The Production of Agency
—“To be of a sound mind for logical reasoning requires control of emotions. This control of the emotions begins with control over the body. Control of the body is obtained by fitness: stresses, trial, and error. The sequence by which we develop our agency is physical>emotional>mental.”— John Mattison
AGENCY, VIA POSITIVA AND VIA NEGATIVA Again, whether we are talking the existing definition in social science, or my extended definition in natural law, Agency refers to the absence of impediment, the same way that truth refers to the absence of falsehood. We do not know what the unknown impediments and falsehoods consists of we only know that they are removable. As such: One can grant authority (permission in your stead). One can delegate (assign tasks and responsibilities). One can educate (remove ignorance) One can physically emotionally and mentally train (give discipline) One can discover (produce new knowledge with which to educate) One can remove impediments (govern or rule) So again, via positiva the sculptor constructs (justifies) with clay, or via negativa removes (criticizes) the stone. The scientist via positiva creates an opportunity for knowledge( hypothesis), and via negativa performs criticism (theory), then submits it to the market for further testing (survival) Just as via positive the abrahamist (sophist) via positiva constructs an excuse (Lies) with Pilpul to cause a moral hazard, or via negativa evades (Lies ) with Critique to destroy a moral good. The truth is created by a market competition between via positiva and via negativa. A sophism is created by the avoidance of market competition in both the real (physical) and ideal (imaginary) worlds. WHAT KIND OF IMPEDIMENTS? Well, we don’t know what future limitations we might encounter, but we are impeded (limited) in mental capacity, mindfulness, knowledge, physical ability, resources, time, social, political, our physical world, and the laws of nature. So imagination, thought, independence from emotions, impulses and biases, knowledge, models of knowledge, the rate of knowledge accumulated, physical size, strength, speed, perception, health, cellular degeneration, biological composition, energy, physical resources, time, limits of imposed upon us by others, and the limits of controlling of others, and the limited abilities of others, and the limitations of the environment and the physical universe.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Machiavelli’s Prince are Works of Agency
There is only one book in world literature that is an equal to the western canon, and that is the art of war – although the european works of Machiavelli, are more advanced, the universal applicability of the first of all does it best. It is an essay in the amoral (not immoral). We spend so much time in moral mind, we leave ourselves open to defeat. So, he retrains us to think objectively rather than morally. It is not a book about war. It is a book by which we restore agency, lost in the training of our norms. Machiavelli provides the same advice more directly in The Prince and his Art of War: morality has no place in war or its preparation. The norms ‘untrain us’ to succeed in war. Hence all men must be trained in both war of the amoral, and commerce and cooperation of the moral. P IS A CORE EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM I make a lot of mistakes. We all do. I don’t make many errors. (in business I’ve made two). In my thought-work, I don’t know of any … yet. And you needn’t either. P is very powerful. At least, it is very powerful if you are intellectually honest. Conversely, if we teach P like math, reading, grammar, and writing, we will end up with intellectually honest people because it will be so damned difficult to get away with intellectual dishonesty. P is the only known inoculation against Abrahamism, and the universal human pursuit of parasitism by ignorance, error, bias, wishful thinking, suggestion, obscurantism, fictionalism, and deceit. Manners of non-imposition Ethics of non-imposition Morals of non-imposition Morality by Exchange. Positive Morality by Forbearance Extraordinary Morality by Investment Ultimate Morality by Sacrifice CURRICULUM Fitness(Self), Sport(Competition), Policing(Commons), Warfighting(Victory) Reading, Fairy Tales, Myths, Heroic Literature (criminal literature) Writing, Grammars(logics), Rhetoric (speech), Argument (persuasion), Debate, Acting (presenting), Manners, Ethics, Morals, The Natural Law, Customer Service, Negotiation, Contract, Common Law, Politics, War. Geographic History, Human History, Civilizational History, Art history, Biographical history, Economic history, military and political history, (and Criminal History) Arithmetic, Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre Calc, Calculus, Linear Algebra, Statistics. Money, Accounting, Banking, Credit, Finance, Micro Economics, Entrepreneurial Economics, National Economics Human Scale Physics, Macro Physics, Micro Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Genetics, Biology, Brain, Ecology Construction, Engineering, Programming, Chemical Engineering, Medicine, Genetics, Cognitive Science, Operations, Algorithms, functional programming, object-oriented programming, services programming, Every Boy a Prince, and Every Girl a Princess.