The Enlightenment: The Era of Wishful Thinking.
Britain(empirical-legal), German(protestant-moral), France(catholic – wishful thinking), Eastern Europe (Jewish-pseudoscience)
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-04 03:33:00 UTC
The Enlightenment: The Era of Wishful Thinking.
Britain(empirical-legal), German(protestant-moral), France(catholic – wishful thinking), Eastern Europe (Jewish-pseudoscience)
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-04 03:33:00 UTC
Truth (Sparta and Rome), Athens (Cunning), Jerusalem (Lying)
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-04 03:30:00 UTC
It might be interesting to give a seminar or series of talks teaching Testimonialiism (“completed” critical rationalism), versus Suggestion: The Three Eras of the Great Lies: Monotheism, Pseudoscience, and Propaganda.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-04 03:25:00 UTC
Thievery is a successful group evolutionary strategy. Some groups practice it purposefully.
Lying is a successful group evolutionary strategy. Some groups practice it purposefully.
Wishful thinking is another group evolutionary strategy. Some groups practice it purposefully.
Truth is an other group evolutionary strategy. Some groups practice it purposefully.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-04 03:14:00 UTC
How would I teach a philosophy course? Hmm… Well, you know, I would have to teach it as truth first, and then the catalog of errors and deceptions that constitute most of intellectual history.
I can’t imagine that’s attractive to a philosophy department.
lol
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 17:58:00 UTC
WHY NOT STUDY THE CONTINENTALS, MYSTICS, PHILOSOPHERS OF LANGUAGE?
Spending time analyzing lies is not useful. In fact, its harmful. And that’s the intent of the authors.
—“If you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t change, the devil changes you.”—
Or less eloquently,
—“If you spend a lot of time with dung, you begin to smell of it.”—
Or put more accurately:
We are all aware that the average idiot seems to feel qualified to engage in discourse on ethics, morality, politics, economics, psychology, and sociology, despite his pervasive ignorance.
By constructing elaborate nonsense-riddles the producers of systems of lies accomplish indoctrination through amusement.
In other words, the study of the language of deceit makes one a willing host for it, and an accidental accomplice to it.
If philosophy and science are compatible then the subject at hand is possibly worth consideration.
If they are not compatible, then the evidence is that the subject at hand is one of deception, not education.
Curt Doolittle,
The Propertarian Institute
Kiev, Ukraine.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 17:55:00 UTC
WHY DISCUSS LIES. THEY’RE JUST LIES. THREE WAVES OF LIES.
(read it and weep) (a graduate education in philosophy in one lesson)
Q&A: —“Curt Doolittle, is christian mysticism a functional or structural approach to things?”—
Well, now that’s an interesting question.
1) “Functional”, “Structural” and “Approach to Things” are problematic terms. If we clarify the terms – which is the purpose of analytic philosophy – then I am pretty sure that (as usual) the question will all but answer itself.
2) The Grammar of Description: The subset of internal consistency: observer (narrator) consistency.
There are at least three points of view that we can use do describe observations: (a) the experience of being subjected to stimuli, (b) the experience of acting to cause change in state, (c) the observer of the actor and/or the experiencer, (d) the description of the constituent parts as a series of operations.
In other words, all description of observation that we can use for reconstruction of observation (communication) of relies upon a grammar, and that grammar includes the point of view.
In general the most problematic use of this grammar originates in the ‘cost’ of consistency in construction of our descriptions. The verb to-be functions as an obscurant technique with which to conflate multiple points of view, (use bad grammar of description) thereby either alleviating the burden of logical consistency from the speaker, OR worse, through obscurantism, allowing the speaker to state a falsehood undetected by the audience.
3) “Functional” methodology is more correctly stated as an attempt at descriptive consistency using the experiential observer’s point of view, and the behavior (incentives?) that these experiences produce.
Since humans act according to their experiences, this is somewhat difficult to argue with.
To convey mere ‘meaning’ any method can be used to serve the speaker’s interests.
Certainly the experiential point of view requires the least knowledge, and relies upon mere introspection. But experiential description is also the most susceptible to error, bias, wishful thinking, deception, because it is the easiest means of suggestion. It is the easiest means of suggestion because it is the most subject to loading, framing, overloading, and it invokes our desire to empathize with the speaker, leading to easy abuse of our altruism. (Which is why people use it).
Hence why the discipline of science speaks operationally: to best ostracize error, bias, wishful thinking, deceit, suggestion, and abuse of altruism.
And hence why, in my work, I use amoral operational language to prevent error caused by experiential, intentional, and observational methods of description.
To convey “truth”, meaning that we have done due diligence to launder error, bias, wishful thinking, deceit, loading, framing, and suggestion would require that we test that all four descriptive models of a process are consistent with one another, such that we convey no error, bias, wishful thinking, or deceit in our description.
4) Structuralism, or more honestly stated “social constructivism”, suggests that people throw symbols around at one another, and that their reality is socially constructed.
Now this may be true at some popular level, but it was the western tradition to teach grammar, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy for a very long time. And we can see from the disciplined use of grammar, rhetoric, logic, performative truth, the discipline of testimony, natural law, and physical law, that it is quite possible to learn to speak with the same discipline as any of the logics. We just have industrialized education mass consumption and no longer teach these skills.
The structuralist movement was created by some of the greatest ‘liars’ of the past century, in what I would argue represents an attempt to impose false skepticism on the use of language, in an effort to circumvent the constraint that consistent grammar, rhetoric, logic, performative truth, the discipline of testimony, natural law, and physical law
So just as the 19th century saw the first wave of pseudoscientific liars: Boaz (anthropology), Marx (economics and sociology), Freud (psychology), and Cantor(mathematical platonism), Mises (economics and philosophy) the 20th century saw the subsequent wave of philosophical liars, Michel Foucault, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908 – ), the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901 – 1981), the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980), the linguists Roman Jakobson (1896 – 1982) and Noam Chomsky (1928 – ), the literary critic Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980) and the Marxist theorists Louis Althusser (1918 – 1990) and Nicos Poulantzas (1936 – 1979).
5) Christian mysticism makes use of analogy to invoke experience (the extension of kinship love through appeals to altruism and the pack response in exchange for self-generated status signals).
It makes use of any and all methods to suit its purpose. Christian mysticism is at best an allegorical literary and rhetorical art for constructing myths parables and outright lies, for the purpose of creating experiences, that produce behaviors.
Some of these behaviors are objectively beneficial (the extension of kinship love). And some of them are not (too many to list). But what the data suggests is that this method works, particularly on the young, the vulnerable, the hopeful, and those with lower intelligence, and even those with average intelligence and above average moral instincts (purity, sanctity, hierarchy).
(But the church also has a long tradition of natural law as well.)
6) Humans can cooperate, communicate, and understand ethical moral and political statements by a spectrum of tools. And with some confidence we can say that Ethics can be taught using a spectrum of methods, from the most primitive and requiring the LEAST knowledge, to the most sophisticated and requiring the MOST knowledge:
a) Myth and Mysticism
b) Virtue ethics and imitation.
c) Rule ethics and adherence to law
d) Outcome ethics and the practice of science.
We can separate the promise of a narrative, from the truth content of it, from the behavior produced by it (ie: Islam’s nonsensical ‘religion of peace’ claims which fail all three tests.).
I would say that the truth content of christian mysticism is higher than the truth content of Structuralism. I would say that the outcome of christian mysticism is objectively more beneficial than the outcome of structuralism. I would say that the intention of structuralists was fraud and deception (parasitism). I would say that christian mysticism is not as bad as structuralism or social constructivism – which are themselves an argumentative innovation on mysticism (deceit). I would say that as long as we have a method of laundering error, bias, wishful thinking, and deceit from any and all arguments, and that we can teach this method by grammar, rhetoric, logic, performative truth, testimonial skill, natural law and physical law, that we can counter every one of these falsehoods.
CLOSING
Christian mysticism consists of allegorical conveyance of meaning, using a mixture of truth and falsehood to try to produce high trust on one end, and dependency on the other.
functionalism consists of an internally consistent and grammatically consistent method of argument, but it is insufficient in the scope of due diligence it includes to ensure it is not used as a vehicle for error,bias, wishful thinking, and deceit.
Structuralism is a literary and narrative attempt to circumvent a demand for truth, testimony, natural law and physical law.
Christianity (monotheism) was the first great lie to successfully infect the west.
19th century pseudoscience as the second great lie to successfully infect the west.
20th century verbal ‘new mysticism of language’ was the third great lie to successfully infect the west.
None of these subjects merit discussion since christian supernatural mysticism, cosmopolitan pseudoscience, and cosmopolitan verbal mysticism, are nothing but the same technique applied in three different waves, in order to defeat the west’s central competitive strategy:
The creation of competitive commons through the use of truth, testimony, natural law and physical law.
In other words: correspondence.
Curt Doolittle
The Propertarian Institute
Kiev, Ukraine.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 17:44:00 UTC
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/05/10/the-evolution-of-suppression/A SHORT COURSE IN THE TRANSACTION COST THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
THE EVOLUTION OF SUPPRESSION
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/05/10/the-evolution-of-suppression/
THE MEANING OF INCREMENTAL SUPPRESSION
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/06/23/the-meaning-of-incremental-suppression/
GENETIC PACIFICATION AND THE PROBLEM OF RETALIATION
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/08/06/law-genetic-pacification-the-problem-of-retaliation/
FULL SPECTRUM INCREMENTAL SUPPRESSION
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/08/24/full-spectrum-incremental-pacification/
THE TRANSACTION COST THEORY OF GOVERNMENT
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2014/12/11/the-transaction-cost-theory-of-government-2/
PEAK HUMAN
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/11/22/peak-human-and-dysgenic-policy/
THE BIGGER PICTURE – A SHORT COURSE IN PROPERTARIAN MORALITY
http://www.propertarianism.com/en_US/2015/07/27/a-short-course-in-propertarian-morality-2/
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 08:18:00 UTC
WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF POLITICAL POWER?
–“Curt: Political power ultimately originates from Economics or exchange, right?”—
I am not sure I understand this question.
There are three methods of power: 1) force, 2) payment, 3) gossip.
One can use those three methods exclusively or in combination to band together into groups or hierarchies, and the focus the group’s efforts on the application of force, payment, or gossip (rallying/shaming/including/ostracizing).
Political power – meaning anything ranging from monopoly producer of commons to a distributed production of commons – can be constructed from any one or combination of, those methods of coercion.
Political power originates in the ability of humans to organize and coerce.
It just so happens that we use gossip to rally and shame and ostracize people from production and opportunity for consumption.
But then we scale.
It just so happens that you need to use violence to suppress parasitism sufficiently for a market to form, at that scale.
But then we scale further.
And then to use law to suppress cheating, fraud, and to impose performance, and restitution, and if necessary, punishment.
But then we scale further.
And then we use wealth created by the application of violence and law and to force market participation rather than parasitism, to pay off those who cannot be forced.
And then, we hit the novel inflection point, and scale further:
And so we then use force, law and gossip to suppress the suppressors, and rely entirely upon rule of law, without a group that exercises power.
So the sooner one develops rule of law, the sooner one starts suppressing the parasitism of the monopoly.
Curt Doolittle
The Propertarian Institute
Kiev, Ukraine.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 06:23:00 UTC
Q&A: PREDICTION OR EXPLANATORY POWER IN TRUTH STATEMENTS?
—“Curt, Is it an important or necessary quality of a scientific theory to be predictive?”—
Not necessary – and that’s not what empiricist claimed, either. It must provide explanatory power and survive falsification (survive continuously). In other words, prediction is a form of justification. It’s survival from criticism(falsification), not confirmation that determines the truth content of a theory.
Prediction is just one way. But there is a difference between predicting a trend (aggregates) and predicting an individual actions(identities).
THE EPISTEMIC SEQUENCE
Free association -> hypothesis -> TEST (observation -> criticism) -> theory -> extended ‘social’ criticism -> law -> falsehood (increased parsimony)
Testimonialism is a higher standard of truth candidacy than that of ‘science’. It tells us that we must test our hypotheses for:
1 – categorical consistency (identity)
2 – internal consistency (logical)
3 – external consistency (correspondence)
4 – existential consistency (existential possibility)
5 – full accounting (account for externalities)
6 – parsimony and limits (limits)
7 – cooperative consistency (morality)
THE PROBLEM OF PARSIMONY (PRECISION)
Now lets start with the problem of parsimony and limits: predictive and actionable, and descriptive and non-actionable, are two different criteria.
In physical sciences, we test the determinism (regularity), limits (scope), and parsimony (precision) of a theory, by its predictive(forward) or descriptive(backward) power (external correspondence).
THE PROBLEM OF INFORMATION
Prediction is a test that we have not erred in our description of deterministic systems. And the physical universe is deterministic – because it cannot choose (it cannot predict itself). Moreover, as we scale (the amount of mass we are attempting to develop a theory of), it takes ever greater information (energy) to alter the deterministic course of the universe, even a little bit.
Just as in human beings, as we scale, individuals require ever greater amounts of information to alter their behavior – hence why prices are so important to us, and laws that create regularity (predictability in our risk taking) so important to us. And hence why macroeconomic manipulation using money and therefore prices causes changes in human behavior.
We can predict the orbit of large objects in our solar system. We cannot predict events (information) outside of the deterministic behavior of the objects – we cannot know the unknown externalities.
Every time we cross the galactic plane it seems to invite a great extinction. Can we predict it? Not precisely and therefore not actionably. We can only know that such events tend to happen with regularity. But our precision (parsimony) is very limited.
Can we predict when an asteroid will come free of the belt and tumble toward earth? We can only state that there is no reason one will not. That’s not very helpful. It is however, predictive. It is just not actionable. But the problem is not the theory, it is our lack of information given the externalities.
But humans can think, observe, and change their behavior by means of information, or anticipatory information. Human existence – memory, intuition, thought, and reason – evolved precisely to outwit the deterministic course of regular events and to capture some of the difference for our sustenance.
We can predict that gasses will expand to fill a volume in a vacuum, but not how the individual molecules will be arranged. That would require so much information, that the measurement itself would change the outcome.
So humans – or any sentient creature – can change the universe by his actions a little bit, using only information. (Just as we suspect the subatomic universe transmits information and reacts to equilibrate – somehow. )
We can predict by sympathetic testing (“empathy”), with fair accuracy, how an individual will act when subject to certain incentives, when isolated from many externalities. If we couldn’t then cooperation would be impossible. So by definition human behavior is at least marginally predictable.
But like molecules of gas in a volume in a vacuum, the amount of information necessary to predict the behavior of any molecule is such that measurement sufficient for that determination would affect the outcome. The same applies for humans. Attempts at measurement that the human is aware of change the human’s behavior. So we create institutions that assist us in creating regular behavior: myths, rituals, traditions, norms, rules, laws, governments, and war. Otherwise we ourselves could not predict much outside of our local family.
Humans are relatively predictable at macro-economic levels. Gas is predictable at macro levels. The local physical universe is predictable at macro-levels. But that’s not very parsimonious. It’s not very precise. It’s not actionable.
Predictability in the physical universe is a good test because we cannot empathize with the physical universe, and the standard of predictability is fairly low, and variables can often by isolated from random information.
Humans take very little energy – mere visual information and memory – to change their course. Moving space time using gravity just a little, little bit, takes vast amounts of energy (mass).
Or put another way, it takes great energy (information) to bend space time, and it takes great information to move populations form one behavior to another. Organization is a costly endeavor. And just as the universe will seek to equilibrate the energy transfer (information), so will humans see to seize opportunities generated (information created) by the transition from one state to another.
So predictability is determined by the number and density of variables, and the information necessary to for the object of our consideration to change state.
EXPLANATORY POWER
A theory must provide explanatory power over recorded raw data – utility for the purpose intended. Whether that same theory is actionable or not is a product of the transmission of information within the system, and the energy required to alter its course.
For humans we must record data that captures demonstrated preferences. Money is a good measure of humans because outside of interference by the state, consumption is a demonstrated preference.
A theory must provide explanatory power, and survive criticism. Prediction is just a method of criticism, not a confirmation. Hence falsification is superior to prediction. So first we create a confirmatory test in order to construct an observation. But we then criticize our observation to determine it’s truth or falsehood.
Prediction is low standard of test for the physical universe where lots of information (energy) is required to change state and information (change) is rare.
And prediction is a high standard of test in the human universe where trivial information is necessary to produce a change in state, and information is ever-present.
Prediction in highly deterministic systems is fairly easy and important since the variability is low. Prediction in lightly deterministic systems is not easy nor important for testing since the variability is high.
The question we are always trying to answer is ‘actionability’. Theories must be actionable given the information necessary to maintain or change state, and given the cost of obtaining or imparting that information.
I should probably write something more thorough on this in order to continue to kill off the rothbardian and Misesian pseudoscientific nonsense. Hoppe persists in using this straw man argument to positivism. But it’s a straw man.
Source date (UTC): 2016-02-03 05:14:00 UTC