Ecology and Economy

"'Coherence,' as here employed, means that the fundamental ideas, in terms of which the scheme is developed, presuppose each other so that in isolation they are meaningless. This requirement does not mean that they are definable in terms of each other; it means that what is indefinable in one such notion cannot be abstracted from its relevance to the other notions [ie. they complete each other]. It is the ideal of speculative philosophy that its fundamental notions shall not seem capable of abstraction from each other. " AN Whitehead, Process and Reality

Some believe Ecology and Economy are contiguous and mutually exclusive ... so that enlarging one reduces the other. But, perhaps, Education can help us find another way to understand ... by putting them all together as the 3e's. Indeed, we think the 3e's are only understandable in terms of each other ... for, as AN Whitehead observed, they "presuppose each other".

Ecology [oikos-logos]

All ancient traditions tell us that the word [λόγος logos] brought order from chaos [χάος] and in doing so created a cosmos [κόσμος] in which all things [human and non-human ... physical and metaphysical] are essentially and inseparably linked ... as if forming and sharing one great household [οίκος oikos]. John Muir, the 20th century naturalist, expressed it this way: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

Education

Because humans are uniquely gifted in the use of the word, they have a unique privilege and responsibility to act individually and collectively as co-managers [νόμος nomos] of the household [oikos] ... to become its economists [oikos-nomos]. But, before they can do so, they must become skilled in their understanding and use of the learning tools of the Trivium [grammar, logic and rhetoric] which allow them to discover, decode, declare and dialogue about the household's comprehensive and complex order as it would be revealed if any single ONE of us were able [like God] to comprehend all the subjects of all the arts and sciences [including philosophy] in a unified whole. However, even though no ONE of us can comprehend our household's vast spontaneous and extended order, any SINGLE subject can be studied to educate the student in and by the use of these three tools ... from gardening to geometry ... since the same cognitive tools are used in EVERY subject.

Economy [oikos-nomos]

As the basic tools are increasingly mastered, the student becomes an economist [oikos-nomos] ... a local co-manager of the global household ... and EVERY subject becomes a productive garden ... accessible to the student/economist as his/her personal and professional interests lead in a lifetime journey of learning about [education] then managing [economy] his/her part of the household in an orderly manner [ecology] ... by working both individually and collectively with others who are also learning and managing in other areas of the household.

The Liberal Arts

For more insights into the role of the Liberal Arts in education, you need to understand

• why the learning tools of the Trivium [grammar, logic and rhetoric] are still the core disciplines in any pedagogy and

• why the original Quadrivium [arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy] can be altered to include any subject as curriculum.

We encourage you to follow the links below to related websites, blogs or online documents [some of which may be "in progress"] ... or to contact us with questions about what you learn from any of the linked resources ... just email us at Office@NorthfieldSchool.com and we will direct you to the right persons and resources.

A few helpful links:

• AT LAST: Association Tying Liberal Arts Schools Together

• The Lost Tools of Learning - to understand pedagogy

• The Aims of Education - to understand curriculum

• 3e's for Sustainable Community - to understand community

• THE ECONOMIST: A Treatise on the Science of the Household in the form of a Dialogue, Xenophon, c.362BC
  Crit. Yes, but we agreed that, however little a man may be blest with wealth himself, a science of economy exists; and that being so, what hinders you from being its professor?
  Soc. Nothing, to be sure.

• The Hind Tit, Andrew Lytle, 1977
  "When we remember the high expectations held universally by the founders of the American Union for a more perfect order of society, and then consider the state of life in this country today, it is bound to appear to reasonable people that somehow the experiment has proved abortive, and that in some way a great commonwealth has gone wrong."

• In Search of Law and Order: Ecology as the Basis for Economy
  "In practical terms, ecology [which has not only humanity and the earth but the entire universe as its scope] provides both the foundation and the limits for economy [which concerns human stewardship of the earth]. ... In other words, humanity [including every individual] is only “free” to the extent that it is able to manage its actions [eco-nomos] in a way that is consistent with cosmic order [eco-logos]."

• Tracing Ecology ... to Ecomeny
  "Is ecology’s apparent absence from explicit mention in important historical collections like the Great Books significant and, if so, where should we look to find traces of ecology in the evolution of Western thought … and how should that affect our conception of it in our own modern lives?"

• Why is Liberty Good?, Graham Walker, Executive Director's Letter, Independent Institute, 2019
  “[L]iberty is not self-justifying ... [and] cannot be an end in itself. It needs a basis, and its use needs moral limits. … Human beings are the pivotal dimension of a complex natural reality whose interdependent threads comprise a physical and moral ecology that is not man-made. The natural moral order is, rather, an independent fact to which humans are accountable.”

• Blue Planet Among Many: Ethics of Humanity vs Economics
  "To understand how earth and life got separated, we need to learn some more history."

• Catherine of Siena, a biography by Sigrid Undset
  "Was Catherine really sincere when she called herself the worst of all sinners? ... Catherine measured perfection and imperfection with a yardstick which ordinary people do not know. ... But it was not for her to judge [other souls] - she could only judge herself. This is the economy of the blessed: just as the rewards of the blessed are collected in the treasure-houses of the Church, so every poor and inform soul may have its share of this treausre, so in a mysterious way the sins of the faithful impoverish the whole of Christendom. Our generation, which has seen how the horrors of war and the concentration camps have fallen alike on the guilty and on those who by human reckoning were the most guiltless, should find it easier than our forefathers, with their naive belief in personal success as a reward for personal service, to understand the dogma of the Church that we all have our share in the rewards of all the saints and the guilt of all sinners."

• The Great Exuberance
  "Perhaps, in a soon coming generation, children will ask their parents and grandparents what it was like to grow up during the Great Exuberance ... to use the term "irrational exuberance" which Fed Chairperson Greenspan coined to refer to the deranging mindset [which he fostered] that results from mistaking financial for REAL wealth [Laodicea?] prompting REAListically-incoherent over-production, over-consumption [ie. under-saving], extravagance and recklessness. "