The Present Educational Problem. In truth, experience knows
no division between human concerns and a purely mechanical
physical world. Man's home is nature; his purposes and aims are
dependent for execution upon natural conditions. Separated from
such conditions they become empty dreams and idle indulgences of
fancy. From the standpoint of human experience, and hence of
educational
endeavor, any distinction which can be justly made between nature
and man is a distinction between the conditions which have to be
reckoned with in the formation and execution of our practical
aims, and the aims themselves. This philosophy is vouched for by
the doctrine of biological development which shows that man is
continuous with nature, not an alien entering her processes from
without. It is reinforced by the experimental method of science
which shows that knowledge accrues in virtue of an attempt to
direct physical energies in accord with ideas suggested in
dealing with natural objects in behalf of social uses. Every
step forward in the social sciences -- the studies termed
history, economics, politics, sociology -- shows that social
questions are capable of being intelligently coped with only in
the degree in which we employ the method of collected data,
forming hypotheses, and testing them in action which is
characteristic of natural science, and in the degree in which we
utilize in behalf of the promotion of social welfare the
technical knowledge ascertained by physics and chemistry.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457