It seems to me that the problem with Greek science was a failure to communicate -- between left and right cerebral hemispheres. This is no doubt a simplistic and reductive explanation, but blame I-Mac for that.
In any event, something must account for what amounts to an ideological capture that prevented the Greeks from stepping outside their ideas and comparing them to the external world. Instead, if there was a conflict between beautiful idea and messy reality, so much for the latter.
And here we are.
Speaking of which, if you're not in the Metacosmic Spiral you're in the Intracosmic Circle, in which case extremes meet. Check out this story on the colonization of STEM by barbarous ideologues (which is to say, right brain by left). In a course called -- no, really -- Afrochemistry,
Students will apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the U.S. and students will implement African American sensibilities to analyze chemistry. Diverse historical and contemporary scientists, intellectuals, and chemical discoveries will inform personal reflections and proposals for addressing inequities in chemistry and chemical education.
*Ironically*, this description betrays the very parochial mentality that would have absolutely prevented the development of science, which is, among other things, universal. For example, whether black or white, if you swallow a chemical called cyanide, you won't be doing any more science, Afro or otherwise.
CYANIDE IS RACISS!
Reminds me of how Hitler rejected the Jewish physics of Einstein, Pauli, and Oppenheimer. And a good thing, since, if he hadn't, we might all be Deutsch sprechen.
In his book The Savior of Science, Jaki writes of the intracosmic ideological capture of the Greek mind. Obviously it has nothing to do with intelligence per se, as they invented geometry, whereas I scraped by with a D back in 10th grade. If I knew then what I know now, I would have confidently reminded Mrs. Neilson that
Geometry is still not science, inasmuch as science is about the actual universe, where all is in motion and, in contrast to the world of geometry, nothing is ever at rest (Jaki).
And when we say intracosmic left brain ideological capture, we are apparently being quite literal. For example, I was thumbing through Aurelius' Meditations the other day, where he articulates the prevalent idea of what Nietzsche would later characterize as eternal return:
Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.
Therefore,
Whatever may befall you, it was preordained for you from everlasting
So relax. Everything that happens must happen.
Yes, Nicolás?
I do not want to conquer serenity, like a Stoic, but to welcome serenity in, like a Christian.
Philosophy, of course, begins in wonder. I wonder why they didn't wonder about the world exterior to their heads?
One is here in the presence of a blindness of the human mind to the obvious, which is worth exploring (Jaki).
But only briefly, in order to illustrate the fact that left brain capture is not just a thing, but a deadly thing (for a more recent example, see here). For it seems that Aristotelian physics "was taken to be necessarily true, whatever the evidence to the contrary." Much like Afrochemistry and Cuckoo-climatology.
Steeped in that perspective, which included a firm belief in eternal cycles of birth-life-death-rebirth for all, the Greeks of old could be but the victims of an intellectual state..., that all was matter in motion, resulting in rigid determinism (ibid.).
Ultimately,
full trust in a rational Creator was needed to muster intellectual courage to live with quantities as well as qualities whatever the apparent irrationality of the fact that they are irreducible to one another (ibid.).
So, take that, Mrs. Neilson -- you and your high but barren intellectual plateau. I accept your D with pride! And resignation! For if the inventors of geometry are correct, I shall take this course an endless number of times and earn the same D.
Mrs. Neilson, top left; also depicted, Mr. Trahan, from whom I earned a D in calculus.
BONUS PHOTO:
15 comments:
Not a bad photo there Bob!
It's weird when I look at yearbook photos from back in the day. I feel like I know all these people. There were archetypal similarities back then that were more familiar. But if I look at yearbook today, forget it...might as well be anime.
Students will apply chemical tools and analysis to understand Black life in the U.S. and students will implement African American sensibilities to analyze chemistry.
In the immortal words of my children, Bruh. Also, Wut?
Pretty sure George Washington Carver didn't found an agricultural program based on Afro chemistry, he learned how to grow things and taught his students how to grow things. The fact that his students were black had no effect on the chemical compounds in the soil, but he definitely took great strides to improve the lives of pretty much anyone who isn't allergic to peanuts.
Re. Geometry, I dunno - an awful lot of pool players and engineers might argue that it does count as science, because angles have consequences.
Come to think of it, pool is more like the climate: a complex system with sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
Yearbooks from my time mostly had girls with really big hair. If memory serves, seniors were allowed to have color photos but lower classes were black & white. I think I lost my yearbook sometime in the 90s though, so who knows?
Re. pool, that sounds about right. One little tear in the felt, and your ball isn't going where you thought it was.
In my yearbook, many of the guys had longer hair than the girls. Totally unstyled and looking like it was lopped off with pruning shears.
Now, here's an idea:
"How about a book you can query, and it will answer away to your heart’s content? How about a book that will create its own content, on demand, or allow you to rewrite it? A book that will tell you why it is (sometimes) wrong?"
"This book is not just the text, it’s the text plus what you use AI to do with it. You can think of it as a universal library on the topic of the book -- namely the great economists -- and of course economics too. Not to mention everything else as well. You might call it a generative book."
Ha - knowing the sorts of shenanigans most people use the internet for, I can see this going off the rails pretty quickly.
Interesting idea, though. At what point is it a book vs., say, a modern Magic 8 Ball or an exercise in delving (possibly obliviously) deeper into ones own personal obsessions? Does it stay on topic, or quickly devolve into something entirely different depending on the interests of the reader?
Worth watching. This seemed as legit as it could be. And yes, it's worse than you think.
Ted... holy crap. I'd given up trying to explain the economy, as interest rates and money supply clearly indicated that some fraudulent system was in place, but I couldn't figure out how, or how it's been continuing. Of course, that which cannot continue... won't.
And if this video has it right, not much of anything else will either. I'm just glad I didn't waste much time & effort trying to get 'secure'... short of prepping in the wilderness, that's not gonna work.
P.S. IMHO,no, his proposed solutions from the 1hr mark on won't work and seemingly are the voice of 'the captured opposition', which is the disease itself.
I haven't watched it, but then I suspect that whatever he says, even if new to me, won't be surprising. I've long understood now that when Christ talked about the prince of this world, he was being purely literal, and have thus adjusted my expectations accordingly. The real surprise would be discovering that anything about the way the world herebelow works - outside of some excellent rules for living delineated thousands of years ago - is as it seems.
Julie, yup, pretty much same here.
Julie, well said. I intend to go down with the ship (because what options do I have), but it will be a translucent one.
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