For centuries, knowledge has been thought to be the key to human progress of all kinds and has dominated Western culture. But what if knowing has now become an impediment to further human development? This text is concerned with the practical consideration of how to reconstruct our world when modernist ideas have been refuted and many social problems appear insoluble. The authors suggest that we should give up knowing in favour of "performed activity". They show how to reject the knowing paradigm in practice and present the many positive implications this has for social and educational policy. Over the past two decades, a postmodern critique of the modern conception of knowing and its institutionalized practice has emerged. To many, this is a dangerous threat to the tradition of liberal education, strengthened by recent prestigious voices from the physical and natural sciences. The book challenges even the postmodernists themselves, rejecting the reform of knowing for a totally new performatory form of life. They support their argument with a new reading of Lev Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Fred Newman and Lois Holzman are both Directors at the East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy, New York City. Newman is Artistic Director for the Castillo Theatre and Holzman is Director for the Barbara Taylor School. Both are widely published, including their co-authored book Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist (Routledge 1993).
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Format:Paperback
In this book, philosopher-therapist Fred Newman and psychologist-teacher Lois Holzman propose that human development is a social and creative process of building environments which determine who we are and can become. They challenge us to collectively and consciously engage in reshaping our environments as a lifelong, continuous, revolutionary activity of becoming.
I studied this book over the course of a year with a circle of friends. We learned of fascinating research by Soviet psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, on the features of childhood language-learning environments. The authors suggest that we quickly lose contact with our capacity for building environments which make qualitative growth, such as language-learning, possible. What are we doing, they ask, after age five? Who and how are we becoming?
Those interested in things post-modern may be surprised by the perspective that modern science has led us (as a resounding success)to post-modernism. And, some may be curious to hear that these authors do not fret over loss of meaning in post-modern times.
For Newman and Holzman, loss of meaning opens the door for creating/discovering that we are the collective makers of meaning. For them, meaning-making is performance and performing our lives and doing what we don't know how to do. Performance is building the boat as we cross the water. Performance is developing.
This book is rich and dense and filled with startling glimpses of who we the people are and how we the people can perform a lifetime of developing. It is a provocative report from a controversial, experimental community. I recommend The End of Knowing by Fred Newman and Lois Holzman as a challenging companion for any circle of curious friends.
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First Sentence:
Postmodernism sometimes looks to be one "end" after another (the beginning of the end!): the end of history; the end of truth; the end of philosophy; the end of science; the end of reason; the end of capitalism (if not the transition to socialism). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
developing development community, liberal identity politics, social therapy group, social therapist, postmodern psychologists, epistemic posture, flight from science, relational politics, performed conversation, endings stop, epistemological dualism, improvisational performance, relational activity, depression talk, modern epistemology, revolutionary scientist, practicing method, social relatedness, conversational analysis, discursive psychology, social epistemology, social constructionism Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Barbara Taylor School, Lev Vygotsky, New York City, Miss Braun, World War, All Stars Talent Show Network, San Francisco New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Postmodernism sometimes looks to be one "end" after another (the beginning of the end!): the end of history; the end of truth; the end of philosophy; the end of science; the end of reason; the end of capitalism (if not the transition to socialism). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
developing development community, liberal identity politics, social therapy group, social therapist, postmodern psychologists, epistemic posture, flight from science, relational politics, performed conversation, endings stop, epistemological dualism, improvisational performance, relational activity, depression talk, modern epistemology, revolutionary scientist, practicing method, social relatedness, conversational analysis, discursive psychology, social epistemology, social constructionism Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Barbara Taylor School, Lev Vygotsky, New York City, Miss Braun, World War, All Stars Talent Show Network, San Francisco New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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- Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist (Critical Psychology Series) by Lois Holzman on 7 pages
- The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Theory and History of Literature, Volume 10) by Jean-Francois Lyotard on 5 pages
- The Flight from Science and Reason (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) by Professor Paul R. Gross on 5 pages
- The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age by John Horgan on 4 pages
- Consequences Of Pragmatism: Essays 1972-1980 by Richard Rorty on page 28, page 29, and Back Matter
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- Postmodern Psychologies, Societal Practice, and Political Life by Lois Holzman on 6 pages
- Personal Motivation: A Model for Decision Making by Robert P. Cavalier on 5 pages
- Postmodern Psychologies, Societal Practice, and Political Life by Lois Holzman on 5 pages
- Reconstructing Religious, Spiritual and Moral Education by Clive Erricker on 4 pages
- Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind by Lois Holzman on page 2, page 196, and Back Matter
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