{"id":1226,"date":"2026-01-05T04:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:42:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:42:41","slug":"project-human-completion-fashioning-a-desirable-human-being-in-a-fragmented-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/?p=1226","title":{"rendered":"Project ‘Human Completion’: Fashioning A Desirable Human Being in a Fragmented Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bainbridge Island, WA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increasing global mental health crisis reveals various acute and nuanced forms and degrees of ontological disorientation. Human fragmentation and polarized awareness results from one-sidedness, specialization, subject\/object splits, kleptocratic leadership, and Othering of people and cultures different than us, all resting upon a dualistic logic of either\/or thinking. Education leaders and allies across all sectors of life must cooperate within a renewed human completion project, if we are to re-establish a salutogenic democracy and relational social engagements. Might we collaborate in the conceptualization of what it means to be human and carefully fashion a model of a preferred humanity that may serve as prologue to the future? The story of developing an ideal person through education and cultural values can be read long through history and wide across cultures. Some discussion of several examples is in order here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ancient Greece, for example, Hippocrates and Aristotle emphasized the indivisible relation of body and mind. The ideal person was envisioned as someone possessing a harmonious physical, mental, and emotional whole. The principle of the \u2018Golden Mean\u2019 or mesotes<\/em> is the foundation of Greek moderation and balance. Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics) defined \u2018virtue\u2019 as the intermediate expression of emotion and actions between the extreme of too much (excess) and the extreme of too little (deficiency). In addition, Plato\u2019s mentions gnostikoi (gnosis) <\/em>and gnostike episteme <\/em>in his work Politikos<\/em> (258e-267), where it stands for a noetic form of a higher intelligence. The most capable political leaders were expected to possess unique, perspicacious knowledge demonstrative of the ability to rule effectively. In addition, gnostikoi<\/em> was also a tell-tale trait of the ideal learner at the Platonic Academy that required a high cognitive prowess to successfully make one\u2019s way through its challenging curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019uomo universale<\/em> refers to the all-sided or whole person of Renaissance humanism who possessed innate potential to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the world through diverse knowledge and skills, including literary training of the imagination and practical morality. Renaissance humanists maintained that the Beautiful, the Good, and the True constitute real dimensions within each individual (Aristotle) at each stage of development and were considered premier virtues toward which a life should be directed (Plato). To the extent that a person enhances their creative self-expression, conducts themselves with virtuous rectification in ethical relation to others in society, and honestly and accurately knows the physical world, they were said to have elevated their humanity by realizing beauty, goodness, and truth within them. L\u2019uomo universale <\/em>provided the heightened image of an individual flourishing, as a result of a synthesis of self (Beauty), culture (Goodness), and nature (Truth). The intellectual, aesthetic, and ethical versatility sought by Renaissance thinkers and artists enculturated the body-mind-spirit and disciplined the imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of a person \u2018completed\u2019 through cultural training and educational learning can readily be found in the Eastern world. In Sufism, for example, the completed person is the Pir <\/em>who provides baraka<\/em> or \u2018grace\u2019 to the community (Kabir Helminski, The Knowing Heart, 136-7). The Ch\u2019un Tzu<\/em> of Confucianism (The Great Learning) is the morally superior person in possession of ren,<\/em> \u2018humanity\u2019 or \u2018benevolence\u2019 that is an inherent trait that must be developed socially among others. Buddhism (Dhammapada) values the Awakened person balanced between suffering and liberation, awareness and ignorance, joy and pain. Hinduism (Bhagavad Gita) prizes the achievement of moksha<\/em> or spiritual emancipation that results from following the appropriate life path: jnana yoga <\/em>(knowledge), bhakti yoga<\/em> (loving devotion), karma yoga <\/em>(action), and raja yoga (meditation). In Christianity, the integration of body-mind-spirit defines the ideal individual. The purpose of a complete Christian is to live in a state of shalom <\/em>– a state of peace and justice reflecting God’s reign. Shalom is Hebrew for \u2018peace\u2019, but it also conveys the values of wholeness, completeness, well-being, and safety. The complete individual of Judaism (cf. Talmud) is a holistic union of divine soul and material body created in the image of God (b\u2019tzelemb Elohim<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult today to find school curricula given to training learners in the intellectual, social, and ethical virtues of human wholeness. This is as understandable as it is sad, given that current education reflects the larger consumer culture that values continuous self-indulgence of immediate excitement, stimulation, and sensation. One can sight an early Western case of the Cistercian, founded by St. Benedict (480-543 CE) for whom the monastery served as a \u2018school\u2019 for the service of the divine. Zaleski (\u201cSearch of Paideia,\u201d Parabola, Spr. 2003, p.46) asserts that the \u201c\u2026aim of such a school is to \u2018apprehend reality as it fully and really is,\u2019 in order to transform and liberate the truth in each person.\u201d Cistercian monks willingly underwent the education of the new human, seeking transformation of consciousness of wholeness. Along similar lines, the Jesuits employ a holistic approach to life and learning involving Cura Personalis,<\/em> understood as the sacred care for the whole person. According to Philip Zaleski, \u201cThe classical Greek idea of Paideia, of cultivating perfection through disciplined training of intellect, body, and heart, in order to produce a new human governed by divine wisdom<\/em>, has virtually disappeared.\u201d  Sacredness<\/em> is the practice of the awareness of wholeness, a respectful approach to the world (Palmer, Heart of Learning, 11). A more recent educational attempt to realize the Paideia concept was Mortimer Adler\u2019s Paideia Program K-12 (1984) <\/strong>which in Zaleski\u2019s view was undeniably valuable as a comprehensive orientation in the arts, sciences, and humanities, but in Zaleski\u2019s view, \u201cfailed completely<\/em> to include moral instruction and, most tellingly, the training in the inner life\u201d (Zaleski, Paideia,\u201d Parabola, Spr. 2003:46).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s schools featuring dominant STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curricula are even further separated from even Adler\u2019s imperfect efforts, in large part due to the distinct traits of scientific methodological reductionism. Its manner of reasoning rests firmly upon dispassionate observation and a common-sense basis of knowledge. Scientific method is atomistic, breaking things down to its constituent parts. It is rational, pragmatic, and empirical. With the value of objectivity as its methodological cornerstone, science assumes a world that is \u201cfixed and absolute, and so it is possible to separate observer from the observed and the measured\u201d (Feyerabend, Farewell, 5, 8). Its dualistic logic can be found in Aristotle, \u201cA thing cannot be and not be at the same time.\u201d And so, oppositions like \u2018animate\/inanimate\u2019 became solidified in \u2018definition\u2019 and accepted as true reality. STEM\u2019s technological savvy and quantitative focus seriously undervalue the cognitive imagination as found in the arts and humanities, whose holistic logic is an antimonial both\/and, the basis for noetic literacy and all-sided cognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education at all levels must purposively heal itself of the \u2018illnesses of one-sidedness of operations, values, disciplines, structures and processes, reflected in accelerated, \u2018advanced\u2019 programs in elementary and high schools and career-focused STEM specializations in colleges and universities. STEM arises from a \u2018theology\u2019 of materialism; it enshrines logic and calculation, \u2018idolizes\u2019 objectivity, privileges exterior life over interior life, and projects a flatland view of reality devoid of interiority and spirit. The goal of my healing education project is creation of a learning environment that recognizes and nurtures the natural and human sciences that together can serve human completion. It seeks learning experiences that link the wisdom of noesis<\/em> to the wisdom of logos<\/em>, overcoming their current split and deoptimization of human potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD Bainbridge Island, WA The increasing global mental health crisis reveals various acute and nuanced forms and degrees of ontological disorientation. Human fragmentation and polarized awareness results from one-sidedness, specialization, subject\/object splits, kleptocratic leadership, and Othering of people and cultures different than us, all resting upon a dualistic logic of either\/or thinking. … Continue reading Project ‘Human Completion’: Fashioning A Desirable Human Being in a Fragmented Times<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterrphd.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}