Metamode Institute Publications
United Nations
Parliament Hill Ontario Legislature
Toronto City Hall
Capitol Hill

Contents
Voice of One
Albert Fiorino, PhD
ISBN 978-0-9733904-4--5--ix-205p
Metamode Institute Publication
Front Cover / Quotations

The book includes a series of commentaries on a variety of questions relating to governance in the 21st century, the conduct of public policy, the moral imperative for our times, spiritual development and the text, the role of religion in the world, and to other critical areas in the life of contemporary men and women.

The author adopts a metamode approach to the topics treated in an effort to examine these questions anew, hoping to offer a fresh and innovative perspective, and in the process to invite the reader to engage in his or her very own critical and personal reflections. The title is intended to underscore the need for each one of us to seek out his or her own answers to those fundamental questions that impact directly on our lives, on our society and the world, and on our own personal search for meaning and transcendence.


Personal Journey into the Public Domain

Stopover at the Home of Sufism
Ferhman
The Prime Directive for Our Times
At the very least, let's get our priorities straight
Doing the right thing, doing it right, and power politics
Governing in the 21st Century
Politics is not just about ideology, but it's about being able to walk the via media
Public Policy: In the Early Dawn of the 21st Century
Public Policy: Revamping the Paradigm
Responsible Conservatism
A Response to Stephen Harper
Continuing the National Debate
The Restoration of Responsibility over Education
to the Family and the Local Community

On the Teaching Profession
Going beyong the text
Let's get on with it...
Who will carry it forward...? A Reply to Dr. Wafa Sultan on the Clash of Civilizations
Giving each other freedom
What else is new?  Personal Observations on the War in Lebanon
"Come now, let us reason together..." The True Genius of the Jewish Mind



Contents
Shifting Gears
Transforming Public Policy
Albert Fiorino, PhD, Commentator and Editor
ISBN 978-0-9733904-5-2--ix-269p
Revised and Expanded Edition
Metamode Institute Publication
Front Cover  / Quotations

Contributors

Albert Fiorino (Commentator and Editor), Charles W. Conn, Paul Dunn, Monica Walters-Field, William Gairdner, Claude Garcia, Giuseppe Gori, Samuel Gregg, W. Glenn Harewood, Elias Helewa, Laurie Jones, Yaqoob Ashraf Khan, Tim MacNaughton, Garry McKeever, Ruth Morris, Margaret O'Gara, Joe  Peschisolido, Isabel Showler, John E. Silvia, Andrew Simone, Imam Abdul Hai Patel, Michael A. Stephen, John V. Stephens, Peter Van Loan

The book includes summaries of the presentations given at different Institute forums.  The title of the book is intended to underscore the innovative and breakthrough ideas that are put forward by presenters and commentator as possible solutions to some of the critical problems of our times.  Sample themes of the forums include: Electoral Reform in Canada, Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy, Ethics in Private and Public Life, and The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Quebec Separation



The Supreme Court's Ruling on Quebec Separation

Politics for the 21st Century: In Search of a New Model
Quenching the Human Spirit in Our Times
The Family and the Body Politic
Ethics in Private and Public Life
Canada's Role in World Affairs: A Progressive Conservative Perspective
Personalism v. Socialism: Governance among a Free People
The Future of Public Education
Capitalism and Democracy Revisited
The Exercise of Power by Modern Governments
In Search of Our Common Origins
Electoral Reform in Canada
Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy
Giving a Broader Public Purpose to Globalization
Religious Diversity and Public Education
Rekindling the Spirit Within: A Starting Point to Institutional Reform
Key Ideas Revisited



Contents
Cut to the Chase
Reinventing Public Education

Albert Fiorino, Contributing Editor
ISBN 978-0-9733904-3-8---xvi-138p
Revised and Expanded Edition
Metamode Institute Publication
Front Cover / Quotations

Contributors
Albert Fiorino (Contributing Editor), Rose Andrachuk, Larry P. Arnn, Neil Finkelstein, Milton Friedman, Lawrence W. Reed

The ideas presented in the various contributing articles are used as the basis for the development of a proposal and a series of recommendations for reinventing public education.  While the prime focus of reform is Ontario's system of education, the proposed restructuring and funding mechanism can be applied to other educational jurisdictions as well.


Forum Consensus on the Future of Public Education

A New Model for the Reorganization of Ontario's System of Education
How Can We Fix Our Public Schools? By Making Them Private
A New Direction for Education Reform
The Stakes Are High
Legal and Constitutional Aspects of Public Funding for Private Schools in Ontario
Missed Opportunity
Our Children Deserve the Best
A Plan for Reinventing Ontario's System of Public Education
Educational Leadership in Times of Rapid Change
Closing Thoughts


Capitalism and Democracy Revisited
Featuring presentations by:
The Hon. Peter Van Loan PC, MP
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
and Minister for Democratic Reform
on
"The Individual As Sovereign"
and
Dr. Samuel Gregg, Director of Research
Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty on
"Democracy and the Free Economy:
The Anthropological Imperative"
and
a response to the presentations by
Dr. Albert Fiorino, Director, Metamode Institute
"The Optimization of Rational Choice As
a Solution to the Anthropological Imperative"



Excerpt

"If, however, we believe, as I do, that the human person is a creature of incomparable dignity precisely because of humanity’s capacity to choose freely to accept a transcendent destiny as the only creature whom God has made in his own image, with reason and free will, then expressions such as ‘preference rights’ will suddenly appear somewhat shallow. It is true, nonetheless, that much of late modernity assumes that the admission of humanity’s dependence on God is a mark of human immaturity and an obstacle to human freedom. Yet it is also one of the paradoxes of our time that humanity, who began the period that we call 'modernity’ with a self-confident assertion of its coming of age and autonomy begins the 21st century fearful of itself, fearful of what democracy and free economies might be capable of, and fearful for the future. The long term stability of modern liberal democracies and market economies depends, more than ever, upon man being willing to acknowledge his creaturely limits and to enter into a personal encounter with God in such a way that we become more truly and completely ourselves. For until the modern world accepts that our anthropology as human persons is such that we must always strive to change ourselves from being the persons-that-we are into the person that we-ought-to-be, there is every chance that the human beings that inhabit democratic polities and free economies may well end up as the lonely unhappy creatures that Fukuyama somewhat despairingly believes will inhabit the earth in his imagined end of history." (pp. 21-22)  

Dr. Samuel Gregg

2015 Release
Excerpt
Rationality Papers
Redirecting rational choice
Albert Fiorino, PhD

ISBN 978-0-9733904-6-9
Metamode Institute Publication



"The integration of the different forms of rationality identified by theoreticians in the social sciences, including pyschology, can result in a dynamic model of rational choice. In this model, human intelligence, albeit bounded by its own procedural constructs and contrivances, can transcend its own functionality by way of an ongoing attention to ends and means in a mutually accommodating process with an ever changing social environment. The different manifestations of rationality that make up this model can all be assessed in terms of whether they are functional, dysfunctional or nonfunctional of ends and means. An infinite regress is avoided because ultimately these various forms of rational behaviour are simply outcroppings of the underlying substantial rationality which grounds human intelligence."


Dr. Albert Fiorino


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