Foundation for Integrated Education

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February li, 19£3iJr. 3'rita L. SunsThe roimdation for Integrated .Sducation, Ire2U6 -asS u6fct> Street;:ew York 17, ^ew YorkThis is Just to thank yon for your Mcst'friendly note aboutthe abridged edition cf jocicl r:nc Jriltural liynar.ica. Ideeply appreciate your scrorcsitv.for the present there Is no Startling news about the ResearchSociety. Lir. Bowdltch iaid tiio financial mciabers of theCouncil = re still trying tc secure none funds, iut as theseefforts have already ccriti-'iuod for t.cre than two years, Ithink that conetirae in April or !.iay ire shall seriously consider tliis problem and then either clone the Sosiatgr or takeIts management, including nanagairort of its financial driveinto stxne other hands.i-rorn the end of February to tfaa end of f'arch - ijosaiWy eventhe niddle of Arrtl - iJro. Sorokin and I plan to spend on avacation and lecture tour at universities and colleges ofOeor^ia, Florida, and rx33nibly T.oui3iana. The trip toFlorida especially has beconie an annual vacation durin: the"oest season in Florida and tho r.-orsfe months here.''.itl. ;,' best wishos,ntiriTa A. Sorokin
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latitat forintegrated education. Inc.set ..6th Street■;. .e- Yurk>ar Frits iI learned from tlie ai.:iounce;iei.t that ciu ^ny 23 youwill be to . boa, .. id bops that you uill attendting of the Council nej-rt day, Bay ah, at theFaculty Club cf ■■■■.!.?., at 10)00 A...., to discussthe important problcn of either burying or contlnu-S research '..ociety, out freed frost its internaltv.lit and r.utual inhibition by each faction cf theactivities of each other. 'If you have time on llay 23, ..rs. ..orokin and Myselfs very Tied to see vou at cur place, and tohave a simple lunch cr dinner with you. If younoiild 'phone me 'Winchester 6-3tt66) after your arrival in I'cu'tcn, ne can then a^ree aoout those mat--With best wishes,Very sincerely yours,
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MAIN CURRENTSIN MODERN THOUGHT,Dear Pitirim,Dora arid I much enjoyed our viBlt with Mrs. Sorokin andyou. I look forward to ever-closer personal co-operationalong lines discussed. There are so Tew in this countrywho understand the relation of basic studies to thisfearful crisis In human affairs that I feel they must standtogether and work together, and to continue to hunt for thefew that are capable of understanding what Is called for.It Is that fen who can change the climate of thought.You did a splendid Job, I thought, in arresting themistaken course of developments In the Research Societyfor Creative Altruism. Slots you agreed to continue withsimple membership, I have decided to continue at any rate forthe present on the Council. I have not been involved Inthe complexities and can therefore be perhaps ol some helpto the worthwhile men in the group.However, my main concern is with my prior commitment, andthe prospects there are not unpromising now. We go alongqu^dljtly, but we have decisive effects, not too diffusedand weak. Please continue patiently with me, along thelines we decided upon at 8 Cliff Street, blessed by trulyclear thought and dedication and (may I say, who am nosimple mystic 1) the psychic atmosphere shod by tho azaleas,something^even the finest building at HIT nor the oldestruin of a buidling at Harvard can supply 1Ever yours arrectlonatelys^''~ P. L. Kuna)
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ri-aiii.vnai Km < .vrcei.v. Ini:.June 2, 1958Dr. Prank BowdltchResearch Society for Creative AltruismSharetor Bldg.470 Atlantic ATe.Boston 10, Mass.Dear FrankiThank you for your letter of Hey 27th.It would, of course, be nice if your labors producedsuch a substantial sum of money that the basic research whichshould be done by people like Professor Sorokin, ProfessorNorthrop, Professor Margenau and others could actually bedone.We must, however, keep the organisations distinct. Iunderstood from the Council meeting that the Research Societyis going to attend to research. Certainly the Foundation forIntegrated Education will not cease to stress that side ofthings, and do work in that field.-My understanding is that the Center for the Study ofValues is to be a eeparate activity, but I may be wrong inthis?I would like to have that point cleared up, namely, whetheryou are soliciting money for the Research Society as such, orfor the Center, or both?naturally you are not soliciting money in the name ofthe Foundation for Integrated education, although I know thatyou would like to see its work prosper.I do moat fully agree that there are many business peoplewho would come into activities of this kind if they only understood them properly* I hope you will not take any offence ifI say that if they ere to give money for the kind of researchthat must be done, then it ia necessary for you to understandthe nature of that research and to represent it very clearlyto them. The materiala so far issued from the office in the
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Sheraton Building do not seem to me sufficient for thispurpose.F. L. SunsVice Preaident
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Dr. P. L. aimsTlie Foundation for Integrated Education, Inc.2li6 Fast '6th Streetriow York 17, New YorkaSJOept ny cordial thanks for the eo|des of your tiro letters.After the renting of the Council I had an exchange cf ideas about theSociety isith Swaitii, dean Clark, and one or two other members. Ourgeneral conclusion soesaS tc be that until in some way the Society-. cjId be able to secure a miniuma of funds necessary tc start atleiast its publication and resuarrjli activities, I cannot take: an activepert in its building, un the other hand, fry personal opinion is thatits present administration can hardly build it, particularly as a research institution. The very fact that MF« Boweaet is not going todo anything until the fall is an additional confimwition of thiseiiai^nosis. So, for the time beln ; at least, 1 ai, -^oinc to ba busywith some writing and would be mainly loafing during the surrnor. Inthe Fall I plan to resume the nork over try possibly the last volumeof some importance.ith lire. Sorokin's aid ny beat regards for lira. Kuns.and yourself,.-"d nee rely yours,Pitirim A. iiorokin
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To \JISL.Team an WM/3t\ ^ ^Institute for Integrative Studies ""— *A complex society can only go forward if its institutionsare continually improved, so that they operate more and more fullyin consonance with the orders of the universe---that system inwhich society, the individual and nature are encompassed. In thehuman mind, this system appears as loosely connected, more orless valid, generalizations or concepts. Because of these twoconcurrent facts, it is obvious that the major task of educationlies in improving and diffusing the concepts. Failure here isfailure at the center.Language dramatically exemplifies human dependence on abstractions. No one can speak a meaningful word a word more significant than a grunt or a cry without using some classification, that is, a system which orders experience so that it canbe shared with another. For example, a hat does not belong tothe class called boots. When we say in, we imply in-ness, notout-ness. A man means any man, and a universal idea lurks inthat smallest of words-Let us recall, merely to dismiss it, the fact that it isonly considered as sounds that words for the same idea or classdiffer from language to language. {They may differ in this wayfrom dialect to dialect, and even from drink to drink. In thewords of the limerick, "A don who'd been dining in Dunstableexplained, when detained by a constable, 'I'm firm on my feet;it must be your street that's unstable or should I sayun stable?"') In any sober, workable society, the essential
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2.ingredient of a word must show, in approximately stable fashion,the class, the order, the concept signalled by the sound.This single example of language is enough to show that acomplex society cannot exist unless it has formulated and shareda substantial body of orders. Except in tyrannical societies(where whim and wish may take the place of reality) and in institutions for the insane, conceptual orders must ultimatelybe in agreement with the nature of things. For man himself isprimarily an expression, a product, of a universe. He is onlysecondarily a citizen of a specific culture or nation. Hisbasic imperatives come to him from his own potential, which isrested in part upon nature.It is clear today that all nations, and the global societywhich is coming into being, are in grave trouble. The reasonsare fundamental, but correctable, for they are based upon lackof knowledge.In respect to matter and energy, our command of the ordersof nature is considerable. But in regard to life and its functional forms, our knowledge is deficient, and it is deplorablyfragmentary as to man and his works. In short, those areaswhich we need most of all to understand are shrouded in a twilight of confusion which deepens into darkness. In this darknessof ignorance we have become afraid.
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II.Our firmest knowledge of natural orders derives from threesources.For ages man has accumulated information about recurrent orrepeatable experiences. The ideas based upon this information,and tested again and again, have built up the body of folk knowledge. The fact that this knowledge has, over the centuries,become sophisticated does not change its essential character.Many priceless insights into the nature of the universe and themeaning of human existence have thus slowly formed. Oddlyenough, psrts of this lore are still prized and used, but considered as knowledge, much of it is now suspect. The cause forthis rejection, as is well known, is the rise of science.Over the years, scientific generalizations have promptedtestable hypotheses, and so led on to predictions of nature'sorderly behavior, often in mathematical and measurable terras.These hypotheses, when verified, have built up a vast, almostunmanageable, mass of knowledge about the orders of nature. Itis a very mixed bag, and much is descriptive, so that the conceptual validity is quite uneven. Nevertheless, so large and souseful is this body of knowledge that many educated people believethat there is no reliable method of knowing other than that ofgeneralizations abstracted from sense data, hypothesis, prediction,and test.There is, however, another kind of science deductive-exact,empirically tested—-which has been in use for some centuries.This is the other side, the obverse, of that precious scientific
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coin of the world-realm that must come to be. Since the precisecharacter of this method is not commonly understood, and sinceits potential usefulness in fields outside physics is littleappreciated even within university circles, it is necessary toidentify the principles which distinguish this third method ofknowledge of natural order.So elegant are the workings of this form of knowledge thatthe essentials can often be stated in starkly beautiful terms.But we must be clear on an important point. This method doesmore than lead us to the highest ranges of knowledge of naturalorder. Close study of the method as such discloses, as well,characteristics of the human potential as a whole. Basic powersof the human mind, insight into some of man's noblest emotions,and clues to the directives which the universe prescribes tous in our pursuit of the good, are all to be discerned. Inshort, pursuit of this method takes us perforce over into thesubjective world, the unseen and unseeable---but directly inwardly experienced domain where beauty and goodness rest withtruth. For pure thought leads to loveliness and to love ofgoodness, by very nature of the arduous and exact pursuit oftruth. Thus the method may be said to be philosophical andmetaphysical, just because it is positive science at its best.III.In science, the deductive exact process properly startswith a certain type of postulate which is assumed to be truealthough wholly ideal and beyond sensory experience. (This
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5-should not be taken to deny that sense perceptions of certainkinds may partly hide and partly reveal comparable principles.)It is of first importance to note that the postulate is quitedifferent from the hypothetical generalization, in this veryrespect. The latter is drawn from sense data, and it is aboutthat data. However it may be prompted—-and this process isunknown yet, when articulated, the former belongs to the classof ideas called pure thought.As a rule the postulates, when thus clearly enunciated, turnout to be assumptions about infinities, perfections, and thelike. They usually have reference to space (geometry), or tospace-time (hypergeometry), and like elements subjectible tomathematical treatment.In the present state of affairs this mathematical and logical structuring is the only manner in which deductive-exact knowledge is firmly shaped. Later, no doubt, as mankind evolves, othermethods than those of mathematics may be worked out. Even today,in the highest arts, reflection suggests that we may assume thatultimates lie in the background, as we may dimly feel in thepresence of exalted musical experience.It is notable that the above-mentioned characteristics,i.e., of perfection and infinity, are also ascribed in religiousfaiths to the divine source, or Reality, although the verbal termsused are such as omnipresence, omniscience, and so on.
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In science, however, the object is valid knowledge, andeven control of nature through obedience to and use of her basicorders, and the postulates are profitless if left as mere beliefs-Being strictly treated by logic and mathematics, certain inescapable, publicly demonstrable, conclusions can be drawn which,when well done and finally justified empirically turn out togive us more exact knowledge of natural order than does any otherform of knowledge or experience. In fact it may be said that ifwe are to find natural laws for the purposes of improving theinstitutions of free societies, this is at present a requiredmethod.In the case of religion, notions of omnipresence and omniscience remain usually emotions or feelings, arrested as suchbecause seldom worked out in consistent form. At the other end,religion has content, namely, a body of social-ethical ideas andpractices, and of inherited lore. But we make little effort toconnect these firmly with the postulated concepts of infinity andperfection, nor laterally with the rest of valid knowledge. Thesituation is schizoid.In the case of the arts, such as music, an emotional tone isalso present, necessarily, since all sense experience has afeeling Ingredient. It may be strong and vital and ennobling,too. But, as in the best of religion, there is also some rationalcontent, seldom explored deeply enough to disclose the infinitudeand perfection which may lie behind both the acoustical and themusical principles.

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