Little Shop of Knowledge
Marsha Enright
Why Man Needs Approval
Gabriel Zannotti
La Llamada Objetividad de
los Medios de Comunicación
Gabriel Zannotti exposes a case where he compares two main paradigms in the philosophy of science: The Information Paradigm and the Communication Paradigm. The information paradigm claims that truth is information just waiting to be discovered by humans, its lying there OUTSIDE of us, and we're living in a system that is simply THERE, "outside" of us. However he claims that in the Communication Paradigm the case is different because we're constantly inhabiting a world that we've created for ourselves. Seeing a Coca-Cola does not respond to the information paradigm because the Coca-Cola Can forms a part of our universe the more we discover about it's full nature. We're constantly giving meaning to things, the simple fact that we woudl recognize something as a "coca cola can" already explains that it conforms part of the world we inhabit. If we ever see a new and strange object it'll push our horizons of understanding and clash against our existing ones, perhaps conforming new understanding that enables us to live in a different and more complete world.
His main case is in relation to the So Calles Objectivity of the means of Communication. How can the means of communication truly transmit something "objectively" when they arebeing controlled by other humans that will record their paradigms with the camera and later expose them through different means (probably televisions and computers). The "objectivity" in the means of communication is not really objective because hwen presented ot each individual this is a clash between the horizons presented by the film and the horizons of the audience member at the current moment.
1. We constantly seek to be involved in loving (and especially romantic love) relationships because man cannot perceive himself as a whole and having this input from outside helps us in developing our self image and understand ourselves as wholes.
2. The Marasmus Syndrome is a psychological condition of depression for people who have suffered from too little human interaction. In orphanages and places where people don't have these types of contact the syndrome is much more recurrent because these children have not grown with a loving person to reaffirm them.
1. Peter Boettke explains through his essay the impossibility of socialism by clarifying some misconceptions that have risen from malinterpretations in Ludwig von Mises' Human Action. What Boettke tries to claim with his essay is that socialism is not "impossible" but rather than economic calculation within socialism is impossible and that for that reason true socialism can only exist on a global level, for whenever there have been socialist economies in the world such as Russia or Cuba they have had to get some source of knowledge on what goods are scarce or not. Such scarcity is best communicated through the price system of a free market economy, thus socialist economes based their own prices on those produced by the market. This is in fact not calculation and only proves that Socialism is bascially impossible because it is unable to produce a system of constant information regarding change and adaptablity as the market has.
1. One of the myths that Reed debunks in his essay is that the Great Depression was caused by capitalism and free markets. He gives several examples on how the Great Depression really never enjoyed healhty policies of economics but rather the rapid and urgent commands of those in power who were trying to cover as much as they could for the people at the time. Independently of their intentions trying to control, plan and provide for all citizens is pretty much an impossible task and applying policies that have this as their sole ends but fail to explain sound means.
2. Roosevelt gained the elecitons because he promised free market reforms, but he then took on keynsian politics and intervened much more in the economy by implementing policies such as the National Recovery Act (where they destroyed goods and property, such as living pigs so that the prices of other pigs would raise and it would stimulate the economy. In the short run this seemed to have a positive effect, however in the long run it was merely destructive and it made resources much more scarce in times of crisis.
Peter Boettke
Socialism: Still Impossible After All These Years
Lawrence Reed
Great Myths of the Great Depression
Virtual Professors
Whether they were about to rush into a conference in a hotel in Atlanta or just came back from teaching a class at George Mason University, distance was not an issue to create an environment of learning and sharing with professors from abroad. Each student had to select a professor that would be hosted virtually (via Skype) and then would select an essay that all students would previously read in order to have a dialogue with the professor. The experience was incredible, though my generation is regarded as very "technological" because we grew up with things such as the internet, computers, tablets, etc, I am still amazed at how technology has enabled us to speak with one another as if we were on the same time at the same place. I just find it amazing and I'm thankful to have been born in a time where it is not a thought but a REALITY the fact that I received a class with renowed professors from all over the world and spoke to them as if we were having a cup of coffee. Our approach evolved as time passed by, though often more than being in a dialogue it felt like a question and answer session since we wanted to make the best of our time with the professor. Still, the experience was very enriching, the fact that each student would "host" a professor( as opposed to simply having to meet with them based on a schedule someone gave us) gave the whole activity a much more personal and welcoming touch, I can say that by having the freedom of scheduling the professors we gained much more responsability in the activity in order to make it happen and preparing ourselves with the readings.
In this page you won't find every detail of every essay we read, but rather as a way to bring closure and document the activities I wanted to state at least a couple of major lessons that I learned from each dialogue. If you click on the professor's image you may have access to the article (not all of them have the article though so if you click and nothing happens it's normal).
1. Any work of art is complex because like any Complex Adaptive System the artist makes use of rules while relying on his Knowledge and insight that he has evolved through feedback from his audience and other artists.
2. Through encountering artistic works that are intellectually challenging due to their complexity the brain is forced to make connections that it woudln't otherwise make (making the person smarter)
3. The arts are of a spontaneous order similar to that of a CAS in that they use abstract rules, are complex, decentralized, and acheive coordination through feedback.
Troy Camplin
The Spontaneous Order of the Arts
1. Richard Ebellin compares and contrasts the change in freedom that the world used to enjoy before the World Wars. Before them people used to be able to travel without a passport and without the fear of being called up for war or losing a loved one on any one night. When the wars came countries became much more reserved to engage in world participation and a sort of paternalism and protectionism on hebalf of the government of most countries took place. Ebellin also descirbes how this changes in the world influenced the paradigm of how we see society and of whom it is conformed, for now people would think of each other in terms of countries and in terms of the masses.
Richard Ebellin
Before Modern Collectivism
1. The most important lesson I learned with Robert Garnett was on the improtance of descentralizing the source of learing in a classroom environment. Garnett uses Parker Palmer's diagrams to illustrate a classroom with a teacher at the front and students lined up through the area versus a class where students and teachers sit at the same level in a socratic circle. The amount of connections and exchange that occurs in this second environment doesn't even compare to that of the third where all of the "on-the-spot" knowledge of each student was simply disregarded and no exchenge really occured amont the different players in the system.
Robert Garnett
Hayek and Liberal Pedagogy
I really liked our dialogue with Burt Fulsom where we analyzed the critical role that historians have had in the perception of entrepreneurship in the United Stated. Fulsom accounts specifically for those who were called "the robber barons" and he tells their stories and parallel to their stories the twists and malversions of these stories that many historians have had over the years. The most ironic part falls in that many of the claims that are true are actually beneficial for "the common good" and simply for society in general since the businesses of these people generated wealth and employment. However they have been portrayed as selfish monsters, and unfortunately such behaviours of entrepreneurship are frowned upon in many places around the world.
"Studying the rise of big business, for example, is important because it is the sotyr of how the United States prospered and became a world power."
Burt Fulsom
Entrepreneurs versus Historians
1. Perhaps the most important lesson that I learned from the dialogue with Mrs. Vaughn was that we don't have such an efficient feedback system in political and social institutions as we do for the market with the price system. I had this question ligner in my mind ever since we asked one of a similar nature in the Start Up cities institute conference.
Karen Vaughn
Hayek, Equilibrium and the role of Institutions in Economic Order
1. In Carroll's first article she tells about James Buchanan's visit to Guatemala and UFM, and in the ther two she is responding to another article that tried to make a criticism of the Public Choice Methodology (though he calls it a theory).
2. Public Choice simply explains how those who govern are fallible human beings just like the ones being governed. They will seek to satisfy their interests in the best means they can attain, and though perhaps not all of them are corrupt none fit the scheme of "The Noble" man seeking out to help society above all (because indirectly that person is seeking out for things that interest him).
Carroll Ríos de Rodríguez
James Buchanan en Guatemala y
Una Defensa del Análisis Económico de las Decisiones Públicas
1. In order to manipulate someone it's essential that the person believes that the ideas, feelings, thoughts, and decisions are his, taken by him voluntarily.
2. The use of an elevated diction, generalizations, and other techniques facilitate the manipulation of another.
3. There is Manipulation, which stems from persuasion and the attempt to control something or someone with premises rooted in the future. While there's also Convincenment which gives rise to Argumentation and speciallizes in the past to get its facts from.
Anton Tursinov
El Poder Coercitivo de la Manipulación en los Discursos Propagandísticos
La Manipulación en la Comunicación
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