Submitted by 1611841 on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 10:59am.
There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the academic and intellectual community to build on contributions provided by authors who are not "contemporary".
This is a tacit denial of Newton's advice to stand on the "shoulders of giants".
To my knowledge Korzybski gave the clearest demonstration of the fact that we can do things because previous generations had laid the foundation for our achievements.
This has important implications in economics when that discipline deals with rules that should govern the fair distribution of rewards to entrepreneurship. This becomes an ethical consideration and leads to the critique of current economic thinking according to which the profits belong solely to the entrepreneur once the conventional costs of production (especially wages) have been covered. Thus, the technological and scientific inheritance from the past is taken for granted as a free gift entirely at the disposal of our "wealth-producing class". Kozybski's thesis questions the "ethicacy" of such an assumption:
"Whether we be capitalists or socialists or neither, we must learn that to prey upon the treasury left by our ancestors is to live the life of [a usurper]... Legalistic title---documentary ownership---does not alter the fact..."
We are well-advised not only to draw more astutely on the past, but as well on the future.
I continue to seek other futurists willing to join my on-going "crusade" to get K-12 education to include futuristics, THE missing component in schooling that today focuses only on the Past and somewhat on the Present. Young learners are eager to look over the horizon, and know intuitively they need to learn much about the art of choice-making, THE major reward that can come from infusing the curriculum with bits and pieces of what I have come to call Educational Futuristics.
I have given workshops for many school superintendents coast to coast, and all agree their teaching staff and students would gain much of value from drawing on our art form . In my two recent paperback books about Educational Futuristics I have tried to detail content, tools, and procedures - only to have momentum stalled by the current budgetary shortfall and cutbacks in primary and secondary education.
When we are again in a position to finance the high quality of schooling ALL children deserve I hope many serious futurists will be ready and available to mentor school systems in the overdue creative and empowering employ of Educational Futuristics.(To learn more, please contact me at arthurshostak@gmail.com)
Digg
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Twitter
Yahoo
Like us on Facebook
WorldFutureSoc on Twitter
Learning from past Masters
There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the academic and intellectual community to build on contributions provided by authors who are not "contemporary".
This is a tacit denial of Newton's advice to stand on the "shoulders of giants".
To my knowledge Korzybski gave the clearest demonstration of the fact that we can do things because previous generations had laid the foundation for our achievements.
This has important implications in economics when that discipline deals with rules that should govern the fair distribution of rewards to entrepreneurship. This becomes an ethical consideration and leads to the critique of current economic thinking according to which the profits belong solely to the entrepreneur once the conventional costs of production (especially wages) have been covered. Thus, the technological and scientific inheritance from the past is taken for granted as a free gift entirely at the disposal of our "wealth-producing class". Kozybski's thesis questions the "ethicacy" of such an assumption:
Future Learning - from the Future
We are well-advised not only to draw more astutely on the past, but as well on the future.
I continue to seek other futurists willing to join my on-going "crusade" to get K-12 education to include futuristics, THE missing component in schooling that today focuses only on the Past and somewhat on the Present. Young learners are eager to look over the horizon, and know intuitively they need to learn much about the art of choice-making, THE major reward that can come from infusing the curriculum with bits and pieces of what I have come to call Educational Futuristics.
I have given workshops for many school superintendents coast to coast, and all agree their teaching staff and students would gain much of value from drawing on our art form . In my two recent paperback books about Educational Futuristics I have tried to detail content, tools, and procedures - only to have momentum stalled by the current budgetary shortfall and cutbacks in primary and secondary education.
When we are again in a position to finance the high quality of schooling ALL children deserve I hope many serious futurists will be ready and available to mentor school systems in the overdue creative and empowering employ of Educational Futuristics.(To learn more, please contact me at arthurshostak@gmail.com)
Art Shostak