William Allan Kritsonis, PhD - Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning

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HUMAN NATURE

INSIGHTS

1. The educator needs to understand human nature.2. A comprehensive view must allow for the many-

sidedness of man.3. Humans are beings who discover, create, and

express meanings.4. Meaning refers to the inner life, or the life of mind.5. The objective is to understand the inner life that is

the center and substance of human existence andfrom which all distinctively human actions spring.

6. Each type of meaning that has demonstratedgenerative power is the special province of acompany of experts who make the preservation

and advancement of that sort of meaning theirprofessional business.7. Varieties of productive meanings correspond to

the varieties of scholarly disciplines.8. Meanings wax and wane, as do the disciplines

responsible for them.

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24 PART ONE: MEANING AND HUMAN NATURE

9. The symbols of the disciplines are essential to scholarsfor analyzing, criticizing, and elaborating their domainsof meaning.

10. The educator needs to understand the kinds of meaningthat have proven effective in the development of civilization and to construct the curriculum of studies onthe basis of these meanings.

11. The purpose of classifying meanings in education is tofacilitate learning.

12. Every cognitive meaning has two logical aspects,namely, quantity and quality.

13. An intimate connection exists between education, the

nature of man, and the scholarly disciplines.

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HUMAN NATURE 25

H UMAN N ATURE

E ducation is a means of helping human beings to become

what they can and should become. The educator needs tounderstand human nature. He needs to understand people intheir actual- ities. In their possibilities, and in their idealities.He must also know how to foster desirable changes in them.

T HE S TUDY OF H UMAN B EINGS

For the required understanding one naturally turns tothe scientists and scholars who have made the study of human beings their concern. It is evident at once there are

many different classes of investigators interested in theexploration of human nature. No one type of expert has amonopoly on knowledge about man. Each kind of investigator sees a man from a particular perspective. Eachis well quipped to elucidate certain aspects or dimensions of what human beings are.

Physicists And ChemistsPhysicists and chemists usually do not study man as

such. They usually assume that he is part of the generalmatter-energy system of nature. They often assume that aperson as a material structure con- forms to the samephyscochemical laws as rocks, plants, animals, and all otherexisting things. Some physical scientists hold that thephenomena of mind that are not found in developed formexcept in man, need to be considered even within naturalscience in order to explain the observed non-randomorganization of energy in the natural world.

BiologistsBiologists consider man as one species of animal, the

most highly developed of all forms of living things within theevolutionary sequence. Biology deals with distinct livingorganisms. Biologists draw attention especially to theextraordinary adaptive powers of Homosapiens that resultfrom the extensive elaboration of the nervous system.




political episodes especially as they specifically relate tovarious govern-mental entities.

AnthropologistsAnthropologists describe the many types of human

beings, with regard to both physical characteristics andcultural patterns. They study the varieties of languages,customs, beliefs, rituals, laws, and forms of socialorganizations that man has developed. They see humanbeings as having certain basic biological and social needsthat are satisfied in a great many different ways, according

to the circumstances of environment and historicaldevelopment. Anthropologists investigate human beings inrelation to distribution, origin, classification, andinterrelationship of races, physical characteristics, socialrelationships, cultural, and environmentalinterdependencies.

LinguistsLinguists view man in his distinctive capacity for

speech. They describe the many ways human beings haveinvented to communicate with one another. Linguistsanalyze the formal patterns that characterize the languagesof humankind. The linguist is one who speaks andunderstands several different languages. The linguist is aperson who is an expert in languages.

GeographersGeographers study man in relation to his earth habitat.

They show how human behavior is conditioned by suchfactors as climate, food supply, ease of transportation,distribution of natural resources, and population. Thegeographer is an expert in dealing with the earth and its life.

They describe sea, land, and the distribution of plant andanimal life including humankind's industrious activities.

Natural And Social Scientists



HUMAN NATURE 29

For the most part, the natural and social scientists areconcerned with describing the distinctive behavior of classesor kinds of human beings, rather than of individual persons.

They are also not generally concerned with the inner orsubjective life of man except as a means of explainingobserved behavior. Other groups of experts on humannature are interested in understanding man more directlyfrom the inside. Natural science is also concerned with anyof the sciences like chemistry, physics, or biology that dealwith matter, energy and their inter-dependence andtransformations with objectified phenomena that is distinctlymeasurable.

ArtistsArtists see man as a being with a rich and variegated

life of feeling. They attempt to objectify the most significantkinds of human feelings through various types of works of art, including musical compositions, paintings, sculptures,buildings, dances, poems, play, and novels. Artists alsoregard man as a creative agent, and they exemplify therange and power of human creativity through their own

works. The artist is one who practices imaginative art forms.An artist is also skilled in deception

BiographersBiographers set forth the unique individuality of the

person. They show how, through the interplay of manyfactors, a singular life develops toward its particularconsummation. Biographers write an account of the life of something.

MoralistsMoralists portray man as a moral agent, with a

consciousness of right and wrong. They see him as free andresponsible, fashioning his own destiny through a continuingseries of moral decisions. Moralists describe the great moralvisions of humankind, by the light of which the way of eachperson is illuminated and judged. Moralists are concerned




with moral principles, problems, and opportunities. Moralistsare also concerned with regulating morals of other people.

Historians

Historians see man as a being living in time, withmemory of the past, anticipation of the future, and thefreedom of a creative present in which both past and futuremeet. They try to understand the real mean-ing of pastevents by imaginatively reconstructing the conscious life of the persons who brought these events to pass. The historianproduces synthesis through scholarly investigation.

Theologians Theologians regard man as dependent for his beingupon God and as having a spiritual nature rendering himcapable of entering into relationship with the divine.

Theologians believe that human beings possess the power of infinite self-transcendence, living in nature but also able byvirtue of imagination to look upon natural existence from anexalted transcendent standpoint. Theologians are expert intheology. They study God and his relation to worldly

endeavors.People of Knowledge

People of knowledge investigate human nature using avariety of methods and from a great many differentperspectives. The natural scientists, by and large, areinterested in types of observable human behavior. Theyrefer to the inner life of man chiefly to render the outerphenomena intelligible. On the other hand, the humanisticscholars are more immediately concerned with the inner lifeof man. They consider the outer conditions of existencemainly as the background and context for understanding theparticular forms of subjectivity. All the different groups of investigators are concerned with the same human reality.What, then, is humankind?

P HILOSOPHERS A TTEMPT A C OMPREHENSIVE



HUMAN NATURE 31

INTERPRETATION OF H UMAN N ATURE

It is the special task of the philosophers to attempt acomprehen-sive interpretation of human nature.Philosophers try by incorporating and coordinating the workof inquirers from other scholarly specialties with the resultsof their own reflection. A comprehensive view must allow forthe many-sidedness of man. Man is everything the variousspecial inquiries show him to be: He is a complex energy-system; an intelligent adaptive organism with highlydeveloped neurophysiological mechanisms and the power toperceive, think, and purpose; an organized social animalwith demands for goods and power that need intelligent

allocation; a maker of culture and a user of language; abeing who lives in a natural and social environment withwhich he must cope; a creature of feeling and a creator of interesting forms to objectify them;

Like many of the animals on earth,humans are caring, nurturing, protecting,

and providing beings. Most animalsprepare

their offspring for independence by teachthem




to hunt and protect themselves, therebyinsuring survival of the species. Humans

exhibit thisdrive as well. What are the things that

humans teach their children that are notabsolutely necessary for their survival?

Why are we as concerned with them?



HUMAN NATURE 33

Picture




a unique self; a doer and judge of good and evil; a dweller intime, who remembers, anticipates, and celebrates deedsdone; a creature of God partaking of the divine naturethrough the power of boundless self-transcendence.

Is this all the philosopher can say of man, that he is thesum of all the things that specialists say of him? Is there anyunifying idea of human nature of which the experts'testimonies are partial aspects. A classic philosophicalanswer is that man is a rational animal, that his uniqueproperty is the ability to reason, that his distinctive quality isin the life of mind. According to this view, each of theaspects of man described by the various specialists is a

manifestation of the life of mind. Even as a matter andenergy system, man is of a peculiar sort, determined by thepower of thought. His organic adaptations are based onthought. His social and cultural forms are expressions of reason. His arts, his individuality, his morality, his history, hisworship—all are embodiments of reason. This power of thought distinguishes man from everything else in thecreation. In human nature reason is of the essence.

This philosophical answer suffers from the limitation

that such ideas as rationality, reason, and mind tend to betoo narrowly construed as referring to the processes of logical thinking. The life of feeling, conscience, imagination,and other processes that are not rational in the strict senseare excluded by such a construction. The idea of man as arational animal in the traditional sense is accordinglyrejected for being too one-sided. The philosopher is a personwho seeks wisdom, clarity, understanding, andenlightenment. The philosopher is a scholar and thinker.

T HE U NIFYING C ONCEPT IS M EANING

This difficulty can be avoided by using a unifyingconcept that expresses the broader connotations of the ideaof reason. The concept proposed is meaning . This term isintended to express the full range of connotations of reasonor mind. There are different meanings contained in activitiesof organic adjustment in perception, in logical thinking, in



HUMAN NATURE 35

purposive decision in oral judgment, in the consciousness of time, and in the activity of worship. All these distinctivehuman functions are varieties of meaning, and all of themtogether—along with many other varieties of meaning, andall of them together—along with many others—comprise thelife of meaning, that is, the essence of the life of man.

The proposed philosophic answer to the question aboutthe nature of humankind is that humans are beings whodiscover, create, and express meanings. Human meaningsextend across a broad spectrum, encompassing all theunique qualities of mind described by the scientists andscholars who study human nature.

F OUR D IMENSIONS OF M EANING

The importance of this fundamental concept may bemade clearer by explaining four dimensions of meaning.

The first dimension is that of experience . A meaning isan experience, in the sense that it pertains to humanconsciousness. Meaning refers to the inner life, or the life of mind. This inner life has the peculiar quality of reflectiveness , or self-awareness. Automatic reaction to

environmental stimuli is not the characteristic human modeof response. The unique human response is one in which theperson is aware of his responding. He acts consciously ratherthan mechanically. As the psychologists say, thought is a"mediating process" intervening between stimulus andresponse. Reflective mediation is the basis of meaning.

As a reflective experience, meaning presupposes abasic principle of duality, or of self-transcendence. In self-consciousness a person both is himself and yet, so to speak,stands outside himself. He is at one and the same time bothsubject and object, knower and known, agent and patient,observer and observed. This duality is what enables a personto know anything at all. One knows something if he is at oneand the same time distinct from and identified with what heknows. All perception of relationships is based on thisduality. A relationship is identity-in-difference: two things are




united in the one act of consciousness in order that theirnonidentity may also be recognized.

All the varieties of human meaning exemplify this self-trans-cendence. It is the secret of man's unique adaptability.Because of it he can make judgments of truth and falsity, of beauty and ugliness, of right and wrong, of holiness andprofanity; he can predict and control events, use tools,create interesting objects, make laws, organize socially,know the past, and project purposes. In short, this inherentlydual quality of experience is the source of all that ischaracteristically human.

Meanings are experiences in the inner life. The

humanistic scholars give a more intuitively acceptablepicture of essential human nature than do the scientificinterpreters, for whom the inner life is inference rather thantestimony and direct objectivism. Both are valuable andmutually corrective sources of knowledge about man. Directreadings of the inner life need to be checked againstinferences from observable behavior. Outwardmanifestations need to be humanized and individualized byrecognition of the inner sources from which they spring. No

matter which method of study is adopted, the objective isthe same. The objective is to understand the inner life that isthe center and substance of human existence and fromwhich all distinctively human actions spring.

The second dimension of meaning is rule, logic, or principle . The many types of meaning are distinguished fromone another by some difference in characteristic form. Eachtype of meaning has its own rule that makes it one kind of meaning and not another. Each is defined by a particularlogic or structural principle. Meaning is not anundifferentiated experience of awareness. Consciousness isdifferentiated into a variegated array of logical types.

Intention meanings follow a different rule from memorymeanings. Social meanings have a different logic fromartistic meanings. Moral meanings are based on a differentformation principle from language meanings. Each item in



HUMAN NATURE 37

the long endless list of evidences of human mentality has itsparticular defining characteristics.

The third dimension of meaning is selectiveelaboration . Theoretically, there is no limit to the varieties of meaning. Different principles of meaning formation can bedevised ad infinitum. New combinations and nuances of rulecan be imagined without limit. Not all of these possible kindsare humanly important. From the endless variety selectionoccurs. The types that are significant in actual human lifeare the ones that have an inherent power to growth and leadto the elaboration of the enduring traditions of civilization.

These are the kinds of meaning that have proven fruitful in

the development of the cultural heritage.




One could attempt an a priori analysis of possibleclasses of meaning and attempt to forecast that would provemost fertile. It seems far better to benefit from the longexperience of humankind and to regard as most significantthe forms of meaning that have actually demonstrated theirfruitfulness.

These selected types of meaning that have beenelaborated into the traditions of civilization can be identifiedby means of the classes of specialists who serve as theguardians, refiners, and critics of the cultural heritage. Thesespecialist consist of the scientists, scholars, savants, or "wisemen" who are recognized as the authoritative interpreters of

the human inheritance. Each of these men of knowledgebelongs to a community that is for the most part invisible,comprised of persons bound together by commonresponsibility for a particular kind of meaning. Each suchcommunity has its characteristic discipline or rule by whichthe common responsibility is discharged. This disciplineexpresses the particular logic of the meaning in question.

The kinds of meaning that have been selected for theirproven capacity for elaboration are to be found by reference

to the world of disciplined scholarship. Each type of meaningthat has demonstrated generative power is the specialprovince of a company of experts who make thepreservation and advancement of that sort of meaning theirprofessional business.

For the elucidation of meaning we return to the samesource to which we turned for knowledge of human nature.Earlier we asked what these men of knowledge knew aboutman. Now we ask more broadly what the men of knowledgeknow. What the wise ones know are meanings, and thevarieties of productive meanings correspond to the varietiesof scholarly disciplines. The operative kinds of meanings arerevealed in the work of linguists, mathematicians, scientistsof various types, artist-critics, moralists, historians,theologians, and philosophers, who together inhabit theworld of scholarship.



HUMAN NATURE 39

It should not be assumed that the universe of meaningsis exhausted by the particular collection of meanings thathave been elaborated in any given civilization at any givenstage in its history. It should not be assumed that meaningsare represented by a

Children are not always as naïve as manyadults would like to believe. Not every

aspectof human nature is pleasant, and though

children may not understand why aconflictexists, they often understand the

emotionalatmosphere that surrounds it. When such

an atmosphere is present in the home,will that affect the student at school,

and if so, how will the teacher'sunderstanding of human nature allow

him/her to deal with the child?



HUMAN NATURE 41

Picture




corresponding collection of scholarly disciplines. Meaningswax and wane, as do the disciplines responsible for them. Onthis account, any conclusions drawn about man and hismeanings on the basis of actual cultural elaborations mustbe regarded as tentative and incomplete.

The fourth dimension of meaning is expression .Meanings that have civilizing power are communicable. Theyare not private property. The communication of meaningstakes place through symbols. Symbols are objects that standfor meanings. The possibility of symbolization is dependenton the unique human power of self-transcendence, for thedual quality of reflective awareness is required to

understand a symbol. The essence of a symbol is that it isboth identified with its referent and distinguished from it. Forexample, the word symbol "tree" is not a tree, and yet bythe power of thought the symbol stands for a tree.Symbolization also presupposes self-transcendence in theawareness of a common world. Symbols are taken as havingthe same or similar connotation to oneself as to others intowhose being one imaginatively projects oneself.

The symbolic expressions of meaning are of particular

concern to the communities of scholars representing thevarious types of meaning. Each kind of meaning has itsdistinctive expressions, the symbolic forms of eachcorresponding to the peculiar rule or logic of the type. Thesymbols of the disciplines are essential to scholars foranalyzing, criticizing, and elaborating their domains of meaning.

In summary, these are the four dimensions of meaning:the experience of reflective self-consciousness, the logicalprinciples by which this experience is patterned, theselective elaboration of these patterns into productivetraditions represented by scholarly disciplines, and theexpression of these patterns by means of appropriatesymbolic forms. These dimensions all pertain to the idea of meaning and help to explicate it.

C LASSIFYING M EANINGS IN E DUCATION F ACILITATES LEARNING



HUMAN NATURE 43

In order to simplify this task of curriculum planning, it isnecessary to divide the many scholarly disciplines into broadcategories so that a balanced allocation of studies may bemade. There is no single basis of categorization that anybody of material forces on the investigator. Classificationsare to some extent arbitrary, depending on the uses forwhich they are intended. The purpose of classifyingmeanings in education is to facilitate learning. It is desirableto organize the disciplines along lines of general similarity of logical structure. In this manner certain basic ways of knowing can be described. These may be used to allocatestudies for general education and for the education of

persons in their essential humanness.

D ISCIPLINES D IVIDED INTO N INE G ENERIC C LASSES

A study of the logical patterns of the disciplines showsthey may be divided into nine generic classes on the basis of logical structure. This can be demonstrated as follows: Everycognitive meaning has two logical aspects, namely, quantity and quality . Knowledge consists in a relation of the knowerto some range of things known, and each such relation is of

some kind. There are three degrees of quantity:singular,

general, and comprehensive . In other words, knowledge iseither of one thing, of a selected plurality, or of a totality.

There are three distinct qualities of meaning that can bedesignated as fact, form, and norm . In other words, themeanings may refer to what actually exists, to imaginedpossibilities, or to what ought to be.

The nine generic classes of meaning are obtained bypairing the three quantity aspects with the three qualityaspects in all possible combinations. Each of the nine classesmay now be briefly characterized and associated with thediscipline or disciplines to which it applies.

1. General form . This class includes the disciplinesthat are concerned with the elaboration of formal patterns of general application in the expression of meanings. Theycomprise the various symbol systems of ordinary language,




of mathematics and logic, and of gesture, ritual, and othernondiscursive symbolic conventions. Together theyconstitute the realm designated "symbolics."

2. General fact . When general forms are related toactuality, they express the kind of knowledge that is thespecial province of the sciences. These disciplines,designated by the term "empirics," are concerned withmaterial truth expressed in the general laws and theories of the actual world as studied in the natural and socialsciences.

3. Singular form . This class includes meaningsperceived in imagination, without any necessary reference to

actual fact and as embodied in unique particular objects. This class of meanings is basic to the various arts and isdesignated by the term "esthetics."

4. Singular fact . These meanings arise out of concrete existence in direct personal encounter. They arereflectively elaborated and expressed in existentialphilosophy, religion, and psychology, and in those parts of the literary enterprise designed to portray the uniquelypersonal dimensions of existence. Individual psychology and

the various types of individual psychotherapy, counseling,and guidance also aim at an understanding of singular fact.All these disciplines, or parts of disciplines, may bedesignated by the term "synnoetics."

5. Singular norm . This class comprises particularmoral obligations within a given situation where one seeksfor knowledge of what he really ought to do. The discipline of morals is concerned with the methods of making and

justifying such decisions.6. General norm . Generalizations concerning moral

conduct and the development of moral principles are usuallyassigned to the discipline of ethics. Knowledge of singularnorms and knowledge of general norms are commonlyassociated closely since the latter is appealed to in

justification of the former, and the former is considered asthe necessary source for the latter. Both singular andgeneral norms are distinguished by the quality of obligation,



HUMAN NATURE 45

setting them apart from both facts and formal conventionsor constructs. While the ethical realm is not commonlydivided into constituent disciplines, such a division ispossible for theoretical analysis. For example, the methodsand categories of social ethics differ from those of personalethics. Each of these domains may be divided into ethicaldisciplines dealing with decisions in various aspects of life,such as family, business, intellectual pursuits, technology,and political affairs.

7. Comprehensive fact . The study of actuality from acomprehensive standpoint, including both the singularity of the unique event and the relationships of that event with

other events, is the province of the discipline of history. Thehistorian integrates symbolic, empirical, esthetic, and ethicalmeanings into a synoptic perspective on what happened inthe past.

8. Comprehensive norm . When all kinds of knowledge are comprehended within a synoptic perspectivecontrolled by the normative quality, the resulting discipline isreligion. Religious knowledge is regarded as an apprehensionof the Ultimate Good—a Harmony of the Whole, A Complete

Truth—that is not contained in any of the more limited waysof knowing. Religious knowledge is usually thought torequire an act of faith by which a total commitment is madeto whatever is regarded as ultimately worthy of devotion. Inthis essentially normative act all the various classes of knowledge are synthesized.

9. Comprehensive form . A formal consideration of knowledge in all its kinds belongs to the discipline of philosophy. The philosopher's task is to interpret meaningsin any realm or discipline by the use of concepts of widegenerality, thus affording a synoptic view of all the ways of knowing.

In the present analysis the two normative classes willbe treated together under the category designated "ethics"and the three comprehensive classes will be treatedtogether under the category designated "synoptics," thus




yielding six realms of meaning. The resulting logicalclassification of meanings is summarized in Table 1.



HUMAN NATURE 47

Table 1

LOGICAL C LASSIFICATION O F M EANINGS

Generic classes Realms of Quantity Quality Meaning Disciplines

General Form Symbolics Ordinary language,mathematics, nondiscursive symbolicforms

General Fact Empirics Physical sciences,life sciences,psychology, socialsciences

Singular Form Esthetics Music, visual arts,arts of movement,literature

Singular Fact Synnoetics Philosophy,

psychology,literature, religion,in their existentialaspects

Singular Norm Ethics The varied specialareas

General Norm of moral and ethicalconcern

Comprehensive Fact Synoptics HistoryComprehensive Norm ReligionComprehensive Form Philosophy




D ISCIPLINES A RE N OT A LWAYS A SSIGNABLE TO A

S INGLE R EALM OF M EANING

It is evident that disciplines are not always clearlyassignable to a single realm of meaning. Some disciplineshave inner tensions that incline some scholars working inthem toward one logic of meaning and other scholars towardanother. Part of the confusion in the social sciences is due tothe fact that some social scientists are committed to arigorously empirical program, while others believe theyshould also be concerned with ethical meanings. Somepsychologists incline toward the synnoetic realm in theirconcern for individuals in their subjective life, while others

hold to a strong empirical line. Historians differ as to whethertheir discipline belongs in the empirical social sciences or inthe synoptic class with philosophy.

INTIMATE C ONNECTION B ETWEEN E DUCATION ,M AN , AND S CHOLARLY D ISCIPLINES

In this chapter, an attempt has been made to show theintimate connection between education, the nature of man,and the scholarly disciplines. Education can only be

conducted effectively on the basis of knowledge abouthuman nature in its actuality and possibilities. A survey of the relevant fields of scholarship shows there are manydifferent critical perspectives on man. A workingphilosophical synthesis of these different perspectives maybe achieved by modifying the classic formula that man is arational animal to read that man is an animal that can havemeanings. The variegated content of meaning is containedin the various distinctive aspects of human nature exhibitedby the many specialized studies of man.

Analysis shows the meanings by which human nature isdefined are conscious experiences with structural principles,some of which prove capable of elaboration as culturaltraditions with corresponding symbolic expressions. Thesetraditions of significant meaning may be found in the mostrefined and articulate form in the various scholarlydisciplines. For purposes of education these disciplines may



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be assigned to six basic logical classes, or realms of meaning. The realms of meaning indicate the general kindsof understanding one must have if one is to function wellwithin the civilized community. The purpose of the presenttext is to explicate these ways of knowing and to show howthey may be used in the curriculum of general education.

W AYS O F K NOWING

1. Why is it important for a teacher to understandhuman nature?2. Many scholars have written books and articles that

have contributed to building and strengthening a solidknowledge base. How does a teacher draw contentfrom this knowledge base?3. What distinguishes humankind from other animals?4. Explain meaning of life.5. Why should the proper aim of education be topromote the growth of meaning?6. How does a teacher establish meaning for living?7. As an educator, how does a teacher help students

establish a personal definition of "the meaning of life?"

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD - Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning

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