情報爆発時代の教育とホワイトヘッドの有機体的コスモロジー

Abstract

Pervading computers and the internet from the 1990s has increased the amount of information at an accelerated pace. It has been reported that from around the year 2000 the total amount of information of the world has been increasing exponentially, so today's situation is called an "information explosion". The influences of such circumstance on people and education are grave. We currently face an urgent need to study the field of education to avoid the fragmentaiton of knowledge and show students how to see things in relation to one another and on the whole. So the keyword in this situation is "relation" or "integration", and we need a philosophy, which has a relational or integrative character. In past times religions had such integrative power, but they have lost it in today's secularized and highly-developed world. In this perspective A. N. Whitehead's "philosophy of organism" or his organic process cosmology is of great importance. In his Process and Reality he states "obvious solidarity of the world", because "the process of any one actual entity involves the other actual entities among its components", and says "the many become one, and are increased by one". So, in his cosmology there is no isolated entity in the universe, and things are connected with each other. Everything and the universe itself is " organic". For the contemporary human, who are influenced by the modern materialistic world-view, Whitehead's organic cosmology is perhaps very significant, and particularly for Japanese people. Because universal religions are not influential in Japan, and the people, who feel isolation and seeking to belong, do not turn to religion as in former times. Instead, nationalism has been growing for several years while the communities have dissolved under the influences of neo-liberalism and globalization. Nationalism is expected to prevent the collapse of the Japanese society and to reunify it. But nationalism clearly should reach an impasse, so we need a wider and more universal world-view, suitable to today's global world. Whitehead's scheme provides conceivably the widest and most universal paradigm, and it has affinities to Japanese and Asian spiritual traditions. Although Whitehead's philosophy, particularly his Process and Reality is extremely recondite, its organic and relational world-view as an image is not so hard to accept. For that purpose it seems important to apply Whitehead's cosmological scheme in different areas. He emphasizes the significance of applications of knowledge. In the last part of this paper the possibility of application into music history for students is briefly sketched as an example. Every musical piece or performance is a process "which involves the other" music or thoughts "among its components", and that "the many become one, and are increased by one" is also true in music history. Also music and the total history of music are both "organic". Thus music, which itself is mass of relations, can be understood in differnt respects. At the same time, the "solidarity of the world" may be felt, because music doesn't occur in isolation, but arises in different relations with many other things of the world. Applications in other fields may also be possible. The crisis: losing the sense of totality, harmony, relatedness, is growing in today's world of "information explosion", which tends to drive people and society into fragmentation. Whitehead's organic cosmology should draw more attention in this crisis.