MICAN, Vojtech
Technical University of Ostrava, Department of Social Sciences, Dr.Maleho 17, 701 00 Ostrava 1, Czech Republic, vojtech.mican@vsb.cz
Abstract: Humanist information let us know something different than information from the region of exact sciences and technology. The first is "soft", flexible and evolutionary, it is strong stimulus of the very technological creativity.
Author teaches the subject Sociology at Technical University Ostrava using a non traditional method - other than classical science model of teaching.Students are drawn into problems of changes in societies in connection with industrialization, informatization and other innovations, and they should think about by themselves what kind of events they witness in those days.
If engineering education wants to fill in its target, it must have three following dimensions: scientific-technological, humanist and experienced ethics. To reveal the core of contribution big spiritual traditions (especially in Hinduism, Budhism, Jewish, Christian and Islam ones) for a man in a quickly unifying world is a big task for the present time. In the conditions of Technical University of Ostrava we try to improve the offer for students not only in classic field of humanities, but also in the direction of spirituality for the contemporary man and the engineer.
Keywords: sociology, humanities, philosophy, experienced ethics, contemporary spirituality
"Someday, after mastering the winds, tides and gravity,
we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then, for
the second time in history, we shall have discovered
fire!"
Teilhard de Chardin
(QUTEWEB)
We have all probably heard, read, percieved many wise information about human being, human nature, human society and so on. This information let us know something different than information from the region of exact sciences and technology. Classical rules of physics or chemistry are valid "hard", identical as principal knowledge which mechanical, electrical or civil engineering are built on; the formula of gravitation law we do not have to change, while it applies so, as we learned it on the secondary school. The matter is quite different with the humanist information. This is "soft", flexible and evolutionary, this touch us otherwise in different situation, in different time, in different context. I remember all information mentioned in the book [PECK 1993] which was a big contribution for me. The book was published under the title "The Road Less Travelled" in Czech translation fort the first time in 1993. I used this knowledge quickly as a secondary school teacher. In the last school year 1998/99 I put that information into practice within the subject of Sociology in the topic "Trade and gift". I worked with the knowledge of Dr. Peck about the rules of love from the mentioned book. One student had a speech in the class about presumptions of love. He concentrated on the rules of the self-discipline and among others he expressed the function of humility very well: without which the genuine relation of love cannot be realized. Another student tried to study from the books written by M. S. Peck, but because of lot of duties he did not manage to read them all (he could not tune on the "A Bed by the Window") and suggested lending me the mentioned book if I would like to.
There are the moments, when all human beings feel, how just humanist information plays the excellent role. In that or another form and level, it is inevitable for our life and it is nearly sure, that it is especially a strong stimulus of the very technological creativity.
The course of Sociology at Technical University Ostrava takes one semester with two lessons a week. It means 22 - 24 lessons together with lectures and seminars. I have decided to teach Sociology using non-traditional method in comparison with the years when the classical science model of teaching in this subject was used. The inspiration for a such conception was a book "Thinking Sociologically" [BAUMAN 1997]. The teaching is aimed at a contact with the dynamism of the present world, and first of all it tries to show how modern and postmodern societies have reached their success on one hand and hard problems on the other hand. Students should be drawn into such problems of changes in societies in connection with industrialization, informatization and other innovations, and they should think about by themselves what kind of events they are witnesses of in those days. Each of them can make clear about the institutional relations, which cannot be expressively changed by an individual, and how it is with the relations of love. In this point everybody can fully show his or her will to enlarge his or her humanity and how much he or she wants to develop himself/herself, and the others.
Experience with our students shows that they do not know much about Euro-American culture we are living in. They are not aware of sources which our culture has arisen and developed from. The topic itself would seem to be abstract for them as far as it did not have connection with the development of universities, education, science and technology. It is necessary to point out all sides of this development in teaching and especially to stress the influence of the human social order. Now I cannot evaluate the level of students' knowledge of higher years, but the students knowledge of lower years are incomplete. Generally, they understand that having a unilateral mind is a big threat to present science and technology. They did not know much about the development of unspecialized, universal science of cybernetics. It gives evidence that the teaching at secondary school is still aimed at old limited disciplines first of all.
When we go through the topic of "Information, communication and thinking" , the students can show in next lessons in the class that they are able to retrieve the information and use it to solve the problems and they are able to communicate with others. In another topic "Ecology and Society" the students can also realize the existence of the fact of smallness of our Blue Planet and global connection of mankind [AL GORE 1994].
Those interested can find the itemization of this subject in more details in the APPENDIX. The whole non traditional and for the future engineers adapted conception of Sociology wants to be an integrative conception, that's why it is finished with the topics concerning the relationship of Philosophy and Religion to social problems. Through these topics we reach the general problem - what position humanities should have in the education of engineers.
The Czech philosopher Machovec points out in his work [MACHOVEC 1998] that philosophy created itself at the same period as special science. The special sciences concentrated their attention to particular section of objective facts, philosophy wanted to keep the sense of man for the whole world, for the whole life. If philosophy wants to fulfill its task, it must have three following dimensions:
cosmological
anthropological
Socrates'.
The useful analogies are possible to deduce from Machovec conception and they can be developed in the sense of present scientific and spiritual paradigms. Cosmologically philosophy tries to see the world and the universe as a whole and it is necessary to the scientific world conception, based on the synthesis of knowledge and methods of all special sciences. All his or her preparation and activity is aimed not only at recognition, but also at creation. New man-created systems should enrich the world and human society. But their effect is not good very often.
First of all the negative affection occurs when the specialist ('Fachidiot') is active only in his or her field and this field immediately conditions on his doing. We realize that each part of engineering activity (to which belong for example even agricultural, medical or genetic ones), and it considerably decreases the limitation of specializations itself. It grows the need of integrated engineering activity reflexion, contemporary philosophy of technics and technical activity.
People dealing with the culture / for example [KRAUS 1993] / have been pointing out for a long time that the exact scientists, natural scientists and technicians need complex knowledge and certain enduring commitment in the humanities for compensation their one - sided mind. Technical university students can obtain mentioned knowledge by studying humanities offered to them. The knowledge should not be isolated, it should be the domain of supporting engineering education suitably connected and applied. So future engineer will be educated (in second dimension) by teaching humanities in a most satisfactory way (see analogy with philosophy dimensions).
Education completeness will grow, but it is necessary to count with the fact logically that a man being created in two dimensions can move only in the two dimension space (it means at a certain level). The needed third dimension is called "Socrates" in philosophy according to Machovec, and it is meant by it , that private human life should be in harmony with learnt highest philosophical values. The name of dimension is given after the thinker who expressed it vividly by his life. Machovec showed the confusion of present intellectuals who admire Socrates' courageousness over the texts or lectures, but in their private life they behave opportunely and cowardly even in comparatively easy matters. The mentioned third dimension is necessary to find analogically even in education and human formation of technical university students in dimension of experienced ethics. Philosophy itself brings to this life dimension only certain per mille of people, and what the students concerns it would not be rank - and - file different. In the sixtieth the great writer Thornton Wilder described his artistic intuition of growing essentially three - dimension individuals such as people of The Eight Day (Wilder, 1974).
Exceptionally gifted economist, also in humanities, one of the authors of General Systems Theory K.E.Boulding [BOULDING 1956] already revealed in the fiftieth of our century that hierarchy of real systems were not finished at the level of an individual man or any social system, but they must have beeen completed by the transcendental systems, which were regulated by quite exact rules even by their essential overlap (and thus considerable part of unknown and mystery). The big spiritual traditions (especially in Hinduism, Budhism, Jewish, Christian and Islam ones) contain these rules. To reveal the core of their contribution for a man in a quickly unifying world is a big task for the present time. Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955) tried to put into the frame of evolution paradigm the nearest Christian source of transcendence in Euro - American culture which were on the base of limited traditional theological expressions. Big efforts in searching and learning 'the third dimension' of a man are going on, and still more and more outstanding personalities realize that there is the key to further development of mankind.
I have introduced here only certain principles of real humanization respectively growing of education completeness. In spite of little practice at technical university I am convinced that namely these principles are merely not kept, and due to it the very function of humanities at technical university is strongly decreased. The principle defects must be found first, then we start our improvement from principles, the need of relevant factual steps and activities are seen 'on going'.
A lot of students arrive at the conclusion at seminar discussion on optional social problems as industrial and postindustrial society, unruled development, consume orientation, ecology, atom - power stations, Kosovo, unemployment, coruption, parasitism, dependence of alll kinds, life style change that there must be something more reliable and stronger what makes people live reasonably. Majority of young people /students/ have little knowledge of religion or spirituality, and in spite of division of social circumstances they express their need to believe in something and rely on something safer and bigger.
In conditions of Technical University of Ostrava we try to improve the offer for students in order to develop the complete individuals and experts not only in classic field of humanities, but also in the direction of spirituality for the contemporary man and engineer. There are available the stimuli of world, they are worked out by groups of experts not only in our republic. For example the project of World Ethos [FLOSS 1998]. I have reached the sources in searching on Internet which are dealing with the relationship between Technology and Spirituality [BAUWENS http]. You or anyone can seek for example by keywords: total or complete man / women, complex spirituality and so on.
"Big transformation" - from traditional to industrial
society.
Sociology - A..Comte, H.Spencer, K.Marx - models how to manage
human society.
Developing a sociological consciousness.
The sociological perspective.
Folk thinking /"common sense"/ and thinking
sociologically.
The sociological imagination.
"Trade and gift" - rules and relations of modern formal
organizations
- rules and relations of love.
Culture and our society.
Resources and development of euro-american culture.
Culture and social structure.
Statuses, roles, groups, institutions, societies.
Perspectives in sociology.
Social groups
Relationships.
Dynamics.
Formal, informal organizations.
Information, communication, thinking.
How our brain works?
Mass media.
Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, computers and nets.
Ecology and society.
Philosophy and society.
Religion and society.
AL GORE, A.A. Jr. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and Human Spirit.Prague: Argo publ, 1994. 373 pp. (in Czech - translation from English).
BAUMAN, Z. Thinking Sociologically. Prague: Odeon publ, 1997. 233 pp. (in Czech -translation from English)
BAUWENS, M. Technology and Spirituality - Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Technology and Spirituality. http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/%2AARTICLES/T.S.html
BOULDING, K.E. The Image. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press 1956.
FLOSS, K. Kung's struggle for a new spiritual paradigm.in: Teologicky sbornik 2/98, pp.61-83. Brno: CDK publ. (in Czech)
KRAUS, W. Culture and Power. Olomouc: Votobia publ, 1993. 181 pp. (in Czech - translation from German)
MACHOVEC, M. Philosophy face to face to the end. Prague: "Zvlastni vydani" publ, 1998, 450 pp. (in Czech).
PECK, M.S. The Road Less Travelled. Prague: Odeon publ, 1993. 252 pp. (in Czech translation from English)
PECK, M.S. A Bed by the Window. Olomouc: Votobia publ, 1996. 370 pp. (in Czech translation from English)
QUOTEWEB - http:// www.twinoaks.org/members/center/QUTEWEB.HTM
WILDER, T. The Eighth Day. Prague: Odeon publ, 1974. 463 pp. (in Czech - translation from English)