Experience is constituted by an intentional stance as structure, and content given through it. Nothing can be given without both structure and content. It is nonsensical to speak of one without the other. Questions about the intentional stance are questions about the space of possible structures; questions about the facts of experience the space of possible contents.
Dualism is a means of relating the intentional stance to its contents. However, the intentional stance is not itself given in content, but content is given through it.
So, how to reinterpret intentional stance and content in a way that transcends dualism? One suggestion is to divorce perceptual content from facts about the world. So the experience of an intentional stance does not suggest a subject agent, and the experience of content does not suggest the presence of external objects.
Another would be to suggest that the intentional stance itself is the content of a language game. This leaves space for other types of language games (phenomenology, Dennett).
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Philosophical Investigations Note 1
Meaning is sited in use, which depends on the language game, given within forms of life.
***
But family resemblance is not a substitute for definition, for one must be able to say why one form of family resemblance applies and another does not, and for this, definition is still required.
These definitions are matters of convention, not fact, so the absence of consensus of what categories are at the boundaries speak to different definitions, and not to the metaphysical "blurriness" of definitions, as is claimed.
***
Is truth and falsehood only meaningful within the context of a language game? We can develop a philosophical language game where it can be used.
Think of truth as a function that ties all the dimensions of a game together, like the concept of competition that gives meaning to the rules of a chess game. A proposition would be a general form of a chess game, like "a board game where the goal is to retain certain, or a maximum number of pieces".
***
But family resemblance is not a substitute for definition, for one must be able to say why one form of family resemblance applies and another does not, and for this, definition is still required.
These definitions are matters of convention, not fact, so the absence of consensus of what categories are at the boundaries speak to different definitions, and not to the metaphysical "blurriness" of definitions, as is claimed.
***
Is truth and falsehood only meaningful within the context of a language game? We can develop a philosophical language game where it can be used.
Think of truth as a function that ties all the dimensions of a game together, like the concept of competition that gives meaning to the rules of a chess game. A proposition would be a general form of a chess game, like "a board game where the goal is to retain certain, or a maximum number of pieces".
Tractatus Notes 2
"Philosophy represents the limit of what can be thought" - what does this mean? As an example, consider a solipsist and an anti-solipsist. One is wrong and another right. But perhaps both are right. Perhaps philosophical questions are defined as those in which answers are contradictory. Or rather those in which we cannot preclude a contradictory solution. So the question is meaningless.
Monday, August 14, 2017
Soft Power
Soft power is meta-power that defines the ideological and institutional frames within which power is defined, created, and reproduced. A specific form is Nye's definition of ideological suasion to achieve a given end, rather than the general form suggested here, a framework that is not predefined in terms of a given function. Nye's conception relates to agenda setting as power insofar as it fulfills the function that Nye describes. Our conception is essentially a Hegelian one.
Note 113
Democracy is a process of meta-government made explicit. It describes processes of governance as opposed to processes of government. This gives it durability compared to systems based on specific features of governments, although, underlying these are forms of governance which have been appropriated by the state, but not made explicit.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Note 112
The world as a game; solipsism as a specific form of coherentism. It just happens to be the self this time round as subject. If there is a question, there must be an answer. If there is truth, there is a questioner. There may be as many truths as there are questioners, but only one truth to one questioner.
The problem is not the problem, it is the solution.
***
Subjectivity and objectivity are akin to structure and content. There can be no structure without content, and no content without structure; the former to concretize, the latter to relate.
The problem is not the problem, it is the solution.
***
Subjectivity and objectivity are akin to structure and content. There can be no structure without content, and no content without structure; the former to concretize, the latter to relate.
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Note 111
Why we have not reached the end of history: just as private conflicts can be regulated only by the action of the society in which the individuals live, so inter-societal conflicts can be regulated only by a society which comprises in its scope all others. (Durkheim) World history includes this process of incorporation by a world society which is not yet formed.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Thoughts on AI 2
Human cognitive levels accompany the stages of economic development. A developing country requires one kind of cognitive process; a developed country another to grow.
The main effect of AI would be to reshape the landscape of the kind of cognitive processes required for growth into new forms, both from the supply and on the demand side, and engender new dynamics of evolution; in ways that may evolve quickly and with uncertainty. Permutations, already increased by the proliferation of interfaces, increase through the proliferation of cognitive process only bounded by testing for use. The key question is whether human nature will change. This will depend on the extent of augmentation and augmented interfaces.
The main effect of AI would be to reshape the landscape of the kind of cognitive processes required for growth into new forms, both from the supply and on the demand side, and engender new dynamics of evolution; in ways that may evolve quickly and with uncertainty. Permutations, already increased by the proliferation of interfaces, increase through the proliferation of cognitive process only bounded by testing for use. The key question is whether human nature will change. This will depend on the extent of augmentation and augmented interfaces.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Thoughts on AI 1
The real bottlenecks in economic growth are demand side, not supply side. By this, I mean not just meat-stick interface for processes, but meat-based consumption. Economic growth would be much higher if AI consumed what AI produced. It is precisely this paradox: that human consumption is the ultimate good at the macro level, yet counts for so little at the micro one in a Veblen society. This paradox is as necessary as it is inane, and just reminds you that values at the emergent level almost always contradict those that produce them, a weird construction of the world.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Tractatus Notes 1
Initial notes:
Representation is the characterizing of something in relation to its general form. What is the more general form of logic? Knowing this would allow us to represent logical propositions. But there is no "more general form of logic". Logic just are the relations represented by logical axioms.
As for rule following in elucidations of sense, it is more properly termed an identification of the terms by which one structure fits isomorphically with another. This identification is the act of fitting a specific framework of patterns within a more general and fine-grained fabric, and of identifying the patterns within both that represent the other.
***
Russell's paradox is a contradiction between two predicates, one an explicit one, and the other a predicate which defines a subject. It is not a general problem, and has received more attention than it deserves.
***
"As logic defines the limit of what can be thought, and as forms cannot represent themselves, one can only show, not speak logic."
Wittgenstein confuses sense and reference in defining the meaning of propositions. The picture theory of meaning allows him to claim that the limits of logic, which define the limits of reference, define the limits of what can be said. However, propositions point to sense also. Hence we can grasp the sense of "it is raining and not raining" or "purple is three years old" in order to point to its absence of reference.
At the level of sense, logic just is a set of rules for relationships between concepts, and is not a transcendental limit.
Representation is the characterizing of something in relation to its general form. What is the more general form of logic? Knowing this would allow us to represent logical propositions. But there is no "more general form of logic". Logic just are the relations represented by logical axioms.
As for rule following in elucidations of sense, it is more properly termed an identification of the terms by which one structure fits isomorphically with another. This identification is the act of fitting a specific framework of patterns within a more general and fine-grained fabric, and of identifying the patterns within both that represent the other.
***
Russell's paradox is a contradiction between two predicates, one an explicit one, and the other a predicate which defines a subject. It is not a general problem, and has received more attention than it deserves.
***
"As logic defines the limit of what can be thought, and as forms cannot represent themselves, one can only show, not speak logic."
Wittgenstein confuses sense and reference in defining the meaning of propositions. The picture theory of meaning allows him to claim that the limits of logic, which define the limits of reference, define the limits of what can be said. However, propositions point to sense also. Hence we can grasp the sense of "it is raining and not raining" or "purple is three years old" in order to point to its absence of reference.
At the level of sense, logic just is a set of rules for relationships between concepts, and is not a transcendental limit.
Thursday, July 06, 2017
Note 110
Relative wages measure the relative marginal social benefit of effort. Inefficient labour markets abound, because wealth distorts the price of utility, because of imperfect information, and because of organisational complexity. Where this happens, economic inequalities worsen and social problems arise, creating adjustments in politics, aimed at correcting this imbalance.
Monday, July 03, 2017
Note 109
The thing about applied social subjects is that context is at least as, if not more important than broad principles per se. Statements are generalisable to a much lesser degree than often assumed. This is because theory is much more accessible than live information required for contextualised understanding.
For instance, our understanding of economics is incomplete because of a lack of understanding of the cultural and historically contingent factors that determine expectations of consumers and producers, the conditions and motivations of innovators and market adopters, and forms of economic organisation. This may not be easily generalised or mathematically tractable.
International relations often operates on an ideological-descriptive plane of broad generalizations, which often confuses debate when it is used to assess practice, and operates on the wrong level.
For instance, our understanding of economics is incomplete because of a lack of understanding of the cultural and historically contingent factors that determine expectations of consumers and producers, the conditions and motivations of innovators and market adopters, and forms of economic organisation. This may not be easily generalised or mathematically tractable.
International relations often operates on an ideological-descriptive plane of broad generalizations, which often confuses debate when it is used to assess practice, and operates on the wrong level.
Note 108
At the meta level, principles and pragmatism become mutually reinforcing. One is principled because one is pragmatic (rule utilitarianism), and one cannot be effectively pragmatic unless one is principled (idealism).
This is a familiar contrast between an external necessity and internal necessity, and paradoxically, both are necessary for effective action. Contrasting the two is a pointless exercise in poor judgement.
This is a familiar contrast between an external necessity and internal necessity, and paradoxically, both are necessary for effective action. Contrasting the two is a pointless exercise in poor judgement.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Note 107
What is the role of the state? It is to be the center of gravity, the anchoring point, within relationships that are built on social order.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Note 106
The self is a way of reconstructing the structural features of the world within representational contexts that reflect the roles of differentiation and their combinations with each other.
There is not one structural feature that differentiates the self, but multiple, and the primacy of the features will depend on the situation represented.
Again, this is not to say that the self is constitutionally functionalist, as the structural features remain the underlying foundational reference parameters within which the representational construct of the self is built, and which secures its identity.
Of course, the claim is made that these are pragmatic, not essential. But this is a feature of the world, not of thought.
There is not one structural feature that differentiates the self, but multiple, and the primacy of the features will depend on the situation represented.
Again, this is not to say that the self is constitutionally functionalist, as the structural features remain the underlying foundational reference parameters within which the representational construct of the self is built, and which secures its identity.
Of course, the claim is made that these are pragmatic, not essential. But this is a feature of the world, not of thought.
Friday, June 09, 2017
Note 105
One of the tasks in philosophy is to understand the roles of content and structure, to distinguish features within concepts which embody necessary structural forms from that which is contingent.
For example, in the argument over the fact-value distinction, there is a two-level separation: the selection of principles underlying rational acceptability is value-driven, while the notion of fact which is attributed to statements which fulfil the condition of rational acceptability is not, because they are not constituted by an intentional stance. As an example, while it is meaningful to say that what a computer states is true, it is meaningless to say that what a computer did is immoral.
This division is valid because the fact-value distinction is a matter of structural difference in notions, not of the ontological or conceptual content of the statements themselves. Hence, genealogical considerations are not relevant in the case here.
Within public debate, it may be right to note that choice of facts, and the selection of frames within which we relate facts to each other, must rely on pragmatic values. This is not to say that notions of facts themselves are empty without values.
For example, in the argument over the fact-value distinction, there is a two-level separation: the selection of principles underlying rational acceptability is value-driven, while the notion of fact which is attributed to statements which fulfil the condition of rational acceptability is not, because they are not constituted by an intentional stance. As an example, while it is meaningful to say that what a computer states is true, it is meaningless to say that what a computer did is immoral.
This division is valid because the fact-value distinction is a matter of structural difference in notions, not of the ontological or conceptual content of the statements themselves. Hence, genealogical considerations are not relevant in the case here.
Within public debate, it may be right to note that choice of facts, and the selection of frames within which we relate facts to each other, must rely on pragmatic values. This is not to say that notions of facts themselves are empty without values.
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Note 104
Cultures are pluralistic interpretations of the fundamental principles they embody, in determining the content and interactions of myths and symbols. The depth and adaptiveness of the interpretation will determine the flourishing of the individuals and societies that carry them.
The task for the post-colonial societies is to identify these guiding principles for a post-industrial age, so as to better determine the elements within the forms of culture which must align to universal necessity, rather than remain pejoratively neglected by conservatives as manifestations of "the West", and those which remain unique to the cultures that embody them.
The task for the post-colonial societies is to identify these guiding principles for a post-industrial age, so as to better determine the elements within the forms of culture which must align to universal necessity, rather than remain pejoratively neglected by conservatives as manifestations of "the West", and those which remain unique to the cultures that embody them.
Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Note 103
The pressure of a modern economy on politics is to create a system which enables the incorporation of an array of an expanding scope of interactions.
The push factor is increasing fragility due to rising expectations, which leads to the development of its opposite: incorporative mechanisms.
The pull factor is the idealistic quest for the incorporation of increasing numbers of parameters to generate perfection of form. The macro-dynamic is driven by multiple micro-dynamics (individuals, organizations) with different end products but similar principles of evolution. Note, however, path dependency, and collapse and rejuvenation.
The push factor is increasing fragility due to rising expectations, which leads to the development of its opposite: incorporative mechanisms.
The pull factor is the idealistic quest for the incorporation of increasing numbers of parameters to generate perfection of form. The macro-dynamic is driven by multiple micro-dynamics (individuals, organizations) with different end products but similar principles of evolution. Note, however, path dependency, and collapse and rejuvenation.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
The Paradox of American Power
The paradox of American power: in forgoing its national interest, it builds institutions that strengthen it. To do so, it relies on other countries to finance it. This weakens it. The American system is reciprocal, and creates stability in the short run, but instability over time. To offset this, it needs to maintain an ideological and technological advantage, as the basis for economic advantage. Sacrifice is the keyword to reciprocity, balanced by strength. Increasingly this strength is premised on dominance of key platform technologies within networks (not just technological, but linguistic, ideational, financial, economic, and political). American power is vested in the stable order created by these relationships; it functions as a platform power.
In contrast, the German hegemonic and Chinese hegemonic systems exhibit different core characteristics. The German hegemonic system is fundamentally extractive, as the response to the EU financial crisis has shown. The Chinese system is built on ethnic discretion, not universal ideas. The former forms the foundation of collapse, the latter the problem of incompleteness. The interesting development to watch will the influence of modernity on the Chinese capacity to promote universal forms of power, both pragmatic and ideological.
In contrast, the German hegemonic and Chinese hegemonic systems exhibit different core characteristics. The German hegemonic system is fundamentally extractive, as the response to the EU financial crisis has shown. The Chinese system is built on ethnic discretion, not universal ideas. The former forms the foundation of collapse, the latter the problem of incompleteness. The interesting development to watch will the influence of modernity on the Chinese capacity to promote universal forms of power, both pragmatic and ideological.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Note 102
There is path dependency in the taking of political decisions that influence inequality. In particular, the distribution of assets will determine the kind of decisions that economic agencies take that may influence the balance of inflation, growth and wages, and equality, and so on. Hence the distribution of wealth has a tendency to create feedback loops with policies that influence it.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Time 1
History is essentially a way of representing cause in terms of condition, becoming in terms of being.
Our conceptual notion of time is given in terms of the conceptual ordering of the condition stack. Time seems ordered because laws govern the conditions which express the order of time. The experience of time is neither linear or nonlinear, it is the ordering that interprets it, and gives it content. Cause is the coincidence of the forward movement of time and conditional relations.
Ordered time represents the incomplete actualization of condition stacks. If all condition stacks were given, or if the world were fully determined by given conditions, ordered time would be conceptually redundant. That is, it will play no ontological role as a platform for causal relations. It's role is then purely psychological.
Alternatively, time is a way of picking out one among many possible worlds, that is, it functions as existence, the slip between the lip (of becoming) and cup (of conditions).
Our conceptual notion of time is given in terms of the conceptual ordering of the condition stack. Time seems ordered because laws govern the conditions which express the order of time. The experience of time is neither linear or nonlinear, it is the ordering that interprets it, and gives it content. Cause is the coincidence of the forward movement of time and conditional relations.
Ordered time represents the incomplete actualization of condition stacks. If all condition stacks were given, or if the world were fully determined by given conditions, ordered time would be conceptually redundant. That is, it will play no ontological role as a platform for causal relations. It's role is then purely psychological.
Alternatively, time is a way of picking out one among many possible worlds, that is, it functions as existence, the slip between the lip (of becoming) and cup (of conditions).
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Note 101
America's core competency is in global public goods, specifically, core platform technologies and the institutions that support them. Geostrategically, hard power issues regarding China will resolve themselves as US can conduct offshore balancing with Japan and India. Core platform technologies (English language, reserve currency services, ideology, pole position in internet and media governance, science and technology) need to be supplemented to offset the OBOR offensive.
China is placing large bets on emerging markets; India is a major foil. Internet and logistics companies are potential game-changers.
Multipolarity will create interesting and pragmatic alliances based on common interests. Institutional governance will become more fluid, along with more varied and syncretic cultural textures.
China is placing large bets on emerging markets; India is a major foil. Internet and logistics companies are potential game-changers.
Multipolarity will create interesting and pragmatic alliances based on common interests. Institutional governance will become more fluid, along with more varied and syncretic cultural textures.
Friday, May 19, 2017
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Note 99
What is cultural normalisation? An ideology which cannot incorporate an aspect of human nature de-normalises it, creating an extreme compensating excess. I am thinking of two examples: racism in Western societies, and alcoholism (the compensation to a tyranny of social norms) in Britain. I am contrasting this with normalised, institutionalised racism in East Asian societies, and integrated drinking cultures in the Mediterranean.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Objects 1
Objects are a function (in the functional, not in the input-output sense) relating properties to systems. Objects are collections of properties that function within a system, while properties are elemental facts that are brought together by systemic functioning. Objects are anchors of expression of emergent systems of meaning (by turning some properties into nouns and other properties into verbs), and function in a mutually reciprocating relation to these ways of thinking.
Monday, May 08, 2017
Note 98
It seems that the world operates as a single mind, so recognizing this, and having an awareness of the form of alignment with this, is needed.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Globalizing States
States serve as the foundational final arbiter of control over institutional networked flows, whether ideational, social, economic or cultural, that happen within and between borders. Therefore, despite being undermined in scope of action due to the autonomy of the control centers of these networked flows - key agents, nodal points - thereby leading to necessary convergence among states - states, by providing the legal framework for world order, remain crucially sovereign, as the key aspect of this order, thereby anchoring identities to geographical boundaries.
What is interesting to observe is the dynamic of gradual regionalism, it's coming together and coming apart. It seems that the state remains a nation-state; that it's function to preserve culture retains the vote. Cultures are not sacred; they come and go, but the conservatism of a people will shape (though is unlikely in the long run, to reverse) the turns that globalisation makes, as well as the inevitably cosmopolitan cultures that result.
What is interesting to observe is the dynamic of gradual regionalism, it's coming together and coming apart. It seems that the state remains a nation-state; that it's function to preserve culture retains the vote. Cultures are not sacred; they come and go, but the conservatism of a people will shape (though is unlikely in the long run, to reverse) the turns that globalisation makes, as well as the inevitably cosmopolitan cultures that result.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Note 97
The world as a series of revolutions, the dialectical self-overcoming of power, and the re-formation of the constellation of institutions around the evolution of the core institutions of power. At the macro level then, the dynamics of a will to power.
***
What is the greatest good also contains within it the greatest evil. What is the greatest joy also contains within it the greatest suffering. That is the lesson that Nietzsche learned.
***
What is the greatest good also contains within it the greatest evil. What is the greatest joy also contains within it the greatest suffering. That is the lesson that Nietzsche learned.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Hegel 3
"Now" as a way of characterizing change relationships as particulars of a universal object now. This is dialectical - ie, not logical - the negation of its negation is not it. It particularizes the universal through the role of the observing subject within the language game. Similarly for other identifiers.
***
The existing object referred to particularizes the universal. But the context of the object constitutes the meaning through which the universal is made particular in thought. In the case of concept, the universalized form of the object is itself the means through which the universal is particularized in thought. So a mental object is really a universal holding a mirror up to itself in order to be thought.
***
The existing object referred to particularizes the universal. But the context of the object constitutes the meaning through which the universal is made particular in thought. In the case of concept, the universalized form of the object is itself the means through which the universal is particularized in thought. So a mental object is really a universal holding a mirror up to itself in order to be thought.
Friday, April 21, 2017
Friday, April 14, 2017
Hegel 2
Hegel
1. Consciousness is subjective (criterion is for-itself)
2. But the criterion references the in-itself.
Contra Hegel, truth does not reference the agent of truth. Subjectivity as contingent, because the form within which it is is not given within the criteria of the in-itself. Truths for us reference the agent, for example those in social studies or quantum mechanics, but these are contingent facts which are not generalizable relations between truth and subject. The criterion for truth for consciousness is for-itself, but this does not free the truth for consciousness from the criteria of the truth in-itself.
Reply: Perspectivism vs subjectivity. Irreducible epistemic perspectivism. Subjectivity as the agent of perspectival truth. But contra that, truth is constituted by the underlying content within which something is framed. Truth lies behind the conscious framed perspectival truth. The act of framing is the act of standing outside of the truth to represent it to the mind, so it can be used, verified etc.
So what constitutes the criteria of for-itself is not for-itself per se. And what is the for-itself is framed truth which is not itself the truth to which it refers; therefore, learning is the reverse act of coverting the for-itself of framed truth into the in-itself of truth. In this way, the in-itself of truth can be repurposed into other contexts of the for-itself of framed truth.
In fact, the concept of knowledge rests on this distinction. Hence it cannot be that a fact can bridge a conceptual distinction.
1. Consciousness is subjective (criterion is for-itself)
2. But the criterion references the in-itself.
Contra Hegel, truth does not reference the agent of truth. Subjectivity as contingent, because the form within which it is is not given within the criteria of the in-itself. Truths for us reference the agent, for example those in social studies or quantum mechanics, but these are contingent facts which are not generalizable relations between truth and subject. The criterion for truth for consciousness is for-itself, but this does not free the truth for consciousness from the criteria of the truth in-itself.
Reply: Perspectivism vs subjectivity. Irreducible epistemic perspectivism. Subjectivity as the agent of perspectival truth. But contra that, truth is constituted by the underlying content within which something is framed. Truth lies behind the conscious framed perspectival truth. The act of framing is the act of standing outside of the truth to represent it to the mind, so it can be used, verified etc.
So what constitutes the criteria of for-itself is not for-itself per se. And what is the for-itself is framed truth which is not itself the truth to which it refers; therefore, learning is the reverse act of coverting the for-itself of framed truth into the in-itself of truth. In this way, the in-itself of truth can be repurposed into other contexts of the for-itself of framed truth.
In fact, the concept of knowledge rests on this distinction. Hence it cannot be that a fact can bridge a conceptual distinction.
Saturday, April 08, 2017
Note 95
Freedom is negation, a constant stepping outside of the frame of meaning of an activity. Thought is one of the products of freedom, of which the source is a nothingness which holds something before it, but which lies beyond it. The thought may be used to bring forward the dialectic, or to negate it. In bringing the dialectic forward, the source of freedom, the negation itself, is incorporated into the process and it's actuality.
Saturday, April 01, 2017
Hegel 1
Hegel's task is the reconciliation of substance and subject, and being-in-itself and being-for-itself. Teleology is the thread through which the for-itself overcomes its necessary subjectivity and unites with the in-itself by being contained within the moments of the in-itself. This applies to objects, as well as the reflexive individual.
But by providing an account of truth as an event, he answers not the question of what is truth, but of what truth is. This is properly the realm of meta-history, or science, not philosophy.
***
In existence, the field of othering, which is the field in which something is said to exist, is itself created by the subject identifying itself as content, that is to say, self-identical determinateness.
***
There are two kinds of negation: internal self-othering and external negation.
***
Concept incorporating Being, and Being incorporating Concept, in a logical necessity, as the world. In incorporating the specific content of the world into forms of knowledge, the Notion is grasped.
But by providing an account of truth as an event, he answers not the question of what is truth, but of what truth is. This is properly the realm of meta-history, or science, not philosophy.
***
In existence, the field of othering, which is the field in which something is said to exist, is itself created by the subject identifying itself as content, that is to say, self-identical determinateness.
***
There are two kinds of negation: internal self-othering and external negation.
***
Concept incorporating Being, and Being incorporating Concept, in a logical necessity, as the world. In incorporating the specific content of the world into forms of knowledge, the Notion is grasped.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Two World Trends
Two world trends: Convergence and multipolarity
Materialism drives industrialisation, which drives education, which drives value convergence. Every country is now subordinate to the global commons because of this value convergence within their electorates. States which do not follow this necessity eventually become irrelevant to the global order. Trade and Technology-driven power necessitates the primacy of the influence of this developmental dynamic. Convergence also implies that the technological gap between emerging and advanced economies will narrow in the long run.
Multipolarity is driven by the desire of emerging countries to free-ride on the developed countries for global public good provision until the latter can no longer afford them. World leadership will then evolve into multipolarity and regionalism as US cost-benefit calculation tilts in favour of self-interest, and its position subsides, without equivalent replacements. Strategic allocation of resources by the US would matter, but the ability of the polity to do so is in doubt. Perhaps some form of fee for safety and protection will be provided, as the US commercialises it's military advantage to serve as global policeman.
Materialism drives industrialisation, which drives education, which drives value convergence. Every country is now subordinate to the global commons because of this value convergence within their electorates. States which do not follow this necessity eventually become irrelevant to the global order. Trade and Technology-driven power necessitates the primacy of the influence of this developmental dynamic. Convergence also implies that the technological gap between emerging and advanced economies will narrow in the long run.
Multipolarity is driven by the desire of emerging countries to free-ride on the developed countries for global public good provision until the latter can no longer afford them. World leadership will then evolve into multipolarity and regionalism as US cost-benefit calculation tilts in favour of self-interest, and its position subsides, without equivalent replacements. Strategic allocation of resources by the US would matter, but the ability of the polity to do so is in doubt. Perhaps some form of fee for safety and protection will be provided, as the US commercialises it's military advantage to serve as global policeman.
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Note 94
The transcendence of space is possible if you understand that we are information, not things. Perception is just a process in which information is being used to interpret other information. Experience is determined by the way you perceive and interpret information, by the ways in which information interacts with other information.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Note 93
One of the most important issues in applied social science is understanding the correct level of analysis. Academics tend to speak in dangerously misleading generalities. This means that what they do is tangentially useful to the real world. The practitioner's job is to connect the many tangents within the current context. It is about identifying the appropriate level of analysis to the situation, and weighing the factors. This is an exercise in judgement, which is the ability to piece together key facts in a roughly right way in the presence of incomplete information.
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Note 92
As the productivity of production grows while the productivity of consumption remains stagnant, and working hours remain fixed, demand lags production, and deflation ensues.
So what we need as a society is a flexible work schedule. Unemployment is an ineffective adjustment mechanism that occurs due the fundamental inability of society to develop work processes and structures that work around employment frictions. That is the task that economists, management scientist and unions have failed to set themselves. Adapting the efficiencies promoted by the gig economy while preventing the downsides is a useful step forward that policymakers at present can pursue.
So what we need as a society is a flexible work schedule. Unemployment is an ineffective adjustment mechanism that occurs due the fundamental inability of society to develop work processes and structures that work around employment frictions. That is the task that economists, management scientist and unions have failed to set themselves. Adapting the efficiencies promoted by the gig economy while preventing the downsides is a useful step forward that policymakers at present can pursue.
Note 91
If you feel naked, weak and exposed in the shifting sea of men and ideas, that is exactly where you should be, not the dull comforting conformity of a cog in a machine.
Friday, March 17, 2017
Note 90
It is the specific characteristic of human development that negative freedom co-evolves with positive freedom. Negative freedom enables positive freedom to develop, which creates transcendence of a greater set of conditions, generating greater negative freedoms and more positive ones, and so on. More specifically, this happens not just in the physical dimension, but in the mental realm of ideas. So one could imagine a new utopia of transcendence through awareness- a radical incorporation of consciousness into the hard facts of life.
The strange miracle of existence
The reason why people feel lost is that they are looking for meaning in life which doesn't exist.
Life is like a spinning top; let it go round. When it drops, you wouldn't even know it was possible.
How do we enjoy life, when we have pressed ourselves into so many trellises of it, and are trapped in the infinite munificence of this maze?
Time is not real, it is just a way of identifying linearity in our perceptions of change. Because of this, we understand change, and know that life must end.
So we dance in this vast sea, mites in the universe, allotted our share of wonder, to witness the strange unknowable miracle of existence.
Life is like a spinning top; let it go round. When it drops, you wouldn't even know it was possible.
How do we enjoy life, when we have pressed ourselves into so many trellises of it, and are trapped in the infinite munificence of this maze?
Time is not real, it is just a way of identifying linearity in our perceptions of change. Because of this, we understand change, and know that life must end.
So we dance in this vast sea, mites in the universe, allotted our share of wonder, to witness the strange unknowable miracle of existence.
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Friday, March 03, 2017
Solipsism
Solipsism is the form of mental constructs. The mind creates the world within which truths are assessed. Truths are only as real as the mind which creates them. Without mind, there is no truth. Mind constitutes the forms within which subcategories of truths are externalised and assessed. So what we mean by "God" is really an implicit recognition of the constitution of the forms of being by mind.
In other words, there has to be a coherence of principles within a framework for correspondence of objects to each other within that framework to be possible, which gives rise to what we might call "truth". A principle has to be applied within a field outside of itself in order to generate truth conditions.
In the case of existence, that framework is constituted by the coherence of being and mind, which is solipsistic in form. Hence mind and being are closely intertwined.
***
Subjective and objective are pairs within a frame. When there is no objectivity to compare subjectivity to, or when what we refer to as subjective is an experience and objective as an idea, then our talk becomes meaningless, for the question becomes whether there are objective experiences or subjective ideas.
In other words, there has to be a coherence of principles within a framework for correspondence of objects to each other within that framework to be possible, which gives rise to what we might call "truth". A principle has to be applied within a field outside of itself in order to generate truth conditions.
In the case of existence, that framework is constituted by the coherence of being and mind, which is solipsistic in form. Hence mind and being are closely intertwined.
***
Subjective and objective are pairs within a frame. When there is no objectivity to compare subjectivity to, or when what we refer to as subjective is an experience and objective as an idea, then our talk becomes meaningless, for the question becomes whether there are objective experiences or subjective ideas.
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Why Singapore feels/is sterile
Singapore is a top down country, where the state determines the forms that interactions between state and society, and state and economy takes. The state determines the parameters of society. Society does not know what it is; its functioning and purposes is interfered with by the state; there is an absence of the art of living; and without the ability to determine the forms that societal interactions take, there is no collective sense of the space of possibilities for the evolution of society. Without empowerment, there is no possibility of the development of institutional forms and principles for the energy of its people to latch onto, or to apply itself upon; no spirit; sterile.
Democracy is a continuous meta conversation, not just of the role of government, but the scope of government, within the space of interaction between state, society, and market mechanisms.
This is not to say that the system as it has evolved into its current state is not the best under the circumstances, although it is too early to tell ex ante what the best form is, involving a good deal of unknowables and luck. Good in such cases is so conditional as to be meaningless. The key question is if the combination of mechanisms and characteristics are optimising the energies and capabilities of a people at any point in time, as well as creating the incentives to do so across time, and if existing institutions are generating the balance between stability and discovery in the right ways. And if the essentially totalitarian system is antifragile.
There are 3 goals of government: law and order; empowerment of citizens to change state and society; risk pooling and intergenerational contracting.
***
Society consists of the building blocks of institutions and the ideologies that underlie them.
The life of a society is the embodiment of the continual philosophical conversations that it engages in to determine ends and means.
Sterility is the absence of philosophy due to the predetermination of values and actions and the institutions used to achieve them - namely, wealth creation.
That is the weakness of ossified societies - the predetermination, rather than the dynamic flux, of values.
In short, Singapore is a society of Last Men.
Democracy is a continuous meta conversation, not just of the role of government, but the scope of government, within the space of interaction between state, society, and market mechanisms.
This is not to say that the system as it has evolved into its current state is not the best under the circumstances, although it is too early to tell ex ante what the best form is, involving a good deal of unknowables and luck. Good in such cases is so conditional as to be meaningless. The key question is if the combination of mechanisms and characteristics are optimising the energies and capabilities of a people at any point in time, as well as creating the incentives to do so across time, and if existing institutions are generating the balance between stability and discovery in the right ways. And if the essentially totalitarian system is antifragile.
There are 3 goals of government: law and order; empowerment of citizens to change state and society; risk pooling and intergenerational contracting.
***
Society consists of the building blocks of institutions and the ideologies that underlie them.
The life of a society is the embodiment of the continual philosophical conversations that it engages in to determine ends and means.
Sterility is the absence of philosophy due to the predetermination of values and actions and the institutions used to achieve them - namely, wealth creation.
That is the weakness of ossified societies - the predetermination, rather than the dynamic flux, of values.
In short, Singapore is a society of Last Men.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Note 88
The most important decisions are made not at the moment of conscious choice, but through the unintended effects of previous unconscious actions. Choice is just the surface culmination of these factors, which have been sedimented over time. Defining freedom through choice is hence empirically erroneous. Real freedom lies in the interstice of habits and tendencies.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Note 87
Existence is an infinite question. Laws govern laws. Do we lack the faculty for understanding the origin of laws? The problem is the limits in this form of thought.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Freedom
Freedom is set within an unfree world. The interplay gives rise to the fabric of life.
The only source of freedom is freedom from desires. But without desire, freedom has no value.
The only source of freedom is freedom from desires. But without desire, freedom has no value.
Thursday, February 02, 2017
East or West
East or West:
Do you want to live in a culture where ideas are an instrument to well-being, or where life is instrumental to ideas, for only that can make life meaningful?
At the level of values, the trade off is between social freedom and individual well-being. But the mode of valuation differs, between valuing an idea and valuing an experience.
This is why "pragmatism" comes much more easily to policymakers in Asia, which is not for want of the ability of those in the liberal west to distinguish the proper place of ends and means (to have values and then to find the most effective means of achieving them), but because the idea itself constitutes the experience.
Do you want to live in a culture where ideas are an instrument to well-being, or where life is instrumental to ideas, for only that can make life meaningful?
At the level of values, the trade off is between social freedom and individual well-being. But the mode of valuation differs, between valuing an idea and valuing an experience.
This is why "pragmatism" comes much more easily to policymakers in Asia, which is not for want of the ability of those in the liberal west to distinguish the proper place of ends and means (to have values and then to find the most effective means of achieving them), but because the idea itself constitutes the experience.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Millenials
Humans in society are but animals in a farm. What Millennials essentially demand is this: a new lifestyle that recognises the need for freedom; greater room for creative expression within a new form of work and life. The job hopping and drifting is a reflection of this search for optimal form, not optimal content.
This requires a new social contract, one based generationally less on the values of accumulation and tilted towards the search for autonomy and authenticity.
Sanders is a manifestation of that demand, and the rest of the politicians are conservatives. However, the US is unlikely to be the vanguard, because the state is insolvent. Also because of the distrust toward the state, forged in a context of a contest between different modes of production many years ago.
This requires a new social contract, one based generationally less on the values of accumulation and tilted towards the search for autonomy and authenticity.
Sanders is a manifestation of that demand, and the rest of the politicians are conservatives. However, the US is unlikely to be the vanguard, because the state is insolvent. Also because of the distrust toward the state, forged in a context of a contest between different modes of production many years ago.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Note 86
Inauthenticity is the hallmark of a decadent society. Cynicism is its corollary, a revolution in embryo.
Friday, January 20, 2017
Note 85
Is knowledge contextual in form or expression? Depends on whether the relation in the language game constitutes knowledge, or the criteria underlying the use of the knowledge game constitute knowledge.
Language games do not identify contexts, but determine their form. The application of a language game requires a criteria outside of the game itself.
Language games do not identify contexts, but determine their form. The application of a language game requires a criteria outside of the game itself.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Note 84
The relation between policy, biology and culture must be studied for a full understanding of the development of societies.
This can only be done without repercussions if researchers (as well as society at large) understand and step outside their value frameworks and normative assumptions which define what the good life and the goals of social development (both at the collective and individual level) are. Similarly, society has to be pluralistic and robust enough to incorporate diversities of value frameworks without breaking down under the weight of contradictions and conflicts.
The potential of this is there; but it may take many decades, or centuries to reach this point. Perhaps when AI has rendered the scarcity value of intelligence to 0 can we have a matured and balanced conversation on human values (much like the history of the spice trade).
This can only be done without repercussions if researchers (as well as society at large) understand and step outside their value frameworks and normative assumptions which define what the good life and the goals of social development (both at the collective and individual level) are. Similarly, society has to be pluralistic and robust enough to incorporate diversities of value frameworks without breaking down under the weight of contradictions and conflicts.
The potential of this is there; but it may take many decades, or centuries to reach this point. Perhaps when AI has rendered the scarcity value of intelligence to 0 can we have a matured and balanced conversation on human values (much like the history of the spice trade).
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Intellectuals
Intellectuals are dangerous because they privilege the evolution and development of ideas through society above all other governmental or societal objectives. Because of this, they are the representatives of progress through sacrifice, and must be put down by society, for the sake of a stable inertia.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Note 83
What is the regulative principle through which the virtues of states are addressed? Warfare is no longer the force of creative destruction of obsolete or suboptimal processes, because the benefits of military power are no longer the source of a good life. Utilitarianism is the death of war.
What can secure the good life? It is the combination of wants and needs, identity, utility, material goods, social and spiritual needs, and freedom to choose one's course in life. The state can no longer secure the multiplicity of wants within the current framework, because it is itself a politicization of a sense of identity which is becoming increasingly fluid, as well as the guarantor, the source, and the outdated kernel of the notion of identity that exists at a previous point in time, that sets the parameters for the evolution of the operations that will render them redundant. In short, state mechanisms can no longer contain the tensions which have been drawn out by circumstances between national and transnational identities.
In response to conditions, identities form, ossify, institutionalise, generate regulative principles which affect their internal and external relations, affect a change in values and behaviours, create contradictions, adapt or collapse, depending on the relation to the regulative principles, and repeat the identities through the new set of conditions and actions which arise, endlessly.
What can secure the good life? It is the combination of wants and needs, identity, utility, material goods, social and spiritual needs, and freedom to choose one's course in life. The state can no longer secure the multiplicity of wants within the current framework, because it is itself a politicization of a sense of identity which is becoming increasingly fluid, as well as the guarantor, the source, and the outdated kernel of the notion of identity that exists at a previous point in time, that sets the parameters for the evolution of the operations that will render them redundant. In short, state mechanisms can no longer contain the tensions which have been drawn out by circumstances between national and transnational identities.
In response to conditions, identities form, ossify, institutionalise, generate regulative principles which affect their internal and external relations, affect a change in values and behaviours, create contradictions, adapt or collapse, depending on the relation to the regulative principles, and repeat the identities through the new set of conditions and actions which arise, endlessly.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Note 82
1. Existence is constituted by relation.
2. Relation cannot be to nothing but something.
3. Relation of the totality of existence has to be to itself.
4. Subject-object is the form of the relation of the totality of existence to itself.
5. Divinity is the embodiment of the entire scope of possibilities within the subject-object relation.
2. Relation cannot be to nothing but something.
3. Relation of the totality of existence has to be to itself.
4. Subject-object is the form of the relation of the totality of existence to itself.
5. Divinity is the embodiment of the entire scope of possibilities within the subject-object relation.
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Note 81
The chief problem in the actuality of forms is not perspectivism, which is a way of constructing knowledge atop these principles, but the ontology of forms, and their relation to the necessary contingency of reality.
Friday, December 30, 2016
China and East Asia
The region is for China to own as a benign hegemon. Two obstacles stand in the way: entrenched American presence, and norms of interstate relations in the region. Hence, Chinese actions are caught between a rock and a hard place. The Chinese are caught in a Chinese finger trap. To sidestep this: China needs to evolve a liberal Confucianism, and to become an American "partner". Second, it needs to gain buy-in from countries in the region. Third, it needs to become the key facilitating node in the service economy in Asia, with its associated economic, socio-cultural, and people-to-people flows. This is not easy.
It's hegemony will not be absolute. This is not how the region works and it knows this.
China must avoid conflict at all costs. This would upend everything it should seek in the region. America's presence in the region would probably scale down over the long term, if its currency loses reserve status. But it's influence will not be critically predicated on American military presence, but on Chinese political, economic, institutional and cultural evolution and it's corresponding soft power in the region. This will legitimate its structural power. In short, Chinese diplomacy is best served by focusing on internal development. That is the only way out of its finger trap.
***
Of course, China would probably find it easier to work within existing systems and institutions, such as international law and UN, while gradually tilting them, alongside other multilateral frameworks, to its interests.
It's hegemony will not be absolute. This is not how the region works and it knows this.
China must avoid conflict at all costs. This would upend everything it should seek in the region. America's presence in the region would probably scale down over the long term, if its currency loses reserve status. But it's influence will not be critically predicated on American military presence, but on Chinese political, economic, institutional and cultural evolution and it's corresponding soft power in the region. This will legitimate its structural power. In short, Chinese diplomacy is best served by focusing on internal development. That is the only way out of its finger trap.
***
Of course, China would probably find it easier to work within existing systems and institutions, such as international law and UN, while gradually tilting them, alongside other multilateral frameworks, to its interests.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Note 80
Why something not nothing is a question nothing asks of something. The answer cannot be found in something, but within nothing itself. But something cannot come out of nothing. The answer cannot be thought, but is implied in the question; but even though it is implied in the question, it cannot be answered.
Why something not nothing, and why nothing not something to begin with, arise from the same problem of defining the relation between something and nothing.
Why something not nothing, and why nothing not something to begin with, arise from the same problem of defining the relation between something and nothing.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Note 78
The self is of no relevance. It is the form of humanity, or the transcendence of it, that avails the significance of existence. Dharma is hence the expression of universal form.
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Quotes 12
"Central banking can be successful only if central bankers know how the institutional structure behaves and correctly assess how changes affect the system. Central bankers have to steer the evolution of the financial structure." - Hyman Minsky
The same could be said of policymakers more generally.
Also of note is the constant cycle of reform, restructuring, growth, and fragility.
The same could be said of policymakers more generally.
Also of note is the constant cycle of reform, restructuring, growth, and fragility.
Friday, December 23, 2016
Note 77
Understanding:
Understanding capacities, not resolutions. Principles not facts.
Economic policy:
Conditions (demographic, cultural, capacities) - structures (profit models, institutions) - processes (policy, relationships between variables)
Understanding capacities, not resolutions. Principles not facts.
Economic policy:
Conditions (demographic, cultural, capacities) - structures (profit models, institutions) - processes (policy, relationships between variables)
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Note 76
The self is the totality of the relation to the cosmos. If you see that, then you see that you do not have full ownership of the self, that it belongs to the cosmos too.
Monday, December 05, 2016
Note 75
Globalisation is stuck, but not in reverse. This should be noted upfront.
But why so? Because the liberal elites driving globalisation failed at the start to develop a cosmopolitan liberalism which is essentially complementary to existing national cultures which continue to dominate political and social life. They mistakenly saw them as opposed, and were undone by the belief in that opposition which meant that they ignored it, rather than incorporated it.
Once again, philosophical oppositions do not entail political polarity and the inability of western political culture to separate philosophy from politics has undone their work. Over historical time, means do not define ends because they can change the conditions in which ends can be achieved.
Singapore, which has done so by sublimating this opposition into pragmatic ideology, presents an alternative to western politics. Of course there are institutional vulnerabilities and disruptive regime change due politics being unable to incorporate ideological positions at a deeper level, but it represents a smarter form of politics, a wider range of the possible to incorporate oppositions.
But why so? Because the liberal elites driving globalisation failed at the start to develop a cosmopolitan liberalism which is essentially complementary to existing national cultures which continue to dominate political and social life. They mistakenly saw them as opposed, and were undone by the belief in that opposition which meant that they ignored it, rather than incorporated it.
Once again, philosophical oppositions do not entail political polarity and the inability of western political culture to separate philosophy from politics has undone their work. Over historical time, means do not define ends because they can change the conditions in which ends can be achieved.
Singapore, which has done so by sublimating this opposition into pragmatic ideology, presents an alternative to western politics. Of course there are institutional vulnerabilities and disruptive regime change due politics being unable to incorporate ideological positions at a deeper level, but it represents a smarter form of politics, a wider range of the possible to incorporate oppositions.
Thursday, December 01, 2016
Note 74
For Nietzsche, the inadequacy of metaphysics lies in its inability to incorporate life. Hence his metaphysics is fundamentally aimed at the breaking down the categorical barriers that distinguish and separate the two; that is, being in its totality, and idea.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Note 73
No social systems are perfect. Therefore it is incumbent on good leadership to identify and understand the blind spots of any system and to provide discretionary measures to moderate its excesses. Here, ideological blinders are dangerous. Ideology is the business of the intellectual and institutional design, and good sense the business of the agent. By placing ideology over judgement through partisan politics, democracy trades off good judgement and representativeness of values. The severity of this tradeoff is path-dependent, and relies heavily on generations of responsible stewardship to preserve.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Note on power
The core drivers of power in the race for global dominance:
1. Economic power - consumers, skills, organizational know-how, innovation
2. Political power - military strength/reach/capacity, security cooperation frameworks, Authority/Legitimacy
3. Ideas/cultural/soft power - universality of ideals/values, Use, manipulation of institutions/images/communications, connectivity
4. Financial power - capital, networks, reputation/trust
1. Economic power - consumers, skills, organizational know-how, innovation
2. Political power - military strength/reach/capacity, security cooperation frameworks, Authority/Legitimacy
3. Ideas/cultural/soft power - universality of ideals/values, Use, manipulation of institutions/images/communications, connectivity
4. Financial power - capital, networks, reputation/trust
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Note on Trump
Trump is the symptom of 2 trends: The decay of public morality (which is the dialectic frame within which for and against are set); and the disruption of the nation state as a political and cultural layer of unity within a world where economic and information flows polarise different community of values.
The breakdown of public morality is due to the monoculture of neoliberalism as the dominant essential principle governing social and political relations, and the overextension of market morality to social domains. In particular, the loss of concepts of political virtue and stewardship, the breakdown of collective social institutions highlighted by Putnam, skewed incentive structures to capitalise on market structures, and individualism without individual wisdom or responsibility, has led to a failing public life.
On the disruption of the nation state, what is required in the long term is a structural review of the functions of the nation state and the terms which define its boundaries. What is needed in the short term is an institutional mechanism of pooling sovereignty over issue areas where global management is required without infringing on the areas where sovereignty is to be retained. This is a delicate task as communities are bound by total value systems as issue area bears consequences on another which may require sovereign control to preserve them. However the key mistake was that policymakers were unable to foresee the dislocations caused by globalised flows and to create global coordination tools to manage them. This was due in part to lack of convergence which makes common goals difficult, however tools of compromise was not created as they might have been. The goal for the medium term is to facilitate convergence in social conditions that enable global norms over a wider set of issue areas.
The breakdown of public morality is due to the monoculture of neoliberalism as the dominant essential principle governing social and political relations, and the overextension of market morality to social domains. In particular, the loss of concepts of political virtue and stewardship, the breakdown of collective social institutions highlighted by Putnam, skewed incentive structures to capitalise on market structures, and individualism without individual wisdom or responsibility, has led to a failing public life.
On the disruption of the nation state, what is required in the long term is a structural review of the functions of the nation state and the terms which define its boundaries. What is needed in the short term is an institutional mechanism of pooling sovereignty over issue areas where global management is required without infringing on the areas where sovereignty is to be retained. This is a delicate task as communities are bound by total value systems as issue area bears consequences on another which may require sovereign control to preserve them. However the key mistake was that policymakers were unable to foresee the dislocations caused by globalised flows and to create global coordination tools to manage them. This was due in part to lack of convergence which makes common goals difficult, however tools of compromise was not created as they might have been. The goal for the medium term is to facilitate convergence in social conditions that enable global norms over a wider set of issue areas.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Notes from Minsky 2
The high and pro-cyclical elasticity of money supply means that the financial markets for investment are non-equilibrating. Interest rates do not adjust to enable market equilibriums between capitalized expected profit and supply costs of investment. Hence financial markets are dominated by positive, disequilibrating feedbacks between asset prices and balance sheets, and money supply and demand.
This elasticity arises from 3 factors: the intangible nature of credit, the money multiplier, and the expectational climate of bankers and businessmen, which is procyclical, contains biases and moral hazards, and is short term.
This elasticity arises from 3 factors: the intangible nature of credit, the money multiplier, and the expectational climate of bankers and businessmen, which is procyclical, contains biases and moral hazards, and is short term.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Note 71: On Time
Past, present, future is an illusion. There is only present, and the structures that relate them to each other.
***
What is time?
One, it is a frame of experience, within which change is experienced.
There is no flow of time, just as there is no objective right.
Our determination of its flow as a forward movement from past to future is a result of our experience of change, and the causal characteristics associated with it, which enables us to attribute properties to the relations between different points in time.
However, this is not inherent to the frame of time itself. Time as a frame of experience does not determine the qualities of its contents, hence it is false to speak of past/present/future, for this is a function of process, which is change and causation; not time, which is structure.
***
What is time?
One, it is a frame of experience, within which change is experienced.
There is no flow of time, just as there is no objective right.
Our determination of its flow as a forward movement from past to future is a result of our experience of change, and the causal characteristics associated with it, which enables us to attribute properties to the relations between different points in time.
However, this is not inherent to the frame of time itself. Time as a frame of experience does not determine the qualities of its contents, hence it is false to speak of past/present/future, for this is a function of process, which is change and causation; not time, which is structure.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Note 70
Underlying property-derived interpretations, facts.
One, underlying all possible interpretations.
Two, underlying the relations between observer and observed that give rise to coherence of interpretive frameworks.
Facts cannot be given within frameworks. Or it would not be a fact, but an interpretation.
One, underlying all possible interpretations.
Two, underlying the relations between observer and observed that give rise to coherence of interpretive frameworks.
Facts cannot be given within frameworks. Or it would not be a fact, but an interpretation.
Note 69
Power is the ability to allocate the functions, and define the interactions, of various political mechanisms in society. The relation of various political mechanisms define the power complex of a society, which in turn determines the evolution of the dynamics of these political mechanisms, in relation to the interplay of its substantive contents, in relation to the themes, issues, agents, values, preferences, ideologies and technological contexts in that society.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Note 68
Love on the surface
Embracing a
Category I could not reach
As I stepped towards the
Precipice
And fell into a dream
Of a world occupied
With its own embrace
Upon itself enslaved
And upon itself made free
To fall into enslavement again
In search
Of the transcendence pie.
Embracing a
Category I could not reach
As I stepped towards the
Precipice
And fell into a dream
Of a world occupied
With its own embrace
Upon itself enslaved
And upon itself made free
To fall into enslavement again
In search
Of the transcendence pie.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Note 67
What the consideration of mind leads to is not property materialism or dualism but multimodalism, the presence of intermediate epistemic frames between material and mind which are discontinuous with both.
Discontinuity exists because the properties cannot be broken down into constituents which link up with others. The frames do not match. What is required is a third frame which reconcieves of what matter and mind is, and yet encapsulates both aspects and properties of matter and mind to understand their interaction. That is, one has to speak outside of matter or of mind to reconcile them.
Discontinuity exists because the properties cannot be broken down into constituents which link up with others. The frames do not match. What is required is a third frame which reconcieves of what matter and mind is, and yet encapsulates both aspects and properties of matter and mind to understand their interaction. That is, one has to speak outside of matter or of mind to reconcile them.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Note 66
Qualities govern interactions. Emergent properties create new kinds of interactions and hence new principles governing interactions. New systems are constituted by the interaction of the properties relating to the system, as well as those relating to their constituent systems, which govern their interaction.
Does this mean that properties are ontic units? And contingent?
Does this mean that properties are ontic units? And contingent?
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Note 65
Nothingness is the unity in which everything is. It is the vessel.
So God is the paradox of everything out of nothing.
So God is the paradox of everything out of nothing.
Monday, October 10, 2016
Work
Work is the way of linking production to consumption. This depends on technology, capacity, and preferences. These change through time, and so work also changes. Because of this, work will not be displaced by machines. Only some kinds of work will.
Monday, October 03, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
Note 63
What is time? Subjective and scientific time.
Time only exists insofar as it is used. It is the frame through which the progression of events is measured.
In science, it is a dimension of physical theory. It underlies the conception of physical systems as intelligible, time bound systems. It is both frame (as flow) and object (the relative speed of its flow).
In subjective thinking, time does not exist, but is inferred. It is the essence of the situational meaning of the concept of change itself. That is, there is no way of framing change except through time, at least in our imagination, and in our experience. Time just is a way of representing change.
Hence the idea of constant, whether identities, or substance, etc, depends on the kind of change that is envisioned. Identities are built as ways to conceive of change, and are constituted alongside the change which it is possible to envision them as underlying.
The specific forms which identity and change (time, mathematical operations) takes are mirror constructs, and the form which identities take are limited to what doesn't change, which is a negation of what changes, and hence can be envisioned to change. In other words, meaning lies in the change nexus, not the identity and its forms.
Time only exists insofar as it is used. It is the frame through which the progression of events is measured.
In science, it is a dimension of physical theory. It underlies the conception of physical systems as intelligible, time bound systems. It is both frame (as flow) and object (the relative speed of its flow).
In subjective thinking, time does not exist, but is inferred. It is the essence of the situational meaning of the concept of change itself. That is, there is no way of framing change except through time, at least in our imagination, and in our experience. Time just is a way of representing change.
Hence the idea of constant, whether identities, or substance, etc, depends on the kind of change that is envisioned. Identities are built as ways to conceive of change, and are constituted alongside the change which it is possible to envision them as underlying.
The specific forms which identity and change (time, mathematical operations) takes are mirror constructs, and the form which identities take are limited to what doesn't change, which is a negation of what changes, and hence can be envisioned to change. In other words, meaning lies in the change nexus, not the identity and its forms.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Note 62
Tractatus: Intelligible negation is the test of sense of a proposition.
Only propositions with sense should be discussed.
Propositions without intelligible negation should not be discussed.
Picture theory: both the proposition and its negation are supposed to describe a possibility, otherwise the status of a proposition is other than that of a significant.
The difference between incomplete and insignificant propositions. Is it possible to negate possibilities which cannot be conceived, but which are not insignificant when negated?
The relational, as opposed to the substantive content of propositions, and the role of negative propositions within value networks of meaning.
Multiple negation? Comparative negation: coffee without milk vs coffee without cream.
Circular reasoning: the picture is not meaningful because I am unable to picture it.
Picture as content. What is content? It cannot be picture because content is what the picture is of, not the picture itself.
Only propositions with sense should be discussed.
Propositions without intelligible negation should not be discussed.
Picture theory: both the proposition and its negation are supposed to describe a possibility, otherwise the status of a proposition is other than that of a significant.
The difference between incomplete and insignificant propositions. Is it possible to negate possibilities which cannot be conceived, but which are not insignificant when negated?
The relational, as opposed to the substantive content of propositions, and the role of negative propositions within value networks of meaning.
Multiple negation? Comparative negation: coffee without milk vs coffee without cream.
Circular reasoning: the picture is not meaningful because I am unable to picture it.
Picture as content. What is content? It cannot be picture because content is what the picture is of, not the picture itself.
Friday, August 05, 2016
Note 61
Culture as semiotic systems that regulate the internal and external forms of communication. I understand the references of culture because I can identify the markers that arise out of collective lived experience within spatial or interactive boundaries, and because I am identified with the features of these experiences.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Note 60
It is precisely the nothingness of subjectivity that makes negation possible, which gives rise to the possibility of identity, and from identity applied to a myriad of frames, meaning.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Pat Metheny Quote
What I have learned is that all you really know is what you love—and that can be the only compass that one should use to guide oneself. As soon as you give the aesthetic reins of power to an audience, other musicians, a critic, the guy sitting in the third row, your girlfriend, your boss—you have crossed a line that is difficult to recover from. This is not to say that you remain stubborn and isolated in your "vision" because your vision has to be pliable and malleable to the reality of the conditions that you are actively participating in at a given moment.
Hive Mind
What if the self is the enabling mode through which the hive mind perceives itself?
What if reality itself is the imagining of the hive mind?
So in the Matrix, there is a scene in which Neo pulls himself free from the glass tank in which he is encased, and recognises his true condition. From the perspective of the individual, he is plugged into hive mind against his will. But from the perspective of hive mind, that realisation is self-realisation. Going out of one level of hive mind, he finds himself encased in another level of reality constituted by hive mind.
The locus of subjectivity of space and time then rests not in the individual mind, but the hive mind. Individualized subjectivity is the enabling perspective which identifies a thing within space and time, and provides a reference outside of space and time from which to point to it as it seems. However, the hive mind is the constituent of individualized subjectivity, just as the totality of individualized subjectivity constitutes hive mind.
Subjectivity, then is the specific modality of negation, or the vessel, through which the hive mind identifies itself. In perception, it represents itself in an external way. In meaning, it is the ability to think logically. In action, it manifests in volition, which gives rise to ethics.
What if reality itself is the imagining of the hive mind?
So in the Matrix, there is a scene in which Neo pulls himself free from the glass tank in which he is encased, and recognises his true condition. From the perspective of the individual, he is plugged into hive mind against his will. But from the perspective of hive mind, that realisation is self-realisation. Going out of one level of hive mind, he finds himself encased in another level of reality constituted by hive mind.
The locus of subjectivity of space and time then rests not in the individual mind, but the hive mind. Individualized subjectivity is the enabling perspective which identifies a thing within space and time, and provides a reference outside of space and time from which to point to it as it seems. However, the hive mind is the constituent of individualized subjectivity, just as the totality of individualized subjectivity constitutes hive mind.
Subjectivity, then is the specific modality of negation, or the vessel, through which the hive mind identifies itself. In perception, it represents itself in an external way. In meaning, it is the ability to think logically. In action, it manifests in volition, which gives rise to ethics.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Note 59
Negation of what it is not is the primary relationship in ontological being.
Insofar as being is being within relationships, it is defined as the negation of what it is not, as the constitutive aspect of its identity.
But because it is constituted by that negation, it contains within what it is, what it is not. Hence it is at the same time a specific form of what it is not.
Hence the definition of what it is is limitless. Or rather, it is limited by the specific frames which we apply to it.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Thoughts on Brexit
Brexit should trigger soul searching within Britain, however unlikely it is to do so. It is the culmination of a broken economy and broken society that is unable to cope with the pressures of globalisation. In that world, systems are strained and the weakest buckles.
This is partly due to the arrogance and incompetence of EU bureaucrats and UK politicians, in their failure to understand the effects of immigration on wages of the low skilled. But this begs the question of the existing structure of the economy. Years of socialism, followed by Thatcherism, hollowed out the manufacturing economy and created an underclass of low wage service workers. This was ripe for disruption by an influx of migrant workers that brought real wages in this sector down. And it will continue to be ripe for disruption by automation and other technological developments.
Brexit was also the result of a contentious political culture that could no longer generate a national consensus partly as a result of the accumulation of economic mismanagement over decades. This polarisation is supported by a toxic class culture which normalizes inequalities, not just economic but social and between communities, which would be unacceptable elsewhere in Europe. The breakdown of social trust and the political centre is evident, and is a repeat of the 1930s.
In this case, democracy has become a destabilising force which reflects the polarisation of society - south vs north, rich vs poor. Political groups have been talking past each other for decades. This is not new, and similar problems occurred in the 1930s. Yet only monetary economics has seemed to learn much from that episode, and no new policy innovations, in Britain or elsewhere, have been made in the last 20 years to deal with the distributional effects of globalisation on individuals and communities which theory clearly predicts. Hence the only solution is to limit migration. This is partly due to the failure of supranational institutions and the state of international policy coordination, which are inadequate to the tasks at hand.
At the more immediate level, Brexit was the result of an alliance of centre right and far right British nationalists, who are unable or unwilling to define a British cosmopolitanism that includes a role for European foreigners. Some believe that the gains from policy flexibility and sovereignty outweigh the loss of access to Europe, brain drains and the diminished reach of its institutions. This has a long history in a culture which defines itself against Europe. However, in the Darwinian race, culture itself is a shackle, and Britain will pay for its inflexibility in dollars and influence.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Note 58
"Because they cannot be known, they can only be described." - Lao Zu
Just as the content of music must be given in its relation to silences, so the meaning of statements must be given in relation to the unspoken meaning behind it, pertaining to both the possibilities within which it is conceived, as well as the contexts though which it is understood.
***
So the content and structure of meaning is given through expressing it's relation to the totality of what it is not, as well as what is not thinkable. By thinking the unthinkable, we can understand thought.
Less pessimistically, our use of thought contains within it an understanding of the unthinkable.
***
A finite conception of the totality of these possibilities is contained within culture, which expresses a view of what these might consist. Hence paradigm shifts may occur that rejig the notion of these possibilities.
From a philosophical standpoint, culture constitutes a way of contextualising epistemic possibilities in relation to our current understanding of the world.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Note 57
The essence of meaning are the relations between concepts which it picks out. It picks out both context (what is implied, both about the world and about the relation to it) and representation (the specific thing to which it refers).
By picking out specific contexts, it embodies assumptions about underlying structures governing context, within which contextualization is posssible. The way it organizes information is itself information, but which cannot be given in terms of representation.
By picking out representations, it also embodies assumptions about the structural content of representations, and about possible relations between representation and context.
***
When we say we mean something, what we mean is how the objects relate to other objects within contexts, or represented contexts relating to other contexts.
***
Relationships require limits. Limits are not real. Or rather, they are only as real as they are taken as such from within the network of relationships.
Hence the absolute, or that which is not relatedness, cannot be thought.
Note 56
The greatest cultures are those which articulate and advance the frontiers of the human condition, in their unique ways. They are divorced from the ethnicity from which they originate, and seed ideas in other cultures in ways which extend their influence beyond the survival of the civilisation itself.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Note 55
Subjectivity is composed of two parts, relativity and representativeness.
By asserting relativity, the argument from representativeness at the meta-level breaks down. This is due to the hierarchies of truth being maintained at that level. Hence there is no argued basis for relativity due to representativeness.
Hence, it either asserts non-representativeness at the meta-level, or denies representativeness as the basis for relativity.
Frame-coherantism is one such alternative. This epistemic notion may be paired with an ontological reality-pluralism which asserts that there are multiple frames of truth, none of which invalidates or overrides the other.
However, the determination of what constitutes a frame is itself a search for a founding principle, a foundational frame. Hence it transcendentally presupposes that which it categorically denies.
Alternatively, one might be left with a radical undecidability between opposing frames for the sake of meta-consistency, which cannot even be said. This Wittgensteinian anti-theory would deny the validity of the question within which it is framed. Frame just is use.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Note 54
A characteristic of modernity, and Asian modernity in particular, is the determination of social structures and institutions by economic values.
Hence by altering economic imperatives, the changing operative modality of technologically embedded living will disrupt existing social arrangements. The means of change rests on the question of the flexibility of institutions to adapt.
In particular, the shift to large scale automation will require a lifestyle and social welfare alteration towards pursuit of creative comparative advantages.
The success in generating potential growth, as well as preventing violent change, rests on the speed of cultural change.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Note 53
Societies function in a general equilibrium within evolutionary stable sets of mutually reciprocating factor conditions. The combination of norms, institutions and ideology, as well as the interaction of the emergent properties and the relationships themselves, constitutes that which Hegel idealizes and calls Geist.
Linkages between components of Geist evolve over time, according to the hierarchy of principles which order the collective decisions of society. Being humans, these principles are embodied in actual historical events and actions, rather than implemented from the top-down.
Sunday, May 01, 2016
Use
Use is frame. Meaning is not use. Use is the way in which meaning is used.
So form does not precondition content, but is given in the relation of content to other content.
Expressed through content, it exists in a categorical relation to content.
Use is not the precondition of meaning, but arises out of the condition of meaning through its content. The necessity of its content is called form. It's necessity is contingent on the kind of content that is evoked.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Quotes 11
"What differentiates a leader from a manager, research tells us, is the ability to figure out where to go and to enlist the people and groups necessary to get there. Recruiting stakeholders, lining up allies and sympathizers, diagnosing the political landscape, and brokering conversations among unconnected parties are all part of a leader’s job. As they step up to the leadership transition, some managers accept their growing dependence on others and seek to transform it into mutual influence. Others dismiss such work as “political” and, as a result, undermine their ability to advance their goals.
The key to a good strategic network is leverage: the ability to marshal information, support, and resources from one sector of a network to achieve results in another. Strategic networkers use indirect influence, convincing one person in the network to get someone else, who is not in the network, to take a needed action. Moreover, strategic networkers don’t just influence their relational environment; they shape it in their own image by moving and hiring subordinates, changing suppliers and sources of financing, lobbying to place allies in peer positions, and even restructuring their boards to create networks favorable to their business goals."
Ibarra and Hunter at HBR
The key to a good strategic network is leverage: the ability to marshal information, support, and resources from one sector of a network to achieve results in another. Strategic networkers use indirect influence, convincing one person in the network to get someone else, who is not in the network, to take a needed action. Moreover, strategic networkers don’t just influence their relational environment; they shape it in their own image by moving and hiring subordinates, changing suppliers and sources of financing, lobbying to place allies in peer positions, and even restructuring their boards to create networks favorable to their business goals."
Ibarra and Hunter at HBR
Sunday, April 03, 2016
Note 52
The relative is understood within the frame of the absolute. The absolute functions as the frame (or category) and object (to which the relative is the negation).
Absoluteness functions both as frame and possibility in the discussion on the Absoluteness of truth. The nature of the assertion is a contingent one, set within an absolute frame.
The refutation of absolute truth is a contingent refutation of a possibility. But a contingent refutation cannot refute an absolute. It can only refute the possibility of an absolute. On the other hand, if it was an absolute refutation, it would be an absolute truth. It then becomes that which it refutes. It is a meta Paradox. It remains a necessity at the level of the transcendental possibility.
So it is with god. It's existence is given through its non-existence. It is the necessary frame through which it's non-existence is made god again. At the transcendental level, it is the negation of the concept of the existence of god.
Absoluteness functions both as frame and possibility in the discussion on the Absoluteness of truth. The nature of the assertion is a contingent one, set within an absolute frame.
The refutation of absolute truth is a contingent refutation of a possibility. But a contingent refutation cannot refute an absolute. It can only refute the possibility of an absolute. On the other hand, if it was an absolute refutation, it would be an absolute truth. It then becomes that which it refutes. It is a meta Paradox. It remains a necessity at the level of the transcendental possibility.
So it is with god. It's existence is given through its non-existence. It is the necessary frame through which it's non-existence is made god again. At the transcendental level, it is the negation of the concept of the existence of god.
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
Note 51
The primary function of society is to harness the energies of the individual for collective ends.
The philosophies through which they point back to the individual, and the way that individuals acquiesce to it, determines the social compact, and the social features that flow from it.
Insofar as the individual identifies with the collective ends, he is imbued with a notion of purpose and progress. Ideology is primarily a means of generating identifications and hence teleological constructs that align self with society. However, the loss of identification generates alienation.
Modern progress is thus a means of generating ideological legitimacy through inclusion. The terms by which inclusion is measured is generated within the ideology itself.
But legitimacy referred to here is short term legitimacy, not long term legitimacy. That must be provided through philosophical incorporation, the evolution of ideology.
This applies not only to modern institutions, but also to development as such. For example, the religious tolerance of Ottomans as examples of development of a civilization.
Institutions are the embodiment of the interactions between the trinity of culture, ideology, and political ideas. The ability to judge the relative importance of different frames in the assessment of events is crucial to understanding the world.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Note 50
Meaning is contextual; context is specific to a perspective; perspective is grounded in categorical frames; categorical frames are given to a species; hence meaning is sited within a form of life.
Underlying this is the assumption of representation constituting the ground of meaning on the basis of its appearing to. But in what sense?
But what is referred to is represented meaning; which by definition requires representation.
But the ground of represented meaning, by inaccessibility, cannot be represented. Hence it cannot be constituted by representation. And represented meaning cannot be groundless.
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