of the actual uses of sym-bols is basic to the philosophy of curriculum set forth in this book. While the method of treatment used herein is not predominantly that of the language analysts, the present work presupposes a similar commitment to the exposition of meanings-in-use and parallel conclusions as to the multiple patterns of human signification.

Distinct Logical Orders of MeaningErnst Cassirer, using methods quite different from

those of the language analysts, has also established the principle of distinct logical orders of meaning. In his great Philosophy of Symbolic Forms4 and his briefer Es-say on Man,5 Cassirer shows that the characteristic mark of human activity is the creation and transforma-tion of symbols. The whole world of human meanings, he says, is expressed in the several kinds of symbolic forms contained in such diverse fields as myth, ritual, language, art, history, mathematics, and science. Each of the types of symbolic forms has its unique and legiti-mate human functions. For example, ritual communi-cates orders of experience not expressed in speech. The arts present meanings different in kind from those of the sciences and inexpressible in the categories of empirical description. Each symbolic form has its appro-priate field of application, and, though it has relation-ships with other systems, is not wholly reducible to any other form.

EMPIRICS AND MEANINGThe search for symbolic meaning inherent in se-

mantics and linguistic analysis and comprehensively outlined by Cassirer is paralleled by the inquiries into 4 Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., vol. 1, (1953); vol. 2, (1955); vol. 3, (1957).5 Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1944.


meaning in each of the other realms of human under-standing. Thanks to the labors of philosophers, histori-ans of science, and scientists reflecting on their own en-terprise, both the nature of science and its limitations are becoming increasingly clear. Investigators as di-verse as James Byrant Conant, Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, Percy Bridgman, Rudolph Carnap, Stephen Toulmin, and Ernest Nagel, to name but a few, have critically examined the methods and assumptions of science. They have shown with precision what scien-tific knowledge is and what it is not. They have demon-strated the validity and the scope of scientific methods. They have defined the terms in which empirical descrip-tions and theoretical explanations are to be interpreted.

ESTHETICS AND MEANINGIn esthetics new exponents of meaning have ap-

peared. Against the criticisms of modern art by those who hold that the classical motifs are the only meaning-ful ones, and more particularly, that visual art should be representational and music should be limited to the tra-ditional melodies and harmonies, critics like Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Igor Stravinsky, and Roger Sessions have made a strong case for a more generous conception of artistic importance. Under the banner of "significant form," those who defend modern art against the charge of meaninglessness have pointed to the wider possibili-ties of esthetic expression provided by the new artistic forms.

Susan Langer, taking her lead from Ernst Cassirer, whose general theme she popularized in her book, Phi-losophy in a New Key,6 makes a particular cogent case for the distinctively esthetic mode of understanding. She denies that a work of art is only an expression of the artist's personal feelings. She argues that artistic importance has its characteristic logical forms. She in-sists that significance is not limited to the literal mean-6 Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1948.


ings of factual statements, but extends also to the art symbols objectifying the patterns of feeling found in man's inner life.

In the literary arts the concern for meaning is manifest in the New Criticism in the work of persons such as Edmund Wilson, William Empson, W.K. Wimsatt, Jr., John Crowe Ransom, and Ronald S. Crane. In this movement the earlier dependence of literary interpreta-tion on psychology, philology, history, and sociology has been overcome and a fresh recognition of the uniquely literary modes of understanding has been achieved.

SYNNOETICS AND MEANINGTurning next to the synnoetic realm, substantial

progress is being made in the articulation and interpre-tation of personal meanings. Psychoanalysis, though grounded in the identification of unconscious and irra-tional factors, is primarily aimed at bringing these sub-terranean forces under the scrutiny and control of rea-son. What appear as meaningless dreams and fantasies and as inexplicable actions are shown by analysis to be symbols of unconscious meanings. These hidden mean-ings often reflect disturbances in relationships with other persons and in evaluations of the self. Improve-ment of relations with others and self may then follow the recognition of unacceptable emotional patterns and understanding of their causes.

Psychotherapists Search for MeaningMany different systems are employed for the reve-

lation and clarification of these personal meanings. Sig-mund Freud and his followers emphasize infant sexual-ity and the Oedipus complex. C.G. Jung analyzed the in-terplay of inferiority and superiority feelings. Therapists in the line of Alfred Adler find important clues to behav-ior in the problems of infantile dependence and the struggle for power. The approach used by Harry Stack


Sullivan and his followers is to analyze patterns of inter-personal relations, particularly with the “significant per-sons” in association with whom early self-appraisals are formed. In contrast to the early analysts who regarded the period of infancy as all-important in the develop-ment of emotional life, many present-day therapists place as much or more emphasis upon experiences be-yond infancy. They concern themselves directly with present behavior patterns instead of tracing everything back to the first few months or years of life.


.

Traditional methods exist be they riteor ritual, to search for the answers

to questions that humans have pon-dered

For centuries, and longer—thepsychologist's couch, point-counter-

point debate, and yoga. When one sees or pictures someone in these situations one automatically assumes that there

is some very deep thought occurring. Can one

see someone think? Can a teacher necessarily

assume that a child who is looking out the window does not have his/her mind

on his/her class work?



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Existentialists Search for MeaningOthers, besides psychotherapists, have joined in

the search for meaning in selfhood and in human rela-tionships. The concept of personal meaning is espe-cially important to the Existentialists. As Paul Tillich points out, preoccupation with meaninglessness is itself evidence of a passionate concern for meaning. Reject-ing the idea of the subconscious from depth psychol-ogy, Jean Paul Sartre proposes a scheme of “existential psychoanalysis,” that consists of a thoroughgoing intro-spective analysis of the content of consciousness aimed at eliminating the self-deceptions by which one tries to avoid responsibility for his own authentic existence. Karl Jaspers, more concerned than Sartre with relation-ships beyond the self, finds the “way to wisdom” in the will to unlimited communication, and protests against the depersonalized mass culture that has lost faith in “Transcendence,” the source of all true selfhood. Martin Buber discovers the source of truly human meaning in the “I-Thou” relation that he contrasts with the imper-sonal, manipulative, objectifying “I-It” type of relation. In the act of turning from the personal emptiness of the I-It to the loving, community-creating affirmation of I-Thou, Buber believes the secret of a meaningful life may be found.

Contemporary Literature Searching For MeaningContemporary literature provides further vivid evi-

dence of modern man’s search for synnoetic meaning. While typologically poetry, the novel, and drama are art forms communicating esthetic meanings, they can also be powerful expressions of concern for selfhood and for community among persons. In various ways such di-verse writers as W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Andre Malraux, Thomas Mann, Eugene O’Neil, J.D. Salinger, and Ten-nessee Williams portray some of the deepest concerns of human beings—a concern that in its very seriousness


reveals a profound faith in the potential meaningfulness of personal existence, even under conditions that seem to deny all meaning and value to life.

ETHICS AND MEANINGIn the realm of ethics, subjectivism and skepticism

regarding meaning are encountering strong opposition. Anthropologists are more disposed than they once were to recognize the universality of some moral principles, despite the relativity of laws and customs in the cul-tures of humankind. Social scientists are taking the nor-mative aspects of human behavior more seriously than before and some are even beginning to assert that it is the proper business of the scientist not only to describe what is but also to investigate what ought to be. Jurists like Justice Brandeis have led jurisprudence away from literalistic interpretations of the legal tradition toward a view of law as an expression of standards for the good life in a dynamic society. Such thinkers are making in-creasingly clear the dependence of a meaningful social order upon moral principles rather than mere custom and tradition. They emphasize the need for continual re-examination of laws in the light of these principles.

Ethical Theory and MeaningThese developments are complemented by certain

trends in ethical theory. Philosophers are largely agreed, as David Hume long ago decisively argued, that an “ought” can never be derived from an “is,” that is, that values are of a different logical order from facts. While this insight exposes the futility of trying to estab-lish morality as an empirical science, and thus contra-dicts certain assumptions implicit in the efforts to de-velop a scientific ethic, it does support the autonomy of morals and prepares the way for the discovery of dis-tinctively moral meanings. G.E. Moore, in his classic,


Principia Ethica,7 presents a realistic theory of morals, refuting the “naturalistic fallacy” inherent in every at-tempt (as in egoism, hedonism, utilitarianism, volun-tarism, and supernaturalism) to define “good” by refer-ence to any matters of fact (such as interest, pleasure, utility, or the will of man or God). Later philosophic ana-lysts, including R.M. Hare, Stephen Toulmin, and P.H. Nowell-Smith, though generally rejecting Moore’s intu-itionism, take seriously the principle of the autonomy of the moral realm and continue to make valuable contri-butions to the clarification and illumination of moral meanings.

SYNOPTICS AND MEANING

The Searching for Meaning in HistoryThe search for meaning in the synoptic disciplines

is yielding encouraging results. In the discipline of his-tory, nineteenth-century scientific historians had been confident that the historian could strictly present the facts about what really happened in the past. In reac-tion against this reduction of history to empirical sci-ence, the subsequent Historicist movement emphasized the personal, irrational, and contingent factors in histor-ical judgments, thus bringing into question the possibil-ity of any reliable historical knowledge. The possibility of genuine historical understanding has once again been affirmed, on a broader basis than that of the sci-entific historians. For example, R.G. Collingwood sees history as a reconstruction of past events—what must have happened—on the basis of an imaginative identifi-cation with the thought of the persons who decided the events, Herbert Butterfield, too, holds that in a larger sense than the scientific historians thought, the histo-rian can discover what actually happened by an act of sympathetic understanding. The historian divests him-

7 Cambridge University Press, New York, 1959.


self of his preconceptions and enters into the life of the past on its own terms.

The Search for Meaning in ReligionIn religion theologians continue the pursuit of ulti-

mate meanings with great vigor. Having successfully weathered the crises of faith caused by the higher criti-cism of the Bible, the theory of evolution, and the com-parative study of religions, religious thinkers are en-deavoring to assess the claims of faith in the light of new developments in knowledge and the social order. Protestant thinkers such as Karl Barth, H. Richard Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and Rudolph Bultmann are refor-mulating the doctrine of revelation so as to establish an autonomous logic of religious understanding. Roman Catholic thinkers (e.g., Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson) offer versions of Thomistic theology, reaffirming the common sense meanings of Classical Realism within a dual framework of Natural and revealed Theol-ogy. Interpreters of Jewish thought in all three of the leading traditions—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—are working out ways of making Judaism a relevant and meaningful way of life and thought in the modern world. One of the most impressive signs of the contem-porary search for meaning is this development of reli-gious thought that is taking place, despite all the forces of secularization, not only in the various branches of Christianity and Judaism, but also in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many smaller syncretistic and theosophi-cal sects.

The Search for Meaning in PhilosophyIn philosophy, mention has already been made of

the signal contribution to the recovery and expansion of meaning made in quite different directions by the logi-cal analysts and the Existentialists. Metaphysics is re-covering from the crushing blows administered by logi-cal empiricism and pragmatism. Even some analytic


philosophers are now saying that metaphysical state-ments may be something more than nonsense. A few adventurous spirits, most notably Alfred North White-head, have dared to attempt new cosmological schemes after the manner of the great system-builders of the past. In these efforts the possibility of attaining a synthesis of meanings through a comprehensive inter-pretation of experience is once again affirmed.

PURPOSE OF SUMMARYThe aim of the foregoing summary sketch of some

twentieth-century movements reflecting modern man’s search for meaning has been twofold: first, to show the forces of skepticism, frustration, and confusion in present-day life have by no means won the day, and second, to suggest some of the kinds of resources available for the construction of a meaningful philoso-phy of general education.

DEVELOPMENT OF CURRICULA FOR SCHOOLSIt is important to relate that in the development of

curricula for the schools, much work has been done since World War II on instructional materials in a num-ber of the academic disciplines. These efforts were stimulated initially by the pressures for more efficient education to meet the urgent demands for trained man-power in an ever more tightly organized technical soci-ety geared to the needs of national defense. Mathemat-ics was the first discipline in which radical renovations of teaching materials took place. Sweeping changes soon followed in physics, chemistry, and biology, and these were joined by economics, English, and foreign languages. Geographers, historians, anthropologists, and other specialist also have undertaken studies and discussions concerned with revisions in their teaching


materials. Although the reconstructions in all these fields have been aimed chiefly at the secondary school, they have not been without effect on the curriculum at the elementary, middle and junior high school and col-lege levels. Reconstructionistic efforts represent fresh perspectives on the subjects of study themselves, re-gardless of the level.

CURRENT CURRICULUM REVISIONS REFLECTDEEPER AND MORE SECURE MEANINGS

These current curriculum revisions are actually more than responses to pressures for educated man-power. They belong to the general movement toward deeper and more secure meanings. Evidence for this statement lies in the fact that the new programs of in-struction are not simply rearrangements of old materi-als, nor mere substitutions of up-to-date for out-of-date information. They are based on a complete reconsidera-tion of the distinctive characteristics of the several dis-ciplines in regard to content, methods, and basic con-cepts. They are based on a study of the methods for effective teaching and learning of these fundamental meanings. It is noteworthy that the new teaching mate-rials are not being produced either by the professions in education alone or only by scholars in the academic dis-ciplines. In a manner worthy of a serious effort to reach basic understandings, they are an outcome of the coop-erative work of scholars, teachers, and curriculum spe-cialists and the business community.

A COMPREHENSIVE ORIENTATION TO THE SEARCH FOR MEANING

The objective of the present book is to provide a comprehensive orientation to the search for meaning in the curriculum, uniting in one coherent account the var-ious strands both from the general thought movements of our time and from the studies going forward in the various disciplines. From the analysis of human nature


and meaning outlined in this and the two preceding chapters, the major features of a philosophy of the cur-riculum for general education emerge.

HUMAN BEINGS ACT ON MEANINGSA human being is in essence a creature who cre-

ates, discovers, enjoys, perceives, and acts on mean-ings. These meanings are of six general kinds: sym-bolic, empirical, esthetic, synnoetic, ethical, and synop-tic. These meanings correspond respectively to the dis-tinctive human functions of expressing and communi-cating (symbolics), describing (empirics), making and perceiving significant objects (esthetics), entering into relations (synnoetics), deciding between right and wrong (ethics), and comprehending integrally (synop-tics). Each of these realms of meaning is defined by a certain general logic of meaning. Within each realm there are special fields of study, each defined by its own subject matter, typical concepts, and methods of inquiry. Yet all these exhibit the general logic of the realm to which they belong.


In search for meaning, humans often turn to nature and solitude. It is very likely that this is simply to get away

from other people and the distractions that accompany them. This does not mean, however, that people want to

be lonely, just left alone. As a teacher concerned with the social and psycho-logical well being of a child, how can one tell when or if a child is lonely or just wants to be left alone? How can

the situation be handled?They are teaching?


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AUTHORITATIVE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF MEANINGS BY EXPERTS

These special fields are designated as the various disciplines in which the authoritative systematic study of meanings by communities of experts is carried on. Disciplines are assigned to the various realms of mean-ing on the basis of the general logical type of meaning they exhibit. Thus, analysis of how linguists and mathe-maticians know shows that they share the general logi-cal features of the realm of symbolics. Similarly, the work of physicists, biologists, psychologists, sociolo-gists, economists, and other scientists shows certain common features permitting all to be grouped within the empirical realm, despite their many differences in detailed methods and concepts. The various different artistic enterprises may be grouped together within the esthetic category of meaning. History, religion, and phi-losophy, for all their contrasts, still share a common synoptic role. The case of synnoetics and ethics is less clear because the disciplined pursuit of meanings in these realms is not organized as definitely along dis-tinct professional lines, but is carried on by special groups of experts from other disciplines, such as psy-chology, literature, and religion. These expert contribu-tions, though differing in detail, have the same basic logic within each realm, of relational intuition or norma-tive judgment, as the case may be.

CURRICULUM BASED ON MEANINGA philosophy of the curriculum based on meaning

is constructed by ascertaining the essential distinct log-ical types of human meaning, as exhibited by the suc-cessful fields of disciplined inquiry. The next task is to analyze each of the disciplines so as to exhibit its par-ticular structure, organizing concepts, and methods.

In this manner the entire range of basic meanings may be charted, and the structures and interrelation-ships of the various realms and disciplines within each


realm may be comprehensively viewed. Such an under-standing of the fundamental patterns of meaning en-ables the educator to make a successful attack on the various sources of frustration in learning. The educator can seize the opportunity to battle such areas as frag-mentation, surfeit, and transience of knowledge, by showing what kinds of knowledge are required for full understanding and how the essential elements may be distinguished from the unessential ones in the selection of instructional materials. In this fashion the curriculum may become a means for the realization of the distinc-tively human potentialities.

WAYS OF KNOWING1. How do symbols give meaning to life?2. Do you believe that sometimes your actions are

senseless or meaningless?3. Do you believe what you are doing makes a

positive difference?4. Are you concerned with establishing relation-

ships with others? Why? Why not?5. Do you work with students in an impersonal and

objective manner? Yes/No? Why?6. Do you work with students in a loving, caring,

and personal manner? Yes/No? Why?7. How do you get deeper, lasting, and secure

meanings out of life?8. How can the educator seize the opportunity to

show what kinds of knowledge are required for full understanding and how the essential elements may be distinguished from the unessential ones in selecting instructional materials?

9. Why should the educator fashion the curriculum as a means for the realization of the learners dis-tinctively human potentialities?

Education

Part One - Realm