a state of geographic separation from other people and places
isolation is caused by geographic barriers
note that isolated areas may have isolated regions within themselves
isolation creates regions
Regions
definition = areas of something in common,
defined by:
geography/ movement, which defines:
language, religion, culture, etc.
political control
regions contain sub-regions and sub-regions to that:
USA = East coast, Midwest, West Coast, South, New England, etc.
Natural Resources
details
Climate
details
Causality
study or understanding of why things happen or not
causality can be complex and misleading
students may evaluate causes, agents, and events for historical comprehension
see section on agents, triggers & catalysts
below for terms associated with causality
Correlation v. causation
correlation = associated events, generally at or around the same time
correlation does not mean causality
ex. "I washed the car, so it rained the next day."
superstitions are frequently derived from a confusion between correlation and causation
rationalization is a form of misallocation of correlation for cause:
ex., if a student gets a low grade:
"It's my teacher's fault" or
"Well, I didn't have time to study, anyway"
= placing blame on something that did not cause the outcome of the low grade
example:
in the woods, Puck, a dog, ate a bull frog whole
he seemed fine, so the owner put him in his cage in the cabin for the night
in the middle of the night, he started foaming at the mouth, until eventually throwing up the half-digested frog
from then on, Puck refused to sleep in the cage -- and never stopped chasing and trying to eat bull frogs
Types of causes
Direct cause
the closest cause to an event
the cause that triggers an event
Indirect cause
a cause that contributes to an event or outcome but is not directly related to it
may be a "necessary clause" but not necessarily
Long term cause
similar to a "ultimate cause," but encompassing other causes more closely related to an event or condition
Proximate cause
same as "sufficient" cause
especially in a legal context, identical to "sufficient cause"
in the Social Studies, proximate causes are often confused with "short term" cause
Short or near term cause
similar to "direct cause," but encompassing other causes more closely related to an event or condition
synonymous with "proximate cause"
Ultimate cause
similar to long term cause, but indicates a "necessary cause"
i.e., it is necessary that this cause exists, but it is not "sufficient" to trigger the outcome
Causality chain
causality can be very complex, inter-woven and inter-connected
we can think of causality as a "chain"
Agency, catalysts, triggers & constraints
= things that contribute to, facilitate, or make or things happen (or not)
"agency" comes from PIE root *ag- meaning "to drive, draw out, move"
thus act, action, agent, agency = something happening or making something happen
Agent / agency
active causes for events (or non-events)
generally deliberate
"agent" = someone who makes something happen, such as:
"travel agents" make travel happen, "secret agents" make secrets/spying happen
see "human agency" below
Catalyst
similar to an agent but may not be deliberate
more like a condition that creates or facilitates change
think of use of "catalyst" in science: an element that causes a reaction
Trigger
a specific event or condition that directly causes something to happen
associated with "direct cause"
not necessarily deliberate
such as, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists triggered World War I"
Constraint
whereas outcomes are shaped by agency, catalysts, and triggers,
constraints always exist and shape outcomes
"constraint" =
con- (with) +*strain (bound, pulled together)
thus "with limits"
Necessary v. sufficient causes
necessary cause
= something that must happen in order for an event or outcome to happen...
but the event or outcome did not have to happen because of that necessary cause
in other words, a necessary cause does not alone make an event or outcome happen
but the necessary cause must be present for that event or outcome to happen
a necessary cause may exist but that does not mean the event or outcome had to happen
sufficient cause
= something without which an event or outcome would not have happened
in other words, the event does not happen without the sufficient cause
Necessary v. sufficient causes example
EVENT
NECESSARY CAUSE
SUFFICIENT CAUSE
I mowed the lawn last Tuesday
I have a lawn w/ grass
the grass was high
my lawn mower works & has gas
my wife complained about the grass getting too high
all these causes are "necessary" but not "sufficient" for the outcome to happen that I mowed the lawn last Tuesday
all of these causes could still be present (especially the wife complaining about the grass) but didn't unto themselves cause the lawn to be mowed last Tuesday
it was Tuesday
I went to the shed, got out the mower
It started it and it worked properly
I completed mowing the lawn
without these events the lawn would not have been cut last Tuesday
goal scored in a soccer game from an assist
both players in game
1st player makes an assist
without the assist, the goal shot couild not be taken
therefore, the assist is a necessary cause
the assist alone is not sufficient for the goal
2nd player receives the assist and scores the goal
the "sufficiency" here is that without the successful shot on goal no goal would be made
Logical sufficiency
given the statement, "John is a batchelor"
since it is necessary for each statement that John be male, knowing that "John is a batchelor" informs us that John is a male, unmarried, and an adult
however, this sufficiency does not exclude other conclusions outside of that
Other causality terminology
Connection
Effect
collateral effect
Mono-causality v. multi-causality
mono-causality = a single or dominant cause (simple)
multi-causality = multiple causes (complex)
Motive
motives are frequently behind agency, catalysts and triggers
historical literacy is enhanced by understanding motives
a fundamental question to ask over any historical situaetion or decision is cui bono.
= who benefits?
the benefits can be of various kinds
political
monetary
position
or it may be "altruistic" which means for the benefit of another
Unintended consequence
when an expected outcome yields additional, unexpected and/or unpredicted outcomes
those outcomes may be positive or negative
frequently historical choice is made that causes a different outcome than that expected by the actors or agents
ex. Some French aristocrats early on supported the French Revolution but themselves became victims of it.
a problem of the unknown unknowns
what is expected may happen
but the unexpected was not expected = unintended consequence
Why the cat died last night: an exercise in causality
"packages" are useful for students to understand distinctions in historical places, eras, and outcomes
ex., the industrialization "package" of the 1870's United States included the Civil War, immigration, laissez-faire governance, plentiful resources, etc.,
whereas the industrialization "package" of 1870s India included plentiful resources, high population, British governance and colonial resource manipulation,
thereby India did not industrialize in the 1870s the same way as did the U.S.
Regression analysis
contingencies can be revealed and understood by "regression analysis"
= extracting variables to identify causality
in the discipline of History, it is an intellectual exercise, since we can't change events
sometimes called "counter-factual" or "historical fiction" ("what if?" type scenarios)
however, it's illuminating to consider and evaluate different variables that create historical contingencies and actual outcomes
Path dependencies
also called "pathway dependencies"
using contingency, we see that set conditions define available choices
we also see that those choices are constrained by those conditions
i.e., an isolated agrarian society cannot simply choose to industrialize if the conditions for industrialization are not present
that society can engage in a series of choices that might create those conditions over time
however, sometimes even available choices are not present not because while those choices might seem available "path dependencies" inherently limit them
ex., early United States could have chosen to abolish slavery as that choice was articulated and available
however, the early US suffered from a "path dependency" in the constitutional relationship between the slave and free states that prevented that choice from being taken
instead, the choices taken ultimate led to civil war
path dependencies shape decisions in a form of a circular argument:
ex., "we cannot increase food production because we don't have enough food to provide for workers to increase irrigation that would lead to higher food production"
Contingency Traps
Contingency Fallacy
an error of historical interpretation through the lens of the present
i.e., one's understanding of the past is shaped around conditions and perspectives that accord to the present but are not valid in interpreting the past
Contingency Trap
by failing to consider the nature of a contemporaneous past (i.e., how and why things were at the time),
modern points of view fail to appreciate the conditions and choices that led to their own modern, contemporaneous conditions and the choices they face.
the "trap" occurs by negating the value of an historical moment while failing to identify that event as necessary and sufficient for the present day
"It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own."
the idea that
to attain power a dictator must have access to free speech (press, publicity, etc.)
but to maintain power, a dictator must shut down free speech (of opponents)
an ultimate effect is that by prohibiting speech and dissent, the dictator also
reduces access to information from which to guide policies and hold on power
generates resentment and hostility
Grandfather paradox
the idea that time travelers who changes the past may erase their own future lives, thus themselves
was expressed in 1931 in a reader letter to a science fiction magazine that discussed:
"the age-old argument of preventing your birth by killing your grandparents"
Tyrants paradox
local leaders are chosen by the dominant power
but do not have support of local population
as opposed to "subsidiary" = local control, which has greater access to local information
Utopia paradox
the idea that what happened in the past could or should have been different
the fallacy occurs from transposing (switching upon) present-day outlook upon the past
i.e. measuring or defining the past historical values, conditions and choices with present-day values, conditions and choices
would these historical actors be satisfied with conditions of today?
if so, what would they have done differently
aside from its impossibility, the Utopia paradox misunderstands history:
by confusing what actually happened with what the observer wishes had happened
note that study of contingency helps avoid the Utopia paradox:
by studying conditions and choices based upon those conditions ("contingency") we can better understand both the present and past worlds
Effects
Proximate Effects
Ultimate Effects
Causal Effects
Minor Effects
Inverse Effects
Unexpected consequence
Externalities
Time, change & continuity
measurement of time
in history, time is both linear and relative
i.e., common cycles & conditions may occur at different times in different places
each measures itself
peoples across history measure time via
sun, seasons, moon cycles, weather, and leaders or dynasties
modern measurement of time
B.C. or B.C.E.
A.D. or C.E.
B.P.
Stability
humans crave stability and predictability
people do not like uncertainty
religions, institutions & other social structures are designed to manage uncertainty
societies change or don't change according to events or conditions
agents of change include:
cultural diffusion
climate
food supply (impacted by climate and cultural diffusion)
population (impacted by food supply)
technologies (impacted by climate and spread by cultural diffusion)
Historical technological advance that enhanced cultural diffusion
Writing
Hammurabi's Code
Telegraph, Radio & TV
1909: President Taft using telegraph to launch NYC automobile race
1922: President Harding gave the first presidential address via radio
Harding's dedication to a Baltimore memorial to Francis Scott Key was broadcast via radio
Historical technological advance that enhanced cultural diffusion
Writing =
Hammurabi's Code
Telegraph, Radio & TV
1909: President Taft using telegraph to launch NYC automobile race
1922: President Harding gave the first presidential address via radio
Harding's dedication to a Baltimore memorial to Francis Scott Key was broadcast via radio
Cultural diffusion as historical agent
mixing of cultures, technologies, language, relgion, etc.
Do the conquerors conquer the conquered or do the conquered conquer the conquerors?, examples:
Mongol conquerors of China became Chinese (Yuan Empire)
Turk invaders of Anatolia became Muslim
Norman invaders of England became English
Ptolemaic (Greek) rulers of Egypt
Comparison
Distribution of Power
a measurement of how societies "distribute" or organize sources and applications of power
"power" may be considered any application of force or coercion or structure that achieves the same
examples,
policing = power to enforce laws
a state religion would create a possibly coercive structure to which members of that society belong
"narrow distribution" of power = centralized governance
may include
monarchy, tyranny, totatalitarian, etc.
"wide distribution" of power = decentralized governance
may include:
republic, democracy, anarchy (absence of governance)
typical of groups of city states
(although individual city states may have highly centralized rule)
no society is all one or the other
even anarchy essentially distributes power to the individual level, which may be coercive at that level
even a totalitarian society may allow for family units which govern themselves or religious freedoms
see "Social Organization" above
Centralized v decentralized systems
Centralized
Decentralized
Incentive compatibility
incentives for elites only, so little compatability between general incentives and results
incentives for positive behaviors increase as their rewards are more widely distributed and available across society
Certainty, stability
higher stability, predictabilty
less stable, subject to change
Risk-taking
low incentives for risk-taking unless organized centrally
higher incentives for risk-taking
Rents (taxes, profits, benefits of economic activity)
flows up to and contained to elites
spreads across society
Wealth
Competition
less competition leads to less innovation
more competition leads to more innovation
Decision making
orderly, contained to elites
more input, can lead to disagreement but also more effective communication and persuasion
Relation to state
subject
citizen
Relation to one another
heirarchical
distributed (to various degrees, or across social structures)
Cooperation
forced, less incentive outside of compulsory behaviors
incentives for cooperation through cooperative rewards
Overall benefits
orderly society, less change, political stability, can manage disagreement and protect minorities
innovation (economically, politically, institutionally), broader benefits for citizen cooperation
Overall challenges
less innovation, inability to adapt to external change
less stable, susceptible to charismatic leadership; minorities unprotected
political dissent
those disenfranchised by disparate distributions of power may seek alternative forms of expressing dissent or confronting larger powers
asymmetric warfare
when access to "levers" or instruments of power, the disenfranchised may seek alternative forms of engaging or participating in the larger society, including
isolation
resistance
uncooperation or other passive resistance
active or violent resistance
coalition building
Heckler's veto
disruptions of events and political advocacy deliberately intended to shut them down
ex. A threat is called in to an arena where a speech is to take place, and the venue is shut down, resulting in a "veto" of that speech, as it was not given as a result of the threat
Revolution paradox
Tocqueville observed "that the most dangerous time for a bad government is usually when it begins to reform."
from "The Old Regime and the Revolution" (1856)
see below for the "Tocqueville effect"
Thucydides Trap
Tocqueville effect
or "Tocqueville paradox"
Alexis de Tocqueville noted that
"The hatred that men bear to privilege increases in proportion as privileges become fewer and less considerable, so that democratic passions would seem to burn most fiercely just when they have least fuel. I have already given the reason for this phenomenon. When all conditions are unequal, no inequality is so great as to offend the eye, whereas the slightest dissimilarity is odious in the midst of general uniformity; the more complete this uniformity is, the more insupportable the sight of such a difference becomes. Hence it is natural that the love of equality should constantly increase together with equality itself, and that it should grow by what it feeds on."
- Tocqueville, Alexis de (1840). "Chapter III: That the sentiments of democratic nations accord with their opinions in leading them to concentrate political power". Democracy in America
The "Tocqueville effect" occurs when marginal portions of society gain economic and/or political power and their demands for reform increase, along with attacks on the established order upon which the greater equality arose.
>> todo: bring in Mancur Olson and Theory of Groups >> see wiki entry Mancur Olson about how interests tend to coalesce over time and focus on protection of gains, stifling innovation... organizations become "congealed" (from "How Phil Falcone Was LightSnared" WSJ, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. 2/18/2012) and resist competition and protect the status quo.
Easterlin paradox
similarly to Tocqueville's observations, in 1974 Univ Penn Professor Richard Easterlin noted that the growth in (gross, or overall, national) happiness tends to diverge from growth in economic wealth. Whereas overall growth in happiness parallels economic growth in initial stages, as
an explanation for the effect is "social comparison," which states that people take a relativistic and not absolute view of their individual wealth or position in society:
i.e., people do not view their personal wealth in terms of what it actually is ("absolute")
and instead view is in comparison to others ("relative")
Economic disparity
a measure of disparities in income distribution across an economic unit or country
i.e., the extent to which income is distributed equally or unequally
ex. high economic dispary means that a small percentage of a country controls a high percentage of that country's assets or economic activity
while a certain segment of a population may control a significant portion of assets, it may not also constitute a disproportionate amount of economic activity
government dispersals of or redistribution of income may hide underlying economic disparities in standards of living, purchasing power, etc.
Order & Chaos
see below for certainty v uncertainty
order = certainty
chaos = uncertainty
Order
social structures are primarily designed to bring stability to human interactions
order advantages
stability
predictability
especially for commerce, food supply, peaceful existence
order disadvantages:
inequities inherent in any large social structure
inability to self-correct
consequences of too much order:
lack of feedback and information
dissolution and atrophy
systems decline, can't adjust to change
may lead to unintended negative consequences
Chaos
chaos is either cause or effect of change
chaos as "change agent"
benefits of chaos:
correction
challenging inequities or inefficiencies in an overly-structured system
ideal balance of order & chaos
healthy systems combine elements of both
creating predictability and stability
while mitigating harms of overly structured system
feedback and self-adjustment without a need for drastic change
Thomas Jefferson idea of generational revolution
Jefferson believed that each generation required a renewal from the prior
>> source to do
Certainty v. Uncertainty
humans dislike change
humans fear the unknown
humans yearn for predictability
Known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns
During the Iraq War, US Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld famously explained to the press that it's not the "known knowns" or even the "known unknowns" that worry him, it's the "unknown unknowns" that he's worried about
humans hate uncertainty, and so plan for "contingencies" (possibilities) and structure their societies and lives around "mitigating" uncertainty
ex. building dikes in case of flooding, or aqueducts in case of drought
however, they cannot plan for what they do not expect
"Absence of evidence is not evidence"
the 19th century historian William Wright first coined the expression, “Absence of evidence is not evidence,”
20th century scientist Carl Sagan turned the expression more fully into "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
"black swan" events
black swan events are unforeseen events that come without warning and without general observation of their approach
black swan events may include economic collapse (2007 mortgage crisis) or sudden war
as well as non-man controlled events such as meteors, volcanoes, and major weather events
Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" for analysis of human fear of uncertainty
Click EXPAND for excerpts from Leviathan on uncertainty:
Only the present has an existence in nature; things past exist in the memory only; and future things don’t exist at all, because the future is just a fiction of the mind, arrived at by noting the consequences that have ensued from past actions and assuming that similar present actions will have similar consequences (an assumption that pushes us forward into the supposed future). This kind of extrapolation is done the most securely by the person who has the most experience, but even then not with complete security. And though it is called ‘prudence’ when the outcome is as we expected, it is in its own nature a mere presumption.
from Leviathan, Chapter 3, "Train of Imaginations"
and
Anxiety regarding the future inclines men to investigate the causes of things; because knowledge of causes enables men to make a better job of managing the present to their best advantage. Curiosity, or love of the knowledge of causes, draws a man from consideration of the effect to seek the cause, and then for the cause of that cause, and so on backwards until finally he is forced to have the thought that there is some cause that had no previous cause, but is eternal; this being what men call ‘God’.
from Leviathan, Chapter 11, "The Difference of Manners"
Calendar & Astrology
tracking time, seasons, and years brought stability and predictability
especially for seasonally dependent activities such as trade, farming, and warfare
Astrology, or the study of the position of the stars
= method of tracking time and seasons
led to advances in navigation and mathematics
see below for importance of the Winter Soltice
Divine intervention & explanations for events
the Winter Solstice (Dec 21/22) marks the sun's lowest trajectory in the northern hemisphere
why is this important?
that the sun has descended and that it will commence its rise again to higher points in the sky
= rebirth, a new start = celebration and deep life-cycle significance
At the Battle of Marathon (Greeks v. Persians), the Athenian commander (War Archon) Callimachus promised to sacrifice a kid (baby goat) to the goddess of the hunt, Artemis. Having killed 6,400 Persians, the Athenians had to kill 500 goats a year in her honor for more than a decade. (source: "The Greco-Persian Wars" by Peter Green; p. 32)
after losing ships to a storm prior to the battle of Thermopylae, Persian king Xerxes ordered his Magi to placate the weather with offerings and spells; the storm subsided
Herodotus, the first Greek historian, noted, "or, of course, it may just be that the wind dropped naturally" ("The Greco-Persian Wars" by Peter Green; p. 124)
Babylonian king Hammurabi wrote on Hammurabi's Code that the laws were given to him by his gods in order to protect the people he ruled (divine justification)
in ancient world outcomes were explained by divine intervention
victors in war or power struggles were thought to have been selected by gods (divine choice)
social = culture, religion, education, entertainment
political = governance
For educational purposes only ** do not distribute **
In "Guns, Germs & Steel," Jared Diamond analyzed social organization by type and characteristics
his chart serves a very useful comparative tool
especially for measuring social organization over time and place
Dunbar's number:
"Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person"
from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number Dunbar's Number (wiki)]]
Social, Political and Economic Structures
Government
Economy
Social Structures
social classes
identity
religion
family
gender
citizenship v. subject
sources:
Political Efficacy
concept
definitions
internal
external
utility
Machiavelli on the political efficacy from "Discourses on Livy":
NOTE: Machiavelli did not use this term
"Whoever undertakes to govern a people under the form of either republic or monarchy, without making sure of those who are opposed to this new order of things, establishes a government of very brief duration. It is true that I regard as unfortunate those princes who, to assure their government to which the mass of the people is hostile, are obliged to resort to extraordinary measures; for he who has but a few enemies can easily make sure of them without great scandal, but he who has the masses hostile to him can never make sure of them, and the more cruelty he employs the feebler will his authority become; so that his best remedy is to try and secure the good will of the people."
Source: Machiavelli, Niccolo; Burnham, James; Detmold, Christian E. (2010-11-25). Discourses on Livy (with a study by James Burnham) by Niccolo Machiavelli, Christian E. Detmold, James Burnham.
From Discourses on Livy, CHAPTER XVI
select expand to see quotation
Human agency & leadership
an element of contingency, choice, represents "human agency"
"agent" = a causal element, i.e., that makes things happen
thus "human agency" = the choice and actions of people in historical events and outcomes
while organizations, conditions, structures, geography, etc. largely shape historical conditions and outcomes
human agency, or choice and actions, is how history happens
thus "leadership" is as important as structures
however, human agency is limited by available choice
i.e., leaders of an inland country, say Mongolia, will not likely choose or be able to create a maritime empire
instead, effective leadership did organize Mongolia into a land-based empire using existing structural elements of Mongolian geography, economy, and culture
then, using that land-based power, the Mongols conquered China, established the Yuan Dynasty, and used Chinese structures and culture to build a maritime power.
i.e., what a society agrees upon as commonly expected
etymology (word origin):
from Old French estandardfor fpr "to stand hard", as in fixed
derived from Latin extendere" for "to extend" and applied to an "upright pole"
applied to a flag, a "standard" represents an army or people
standardize (verb)
means to make in common or in common agreement
standardization (noun) = in the state of being standardized; action of creating common agreement
purpose of standardization
standards are a key element of creating rule, sovereignty and/or unity
especially across large distances
when a people agree upon something, it is "standard"
forms of standardization include:0
language, laws, money, religion, social customs, weights and measures, writing
effects of standardization include:
economic activity (trade), social and political organization, unity
rule, power, especially in the sense of enforcing standards
the below will review these different forms and purposes of standards and standardization
law
may be by
consensus
tradition
statutes (legal codes)
key to functional law are coopration and enforcement
as well as equitable application
money
“Money can be anything that the parties agree is tradable” (Wikipedia)
notes to do:
money & trade
trade =
geography
movement
scarcity/surplus
technology
technological and cultural diffusion
history of money
“I understand the history of money. When I get some, it's soon history.”
money must be:
scarce
too much money reduces its value
inflation results from oversupply of money
or corruption or devaluation of money
see Latin expression: void ab initio
= fraud from the beginning taints everything the follows
transportable
ex. Micronesians used a currency of large limestone coins...9-12ft diameter, several tons... put them outside the houses.. great prestige... but they weren’t transportable, so tokens were created to represent them, or parts of them... Tokens = promises
authentic
not easily counterfeited (fraudulently copied)
trusted
government sanction
permanent
problem with barter of plants and animals is perishability
i.e., fruit and goats can be traded, but fruit goes bad and goats die
early non-coinage forms of money:
sea shells
which are scarce (rare), authentic, visually attractive (pretty)
cattle
crops/ herbs/ spices
especially specialty crops, such as spices
such as pepper, which is dried and therefore transportable and non-perishable
gems, gold, rare minerals
measured by weight
modern period money forms:
during Age of Discovery (15th-17th centuries) rum became currency
18th century Virginia, tobacco became money
in prisons or prisoner of war camps, cigarettes have become currency,
history of Coinage
starts with the “touchstone”
= a stone that can be rubbed to measure its purity (trust, value)
>> to do:
Phoenicians: created currency
Representative Money: paper money = coin value
Fiat money = backed by a promise only
weights and measures
writing
> create new page for writing
power of writing
from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel", p 30:
Another chain of causation led from food production to writing, possibly the most important single invention of the last few thousand years (Chapter 12). Writing has evolved de novo only a few times in human history, in areas that had been the earliest sites of the rise of food production in their respective regions. All other societies that have become literate did so by the diffusion of writing systems or of the idea of writing from one of those few primary centers. Hence, for the student of world history, the phenomenon of writing is particularly useful for exploring another important constellation of causes: geography's effect on the ease with which ideas and inventions spread.
and, regarding his analysis of the Spanish conquest of the Inca, p. 81:
Why weren't the Incas the ones to invent guns and steel swords, to be mounted on animals as fearsome as horses, to bear diseases to which European lacked resistance, to develop oceangoing ships and advanced political organization, and to be able to draw on the experience of thousands of years of written history?
from "An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru" by the Incan prince, Titu Cusi (who learned and wrote the book in Spanish), on some of the first Incan encounters with the Spanish:
we have witnessed with our own eyes that they talk to white cloths by themselves and that they call some of us by our names without having been informed by anyone and only by looking into the sheets, which they hold in front of them.
Culture and Cultural & Technological Achievements
details
sources:
Historical sources & methods
tools and techniques to study history
types of historical evidence
archeological evidence:
remains (bones, fossilized human, animal, insect remains with DNA)
carbon-material for dating
primary source
historical evidence created by the historical actors or at the time
i.e., contemporaneous = "of the time"
eye-witness testimony
contemporaneous interviews or accounts, such as:
newspaper reports of eye-witness accounts
diaries
personal letters
court testimony
oral history
interviewing someone about their personal experiences in the past
may involve selective or inaccurate memory
other original documents, including:
official papers
newspapers
secondary source
historical evidence created by non-participant observers
could be contemporaneous or historical
an "indirect witness" would be someone who lived at the time but did not directly participate in the event
techniques to evaluate historical documents
OPVL
Origin
Purpose
Value
Limitation
HAPP-y
Historical context
Audience
Purpose
Point of view
y = just to make the acronym "HAPPy" complete
Historiography
= the study of how history is studied
Historiographic schools
Bias in study or writing of history
confirmation bias
see Confirmation bias
editorial bias
hagiography
biography that idealizes the subject
from Greek for writing about saints
political bias
note: application of a particular historiographic techniques does not imply a bias
although it could have bias in the work
see Historiography section
archeology & other historical evidence
>> to do
Economics
Comparative Advantage
Definition: A particular economic advantage, resource or ability a country possesses over either its own other economic situations or those of another country.
the term "comparative advantage" was
origin of the idea:
late 1700s Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790)
click EXPAND for Adam Smith quotation on "absolute advantage":
''If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it off them with some part of the produce of our own industry employed in a way in which we have some advantage. The general industry of the country, being always in proportion to the capital which employs it, will not thereby be diminished ... but only left to find out the way in which it can be employed with the greatest advantage.'' (Book IV, Section ii, 12)
Comparative advantage means concentrating on what your country is good at making/doing in order to get what other countries are better at making/doing."
early 19th century British economist David Ricardo (1772-1823):
argued for specialization as basis for national wealth and increased trade
= laissez-faire, free-trade
related comparative advantage to the concept of "opportunity cost"
i.e. what is lost by not engaging in an activity
Ricardo argued that it would be more costly to for country A to attempt to produce something that country B can more efficiently create than to focus on what that country A itself does better (its comparative advantage) and simply purchase the other goods from country B
and by doing so, both country A and B will benefit from the trade
click EXPAND for David Ricardo's quotation on comparative advantage:
it would undoubtedly be advantageous to the capitalists [and consumers] of England… [that] the wine and cloth should both be made in Portugal [and that] the capital and labour of England employed in making cloth should be removed to Portugal for that purpose.
British colonizer of Australia and economist Robert Torrens independently developed the idea of comparative advantage
click EXPAND for Robert Torrens' quotation on comparative advantage from 1808:
''if I wish to know the extent of the advantage, which arises to England, from her giving France a hundred pounds of broadcloth, in exchange for a hundred pounds of lace, I take the quantity of lace which she has acquired by this transaction, and compare it with the quantity which she might, at the same expense of labour and capital, have acquired by manufacturing it at home. The lace that remains, beyond what the labour and capital employed on the cloth, might have fabricated at home, is the amount of the advantage which England derives from the exchange.''
Examples:
Is it advantageous for the U.S. to import oil from Saudi Arabia or to rely only on its own oil production?
see New Yorker article on subject Dec/ 2010 >> to confirm
Lucas critique
Univ. of Chicago professor Robert Lucas "critiqued" (criticized) macroeconomic theories or models that describe large-scale systems, especially as drawn from "aggregated data" (accumulated) won't impact individual choices or behaviors, or those individual choices and behaviors won't change
in other words, macroeconomic models fail to account for micro-economic or individual behaviors
the utility of the Lucas critique is to point out that policy makes often fail to recognize that individuals make rational decisions that macroeconomic forecasting cannot account for.
Milton Friedman's "Four ways to spend money"
late 20th century Economist Milton famously defined the "Four ways to spend money" (paraphrased, not original quotation):
You spend your money on yourself
You spend someone else's money on yourself
Someone else spends their money on on you
Someone else spends someone else's money on someone else
click EXPAND to see the implications of the Four ways to spend money
• Table format
Whose money is spent by whom
Money is spent on whom
Efficiency of Outcome
You spend your money...
on yourself
seek highest value
with lowest cost
= maximum efficiency
You spend someone else's money...
on yourself
seek highest value
no concern for cost
= lower efficiency
Someone spends their money...
on you
seek lowest cost
no concern for quality
= lower efficiency
Someone else spends someone else's money...
on someone else
no concern for cost
no concern for quality
= lowest efficiency
Opportunity Cost
definition: The value of the next best choice one had when making a decision.
i.e., the trade-off of a decision.
Opportunity cost is a way of measuring your decisions: if I do this, would having done something else been more or less expensive? What did I give up in my decision?
Frederic Bastiat developed the "Parable of the broken window" to express the concept
known as the "Broken Window Fallacy*" or the "Glazier's Fallacy"
(* not to be confused with "Broken Windows Theory")
from his essay, "Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas" ("What is seen and what is not seen")
the parable discusses the "unseen" costs of fixing a broken window
even though the broken window provides benefit to a "glazier" makes money fixing it
the shopkeeper suffers the "unseen" costs of not being to do something else with that money
additionally, the opportunities to fix broken windows may create an "unintended consequence" of a "perverse incentive" for glaziers to go about breaking windows in order to make money fixing them
click EXPAND for a review of Bastiat's theory of "opportunity cost" and associated concepts of "unintended consequences" and "perverse incentives"
Parable of the broken window
a shopkeeper has a careless son breaks a window
his neighbors argue that broken windows keep "glaziers" (window-makers) in business
if it costs 6 francs to fix, they argue, the money spent on the window is productive, as it goes to the glaziers
Bastiat replies that, yes, money has thus circulated, but "it takes no account of what is not seen" (ce qu'on ne voit pas)
the shopkeeper can't spend those 6 francs on something else of his choosing
or, perhaps, he has another need for 6 francs that he can not now fix
therefore the accident of the broken window prevents the shopkeeper from using his money more efficiently
Bastiat writes, "Society loses the value of things which are uselessly destroyed"
the parable also develops "the law of unintended consequences"
ex.: if the glaziers figure out they can pay a boy 1 franc to break windows, and they can still make a profit at 5 francs per window,
there will thereby exist a "perverse" incentive to break windows
"perverse incentive" = an incentive that produces a negative outcome
economists have argued over the "opportunity costs" of damaging events:
disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes which require repair and thus create jobs & economic activity)
wars (spur economic activity and mobilization)
however, whatever the benefit it does not account for Bastiat's "unseen" costs and cannot in any way outweigh the suffering, death and loss of choice created by the disaster or war
If you own land on an urban road, and you decide to build condos on it, what else might you have done, and what would that have cost -- or earned -- for you?
Questions:
If the U.S. imports oil from Saudi Arabia, is the U.S. giving up the potential of its own oil industry?
If Saudi Arabia relies on oil, what is the cost of that reliance?
Pareto Principle
also known as the "80/20 rule" or "law of the vital few"
= the idea that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes
the early Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) observed that
in Italy 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population
other observers have found that many natural and human systems follow this distribution pattern
Other useful Economics and "Political Economy/-ics" terms and concepts
a form of rent seeking whereby a regulated public utility seeks replacement infrastructure solely for the purpose of generating interest income on the investment, and not for a genuine need for that infrastructure, or, worse, intentionally investing in assets or infrastructure that will require future replacement (see "planned obsolescence")
brokerage churning
externalities
Inflation/ deflation
Labor supply / flexibility of labor supply
planned obsolescence
obsolescence = out of date, no longer useful or appealing
deliberate design for a product or asset to require replacement
practices may include, automobile or cell phone design to entire consumers to purchase based upon a new "look", fad, or feature that does not make the previous version obsolete
public goods
regulatory capture
rent seeking
using government rules or law in order to reduce competition
see Frederic Bastiat's "Economic Sophisms" for a satire on candlestick makers who petitioned the government to ban the sun as an unfair competitor'
when a third-party pays for goods or services, quality goes down and prices go up
see Milton Friedman's "Four ways to spend money"
top-down v. bottom-up
trickle-down theory
the idea that economic benefits conferred or made available to the top of society will "trickle down" to the rest of society
has been attributed to "Reaganomics"
but only by its critics, not its proponents
in other words, "trickle down" theory is an economic criticism and not a proposition
"trickle down" theory originated in William Jennings Bryan's 1896 "Cross of God Speech"
click EXPAND for quotation from Bryan's Cross of Gold speech that expressed "trickle down theory"
There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.
benchmark fallacies using this data might include:
a politician wanting to exaggerate a decline in housing starts might select 2005 as the benchmark date for 2021 rates (thus 2021 would have a lower rate of housing starts than 2005); conversely,
a politician wanting to exaggerate a rise in housing starts might select 2009 as the benchmark date for 2021 rates (thus 2021 would have a higher rate of housing starts than 2009)
Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon / Frequency Illusion/ New Car Syndrome
the phenomenon in which upon buying a new car, one all of a sudden sees other cars of the same model or color that one didn't notice before
first identified as the "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon" following an internet message board user who mentioned the name of the German terrorist organization, Baader-Meinhof, realized that he started seeing numerous references to the group, even though he had never noticed it before
the phenomenon was later labeled "frequency illusion," in reference to the tendency to notice things only after noticing it for the first time, which leads to the assumption that the frequency of that thing is greater than it really is
i.e., it was always there
but the person didn't notice until first experiencing or observing it
thus the "new car syndrome"
"Cargo Cult" fallacy
fallacy of superficially mimicking someone, something, or some activity will result in the same benefits accrued to those who are being copied
i.e., by taking sticks and marching in military-lines, that one would have the same power as the real army being mimicked
in science, called "cargo cult science", whereby one researcher copies the results of another without testing it independently
the term "cargo cult" originated in belief by indigenous Pacific islanders that ritualistic mimicking of Western symbols, constructions or actions would yield the same benefits observed of those westerners
especially construction of mini-airstrips and models of airplanes that the U.S. military brought to Pacific Islands during WWII would also yield the benefits those things brought to the westerners, such as material goods, health care, etc.
the term "cargo cult" was coined by Australian planters in Papua New Guinea
anthropologists adopted the coin regarding certain indigenous beliefs across Melanesia (eastern Pacific islands)
Confirmation bias
drawing a conclusion not from evidence but from the "bias" one uses to interpret the evidence
akak
seeing only what you want to see
"to a hammer, everything is a nail"
confirmation bias impacts all areas of human thought, including
scientists who ignore or deny contrary evidence
politicians who take only one side of a political question even against evidence that negates it
historians who are biased toward certain historical outcomes
origins of the idea of confirmation bias
Aesop's fable: Fox and the Grapes, which is where we get the expression, "sour grapes" ("oh well, those grapes are probably sour")
David Hume and confirmaton bias
18th century Scottish philosopher who argued that knowledge is derived from experience (called "empiricism")
however, Hume warned against reason alone as the basis for knowledge, as one can "reason" just about anything
Hume wrote, “Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.”
Hume warned against jumping to conclusions based on limited knowledge
i.e. drawing conclusions based on our own confirmation bias
may also be called "motivated reasoning"
i.e. drawing conclusions ("reasoning") based upon bias or reason for ("motives")
in 1938, British Prime Minister Chamberlain returned from Germany after signing the Munich Agreement, under which Hitler agreed not to many further claims on Czechsolvakian territory (after siezing the Sudetenland), and announced that the agreement would bring "peace for our time."
within six months Germany had annexed more of Czechoslavia and would soon after invade Poland.
Chamberlain and his allied nations so wanted Hitler not to be a problem that they accepted anything he proposed thinking that appeasing him would stop his agression.
the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were driven by confirmation bias that considered evidence gave proof of witchcraft, and even otherwise harmless things, like a broken fence, served as proof of it.
Worse, authorities accepted without question ridiculous claims such as that a witch supposedly made cows jump
The New Testament tells of various miracles performed by Jesus, some of which occur on the sabbath, which is the Hebrew "day of rest" (no work is allowed)
when some of the Jewish leaders, "Pharisees," witness a miracle, instead of responding in awe of it (such as healing a cripple or giving sight to a blind man), they become upset that Jesus performed the miracle on the sabbath
basically, saying, "Yeah, whatever, you healed a dude, but you can't do that on a Saturday!"
the bias of the Pharisees was so strong that they ignored the miracle and instead accused Jesus of breaking the law by "working" on the sabbath
Correlation is not causation
a cause and effect fallacy that mistakes "correlation" for cause
i.e., just because two events are related or coincidental does not mean one caused the other
this fallacy is one of "conflation" as opposed to bad logic, as in the Post hoc fallacy
False dilemma fallacy
fallacy of conclusion drawn from limited evidence or a false premise
the fallacy ignores evidence contrary to the conclusion drawn from it
Framing effect
the 'effect" or phenomenon that people will select an option based upon how it is "framed" in positive or negative terms
the framing effect occurs when the options are of equal value (are the same), even if presented in oppositive terms
the difference is in how it is presented or perceived by the decision maker
examples:
33% survive v. 66% die
A) given this choice, 33% of people will be saved; versus
B) given this choice, 66% of people will die
respondents are more likely to select A) because it focuses on lives" saved" versus "people who will die"
even though both outcomes are the same (33% saved = 66% die)
an event has a late registration fee
option A) the late registration fee is highlighted on top of the regular cost of registration
option B) regular registration is treated as a discount from the total cost of late registration
respondents are more likely to select A) because they want to avoid the perceived additional cost
even though the early registration for A) is the same as for B)
an opinion poll asks for support of a policy, with emphasis on either its positive or negative impact
A) 100,000 people will get jobs, while only 10,000 unemployed will result
B) 10,000 people will lose jobs, while only 100,000 people will find employment
respondents prefer A) due to its positive emphasis on jobs gained
even though the net jobs gained or lost are the same
Gambler's fallacy
the idea that past performance necessarily indicates future results
either that since it happened in the past, it will continue
or, if it happened in the past, it will not happen again
the fallacy is especially important in random events, such as gambling (cards, dice)
see Law of Averages and Regression to the Mean
Heinlein's Razor
“Never assume malice when incompetence will do”
similar to Occam's Razor, which posits that the most direct explanation is likely the most accurate
in that many human endeavors are the result of "incompetence" as much as good or bad intention
makes for a good test for "conspiracy theories"
from wikipedia:
A similar quotation appears in Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 short story "Logic of Empire" ("You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity"); this was noticed in 1996 (five years before Bigler identified the Robert J. Hanlon citation) and first referenced in version 4.0.0 of the Jargon File,[3] with speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor". "Heinlein's Razor" has since been defined as variations on Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice.[4] Yet another similar epigram ("Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence") has been widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.[5] Another similar quote appears in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774): "...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
Law of averages
= the greater the number of instances, the greater the probability of the average outcome to occur
in other words, the more times something happens, the more likely the results will be the same
the classic example is coin tossing
the more coin tosses the more likely the result between heads or tails to be 50/50
a psychological disposition to not want to lose out or not have something
loss aversion occurs when people give up something of value or that is functional in exchange for something new that isn't needed
ex. getting the latest cell phone even though your current one is working fine
loss aversion drives decisions by "not wanting to lose out" on something
Mandela effect
false memories created by the spread of one or more sources of innacurate or false information that is then shared by others
named the "Mandela effect" for a "paranormal researcher" who claimed that she was sure Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, and upon publishing this on a website she found that many other people shared in or adopted her false memory
these false memories are then propogated and believed by others who were not part of the original false memory
Necessary and sufficient conditions
confusion between necessary and sufficient conditions can lead to false or poor logic and confusion about causes and effects.
see entry above under causality
No real Scotsman fallacy
also called "No true Scotsman fallacy"
a logical fallacy of "universal generalization"
the fallacy makes a universal claim, then improperly excludes any counter-examples
the "no real Scotsman" fallacy works as such:
A: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge"
B: "My uncle Angus is Scottish, and he does."
A: "Well, no real Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge"
Normalcy bias
a bias towards continuation of what is or has normally been
given absence of change, a normalcy bias is accurate
only it's accurate until it's not
we can see across history when civilizations, peoples, or leaders counted on things "staying the same"
consequences can be
catastrophic systemic breakdown without preparation for change
examples include, Ancient Egypt, Roman Empire, various Chinese dynasties
lack of social, economic, cultural, and technological advance
which unto itself becomes a source of breakdown, esp. vis-a-vis competitive societies
see "stability v. change" above
Occam's Razor
original latin = lex parsimoniae
= the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness
= idea that the simplest explanation is most often the best
= best solution or option is that which assumes the least variables or assumptions
origin
William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349) English Franciscan friar and logician
practiced economy in logic
"entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity"
term "Occam's Razor" developed later
"razor" = knife to cut away unnecessary assumptions
note: Occam's Razor has been used by philosophers to deny any explanations that include God or religion (see "Blame it on Calvin & Luther," by Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal, Jan 14, 2012
Post hoc fallacy
also "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy
fallacy that since Y followed X, Y must have been caused by X
just because something happened after something else, doesn't mean the first event caused the second
Regression to the mean
in statistics, math, etc., that the average of a system is unlikely to change despite extreme observations or events
the reason observations of extremes are not likely to be repeated, thus averages prevail ("the mean")
in social sciences, indicates that change can't happen forever
i.e., exceptional events, persons or places, positive or negative, will likely subside or return to what was previously normal
and what was before, or similar to it, will prevail
we see this in terms of cycles: economic, political, social
in economics, regression to the mean
in late 1800s, Francis Galton argued that
extreme characteristics of an individual are not passed entirely to offspring
so offspring tend to have one or another of either parent's characteristics, but not all of them
Galton called it "Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature"
Regression fallacy
errors in observation or prediction that fail to account for regression to the mean
= observations or predictions that include extremes or outliers (beyond the normal range) and ignore the law of regression to the mean that would otherwise indicate that those extremes and outliers are just that and not indicative of the mean (average)
an interesting application of this idea is seen in positive and negative reinforcement
positive reinforcement may incorrectly praise an extreme or outlier, thus subsequent behaviors may fail to replicate what was being praised
this dynamic can explain why people may feel great about some outcome yet fail to repeat it subsequently
they expect that same extreme/outlier without realizing that outcomes will likely "regress to the mean"
Sunk cost fallacy
"sunk cost" is an economics term for a transaction or financial cost that can no longer be recovered
i.e., it is "sunk"
the "sunk cost fallacy" is that because a cost has been incurrent but not recovered, more investment is required to make it back
also known as "throwing good money after bad"
the sunk cost fallacy results from an emotional response to a bad situation
in which it would be irrational to continue to incur additional costs
the opposite response to the sunk cost fallacy is "cutting one's losses" and moving on
in non-financial analysis, especially historical, the sunk cost fallacy occurs when actors "double down" on a bad decision or situation
doubling down has frequently occurred in politics and warfare
an example of the Sunk cost fallacy was the "Concorde fallacy"
the British and French governments decided to keep spending money on the supersonic Concorde airliner despite having already lost huge amounts of money on it
related to Loss Aversion
Sutton's law
from the bank robber Willie Sutton who, when asked why he robbed banks
he replied, "Because that's where the money is."
Willie Sutton denied ever having said that, but affirmed that he "probably" would have if someone asked him
= seek first the most obvious answer first
used in Medical school to teach students best practices on diagnosis and testing
Texas sharpshooter fallacy
occurs when negative evidence is ignored while positive evidence is over-emphasized
i.e., conclusions are drawn from convenient data, while ignoring data that is not convenient to the argument
"Texas sharpshooter" comes from an old joke about a Texan shoots at a barn first, then draws a shooting target over the closest cluster of bullet holes
thus proving himself to be a "sharpshooter" after the fact, whereas his shooting was hardly accurate
related to
Post hoc fallacy
False dilemma fallacy
Correlation is not causation fallacy
Zebra rule
"When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra"
similar to Sutton's law that the most obvious answer is likely correct
used by medical schools to teach focus on the most obvious patient conditions/ illness causes
Kafka Trap
a logical trap whereby the argument uses its own refutation as evidence of a fallacy
i.e., "because you deny it, it must be true"
the term refers to the dystopian novel by Franz Kafka "The Trial," in which a man's denial of a charge was used as evidence of his guilt
the "Kafka trap" was coined by Eric Raymond as "Kafkatrapping" in 2010 article
Leading questions and question traps
questions that assume an answer ("leading") or are designed to "trap" an answer
similar to the Kafka trap
leading questions are used in order to guide
Socrates engaged in "leading questions" in order to make his point
and the story of the Slave Boy and the Square from Plato's Meno
Motte and Bailey Doctrine
or the "Motte and Bailey fallacy"
a fallacy of exaggeration in which an argument is presented with absurd exaggerations ("the Motte") and if objected to is replaced by an undoubtedly true but hardly controversial statement ("the Bailey", which is then used to advance the original exaggerated claim
click EXPAND for more on Motte and Bailey Doctrine:
the term refers to a protected medieval castle and nearby indefensible village
the Motte is the defensible, protected tower but is not appealing to live in (built on a mound or "motte")
the Bailey is an appealing place to live but cannot be defended
if attacked, the occupants of the retreat to the Motte for safety
thus the exaggerated and fallacious (untrue) argument appears more reasonable
the Motte and Bailey Doctrine frequently employs
"strawman fallacy"
Humpty Dumptying
"either-or" fallacy
"red herring" fallacy
click EXPAND for an example of a Motte and Bailey fallacy regarding a gun control debate:
Person A. "Guns don't kill people, people do" (the Bailey)
Person B. "But that won't stop people from using guns to kill people."
Person A. "Yeah, but guns are legal" (the Motte)
Person A has conflated (confused or joined illogically) the legality of guns with their use.
or on the opposite side:
Person A. "Gun control keeps criminals from committing crimes with guns" (the Bailey)
Person B. "But criminals commit crimes and won't obey gun control laws."
Person A. "Either way, it's bad when guns are used to murder people." (the Motte)
Methodology]
click EXPAND for excerpt from Shackel explaining the Motte and Bailey Doctrine:
A Troll’s Truism is a mildly ambiguous statement by which an exciting falsehood
may trade on a trivial truth ....
Troll’s Truisms are used to insinuate an exciting falsehood, which is a desired doctrine,
yet permit retreat to the trivial truth when pressed by an opponent. In so doing they
exhibit a property which makes them the simplest possible case of what I shall call a
Motte and Bailey Doctrine (since a doctrine can single belief or an entire body of beliefs.)
A Motte and Bailey castle is a medieval system of defence in which a stone tower on a
mound (the Motte) is surrounded by an area of land (the Bailey) which in turn is
encompassed by some sort of a barrier such as a ditch. Being dark and dank, the Motte is
not a habitation of choice. The only reason for its existence is the desirability of the
Bailey, which the combination of the Motte and ditch makes relatively easy to retain
despite attack by marauders. When only lightly pressed, the ditch makes small numbers of
attackers easy to defeat as they struggle across it: when heavily pressed the ditch is not
defensible and so neither is the Bailey. Rather one retreats to the insalubrious but
defensible, perhaps impregnable, Motte. Eventually the marauders give up, when one is
well placed to reoccupy desirable land.
For my purposes the desirable but only lightly defensible territory of the Motte and
Bailey castle, that is to say, the Bailey, represents a philosophical doctrine or position
with similar properties: desirable to its proponent but only lightly defensible. The Motte is
the defensible but undesired position to which one retreats when hard pressed.
Ethics
Aristotle
by Aristotle's view, the study of ethics is essential to understanding the world around us and for finding virtue and happiness
ethikē = ethics
aretē = virtue or excellence
phronesis = practical or ethical wisdom
eudaimonia = "good state" or happiness
steps to become a virtuous person:
practicing righteous actions guided by a teacher leads to righteous habits
righteous habits leads to good character by which righteous actions are willful
good character leads to eudaimonia
classes (types) of virtue/ non-virtue people
knows right, does right, does not yield to temptation
knows right, does right, but has to fight temptation
knows right, falls to temptation thus does not do right
knows right, deliberately does wrong
the worst of these deliberately imposes or leads others to do wrong
ethical or moral dilemma
dilemma =
a situation that has dichotomous (or contrary) negative outcomes
i.e., "no good choices"
see below for ethical lies
ethical dilemma =
a situation that presents or causes conflicting ethical requirements
"requirement" means a required ethical response or choice
i.e., if chosen or acted upon, it would be unethical
conflict of interest
present ethical challenges
have degrees of severity
such as the ethical requirement to follow a law against, say, trespassing
but such trespassing is required in order to save a life
lying
lying happens all the time
we might think of ethical degrees of lies
some lies may be justified, as in acting a character in a play or telling a joke
other lies have severe consequence
any lie that deprives another from the truth, possible benefit, or causes harm is unethical
unless that lie avoids an even worse consequence upon either party
types of lies
bold-faced lie
flat-out lie told as if the absolute truth
b.s.
a lie that is obvious and exaggeration
broken promise
a promise made with no intention of carrying it out
cheating
cheating is a lot of things, but it is fundamentally a lie
deception
defamation
lies with intent to "defame" or harm a person's reputation
disinformation
lies targeted at an audience to shape a belief, usually in politics or politically-tainted news reporting
exaggeration
also called "puffery" for trying to be bigger than you really are
false dilemma
a lie of omission in that it hides options or conditions that exist
ex. "you either hate me or love me"
fake news
lies in news reporting with intent to hide or cover up something true
fraud
deliberate deceit in order to make or defraud someone of money
half truth
a lie of omission, in that the intent of the lie is to create a false impression by withholding contrary evidence
little white lies
seemingly inconsequential lies that cumulatively create a larger or ongoing deception
misleading statements
contains a truth but is designed to deceive
plagiarism
claiming as one's own what belongs or comes from someone else
rumors
also called "fabrication"
slip of the tongue
an unintentional lie
also called "misspeaking"
misspeaking becomes a lie when it is used intentionally to deceive or harm
telling something without certainty of its truefullness
lies and situational ethics: life-threatening dilemma
lying may be ethical if used to
avoid severe harm or save a life
ex., someone with clear intent to harm a resident knocks on the door, and is told that that person is not home
an ethical lie must avoid a seriously negative outcome
without creating a worse ultimate outcome
ethical lies do not deprive another person from a legitimate outcome
ex. it is not ethical to lie in order to win a game that the other person has just as much right to win as do you
Christian thought on lying
Christians consider lying an offence to God
Christian philosopher Saint Augustine (Augustine of Hippo) held that:
every lie is sinful
however, there are degrees of sinfulness in lies, depending on the context, such as inadvertent lies
Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin also held that lies are always wrong
argues that every situation presents a correct or "blameless" option
lies and situational ethics: entertainment
a lie that does not pretend to be a truth
comedic effect
entertainment
fiction
paternalistic lie
such as telling young children about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny
play-acting for conversation or entertainment
"Trolley problem"
a dilemma created by the need to sacrifice one innocent person to save (usually given as) five others
scenario:
a runaway (out of control) trolley is heading towards a track with five workers on it (or sometimes presented as five people tied up and who are unable to move)
there is a secondary track that was not in the original pathway of the trolley and that has one person on it
an engineer who sees the situation can divert the trolley to the secondary track, thus killing the one person on it but saving the five on the original track
the problem is that that one person was otherwise not in danger and not wrongfully on the track
is that sacrifice ethical?
the "utilitarian" view holds that it would be ethical and morally responsible to divert the trolley as it would save more lives
by "utilitarian" we mean a choice or action that benefits the most people, even at the expense of some others
i.e. "maximize utility"
objections to the utilitarian response include:
the engineer had no intention to harm the five but by diverting the trolley would have made a willful decision to kill the one; therefore the act would be morally objectionable
= deliberately harming anyone for any reason is morally wrong
= violating the "doctrine of double effect," which states that deliberately causing harm, even for a good cause, is wrong
the Trolley problem shows up in other situations:
artificial intelligence, such as driverless vehicles
Isaac Asimov explored moral and ethical dilemmas regarding artificial intelligence in his collection of essays, "I Robot."
Asimov envisioned the Three Laws of Robotics
click EXPAND to read the Three Laws of Robotics
First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Cognitive biases, effects & syndromes
Celebration Parallax
parallax = different views from different vantage points of the same object
see Theory of Errors
conceived by journalist Michael Anton, who defines the celebration parallax as
"“the same fact pattern is either true and glorious or false and scurrilous depending on who states it.”
Anton coined the term to criticize the disingenuity of 2010s politics and political statements that frequently denied unpopular policies but "celebrated" their imposition regardless of their popularity
more plainly stated as the phenomenon of when an observer or public speaker denies the existence of something, then goes on to state that, "while it is not happening (or true), it's a good thing that it is"
see also the "Law of Merited Impossibility"
Confirmation bias
observer bias limits observations to expected or desired outcomes
confirmation bias powerfully limits one's ability to see something from a different perspective and, therefore, to evaluate it effectively and accurately
confirmation bias has significant effects in science, as many, even empirical, studies yield results that the investigators are looking for
note that confirmation bias may also yield great insight, especially if that bias leads to a new or different perspective that others would not see
Crab mentality
also called "crabs in a bucket" effect or mentality
when groups or individuals prefer to deny to others something they do not or cannot have
out of jeaousy or resentment
expressed as: "If I can't have it, neither can you"
see also the "Tall Poppy Syndrome"
Dunning–Kruger effect
the cognitive bias of overestimation of one's own competency and lack of awareness of one's own limited competence
an error in self-awareness whereby a person cannot evaluate his or her own competency
called "illusory superiority"
the effect also shows that people of high ability tend to underestimate their own competence
original study was entitled, "Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence"
"the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."
the authors later explained that the Dunning–Kruger effect "suggests that poor performers are not in a position to recognize the shortcomings in their performance"
the Dunning-Kruger effect is observable but not provable
i.e., it can happen but just because someone does not have competence does not mean that person will draw hasty, broad and wrong conclusions
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Elaboration Likelihood Model Information Graphic of Bias and Objective Thinking. Peripheral Route is to the left ("biased") and Central Route to the right ("ojbective")
identifies the association between persuasion and bias
"elaboration" means the extent to which a person engages in objective mental processing before making a decision or adopting a point of view
ELM shows that much persuasion is driven by perceptions of status
i.e. high or low status perceptions drive people's attitudes towards persuasion
ELM identifies two paths to persuasion or "attitude change":
high-elaboration likelihood, called "Central Route" = motivated to engage the argument with critical thought open to evidence
low-elaboration likelihood, called "Peripheral Route" = external cues or influences are present that shape reception to the argument without critical thought
the "Central Route" requires intellectual honesty and engagement
the "Peripheral Route" engages biases and emotional states and yields little critical thought
the "Route" taken at any given time is related to a person's self-perceived social status or that of the source of the argument or information (or persuation)
that is, people process arguments or new information according to their perception of the source of that argument or information
also called "prestige bias"
"Motivation" strongly impacts the "Route" taken by the recipient of the information/ persuasion (i.e., decision-maker)
motivation = conditions, desires, perspectives, or states of mind that influence a decision
thus motivation may engage biases and thus the "Peripheral Route"
"entropy" is the 2nd Newtonian Law of physics that energy will move from high to low systems
i.e., a something hot will transfer its heat to something colder
in Social Sciences, entropy indicates that systems will tend to decline over time\
related to Thucydides Trap and Stein's Law
Hawthorne effect / Observation bias
also known as "observer effect"
when the observer changes the actual event / object being observed
example : typically checking the air pressure of an automobile tire requires letting some air out of it in order to place the pressure gauge on it to measure the air pressure
the "Hawthorne effect" is named for a study at "Hawthorne Western Electric"
conducted at the company electrical plant in Illinois, 1924-1927
researchers studied the impact of lighting (illumination) on worker productivity
however, the increases in worker productivity was not a result of the changes in lighting
but due to the fact that the workers knew they were being observed
which motivated them to work harder
Hawthorne effects may change observational data
called "clinical trial effect", in drug or medical testing, some patients may respond to the attention they receive from providers and not necessarily the drug or procedure being measured
"placebo effects" are positive results in control patients (those who do not receive the drug or procedure)
placebo effects are a "reactivity" phenomenon by which the patient changes attitude, behavior or undergo a subconscious reaction to a situation that changes the patient's outcomes
related to:
"Turing paradox" by which the act of measurement changes the physical properties of what is being measured (applies to subatomic quantum systems)
Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".
Illusion of truth paradox
in economics, consumers believe they have myriad choices, when in actuality their consumer choices have little distinction from one another and, worse, are owned by only a few conglomerates (large businesses with many branches)
the lost keys paradox is that when looking for where you put the keys, you will only find them when you go looking for something else, such as your glasses, or your phone
a possible explanation for the Lost Keys Paradox is that our focus of attention can be limited to a particular goal or activity, which, blinds us to alternative solutions
thus it is a form of confirmation bias
when freed of the bias of seeking one particular thing, we are more likely to discover the unexpected solution that we could not see while focused solely on that one thing
= the idea that conformity to inept, incompetent or corrupt systems
= leads to individual advancement within those systems without changing or improving that system
in fact, mediocre people do not want to change inept systems precisely because they benefit themselves
similar to the Peter principle, but explains why people are promoted above their competency
Munchausen syndrome
named for the fictional character Baron Munchausen, an absurd adventurer who recounted ridiculous stories, such as riding on a cannonball, with objectivity and detachment
= a "factititious disorder" in which a person tells exaggerated or dramatic stories with the intent to impress or deceive
the Munchausen syndrome is also used to express "circular logic," as in the story of Munchausen saving himself from drowning by pulling himself out of the water by his own hair
in psychology, the "Munchausen Syndrome" is a serious mental health condition in which the patient imagines or feigns illness, injury or other trauma in order to draw attention or garner sympathy
= similar but not the same as
hypochondria, the condition of thinking that one has or hyper-concern about having a disease or medical condition that does not exist
thus the joke that, "even hypochondriacs get sick sometimes"
psychosomatic illness, an actual illness that has no percievable physical cause or underlying condition
Narrative Fallacy
a logical error of generality from a specific, in this case of a "narrative" or "story" that would seem to explain a certain outcome,
yet, another who experienced that same "narrative" would not experience the same outcome
from Nassim Talib
Newspaper paradox
following the rule that when you see in the news an event or topic to which you have expertise or experience, the reporting on it will be incorrect, sometimes completely wrong
however, we don't often apply that same level of inquiry or tests to news we see about things we do not know well or have experienced
thus the paradox that we accept as true something reported that we know little about, all the while knowing that an expert on or direct witness to that news would know it is inaccurate.
from Michael Bromley
Noble savage fallacy
also "Noble savage myth"
= the false assumption that human nature is good and society is bad
based on the false premise that pre-civilization, humans lived in harmony and peace
the noble savage fallacy assumes that any negative outcome following rise of civilization is due to that rise
= an inverted Post hoc fallacy, which assumes cause from chronology
Post hoc fallacy = if x came before y, then x is the cause of y
this fallacy assumes:
x = pre-civilization
y = post civilization
z = a negative outcome
and states that
if z exists after y, then y caused it
and since z did not exist under x, then x is superior to y
it is obvious that negative consequences of civilization could not have existed prior to civilization
but it is a logical fallacy to assume that pre-civilization was problem-free or did not have its own negative outcomes
it is also a logical fallacy to assume that negative outcomes of civilization negate civilization's positive outcomes
Peter principle
the idea that people within an organization tend to rise to their "level of competency"
started as a satirical observation of how companies promote people
the observation is largely accurate that people will be promoted to higher levels until they are no longer able to demonstrate competency at some level, and will therefore not be promoted again
the Peter Principle may help explain why historical actors rise and then become mediocre at their pinnacle
Political Framing
a political message, policy, position, perspective or statement that is shaped and ultimately derived from that political point of view
the "frame" is the perspective which shapes the content of the "picture", i.e. the topic, subject, or position
the goal of the "frame" is to shape audience understanding by through emphasis and deemphasis of various elements of a topic
i.e., if the topic is health care, the "frame" could be one the emphasizes cost, which deemphasizing quality
the "frame" guides the audience to that "point of view"
also called "spinning", which is to "spin" or redirect a negative into a positive
Prestige bias / Prestige paradox
also called "myside bias" (a form of confirmation bias)
the idea that perceptions of status drive people's attitudes and decision making
it is a "paradox" is because people with self-perceived "high status" are less likely to think objectively (without bias)
because "high status" people are "preoccupied with how others perceive them"
in which people compare themselves to only their own surroundings
it is possible for a person to be smarter than most of those around them, yet less smart than the average
it is equally possible for a person to be less smart then those around them, yet smarter than the average
this same type of bias is why Americans frequently under- or over-estimate the percentage ethnic breakdown of U.S. demographics
they frequently think that their own race is more dominant than it is
or that a race that has a larger presence in their lives (surroundings, media, etc.) than it actually has
Streisand effect
a form of "psychological reactance" by which people become interested in something only after they are told they are not allowed to know about it
= an unintended consequence of censorship
called the "Streisand" effect because, when the singer/actor Barbara Streisand threatened to sue a photographer for publishing an aerial photo of her house in California.
the lawsuit generated publicity, and people became interested in seeing Streisand's house because of it
when they before the lawsuit had no interest in it at all
similar to the "Howard Stern effect" , which is the phenomenon of celebrities who attracts an audience from people who hate them more than of those who like them
named for "shock jock" Howard Stern, a radio personality, who specializes in offensive, rude, or shocking content
Tall poppy syndrome
criticism, scrutiny, resentment and even legal recourse against successful people
i.e., the "tall poppy" gets cut down because it is higher than the rest
related to "Law of Jante"
a social code (tradition, more, informal rule) in Denmark that disapproves of expressions of individuality or personal success
egalitarian tribal culture also dislikes stand-outs
some tribes will assault anyone who brags or shows off
the idea is that an individual who is or acts better than others endangers tribal coherence and is a threat to take over the tribe
see also "crab mentality"
Theory of errors
also called "observational errors"
the rule that given an accumulation of even erroneous observations, the mean or average of all observations will generally yield a correct observation
in statistics, it is called "Propagation of uncertainty", and it is used to
used famously to identify the correct location of a moon of Saturn by taking the average of a series of incorrect observations, which yielded the precise location of the moon
theory of errors is similar to "wisdom of the crowd", a phenomenon that affirms that the average opinion or action of a crowd is likely the correct one
a test of the wisdom of the crowd would be to ask random people the number bubble gum balls in a jar.
individuals guesses will be incorrect
but the average of all guesses will yield a close or proximate answer
Other/ todo
alleged certainty fallacy
attribution to experts fallacy
unbroken leg fallacy
wisdom of the crowd
Other theories & conceptual tools
Glasl's model of conflict escalation
Glasl's "Nine stages of conflict escalation"
when analyzing conflict, diplomacy, events, etc. students may employ the conceptual framework of "conflict escalation" by Friedrich Glasl (here from wikipedia)
Glasl's model divides disagreement or conflict scenarios into "stages" based upon three core outcomes:
win-win
both sides benefit
win-lose
one side benefits, the other loses
lose-lose
conflict w/ bad outcomes for one or both parties
conflicts escalate through and into:
tension and dispute
debate
communication loss
coalition building (seeking sympathy or help from others)
denunciation
loss of face (pride)
threats and feelings of threat
depersonalization (treating the other as not human)
attack, annihilation, defeat
deescalation includes:
mediation from third-party (intercession, intermediation)
process guidance
arbitration, legal actions
forcible intervention, especially from higher power
Glasl's model works at the individual (a family fight) or global level (international affairs)
Graham's hierarchy of disagreement
Graham's hierarchy of disagreement
tech entrepreneur Paul Graham in 2008 proposed a model for levels (hierarchies) of disagreement
the top of the hierarchy is refutation of the "central point"
i.e., that the opposing idea is fundamentally "refuted"
via logic, demonstration, evidence, etc.
the bottom of the hierarchy is "Name-calling", which leads to no resolution and further anger or dispute
key points in the negative side of the hierarchy are essentially logical fallacies:
name-calling (ad hominem) and
criticism of tone or attitude rather than substance ("responding to tone")
contractions without evidence
on the constructive side are
strong argument via reason, logic, evidence
refutation: proof
Overton Window
An illustration of the Overton window, along with Treviño's degrees of acceptanceJoseph Overton observed that along the spectrum of social or political thought, policy, or opinion
there exists a mainstream "middle" of consensus
that middle may have variances, but most people generally agree with it
with extremes on both sides that are not generally accepted
however, as one extreme or the other becomes acceptable, they enter into the "Overton Window"
example:
in the 1950s, rock music was considered anti-social, thus lay outside of the Overton Window
as its popularity grew, especially following Elvis Presley, rock music became popular music
and thus, entered the Overton Window
in the Overton Window, "Policy" should reflect a consensus of points of view within the window, and will move according to changes within that window
so, while "Policy" may not always reflect the middle of the Window, it acts to reflect changes in the window.
Weber's "Protestant Work Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism"
Social Scientist Max Weber attributed the economic success of U.S. and northwestern European nations to their dominant "Protestant work ethic"
based on
individualism and notions of self-sufficiency
ethics of hard work, timeliness, frugality, etc.
that cumulatively yielded productive economies and a dominant middle class
note that Weber's seen today by "critical race" theorists as elements of "white privilege"
bulleted link to other related internal or web articles
bulleted link to other related internal or web articles
Lesson Plans & Teaching Ideas
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Other Student Projects and Investigations
ideas for student work / engagement with the topic
Readings for students
Active Reading
apply Prior Knowledge as you read: "what do I already know about this?"
identify New Knowledge about what you read: "oh, that!"
develop questions about the New Knowledge as you read: "Okay, but what about...?"
links and more ideas here
>> see SocialScience-EssentialSkills11.wpd
Comparative Advantage exercise: Tuvulo & Nauru comparison
Possible economic choices for Nauru and Tuvalu include:
phosphates
oceans/fishing
tourism,
.tv domain registrations (Tuvulu)
technology
foreign aid
banking center
leaving the island
Questions:
Is it advantageous for Nauru to produce phosphates?
Is it advantageous for other countries to purchase phosphates from Nauru?
it advantageous for Tuvalu to develop an Internet domain name?
Is it advantageous for other countries to use that domain (.tv)
What should Nauru have done instead of relying on phosphates?
What would Tuvalu be giving up by relying on foreign aid?
Logic
todo
>synthesis: Hegelian dialectic:
# The thesis is an intellectual proposition.
# The antithesis is simply the negation of the thesis.
# The synthesis solves the conflict between the thesis and antithesis by reconciling their common truths, and forming a new proposition.
wiki:
In classical philosophy, dialectic is an exchange of proposition (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a synthesis of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue. It is one of the three original liberal arts or trivium (the other members are rhetoric and grammar) in Western culture.
They sit down and order a beer. As he serves, them the bartender asks the first one his name and what he does for a living. "I'm Victor. I'm an historian. I study proto-Natufian semi-nomadic culture." Impressed, the bartender looks at another one. "You a historian, too? What's your name?" The second replies, "My name is Victor. I'm an historian of colonial North America." "Cool," says the bartender, and, looking at the other two, says, "And you two?" "Me, I'm Victor." replies the third. "I'm an expert on the Cold War. And this guy next to me is Victor. He's an historian of medieval feudal agrarian economics."
"Amazing!" exclaims the bartender. "History really is written by you guys!"
How many historians does it take to change a lightbulb?
click EXPAND for the punchline:
There is a great deal of debate on this issue. Up until the mid-20th century, the accepted answer was ‘one’: and this Whiggish narrative underpinned a number of works that celebrated electrification and the march of progress in light-bulb changing. Beginning in the 1960s, however, social historians increasingly rejected the ‘Great Man’ school and produced revisionist narratives that stressed the contributions of research assistants and custodial staff. This new consensus was challenged, in turn, by women’s historians, who criticized the social interpretation for marginalizing women, and who argued that light bulbs are actually changed by department secretaries. Since the 1980s, however, postmodernist scholars have deconstructed what they characterize as a repressive hegemonic discourse of light-bulb changing, with its implicit binary opposition between ‘light’ and ‘darkness,’ and its phallogocentric privileging of the bulb over the socket, which they see as colonialist, sexist, and racist. Finally, a new generation of neo-conservative historians have concluded that the light never needed changing in the first place, and have praised political leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher for bringing back the old bulb. Clearly, much additional research remains to be done.
- from the web
History jokes
Ancient history jokes
* What did ancient Mesopotamians wear to work?
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* Their cuneiform
* Why was the pharaoh so handsome?
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* Because he took after his dad, not his mummy
* Why is it called "Mesopotamia"?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* Because there weren't just a lot of Potamians, there was a Mesopotamians!
* What does Alexander the Great have in common with Kermit the Frog?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* the same middle name, "The"
Europe jokes
* "I have two cousins, Alsace and Lorraine."
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* "They never did get along."
* Why is it called the "Dark Ages"?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* Because there were so many knights
Roman jokes
* A Roman walks into a bar and holds up two fingers and says...
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* "Five beers please"
* What cut the Roman Empire in half?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* A pair of Ceasars
I don't like how the months don't line up with their number, like September, October, November, December.
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* Whoever did that should really be stabbed.
Viking jokes
* How did Vikings send secret messages? ?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* By Norse Code
* Did you know that Vikings discovered the formula for the area of a circle?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* Area = π × rrrrrrrrr²
* How did Louis XIV feel after building Versailles?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* Baroque
Pilgrim jokes
* What music did the Pilgrims listen to?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* Plymouth Rock
World War I & II jokes
* Why was WWI so quick?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* because they were Russian
* Why was WWII so long?
** click EXPAND for the answer:
* because they were Stalin
Soviet Union era jokes
* A man in the Soviet Union saved up his money to buy a car. He went to the dealer and ordered the only car available.
** "Great," he said to the salesman, "When do I pick it up."
** "Oh," the salesman replied, "March 21st next year."
** "Okay," replied the man. "What time?"
** "What time?" asked the salesman. "It's not for a year and a half from now! Why do you care what time?"
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* "You see," the man explained, "I have an appointment that morning w/ the plumber."
* A Russian man escaped the Soviet Union and came to America. His neighbor asked him what life was like back in Russia.
** Russian: “Oh, my old apartment was perfect. I could not complain.”
** American: "What about your job?"
** Russian: “Oh, my old job was perfect. I could not complain.”
** American: "Wow. What about the food?"
** Russian: “Oh, the food was perfect. I could not complain.”
** American: "Well, if everything was so great in the USSR, why'd you come here?"
** click EXPAND for the punchline:
* Russian: "Here I can complain."
other to do
* Anachronism
* Apocryphal
* Social Studies vocabulary list >> and add a category see pages for critical and analysis
