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       #Post#: 6249--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: Zea_mays
       Date: May 9, 2021, 2:39 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote ---
       > We should use this word more! Every time rightists claim that
       they are being "censored" by [insert platform here], we can tell
       them they are in fact being curated
       --- End Quote ---
       Indeed.
       --- Quote ---
       > "I discovered these old scientists had better arguments
       against ethno-tribalism than present-day biologists. Yet no
       mainstream biologists and sociologists seem to know about this"
       >
       > Please present these somewhere when you have time.
       --- End Quote ---
       I posted it here:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/colonial-era/the-'black'-and-'white'-identity-politics-scam/msg6246/#msg6246
       --- Quote ---
       > What you are describing could be called informational
       inflation.
       --- End Quote ---
       Yes, that's a great idea.
       ----
       I forgot to include this as well! Again, quantity of knowledge
       is not enough to satisfy them. Quantity of distributed
       information (via academically-published journal articles) is
       more important than the creation of the knowledge itself. The
       perception/consensus that the publication contains accurate
       knowledge (via the peer review process, which isn't really
       effective at ensuring the information is accurate knowledge) is
       more important than whether or not anyone can understand and
       confirm if the knowledge is accurate:
       --- Quote ---
       > "Publish or perish" is an aphorism describing the pressure to
       publish academic work in order to succeed in an academic
       career.[1][2][3] Such institutional pressure is generally
       strongest at research universities.[4] Some researchers have
       identified the publish or perish environment as a contributing
       factor to the replication crisis.
       >
       > Successful publications bring attention to scholars and their
       sponsoring institutions, which can help continued funding and
       their careers. In popular academic perception, scholars who
       publish infrequently, or who focus on activities that do not
       result in publications, such as instructing undergraduates, may
       lose ground in competition for available tenure-track positions.
       The pressure to publish has been cited as a cause of poor work
       being submitted to academic journals.[5] The value of published
       work is often determined by the prestige of the academic journal
       it is published in. Journals can be measured by their impact
       factor (IF), which is the average number of citations to
       articles published in a particular journal.[6]
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publish_or_perish
       To really drive this point into the ground:
       --- Quote ---
       > In academic publishing, the least publishable unit (LPU),...is
       the smallest measurable quantum of publication, the minimum
       amount of information that can be used to generate a publication
       in a peer-reviewed venue, such as a journal or a conference.
       ...The term is often used as a joking, ironic, or derogatory
       reference to the strategy of artificially inflating quantity of
       publications.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_publishable_unit
       They have apparently even created new subfields dedicated solely
       to salivating over how much information they create:
       --- Quote ---
       > Citation impact is a measure of how many times an academic
       journal article or book or author is cited by other articles,
       books or authors.[1][2][3][4][5] Citation counts are interpreted
       as measures of the impact or influence of academic work and have
       given rise to the field of bibliometrics or
       scientometrics,[6][7] specializing in the study of patterns of
       academic impact through citation analysis.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation_impact
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliometrics
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientometrics
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index
       Imagine living 1,000 years ago when you could just...read every
       single thing that was ever deemed high enough quality to merit
       scribes spending hundreds of hours copying it onto very
       expensive paper, and judge its quality and "impact" for
       yourself.
       A communist critique of the current information addiction,
       although it raises some important points:
       --- Quote ---
       > Historian Russell Jacoby, writing in the 1970s, observes that
       intellectual production has succumbed to the same pattern of
       planned obsolescence used by manufacturing enterprises to
       generate renewed demand for their products.
       >
       > The application of planned obsolescence to thought itself has
       the same merit as its application to consumer goods; the new is
       not only shoddier than the old, it fuels an obsolete social
       system that staves off its replacement by manufacturing the
       illusion that it is perpetually new.[6]
       >
       > Jacoby laments the demise of the radical critical theory of
       the previous generation, which sought to understand and
       articulate the contradictions inherent in bourgeois and liberal
       democratic ideologies. The new generation of theories, in
       contrast, seek to allow the contradictory elements of the
       ideology to coexist by isolating them, assigning them to
       separate departments in the university. This division of
       intellectual labor in the service of the prevailing ideology,
       Jacoby says, "severs the life nerve of dialectical thought."[7]
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_careerism#Russell_Jacoby's_criticisms_of_contemporary_academia
       The last paragraph is a very important point. In the ancient
       world, "philosophy" included the study of all subjects. A
       skilled philosopher was well-acquainted with every field of
       knowledge. At some point after the Renaissance, there was so
       much knowledge that not even the smartest and most dedicated
       scholar could possibly learn and understand everything.
       Fields became specialized and compartmentalized. A scholar could
       not be an expert in every subject, although they could still
       probably learn much from each subject if they had the interest.
       Today, we have basically reached "hyper-specialization".
       Scientists who study one specialization within a subject are not
       even able to understand the concepts and the real meaning of the
       data used in other specializations within their subject! It is
       frequently the case that scientists will present their work at
       an academic conference (to an audience of other scientists in
       their field), and often no one outside of their
       hyper-specialization will understand their presentation at all.
       For example, here are subfields within physics. I doubt that an
       expert in a subfield would be able to understand the
       cutting-edge research from another subfield within their own
       "field".
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics#Research_fields
       Here's a similar list for biology. I think this would only be
       equivalent to the "field" classification on the physics
       Wikipedia page.
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology#Branches_and_career_options
       --- Quote ---
       > From the ancient world, starting with Aristotle, to the 19th
       century, natural philosophy was the common term for the practice
       of studying nature. It was in the 19th century that the concept
       of "science" received its modern shape with new titles emerging
       such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist"
       among other technical fields and titles; institutions and
       communities were founded, and unprecedented applications to and
       interactions with other aspects of society and culture
       occurred.[1]
       > [...]
       > The term natural philosophy preceded current usage of natural
       science (i.e. empirical science). Empirical science historically
       developed out of philosophy or, more specifically, natural
       philosophy. Natural philosophy was distinguished from the other
       precursor of modern science, natural history, in that natural
       philosophy involved reasoning and explanations about nature (and
       after Galileo, quantitative reasoning), whereas natural history
       was essentially qualitative and descriptive.
       >
       > In the 14th and 15th centuries, natural philosophy was one of
       many branches of philosophy, but was not a specialized field of
       study. The first person appointed as a specialist in Natural
       Philosophy per se was Jacopo Zabarella, at the University of
       Padua in 1577.
       >
       > Modern meanings of the terms science and scientists date only
       to the 19th century. Before that, science was a synonym for
       knowledge or study, in keeping with its Latin origin. The term
       gained its modern meaning when experimental science and the
       scientific method became a specialized branch of study apart
       from natural philosophy.[2]
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_philosophy
       --
       I also came across this, which may be some food for thought in
       examining alternatives to the present-day approach to science:
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_movement_(culture)#Science
       #Post#: 7375--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: rp
       Date: July 2, 2021, 10:22 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Rightist meme exalts empiricism while ridiculing rationalism:
       [Img]
  HTML https://i.imgur.com/gRe8qj9_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium[/img]
       #Post#: 14760--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: Zea_mays
       Date: July 19, 2022, 7:45 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       This is something I think about a lot. Instead of necessity
       driving invention, Western Civilization discovers unnecessary
       knowledge first, and then makes up unnecessary inventions to use
       these technological advancements.
       --- Quote ---
       > There was no practical value in science back then - you have
       to remember that all the way until the 19th century, technology
       and science were separate fields, because it wasn't until then
       that science caught up with technological progress.
       >
       > The example I remember my professor giving was that by the
       time a scientific explanation for he optimal firing arc of a
       cannon had been made, cannoneers had already known of it for
       hundreds of years.
       >
       > Simple observation, rule of thumb and trial and error was
       (with a few exceptions) the foundation for all technology and
       architecture for the vast majority of history. Architects and
       engineers couldn't explain WHY things worked like they did, just
       that they did.
       >
       > Science was, in practical terms, basically a bunch of rich
       nerds trying to explain stuff that didn't really need
       explaining.
       --- End Quote ---
  HTML https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/tw1xlu/til_that_while_impressed_by_his_book_philosophiae/i3dzhkx/
       #Post#: 14781--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: July 19, 2022, 9:37 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       "Instead of necessity driving invention, Western Civilization
       discovers unnecessary knowledge first"
       Westerners have a compulsion to fill space, whether it is
       physical space, informational space, space inside a painting or
       any other kind of space. We have identified this as a
       characteristic of Yahweh-worship:
       [img]
  HTML https://i0.wp.com/deebrestin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/habakkuk-2-14.jpg?resize=960%2C540&ssl=1[/img]
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-false-left/progressive-yahwism/msg9346/#msg9346
       --- Quote ---
       >
  HTML https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F741a0d9f-aeda-4a78-80f9-9be7f892af2f_728x546.jpeg
       --- End Quote ---
       This also goes back to what I was saying here:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-sustainable-evil/msg9999/#msg9999
       --- Quote ---
       > I am tired of False Leftists presenting curiosity as a
       positive trait.
       > ...
       > does anyone dispute that Western civilization is the most
       curious civilization?
       --- End Quote ---
       But the confusion further worsens when some False Leftists
       (clumsily attempting to praise children) claim that children are
       curious. Are children really curious? No, they are not. For a
       simple example, when children move into a new house, they will
       certainly want to leave no room in the house unchecked. This is
       what gets crudely mislabelled as "curiosity" by False Leftists.
       What the False Leftists neglect is the that children hate moving
       houses in the first place; they would almost always rather stay
       in the house they have already become familiar with. It is
       adults who like the idea of moving houses.
       Children are philosophical, not curious. Children are disturbed
       by not understanding what is going on, but would prefer the
       truth to turn out to be more simple rather than more
       complicated. In contrast, the progressive Yahwists in the other
       topic want to ensure that they forever keep creating new
       complexity on higher and higher orders so that they never run
       out of things to accumulatively understand. The difference
       between these two attitudes is the difference between philosophy
       and curiosity.
       To the extent that Western civilization is more curious than
       non-Western civilizations, we can safely say that Western
       civilization is more adultlike than non-Western civilizations,
       something I previously also noted in aesthetics:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-ugly-48/msg6238/?topicseen#msg6238
       --- Quote ---
       > Another way to describe Western aesthetics is as more
       adultlike. This is clearly the case for painting, as young
       children spontaneously draw in 2D:
       >
       > and non-Western painting is mostly 2D, whereas Western
       painting tries to be as 3D as possible:
       >
       >
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-is-ugly-48/msg3980/#msg3980
       >
       > But I would say the same is true of other forms. For example,
       you say:
       >
       > "I find Pueblo architecture quite beautiful."
       >
       > but would you furthermore agree that it is more childlike?
       >
       >
  HTML https://www.cardcow.com/images/set655/card00864_fr.jpg
       >
       > Conversely, would you agree that Western architecture is by
       far the most adultlike?
       >
       >
  HTML https://daytonperformingarts.org/wp-content/uploads/1920_A_Performance_Images/1920_A_OP4_Baroque.jpg
       >
       > I believe that Western civilization considers itself superior
       to non-Western civilizations in the same sense that adults
       consider themselves superior to children. And just as children
       have been mostly conditioned to agree that adults really are
       superior by accepting the adult standards of superiority,
       non-Western civilizations have similarly been mostly conditioned
       to agree that Western civilization is superior by accepting
       Western standards of superiority. Only we can see that the truth
       is the complete opposite. This:
       >
       >
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY
       >
       > is inferior to this:
       >
       >
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R8kWA6jItE
       --- End Quote ---
       Related:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-false-left/progressive-yahwism/msg13288/#msg13288
       --- Quote ---
       > The unspoken assumption underlying his claim is that a thing
       has to be new in order to not be boring. This is a progressive
       assumption, which we disagree with. I find that many new things
       are boring despite being new, whereas many old things are not
       boring despite being old. This is because I am an absolutist.
       Whatever is boring will always continue to be boring, and
       whatever is not boring will never become boring. Whether or not
       something is boring to me is determined by the quality of the
       thing itself, and unrelated to how familiar I am with it. Musk,
       in contrast, lacks such perception. To him, what is boring is
       anything that he has become too familiar with.
       >
       > Thus someone like Musk can never be satisfied, because
       everything that exists at any point in time will become boring
       to him eventually, whereupon he will desire even more
       innovation, over and over again without end. In contrast,
       someone like me can be satisfied forever simply by successfully
       finding the quality I seek.
       >
       > In short, Musk worships Yahweh whereas I worship God.
       --- End Quote ---
       #Post#: 14939--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: guest30
       Date: August 1, 2022, 7:05 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Usually, the people with Western mindset always talking about
       the validity of primary sources from the information which we
       provide, rather than think and talk whether our information are
       true logically and empathically or not. Even though it's got
       from non-primary sources.
       #Post#: 15667--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Academic decolonization
   DIR By: antihellenistic
       Date: September 15, 2022, 7:52 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Considering people are "idi*t" were also westerners behaviour.
       Seeing that the ancient world like Islamic empires consider
       people good or bad based on their character, not by their
       intelligence. And the word "idi*t" were not found on the world
       until the westerners from European Greece found it. See this
       information :
       --- Quote ---
       > The word "idi*t" comes from the Greek noun
       ἰδιώτης idiōtēs 'a
       private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a
       private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political
       office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill,
       layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the
       adjective ἴδιος idios 'personal' (not
       public, not shared).[3][4
       --- End Quote ---
       Source :
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot#Etymology
       Another linguistic institution website's explanation about the
       word "idi*t". See this written content below :
       --- Quote ---
       > Idi*t Has Greek Roots
       >
       > The Greek adjective idios means “one’s own” or “private.” The
       derivative noun idiōtēs means “private person.” A
       Greek idiōtēs was a person who was not in the public
       eye, who held no public office. From this came the sense “common
       man,” and later “ignorant person”—a natural extension, for the
       common people of ancient Greece were not, in general,
       particularly learned. The English idiot originally meant
       “ignorant person,” but the more usual reference now is to a
       person who lacks basic intelligence or common sense rather than
       education.
       --- End Quote ---
       Source :
  HTML https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiot
       If we use the word "idi*t", then the "white" colonialist and
       Israelis are not "idi*t" people, seeing that they intelligent
       enough to make advanced weaponry, education, and machinery to
       oppress the rest of the world. And the "idi*t" people are the
       colonized and oppressed people like us.
       Being kind is more important rather than being "intelligent"
       Make Greece Ottoman Again
       #Post#: 15668--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: September 15, 2022, 8:22 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I disagree. The problem is not with using the word "idiot", but
       with how we define the word. You are the one agreeing with the
       Western definition:
       "If we use the word "idi*t", then the "white" colonialist and
       Israelis are not "idi*t" people, seeing that they intelligent
       enough to make advanced weaponry, education, and machinery to
       oppress the rest of the world."
       What you just described (in bold) is the idiotic behaviour.
       Going back to the etymology:
       --- Quote ---
       > private person
       --- End Quote ---
       Making advanced weaponry/education/machinery does not improve
       the world overall (quite the contrary), but merely allows those
       possessing these things to gain a temporal advantage over those
       who do not yet possess it. This is behaviour with private (ie.
       selfish) interests in mind, thus idiocy.
       Again, go back to the air conditioner analogy:
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/decolonized-housing-(america-edition)/msg14085/#msg14085
  HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/issues/decolonized-housing-(america-edition)/msg14831/#msg14831
       Only an idiot would, wanting cooler air, install something which
       further heats the air, but merely pumps it outside the room.
       This is the epitome of private thinking, and thus of idiocy.
       "And the "idi*t" people are the colonized and oppressed people
       like us."
       No. If we are the ones receiving the hot air from the air
       conditioner, we are not necessarily idiots. We would only be
       idiots if we responded by installing another air conditioner
       pumping in the opposite direction to compete against the initial
       air conditioner (consequently heating the air even more). In
       contrast, if we responded by breaking into the idiot's room to
       destroy the initial air conditioner and kill the idiot, we would
       be anti-idiots.
       #Post#: 15669--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: antihellenistic
       Date: September 15, 2022, 8:27 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Considering that always being first at knowledge and performance
       was good were not found on the world. But soon became the
       world's international behaviour because the westerners found it.
       See this content below about the competition activity named
       "Olympiad" :
       --- Quote ---
       > An olympiad (Greek:
       Ὀλυμπιάς, Olympiás) is
       a period of four years, particularly those associated with the
       ancient and modern Olympic Games.
       >
       > Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's
       Archaic Era, it was not until Hippias that a consistent list was
       established and not until Ephorus in the Hellenistic period that
       the first recorded Olympic contest was used as a calendar epoch.
       Ancient authors agreed that other Olympics had been held before
       the race won by Coroebus but disagreed on how many; the
       convention was established to place Coroebus's victory at a time
       equivalent to the summer of 776 bc in the Gregorian calendar and
       to treat it as Year 1 of Olympiad 1. Olympiad 2 began with the
       next games in the summer of 772 bc.
       --- End Quote ---
       Source :
  HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympiad#Ancient_Olympics
       That activity of being the first on anything is representation
       of Western Achillean doctrine. For what being first if we not
       concern to the society. The result is liberalism economic and
       way of life. And also social imbalance which resulting hostility
       between individuals and communities.
       #Post#: 15670--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: antihellenistic
       Date: September 15, 2022, 8:30 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote ---
       > Making advanced weaponry/education/machinery does not improve
       the world overall (quite the contrary), but merely allows those
       possessing these things to gain a temporal advantage over those
       who do not yet possess it. This is behaviour with private (ie.
       selfish) interests in mind, thus idiocy.
       --- End Quote ---
       But European colonialism and advanced unnecessary innovation was
       a democratic (collective) thinking, so they not behave based on
       individual interest, what about that?
       The inventors always justify their recently created materials
       with the pretext that the majority need something new and
       better. So the innovation and another intelligent activity is
       also result of democracy
       #Post#: 15671--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Truth =/= knowledge
   DIR By: 90sRetroFan
       Date: September 15, 2022, 8:40 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       "But European colonialism and advanced unnecessary innovation
       was a democratic (collective) thinking, so they not behave based
       on individual interest, what about that?"
       Private interests =/= individual interests. A tribe/demos is a
       collective concerned with private thinking.
       We support individualism. Absolute monarchism is individualism.
       It is far easier to get an individual to think non-privately
       than to get a majority to do so.
       *****************************************************
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