Interesting essay Steven. Rather than “knowledge” Rauch is really pointing to “authority” with the line being drawn from Plato to the Moderns: our “perceptions” are what matters and need to be controlled by the “elites” of modern Social Science. So what is “knowledge?” For Rauch it’s whatever comes through the “funnel” and is accepted by the “marketplace of ideas.” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes called this the “well worn path” of modern liberalism. It was not confused with what is “true” but what become “facts” within the cultural paradigm. Aristotle teaches us that “knowledge,” or to be a “knower” of something means that we know what the Causes of the thing actually are: not that we merely recognize the authority. Everything has multiple causes. The causes are Four: Formal - the essence, or in the case of living things, it’s Soul (psyche in Gregg’s TOK); Material - those substances that make it itself; Kinetic - the motion, or the Soul maintaining itself as the senses are always being bombarded; Telos - end/completion of action. These then need to be thought of in terms of “potentially” and action. As Social Scientists, the interstinf and much more important questions are NOT what did/is Trump doing/saying, which we know very little about other than how the “media” describes them, BUT what is going on with the humans in the West. It is silly to suggest that Trump is simply some sort of authoritarian or is pulling one over on people. As he noted many times during the campaign, he rode “a wave.” This means that something has been happening to our psychological environment. The “effects” of this new environment, rejection of all that came before it in the modern era (thus all the empty talk about “saving” the Enlightenment), are plain to anyone with a pulse. Television/Media are no longer the Authority for the West. The Authority, now lays elsewhere. Plato and Aristotle look at our perceptions and conceptions quite differently. Plato and the Moderns have wanted to give us different conceptions (ethics through mass comm tech) to make us different, or a kind of psyche Warfare. Aristotle and the Ancients looked at what humans actually are and how they are “formed” by their psychological environment. Thus why he begins with Metaphysics and NOT Politics/Ethics. Rauch is pointing to our ELECTRIC modern lives and saying that it is somehow the “truth” of humans, rather than purposefully creating perceptions, or “imagining” what humans might become, rather than dealing with the actually “reality” of human Souls. On Mon, Oct 1, 2018 at 05:02 <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Steven: > > Exactly! As it turns out, everything on *television* is "fake" -- > which is to say that, in addition to being "produced" to generate > particular effects (and paid for by deliberate illusions called > "advertising"), the underlying technology itself is constructed to > deceive our senses (i.e. "flicker threshold frequency" &c.) > > To be sure, this has always been the case. So, that raises the > question of why we are just "noticing" it now . . . ?? > > This sort of shift in "awareness" implies that something else has > happened to cause us to "rethink" what has previously been taken for > granted. That would implicate some "causal" change for our behaviors > in terms of "media" and our attitudes about how we get our "news." > > As it turns out, that is *exactly* what has happened. As a result of > DIGITAL taking over our lives, we have shifted our views about > TELEVISION. This isn't the first time that has happened. It occurred > to PRINT in the 19th-century and again to various *electric* media in > the 20th, particularly when RADIO was knocked-off in the 1960s &c. > > If "Culture" is a product of communications technologies (as suggested > by McLuhan), then when those technologies change, so will our culture. > This phenomenon is what many call a "counter-culture" clash as one > media environment fights with another. This is indeed what we are now > living through and isn't it fascinating (particularly when you don't > "take sides") . . . !! > > Mark > > P.S. Anyone who thinks that the NYTimes or CNN delivers the "truth" > should have their head examined. Having been written about and > contributing to both "print" and "broadcast" media personally for > decades (hundreds of articles by/about, hundreds of on-air > appearances), I can tell you that no one who understands how these > media operate would be confused on these matters. Knowing many who > work at these companies, I can tell you that they aren't confused > about what they are doing. Many of us have had the opportunity to > compare our own eye-witness engagement with events with how they are > reported. The "truth" is not what is involved, as any honest observer > figured out a long time ago. > > P.P.S. What Rauch leaves out is that "disinformation" is > part-and-parcel of "psychological warfare" and that the Cold War -- > which is the context for most people at the Brookings Institution -- > was a psychological war. This is a sort of warfare that is primarily > fought against your *own* population -- not your "opponents." Yes, in > all this, the "intelligensia" represented by people like Rauch are > themselves personally complicit and, as the tone of his article > implies, he seems personally aggrieved that all this would happen to > him. That's no surprise, since he is a Yale graduate who became a > journalist and is now a contributing editor at The Atlantic (as well > as writing books about "gay marriage" &c.) We are in a *new* paradigm > and he is trying to hold up the previous one. In that, he has already > failed. > > "His multiple-award-winning column, “Social Studies,” appeared from > 1998 to 2010 in National Journal. Among the many other publications > for which he has written are The New Republic, The Economist, Reason, > Harper’s, Fortune, Reader’s Digest, U.S. News & World Report, The New > York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los > Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher > Education, The Public Interest, The Advocate, The Daily, and others." > > Quoting Steven Quackenbush <[log in to unmask]>: > > > Hi TOK listserv, > > > > An article recently published in National Affairs may be of interest to > > this group: > > > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nationalaffairs.com_publications_detail_the-2D&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=UWxc8PTZMS37mXV87gbIsPPx7kcnN4-4ESXN_avRbHg&s=llr62l6K419fQpF8QllBmVhJ3Wjqeu9dm96JIxjoQ5s&e= > > constitution-of-knowledge > > > > Of special note, the author (Jonathan Rauch) observes, > > > > - "*America has faced many challenges to its political culture, but > this > > is the first time we have seen a national-level epistemic attack: a > > systematic attack, emanating from the very highest reaches of > > power, on our > > collective ability to distinguish truth from falsehood." *(emphasis > > added) > > > > ~ Steve Q. > > > > > > -- > > Steven W. Quackenbush, Ph.D., Chair > > Division of Psychology & Human Development > > University of Maine, Farmington > > Farmington, ME 04938 > > (207) 778-7518 > > [log in to unmask] > > > > > > To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: > > write to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > > or click the following link: > > http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1 > > > > > ------------------------------------------ > family for [log in to unmask]: Digital X-Men > Permalink: > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tmts.topicbox.com_groups_dxm_Td82fba13da16941c-2DM49dc63f2d17f9f0ee5c3e97a&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=RQoqfllmJxfCeo9s42wF3HAUZkM265XBUIUqfeGcMM0&s=IPffpU6k7p0wcruBqCh-kgQ-3vZGSDyutvpYeAsteWk&e= > Delivery options: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__tmts.topicbox.com_groups_dxm_subscription&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=RQoqfllmJxfCeo9s42wF3HAUZkM265XBUIUqfeGcMM0&s=6ILzFnfH7yPWpOp4uVTgneMSTUNBsIHJTStuHPeIvr8&e= > -- Jeffrey A. 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