Thanks, Mark.
Perhaps one way to think about the ToK/UTUA Framework as attempting a grid that captures us on the past to present into the future axis and one that attempts to coordinate the bottom up (physics into sensation) and top down aspects (culture and technology) of our being in a way that is both coherent and promoting of dignity and well-being for persons and the planet at large.
Best,
Gregg
-----Original Message-----
From: tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Mark Stahlman
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 8:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The value of intellectual integrity
Gregg:
Good blog! As we've discussed, Culture has its *causes* and "intellectual integrity" isn't something that is an automatic effect by any means. In particular, the human intellect doesn't come first but rather last in the "chain" beginning with sensations (external), followed by perceptions (internal.) If that entire "structure" -- which you have carefully diagrammed -- is disordered at its foundations, then so will be the resulting "values."
In part as a product of the German emphasis on the "intellect" (giving us our modern academia and the PhD &c) and its radical distortion in the early-20th century -- leading to Hitler &al -- the Rockefeller Foundation launched its "Radio Research Project" in 1935 at Columbia University, later expanding it to Princeton and ultimately costing $30M+ (in today's money.) Among its outcomes was the establishment of "public opinion polling" (which is why Gallup and Roper &c are located in Princeton.)
Following WWW II, based largely on the insights of psychological warriors in that conflict, Social Psychology took up this task -- by denigrating what many thought to be the "intellect" in favor of a sort of "pluralism" that denied the possibility of any "ultimate"
integrity, the pursuit of which it considered to be "proto-Nazi."
Instead it promoted what became "deconstruction" of all "grand narratives" and the *false* belief that reality was "socially constructed" (aka "versions of reality.") Today's academia is the direct result of this retreat from its 19th-century German intellectual origins.
Trump is a product of that severely degraded "intellectual" world --
*formally* caused by RADIO in the early part of the 20th century and then dramatically deepened by TELEVISION in the second half, fundamentally collapsing whatever was left of the PRINT world in which those intellectuals previously resided. The promotion of "logical coherence" and "consistency of thought" has been sweepingly denounced for 50+ years now and Trump's cynical exploitation of the situation is the result. Needless to say, his opponents also share the same
handicaps. Yes, "democratic-socialism" is also a RADIO throwback.
They are all the product of Walter Ong's "Secondary Orality."
By forging ahead with the ToK, you are in conflict with your own profession and, indeed, the wider field of social science which has collapsed under the weight of its own *deliberate* lack of "integrity." That paints a target on your back. The conflict you have had over plagiarism of your "Justification Hypothesis" is only the beginning of what you are going to face. Hopefully, a suit-of-armor will be under your 2018 Xmas tree for what you've done with the Garden (previously the topic of a hippie anthem.)
Also in the 1930s, a movement was begun to try to restore PRINT as a viable *environment* for the intellect. It was called "Great Books"
and it came out of the University of Chicago (also Rockefeller funded), which had acquired the rights to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." In 1946, Marshall McLuhan, a newly minted PhD from Cambridge, attempted to insert himself into that process but was rejected by then-UofC-head Robert Hutchins. Great Books went on to form the curriculum at many schools, perhaps most notably St. John's
(Annapolis) -- where Joe Sachs has masterfully translated Aristotole (which then became the basis of the LADS seminar at the Center, which is finishing its experimental run this evening.) Today, there are no viable expressions of that ideal (and some of what remains is working with the Center.)
The West had many parents. Most would agree that Athens and Jerusalem were among them -- to which Alexandria also needs to be added. The "Decline of the West," however, has only one parent -- ELECTRICITY (or
what McLuhan described as the collapse of the "Gutenberg Galaxy.")
Now that we are DIGITAL that earlier parent-of-decline is no longer
*forming* new intellects -- through sensation (external) and perception (internal) -- and, instead, has become the rear-view-mirror that is Trump, Bernie &al.
"Toto, I believe we aren't in Kansas anymore . . . " -- Dorothy (speaking of RADIO taking over from PRINT in the 1930s)
To grasp our future -- as the West, which is only a portion of humanity -- we need to understand the implications of the new "City"
in which we all live. And that understanding is the purpose of the Center for the Study of Digital Life.
www.digitallife.center
Mark
Quoting "Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx" <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi List,
>
> I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the value of
> intellectual integrity. As I have blogged about before, (see, e.g.,
> here We Need to Value Intellectual
> Integrity<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psy
> chologytoday.com_blog_theory-2Dknowledge_201602_we-2Dneed-2Dvalue-2Dintellectual-2Dintegrity&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=AIBYKCx_OuaVu2lBxxuPVO5NjduWEQrFsoXuwCtbY7w&s=yrj5Nnexpf78IrG2owq8aydEum_n5PT3t5FQwX7HN-I&e=>) it is one of the values that I as being in most danger, especially on the political scene, but also more broadly.
>
> I would love to hear what others think. It seems to me that the
> desire for a Theory of Knowledge would go hand in glove with a value
> of intellectual integrity. Do we as a society deeply share this value?
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
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