Archive for April, 2011
On interests
“I believe that interests are the signs and symptoms of growing power. I believe that they represent dawning capacities.”
John Dewey (1897) in My Pedagogic Creed
On the coevolutionary relationship of education and society
“Education and society are in a coevolutionary relationship. There are times of evolutionary imbalance between education and society. Such is the case today. The education we offer today reflects perceptions and perspectives formed around the turn of the century, based on the societal image of the industrial revolution.”
Bela H. Banathy (1987) in Systems Inquiry in Eduation
On the human species
“Humans over the ages have sought ways of differentiating humanity from other species: we write our history, we have a refined logic, we reason in a highly differentiated way. Perhaps the best contribution to this rather futile exercise is to say that humans are the most ridiculous species.”
C. West Churchman (1979) in The Systems Approach And Its Enemies
Über Wissensgesellschaft und Orientierungswissen
“Die Stelle eines Orientierungswissens bleibt in der Wissensgesellschaft, wie sie heute verstanden wird, leer oder wird durch falsche Vorstellungen besetzt, etwa diejenige, daß eine weitere Zunahme des Verfügungswissens irgendwann auch die Probleme eines Orientierungswissens lösen bzw. auch dessen Funktionen wahrnehmen könne. Dies aber ist eine Illusion. Aus positivem Wissen wird kein normatives Wissen, weshalb auch eine informierte und wissensbasierte Gesellschaft noch keine orientierte Gesellschaft ist.”
Jürgen Mittelstraß (2000) in Das Verfügbar und das Unverfügbare
On design
“Design is a future-creating systems inquiry”
Bela H. Banathy, 1988, in Systemy Inquiry in Education
On the ideals of scientism in social sience
“…scientism in social science is self-defeating because the reality of social science so evidently does not live up to the ideals of scientism and natural science”
Bent Flyvbjerg, 2001, in Making Social Science Matter
On social inquiry and design
“In the domain of social inquiry and design, it is irrelevant if not deceptive to be scientific without being openly and critically philosophical”
W. Ulrich, 1984, in Critical heuristics of social planning
