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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The comment which really seemed to highlight the problem of sources and authority was
| Long-standing errors made on the website are republished by respectable institutions as fact, which then are used by Wikipedia editors to buttress the veracity of the original claim. |
The academics citing Wiki, who has cited them or their peers, don't feel the need to double-check the sources. Why should they? But Wiki usually provides links to those sources or at least refers to them so it is open to anyone to follow them up.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I decided not to include this (admittedly significant) comment because it applies to all authoritative sources, not just Wiki. It is no defence to say 'it is open to anyone to follow them up' because this too is true of all authoritative sources.
In fact that's at the heart of the problem. Everyone supposes that if they dutifully follow the daisy chain (as RevHist calls it) back to the original source you have then invested so much psychic energy getting there, you are inclined to accept it at face value. And then, if you are truly passionate about it (i.e. a non-jobsworth academic, an amateur enthusiast or a conspiracy theorist), maybe start a fresh daisy chain.
Applied Epistemology does something quite other.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Can someone read this and pick the bones out of it? I can't read anything nowadays that's more than a hundred words long.
The story of PASS Theory: Origin and applications
J. P. Das, University of Alberta
John R. Kirby, Queen’s University
Our purpose in this paper is to describe the origins and current applications of the PASS theory. PASS stands for Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive processing, which the theory argues are basic dimensions of cognition and intelligence. The theory is the basis for several current batteries of intellectual assessment and for approaches to intervention for low-performing individuals. https://www.academia.edu/78279141/The_story_of_PASS_Theory_Origin_and_applications?email_work_card=view-paper
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I presume they're talking about academics.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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People often know the truth -- because it is simple -- without knowing they know it. This is because they are using it for another purpose, to support whatever paradigm they already believe. I was arguing the THOBR case in a forum against orthodox-believers when
| Paul Jenkins wrote: | That is total bollocks. The languages spoken in the Isles prior to the fall of the Roman Empire are unknown. Even Ogham has few surviving words known. Goidelic Languages are thought to have arrived with the settling of the Isles by possibly Gaulish speakers.
All languages have pre-literate ancestors with little known of word meaning and pronunciation. We have no idea what language was used by hunter-gatherers before and during the late Ice Age or even of the first settlers of the isles immediately after the end of the Ice Age. I would suggest that a modern language has only existed since the earliest versions easily understood by modern speakers. Any other claim to “indigenous status" is questionable. |
| Mick Harper wrote: | | You make my case splendidly. What you say is true of all countries and all languages before the advent of writing. Yet it hasn't stopped linguists drawing up vast family trees, reconstructing dozens of ur-languages and drawing up maps of exactly who spoke what, where and when. In such a situation one is obliged to fall back on other forms of evidence. Mainly -- and this is what dishes me among the academics -- common sense. |
Up till this point -- and, alas, it will carry on being the case -- Paul accepts what the academics have been saying even though in another part of his brain he knows they can't possibly know it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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An example of the syndrome is being played out nightly on our TV screens. The anchor -- or a correspondent in the field or a talking head - says, "The latest ceasefire has been widely ignored" or "The latest ceasefire appears to have reduced the scale of fighting" or something of that sort. An AE test would be
| Name an individual or organisation who knows whether this is true |
because of course there isn't one. Not the two generals, not the head of the CIA, not the UPI, not the best informed correspondent in Khartoum. There just isn't anyone in a position to judge whether the fighting in Sudan is more intensive, less intensive or equally intensive as the day before the cease-fire. It is (simply) an unknowable fact. Any individual (or organisation) can work this out in their head yet such is the human aversion to not-knowing that everybody (a) thinks it's knowable and (b) proceeds to report whatever it is that supports their overall position. A prize for anyone who hears
| "Unfortunately we don't whether the cease-fire is holding so I return you to the studio for an update on the weather." | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Two good examples of the truth being simple culled from Medium today. Here's the first
Russia Hits a Wall, Lost Their Birds, and Say: “Hey, It’s All Okay†Dylan Combellick
https://medium.com/@dylan_combellick/russia-hits-a-wall-lost-their-birds-and-say-hey-its-all-okay-98ba192ecf52
We’ve had some rapid developments in the past few weeks after months of trading empty fields back and forth. The Russian assault on Avdiivka continues but has made very little progress at great cost. Ukraine has acquired ATACMS and used them to great effect. The Black Sea is clearly not under Russian control, and Ukraine has freedom of navigation in the western portions of the sea. Ukraine has crossed the Dnepr river again and has perhaps established a crossing point, and Putin and Lavrov are on a tour of Asia. |
There follows a long account of the usual 'just one more push is all that's needed' type that festoons Medium, ending with a worry about NATO et al getting dragged in etc etc. I replied with my usual
| Which of the following has not changed at all during the entirety of the war: (1) the Ukrainians have had the better of the fighting (2) the Russians show no sign of giving up (3) there are constant alarms that the war will be widened which never happen? |
| Dylan Combellick wrote: | | Exactly. Except the war has widened, to Kosovo, Armenia, Israel... and will get wider still. What does an epistemologist do, exactly? |
| Mick wrote: | | Applied Epistemologist. We stick to simple but often unasked questions eg who in their right mind could possibly think the Ukraine War has widened to Kosovo, Armenia and Israel (other than via the connectedness attendant on all major world events)? |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The other is the old 'racism is part of the human condition' argument
The Long History of Xenophobia in the United States The current political frenzy against “migrants†is nothing new
Douglas Giles, PhD https://dgilesphilosopher.medium.com/the-long-history-of-xenophobia-in-the-united-states-fd7c9fa44b1
Sometimes, listening to politicians in the “developed†world, one gets the impression that hordes of barbarians are at the borders. These politicians tell us to be very concerned about the threat of immigrants. What these barbarians are accused of isn’t exactly clear; the message is vague beyond “be afraid.†These reactionaries make it seem that hostility against immigrants is greater than ever. History records otherwise. |
and goes on at length in the usual outraged liberal tones. So I replied
| I have a vague prejudice against people who aren't like me. As far as I know everyone else does as well. Do you? |
| Douglas Giles, PhD wrote: | | I know many people without that prejudice. It is not a given. I overcame that prejudice and so can you. |
| Mick Harper BA wrote: | | How is it done? |
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