Optimal lifelong learning from experience, reflection, and 'inner wisdom': The four stages of the human lifecycle revisited (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781764488013)

This book explores powerful, important and new (as well as 'long-lost') insights into the experiential learning, problem-solving and general knowledge-building purposes of the human lifecycle as the natural foundation of 'optimal lifelong learning'. In traditional societies of the past the various key stages of the human lifecycle were widely recognized and celebrated. The progression of childhood, youth, mature adulthood and old age were likened in many cultures to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter - the backdrop for the various tales of the great heroic adventure of life and its related 'nurturing' purposes. It's not just modern society but also its various educational and cultural systems that have arguably ignored, repressed and generally demoralized what has long been the greatest resource of humanity - the capacity to transform human experience into relevant knowledge. We investigate here how the lost and hidden (or rather 'forgotten') collective as well as individual 'reservoirs of direct human experience' can yet again be harnessed to sustainably transform collective as well as personal futures. As well as the ageing process, this book also addresses some of the biggest challenges to (as well as deepest mysteries about) life and human nature. But more than this, it further indicates how the human lifecycle is a natural antidote to demoralized modern society, digital illusions of experience, and the future misuse of artificial intelligence.