SLOWLY THE DARK ENLIGHTENMENT SPREADS Another social science academic concludes that there is little there there. Writing in 1942, the Oxford Professor of Metaphysics, RG Collingwood, said that dismissing academic discussion for insignificant speech is like “scolding little girls for giving dolls’ tea-parties with empty cups and little boys for playing with wooden swords.” Academic discussions, he added, “belong to the world of make-believe.” Collingwood was specifically talking about my field, political philosophy, as it is done in universities. Reflecting on his words over the last year, I’ve begun to realise how right he was. –Craig Newmark, Newmark’s Door. COMMENT ————- The fallacy of common interest. The fallacy of common ends. The necessity of common means of achieving opposing interests and ends. The enlightenment vision of man was false. It is not mysterious that deliberation over public choice is nonsense, if it is predicated on nonsensical assumptions about the nature of man. The market, noy politics, is the only mechanism for cooperating peacefully on means despite conflicting and irreconcilable ends. WELCOM BACK FROM THE MATRIX INTO THE REAL WORLD. Aristocracy.
Theme: Science
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The Problem Of Ratio-moral Versus Ratio-scientific Arguments
(interesting) “Ratio-Scientific vs Ratio-Moral Argument” Historically, Political speech has been structured morally: I) as an expression of positive or negative reaction (IRRATIONAL SELF) II) as an appeal or pleading (RATIONAL BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS) III) as a polemic or criticism (RATIONAL AND ARATIONAL TO AN AUDIENCE) To express one’s feelings or reactions without the structure of reason, is not a debate. It’s just sentimental expression. It’s an opinion poll but not an argument. It’s an expressed reaction without a request for opinion. But it’s not an argument. To enter into debate, one forgoes one’s right of violence. Theoretically in pursuit of the truth, for mutual benefit. That is the purpose of a debate. (This fact, that gets to the problem of why argumentation is correct for deductive purposes but incorrect for causal purposes). To publish one’s arguments in a political context, one conducts oratory, not debate. Oratory falls into the following structural categories: (Forms of Oratory: or ‘publication’)
- a) RHETORIC / “Rhetorical argument”: A type of argument, spoken or written, between an orator or writer and an audience, that uses reason (logos), appeals to emotion (pathos), and appeals to community norms (ethos), to persuade the listeners to take the side of the argument presented.
- b) APOLOGIA / “Apologetic Argument” / “Apologist” : A type of argument whereby an individual defends a religious, political, or cultural position or dogma through the systematic use of reason. An “Apologist” refers to authors, writers, editors or academic journals, and public leaders who commonly defend what are usually minority positions that are the subject of consistent or popular scrutiny.
- c) POLEMIC : A type of speech intended to establish the supremacy of a single point of view by refuting an opposing point of view about a matter of significant public importance in Religion, Philosophy, Politics or Science.
- d) PHILIPPIC : A type of speech that is emotive, fiery, damning, or a tirade, for the purpose of condemning, discrediting, disempowering, and ostracizing a particular political actor.
- e) JEREMIAD : A long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in poetry, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and which contains a prophecy of society’s imminent downfall.
(For more, see my guide on DISCOURSE: IRRATIONAL (expression) vs RATIONAL (debate) vs ORATORY (publication) at http://www.propertarianism.com/tools-and-techniques-for-political-debate/a-list-of-terms-for-use-in-evaluating-political-debate/#II ) LIBERTARIANISM IS STRUCTURED RHETORICALLY, and libertarian ethics are structured as an APOLOGIA by Rothbard. Ratio-scientific argument from analytical philosophy, is either true or false, but it is not an appeal for consent. That is non-logical. Contract is consensual, but truth is independent of consent. RATIO SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT IS ABSENT RESPECT FOR CONVENTION. The purpose of the scientific method is to CORRECT our sense, perception, memory, calculation, and narrative (causal relations), habits, norms, traditions, myths and metaphysical assumptions about the structure of reality. Otherwise the discipline of science would not be necessary. The purpose of MORAL speech in the form of RHETORIC and APOLOGIA, is to APPEAL to norms embedded in memory, and narrative, in order to obtain consent. The purpose of RATIO SCIENTIFIC argument is to describe a set of causal relations that produce an outcome. In other words: a formula or recipe. The formula or recipe either works or it doesn’t. But it’s not a matter of consent, or preference. It’s just true or false. One can say that the formula isn’t logically sufficient or solid. But one cannot prefer or object to the conclusion. One doesn’t write these things as appeal, one writes these as positives statements that are open to TESTING, not as appeals that are written to obtain CONSENT. Whether one agrees or not with them must be a matter of the argument, not wither one likes or dislikes it. Formulae and Recipes produce what they do. One can like the product or not, but the formula or recipe works, then it just does. I would like it very much if it was possible to convince people to adopt libertarian ethics and a libertarian morality. As it is currently structured it is not rational to think so. I am not trying to persuade people to adopt libertarianism. I am trying to demonstrate that if one desires LIBERTY, then one must ACT in such fashion that human beings will produce it. That is not a moral question. It is not a rhetorical question. It is a SCIENTIFIC QUESTION. Either people WILL or WILL NOT, when subject to incentives A, produce behavior B. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE STRUCTURE OF ETHICS AND MORALS The argument that demonstrably, we ALL act in our reproductive interests, within the structure of production, structure of reproduction, and structure of property rights which we call ‘norms’, and that ALL our discourse is little more than JUSTIFICATIONARY attempts at resisting against, cooperating with, or thieving from one another within the boundaries of those productive, reproductive, and normative constraints. That is an argument that is extremely difficult to prove. Nothing else is actually logical. If we want liberty then, we must create institutional incentives for liberty. Asking people to ‘believe’ in libertarianism or, marxism is equally ridiculous.
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The Problem Of Ratio-moral Versus Ratio-scientific Arguments
(interesting) “Ratio-Scientific vs Ratio-Moral Argument” Historically, Political speech has been structured morally: I) as an expression of positive or negative reaction (IRRATIONAL SELF) II) as an appeal or pleading (RATIONAL BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS) III) as a polemic or criticism (RATIONAL AND ARATIONAL TO AN AUDIENCE) To express one’s feelings or reactions without the structure of reason, is not a debate. It’s just sentimental expression. It’s an opinion poll but not an argument. It’s an expressed reaction without a request for opinion. But it’s not an argument. To enter into debate, one forgoes one’s right of violence. Theoretically in pursuit of the truth, for mutual benefit. That is the purpose of a debate. (This fact, that gets to the problem of why argumentation is correct for deductive purposes but incorrect for causal purposes). To publish one’s arguments in a political context, one conducts oratory, not debate. Oratory falls into the following structural categories: (Forms of Oratory: or ‘publication’)
- a) RHETORIC / “Rhetorical argument”: A type of argument, spoken or written, between an orator or writer and an audience, that uses reason (logos), appeals to emotion (pathos), and appeals to community norms (ethos), to persuade the listeners to take the side of the argument presented.
- b) APOLOGIA / “Apologetic Argument” / “Apologist” : A type of argument whereby an individual defends a religious, political, or cultural position or dogma through the systematic use of reason. An “Apologist” refers to authors, writers, editors or academic journals, and public leaders who commonly defend what are usually minority positions that are the subject of consistent or popular scrutiny.
- c) POLEMIC : A type of speech intended to establish the supremacy of a single point of view by refuting an opposing point of view about a matter of significant public importance in Religion, Philosophy, Politics or Science.
- d) PHILIPPIC : A type of speech that is emotive, fiery, damning, or a tirade, for the purpose of condemning, discrediting, disempowering, and ostracizing a particular political actor.
- e) JEREMIAD : A long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in poetry, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and which contains a prophecy of society’s imminent downfall.
(For more, see my guide on DISCOURSE: IRRATIONAL (expression) vs RATIONAL (debate) vs ORATORY (publication) at http://www.propertarianism.com/tools-and-techniques-for-political-debate/a-list-of-terms-for-use-in-evaluating-political-debate/#II ) LIBERTARIANISM IS STRUCTURED RHETORICALLY, and libertarian ethics are structured as an APOLOGIA by Rothbard. Ratio-scientific argument from analytical philosophy, is either true or false, but it is not an appeal for consent. That is non-logical. Contract is consensual, but truth is independent of consent. RATIO SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENT IS ABSENT RESPECT FOR CONVENTION. The purpose of the scientific method is to CORRECT our sense, perception, memory, calculation, and narrative (causal relations), habits, norms, traditions, myths and metaphysical assumptions about the structure of reality. Otherwise the discipline of science would not be necessary. The purpose of MORAL speech in the form of RHETORIC and APOLOGIA, is to APPEAL to norms embedded in memory, and narrative, in order to obtain consent. The purpose of RATIO SCIENTIFIC argument is to describe a set of causal relations that produce an outcome. In other words: a formula or recipe. The formula or recipe either works or it doesn’t. But it’s not a matter of consent, or preference. It’s just true or false. One can say that the formula isn’t logically sufficient or solid. But one cannot prefer or object to the conclusion. One doesn’t write these things as appeal, one writes these as positives statements that are open to TESTING, not as appeals that are written to obtain CONSENT. Whether one agrees or not with them must be a matter of the argument, not wither one likes or dislikes it. Formulae and Recipes produce what they do. One can like the product or not, but the formula or recipe works, then it just does. I would like it very much if it was possible to convince people to adopt libertarian ethics and a libertarian morality. As it is currently structured it is not rational to think so. I am not trying to persuade people to adopt libertarianism. I am trying to demonstrate that if one desires LIBERTY, then one must ACT in such fashion that human beings will produce it. That is not a moral question. It is not a rhetorical question. It is a SCIENTIFIC QUESTION. Either people WILL or WILL NOT, when subject to incentives A, produce behavior B. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE STRUCTURE OF ETHICS AND MORALS The argument that demonstrably, we ALL act in our reproductive interests, within the structure of production, structure of reproduction, and structure of property rights which we call ‘norms’, and that ALL our discourse is little more than JUSTIFICATIONARY attempts at resisting against, cooperating with, or thieving from one another within the boundaries of those productive, reproductive, and normative constraints. That is an argument that is extremely difficult to prove. Nothing else is actually logical. If we want liberty then, we must create institutional incentives for liberty. Asking people to ‘believe’ in libertarianism or, marxism is equally ridiculous.
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The Mythology Of The Enlightenment
The enlightenment mythos was almost as damaging was christianity. The greatest tragedy in human history may have been the christianization of Europe. The empirical side of the enlightenment was desperately needed to escape jewish mysticism that held us in ignorance for a millennia. Equality under the law, was important for the spread of commerce. But, just as moving people from christianity’s mysticism via Darwin was, let’s say … incomplete, it is very hard to move people from equality of property rights, equality under the law, and the equality of family interests, to what the socialists accomplished, which was equality of opportunity, material equality, inequality under the law, eradication of the common law by legislative law, and the destruction of the nuclear and absolute nuclear family in pursuit of ‘individualism’. We have a very hard time overturning this mythos. This mythos is even rampant in libertarianism. Libertarians are just as enamored of the fallacy of equality as are socialists. Libertarians want to retain meritocracy, sure. But most of us assume the same naive belief that if others ‘only understood’ they would adopt our system of values. But that’s just demonstrably false, both logically, praxeologically, and empirically. The majority of the world detests property rights and individualism.
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On The Distribution Of Platonism In The Stem Fields
I have been struggling with this idea for a while: that, for some reason, of the empirical fields, including math, physics, engineering, computer science, and economics (into which I include the social sciences), it appears that platonism seems to originate in philosophical spiritualism, gain legitimacy in mathematics and roll downhill until it is cleansed by computer scientists and engineers. What’s interesting to me, is that it just seems, in all the fields, that platonism is the definition of most philosophy, so pervasive in math, to the point of being endemic and inescapable and impervious to correction, even if it doesn’t need to be. …Human Beings As They Dream… …………..Philosophy……………………. ………………Logic………………………… ……………–Math–…………………….. ……..Physical…….Behavioral…………. ..(constant vs inconstant relations)… …….Physics………Economics…………. ………….(observation)………………….. Engineering—Computer Science….. ………….(interaction)……………………. …Human Beings As They Really Act.. It’s just strange that the only empirical people you seem to be able to trust are people who work with machines. ‘Cause they can tell the difference between an abstract name for something and the operational process for bringing it into being. Computer scientists never make this mistake. Mathematicians do all the time, and actually defend what they do not themselves understand. I have heard a lot of criticism of engineers and computer scientists over the past few decades and I’ve just found that sure, in any discipline there are idiots. There are ‘scientistic’ physicists too, and ‘financial economists’. But the difference between fields is the use of operational language, and operational language isn’t platonic. That’s what makes ‘science’ into ‘science’. – OPERATIONAL LANGUAGE = HUMAN ACTION. Human action that is open to sympathetic testing – experience. Praxeology was backwards. You can sympathetically test something. You cant deduce much from that tho.
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On The Distribution Of Platonism In The Stem Fields
I have been struggling with this idea for a while: that, for some reason, of the empirical fields, including math, physics, engineering, computer science, and economics (into which I include the social sciences), it appears that platonism seems to originate in philosophical spiritualism, gain legitimacy in mathematics and roll downhill until it is cleansed by computer scientists and engineers. What’s interesting to me, is that it just seems, in all the fields, that platonism is the definition of most philosophy, so pervasive in math, to the point of being endemic and inescapable and impervious to correction, even if it doesn’t need to be. …Human Beings As They Dream… …………..Philosophy……………………. ………………Logic………………………… ……………–Math–…………………….. ……..Physical…….Behavioral…………. ..(constant vs inconstant relations)… …….Physics………Economics…………. ………….(observation)………………….. Engineering—Computer Science….. ………….(interaction)……………………. …Human Beings As They Really Act.. It’s just strange that the only empirical people you seem to be able to trust are people who work with machines. ‘Cause they can tell the difference between an abstract name for something and the operational process for bringing it into being. Computer scientists never make this mistake. Mathematicians do all the time, and actually defend what they do not themselves understand. I have heard a lot of criticism of engineers and computer scientists over the past few decades and I’ve just found that sure, in any discipline there are idiots. There are ‘scientistic’ physicists too, and ‘financial economists’. But the difference between fields is the use of operational language, and operational language isn’t platonic. That’s what makes ‘science’ into ‘science’. – OPERATIONAL LANGUAGE = HUMAN ACTION. Human action that is open to sympathetic testing – experience. Praxeology was backwards. You can sympathetically test something. You cant deduce much from that tho.
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IS MATH INVENTED, DISCOVERED, OR BOTH? (cross posted) “Question for you Curt – d
IS MATH INVENTED, DISCOVERED, OR BOTH?
(cross posted)
“Question for you Curt – do you believe mathematics to be invented, discovered, or an element of both?” – Davin Eastley
Invented.
The natural world does not have this flexibility so the natural world can be expressed in mathematical terms. The natural world must of necessity be a subset of mathematical possibilities. Even mathematical possibilities are most often determined by the numerical base rather than
For example, is Pi a number then, or the name of an operation (function)?
All numbers are a ratio, and must be to be identical. 3=3/1 : three equals three one’s. One represents some unit – an arbitrary category, unit, or an instance. So 1 = 1/1 of some category, unit or instance. We use zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten as names for natural numbers, and then use the OPERATION of positional notation to produce names for the rest (with ten, eleven and twelve added for antique convenience).
The difficulty in training humans to generalize these names and operations so that they may be used as analogies in multitudinous contexts tends to confuse ordinary minds, who then Platonize these names. But just because we can arbitrarily say that we IDENTIFY one of anything, and can from that singular act of identity, produce the full range ratios and functions of mathematics, does not mean anything more than that if we practice we can create those multitudinous ratios and functions (operations).
Simple people are misled by the same process when anthropomorphizing divinities – which are a form of very abstract moral calculation – a sort of specialized mathematics. Educated people often ridicule this primitive form of reason. Then at the same time, in the very next breath, make the mistake of Platonizing mathematics, which is likewise to believe in ‘magic’. To say that numbers ‘exist’ or are ‘discovered’ is … intellectually embarrassing. It means that one uses a tool like an ape but fails to grasp the reason that the tool performs the function that it does.
Math can be accurately correspondent with anything we choose to measure, as long as what we choose to measure can be expressed in constant relations. Unfortunately we have not yet conceived of a means of measuring inconstant relations. Although, I’ve written elsewhere, that this is most likely a problem of data collection and computation not one of impossibility.
Source date (UTC): 2013-11-24 06:46:00 UTC
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NAME-CALLING It used to be a problem. I mean. Before we had data. Before we had
NAME-CALLING
It used to be a problem. I mean. Before we had data. Before we had empirical evidence. It used to be hard to defend conservatives.
They are so buried in multi-axial moral spaghetti that they dont themselves know what they’re saying.
But that just mean’s their A-RATIONAL, it doesn’t mean they’re IRRATIONAL. There is a difference.
But you know, the data is just piling up. Mountains of it. Daily. Since about 1990. And we’ve got pretty much critical mass now.
They’re right about just about everything – except, obviously, homosexuality. That’s what the data says.
Clear as day.
The left has got to use every race, gender, and culture card possible while they carry any weight at all. Personally I love getting them now. ‘Cause we have data. We have lots of it.
WELCOME TO THE DARK ENLIGHTENMENT.
Those damned conservatives were mostly right.
Source date (UTC): 2013-11-21 12:41:00 UTC
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ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLATONISM IN THE STEM FIELDS I have been struggling with
ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLATONISM IN THE STEM FIELDS
I have been struggling with this idea for a while: that, for some reason, of the empirical fields, including math, physics, engineering, computer science, and economics (into which I include the social sciences), it appears that platonism seems to originate in philosophical spiritualism, gain legitimacy in mathematics and roll downhill until it is cleansed by computer scientists and engineers.
What’s interesting to me, is that it just seems, in all the fields, that platonism is the definition of most philosophy, so pervasive in math, to the point of being endemic and inescapable and impervious to correction, even if it doesn’t need to be.
…Human Beings As They Dream…
…………..Philosophy…………………….
………………Logic…………………………
……………–Math–……………………..
……..Physical…….Behavioral………….
..(constant vs inconstant relations)…
…….Physics………Economics………….
………….(observation)…………………..
Engineering—Computer Science…..
………….(interaction)…………………….
…Human Beings As They Really Act..
It’s just strange that the only empirical people you seem to be able to trust are people who work with machines. ‘Cause they can tell the difference between an abstract name for something and the operational process for bringing it into being. Computer scientists never make this mistake. Mathematicians do all the time, and actually defend what they do not themselves understand.
I have heard a lot of criticism of engineers and computer scientists over the past few decades and I’ve just found that sure, in any discipline there are idiots. There are ‘scientistic’ physicists too, and ‘financial economists’. But the difference between fields is the use of operational language, and operational language isn’t platonic.
That’s what makes ‘science’ into ‘science’.
– OPERATIONAL LANGUAGE = HUMAN ACTION.
Human action that is open to sympathetic testing – experience.
Praxeology was backwards.
You can sympathetically test something.
You cant deduce much from that tho.
Source date (UTC): 2013-11-15 13:52:00 UTC
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dammit…. You converted me. In one post. Just took a few months to sink in. But
dammit…. You converted me. In one post. Just took a few months to sink in. But, how do we solve it? Framing, language, and … we can’t give up on science. Or, is that why you’ve gone to Transhumanism? Because you think there isn’t any other way out?
I’ve learned an absurd amount from you because it’s impossible to discount your arguments as not thought through. Thank you.
Source date (UTC): 2013-11-15 05:27:00 UTC