ABSTRACT
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Decision making-the method of making decisions and deciding important matters of economics,
social organization, matters of government, and so forth-in Western culture is far from the
objective process society is led to believe. The manner of approaching problems, or even defining
what constitutes, for example, a good education in the twenty-first century, emerges from a deeper
structural foundation of one’s worldview. Considering one’s sense of what characterizes a good
educational system (the basis of training in making decisions), it becomes apparent that society’s
vision of education is based upon many tenets of the Enlightenment. In the past, knowledge was a
goal of its own and was considered a good for its own sake; this knowledge was ultimately gained
through education. This became the ideal of the liberal arts education. In contemporary society,
however, knowledge has become more practical-one learns in order to become useful, that is, one
does not learn to know; one learns to do. Hence, emphasis is now placed on skill acquisition
and training rather than on some vague conception that knowing is what it means to be human.
Nowadays, it is natural to question children about what they intend to do with their philosophy
majors, art majors, or English majors. Business majors are exempt from such interrogation since it
is clear they have acquired a set of skills that have trained them to go into the marketplace and make
the “right” decisions in “correct” ways. Knowledge is now measured by its utility. Ends are valued
over means and the indoctrination of training is venerated as being the role of education.
