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Wholeness : On Education, Buckminster Fuller, and Tao

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Wholeness: On Education, Buckminster Fuller, and Tao is a treatise divided into three main chapters; as its subtitle suggests, the chapters focus upon Education, Buckminster Fuller, and the Tao. Unifying the theme of this scholarly, superbly crafted presentation is the concept of wholeness and how it applies to life in a world where so many are often blind to the whole picture that encompasses the countless different threads that make up the tapestry of global events. Six appendixes offer further selected readings and more thought on the interdependence of world problems. Highly recommended for philosophical and educational studies collections and reading lists, Wholeness is a scholarly, vital look at the unifying factors connecting diverse global problems today.

Life on Planet Earth is in serious trouble. We're adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning, creating holes in the protective ozone layer, decimating forested lands, contaminating land and water, and ever-increasing our population.

Wholeness explores options for a brighter future--indeed salvation from an ultimate destruction. Author, visionary, and educator Alex Gerber Jr. demonstrates the theories of the famous inventor/philosopher Buckminster Fuller and the principles of spirituality found in Tao, and offers a means to understand where we are globally, as well as locally and individually, and what we can do about it.

Dr. Gerber writes, "`The whole' refers to everything--the entirety of creation, all that is, undivided, without diminution." By learning to view the world's many facets (e.g., ecology, energy, economics, ethics, and education) not as parts but as an integrated whole, we can begin to live in accord with each other and with nature rather than in fragmentation, discord, and self-destruction.

Focusing particularly on design (in the fullest sense of the word), education, and spirituality, Gerber shows us how Buckminster Fuller's philosophy of "comprehensivity" helps us to connect with and act in accord with the whole. He then presents the timeless philosophy of Tao as a complement to Fuller's that encourages continual connection with "the oneness of being" and teaches us, as Gerber puts it, "to exist and act in that state of wholeness."

Wholeness: On Education, Buckminster Fuller, and Tao is an awakening to a better way. Here is a book intended for the broadest spectrum of people--those seeking to navigate in this complex and often bewildering world. Wholeness is far and away the best book this reviewer has ever read on this vital subject. Alex Gerber Jr., in his exceptional, timely offering, has given us a means to see the forest before there are no trees.

This book shows how to become whole, or rather, how to remember and accept one's wholeness. Dr. Gerber's book--a mind expander--also reveals how to teach this subject to the whole of humanity and how humanity will embrace the process.

i have read alex gerber's book on wholeness. in my view gerber

clearly represents with facts and figures the essence of the

thinker richard buckminster fuller, who was known as bucky, by

those who aspired to his aspiration for a world that worked for

everyone. after one reads the chapter on fuller, one comes away

with an understanding that fuller was not just a technocrat, but

one who had a firm understanding of nature's subtle display.

Alex extends fuller's articulations of nature with

the notion of tao in education, which is quite similar to

william irwin thomson's take on tao in his chapter the road

not taking from his book entittled "coming into

being : artifacts and texts in the evolution of consciousnes"

Yet the differences that come forth from the synergy of

universe represented by dr. alex gerber are significant in

their turns to plays. He stresses thoroughtout his book that the

individual realization of wholeness is feasable in ones life

time. the book is designed for the person, who just wants a

gist, albeit a fragrant one, of the notion of wholeness; also it

designed for thinkers, who want to pursue this inquiry with the

necessary rigor required for good scholarship

in retrospect, this book will endure. fuller

wished his work be usefull for future generations; this idea

of wise use strikes me as similar to the views of the many

native amercian indians, and other indigenous people on this

planet.