Listen now | This week’s episode is a throwback to 2015, when Daniel Kaufman, professor of philosophy at Missouri State University, editor of the online magazine the Electric Agora, and (at that time) a mainstay on bloggingheads.tv and meaningoflife.tv, invited me onto his show
Thank you to both professors, this informative conversation (I learned a lot of new ways to think about economics) ends in its last few minutes in turf familiar to me. I offer this wonderful video, https://youtu.be/DOfEu2zqrkQ, brought to my attention in a DIR Floortime training last year, that shows what amazing support from a parent to a child looks like. Circles of communication, beautifully demonstrated here between parent and child, show the core relationship skills needed to nurture a healthy human being. Multiple factors matter, but when the child initiates an encounter with the parent/caregiver, who effectively responds to the child's invitation to engage, it interests the child to keep the circle of engagement flowing. This back and forth flow, with the adult responding to the child's cues, and not vice versa, is key in building healthy relationship which can be measured in the laboratory (Strange Situation) in classifications of attachment. A securely attached child, and there are multiple levels, leads a far more predictably successful life because their capacity to be emotionally resilient was hard wired into the brain early on, when the brain is most plastic. In short, life is easier for the securely attached human. And, a parent/caregiver needs to hit the mark only 60% of the time for a child's needs to be healthfully and securely met.
Prof. Loury speaks here about the need for patience. Prof. Kaufman speaks about a generation of medicated students. A former classmate left her career as a therapist to apply the same therapy skillsets to the tech business world, so she could amass her own fortune to create a 40 year study of infants and development, because most foundations will only fund 4-6 year studies. It's not rocket science, but time and a willingness to slow down and develop deep relationships early on could change the world.
Rational actors. Have you heard about nudging which apparently the Brits have gone into big time. If people are not rational actors then they need to be “nudged” to make the “right” choices. Who is doing the nudging - governments. Assuming people are rational actors promotes a free society. We know what happens when you don’t - covid policies for example.
Reading Karl Popper on the nature of science and morality should aid this discussion. Some quotes from him:
In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable;
and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.
[Me: Important too for political statements and those about economics and culture.]
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt
a rational attitude.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
In my view, aiming at simplicity and lucidity is a moral duty of all intellectuals: lack of clarity is sin, and pretentiousness is a crime.
If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
The moral decisions of others should be treated with respect, as long as such decisions do not conflict with the principle of tolerance.
Philosophy is a necessary activity because we, all of us, take a great number of things for granted, and many of these assumptions are of a philosophical character; we act on them in private life, in politics, in our work, and in every other sphere of our lives -- but while some of these assumptions are no doubt true, it is likely, that more are false and some are harmful. So the critical examination of our presuppositions -- which is a philosophical activity -- is morally as well as intellectually important.
Thank you to both professors, this informative conversation (I learned a lot of new ways to think about economics) ends in its last few minutes in turf familiar to me. I offer this wonderful video, https://youtu.be/DOfEu2zqrkQ, brought to my attention in a DIR Floortime training last year, that shows what amazing support from a parent to a child looks like. Circles of communication, beautifully demonstrated here between parent and child, show the core relationship skills needed to nurture a healthy human being. Multiple factors matter, but when the child initiates an encounter with the parent/caregiver, who effectively responds to the child's invitation to engage, it interests the child to keep the circle of engagement flowing. This back and forth flow, with the adult responding to the child's cues, and not vice versa, is key in building healthy relationship which can be measured in the laboratory (Strange Situation) in classifications of attachment. A securely attached child, and there are multiple levels, leads a far more predictably successful life because their capacity to be emotionally resilient was hard wired into the brain early on, when the brain is most plastic. In short, life is easier for the securely attached human. And, a parent/caregiver needs to hit the mark only 60% of the time for a child's needs to be healthfully and securely met.
Prof. Loury speaks here about the need for patience. Prof. Kaufman speaks about a generation of medicated students. A former classmate left her career as a therapist to apply the same therapy skillsets to the tech business world, so she could amass her own fortune to create a 40 year study of infants and development, because most foundations will only fund 4-6 year studies. It's not rocket science, but time and a willingness to slow down and develop deep relationships early on could change the world.
Rational actors. Have you heard about nudging which apparently the Brits have gone into big time. If people are not rational actors then they need to be “nudged” to make the “right” choices. Who is doing the nudging - governments. Assuming people are rational actors promotes a free society. We know what happens when you don’t - covid policies for example.
Reading Karl Popper on the nature of science and morality should aid this discussion. Some quotes from him:
In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable;
and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.
[Me: Important too for political statements and those about economics and culture.]
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt
a rational attitude.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
In my view, aiming at simplicity and lucidity is a moral duty of all intellectuals: lack of clarity is sin, and pretentiousness is a crime.
If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
The moral decisions of others should be treated with respect, as long as such decisions do not conflict with the principle of tolerance.
Philosophy is a necessary activity because we, all of us, take a great number of things for granted, and many of these assumptions are of a philosophical character; we act on them in private life, in politics, in our work, and in every other sphere of our lives -- but while some of these assumptions are no doubt true, it is likely, that more are false and some are harmful. So the critical examination of our presuppositions -- which is a philosophical activity -- is morally as well as intellectually important.
Small world. My grandfather was the head football coach at Missouri State.
https://missouristatebears.com/honors/msu-athletics-hall-of-fame/jesse-branch/274