Foundation for Integrated Education

Primary tabs

Pages

Sorokin_IX_F_7_169
s- Fun I-c-rraiiiATun Kih-catiii.m, I.M".™w ™" "*"" KaraJ) 7, 1955Mr. Arthur A. Hooc, EditorAmerican Lumberman139 fcrth Clark StreetChicago 2, IllinoisI have at last had time to examine rather carefully theconcluding chanters In this feselnatlnir book by PlorlanZnanleckl.I am mo?t grateful to you for Bending it to me and I hopethat I can keep It here for awhile. If not Indeed add itpermanently to our library. If that will not inconvenienceyou?I looked through the first chanters briefly In order togot the drift, and Intend to do a better Job on thoseduring the summer.I have no doubt th:,t Sorokin has had hip attention calledto this material, and if so, we can count upon It thathe will respond. I gather from recent correspondence withhim that he has been giving Rome time during the lent fewmonths to the formulation of his thinking in terms of aresponse to analyses of this kind.If Indeed his next book will refer to this Particularcontribution anong others, I shall try to let you knowwhere hie response can be found.Ever yours grctefully.The reference in the above letter Is to Cultural Sciences,Their Origin and Development, by Pierian ZnanlecVl, Universityof Illinois Press, Urbane, 19c2.eivr-C!<r:
Sorokin_IX_F_7_170
nVDr. F. L. KunxTrie Foundation forIntegrated Education, Inc.2U, East luSth StreetHew Tork 17, tlew TorkBy dear KunatI know well Znnniecki's work, Cultural Solencea,and have referred to it several times already.I also plan to give to Znanlooki's theories con-slderablo space in a revision of my volume,Contemporary Sociological Theories. I regardhirr. as one of tiiree cost eminent Arr«rican soci-olcaiats of the present time.Frort your letter 1 do not see what kind ofservice I can render in connection with thisbook, out I would be (jlad to help in any wayI can in regard to iinaniecki's work.-1th very best wishes,lioat sincerely yours.Pitirim A. Sorokin
Sorokin_IX_F_7_171
March 9, 1955Dr. P. A. SorokinHarvard UniversityResearch Center in Creative AltruismEmerson HallCambridge 38, MassachusettsMy dear Sorokin:I feel sure that we shall be able to serve the new Associationthrough the pages of MAIN CURRENTS until such time as you maydecide to start a journal of your own.I may. In an earlier letter, have said that vnn Rertalanffy,P.anonort and others are setting un a Society for General SystemsTheory. This will be formally announced in the March Issue ofMAIN CURRENTS and there will be a long article by von Bertalenffyon the subject. It Is my hope that we shall continue to be achannel for them at any rate for some time to come.In fact, the several branches of learning which should now bebrought into close relationship with one another could havetheir essentials and significance focused through our pages ifcooperation to that end were resolved unon by all of us. Inother words, if each of the more active and newer groups wereto publish news bulletins, and concentrate on MAIN CURRENTS forthe publication of longer articles, the concentrated impactwould be extremely beneficial for mankind.Yours sincerely,
Sorokin_IX_F_7_172
September 19, 1955Professor Pi*l"lin A. SorokinResearch Center In Creative AltruismHarvard UniversityErr>e"pon "allCambridge 38, MassachusettsDear Pitirlm;T>-e enclosed carbon eo>vy of a letter to Dr. Lawrence Frank may *>e ofscne Interest to you. Poubtlese v>u Know that he is settled now inBoston? He is an unusually valuable sort of person for the purposesyou and I have in common, aB you nuet well know.We here In the Foundation have begun this year; at lest, utwwi +hesystematic preparation of the materials required to convince a collegeor university faculty of the basic ideality of the world from whichdeductive exact science takes its effective rise, and the world towardwhich genuine religious living and exercises t&ke us. Sola Ultimateis of course also the origin of tr-e highest creative Impulses amongartists, and no less the field in which ethics take their origin.The task on which we are embarking will be long and arduous, partlybecause It will be necessary to prove and document every point shoutthe Ideal structuring of the universe and hence of valid knowledge;it will be necessary to pursue the psychological import of evsrystep that is taken; it will be necessary to make the connections, stepby step, with Buddhism, the Vedanta, Gnostic Christianity, and otherforms of inherited culture; it will be necessary to ramify each Itemout Into other cultural moods In addition to science so treated; andit will be necessary to do every bit of this more or less In thelanguage of the educated layman, or at any rate not in the languageof fhe specialist.I have the first i*em rafter elaborately worked out, Including theillustrations. At a proper stage I intend to consult with our activeeollea=>-ues in the Foundation Council snd I hope you Will be so goodes tn -ork with ue at that stage?Wben one single example Is available, end efurther additional lne+Einces b.e.8 been prepayof each one, we shall be ready to seek fun-'s at last to do +^cfor which we were originally br-eugbt together.ig you as frecuently as may be possible■ds to Mrs. Sorokira an^ yourself, I am.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_173
September 19, 19e5T>r. Lawrence K. Frank25 Clark StreetBelmont 67, MassachusettsDear T)r. Frank:We were harpy to have your letter an'' to learn that you will beteaching at M.I.T., especially alonp: the Interesting lines that youdescribe.I have no doubt at all that we can sunnly you with a certain number ofcopies of that issue of gtlg Wg| ■■!:. In Modern Thought containing thearticle on 'Field Theory* by Robert v;horf.It will also be ftirly inexpensive to have a larger supply printed bynhoto offset, which as you know is an economical method of reproducingmatter which is already set in type.Please l=t us know what quantities you are likely to went, and we willgive you figures.I em hsvlntr a search made through earlier issues to see what othermaterial on fields ae such may be available for you.No -*oubt you are yourself well ee-maintefl with tr-e various Vindfl 0"fields that have been postulated for r-latlvlty, quantum theory an'the like. There has been a tremendous amount of discussion of allthis In layman's language In recent years.The great problem, however, presents Itself when we put our minds towhat lies between * he fields In vrb'ch man operatee.as man and thefields described In Phvsics, chemistry, astronomy, etc.Nothing substantial has been established as regards field theory andbiology. The only Berious attempt that I know of was made by 9urr andNorthrop. Margenau has analysed f-elr studies from the point of viewof a physicist, srnd indicates the shortcomings that eeem arpsrent tohim.Unfortunately vr-en D'Arcy Thompson re-lesued hie great vork after Ithad been out of print twenty-five years, ho was i^io old to IncorporateIn it anytring vhatever about field theory as^lnMology, althoughhis work remains the greatest available compendium of the materialsthat compel us to postulate a biological field.Thus, what we need to connect human, Individual Fnd^gcl^a^psychology,on the one hand, vith the fields established in physics Is unavailable.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_174
Dr. Lawrenoe K. FrankSeptember 19, 1955Page Twouenee wren we coae upon something suoh an parapsychology is beginningto document, eosethlag sao-ye thee* prejudice anfl over—assertlvemechanism and physical ism tends" to lead to its rejection.It Is true t^st small studies by Jacob «orinO «nd n-y-^n begin tosuo-gest 'he possibility of a metric for society, and then* is no doubttbat vork directly at the social level should be pursued. We have nooccasion to be hamrtered by the Canteen hierarchy, nevertheless, oarfailure in biology Is something that will have to be repaired beforewe oan be effective at the sociological level, In my opinion.I discussed a constructive problem in a Paper I read to the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science a few years ago. It Is inVolume 8 Number 1 of CAIN CURRENTS. If you do not have that number,I shall be glad to send you a copy. I should on that occasion enclosealso a library auraaer number wr-lch I got eut in 19^7-We are now caking a serious start on the study of all these thingsin layman's terms. The object Is to supply faculty members with abody of Information in common so that they can begin to use a rationaldiscourse In these Important, yet scarcely opened up, fields ofphilosophy.Ever yours cordially.FLIT: beco; Profsssor Pltlrim A. Sorokin
Sorokin_IX_F_7_175
September 22, 1955Sr. F. L. KunsThe Foundation for Integrated Education, Inc.2lu5 Eaet lioth StreetNew York 17, New YorkOf course, I would be glad to participate in the work of theFoundation in any way that X can. Correspondingly, each time whenyou find it advisable to consult me, please do it without any hesi-In oonnection with this problem it may be of soma interest toyou that my substantial volume on fads and Foibles of Llodern Sociologyand Belated Sciences is expected to be published la February or Ii»rch71956. It has some bearing upon your central problems, because it attempts to criticise paeeado-phyaicalistic yarns wiiich are dominant atthe present time in American social and psychological sciences, in thelight, of the modern physical, mathematical, and biological theories.Ihen, for a symposium on personal religion of eminent thinkers ofour Urns, edited by Dr. Cole, to be published by Harper I Brothers, Icontributed an essay on "Integral ttollgion,n and for another symposium,This Is ay rnllospphy, edited by Mr. Whit Burnett, I contributed alsoan essay on "l.iy rhlloaophy."Finally, tvg a radio lecture of the University of Berlin, whichwill be also published in a large number of copies in Qeimsn translation, I outlined the essentials of my theory of cultural and socialsystems and supe ray stems, '.'.hen these worke are published, I shall beglad to send you their copies.At the present time I am pondering the problem of whether we shallStart the new Association for a study of creative altruism. Somewhatlater on I shall be writing to you about this problem.regards for airs. Kuns and for your son, if he is withVery sincerely yours.Pltirlm A. Sorokin
Sorokin_IX_F_7_176
December 16, 1955Dear Sorokin:1 only to acknowledgeWhen Dr. McClelland's article was being consideredI suggested to him specific iMprovements in the bibliography.He was under much pressure at that time, and held that inany case this piece was merely a by-product of informaldiscussions and did not purport to be in any sense more thana sampling of the thinking that had been going on at theInstitute for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.I am sure you are aware in fact, your letter indicatesclearly that you have taken these imperfections in the articleand the bibliography in a jovial spirit—that the conditionsunder which we work are very peculiar and highly disadvantageous.We do not have regular salary here in the office, and our contributors to the magazine get no recompense whatsoever, andindeed it is rather surprising that we are able to perform evenacceptably under the circumstances that obtain.I have been discussing with Henry Margenau and KirtleyMather the whole question of stablizing the work of the magazineby gathering a suitable editorial advisory group. I would notmyself care to take this step unless the men who accepted werewilling to read manuscripts in advance of publication. Itwould be unfair to everybody to have their names published in thejournal as editorial advisors unless they were willing to givecareful guidance.We have a small number of acceptances on this basis,every one of them very distinguished men indeed. Naturally itis my intention to ask all the members of the Foundation's Councilto function in this respect if they are willing, since theyare already very familiar with what w. e are doing, but I havefelt it unfair to throw all the labor involved upon our presentCouncil members. I am therefore endeavoring to gather a groupof approximately ten or twenty names of equal rank to theirown.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_177
For in addressing our own Council members, I wouldnaturally also elicit from them an approval of this procedureas I want their acceptance and their approval to be soughtat the aame time.We would, of course, be very happy indeed if youcould find opportunity sometime to contribute an article ofyour own on systems theory. I do not have much detailedinformation about what went on at the Institute for AdvancedStudy in the Behavioral Sciences. I do know that whatevervon Bertalanffy contributed to those discussions was putforward from biological fundamentals. He is, of course,as a philosopher, very well read in other fields, butI feel sure he would not make any claims to competence inrespect to sociology and psychology, such as he undoubtedlycommands in biology.It auld be a splendid thing if we could have a comparable piece of work written from the sociological andpsychological point of view.Ever yours cordially,L. Kunz _JVice PresidentDr. P. A. SorokinResearch Center in Altruistic CreativityEm eraon HallCambridge 38, Mass.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_178
KUNZ, Dr. F. L.December 21, 1955Dr. F. L. KunsThe Foundation for Integrated iducation, Inc.2u6 : ast ii6th StreetNew York 17, Sew YorkI thank you for your letter. iThen my time permits I shall be gladtc write for Main Currents a concise paper about social and culturalsystems and their relationship to biological and physical systems..You quite rightly interpreted my remarks about Dr. McClelland'sarticle as made in a humorous mood. .This humorous mood concerns alsothe greater part of the research and discoveries of the group of so-called "behavioral scientists" successfully wasting millions of thelord foundation at their Center at Leland Stanford University inCalifornia. Not only in the field of systems, but in practically allfields which they have touched they have been rediscovering mainly thetable of multiplication, snd this sort of things. In my forthcomingvolume, Fads and Foibles of Modem Sociology and Belated Sciences, afairly sharp criticism of this sort of studies is given. BiSSDsM'Spoor knowledge of what has been done in the field of systems, as wellas not very brilliant kind of analysis, partly reflects the above defects of these "bshavlMal researchers."Tilth the seasons' s greetinga and my best wishes.Very sincerely yours,Pitlrtm A. SorokinP.S, Due to several circumstances the Incorporation of theSociety is not completed yet, but I hope It will be completedat the beginning of next year.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_179
January ?6, 1956DECLARATIONL. Freedom is a function of natural law.If a human society ia to be free, democratic and self-regulating, it is not enough to resist tyrants, ignoramuses,demagogues, liars, bullies and criminals, and to claim andmaintain the right of free expression. Putting the pointin the simplest fashion, we can say that in a human society,enlargement of freedom, taken as opportunities for choice,depends upcn knowledge of natural order and lying moredeeply under those examples of natural order which arefamiliar knowledge of natural law.*An illustration may be employed. If safe air travel isheld to be an addition to human freedom, then it must beadmitted that it has been made possible by the study ofthe appropriate constancies of nature. The initial gainvas made, as is so usual in science, at the level of simpleobservation, simple measurement, and of trial and error.Before long an immense battery of well-established and ofnei" knowledge was turned upon the problem, so that phenomenalike gravitation, mass, turbulence of air, properties ofmaterials, airfoil forms, elasticity of structures, resonance,could be interrelated. It may almost be said thata modern airplane is the physical expression of great numbers of equations, and its mathematics are not less remarkable than the mathematics called for to write (in non-musical form) the energies and distributions of energy ina symphony by Beethoven. An airplane is a work of functional art expressing natural order, and natural law. Hencewe are free to fly.In the case of the social structure much more than in astructure such as a modern airplane—-it is necessary tounderstand not only natural order, but natural law. Bynatural order we may mean the sort of thing that can bereadily agreed to and studied by simple observation, bydirect measurement, by direct experiment, and the like.Great gains have been made by science operating thus.Indeed, there in science we must begin. How far we go isdetermined by our employment of intellectual skills (suchas mathematics and logic) to penetrate to levels of naturalorder which cannot be had by simple inspection, or by directmeasurement. For theory becomes indispensable in studying*Freedom in a self-regulating society is not a function ofrandomness. Nor are we concerned here with the sociallynegative freedom born of isolation. Ve are discussing thefreedom of self-regulating individuals which is the basisfor the creation and maintenance of a self-regulating societyon the sound foundation of valid public knowledge.
Sorokin_IX_F_7_180
nature, once we begin to operate at levels deeper thanthose of direct measurement, trial and error, classification by description, and the like. In general, our knowledge of natural order is determined by our use of inductiveinferences, and those provisional generalizations calledhypotheses.Modern knowledge came to a point in its evolution abouteighty years ago when a particular form of science at lastbegan to have successes on such a scale as to establishits method in a unique position, at the very peak of thewhole enterprise of studying nature.It is this development, which complements all the otherforma of scientific endeavor and which opens up to us aknowledge not only of natural order, but of natural law.It permits us to reach the deep levels of nature's operations at which emerge close,sometimes exact,correlationsof the workings of human reason with the exquisitly refinedand dependable workings of nature. This form of scienceconstitutes a valid public discourse about natural law.The knowledge of natural law which ve require to confirmand enlarge our freedom is acouirable only if that form ofscience be given its proper place as a cultural enterprisein education.In technical language, this 3pccial form of knowledge iscalled deductive-exact science. The reader will pleasebear in mind that we are talking about empirically established, realistically usable, science. Vfl are not talkingabout so-called mire sciences, such as mathematics andlogic, taken by themselves, alone. They are importantparts of education, without doubt, even when taken alone.But obviously they must also be understood as parts of anenterprise of inquiry into the system of nature in whichwe find ourselves living, if education is to be directedto understanding of natural law to the end that we may bemore and more free.Ve speak only of the proper ?Iace due to deductive-exact,emoirically-verified science, and we are not excluding butmerely contrasting the immensely varied and valuable gainsvon in science by inductive methods, by direct measurement,and even by simple trial and error, when no other method isat hand.In fact, inductive reasoning is not only indispensable initself, but also necessary to establish the vital and uniquefunction of the deductive-exact processes, just becauseinduction cannot,in itself, arrive at anything more thancorrelations of data and inferences. Whatever vie may learn

Pages