by
Communication, society and consensus
p. 4-5
Society [...] may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in
communication. There is more than a verbal tie between the words
common, community, and communication. Men live in a community in
virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is
the way in which they come to possess things in common. What they
have in common in order to form a community or society are aims,
beliefs, aspirations, knowledge--a common understanding. [...] The
communication which insures participation in a common understanding
is one which secures similar emotional and intellectual
dispositions--like ways of responding to expectations and requirements.
Consensus demands communication.
The enculturation hypothesis
p. 13-14
[When the immature human being becomes] a copartner, ..., in engaging
in the conjoint activity, he has the same interest in its
accomplishment which others have. He shares their ideas and
emotions...
In the cases when he really shares or participates in the common
activity..., his original impulse is modified. He not merely acts in
a way agreeing with the actions of others, but, in so acting, the
same ideas and emotions are aroused in him that animate the others.
The need for a value basis of planned cultural hegemony
p. 99
Since education is a social process, and there are many kinds of
societies, a criterion for educational criticism and construction
implies a particular social ideal. The two points selected by which
to measure the worth of a form of social life are the extent in which
the interests of a group are shared by all its members, and the
fullness and freedom with which it interacts with other groups. An
undesirable society, in other words, is one which internally and
externally sets us barriers to free intercourse and communication of
experience. A society which makes provision for participation in its
good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible
forms of associated life is in so far democratic. Such a society
must have a type of education which gives individuals a personal
interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind
which secure social changes without introducing disorder. (p. 99)
On culture
p. 121-3
Culture means at least something cultivated, something ripened; it is
opposed to the raw and the crude. When the "natural" is identified
with this rawness, culture is opposed to what is called natural
development. Culture is also something personal; it is cultivation
with respect to appreciation of ides and art and broad human
interests.
(p. 121)
The idea of perfecting and "inner" personality is a sure sign of
social divisions. What is called inner is imply that which does not
connect with others--which is not capable of free and full
communication.
[which this is couched as a criticism of
feudalism (and elitism), this is also the
foundation of the community mindedness that
transforms into conformism, it is the basis of
the Donahue ideology--see Carbaugh (1989)]
p. 123:
Social efficiency as an educational purpose should mean cultivation
of power to join freely and fully in shared and common activities.
This is impossible without culture, while it brings a reward in
culture, because one cannot share in intercourse with others without
learning--without getting a broader point of view and perceiving
things of which one would otherwise be ignorant. And there is
perhaps no better definition of culture than that it is the capacity
for constantly expanding the range and accuracy of one's perception
of meanings.
Last revision: January 25, 1999