Posted by alexandra_k on August 22, 2020, at 3:14:17
In reply to Re: Amazing stuff, posted by alexandra_k on August 22, 2020, at 2:45:37
There's just... Something that goes weird with public health.
I'm not sure what it is...
I guess it's the same thing that goes weird with ethics, sometimes.
On the one hand you have these really smart and good and kind people with curiosity working things out... Explaining things different ways... Really picking out the good and the best and developing the understanding...
And then you have sort of... Awful courses where you learn laundry lists of different theories. Catch-phrases and buzz-words. And you apply whatever theory to justify whatever seemed right... Where what seemed right was not arrived at by an epistemically responsible process or similar... Because there wasn't curiosity or wonder or whatever for a time there while the process worked... Before delivering a result. Rather, there was a snap judgement made at some point for random or irrelevnt reasons. And then the.... Tools, I guess. The tools of philosophy and reasoning are... ABused or misapplied, I guess, to justify the wrong answer only.
And I feel a bit that learning about inequality and philosophy theories and sociology theories and the like can become a bit like that...
And I suppose I see courses offered in public health and I... I don't know... Just as I don't know about courses that are offered in applied ethics and things like that.
And of course it's all about who is teaching them. How bright they are. HOw curious they are. I mean... I heard 'consciousness, ecology, spirituality' and I went 'okay, little bit of cringe at the word 'spiritual' but... Let's not be judgemental'... ANd then it was a wonderful talk by an interesting person who had put genuine thought and care into understanding.
I see 'public health' and I do a little bit of a cringe...
But I see courses in things like international relations and the like and... I don't know...
If we assume that the aim or goal or what the US is genuinely trying to do is to make it be the case that there is a higher quality of life for more people around the world... Not in an endless accumulation of riches way... But in a going back to basics sort of a way where we do reconnect with the parts of us that need to find balance with the natual world... Caring for the water and the sky and so on... Quality housing and schools and... Investing in good. INvesting in the things you want to see more of...
And people working on how to scale things up.. So when you get a little pocket.. A tiny business... How you can scale things up without losing the thing that was valuable that we wanted to scale up... How you keep the quality in mass production...
Trying to solve the problems of the earth...
Daniel Dennett was a Philosohper who influenced me a lot. I loved his books when I was an undergrad.
Some of his ideas were amazing to me.
One of them was that human beings were like the nervous system of the planet. Maybe the purpose or the function of human beings is to be the nervous system of the planet.
There was stuff about how long the leash was... So... Trees can grow... In a direction. Or a vine can grow towards the sun... But growing is a slow form of movement compared to a critter that can swim, say. Or walk. A nervous system gets you faster responsivity. And about seeing things from afar... About remote controlling a vehicle on teh surface of mars... ABout putting sensors and so on into the vehicle so it can respond in real-time because of how long it would take for a signal to travel from mars to earth and back from earth to mars.
And the idea that humans could be something the earth produced so that we could see or sense impending danger to the earth... In time to do someting about it. Maybe... An incoming collision form a planet or whatever. People are supposed to protect and help the earth. Not parasites to kill it.
I wanted a to do a Masters at Tufts, but I didn't see a way...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1111776
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20200805/msgs/1111824.html