Saving Society by Bernard S Phillips David Christner

Author:Bernard S Phillips, David Christner [Bernard S Phillips, David Christner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317252504
Google: yT1ACwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-12-22T06:00:50+00:00

Figure 5-1 “Head,” “Heart,” and “Hand”: Inward-Outward Perception and Thought, Emotional Expression, Interaction, and Other Structures

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Once again, just as in the case of Part II, Part III carries forward our emphasis on the incredible potential of language and the scientific method, a potential that we have only just begun to harness. Now that we have sketched our own approach to the extraordinary language of social science, we are in a position to make use of that language to sketch directions for fulfilling our evolutionary potential. Yet let us remain aware of our present historical situation: We are in a race against time, given increasing threats based on our failure to develop an understanding of how to tap more than a tiny fraction of that potential. We have examined those threats in the preceding chapters and have made use of the extraordinary language to do so. Let us make no mistake: Those threats are mammoth, increasing, and require urgent action. And the present ability of our leaders to understand them, much less confront them effectively, is most deficient. We are not simply attempting to hype our argument when we conclude that there is a significant possibility that the human race will become extinct, not today or tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow. What we require at this time in history is nothing less than a mammoth and continuing effort—by each of us no less than by those who presently lead the institutions of society—to learn how to confront those threats ever more effectively.

As we proceed to Chapters 5, 6, and 7, we should remain aware of the limitations of the “head” without the “heart” and the “hand.” Historically, the industrial or technological revolution—that continuing shaping of our world—did not just result from the development of the physical and biological sciences. Neither did it result just from the invention of the scientific method that was behind those scientific achievements. What was required as well was the application of that same scientific method, coupled with that new understanding of the physical and biological universe, to efforts specifically directed at shaping that universe so as to fulfill human aspirations. It was, then, science and technology together—and not just science alone—that proved to be essential, and that succeeded in shaping our world over the past five centuries, focusing on physical and biological problems (“heart”) and solutions to those problems (“hand”).

In the same way, any understanding of human behavior and of individual and social problems that we achieve will only go so far toward solving those problems. What we require in addition to “head” is “heart” and “hand.” We need deep awareness of and commitment to solving individual and social problems (“heart”). To achieve this is an incredibly difficult task. Of course, it is easy enough to gain awareness of our visible problems, such as awareness in 2008 of the financial crisis or in 1941 of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But to achieve an awareness of the role of our bureaucratic worldview, and to achieve a commitment to altering that worldview, is far more difficult.

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