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First affirmation is that Spirit is a beholding sensitivity and conceptualizing power. That has its own role in the work of the mind. I would suggest you that the intellectual community generally resists this that conceptualizing power can be included under the rubric of spirit. All special studies resist conceptualizing the whole mess. They greatly enjoy the other kind. In a university University for instance the relation of facts to the reality of man's lived life is commonly regarded as an unscholarly form of research and an unbecoming form of discourse. And therefore that kind of concern is usually turned over. In colleges to the chapel. The chapel is a kind of academic disposal. Into which all the ultimate
issues are dumped with which the special issues do not wish to deal. A chapel is a more prestigious dispose all because it has a venerable tradition and tradition has a vague notice which matches its venerability And therefore when the academic community does not really want to come to terms with the outcomes of facts and relations These are called spiritual and hence by transcendence and unintelligibility they are one get sounder out from under the responsibility of reflecting further upon them. And the second barrier to the entrance of the reality of spirit into critical intellectual operations is what I've called in the longer paper the misappropriation of data that is every discipline seeks to refine methods these methods more and more exquisite refinement successive models of
truth and then. The dimensions of fact which can be made with these models of truth constitute the fundamental affirmation of this or that discipline. But what I'm saying is that which is intended by the word spirit. Does not easily come under this modular understanding of truth as these models are proposed for the separate disciplines. And I give but one illustration in the realm of anthropological study for instance Professor at my university professor Paul recur at the Sorbonne have in the last decade or so argued brilliantly to my mind conclusively against any effort to reduce symbolical data to a rational proposition and that to do this in the entrance of the Congress of a model
is to lie in the face of truth and fester Leavy Strauss has in his long lifetime of distinguished anthropological studies. Yes it seems to me made this point very clear. Now the second step that I have undertaken in the paper is to ask in what sense does spirit enhancing sensitivity. Tend to correct the operations of a critical intelligence and hence increase knowledge. Some years ago Professor Sidney Mead an American historian. In an article published first at the University of Chicago called space time and American history said the Swallow in the shaping of the American mind and spirit space. Space has been far more influential than time in
formative significance in the formation of the American mind and spirit space has been much more important than time. Now I think we come to see what I intend by Spirit as operating to inform and deepen critical intelligence. If we investigate what means by such a statement as that and I now turn to that. There have been four great observers of the American mind and spirit all foreigners who have written about it very early to critique or. To talk of it. Then James Bryce and George Santayana there may be others but these are for famous essay s on on the American mind in the history of American literature. Now all of these men as they have from a certain perspective looked at as they have asked Who is this American man he calls himself from Cotton Mather down the Scots faired Fitzgerald he calls
himself a new kind of man and he felt himself to be that. Who is this fellow and what makes him new. They all agreed that what was new about him was not separable from the startling experience of space. Which all of our forefathers all immigrants which all of our forefathers and countered after that tight space of the old world to come from the old world to America must have been like coming off a plane in New York through siren and squeezing tube out into that wonderful space so that all these observers of the American spirit agree that whatever it is that makes the American man know it is not separable. From. This sense of boundless ness of the illimitable of sheer spaciousness. Now Mr. Mead instances of the long period. Of frontier penetration the
tight communities huddled between the forest and the sea and they're living amid the hurtling exigencies of space space experience smothered time experience. Steven Benet put it in two lines which I take from Mr. Meade's article two eloquent lines. There is no time to grieve now. There is no time. There is only time for Labor in the cold. America has always been. Short on time but she has been long on space. The terms of the issue are now I think quite clear. It might be stated this way. Can a mentality and spirit nurtured upon the availability of open space even envision much less attack the tasks that now confront us. Can the
spiritual energies called forth and shaped by the frontiers circumstance be informed disciplined reformed and released for a future whose setting is a radically different one. The answer in my judgment is clearly no. The structure of spirit which in the new situation. Must in St. Pauls phrase constitute the spirit of our mind must now be explicated over against the structure of spirit which in the past has been determinative of our nation. Man lives in space and time. Space is always life expanding. Time is always life. Impending these dimensions of our actual existence are profound spiritual symbols and reflection upon them as they penetrate and fructify the critical intelligence does bestow cognitive possibility
and power. And therefore I watch suggests that space offers EP options that may be realized by moving time presents choices that must be confronted where we are. Space may operate to confront issues by flight. Time is the symbol of the bounded ness within which the less dramatic tougher but ultimately more human society has got to be attempted by the disciplines of the mind so that the the way of dealing with life understood in terms of space and the way of dealing with with life as it is understood in terms of time in which one is historically bounded by the given. Rich in possibilities but possibilities to be realized simply through flight for a kind by a kind of cosmic
move to the suburbs. Now I conclude with one question. If then not in endless space but in historical time man must now exercise care for the earth and for the ordering obvious common life. Where in American history and our tradition is the solid us recourse and resource for the translation of the irresponsibility of space into the responsibilities of temporal existence in history. I would suggest that among these possibilities the Judeo-Christian tradition itself. With its profound eschatological sense of the bounded ness of all thing within which found it nice under and absolute evaluation of even the bounded. The bounded is well dealt with the paradoxes in that tradition are
both tremendous and creative because the historical is passing but is nevertheless given an absolute evaluation because it is not ours. We must deal with it with absolute responsibility. Human life the earth the relations between man. And that which is given in nature. These are not a mere available circus for his cleverness. This is an area in which he must avoid blasphemy and shake the celebration of the holy exactly within this Judeo Christian tradition which I admit has virtually sneered or at least closed it cheered to all the humane concerns that concept of discomfort and I mean that when in the city of Chicago when the merest commission to do something about Lake Michigan I reached out for support from the churches where I
thought they having set every Sunday the earth and apparently the lake too is the Lord's and the fullness Iraq. Well I expected some support. I got it from liberated Jews agnostics and blatant atheists. But from the celebrating community of the holiness of the earth it is only reluctantly and lately that there's been much recognition but nevertheless the resource is really there and therefore it is not simply. A polite bow on the part of the framers of this program that they want the spirit talked of. But it is in the acknowledgment that if the Lord build up the house and meant it in that way. If the Lord build not the city it will not be sustained for Spirit mean. Quality in the operation of a critical intelligence whereby partial thought. Recognize it and its inadequacy to meet hope
question. That was Dr. Jones of settler well known for his work at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Another man concerned with the needs of America during the next 50 years is Dr. Ralph G H. Sue deputy director of development for the United States Army Material Command a widely known chemist and technological innovator. Dr. Sue is currently chairman of the Army Research Council. In his role with the military Dr. Sue supervises projection research of scientific and technological matters. His remarks on the next 50 years in this country provide some significant insights. Here is Dr. Ralph G H. Sue. Ever since time immemorial. Yeah. Have. Beauty goodness and truth. And we have heard two invocations one benediction one politician five brilliant scholars tell
us how we should keep these ideals ever luminous before our vision. Well in this regard technology has a very modest aspiration. Technology has never come at it. The role of art spirit and science in proclaiming the norms of beauty goodness and truth. Yet at the same time technology has a very important practical function in recognizes that man's law can be greatly enriched in everyday living and that a number of options are available. To attain the practical best of all possible worlds and that we should get on with the job not to attain the practical and best of all possible worlds I believe we should proceed on the assumption that man is basically good and that if we provide him with the appropriate and environment and means.
Society cannot help but be happy and healthy. But to be natural means to be complete and organic. And society should not be fractionated into myopic attention or dismembered by separative interest. And so because of this technology must join with spirit and signs to realize these living well they are three important roles for technology during the next 50 years that I would like to talk about. To realize these living we've heard my preceding speakers talk about of the talent of man and so for the first is the role of an expand of technologies on the full action. And the second role is a prime instrument of social
value. And the third rule is the oblong of the new age which is dawning upon us. Now these other three roles I'd like to talk about there are many others of course with respect to the first role during the past 50 years technology has been concerned primarily. With increasing the material productivity of capital and labor. And at first glance one would think that during the next 50 years technology will continue to do the same kind of thing done in the past. But actually. During the past 25 years especially technology has much to it considerably. As it became involved with materiel of increasing complexity its emphasis gradually from individual and individual gadgets
to a material system. And then gradually seen during the last 10 years especially technology is gradually shifting from materiel systems to functional systems with man as a point of reference. In other words the amenities of living now are no longer being automatically overlooked by technology and the sensibilities of modern spirit of being and body. Gradually as well as a fact of science. In other words action now is a totally quaint and technology is trying very hard. Very hard with a really and. Great effort to try to find a way to this new synthesis that I think characterized the technological front today more than any other trait. Not to. Attain this.
Rapport. With the arts and a spirit in the sciences a man must be a lively dialogue on a continuing basis with our spirit and sign. And it's my feeling that technology should shoulder the primary burden to keep this on a meaningful basis. The fact that technology has not lost its engineering competence in intimate associations with signs show that technology will not lose its realism. In maintaining very close working relationships with art and spirit. And in this respect I'm reminded of an Indian story about a lump of clay which was asked the question what are you. The reply was I am but a lump of clay. But I was placed beside a row and I caught its fragrance and I think this acquisition of a new dimension a new quality
in preparation for greater contributions to society is the first responsibility of technology in the next 50 years that it has to do toward itself and toward society. The second role of technology is that as a prime instrument of social value it is the vehicle for which knowledge is transformed into practical form. Now in this respect technology has had a reputation of being. Suspected and uncontrollable and we have to convert that reputation and that fact perhaps into a welcomed and may force and in the future. To be able to achieve this. Technology must be able to improve to a great
extent. Its ability to forecast the social price that is to be paid in connection with the social values to be received. In other words man and society must be reminded. Every day Emerson's admonition that nature never gives anything to anybody. Everything is sold. And the reason for specifying. The price is associated with that use is really to guarantee liberty. In actuality because you perceive us and is free to choose it. This is morning in my talk even while I'm saying. If. A person is at liberty to make a choice. But is ignorant of the consequences then really free. Choice is what a person dreams by. But the consequences is what he lives
by now. Technology does not necessarily have the responsibility to advise on a selection of wants but it does have the responsibility to make the prices explicit and clear. And if the citizen of a democracy chooses a harmful choice because he's an awareness of the consequences then technology must share the blame. But if the citizen because of the poverty of soul or small is of mind. Determines to select the goal despite the clearly stated consequences then at least technology has done it. And in a case the citizens of a great democracy would be able to stand erect in the full light of freedom enjoying the fruits as they are born and pain the consequences as the bills arrive. Not a second. Aspect of this role as the. Prime instrument of social
values. Concerns. Specific cases but it seems to me that the emerging sophistication of technology in a so-called systems approach offers a promising potential great contribution. I think mathematical analyses may suggest that they may well be a minimum and a maximum population level beyond which a city can never aspire to greatness and beyond which they can be predictable rates of decline. Now the conventional modeling of the systems approach and it may be very crude at the beginning Nevertheless we can see indications of constructs for handling the issue. The system's treatment however must be expanded. Not only to include the cost effectiveness of existing materiel.
And functions but it must be expanded to include the future factors of replacement and rejuvenation. In other words an urban plan should not be viewed as a static. Document but rather a portrayal of interrelated organs metabolizing in a living organism in a healthy environment. The urban planet should be a by on a planet that is before he puts pen on paper. You would have before him clear picture of not only what the city is going to look like when it's first built or when its first remodel but also what it's going to look like in the many decades to come. Not only what but when. Not only when but at what differential rates of change for the constituent structures and functions as they move on. You see as the city grows its inhabitants change and it's in a phase with the environment
mutates elegans and planned then rests on the ability of that plan. To capture this dynamic vibrancy of metamorphosis growth and rejuvenation. At the very inception of the plan. As I said this in a very. Crude way yes. One of the outlines of one of the speculative constructs of maintaining health and putting it into practice however is the challenge of a novel order of magnitude. Suffice it to say that this urban issue is the greatest single challenge facing technology as an instrument of social matters. But technology alone cannot solve the BN or any other social dilemma of pain.
There must be a change in the cultural medium in which technology embedded I sense that our present age of materialism is giving way to a new age which we might call holistic. You have heard the name the word before. Holistic humanism. In other words this is the age in which the prevailing philosophy among the leaders and the planners is that the determining factors in nature whole organisms and not the constituent pot and that human must be considered in relation to his total being and total environment a complex rather than a particular segment of a particular transportation system alone or just the educational system but rather the complex of the living organism as a whole and that man is to be the measure of that. Now. We come to the question is who's going to speed up the arrival of this new age. And that is where we hit a snag.
In other words the necessary emotional and intellectual Renaissance to bring this about. It's not technology to sponsor. We need art and science. Also joining the movement. To top this view. In other words how can a specialized find truncated not manage spirit be the true prophets of beauty goodness and truth. They just can't. Get to my office and one of the main functions of technology is try to encourage our educational system to move away from their previous pedagogy alienation from intuitive integration. Perhaps we can't do it. Perhaps a new institution should be established. When wisdom and judgment of values can be added to the depth.
And breadth. Of knowledge. It's such an institution where established you won't find any biochemist of the gene. You won't find any physicist of the No. You won't find any architect of buildings nor historians of the middle age nor any other specialist in the School of the future. These scholars of partial knowledge will continue to make major contributions in the learned departments of our present university for purposes other than what we have in mind. But we need one place does not just one place where the seed of the future would be permitted to grow. That was Dr. Ralph G. H. Su deputy director of development for the United States Army Material Command discussing the needs of America in planning for the next 50 years. Also appearing on this week's program were doctors Joseph settler and Dr.
Harold Taylor. As we heard a discussion of the roles of art science technology and the spirit in planning for the next half century. Next week prologue to the future a report on the culture of American cities and development of urban planning in America. The third program in this 13 week series in titled The next 50 years featuring some of the world's most distinguished experts from a variety of disciplines. This is Bill Greenwood a public affairs director of the national educational radio network reporting from Washington D.C.. Those has been another program in the NERC early the next 15 years expressing a variety of opinions on the future of the democratic environment. These views were given at the 50th year gone bronze of the American Institute of planners held in
Washington in October of last year. As series one for those why might how US Will Greenwood and Jack Burns and I when you am you Af-Ams American University Radio in Washington D.C.. This is NE are the national educational radio network.
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Series
The next fifty years
Episode
Role of Art, Spirit, Science and Te
Producing Organization
WAMU-FM (Radio station : Washington, D.C.)
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-s756jw0r
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Description
Series Description
For series info, see Item 3455. This prog.: The Role of Art, Spirit, Science, and Technology in the Future Environment: Harold Taylor, Joseph Sittler, Ralph G.H. Siu.
Date
1968-07-01
Topics
Social Issues
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:29:50
Credits
Producing Organization: WAMU-FM (Radio station : Washington, D.C.)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 68-26-2 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:29:34
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Citations
Chicago: “The next fifty years; Role of Art, Spirit, Science and Te,” 1968-07-01, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-s756jw0r.
MLA: “The next fifty years; Role of Art, Spirit, Science and Te.” 1968-07-01. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-s756jw0r>.
APA: The next fifty years; Role of Art, Spirit, Science and Te. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-s756jw0r