Why.Learning-liberally: Difference between revisions

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Created page with "Learnliberally: To this end, we begin by cultivating the theory and practice of liberal learning because we think and act freely, autonomously, in a complex, constraining world, and we bear the consequences of our efforts. In such a situation, we shape our judgment, informing and strengthening it while living with others in a world of force and fact. At bottom, the phrase “a liberal art” indicates a techne or form of activity that suits a free, autonomous person. In..."
 
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Learnliberally: To this end, we begin by cultivating the theory and practice of liberal learning because we think and act freely, autonomously, in a complex, constraining world, and we bear the consequences of our efforts. In such a situation, we shape our judgment, informing and strengthening it while living with others in a world of force and fact.
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<h1>To learn liberally</h1>
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[The following are snippets. A well-formed entry needs composing.]
 
To this end, we begin by cultivating the theory and practice of liberal learning because we think and act freely, autonomously, in a complex, constraining world, and we bear the consequences of our efforts. In such a situation, we shape our judgment, informing and strengthening it while living with others in a world of force and fact.


At bottom, the phrase “a liberal art” indicates a techne or form of activity that suits a free, autonomous person. In seeking to express and realize their capacities for free, self-directed activity, persons will apply themselves to arts that further their expression and realization of such activity. The autonomy of each person does not derive from the art; rather, the liberality of the art derives from the reason the autonomous person has for pursuing it. Without going into a long reflection about the liberality of liberal learning, let’s simply say that liberal learning strengthens persons’ efforts to express their ideas and aspirations, to transcend their habitual routines, and to develop their possibilities. Illiberal culture consists of activities that do not support or encourage self-transcendence, suiting our static, routine, habitual needs and expectations instead. We should not stigmatize the distinction as invidious — everyone has banal needs and pleasures, and everyone has possibilities for self-transcendence. Each person must strike a balance between both forms of activity in their lives.
At bottom, the phrase “a liberal art” indicates a techne or form of activity that suits a free, autonomous person. In seeking to express and realize their capacities for free, self-directed activity, persons will apply themselves to arts that further their expression and realization of such activity. The autonomy of each person does not derive from the art; rather, the liberality of the art derives from the reason the autonomous person has for pursuing it. Without going into a long reflection about the liberality of liberal learning, let’s simply say that liberal learning strengthens persons’ efforts to express their ideas and aspirations, to transcend their habitual routines, and to develop their possibilities. Illiberal culture consists of activities that do not support or encourage self-transcendence, suiting our static, routine, habitual needs and expectations instead. We should not stigmatize the distinction as invidious — everyone has banal needs and pleasures, and everyone has possibilities for self-transcendence. Each person must strike a balance between both forms of activity in their lives.


First, liberal learning has borne a stigma of elitism during the democratic era. Too often, only those who enjoy the use of a surplus product comfortably in excess of mere subsistence have been able materially to engage in liberal culture. During recent centuries, the real material benefits created through industrial democracy have greatly increased the proportion of people who, in principle, have the requisite material surplus to pursue liberal learning. But in the print-based communications environment, the tools of liberal learning still require a significant material outlay as a condition of participation. Consequently, many people see liberal learning as a bad bargain they do not need to make. The material costs of participating in liberal learning diminish greatly with digitally mediated communications and the entry fees for liberal learning plunge in price. The examples of Wikipedia and many other digital developments suggest that a substantial proportion of persons could engage in the pursuit of liberal learning in the digital commons, if they so choose. We put liberal learning into action by responding with substantive support and opportunities as autonomous persons freely seek it in the pursuit of their purpose. Independent persons respond from within to shared undertakings in which their independence is respected. Hence, the Collaboratory should refrain from trying to hitch the pursuit of liberal learning to purposes outside itself in an effort to inflate its outwardly apparent importance. Yet.…
We need to invent better ways to act on these inward strivings, so often frustrated. Already, Friedrich Nietzsche spoke powerfully about the disadvantage for life of too much history, of having a past rich in the fruits of personal strivings completed long ago, of a present having its opportunities saturated, becoming an oppressive weight.21 The digital world has a short, chaotic past, one full of possibility and with little history of its own. The digital commons opens opportunities, the possibility of our shedding the weight of history as it bears on us as persons. We can lighten up on the past and embrace the future as a realm of possibility, of unknowns contingent on taking risks and exerting effort in the face of improbability. At the same time, we easily bear the burden of history unquestioned, complacently, as if a natural necessity. Then we lunge at new technologies, not as emergent possibilities, but as ways of getting ahead on the most familiar terms. Uncriticized, history recapitulates its forms and limitations. Powerful forces push this historical recapitulation, rolling the past into the future. Nietzsche also spoke in his untimely meditations of how institutional education serves four self-serving drives that work to distort a person’s Bildung, or autonomous self-cultivation, by discouraging the sense of possibility and pushing abstract needs upon the person: the greed of the moneymakers, the greed of the state, the greed of fashion and celebrity, and the greed of the sciences and their specialists.22 And now, as the burden of history changes, we see those same self-serving drives rushing onto the web, supported lavishly by wealth, power, publicity, and prestige, creating a cacophony of confusion.
 
We need to invent better ways to act on these inward strivings, so often frustrated. Already, Friedrich Nietzsche spoke powerfully about the disadvantage for life of too much history, of having a past rich in the fruits of personal strivings completed long ago, of a present having its opportunities saturated, becoming an oppressive weight.21 The digital world has a short, chaotic past, one full of possibility and with little history of its own. The digital commons opens opportunities, the possibility of our shedding the weight of history as it bears on us as persons. We can lighten up on the past and embrace the future as a realm of possibility, of unknowns contingent on taking risks and exerting effort in the face of improbability. At the same time, we easily bear the burden of history unquestioned, complacently, as if a natural necessity. Then we lunge at new technologies, not as emergent possibilities, but as ways of getting ahead on the most familiar terms. Uncriticized, history recapitulates its forms and limitations. Powerful forces push this historical recapitulation, rolling the past into the future. Nietzsche also spoke in his untimely meditations of how institutional education serves four self-serving drives that work to distort a person’s Bildung, or autonomous self-cultivation, by discouraging the sense of possibility and pushing abstract needs upon the person: the greed of the moneymakers, the greed of the state, the greed of fashion and celebrity, and the greed of the sciences and their specialists.22 And now, as the burden of history changes, we see those sameself-serving drives rushing onto the web, supported lavishly by wealth, power, publicity, and prestige, creating a cacophony of confusion.


These developments should not daunt us. Look to the history of liberal learning. In times of upheaval, people have most firmly grasped its importance in their lives. Now on the web, the virtues of liberal learning — judgment, tolerance, discrimination, poise, grace, dignity, subtlety, insight, detachment, humor, restraint, empathy, vision, liberality — all are gaining urgent relevance in our lives. And we see from experience that projects in the digital commons can self-organize and succeed in the midst of confusing change by using purposeful intelligence without preconditions of wealth, power, publicity, or prestige. Possibilities can and do take place.
These developments should not daunt us. Look to the history of liberal learning. In times of upheaval, people have most firmly grasped its importance in their lives. Now on the web, the virtues of liberal learning — judgment, tolerance, discrimination, poise, grace, dignity, subtlety, insight, detachment, humor, restraint, empathy, vision, liberality — all are gaining urgent relevance in our lives. And we see from experience that projects in the digital commons can self-organize and succeed in the midst of confusing change by using purposeful intelligence without preconditions of wealth, power, publicity, or prestige. Possibilities can and do take place.


I believe that our universe consists of information, as well as matter and energy, and that life uses the power of information to organize and manage matter and energy into its cosmos, its home in the universe. I further believe that mind, Geist, our living spirit, manifests the power of information to order the flux of matter and energy within and about us. And I believe that information technologies are empowering us to act through interactive networks across a spectrum of possibilities, some better and some worse, in ways that we are only beginning to understand. We have opportunities. Let us use our minds to grasp the better, to shape our lives in more humane, meaningful ways, and let us not miss our chance because we cared too little to try.
I believe that our universe consists of information, as well as matter and energy, and that life uses the power of information to organize and manage matter and energy into its cosmos, its home in the universe. I further believe that mind, Geist, our living spirit, manifests the power of information to order the flux of matter and energy within and about us. And I believe that information technologies are empowering us to act through interactive networks across a spectrum of possibilities, some better and some worse, in ways that we are only beginning to understand. We have opportunities. Let us use our minds to grasp the better, to shape our lives in more humane, meaningful ways, and let us not miss our chance because we cared too little to try.

Latest revision as of 11:39, 5 May 2026

WhoWhatToolsHowWhereWhy

To learn liberally

(To be revised)

[The following are snippets. A well-formed entry needs composing.]

To this end, we begin by cultivating the theory and practice of liberal learning because we think and act freely, autonomously, in a complex, constraining world, and we bear the consequences of our efforts. In such a situation, we shape our judgment, informing and strengthening it while living with others in a world of force and fact.

At bottom, the phrase “a liberal art” indicates a techne or form of activity that suits a free, autonomous person. In seeking to express and realize their capacities for free, self-directed activity, persons will apply themselves to arts that further their expression and realization of such activity. The autonomy of each person does not derive from the art; rather, the liberality of the art derives from the reason the autonomous person has for pursuing it. Without going into a long reflection about the liberality of liberal learning, let’s simply say that liberal learning strengthens persons’ efforts to express their ideas and aspirations, to transcend their habitual routines, and to develop their possibilities. Illiberal culture consists of activities that do not support or encourage self-transcendence, suiting our static, routine, habitual needs and expectations instead. We should not stigmatize the distinction as invidious — everyone has banal needs and pleasures, and everyone has possibilities for self-transcendence. Each person must strike a balance between both forms of activity in their lives.

We need to invent better ways to act on these inward strivings, so often frustrated. Already, Friedrich Nietzsche spoke powerfully about the disadvantage for life of too much history, of having a past rich in the fruits of personal strivings completed long ago, of a present having its opportunities saturated, becoming an oppressive weight.21 The digital world has a short, chaotic past, one full of possibility and with little history of its own. The digital commons opens opportunities, the possibility of our shedding the weight of history as it bears on us as persons. We can lighten up on the past and embrace the future as a realm of possibility, of unknowns contingent on taking risks and exerting effort in the face of improbability. At the same time, we easily bear the burden of history unquestioned, complacently, as if a natural necessity. Then we lunge at new technologies, not as emergent possibilities, but as ways of getting ahead on the most familiar terms. Uncriticized, history recapitulates its forms and limitations. Powerful forces push this historical recapitulation, rolling the past into the future. Nietzsche also spoke in his untimely meditations of how institutional education serves four self-serving drives that work to distort a person’s Bildung, or autonomous self-cultivation, by discouraging the sense of possibility and pushing abstract needs upon the person: the greed of the moneymakers, the greed of the state, the greed of fashion and celebrity, and the greed of the sciences and their specialists.22 And now, as the burden of history changes, we see those same self-serving drives rushing onto the web, supported lavishly by wealth, power, publicity, and prestige, creating a cacophony of confusion.

These developments should not daunt us. Look to the history of liberal learning. In times of upheaval, people have most firmly grasped its importance in their lives. Now on the web, the virtues of liberal learning — judgment, tolerance, discrimination, poise, grace, dignity, subtlety, insight, detachment, humor, restraint, empathy, vision, liberality — all are gaining urgent relevance in our lives. And we see from experience that projects in the digital commons can self-organize and succeed in the midst of confusing change by using purposeful intelligence without preconditions of wealth, power, publicity, or prestige. Possibilities can and do take place.

I believe that our universe consists of information, as well as matter and energy, and that life uses the power of information to organize and manage matter and energy into its cosmos, its home in the universe. I further believe that mind, Geist, our living spirit, manifests the power of information to order the flux of matter and energy within and about us. And I believe that information technologies are empowering us to act through interactive networks across a spectrum of possibilities, some better and some worse, in ways that we are only beginning to understand. We have opportunities. Let us use our minds to grasp the better, to shape our lives in more humane, meaningful ways, and let us not miss our chance because we cared too little to try.

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