End Of Knowing

By Lois Holzman and Fred Newman

Book Overview

First published in 1997. This volume discusses the notion of whether there is a limit to knowledge and 'One Way to Know', in addition to the suggestion that that we no longer need to know, and whether our continued employment of knowing (cognition, epistemology) is useful or useless and destructive of human life and development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415135990
• ISBN13: 9780415135993
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Startling Glimpses of Who We Are

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.