Philosophical Foundations of Education

part one

An Essay on Evolutionary Humanism: origins and background

Evolutionary Humanism is an extension/revision of Classical Humanism with a focus on evolution and evolutionary process in phenomenal nature and in the development of human constructs and concepts. To the Evolutionary Humanists, the concept of evolution, of things (material, biological and non-biological, e.g. earth, as well as and non-material, e.g. human knowledge) changing in a dynamic non-repeating progressive trend toward ever higher organization and differentiation is an absolute reality. In as much as the theory and proven fact of evolution in the biosphere has contributed to a revolutionary change in the human species concept of itself, of its history, and of its place in the natural world, so too the application of evolution as a fundamental and universal process, a ìnatural lawî, if you will, can revolutionize other areas of human endeavor. Evolutionary process has been invoked in explanations of such diverse areas as business, economics, politics, technology, language, including computer languages, and art. More fully acknowledging the real presence of a functioning evolutionary process in all but the most mundane human endeavor may reveal insights into our very cognitive structures and functioning. Embracing evolution as necessary and as unavoidable as change itself will allow humanity to move progressively forward in many spheres. In education in particular, an evolution-centered and systems theory approach to learning and teaching (not solely biological, but psycho-social as well) can potentially open new avenues of thought and relation in the minds of learners.

This may at first glance seem exceedingly esoteric and even immaterial to everyday existence, but the Evolutionary Humanist believes a process-driven evolution-centered viewpoint is fundamental to any educational strategy that hopes to keep pace with a rapidly changing society, especially in the modern age of exponential growth in populations, in knowledge bases, and in environmental degradation. Evolutionary Humanism also has much to say about the age of global communication technology and the prospect of the Internet and the world-wide web for linking a colossal human pool of ideas. This later point is variously sketched out as a future of much promise for continuing evolutionary development in the psycho-social sphere of human interaction and of human consciousness in general.

Education is by definition life-long learning to the Evolutionary Humanist, but more than that, it is the history of all learned concepts, from instinct and simple reactionary mentation of lower animals to the highly reflective thinking of the future-contemplating man. The same fervent investigation and establishment of scientific facts of evolution in the biological realm are extended to the promising psychological/sociological fields and the study of global human consciousness. Evolution, as a philosophical foundation for inquiry, whether of things, systems, or ideas is a universally applicable conceptual framework and worthy of inclusion in any sphere of study. Evolutionary Humanism provides a valid, internally consistent, and important theme and is truly useful as conception of absolute reality.

To better understand Evolutionary Humanism, it helps to consider it as an extension of a universal processes that operate (and have for a thousand million years) on the purely physical (a-biologic, i.e. rocks), the biologic, and chemical landscapes. Evolution in very general terms is ìa natural process of irreversible change which generates novelty, variety, and increase of organization: and all reality can be regarded in one aspect as evolution.î Biological evolution is only one aspect of a much larger process. There is also the in-organic or cosmic sector and the ìpsycho-socialî or human phase. These phases succeed each other in time, and evolve one from the other. ìThe inorganic phase is pre-biological, the human is post-biologicalî (Huxley, 1964). Cosmic evolution operates on time scales of thousands of millions of years (e.g. solar systems, planets), Biological evolution on thousands and millions of years, the newest process ìpsycho-socialî on a scale of hundred of years or less.

Psycho-social evolution is the evolution of consciousness, thought, and awareness. It arose when after many millions of years purely biological and physiological advancement produced the first proto-humans (by any measure a very highly functioning life form). Physical evolution having reached an appropriate branching phase, and with the fortuitous structure of the early human physiology (large brain, etc.), consciousness found a foothold (mind hold) and the major breakthrough to thinking mind occurred. This new mind was able through new and novel use of symbolic language to reproduce its contents and disseminate knowledge about external events not immediately occurring (as in relaying a new strategy for the hunt, or directions to the nearest watering hole). Language and communication led to further evolution of rudimentary social systems and eventually began to produce a higher culture. It was still many hundreds and thousands of years before the level of social organization could free enough of humanity from daily travails to concentrate on mind alone, but eventually all the higher achievements of mind began to emerge: ethics, aesthetic arts, music, dance, contemplation, and a particular train of though focusing on our own origins and the meaning of life. Ranking at the pinnacle of human achievement are the arts, sciences, and philosophical/religious thoughts and contemplation of past and future events.

This is all very cryptically explained here, of course, but in the words of Huxley, of Chardin, and others it is very logically developed with all the connections (past to present), and even more eloquently, delivered as a vivid picture of what its implications are for the future of human psycho-social evolution. So much for the evolution aspect.

Of Humanism, Huxley and many others identify its beginnings with the post-World War II period of tremendous social, political, economic, cultural, and even environmental upheaval. Contributing to the stress of the times was the widespread breakdown of traditional beliefs and a growing realization that a purely materialistic outlook alone could not provide an adequate basis for the fulfillment of human life. At the same time a tremendous growth in knowledge began anew. Knowledge through advances in the sciences about the physical world, of chemistry, of genetics, of atoms and galaxies, even a beginning understanding of the workings of the human mind; all these set the stage for an emergent new idea of humanism.

The following diagram illustrates the relationship of Evolutionary Humanism to its contemporary and preceding philosophies and educational theories.

Humanismís initial thesis held little room for the mystical, even rejected religious inspiration and ìrevealedî truth as unnecessary for maintenance and growth of human culture. This has been tempered considerably in the further refined and extended form of humanism put forth as Evolutionary Humanism. Here while man is a natural product of countless years of evolution (whatís a year or a million years to a godhead with the ingenuity and patience to see its creation unfold through guided natural selection, through chaos and natural laws and immense dimensions of time and space), nonetheless, man is uniquely significant and immensely important as an agent of the further evolution of life on earth and particularly of sentience as the pinnacle of evolutionary achievement. Man is also for the first time in earth history, a single species for all practical purposes dominant in every realm, commanding all resources and with the ability and means to extinguish vast numbers of other species and indeed much of biodiversity entirely and at will. In light of this, the Evolutionary Humanist hold that man is the most important evolutionary force in nature at the present time, and will guide the future of evolution consciously or not. And consciousness in man, its further evolution to a unified field theory of sorts is of the utmost importance.

As best described by Julian Huxley in his book of the same name, Evolutionary Humanism is ìbased on our understanding of man and his (present and historical) relations with the rest of his environmentî. It focuses on man as an organism, though certainly a unique one. It is organized around ìthe facts and ideas of evolution, taking account of the discovery that man is part of a comprehensive evolutionary process, and cannot avoid playing a decisive role in it.î (Huxley, 1964)

Or as so eloquently stated in Pierre Teilhard De Chardinís Le Phenomene Humain (1955):

And now, as a germination of planetary dimensions, comes the thinking layer which over its full extent develops and intertwines its fibres, not to confuse and neutralise them but to reinforce them in the living unity of a single tissue.

Really I can see no coherent, and therefore scientific, way of grouping this immense succession of facts but as a gigantic psycho-biological operation, a sort of mega-synthesis, the 'super-arrangement' to which all the thinking elements of the earth find themselves today individually and collectively subject.

This is ìheadyî stuff. It gets headier still. In the new Evolutionary Humanism, mankind thanks to Darwin, now knows that he is not an isolated phenomenon, cut off from the rest of nature by his uniqueness. Not only is he made up of the same matter and operated by the same energy as all the rest of the cosmos, but for all his distinctiveness, he is linked by genetic continuity with all other living inhabitants on the planet. He is not alone in his thinking either. He ìexits and has his being in the intangible sea of thought which Teilhard De Chardin has christened the noosphere, in the same sort of way that fish exist and have their being in the material sea of water which the hydrographers include in the term hydrosphere. Floating in this noosphere, there are, for his taking, the daring speculations and aspiring ideals of man long dead, the organized knowledge of science, the hoary wisdom of the ancients, the creative imaginings of all the worldís poets and artists. And in his own nature there are, waiting to be called upon, an array of potential helpers ñ all the possibilities of wonder and knowledge, of delight and reverence, of creative belief and moral purpose, or passionate effort and embracing love.î (Huxley, 1964)

Elsewhere, Huxley states, ìmanís religious aim must therefore be to achieve not a static, but a dynamic spiritual equilibriumî and in this sense, religion can be regarded as ìapplied spiritual ecologyî. Both Teilhard de Chardin and Huxleyís Evolutionary Humanism predate James Lovelockís Gaia Hypothesis, and may have influenced its development. All three are visionary philosophical positions that firmly establish man within nature, as its cognitive agent, perhaps functioning as a neural network for the earthís thought processes.

part two

Evolutionary Humanism: implications for Education

Evolutionary Humanismís application to education includes many important and far reaching ideas regarding the future of educationís role in the continuing evolution of humanity. As much as it focuses on the importance of keeping evolution as a universal phenomenon and process in mind, and as such constantly alludes to the deep historical (geologic time scales) connectedness of things, Evolutionary Humanism as a theory for educational practice is lacking in specific strategies or explicit methods. Perhaps that is as intended. It is quite enough to keep all these deep philosophical ideas around as omnipresent background and theoretical framework without the added intellectual task of devising concrete strategies for implementing the kind of changes suggested. And as expressed so far, the theory is almost too esoteric to be directly useful. Nevertheless, I find the ideas have a certain resonance with my own deep spiritual conviction, my philosophical grounding in evolution as a process and a phenomenon, and its implications for further development of my own scientific inquiry.

Julian Huxleyís Evolutionary Humanistic view of education, consistent with his explanation of its origins in the biology and psycho-sociological development of man, leads him to regard it as an entirely social process. He says that for him, ìeducation is an organ of man in society, whose basic function is to ensure the continuity and further advance of the evolutionary process on earth by the transmission and translation of tradition.î Described as such, he admits that much education is unorganized and simply acquired through daily encounters with the press, radio, television and public meetings, or through self-directed inquiry. But its importance is nonetheless important as education in the perspective of evolution ìshakes us out of over-preoccupation with the multitude of specific and immediate difficulties that beset us... it provides a necessary corrective to the tendency of our neotechnic industrial civilization to think and plan in terms of quantity rather than quality ... In this regard , education is a naturally arising means of ensuring culture by transmission of experience and its results across the gap of generations.î

Education as a process in society simultaneously addresses several distinct problems ó the transfer of knowledge, practical and theoretical; the learning of skills and social habits; the transmission of traditions and beliefs, religious and secular; the formation of character and personality, moral as well as intellectual development; and the crucial passage from childhood to responsible adult life.


Huxley describes the curriculum of the Evolutionary Humanist school as simple, at least in principle. It would focus on unifying the various disciplines in science and the humanities and teach ideas more fully than subjects. In practice admittedly this is difficult. And in science education from any point of view presently, the difficulty can be stated in the same terms: ìthat the mere growth of knowledge, not only scientific but also historical and sociological, is too large for any single curriculum to unifyî. But the focus of the new education strategies is less on transmission of factual knowledge, and more directed toward the comprehension of ideas. Knowing how to think, not what to think, realizing the value of structured inquiry, of critical reflective reasoning and the sharing and discussing of ideas, of co-learning, with the facts available, better yet, strategies for obtaining factual verification as part of the learning process so that the learner can complete the cycles of elicitation, extension, reflection, and verification themselves as needed to verify developing hypotheses. And of all the ideas to be investigated, in any and all contexts, focus should be on the ìevolutionary process ó the most powerful and most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on earthî (Huxley, 1964). In Huxleyís educational system, the evolutionary idea is the central unifying theme of learning, and evolutionary biology is the central and key subject in the curriculum. And yet change must continually take place in the contexts of teaching and learning. Educators must ìstruggle against conformism and must resist any and all dogmas, including their own.î

Evolutionary Humanism is a far reaching philosophical viewpoint, and its implications for education are just as far sighted. In his discussion of possible extensions to the education system, one which allows the learner to evolve his studies and knowledge gains outside of the confines of the school, Huxley suggest an arrangement with social service organizations such as the Youth Conservation Corps, the Peace Corp. and others. Transitional service (after school, summers, between high school and college, and thereafter) in these organizations and other opportunities in the community will mean the forging of lasting impressions in the learnerís memory through real application of knowledge to real problems, in service to a community in real need and truly appreciative of the studentís efforts.

In the end, successful realization of evolutionary humanistic values in education will mean supporting an educational systems that will, in embracing evolutionary ideas as central to teaching and learning, be the prime psycho-social organ for transmitting ad transforming human culture. Educational systems must evolve beyond serving children primarily, and not restrict themselves to focusing on knowledge training solely during the early part of life. Increasingly they must reach deeper into society and provide opportunities for continuing and life-long learning. Huxley's further strategies include reforms in the way colleges relate to pre-collegiate systems, the establishing of a National Education Service to further the goals of education in a society the will come to value learning and evolving as the destiny of cultures and the only real reason for their continued existence. To evolve.

"If the educational profession rises boldly and successfully to meet the challenge of the new knowledge and the new vision which it reveals, new histories of mankind will not only devote much more attention to education as a major function of man in society, but will single out our age as the historical moment when education was recognized as an integral part of the psychosocial process, and became preeminent among all agencies concerned with human destiny" (Huxley, 1964).

A final implication of Evolutionary Humanism is that of its impact on the consciousness process in humanity, particularly as mediated by such emerging technologies and techniques as global mass communication, telepresence, the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Huxley refers in passing to the importance of these emerging systems, but it was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who is often credited with the more encompassing, evolutionary and visionary view of their potential value in furthering human consciousness evolution. Teilhard de Chardinís description of the ìnoosphereî is strikingly prescient of the ultimate potential of the Internet as it might evolve to serve as a global mind pool, a cyberspace in which people can meet and exchange ideas, collaborate, upload self-executing interactive and active evolving simulation programs, participate in Virtual Realities, and eventually.... who knows what else?! I'll conclude this essay with a final passage from Teilhard de Chardinís 1955 book Le Phenomene Humain:

"And what does that amount to if not (and it is quite credible) that the stuff of the universe, by becoming thinking, has not yet completed its evolutionary cycle, and that we are therefore moving towards some new critical point that lies ahead. In spite of its organic links, whose existence has everywhere become apparent to us, the biosphere has so far been no more than a network of divergent lines, free at their extremities. By effect of reflection and the recoils it involves, the loose ends have been tied up, and the noosphere tends to constitute a single closed system in which each element sees, feels, desires, and suffers for itself the same things as all the others at the same time.

We are faced with a harmonised collectivity of consciousnesses equivalent to a sort of super-consciousness. The idea is that of the earth not only becoming covered by myriads of grains of thought, but becoming enclosed in a single thinking envelope so as to form, functionally, no more than a single vast grain of thought on the sidereal scale, the plurality of individual reflections grouping themselves together and reinforcing one another in the act of a single unanimous reflection.

This is the general form in which, by analogy and in symmetry with the past, we are led scientifically to envisage the future of mankind, without whom no terrestrial issue is open to the terrestrial demands of our action.

To the common sense of the 'man in the street' and even to a certain philosophy of the world to which nothing is possible save what has always been, perspectives such as these will seem highly improbable. But to a mind become familiar with the fantastic dimensions of the universe they will, on the contrary, seem quite natural, because they are simply proportionate with the astronomical immensities."

part three

Exploring a personal philosophy of Education and
of Evolutionary Humanism

As a scientist, educator and future teacher of teachers, I am interested in progressive themes for education and science education in particular. I am naturally inquisitive of history and philosophy and have assimilated many different view points in evolving my own personal ethic and educational philosophy. Of most recent note are the works of Julian Huxley and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and their explanations of Evolutionary Humanism and its potential as an emergent unifying philosophy for modern global society.

My personal philosophy on the importance of environmental science education and experiential learning can be traced back to my childhood, where I was an enthusiastic explorer of my local surroundings. I have always been fascinated with the ways of the natural world, with process and interactions. I also recognized, but kept just under the surface, my feelings of the "value" of such experiences. The impact on my own developing philosophy and value system from the insights gained in being in and actively learning in the outdoors was indeed great and it would infuse my life with purpose and long term goals which I am still in the process of realizing. Early on I came to appreciate the beauty and complexity in the seemingly infinitely diversity of the natural world, and even then began to view it as an understandable web of interactions among all creatures, including humans, in the environment.

It has always been the wonderment aspect of natural inquiry that drove me to wander in the wilds looking for patterns in nature and process; the learning for learning sake, and the sharing with others of my discoveries that has kept my rapt attention. It is also that all-too-human need for acceptance and validation of my viewpoint by sharing/comparing observations and insight with others that really drove me to the culture of science. I find the learning process itself most rewarding, the evolving of understanding through inquiry, critical observation, reflection and extension, and the search for new patterns in phenomena and process.

This fascination with nature, with both the pragmatic and aesthetic aspects of the landscape evolution, with interactions among organisms and environment; all eventually lead to my choice of a career in earth science research.

My interest in science education as a second career surfaced after completing an advanced degree in Marine Geophysics and Oceanography culminating more than 15 years of formal education and research in earth systems science. Unsatisfied, I found myself still interested in learning about nature and the earth, but more than this it was a growing concern that so much of what is know about the earth as a system (what I had learned) escapes the general publicís understanding. The consequences of environmental science illiteracy in todayís world are great indeed and will manifest as unnecessary and unwanted environmental degradation in the near future. But certainly if I could learn to know and appreciate the immense duration of geological time involved in producing our present world with all the intricacies of evolving systems, of natural selection, of extinction and the fragile balance of biodiversityís web of life, of nature as worth preserving in and of itself, regardless of our need to consume resources for our own survival, then others could also. And yet, how can the masses be so educated without going through all that I had as a life-long student of natural history and earth science.

The National Academy of Sciences (1996) is encouraging scientists and science educators to recognizing that the next generation simply cannot afford to focus on learning the details of every scientific discovery (old and new) at the risk of not learning fundamental concepts and demonstrating knowledge of overall themes of inquiry and their differing investigation techniques. The content of known science and speculation is reaching overwhelming dimensions, and while curiosity in all realms in encouraged, basic principles (including most profoundly that of evolution and evolutionary processes) can be learned in the context of inquiry and the experience used to model investigation strategies across disciplines. There will always be more information than we can know, and it is flooding in so fast these days as we approach global connectivity through telecommunications and computers.

It is widely accepted among leaders in the fields of natural history and earth systems science that the present is a critical time for earth systems and biodiversity education. We must somehow move the masses to a better understanding and appreciation of nature, of natural systems, of resource use and environmental quality. The world is not getting any bigger, and our own human population is exploding, and by perceived necessity, we are stripping the earthís surface of biological diversity that took eons to develop and that may very well be in our best interest to conserve and or preserve intact.

Now is also a critical time for education in the value of natural systems the promotion of realistic environmental ethics. But where to start? There is so much to know. How do we best synthesize, organize and thematically package all the diverse science disciplines, their knowledge base, their fundamental tenets and crucial theories? How do we begin to redesign science education for everyone so that we all can learn to know what we must in order to reach consensus in designing our future? A more knowledgeable global civilization and one more compassionate of each others needs, rights and resources will better meet the challenges we face as a global civilization on this rather small and fragile planet. I felt a need for an opportunity to share my insight in a more holistic and accessible fashion, and so I returned to school to study science education.

My newest and greatest concern is in helping to transform studentsí perceptions of what science is, of the nature of science inquiry and who scientists are in an effort to demystify this extremely important but often misunderstood of human endeavors. It is my firm belief that virtually everyone is capable of critical inquiry and observations that could be considered valuable additions to science. It is just that most people believe that science is other that natural human thinking/inquiry and that scientists must be some special breed of people endowed with special observational skills. Not so! Scientific insight is only a formal name given to a process of reflective and applied thought that is of use to everyone, and the critical and protocol laden practices of objectified science, are bound by simple and agreed upon rules or conventions that are knowable and comprehensible in even the most general terms. Science is nothing more and no less than a human endeavor, and as such, is no less subjective at its heart and infused with imagination and inspiration than is inquiry in the fields of the humanities, the arts, and even religion.

In my own mind ìscienceî is not an ìotherî form of inquiry. Science is only a general term we give to a mindset approach to inquiry. The inquiry is still very much flavored by our background, experience, social context, beliefs, and even our gender, race, and age. Nevertheless, it is something that should be universally accessible as a strategy for building knowledge. And of ìnatural sciencesî, they are only the most immediately relevant subject matter to study, and my own preferred and promoted field of inquiry, one that I truly believe we must ever more deeply address as we build a globally responsible cooperative citizenry. All of this is firmly grounded in my background as a natural science researcher, wilderness advocate, outdoor sporting enthusiast, and it is also well founded in Evolutionary Humanism and Futurism (Huxley, 1992 and Toffler, 199?).

Naturalists, historical novelists and philosophers have always had a big effect on my thinking, on the developing foundations of my personal philosophy, of my passion for learning about the workings of the world, the physical, material, process, in the unseen unifying grand themes, in patterns in natural materials and in the tempo and cadence of the natural world surrounding me. I am glad to make the better acquaintance with the philosophies of Evolutionary Humanism and Futurism as put forth by Julian Huxley and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I will no doubt temper their viewpoints and synthesize my own interpretation.

References:

Huxley, Julian, 1992, Evolutionary Humanism, Prometheus books, Buffalo, New York, 288p.

Lovelock, James, 1979, Gaia, Oxford University Press.

National Academy of Sciences, 1996, National Science Education Standards , National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment, US Government Printing Office.

Teilhard de Chardin in Le Phenomene Humain (The Phenomenon of Man) 1955, Bernard Wall translation. First Harper Colophon edition published 1975 Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. 10 East 53d Street New York, NY 10022



Additional Resources:

Toffler, Alvin, 1990, The Third Wave, Bantam Books.

Toffler, Alvin, and Toffler Heidi, 1995, Creating A New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave, Turner Publications.