Introduction

The need for integrating the vast body of knowledge that men have been able to accumulate into a coherent whole is a subject that has begun to engage the serious attention of educators. Practical aspects of knowledge are now being stressed at the expense of the purer branches. Advanced studies now refer mostly to technological subjects. Universities turn out more and more experts or specialists. As a result, those aspects of higher knowledge which were covered by the term ‘humanities’ have been by-passed and left behind.

Except in a few places such as the collège de france, the institute for advanced studies of princeton, or perhaps also in the recently started committee on social thought under the university of chicago, attempts at any serious integration of courses seem inadequate and negligible.

There is, however, at the present time a growing feeling for a fresh synthesis of knowledge, so that the sterility of over-departmentalization and the consequent lack of the human touch in education may be effectively stemmed. Specialization at least must not be for its own sake, but must serve some tangible end to produce a better-educated man.

Besides the unesco, which may be looked upon as an expression of the desire for a revised impetus to culture and science on a world-wide scale, there are at present many private foundations, both in the east and the west, standing for the same ideal. They adhere to varied programmes, some being overly scientific and others relying more on esoteric cultural values. A particular cosmology or a tacit dogmatic theology can be seen to be implied in many of them. Even the theory of evolution itself is being treated by some of them as an article of faith. They often become thus open to the objection that they tend to be dogmatic, sentimental or religiously pre-disposed. They would fall short of the requirement that any modern attempt at an integration of knowledge should be conceived on more positive or scientific lines.