HAIDT ON MORALITY
–“Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate self-interest and make cooperative societies possible.”–
Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind.
We can say that in propertarian terms. 🙂
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-22 15:33:00 UTC
–“I am a Popperian falliblist and critical rationalist — by making only forever fallible and likely wrong conjectures and theories I avoid making truth claims which carry burdens of proof/demonstration.”– Frank Lovell.
Conversely, as a Moral Realist, if one makes truth claims, one carries the burden of demonstration.
And, unfortunately, language is a terribly convenient tool for engaging in both deception and self deception. So to prohibit deception as well as self-deception, we must rely on a demonstration of knowledge of construction of terms, not just a knowledge of the use of terms. Just as we must rely upon the demonstration of internal consistency using logic, and external correspondence using tests.
This means that if you make a truth claim using platonic language, you are not demonstrating knowledge of construction.
And therefore is it is not possible to make truth claims under platonism.
You are claiming truth which you cannot demonstrate the knowledge to claim.
Which is unethical.
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-20 17:28:00 UTC
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/04/tom-sargent-summarizes-economics.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marginalrevolution%2Ffeed+%28Marginal+Revolution%29#sthash.g6CGFLA8.dpufTOM SARGEANT ON COMMON SENSE RULES OF ECONOMICS
(via by Alex Tabarrok)
1. Many things that are desirable are not feasible.
2. Individuals and communities face trade-offs.
3. Other people have more information about their abilities, their efforts, and their preferences than you do.
4. Everyone responds to incentives, including people you want to help. That is why social safety nets don’t always end up working as intended.
5. There are tradeoffs between equality and efficiency.
6. In an equilibrium of a game or an economy, people are satisfied with their choices. That is why it is difficult for well meaning outsiders to change things for better or worse.
7. In the future, you too will respond to incentives. That is why there are some promises that you’d like to make but can’t. No one will believe those promises because they know that later it will not be in your interest to deliver. The lesson here is this: before you make a promise, think about whether you will want to keep it if and when your circumstances change. This is how you earn a reputation.
8. Governments and voters respond to incentives too. That is why governments sometimes default on loans and other promises that they have made.
9. It is feasible for one generation to shift costs to subsequent ones. That is what national government debts and the U.S. social security system do (but not the social security system of Singapore).
10. When a government spends, its citizens eventually pay, either today or tomorrow, either through explicit taxes or implicit ones like inflation.
11. Most people want other people to pay for public goods and government transfers (especially transfers to themselves).
12. Because market prices aggregate traders’ information, it is difficult to forecast stock prices and interest rates and exchange rates.
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-20 04:49:00 UTC
GOOD MEME
–“the “white people are never oppressed” meme seems an awful lot like the “all Jews are rich” stereotype.”– Eric Field
Priceless meme. Run with it. (I certainly will)
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-18 23:27:00 UTC
–“My god carries a hammer. Your god was nailed to a cross. Any question?”–
Eli Harman
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-17 18:15:00 UTC
http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/04/11/if_he_looks_stupid_he_probably_is_108592.html?fb_action_ids=678685832192328&fb_action_types=og.likesJust how it is.
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-16 19:09:00 UTC
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/04/14/how-obamas-justice-department-selectively-blocks-mergers-by-republican-ceos/NO RULE OF LAW: IRS ABUSE, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ABUSE
I worked for the justice department for a very short time. It was so immoral that I couldn’t stand it.
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-14 12:53:00 UTC
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141107/david-malet/foreign-fighters-playbook?cid=soc-tumblr-in-snapshots-foreign_fighters_playbook-040914%22–TRANSNATIONAL INSURGENCIES HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: THEY WIN.
—“Although transnational insurgencies comprise highly diverse groups across different conflicts and eras, they still have much in common. For one, such forces are winning: transnational insurgencies have won nearly half of the civil wars in which they have fought, almost twice the success rate of insurgencies overall. Several Israeli prime ministers have acknowledged that Israel’s victory in 1948 relied on the World War II veterans who aided the fledgling state against Arab armies. In other conflicts throughout history, prominent foreign fighters were either instrumental in extending insurgencies or making them costlier to suppress: the Marquis de Lafayette, the French general who fought for the American rebels during the Revolutionary War; the Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi, who supported the Republican uprising in Brazil in the 1830s; and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who formed al Qaeda in Iraq under the U.S. occupation. “—
–“The patterns of recruitment for such disparate fighters are broadly similar and, because of that, they all have the same Achilles’ heel…. Insurgent groups … use despair rather than optimism to recruit members. Generally, they tell recruits that they are losing a war of survival and that they face an existential threat.”–
–“It might not seem like the most persuasive pitch, particularly for fighters who, if they join, must violate a number of laws and take up arms in an unfamiliar territory. But it works. …. The strategy works best with foreign recruits who share the movement’s ideology, ethnicity, or religion but who, unlike local fighters, do not have immediate communities and families in the line of fire.”–
–“Such fighters are often persuadable because of their weak affiliations with their own country and national identity,”–
–” In these conflicts, the foreign fighters, driven by the belief that they are fighting a desperate battle to the end, act more aggressively than local insurgents — even when their side is actually winning. It’s no accident that most suicide missions in Afghanistan and Iraq were carried out by foreign fighters rather than local militants. “–
–“Some insurgent groups, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, have taken advantage of this dynamic by using foreigners to target civilians when the local combatants will not. “–
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-10 16:16:00 UTC
Nicolás Gómez Dávila
Skye turned me onto Davila today. After reading a bit of his work it’s pretty clear that he’s against modernity and in favor of mysticism. But I did managed to pull a few gems together:
–“Liberty is not an end, but a means. Whoever mistakes it for an end does not know what to do once he attains it.”–
–“Perfection is the point where what we can do and what we want to do coincide with what we ought to do”–
–“Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.”–
–“Modern man does not love, but seeks refuge in love; does not hope, but seeks refuge in hope; does not believe, but seeks refuge in a dogma.”–
—“Civilization is a poorly fortified encampment in the midst of rebellious tribes.”—
–“Love of the people is an aristocratic calling. The democrat only loves the people at election time.”–
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-10 13:19:00 UTC
THE POPULAR WILL : MURDER
–“…our civilization rests on the death of two persons: a philosopher (Socrates) and the Son of God (Jesus), both victims of the popular will.”– Madariaga
Source date (UTC): 2014-04-09 18:35:00 UTC