The Human Endeavor: A Philosophy of Education, or, Of Knowledge in College

This book is an epitome of Human Education, covering all the activities every human needs to perform each day in order to survive and prosper, only now we extend the mental aspects of the human endeavor into and through the college level. It covers all the subjects we have developed for a complete holistic form of education as exemplified in a four-year Liberal Arts degree. But instead of the old seven it has six parts, with most of the major sub-departments under them. First is feeling and reasoning, understood as the sign- or symbol-making process, or Semiotics (mostly seen in numbers, words and images). What we do with the signs we make in our minds is called reasoning, and there are three main forms: deductive (analysis), inductive (synthesis) and abductive, or hypothesis, guessing, or inventing. All thoughts and subjects have the same basis in semiotics, and the rest of the book explains five broad categories purported to cover all the ideas humans have developed. This first chapter is the most difficult for students unaccustomed to Philosophy, but once it is mastered, the rest of the chapters and subjects become very easy to follow and understand. Semiotic Logic streamlines all our thinking. The next chapter is about the fact that we all have to cope with the physical world--we live in bodies. This covers the whole range of hard Sciences, from Sub-atomic Physics to Astronomy. Third, and based on the second, is the whole range of soft sciences, from Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and Political Science, to Law and Ecology, collectively called, Ethics. Next is Time, which includes History, Paleontology, and Evolution, which affects, or rather is undergone by all things in the universe. Change and development are keys to understanding the universe, civilization and the endeavor. Fifth is the fact that everyone must be creative every day, that is, must use their imaginative reasoning. We make up the world, the truth, civilization, and reality to a great extent, which is why change is occurring more rapidly each generation, and cannot be stopped. Here is an extended treatment of the history of Technology and the Arts up until today, when the ability to change and keep up with change has become the very hallmark of being human. Finally, the book ends with what may be considered out ultimate concepts, which are our greatest ideas, aims, and values. These have tended to be religious or metaphysical. They tie all the former concepts together in universals, visions of the afterlife and aesthetics, especially in the One we most adore or admire. Thus all knowledge fits perfectly together and shows us the directions we must all work in. How should each of us think and behave? We are all unique and yet part of the same species. What should the human race endeavor to create? This book is only a model or experiment in educational theory, but it should at least start a new conversation on the ideals of education that others more brilliant can build on. But one should read all the way through in order to fully understand the complete symbol of the human endeavor. Illustrated, with two posters and a portfolio of paintings illustrating the concept and practice of abstraction in Modern Art.