1. PHILOSOPHICAL - 2014

12.1 Rise and fall of debate in Economics

12.2 Economics has a problem with women

12.3 George Bernard Shaw Quotes

12.4 Myth and Reality
12.5 GDP, Happiness.... ?
12.6 Wealth 
12.7 Is there intelligence in Nature? (Could be called God) 



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12.1 Rise and fall of debate in Economics (7/12/2014)

Figure 1 shows how there was a dramatic increase in the level of debate in economics from the 1920s through the 1960s. Then, however, there was an equally dramatic fall. At the peak level, in 1968, fully 22 per cent of the articles published in these journals appear to have been related to debate. By 2013, however, just 2 per cent were.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/12/the-rise-and-fall-of-debate-in-economics/

12.2 Economics has a problem with women  (8/12/2014)

Noah Smith, an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, argues persuasively in a recent piece for Bloomberg View that sexism is more severe in economics than in the other sciences. This is not to say that other scientific fields are free of a gender gap; in most fields, fewer women than men pursue advanced degrees, become professors and publish articles. But compared with economics, the other sciences look like a “feminist nirvana,” says Smith.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/12/08/what-women-could-bring-to-the-dismal-and-sexist-science-of-economics/

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Perhaps economics would not have been 'a dismal science' if more women were in the profession. After all what is economics for if it does not support home and hearth and the interests of the future generation.

I. Selvaraj, IITM, 72
12.3 George Bernard Shaw Quotes (15/12/2014)

George Bernard Shaw Quotes:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_bernard_shaw.html

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

12.4 Myth and Reality (19/12/2014)

Myth and Reality, is it possible to separate the two?

1. The myth that our planet can support an ever increasing population.

2. The myth that we can continue to increase the human population and at the same time have abundant forests and abundant biodiversity.

3. The myth that Sadam Husain developed in his mind that he could take on the US. He convinced himself and the Iraqi people that he could. Sadam Husain was human like the rest of us, myths don't require hard work to sustain.

4. The myth that we can enjoy good health with a distorted skeletal system (www.humanposture.com)

5. The myth that Christianity is widely practiced. Christians believe that they are Christians even as they hide behind the shield of the Old Testament.

​6. The myth that the Socratic method of asking deep questions is an integral part of western science.

7. The myth that the Socratic method and the market economy (where the media is intelligently controlled) is compatible.

8. The mythology behind religions. Especially harmful when individual religions go to war based on the belief that their religion is superior to other religions.

9. The mythology behind science that intelligent life appeared on the planet​ and evolved without the aid of intelligence in any form.

10. The myth that modern science can match the beauty and complexity of Nature.
11. The myth that God needs our blind worship.

12. The myth that we don't need myths.

Myths provide colour to our lives. It is difficult to imagine human cultures without the mythology behind religions. The ability to generate myths could be integral to what makes us intelligent. It is probably integral to art, language and literature. The deep question is how do we add colour to our lives with the aid of myths without destroying ourselves and our planet.

I. Selvaraj, IITM, 72

12.5 GDP, Happiness.... ? (21/12/2014)

If measuring happiness is so difficult, what else could economists look at? Amartya Sen, of Harvard University, argues that “capabilities” are the way to go. The definition of a capability is a bit fuzzy: at its simplest, a capability is something that people have reason to value. The list of potential capabilities is endless: the opportunity to live a long and healthy life, the freedom to take part in political life or to be well nourished. Capabilities, says Mr Sen, are ends that economists should strive to maximise: income is just one of the many means by which we get there.
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21636749-what-ebenezer-scrooge-and-tiny-tim-can-tell-us-about-economics-joy-world

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Personally my index would be good health. Not health defined by the medical profession and by our Athletics professionals, but the rollicking good health that we observe in children (which we rapidly extinguish through ignorance).

Health, the ability to move easily and strongly, the ability to engage in physical and mental work easily and freely.

Good emotional health and proper nutrition automatically come under this definition and so also physical activity, without which we cannot have good health.

I think longevity is misleading. All the people who live to be hundred today, grew up in another era - they are further aided by advances in medicine.

We can say, generally, that our modern industrial society is headed in the wrong direction. We need to change our paradigms for a number of reasons.

I. Selvaraj, IITM, 72
12.6 Wealth (30/12/2014)

It’s a complicated debate, and who turns out to be right may depend on such enormous questions as whether tomorrow’s companies will replace vast parts of the workforce with software and robots, or whether the growing role of housing as a source of wealth fundamentally changes the value of capital. What’s important is that all sides now acknowledge it’s a debate worth having—which, before Piketty’s book, might not have seemed obvious. As Rognlie, who will be presenting his work at the Brookings Institution this year, writes, Capital the book may or may not be right about its predictions, but capital the concept “remains an important topic of study.”

Link
12.7 Is there intelligence in Nature? (Could be called God) (29/12/2014)

Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life — every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing.

Link

More creationism in Wall Street Journal:
https://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/more-creationism-in-the-wall-street-journal/

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Whether there is God or not, we inhabit a beautiful planet; so far as we know the only planet that supports life in the universe - life in such glorious diversity. It is a failure of Religious, Scientific and Engineering philosophy that a hundred years back we did not reset our philosophical buttons, when we first became aware of the destructive path we were likely to traverse.

Even as we participate in the Darwinian dance of survival it is worth keeping in mind Adla Stevensons gentle reminder in the new year:

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on it's vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to it's security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft.

Stevenson, Adlai Ewing (1900-1965), governor of Illinois, twice Democratic candidate for president, and ambassador to the United Nations, was born to politics...

I. Selvaraj, IITM, 72
11.1 The end of shop class  (9/11/20142)




12.1 The end of shop class  (9/2/2012)



12.1 The end of shop class  (9/2/2012)




12.1 The end of shop class  (9/2/2012)