I want to explore the epistemology of punishment. The classroom is presented as an experimental situation where ideas generated by philosophical enquiry can be tested against reality, and provides examples (for this talk) to illustrate the following ideas in action.
In this part of the world we seem to be slowly emerging from an earlier form of society characterised by a preoccupation with basic survival needs - a 'survival society' (Glasser 1969). Key features are 'blame', 'punishment' as an everyday 'fact' of life, guilt-ridden religions like Christianity, and good evidence for abuse of children and adults for at least two thousand years. Once survival is assured for the child growing up post 1945 the question of 'identity' becomes important - who AM I? What is my ROLE? The debate about education and society is taking place against a background of so little understanding of these forces affecting human evolution, that the teacher is left improvising in the vacuum created by the confusion and paranoia of those nominally in charge of the system.
Schools exist in the tension between the creative, challenging energy of the young and the stabilising, conforming influence of culture; it is an exciting place to be. We observe between people within a particular school the former 'punishment' values competing with those of the newer 'identity' society. Suddenly we realise that schools have the breathtaking responsibility within our culture of being the only institution available at present (outside the family for which it is difficult to legislate) capable of realizing any plans we may have to build a better world.
If they have a punishment ethos then they institutionalise failure. The mechanisms are humiliation (now that physical abuse is illegal), failure through grading and examinations in irrelevant, compartment- alised and outdated 'knowledge', the child is treated as a passive receiver of 'facts', etc. The aim will be to lower self-esteem by not responding to the fundamental and inescapable human need to feel worthwhile. Schools may fail to teach children how to value themselves and others. Many of the great problems we face in this world are due to a deep-seated 'failure identity' in very large numbers of people. This might be thought of as an a priori assumption that one is useless and one's situation is hopeless. It is a logical 'Catch 22', for all attempts to reach such a person are resisted by the unprovable nature of the belief that no successful person would want to involve themselves with 'someone like me'. Glasser has described Western Society as grounded upon failure institutions.
In schools the teaching of Social Responsibility should be a first priority. Without this positive platform of esteem and security for the child, intellectual development cannot take place. Yet it is often submerged under the pressure of the factual curriculum and examination requirements. It represents a lost opportunity to build a sane society. How have we gone so very wrong when instinct should tell us how people would want to be treated? Our problems really do seem to require philosophical renewal. Is it possible that inappropriate language structure has bequeathed an ancient epistemology upon us as Korzybski (1933) suggested? Is Lewontin (1993) right to suggest that we have been seduced by Darwinism into believing that we do not create the environment in which we live? That we can't change it?
To understand how our education system has become distanced from the real world it helps to sense the relationship between verbal and non-verbal thinking. In other words we need to examine the structure of language and its influence on behaviour through cultural conditioning.
"We are struggling with language. We are engaged in a struggle with language." Wittgenstein (1931), the notebooks.
"The alternative philosophic position must commence with denouncing the whole idea of 'subject qualified by predicate, as a trap set for philosophers by the syntax of language" Whitehead, The Principle of Relativity.
1) Despite the sense that language is our adversary the message is ultimately one of hope and creativity. Is it possible to suspend judgement for a short while'? The ideas are at the stage of generating hypotheses. As the enormous possibilities for human futures come into focus, it is an exciting time to be alive. The critical backward glance is less appropriate than looking forward and facilitating change.
2) How do we sense that something is wrong? We observe. The school experience we provide for many young people is bordering upon insanity. This seems very appropriate when we consider that our institutions are a manifestation of our assumptions about the nature of reality. We dislocate them. Through coercion we seem very often to take away their inquisitiveness. Jean Liedloff in the 'Continuum Concept - "the day they start school, that's the day they stop learning"; Glasser's question about what is done to children between the ages of 5 and 10. Perhaps we may be unable to 'connect' in the area of non-physical life.
3) There is a knowledge of human destructiveness world-wide. The ability to cause suffering directly and indirectly is now immense. Sometimes it seems possible to live one's life only by a wilful choice to ignore, or rationalise in acts of gross self-deceit, what is happening in front of one's face; (examples: our support for genocide in East Timor, our torture equipment and armaments industries, infantile verbal attacks on young people living on the streets).
4) ASSUMPTION 1: We cannot deal with problems in isolation. It makes no sense to limit the scope of this seminar to education, though it remains a major concern.
5) We need a powerful epistemology to deal with issues as large as this. Is there a contender? We look to philosophy and are disappointed. Ironically, thinkers are also caught up in the tangle. Why should not philosophy be "part of the problem" - Wittgenstein. (also see quote A).
6) The clue is that there is a pattern in the apparent chaos, which is perhaps surprising given the complexity of the systems involved (i.e. humans). Perceiving a higher structure resolves contradictions and confusions: elliptical orbits of the planets, the periodic table. Literally, the progress of science.
7) We share a delusion about the nature of the relationship between ourselves and the universe around us. By REFLECTION it is possible to know that our sense of reality is entirely CREATED within each one of us. A useful model/metaphor is of the scene constructed in the visual cortex and then 'projected' back 'out there' to give a sense of reality.
8) ASSUMPTION 2: No one can possibly deny that the above is the case. Not quite so trouble free it would seem after recent discussions with a number of adults! They remain convinced that the eyes are like windows through which we 'see' what is there, (thus questioning al-Hazen's insight of 985 A.D.). Many young people remain confused on the issue.
9) Why should this 'obviousness' be a problem at all? We are close to the central issue. ASSUMPTION 3: Our language contains within it a higher order structure which is based upon this delusion. (see quote B). Examples of this were sought in teaching, and they are commonplace; "The family are all the same; I know what you mean; Ben is just 'thick'; Emma is really intelligent; this is an atom; the area of a circle is ". Apart from politics this delusion has been felt most strongly in secondary schools. By age 10 or thereabouts relevant questions about the nature of reality are all but extinguished!
10) In the teaching of science there is often confusion between levels of description and explanation. This is unfortunate as the main point of doing science at all is then missing. A useful study was started with a group of year 8 students at Acle High School. They were taught a Nuffield Electricity module from the point of view of keeping the distinction between observation and inference very clear. The outcome was encouraging (quote C).
11) These aspects of language were described by Korzybski (1933). His stimulus was the semantic insights provided by mathematicians and scientists; in particular the nineteenth century revolution in geometry and the subsequent relativity and quantum theories based upon the new mathematics. Here is a radical epistemology indeed! He sought to examine the implications for human behaviour of the new orientations. He found a field ripe for exploitation in which philosophers had produced very little of value (see quote D). Does that judgement still hold today?
12) ASSUMPTION 4: A word is not the thing it represents; (a map is not the territory). The process of confusing the two has been called 'identification' and this is a major feature of delusional states. Education is shot through with identifications. One recent example occurred within PER when attempts were made to deal separately with 'intellectual' issues and 'emotional' ones; thus carrying forward the artificial mind/body split which we know to be false to facts. The use of the term 'semantic reaction' was designed to short- circuit problems with this simplistic dualism and also the 'meaning of meaning'. The curriculum is similarly split into artificial subject areas, the examination treadmill is identified with real learning. Illich talked of 'Deschooling society'.
13) A separate, quite self-contained culture of youth is developing in response to the artificiality of experiences provided by schools. This has been exposed in a recent survey of young peoples' attitudes and behaviour, but it has died in the media where it was treated with less than seriousness; (and was not heard being discussed at school). See also police analyses of the growing drug problem.
14) The implications for identification-based religions, like Christianity, are profound. Direct knowledge is the pivotal assumption. The model of the universe here is based on linguistic confusions surrounding terms like 'God'. Attitudes to language expressed in the notion that 'words came first' - actually reversing the true order. See the work of John Allegro on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also Prof.T. Thompson on the lack of any archaeological evidence for much of the Old Testament. The Bible as a product of delusions, sometimes taken as 'literally' true, is then stamped as direct from a non-human source and therefore unquestionable. The metaphysics and the morality are mixed up together. An example of how this works can be experienced by substituting the word 'love' for 'God' in biblical extracts and then observing one's altered reaction to them. This should be permissible because of the allowed identification 'God is love', (quote E).
15) The central problem comes down to this : we cannot operate on reality directly, no matter how much we may wish that to be the case, or delude ourselves that it is the case. We are analogous to the Mariner spacecraft that landed on Mars. The scene looked strange until the colour was adjusted on the transmitter. There is no 'redness' 'out there', it is a recently evolved product of the cortex; (see Lands' fascinating theory of colour perception). So we remain trapped inside our skins, removed forever from whatever is 'out there' by the operation of the nervous system. Our language denies these assumptions and this constantly leads us to form inappropriate reactions through attachments to earlier modes of thought, which may have been suitable for different conditions. Can we explain the following observations: the arrogance which seems to pervade our culture; an inability to listen or 'receive' others; the unreflective attitudes of many people, (even teachers!)? Is living in a state of permanently suspended judgement the best we can hope for?
16) The problem is the STRUCTURE of language and the mistaken belief that we are not talking about words - there is nothing else! To fully convince people on this point requires some effort and perhaps a little trickery. It certainly does not seem sufficient to verbalise this amazing insight, unless mere words can alter internal states after years of conditioning. (It has usually felt as though the individual had already explored this region for themselves and was therefore waiting to be given some signposts).
17) This is not a technical subject, it is rather an issue of instant insight and acknowledgement. In order to understand one must operate against instinctive consciousness which has created the illusion of concreteness within a nervous system in tension with its surroundings. Recall the process of rationalisation experienced as the brain is stimulated electrically under local anaesthetic. When we accept this creativity of being we begin to form a new model of what it is to be human. It is the beginning of intelligence.
18) What is the content of knowledge? Tantalisingly there is no content, all is STRUCTURE. Our surprise at this revelation has its origins in our fallacious language of concretes and absolutes. See W. Sawyer on molecular shape determining function in 'New thinking about the nature of mathematics'; MAG 1992. Liebniz rejected Newton's idea of the force of gravity as 'sorcery'. Today we find that 'gravity' is often given as the 'reason' that objects fall. Kepler's revised 'Mysterium Cosmographicum' - from 'anima motrix' to 'vis motrix'; "from the animistic to the mechanistic, the development of Kepler's thought foreshadowed the course of 17th. Century Science"; in Westfall 'The Construction of Modern Science' ‹(1977) C.U.P. p.10. Recall the discussions with physicists about their language in relation to 'explaining', to themselves, the search for the nature of matter. (Also see quotes F to J).
19) An example of unintelligent behaviour: our approach to crime and the treatment of prisoners. Peter Toomin (ex chief inspector of prisons) on why Howard's model is wishful delusion. Joe Whitty and other governors denounce the system as a "disaster". Chief Superintendent Caroline Nicholl on why our approach to crime is wrong- headed and a waste of money.
20) Unintelligent behaviour: the treatment of children. How can we tolerate our inability to satisfy the needs of children? W.Glasser's critique of schools as institutions of failure is part of a wider analysis of the creation of 'failure identities' in western societies. Punishment creates many of the problems we then call upon punishment to cure. This is inappropriate behaviour on a truly massive scale. Once again a possible understanding for this is a guilt-ridden model of humanity that is a by-product of the growth of civilisations. 'The History of childhood' by Lloyd de Mause is an historical survey of 2000 years of child abuse in Europe and North America and may offer useful insights into this area. See quote L and details at the end of this paper of a day seminar this month on Glasser's work
21) Unintelligent behaviour: Frank Smith on the teaching of reading. The consequences of having a poor model of how we read, hence committing the greatest crime in education - boring children. "The more difficulty children experience in learning to read, the less reading and the more nonsense drills we typically arrange for them to do". (same source as quote K). Examine the success of 'Emergent Writing' and GRIT schemes to show the effects of a different model. Children becoming more 'intelligent' and socially responsible; constantly producing their own books.
22) Intelligent Behaviour: The IMAGINEERING project; a partnership between industry and education in Keighley, West Yorkshire. The hopeful signs in the new Design and Technology N.C. compared with some recent nightmares for CDT teachers.
23) Science and Religion: 'Religion' has its roots in the Sanskrit for 'binding'. We seem to be a 'religious' class of life - we are talking here of a deep seated need to find significance in a universe which may be totally indifferent to us, and in which our evolution is possibly meaningless. Religions seem to be based on the best available science of the day, the two are not incompatible opposites but complementary. Science, to date, has dealt with simple models with small numbers of variables. It cannot tell us how to live or give meaning to human experience. Unity amongst peoples is absent at almost every level of analysis. Before it can be attained imagine how many beliefs and assumptions have to be given up! Yet when we think of how children are conditioned we know that in one generation, in theory at least, it is possible to make considerable progress.
24) So we see that we are finding examples of something more general. In simple terms we are exposing mismatches between the structures of the actual events (ultimately unknowable) and the structures of our linguistic (etc.) formulations; the models do not fit, though there have been silent assumptions about conformity. In following through the implications we are led to the most fundamental questions about knowledge and consciousness. Is the pattern that we see valid? Do we need a general theory? What might it look like, and what name might it have? Korzybski coined 'General Semantics'.
25) The Whorfian hypothesis: Whorf tried to determine the effect of language structure on thought and behaviour through the study of isolated groups of peoples.
26) Wegener published 'The Origins of the Continents and the Oceans' in 1915. His theory of continental drift was based on fossil evidence for a land bridge uniting Brazil and Africa, and the similarity in coastline shapes. He was thought eccentric and wrong until overwhelming evidence in the 1960's have established the fact of moving 'plates'. On a human scale it still seems impossible that a land mass the size of Africa should move at the speed with which our nails grow. The lesson here is the difficulty of letting go of the old model. The comparison with Korzybski is relevant.
27) Wegener's ideas needed rigour and the technology to test them, but the insight was right. If philosophy lacks public credibility it may be because rigour has been overemphasised at the expense of stimulating new ideas. A potentially fascinating subject may be rendered dull and boring by pedantic and obsessive exhortations to accuracy before the creative process is completed. (Galileo too needed better instruments to test for stellar parallax - the only experiment that could have detected the earths orbit of the sun).
28) A neologism for a general theory is probably needed. In the meantime we continue to find illustrations of this theory that correspondence between model and actuality is necessary for sanity, adjustment, adaptation and survival - an operational definition of intelligence.
29) Continuing the theme of the problems associated with the childish daydream of punishment: the reparations inflicted on Germany which led, eventually, to World War II.
30) In the economic sphere the notion of 'free-market' has been shown by Galbraith to be an insidious myth which is brought into play to justify the actions of global capitalism.
References:
Glasser, W. (1969) 'Schools Without Failure', Harper and Row.
Korzybski, A. (1933) 'Science and Sanity', Non-Aristotelian Press
Lewontin, R.C. (1993) 'The Doctrine of DNA', Penguin.