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19-10-13 Doing Social Justice Responsibly | Helen Pluckrose | New Discourses > .
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Monday, 16 December 2024
Wednesday, 20 September 2023
"R" is for Ridiculous Arguments
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Jeremy Bentham's Attack on Natural Rights > .Action on climate would be good for most, if not all, inhabitants of the globe, BUT ... the young are increasingly insufferable. Where, in what nation's constitution is "action on climate change" entrenched as a "human right"?
Easy.
Nowhere.
Six entitled narcissists are suing 32 EU-member-state governments because the precious snowflakes identify themselves as the victims of trampling of what they assume to be their "human rights".
Clearly, not only do they appear to be unaware:a) of the technical and economic obstacles to rapidly cutting CO2 emissions, or
b) that, (iirc), China (2020) is responsible for ~31% of global emissions of CO2, and the USA (2020) for ~13%,
but c) they clearly have no notion of the necessarily-legislated underpinnings of the "rights" that civilians actually can call upon.
Still, if declaring that I have a human right suffices, then I'll soon be claiming that some entity or organization owes me a billion dollars so that I might live the life of luxury to which, as a human right, I suddenly feel entitled.
The English utilitarian political philosopher and lawyer Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) dismissed the notion of “natural” rights as nonsense and argued the all rights were the creation of the state:
Rights are, then, the fruits of the law, and of the law alone. There are no rights without law—no rights contrary to the law—no rights anterior to the law. Before the existence of laws there may be reasons for wishing that there were laws—and doubtless such reasons cannot be wanting, and those of the strongest kind;—but a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, does not constitute a right. To confound the existence of a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, with the existence of the right itself, is to confound the existence of a want with the means of relieving it. It is the same as if one should say, everybody is subject to hunger, therefore everybody has something to eat.
Jeremy Bentham famously regarded natural rights as “simple nonsense” and imprescriptible natural rights as “nonsense on stilts” (see his attack on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in Anarchical Fallacies (1796)). Thirty five years later he was still railing against the idea. In an unpublished work on Pannomial Fragments (c. 1831) he gave the clearest statement of his position: that rights were nothing but the creation of “the functionaries of government in the supreme grade” who granted them to citizens and which rights were guaranteed by “the functionaries of judicature” and enforced by “the functionaries belonging to the army”. Bentham thought that the idea of “natural rights” was a “fiction” which had been invented by revolutionaries in order to show “the nullity of real laws” which were “the fruits of the law, and of the law alone”. If the believers in natural rights had their way, he argued, it would lead to “anarchy.” The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3.
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
A is for "Academic Freedom"
21-11-1 Academic Freedom - David Starkey > .
19-9-12 Academic freedom: What & why confusion | Robert Quinn - Think > .? Academic Freedom ?
Awaking to Problematic "Wokeness" - Blake >> .ēdūcere - pro libertate >> .
Kathleen Stock wSunday, 25 September 2022
"D" is for Divisiveness
19-2-25 Heather Mac Donald - Delusion of Diversity Destroying Common Humanity > .
24-2-15 Real DEI (PRA) Program [Divisive Extremist Ideology] - New Discources > .
Is the dedication to diversity undermining American culture? In her book The Diversity Delusion, Heather Mac Donald argues that the focus on race and gender diversity is harming society. Mac Donald and Peter Robinson discuss how she was protested off of school campuses by students because of her ideas. They discuss the collapse of free-speech ideals on college campuses in the United States and how the dedication to diversity doesn’t extend to a diversity of thought.
Mac Donald also breaks down issues of gender and racial equality. She talks about how affirmative action has not had the impact that was intended and has in fact made attending college more difficult for minorities who are accepted to schools they are not ready for. She also goes on to analyze rape culture on college campuses and posits her theories as to why discussions of sexual violence have become more prevalent now than in the past.
Mac Donald also breaks down issues of gender and racial equality. She talks about how affirmative action has not had the impact that was intended and has in fact made attending college more difficult for minorities who are accepted to schools they are not ready for. She also goes on to analyze rape culture on college campuses and posits her theories as to why discussions of sexual violence have become more prevalent now than in the past.
Sunday, 28 November 2021
Saturday, 27 November 2021
Saturday, 6 November 2021
Weakist Authoritarianism versus Liberal Freedoms
19-11-22 Resisting Wokeness [Weakness]: Andrew Doyle, Douglas Murray > .
24-2-15 Bari Weiss c Natan Sharansky: Epidemic of Weakist Antisemitism - Free > .
21-9-29 Goodfellows dissect [virtue-signalling] follies of Weakism | Hoover > .
...
24-7-5 How Communists Took Over America 1/3 - Notes From The Past > .
Our culture war is not a distraction: Apathy is tantamount to surrender by Andrew Doyle
"What has become known colloquially as the “woke” movement is rooted in the postmodernist belief that our understanding of reality is entirely constructed through language, and therefore censorship by the state, big tech or mob pressure is fully justified. In addition, this group maintains that society operates according to invisible power structures that perpetuate inequality, and that these can only be redressed through an obsessive focus on group identity and the implementation of present discrimination to resolve past discrimination. This is why the most accurate synonym for woke is “anti-liberal”."
...
"The goals are certainly oppositional, but the terms
are vaguely defined and often muddied further through obfuscation. Rather than
a reflection of antipathies between Right and Left, today’s culture war is a
continuation of the age-old conflict between liberty and authoritarianism. John
Stuart Mill opened On Liberty (1859) with an account of the
“struggle between Liberty and Authority”; the only difference today is that the
authoritarian impulse has been repackaged as “progressive”."
Friday, 23 July 2021
Sunday, 25 April 2021
Disintegrating Realities
ώ Kathleen Stock: I won't be silenced - UnHerd > .
Kathleen Stock was forced to resign from Sussex University professor after an aggressive campaign of targeted harassment over her gender critical views.
The campaign to push Prof Stock out of Sussex began when she self-published a number blog posts critical of extreme transgender ideology. She was concerned that the majority of academics, including philosophers such as herself, were reluctant to criticise campaigns to introduce self-identification for transgender people.
Although Kathleen is understandably upset by the conduct of the small number of abusive students, she is adamant that many of them are taking a cue from the influential adults around them. “I don’t think they’ve actually read what I think. There’s a lot of enabling, or inciting, of individuals in this story,” she says.
00:55 - 02:31 - Kathleen Stock tells her story
02:31 - 03:39 - The anti-Stock Sussex protests
03:39 - 07:24 - Where did Katheen’s trans ideology journey begin?
07:24 - 13:34 - Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock name names
13:34 - 17:47 - Is trans ideology rooted in misogyny?
17:47 - 20:10 - Julie Bindel: This debate is being stifled
20:10 - 23:52 - How does this affect young lesbians?
23:52 - 24:58 - Katheen Stock’s book, Material Girls
24:58 - 26:39 - Stonewall has taken over our national institutions
26:39 - 33:48 - Kathleen’s battle with her Sussex University union
33:48 - 37:52 - Maria Miller MP began the self-identification process
37:52 - 40:45 - Julie Bindel on prostitution and the end result of self-ID
40:45 - 47:19 - The human cost of trans protests
47:19 - 49:13 - What’s the future for women’s rights, Stonewall, LGBTQI+, in the UK?
49:13 - 49:30 - Julie's conclusion
The campaign to push Prof Stock out of Sussex began when she self-published a number blog posts critical of extreme transgender ideology. She was concerned that the majority of academics, including philosophers such as herself, were reluctant to criticise campaigns to introduce self-identification for transgender people.
Although Kathleen is understandably upset by the conduct of the small number of abusive students, she is adamant that many of them are taking a cue from the influential adults around them. “I don’t think they’ve actually read what I think. There’s a lot of enabling, or inciting, of individuals in this story,” she says.
00:55 - 02:31 - Kathleen Stock tells her story
02:31 - 03:39 - The anti-Stock Sussex protests
03:39 - 07:24 - Where did Katheen’s trans ideology journey begin?
07:24 - 13:34 - Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock name names
13:34 - 17:47 - Is trans ideology rooted in misogyny?
17:47 - 20:10 - Julie Bindel: This debate is being stifled
20:10 - 23:52 - How does this affect young lesbians?
23:52 - 24:58 - Katheen Stock’s book, Material Girls
24:58 - 26:39 - Stonewall has taken over our national institutions
26:39 - 33:48 - Kathleen’s battle with her Sussex University union
33:48 - 37:52 - Maria Miller MP began the self-identification process
37:52 - 40:45 - Julie Bindel on prostitution and the end result of self-ID
40:45 - 47:19 - The human cost of trans protests
47:19 - 49:13 - What’s the future for women’s rights, Stonewall, LGBTQI+, in the UK?
49:13 - 49:30 - Julie's conclusion
Tuesday, 6 April 2021
What the F*ck & IDW
Sources differ on the nature of the IDW, with some describing it as left, and others as ideologically diverse, but nonetheless united against primary adversaries hailing predominantly from progressives, including postmodernism, post-structuralism, Marxism, and political correctness. Psychology Today characterized it as "generally concerned about political tribalism and free speech", or as a rejection of "mainstream assumptions about what is true". Salon dubbed it a politically conservative movement united more over a rejection of American liberalism than over any mutually shared beliefs. Alternatively, the National Review posited that, despite comprising "all political persuasions", the IDW was united in a particular conservative-leaning conceptualization of injustice and inequality specifically.
In his book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right, author and political commentator Michael Brooks lists a "devotion to affirming capitalism", a "shared obsession with campus and social media controversies" and an "intense interest in IQ and other innate justifications for systemic inequalities" as defining features of the group.
In his book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right, author and political commentator Michael Brooks lists a "devotion to affirming capitalism", a "shared obsession with campus and social media controversies" and an "intense interest in IQ and other innate justifications for systemic inequalities" as defining features of the group.
The term "intellectual dark web" was coined by the American venture capitalist, 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 various parts of the political spectrum, including conservatives such as Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray, liberals such as Maajid Nawaz and 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 expressed concern at what they regarded as increasingly authoritarian tendencies within progressive movements in Western countries, namely attempts to censure, 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 seeks to intellectually legitimize social inequalities and overstates the harm caused by phenomena such as cancel culture and progressive identity politics. Some progressive critics have also alleged links between the IDW and far-right movements like the alt-right, even though various IDW figures have spoken out against
Bari Weiss' New York Times article (titled "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web") sparked a number of critiques. Jonah Goldberg, writing in the National Review, said the "label is a bit overwrought", writing that it struck him "as a marketing label — and not necessarily a good one: ...it seems to me this IDW thing isn't actually an intellectual movement. It’s just a coalition of thinkers and journalists who happen to share a disdain for the keepers of the liberal orthodoxy." Henry Farrell, writing in Vox, expressed disbelief that conservative commentator Ben Shapiro or neuroscientist Sam Harris, both claimed to be among the intellectual dark web by Weiss, could credibly be described as either purged or silenced. Weiss' fellow New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted the irony of claiming popular intellectual oppression by the mainstream, while publishing in the Times, among the most prominent newspapers in the nation. David A. French contended many of the critics were missing the point, and were instead inadvertently confirming "the need for a movement of intellectual free-thinkers."
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Monday, 1 February 2021
Sunday, 31 January 2021
∞ Cognitive Forays
Demise of Weakism? ..
Fact-Based Rationality vs Weakism ..
Human Nature, Individualism & Morality ..
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.
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
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, 25 October 2020
"De Tocqueville" on Contemporary USA
De Tocqueville [on] contemporary America - Alan Macfarlane > .
Alan Macfarlane neglected mention of the other key attribute of America = arrogance.
Alan Macfarlane neglected mention of the other key attribute of America = arrogance.
Tuesday, 13 October 2020
Political Blame Game
“It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone’s malignity. When prices rise, it is due to the profiteer; when wages fall, it is due to the capitalist. Why the capitalist is ineffective when wages rise, and the profiteer when prices fall, the man in the street does not inquire. Nor does he notice that wages and prices rise and fall together. If he is a capitalist, he wants wages to fall and prices to rise; if he is a wage earner, he wants the opposite. When a currency expert tries to explain that profiteers and trade unions and ordinary employers have very little to do with the matter, he irritates everybody, like the man who threw doubt on German atrocities. (In World War I) We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to have when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet taking mankind in mass, that is the truth. For this reason, no political party can acquire any driving force except through hatred; it must hold someone to obloquy. If so-and-so’s wickedness is the sole cause of our misery, let us punish so-and-so and we shall be happy. The supreme example of this kind of political thought was the Treaty of Versailles. Yet most people are only seeking some new scapegoat to replace the Germans.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays
Sunday, 11 October 2020
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