A goal for study

[justben]

There is a field of study that underlies information theory. It supports linguistics. It drives religion, and it explains science. It guides unwitting marketers, newsies, and other world leaders. It is the Philosopher's Stone of the modern information age and possibly many ages past. It is the study of pure ideas. It is the study of human

Comments

[jade_woulf]

Not sure if it has a name, but if you find out please share. I'm always asking people where their ideas/beliefs come from and why they have them. You just described perfectly what I've been trying to explain to others for a long time now. That's something I could see myself studying in school seriously, and discussing theories on the subject at lenght with others.

[justben]

I'll let you know what I find.

[jade_woulf]

Thanks. Psychology only took me so far in this direction, and left me desiring more explanation. I think that's part of why I grew so disenchanted with my major.

[justben]

*nod* Not sure what it'll mean for my intended upcoming linguistics studies. I'm leaning toward not doubling with classics unless I can come up with a stronger tie-in to this field. Nit sure if I'll double in something else...

[leftorium]

Sociology isn't what you're talking about? Perhaps some subset thereof...

I find that the cultural influences imparted on smaller scales to be vastly more entertaining. See also: I am 8.

For some fluffy pop fiction on the subject of ideas and their flow and influence, check out _Pattern Recognition_ by William Gibson.

[justben]

It certainly has applications in sociology -- particularly at the macro scale -- but for some reason it doesn't quite feel like a precise fit.

Gibson kicks ass. I'll put that one on the reading list.

[keith_dragon]

Ben, this is the very heart of what it is I speak of all the time. What I am looking for, and what drives me mad all the time. It is what I've been trying to master for 4 years now.

However, it often makes me feel as if I am in the line of fire, because you find yourself between all dualities as they fire their intellectual arsenal at eachother. If one side is red, the other blue, you must think purple.

I WANT to talk to you about this. This is the core of the school I am trying to build.

It is not one thing, but all things blending together as a single consciousness.

I have some books that might help you.

Email me to discuss.

kprossick@gmail.com

[justben]

If one side is red, the other blue, you must think purple.

And that's where you and I consistently differ. Where you say think purple, I say simply think both red and blue. Not synthesis in this case, rather an asynthetic recognition of multiplicity.

I'll drop you an email.

[keith_dragon]

Actually, we are disagreeing in terms of semantice, and metaphor, but I believe we actually are speaking of the same thing

[justben]

I don't think we differ as much as we may think.

On the other hand, we seem to come to some startlingly different conclusions sometimes based on our similar ideas about things. ;-)

In my view it's a difference of focus. You focus more on the similarities; I on the differences. The fact that you're arguing for the similarity of our stances while I'm arguing for their differences is itself a case in point.

[keith_dragon]

One other has called this Consilience.

[justben]

Thanks. A brief scan of the Wikipedia entry points to some potentially-interesting links.

[keith_dragon]

If you are interested, I have the Edward Osborne book.

Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

[justben]

I am interested, actually; thanks. I'd love to skim it at least. That ought to give me an idea where I want to prioritize it on the reading list.

[litovka]

More pup-fluffiness on such subjects. Or perhaps more like this. I personally had this one and this one and pretty much everything by Jared Diamond on my wishlist for a while now, but there is never enough time... Gah.

[justben]

RAW writes some really intriguing fiction and valuable social commentary. I don't know that I can trust him with reliable, firm evidence, though, and at the moment that's what I'm looking for here.

I'm also really hesitant of Bryson. I loved reading The Mother Tongue, but he's got a lot of people complaining about factual errors, and I don't have the expertise to evaluate these claims. That's why I'm a big fan of having claims of fact backed up with credible footnotes and bibliography references. Not to claim that bibliographies are perfect or that speculative or purely philosophical stuff doesn't have a place -- far from it. For this, though, I'm hoping to find something with some rigor

[litovka]

I love RAW, but yeah, don't know that I'd go to him for facts. You never know when he's showing off his erudition and when he's just pulling shit out of his ass.

Never read anything Bryson; I thought some people objected because he's not a scientist but a journalist; I did love Simon Singh and Johnson's Shortcut through Time (well, the latter was well-written but mostly disappointing as it didn't cover enough), and hell, often Real Scientists(tm) make for terrible writers so it's nice to have someone translate their gibberish..

The Rile and Pinker books are supposed to be quite the classics in their respective fields. I can't wait until someone declares 36-hour days, so I can finally get into them.

[justben]

At least the shit RAW pulls out of his ass is consistently... erm... interesting. Wow, that analogy breaks down hard.

People's objection to Bryson isn't precisely that he's a not a scientist but a journalist, but rather that his best-known work is usually presented (or at least received) as far more scientific than journalistic, which is precisely the opposite of reality. I couldn't say if that's his fault or his editor's or the reader's for being so damned gullible. I know I took it as gospel when I read it the first time. That was before I'd really seen the extensive footnotes of scholarly research.

I hear ya on the 36-hour days. That'll take some time to get through Congress, thugh (since obviously if we make it law here, the rest of the universe will follow), so in the meantime I'm about to start considering how I can spend my time more wisely. We'll see how far that gets me...