Volume 9: Circulation Of Thought (1954)

Twenty-six 1-hour lectures.

There is an order in this cycle of the sciences. And because the natural sciences have over-stepped their mark and have tried even us, the laity, as ‘its,’ we now have to point out that we, as well as all the scientists, have experiences of which the natural sciences do not know. We have direction and we have peace.

—May 14, 1954

Circulation of Thought (1954) is a course on the sociological aspects of knowledge. It covers the process of thinking in personal life, in education, and in science. Rosenstock-Huessy addresses listening, reading, learning, play, doubting, protesting, convincing, ruling, teaching, and speaking. He then goes on to the institutions related to these processes: the universities and the academies. For biographical illustrations he cites Anselm, Abelard, Bonaventura, Thomas Aquinas, Paracelsus, Copernicus, Brahe, Newton, Descartes, Goethe, and Saint-Simon. He describes the position in this history of thinking of a sociology based on the grammatical method, and outlines the tasks facing that sociology.