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.psychologytoday.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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