A is for "Academic Freedom" ..
Blame Games ..
DARVO →
Deflating Flynn? ..Sunday 31 January 2021
Tuesday 26 January 2021
Combating Cognitive Dysfunction
Combating Cognitive Dysfunction ..
Deflating Flynn? ..
Intellectual Dark Web ..
Personal Bias and Tribalism ..
Post-Modernist Dismissal of Information ..
Rashomon Effect ..
Stupidity - Functional Underperformance ..
Deflating Flynn? ..
Intellectual Dark Web ..
Personal Bias and Tribalism ..
Post-Modernist Dismissal of Information ..
Rashomon Effect ..
Stupidity - Functional Underperformance ..
Monday 25 January 2021
Deflating Flynn?
Dunning-Kruger Effect - Pindex > .
Degrading Academe
~ Bari Weiss: Why DEI Must End For Good - Free Press > .
Until the last thirty "Flynn reversal" years, "Throughout the 20th century the average score on IQ tests around the world increased significantly – especially in the west. This increase was around three IQ points per decade – meaning we are [supposedly] living with more geniuses on the planet than ever before. [Considering that the planet currently boasts the highest-ever population, this is numerically logical, but is this a Flynn Effect boost?].
These “student-centred” teaching methods are now combined with interpersonal skills and teamwork along with encouragement for students to understand the emotional insights of others. The overall impact of this approach might encourage smarter and more effective working but places less emphasis on individual skills required in IQ tests [otherwise known as logical and analytical thinking]. So maybe in that sense, we’re just not as good at carrying out IQ tests any more."
The IQ test wars: why screening for intelligence is still so controversial .
This increase in IQ scores and the seeming tendency for intelligence levels to increase over time is known as the Flynn effect (named after the late US-born educator, James Flynn). And improvements in health and nutrition, better education and working conditions, along with recent access to technology have all contributed.
Indeed, in the 19th century, for example, industrialisation created large overcrowded cities with poor health outcomes and premature death. But improved housing, health and parenting, along with greater access to free education and gradual progression from manual to more intellectually demanding jobs, led many to live longer and healthier lives. Research even suggests there’s what’s known as an “IQ-mortality gradient” whereby smarter people often live longer.
Research in countries that have not undergone postindustrial development also supports the idea that improved access to education, housing and nutrition are the main factors that have led to IQ increases. A study of sub-Saharan African countries, for example, found that the Flynn effect has not yet taken hold there. Or in other words, IQ test results have not massively increased because life circumstances haven’t significantly improved for a large number of people.
...
It’s also important to think about what IQ tests actually measure – and what they don’t – along with what we mean when we talk about intelligence. IQ tests, for example, are no good at measuring things like personality, creativity, or emotional and social intelligence – or even wisdom. These are attributes that many of us may well prize over and above a high scoring IQ test result. [However, we ought to value functional IQ (fIQ), which I contend is the ability to rise above overly-emotional heuristic thinking, which values bandwagon "virtue signaling" above pragmatic big-picture rationality.]...
But that’s not the whole story, because over the past 30 years there have been some reports of decreased performance on IQ tests in some countries. So is it fair to assume that humans in the west have reached peak intelligence?These results are hard to explain, but it has been suggested that it may be linked to changes in the way that children are taught in schools. This has been a time that has seen major shifts away from reading serious literature and rote learning – a memorisation technique based on repetition – to a more collective scientific problem-solving approach, which is now taught to most children in the west.
Thursday 21 January 2021
Wednesday 20 January 2021
Illuminati - Secret Societies
.They're Watching You! | The History of the Illuminati - GC+ > .
Networking, Credulity, Superstition - Bonum V. Mālum >> .
The Illuminati (plural of Latin illuminatus, 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on 1 May 1776 in Bavaria, today part of Germany. The society's goals were to oppose superstition, obscurantism, religious influence over public life, and abuses of state power. "The order of the day," they wrote in their general statutes, "is to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, to control them without dominating them." The Illuminati—along with Freemasonry and other secret societies—were outlawed through edict by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, in 1784, 1785, 1787, and 1790. During subsequent years, the group was generally vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed that the Illuminati continued underground and were responsible for the French Revolution.
Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Franz Xaver von Zach, who was the Order's second-in-command. It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning Duke of Gotha and of Weimar.
In subsequent use, "Illuminati" has referred to various organisations which have claimed, or have been claimed to be, connected to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, though these links have been unsubstantiated. These organisations have often been alleged to conspire to control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence and to establish a New World Order. Central to some of the more widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories, the Illuminati have been depicted -- in dozens of novels, films, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos -- as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power.
Alarmed, Charles Theodore and his government banned all secret societies including the Illuminati. A government edict dated 2 March 1785 "seems to have been deathblow to the Illuminati in Bavaria". Weishaupt had fled and documents and internal correspondence, seized in 1786 and 1787, were subsequently published by the government in 1787. Von Zwack's home was searched and much of the group's literature was disclosed.
Many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members, including Ferdinand of Brunswick and the diplomat Franz Xaver von Zach, who was the Order's second-in-command. It attracted literary men such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder and the reigning Duke of Gotha and of Weimar.
In subsequent use, "Illuminati" has referred to various organisations which have claimed, or have been claimed to be, connected to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, though these links have been unsubstantiated. These organisations have often been alleged to conspire to control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence and to establish a New World Order. Central to some of the more widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories, the Illuminati have been depicted -- in dozens of novels, films, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos -- as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power.
...
The final decline of the [Bavarian] Illuminati was brought about by the indiscretions of their own Minervals in Bavaria, and especially in Munich. In spite of efforts by their superiors to curb loose talk, politically dangerous boasts of power and criticism of monarchy caused the "secret" order's existence to become common knowledge, along with the names of many important members. The presence of Illuminati in positions of power now led to some public disquiet. There were Illuminati in many civic and state governing bodies. In spite of their small number, there were claims that success in a legal dispute depended on the litigant's standing with the order. The Illuminati were blamed for several anti-religious publications then appearing in Bavaria. Much of this criticism sprang from vindictiveness and jealousy, but it is clear that many Illuminati court officials gave preferential treatment to their brethren. In Bavaria, the energy of their two members of the Ecclesiastical Council had one of them elected treasurer. Their opposition to Jesuits resulted in the banned order losing key academic and church positions. In Ingolstadt, the Jesuit heads of department were replaced by Illuminati.Alarmed, Charles Theodore and his government banned all secret societies including the Illuminati. A government edict dated 2 March 1785 "seems to have been deathblow to the Illuminati in Bavaria". Weishaupt had fled and documents and internal correspondence, seized in 1786 and 1787, were subsequently published by the government in 1787. Von Zwack's home was searched and much of the group's literature was disclosed.
Tuesday 19 January 2021
Intellectual Dark Web
The term "intellectual dark web" was coined by Eric Weinstein. His term, which metaphorically compared opposition to mainstream opinion to what is illicitly found on the dark web, was not intended to be wholly serious. It was then popularized in a 2018 New York Times editorial by American opinion writer Bari Weiss. Weiss and others applied the term to a broad range of figures from diverse intellectual and political backgrounds, including conservatives such as Douglas Murray, anti-extremist activists such as Maajid Nawaz, scientists such as Sam Harris, and feminists like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It has also been linked to online publications such as the libertarian-leaning Quillette.
These thinkers and publications have expressed concern at what they regarded as increasingly authoritarian tendencies within progressive movements in Western countries, namely attempts to censor, fire, or intimidate those expressing views contrary to orthodox progressive views on identity politics, especially within universities and the news media. They often linked these to the growing influence of critical theory and the critical social justice movement—themselves influenced by Marxism and postmodernism—on mainstream progressive thought. These IDW figures regarded such tendencies as a threat to freedom of speech and believed that their growth promoted divisive social tribalism. While sharing common concerns, those labelled part of the IDW diverge on other issues, lacking any leadership or central organization. Given this diversity of thought, the validity of the term has been critiqued by some of those who have been labelled as its members.
Criticism of ideas associated with the IDW has come primarily from progressive and left-wing commentators. These critics have argued that the IDW overstates the harm caused by phenomena such as what the right-wing calls 'cancel culture', and progressive identity politics.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali .
Sam Harris .
Heather Heying .
Claire Lehmann .
Douglas Murray .
Maajid Nawaz .
Jordan Peterson .
Steven Pinker .
Joe Rogan .
Dave Rubin .
Ben Shapiro .
Michael Shermer .
Debra W. Soh .
Christina Hoff Sommers .
Bret Weinstein .
Eric Weinstein .
Dale Wilson .
Wednesday 13 January 2021
Personal Bias and Tribalism
Julia Galef is author of the Scout Mindset and host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast
Post-Modernist Dismissal of Information
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24-5-25 Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained - Quillette > .⇑ Warning: poor sound quality, irritating muzak (better to read the original)
Jacques Derrida w
Jean Baudrillard w
2020 Myth of a Free Press: Media Bias Explained - TomN > .Project MKUltra: The CIA's Attempt at Psychedelic Mind Control - xplrd > .
What the Theory? - TomN >> .How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained areo
27/03/2017 17 minute read Helen Pluckrose
27/03/2017 17 minute read Helen Pluckrose
"Our current crisis is not one of Left versus Right but of consistency, reason, humility and universal liberalism versus inconsistency, irrationalism, zealous certainty and tribal authoritarianism. The future of freedom, equality and justice looks equally bleak whether the postmodern Left or the post-truth Right wins this current war. Those of us who value liberal democracy and the fruits of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution and modernity itself must provide a better option." – Helen Pluckrose
Shorter version:
https://quillette.com/2024/05/07/how-french-intellectuals-ruined-the-west-foucault-lyotard-derrida/
https://quillette.com/2024/05/07/how-french-intellectuals-ruined-the-west-foucault-lyotard-derrida/
Monday 11 January 2021
Rashomon Effect
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Rashomon Effect = where individuals give significantly different but equally believable accounts of the same event.
The Rashomon effect has been defined in a modern academic context as "the naming of an epistemological framework—or ways of thinking, knowing, and remembering—required for understanding complex and ambiguous situations".
The history of the term and its permutations in cinema, literature, legal studies, psychology, sociology, and history is the subject of a 2015 multi-author volume edited by Blair Davis, Robert Anderson and Jan Walls.
Valerie Alia termed the same effect "The Rashomon Principle" and has used this variant extensively since the late 1970s, first publishing it in an essay on the politics of journalism in 1982. She developed the term in a 1997 essay "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer" and in her 2004 book, Media Ethics and Social Change.
A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography. Heider used the term to refer to the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.
In The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2), Applegarth J wrote that:
The Rashomon effect describes how parties describe an event in a different and contradictory manner, which reflects their subjective interpretation and self-interested advocacy, rather than an objective truth. The Rashomon effect is evident when the event is the outcome of litigation. One should not be surprised when both parties claim to have won the case.Unreliable narrator .
Blind men and an elephant .
Virumaandi .
Rashomon .
Sunday 10 January 2021
Stupidity - Functional Underperformance
2010 Danger of science denial | Michael Specter > .
24-2-15 Real DEI (PRA) Program [Divisive Extremist Ideology] - New Discources > .
DISinformation Explosion - Alētheiai >> .
DISinformation, Fakery - Fallax >> .
Unforseen Consequences - Fallax >> .
Unforseen Consequences - Fallax >> .
Truth-Telling >> .
Why some of the smartest [and most of the slower] people can be so very stupid:
In at least some cases, intelligence actively abets stupidity by allowing pernicious rationalisation.
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"What exactly is stupidity? How does it relate to morality: can you be morally good and stupid, for example? How does it relate to vice: is stupidity a kind of prejudice, perhaps? And why is it so domain-specific: why are people often stupid in one area and insightful in another?
...
Stupidity is a very specific cognitive failing. Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what is happening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes.
-Stupidity is a very specific cognitive failing. Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what is happening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes.
In at least some cases, intelligence actively abets stupidity by allowing pernicious rationalisation.
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Stupidity will often arise when an outdated conceptual framework is forced into service, mangling the user’s grip on some new phenomenon. It is important to distinguish this from mere error. We make mistakes for all kinds of reasons. Stupidity is rather one specific and stubborn cause of error."
...
Stupidity is also compatible with a kind of misguided innovation such as the [attempted imposition or] overly optimistic importation of conceptual tools from a very different place....
"Stupidity has two features that make it particularly dangerous when compared with other vices. First, unlike character flaws, stupidity [as used by the author] is primarily a property of groups or traditions, not individuals: after all, we get most of our concepts, our mental tools, from the society we are raised in. Once stupidity [such as religion] has taken hold of a group or society, it is thus particularly hard to eradicate – inventing, distributing and normalising new concepts is tough work.-
Dumbness alone is rarely the driving threat: at the head of almost every dumb movement, you will find the stupid in charge.
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Dumbness alone is rarely the driving threat: at the head of almost every dumb movement, you will find the stupid in charge.
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Second, stupidity begets more stupidity due to a profound ambiguity in its nature. If stupidity is a matter of the wrong tools for the job, whether an action is stupid will depend on what the job is; just as a hammer is perfect for some tasks and wrong for others. Take politics, where stupidity is particularly catching: a stupid slogan [MAGA, "Lock Her Up"] chimes with a stupid voter, it mirrors the way they see the world. The result is that stupidity can, ironically, be extremely effective in the right [a favorable] environment: a kind of incapacity is in effect being selected for. It is vital to separate this point from familiar and condescending claims about how dumb or uneducated the ‘other side’ are: stupidity is compatible with high educational achievement, and it is more the property of a political culture than of the individuals in it, needing to be tackled at that level."
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