Foundation for Integrated Education

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The report of Larry Leonard of the Institute for International Order has,no doubt, come to you? I feel sure thatthey must have sent it to everybody mentioned on pages oneand two of Appendix A. That list, of course, includes agreat many people tery. remote from our interests and evensuspicious and probably in some cases hostile. All the samethe thinking that you and I consider important is to someextend reflected on pages 9 to 12.Ever yours affectionately,F. L. KifnsFLK:ph Vice President
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■Jctober Hi, 1958Dr. F. L. RunsThe Foundation for Integrated Education, Inc.2li6 East lioth Street■ Jew York 17, Hew YorkDear FritsiIt eeena that our letters Lave crossed one another. In my preceding letter Iindicated that I am not a ,-rood ran for writing the, application for grant by theFoundations. 1 am still less successful in a practical drive for funds. If Ireceived for my iiC3earch Center i!20,000 from the Lilly Endowment, this fundcame fentiDaly hy the initiative cf 'Jr. Ell Lilly and of the Eridowment,I carefully read your letter and reread your enclosed article in Volume 8, Ho. 1of tho Main Currants. If you plan to use this article for the application forfunds to the t oundations, my feeling is that the article is too scientific andby far exceeds the mental level of the directors and bosses of the Fouridations.After all, practically all of the are buainessraen and have a very poor knowledgeof the methods of science and hardly better Judgement as to i l.ioh of the researchsubjects are important and which are not. If an application Is to be marie to theFoundations, it should be very concrete and correspontfcLnr; to the mental level ofthe bosses of the Foundations, and especially of their secretaries and helpers.What, however, perhaps is most iiirportant Is to have sore personal f"!.onushipTilth some of the influential personnel of the Foundations. In tills respect Iam sorry hi at I M again fairly useless, because I do not know any of thenpersonallcy, and do net have the diplomatic ability to flatter them. For thesereasons J think that i'r. .■'argenau, or Horthrop, or Slrmott, or yourself n/ouldbe much better qualified persons to engineer the application thai nyaelf.Very sincerely yo. re,Pitirim A. SorokinP.S. I received already too letters from eminent professors of egineerlng and businessmen in connection with i,y article in ..ialnCurrents. Their reaction seer.a to be very favorable.
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~THE FOUNDATION FOR INTEGRATED EDUCATION, INC.November *, 1958Dear Pitirim,Thank: you for your recent letters. We have been overwhelmedby work In our orrioe (ana still are: I write this at home),hence the delay in acknowledgement.Yea, my piece on general morphology of living orders is over-compact. This I knew when I published it. I sent it to youmerely to show that there Is a way to attack this problem, oncewe get a study center, a little stability, and some money to puta really goon maths man at walk* I have gone beyond that intothe beginnings or a social morphology. This, or course, isana necessarily must be, at present, a very simple projection;but once put before people, its merit is evident. That I havenot published; it should be gone Into only arter some headway . .-,has been made With the Irving genotypes, in my opinion. Jf<LUU~^ •wTa" "•a*' iV~~-Herein you 7.111 flnu an expansion or the earlier paper. It isput in your hands, and those of llargenau, Mather (as out Foundation'spresident), and a few others for any assistance they may care togive on it. I an thinking or issuing it as a loose sup ilementin j ;: ;:TS; also or expanding it a bit (with illustrationsneeded, for readers not used to an unrelieved course or reasoning)ana putting It out as a small book, arter that.As soon as possible I shall send you a copy of the description orthu property that has been offered to us.It is my corvlctlon that a roraial application to a Foundationwhere '.ve have no inside connections of a powerful sort is,in our case, a waste of time. Behind the staff stand (or, worn,sit I), as you say, hoards o£ stolid people, unwilling or unable tostop to learr. about things truly important. Two men right nextto a president of a Fund (in their hierarchical order) did theirbest to explain anu persuade their head man that what r.e are aboutIs important; m vain. It would he airrerent ir (say) Fil Northropwere to appeal to the Foundation (Viking, now >Tenr.er-Gren) ana say:Give this thing a chance, on my say so.■^he enclosed need not be returned. Just please give us anyencouragement ana help, ana contacts you may think might beuseful, especially people v;ho might read this ana take rire.Ever yours affectionately
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TheINSTITUTEINTEGRATIV:STUDIESA program of research intomethod and materials leadingto insight, and suited toeducation in free societies
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I to V The problem defined-A complex free society can go forward only if its institutionsare continually being improved so that they operate ever more fullyin consonance with the apparent and the hidden orders of the universe, that system in which society, nature, and the individual areencompassed.In the human mind this system is reflected as a network ofloosely connected generalizations, or concepts. In given individuals the ideas may be few and inadequate as well as uncriticallyand even unconsciously entertained. A well-ordered society cancarry along an unenlightened multitude provided the institutionsof that society are not rested upon distorted and fragmented concepts which prevent the society from working in ways nature tolerates and which force men to live in ways which frustrate Or betrayto animality the human potential.In previous centuries nations sustained special classes ofcitizens who by birth and education were fitted to enter and operate the legal, economic, and other institutions which are theorgans of a complex human community. It is no doubt correct toattribute to the decay of institutions, and to consequent inequityand injustice, the death of most nations thus designed. Withoutquestion institutions which perpetuate inhumanities over longperiods of time are bound to fail and their societies to fall.But this is by no means all. In addition to the moral forces oflove working for the right in man's affairs, there is in the
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human spirit the need and the will to know. This force too, willnot be denied, as evolution proceeds.In a complex society the failure to adapt institutions togrowing knowledge that can, if well integrated, lead to insightinto nature and man, and into the universe of which they areaspects, ia as fatal as is the use of such institutions to defeatthe powers of love and brotherhood.II.Today we move toward a fresh era. All men in all societiesare to be literate, and the institutions of the new united worldare to be maintained not only by those inheriting wealth andpower, but by anyone who acquires appropriate knowledge. Institutions of law, education, economics, and social forms are underscrutiny the world over.'''e in the United States have long held that a fresh startwas afforded us on this continent to ensure that the institutionsof the new nation would be shaped, consciously, on "the Laws ofNature and of Nature's God." In a proclamation of our politicalindependence as a people we thus asserted our dependence uponthe universe. The wisest men of this new country endeavored toestablish it upon such knowledge as was then possessed.The record shows that since then knowledge has vastly increased and experience richly diversified among a numerous andliterate population. It also shows that the conceptual system-ization thereof has not been attended to. In recent decadesthis failure has been acknowledged, and various groups have made
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scattered and sporadic efforts to find ways to correct the dangerous deficiency.At issue here are not beliefs, nor ideal goals. These, evenif unitedly pursued, and based upon deep emotions of love anduniversal brotherhood, cannot take the place and supplant thefunctions of knowledge and insight. So much should be clear.It is also obvious that the institution first to benefitfrom the great gains in knowledge made in recent generations shouldbe education.Because of this need to relate our concepts about society,nature, and the mind and life of man to reality, with increasingvalidity, it i3 plain that a major task of education lies now inimproving the concepts. Failure here is failure at the center,making success in lesser ventures Incomplete and ephemeral, evendistracting.The question under discussion, then, is: How do we formulatea program of research which will improve our knowledge in itsconceptual aspects?III.Universal security and leisure are now quite feasible, inasmuch as we have the scientific knowledge and the techniques andphysical resources to win them. But the ultimate aim cannot bemere literacy and physical well-being, for what is man to do withthe security and leisure when he has won them? Education in thesecular school systems of the world is surely called upon to teachnew generations how to use scientific and other gains for human
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good; and this can be done through ever-improved understanding ofwhat is, human good. Peace for the individual, humane and equitable institutions, social stability and world welfare are all dependent upon a basic answer (however partial) to the ultimatequestion: What is the purpose and nature of human existence?To be sure, institutions slowly change for the better evenwithout wise planning. But to wait upon mass action brings almost guarantees varying degrees of strain and stress. Thealternative to thoughtful study and improvement is not necessarilya sudden, violent revolution. The history of England, for example,records generations and indeed centuries of various kinds of revolutions, and the process of change is going on before our veryeyes. No country is immune from the forces of historic changeand social improvement. Old wielders of influence are continuously being dispossessed, and new power groups will be displacedin turn, unless they themselves elect to lead the world on tomeet its new requirements. The further evolution of man may wellbe quite as certain as the slow, relentless evolution of lifehas been up to now. Even if our horizons are extended out intospace, the focus of our lives will be terrestrial for quite awhile. Nor can it be seriously said that we shall escape theuniverse even if v;e leave this planet, this solar system, or thisgalaxy.IVThe nature of the proposed new studies and the action calledfor to make the program realisable can be made clear. But confidence in such an enterprise calls for full acceptance of a specific
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5-need in every human being and every human society: The need toknow.As a result of past neglect and misunderstanding of the fundamental role of conceptual thought there are, alasl many who donot appreciate its essentiality. Individuals may choose to dwellin the illusion that to be truly human requires only that a manbe fair, kind, and constant; that he may lead a full life withoutexercising whatever native ability and educational resources he mayhave to understand himself, nature, society, and the universe. Thetruth, however, is (and it will shortly be illustrated) that no onecan exist without some use however little it may be consciouslyemployed of abstract conceptual thought, or at least some generalizing habit of mind. We are not, for the moment, concerned withan individual who is disinclined to examine at work in himselfthe system of thought which he employs-—or which employs him—-hidden from him,like the invisible part of an iceberg which accountsfor most of its drift. Earlier societies have been able to persistpassably well and for centuries with the majority of their citizensignorant of their human birthright. We too can carry many. Buta free, democratic government cannot afford to tolerate a leadership which neglects this important asset. Enlightenment is thesignificant weapon in the struggle for survival in freedom.In universities specialization of knowledge is a conspicuousfeature and for technology this has advantages- But neither timenor resources are available on campuses to correct the consequentdisintegration of knowledge into parts, and even fragments. Theonlooker might suppose that the restoration of wholeness might be
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most readily begun by the university's department of philosophy.Something needs therefore to be said about this.Today the term philosophy is inexactly used. It may signifysimple resignation and the very opposite of the word's proper intent. Total defeat and a refusal to think any more is implicitin such a phrase as, "He took it philosophically." The word maymean the useful but sterile sole pursuit of logic; or the studyof great thoughts selected from great books by a small group whothink they can judge which books are great, a kind of paternalisticcensorship. It may mean pondering over and even challenging thereligious and cultural ideas, good, bad, and indifferent, in whichwe have been habituated since birth. Or it may mean spun-outspeculation about the ideas of certain well-thought-of writersand few others, arranged in familiar groups". Epistemology,ontology, aesthetics, and so on.Now, the university itself offers a vast complex of subjectspresented, on some one campus, in thousands of courses of study-It has long been quite impossible for a few men and women burdenedwith teaching loads to keep up with all this vast proliferation ofknovledge of new inexplicable facts and fresh and challengingprinciples- It will continue to be impossible until two stepsare taken: First is the need to define at least one method whichall concerned will agree to be correct and important if we are toarticulate all of this material and join in assessing its meaning.In these pages we identify such a method. The first thing to bedone by the Institute for Integrative Studies is to exemplify the
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7-method and show its true utility in so many examples drawn fromrich areas that its nature and value will be universally appreciated. Second, the method must be put to new uses in other areasand all the new information also shared. This is a task to beundertaken by a group which does only this, and which works withall universities and laboratories.The phrase department of philosophy indicates that what wasonce the center of learning is now a specialized part which cancontribute to the whole and in due time become once more the meansto engender insight. Eager and gifted young people who pursuepresent studies in philosophy often become in turn instructors andeven professors of philosophy without having proper opportunity todraw upon other cultures or to command the valid conceptualizationsand insights offered perhaps in their own university in departmentsdevoted to marriage and the family, anthropology, physics, psychology and so on. They deserve certain advantages denied them now,and then in due course their ancient and noble avocation will berestored to its proper high estate.whatever the limited objectives of individuals or groups maybe, a whole society cannot prosper without an over-all intent tocomprehend as best it can the universe, nature, the human potential,society, the meaning of life and the origins of things and therebycommand the knowledge without which its educational and other institutions are unable to recreate themselves. Society is individuals. Individuals find their means to enlightenment through institutions, primarily the home and the school, which society offersthem. Thus a society owes its very life to valid principles
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publicly established and shared by all its members. It nourishesitself on concepts which are practical and workable because theyare true to the universe in which we live and move and have ourbeing. If such good generalizations are not at hand, then defective abstractions will be used. This is so because a societysimply cannot operate without abstractions. This is so importantthat it must be made clear by an example.V.Language dramatically exemplifies human dependence uponconcepts.No one can speak a meaningful word a sound more significantthan a grunt or a cry without using some classification, that is,a system which orders experience so that it can be shared by beingevoked in another. For example, a hat does not belong to the classcalled boots- Both are encompassed in the word attire. In impliesin-ness, not out-ness. A man means any man, and a universal idealurks in this smallest of words.Considered as sounds, words for the same idea or class differfrom language to language; and there are of course ideas held inone culture absent from another. Whatever the sound in a givenlanguage, it must signal and evoke in approximately stable fashion,the class, the order, the concept that is to be called up by it.'"e do not here discus3 the fact that many schools are trying (andfailing), to keep our terms limited to references to thingsphysical. This is disastrous. Even physics let alone thesciences of life and of man, and the life of the individual mind is nowadays constantly talking about reality in terms of the non-material.

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