The Optimum Utilization Of Knowledge by Kenneth E. Boulding Lawrence Senesh

Author:Kenneth E. Boulding, Lawrence Senesh [Kenneth E. Boulding, Lawrence Senesh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000304091
Google: 4kyfDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 52762462
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

Students may write a paper on ideals and social reality in the United States. The purpose would be to identify the ideals of the founding fathers, to check the contemporary social scene against these ideals, and to conclude whether in the long run humankind is moving toward values of truth and justice or away from these values.

To learn that the images they form about the world determine the way they act, the students may each read a news report or watch a certain TV program and present a substantive report about their impressions to the class. The class can then discuss the reasons for the differences in their reports and how these differences may affect their possible actions.

To help students discover that the powerful frequently resist testing the validity of their knowledge, the students may search in history for what happened to independent thinkers who challenged the prevailing image of the world and the knowledge of those with political powers.

The class may invite a Marxist to explain the reasons for his or her belief in the scientific interpretation of history. The class may study the ideology of the Soviet Union and determine how the threat system perpetuates this ideology.

So that students may understand that knowledge is made up of images of facts and images of values, the students may write an essay on their goals in life and in the class discuss the goals of society. Comparing them, they can try to discover harmony or conflict between their personal goals and society's goals. Students may discuss how their goals might change if they moved to a commune committed to mutual aid or to a high-income suburban community or to an Amish community or to a community prejudiced against certain minorities.

To help students discover that seeing through the eyes of a specialist distorts social reality, a student panel may be organized in which each student takes a role, such as an economist, a political scientist, a theologian, an engineer, a businessman, or a military expert. Each can bring a specialized point of view to such problems as increasing military expenditures, decreasing aid to the poor, or speeding up the construction of nuclear power plants.

To help students recognize that learning is a never-ending process and that aging is not necessarily a handicap to continued learning, the class could prepare an exhibit of books, reproductions of art work, and musical compositions produced by creative people in their senior years. Students may also invite senior community leaders, business executives, and other professionals to their classroom to explain their particular work and the reasons that age has enhanced rather than curtailed their creativity.

To help students discover how the values of society affect the production of human artifacts, they may present an exhibit of how they would spend a given amount of money to provide themselves with the greatest satisfaction. Then the class could discuss whether the priorities they established would lead to human betterment.

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