The learning society

Learning to survive and gain partial control of our environment has involved the invention of powerful mediating tools and the social construction of complex systems of language and culture. [...] The Lascaux cave paintings in France, dating from 13,000 BC, have been widely regarded as evidence of the development of graphic representation leading to the symbolisms of writing and reckoning which are often taken as the basis of modern civilization and our capability to transcend local time and space. [...] All merit for the swift advance of civilization was ascribed to the mind, to the development and activity of the brain. [...] Men became accustomed to explain their actions as arising out of thought instead of their needs (which in any case are reflected and perceived in the mind); and so in the course of time there emerged that idealistic world outlook which, especially since the fall of the world of antiquity, has dominated men’s (sic) minds. [...] Throughout most of human history, most of our learning has occurred in intimate relation to our labours and the rest of our everyday lives; formal schools and abstract • 4 The Learning Society ideologies of learning have been of little consequence for most people.