Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity Review

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Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity ReviewTaylor took two years to write this book; it took me nearly as long to read it! It is a five-part tome of 525 pages of text and 71 pages of footnotes. In this entire collection I cannot remember a single section that could be read without my complete concentration. Quiet and solitude are minimal prerequisites before tackling this book - a good grasp of the history of philosophy wouldn't hurt either.
The sources to which Taylor refers are the moral ideals, ideas, and understandings that have dominated in various historical eras. Taylor's basic premise is rather simple, "we are only our selves insofar as we move in a certain space of questions, as we seek and find an orientation to the good (p. 34)." His purpose is not to specify the good, that is, he does not seek to set normative definitions or qualifications. His purpose is to show that self-definition requires a framework in which to be understood.
The historical course of his narrative begins with the classical perspective. In this view, self was dependent on a vision of the True or the Ideal. The hierarchical nature of reality presupposed in classical thought meant that self-definition was subservient to the whole. Traditional Christian thought embraced the classical perspective and the preference for self-definition by externals.
Obviously, this short sketch of classical thought seems to be absurdly irrelevant in our contemporary world. Self is definitely not defined in relation to externals, but by an extreme interiority, complete rejection of hierarchical schemes, and the assumption that reality is defined empirically rather than conceptually. This book traces the transformation of the classical perspective through history in each of these areas: the movement toward inwardness, the affirmation of ordinary life, and the voice of nature.
I found Taylor's historical analysis of more value than his contemporary application; however, I have to admit that the latter was quite difficult for me to follow due to my lack of exposure to the material. In essence he claims that the near universal adoption of benevolence and justice as our predominant ethical values have insufficient foundation. Radical subjectivity, radical equality, and radical acceptance of nature do not provide a horizon capable of defending contemporary values.
Even though Taylor stops short of offering an external standard, his thorough critique of contemporary inconsistencies is excellent. I cannot really recommend this book to everyone because it is clearly written to a graduate audience. If you are not well-read in philosophy, theology, or psychology, it may not be worth your time.Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity Overview

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Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life Review

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Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life ReviewThis is essentially a self-help book for clarifying ethical thought and improving ethical behavior. It's different from other such books in applying to ethics what the authors call "decision analysis," an approach to decision making the authors have previously applied in business and other practical fields. The focus is personal everyday ethics concerning things like white lies and cheating rather than "big" but less common issues like abortion and capital punishment. (If you're looking for a book to help with big issues like that, this isn't the book for you.)
The authors are experienced and well credentialed in business and higher education. The material is of the kind you might hear at a business workshop, not academic but pitched for astute readers, with particular attention to how the principles apply in business. At 154 pages plus some appendices, there's enough material for a series of workshops, though many of the basic ideas are repeated several times in somewhat different ways and contexts.
The basic plan of the book is to make us more aware of common ethical challenges and useful distinctions, to teach skills for dealing with them, and to apply the skills. There are step-by-step instructions for constructing a personal ethical code, examples of personal codes written by ordinary people, and suggestions for practical use.
A common problem with self-help books is that they overreach, often by trying to fit every person and problem into a simple solution or system. That's an issue here. The authors make some effort not to impose their view of ethics. They seek to help the reader discover and improve her own ethical views, in accord with her own "inner voice." But the system and advice they prescribe for doing this is still basically the same for all, and it's much better suited to some views than others. I'll explain more below.
Another limitation on the usefulness of the book is that, despite the emphasis on clear thinking, some of the basic ideas and supporting points don't seem clear or well reasoned.
It also seems to me that ease of decision making is sometimes favored over facing difficult ethical problems.
Here are some more details about the issues I mentioned, so you can better draw your own conclusions.
The ethical stance
The authors' preference is for something akin to Kantian morality (so-called after 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant). This includes what they call action-based ethics, according to which an act is right or wrong depending the nature of the act, not its expected consequences. That lends itself to a strict rules-based approach, which they also favor. Among their key tests for rules is a version of Kant's famous Categorical Imperative, simplified by the authors to "Would I want everyone to follow this rule?"
Most of us tend to mix (not always consistently) action-based thinking and consequence-based thinking. Some, such as utilitarians, believe only the consequences matter. The authors clearly disagree with consequence-based ethics, but they try to accommodate it, maybe because so many people's inner voices insist consequences matter. The authors frequently appeal to the consequences to imply the acts in examples are right or wrong (seemingly without noticing that this is a consequence-based approach). However, the difference in how action- and consequence-based ethics determine right and wrong is so fundamental that the authors sometimes can't give the same advice for both. Though book is written mainly with the authors' quasi-Kantian views in mind, occasionally some further or altogether different (and sometimes seemingly grudging) advice is given in regard to consequence-based ethics.
Unfortunately, the authors give a number of mistaken or confused arguments relating to consequence-based ethics, such as that it implies that self-interest can justify ethical compromise (108). They seem unaware of the ways a common type of consequence-based ethics called "rule utilitarianism" addresses many of their concerns. Their main objection to consequence-based ethics appears to be that it's messy and makes it easier to make excuses, but even if that's true (and some would dispute it) that wouldn't imply it's the wrong approach unless we assume the reality of ethics isn't messy. (More on that below.)
Some other ways of looking at ethics also get attention, in some way or other. Religion is treated as an important source for moral beliefs that can be sifted and refined by use of the tools in the book. Relationships are treated as one of the most important points of ethics.
There are other approaches to ethics that the authors don't consider so much. If you think of ethics mainly in terms of virtues, paradigms of good behavior, objective self-realization, or other less common views, you'll find little of that acknowledged.
Easy decisions vs messy reality?
This book seems to place a higher value on drawing clean, bright lines and being practical than on reflecting actual ethical complexity and difficulty. Maybe this is natural for authors who focus on efficient decision making. They object to consequence-based ethics in part because, as they see it, it doesn't lend itself to definite rules and can thus hinder their favored decision process.
They take a similar position in regard to deciding what counts as ethical. There is a distinction commonly made between what the authors call positive and negative ethics, or between "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots." Negative requirements like "don't steal" are often easier to pin down and live by than positive ones like "help those in need." Because positive ethical rules can be so difficult to work with, the authors suggest we simply reclassify difficult ones as nonethical "concerns" or "aspirations," to get them out of the way, as it were.
For example, they write, "Instead of thinking we have a positive ethic to feed the hungry, we might think, 'I have a positive concern for feeding the hungry'. We reclassify an ethic as a concern and can then calibrate our charity to match our energy and resources--without jeopardizing our commitment to skillful ethical thinking." (40, cp 56, 79-80) As they see it, there is nothing unethical about failing to achieve concerns or aspirations. (Others, including Kant, have tried to distinguish strict duties from what might be called virtuous behavior, but such a division remains problematic and controversial, and doesn't imply that virtuous behavior isn't part of ethics.)
We get to choose which positive requirements are to be regarded as ethical. "These positive ethics can be thought of as a set of behaviors filling a periodic table of ethical elements. Our job is to decide which elements to call our own." (54)
For the authors this is ultimately a matter for our "inner voice" to determine. That opens yet another issue, which the authors don't discuss, about whether ethics should be treated as ultimately subjective in the sense that what you think is right is right for you. They define "ethics" in terms of what we *believe* is right or wrong (8), and sometimes write as though the point is to avoid future remorse from the inner voice rather than to achieve something more objective (e.g. 73). A subjective approach makes it easier to prune our ethics to a size we're comfortable with.
Now, it might not be a bad thing, practically speaking, to look for ways to make ethics easier. As the authors see it, "Committing to a code we can keep is far better than committing to one that stretches us too far, forcing us to break our own rules." (80) But the most difficult and messy ethical obligations may also be among the most important. The fact that they're hard to spell out or live by doesn't imply they aren't ethical or are less than central to our ethical lives. The book invites us in various ways to put them to the side, in favor of neater duties.
A couple other things
There are numerous other points where I thought the logic was less than clear. Here are a couple examples.
The authors limit (without argument) the ethical to what affects others, but they seem to decide arbitrarily what does affect others and what counts as ethical. They don't count environmental issues or historical preservation (8-9), both of which seem to me to affect others. Whether we should work less so we can be at home with the kids they consider merely a prudential matter (that is, a matter of self-interest) and not a matter of ethics "because we are trading off pluses and minuses, not separating right from wrong." (36) I was unable to see how weighing pluses and minuses implies a focus on self-interest rather than right and wrong. Much of their talk about prudence vs. ethics didn't make sense to me.
The examples used to illustrate points are of variable aptness. They often don't definitely exemplify the point but require the authors to speculate. In some cases the authors seem to abuse examples, as with Kurt Gerstein, an enigmatic figure in the history of resistance to the Nazi Holocaust whom the authors return to several times. They suppose things about his story that are unknown, and treat him as guilty of ethical mistakes without sufficient evidence or argument. I felt their treatment was careless and unfair. Guilt is merely assumed in some other cases too.
Worth trying?
All in all, despite the issues outlined above, this book may still be helpful to some. As a book about clear ethical thinking, I can't give it a passing grade. But even with the risk of some fuzzy thinking and potential wrong turns, it still might improve at least some aspects of your ethical life to try some of the methods the authors suggest. The book will be more appealing and less frustrating if you happen to share the basic moral views of the authors.Ethics for the Real World: Creating a Personal Code to Guide Decisions in Work and Life Overview

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Civility Review

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Civility ReviewStephen Carter brings a moral dimension to the concerns of civility. For himself he bases this on the Christian duty to love our neighbors, but his moral concerns transcend religious and secular boundaries and easily translates into many different world views. This love of neighbors includes all neighbors, not just ones we happen to like or agree with. The metaphor of fellow passengers on the train of life recurs throughout his work with great effectiveness. He describes civility as welcoming the stranger without trying to make an enemy or a brother out of everyone. He brings many poignant examples from the early civil rights movement as well as providing many useful everyday examples.
Professor Carter casts issues of civility both in the religious and political arenas. This doesn't come off as set of rules for etiquette, but rather as a revealing of the deeper reasoning upon which we build such rules. We emerge with a view of civility which neither reflects the unreasonable value abandoning fears of offending others manifest in political correctness, nor the insensitive idealism which the later civil rights movement unfortunately collapsed into. This view allows us to live in a creative harmony in which we can both stick to our ideals and deal civilly with those who do not share them.
As a person who has in the past self-identified as an "atheist," I found that Mr. Carter seems to have some blind spots in understanding that point of view. He clearly directs his message toward an interfaith audience, not strictly Christians though he uses his particular religious understandings to make his points. Regardless, I think even more secular thinkers can profit from his message, and I think they would do themselves a disservice if they skipped his book merely on these grounds. Where he doesn't seem to understand more secular thinking, he certainly acknowledges it and deals with it very . . . well . . . civilly.
I even found his general idea of the properly subversive role of religion in a secular democracy well in tune with the American spirit of the first Amendment free-exercise and non-establishment tradition. I think if more religious people followed this model, they would find themselves more effectively participating in our society and expressing their values rather than reaping the self-constructed backlash alienation which the religious right has sown through their deeply uncivil behavior in the last few decades. He soberly reminds us all that the root of government authority lies in legitimized violence. He does not pull out the hoary libertarian line that, "we should not legislate morality," but rather simply reminds us that the morality which we legislate better prove worth killing for, even going to war over. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. Forgetting that leads to the deepest incivilities of democracy. The most crucial civility for a democracy remains civility toward your opponent. This means generally preferring dialogue over and prior to legislation.
Professor Carter's writing quality reflects his scholarly background but does not come off as overly academic. Definitely not light reading, but not a burden to read either. He doesn't talk down to the reader, and provides thorough notes and references at the end of the book. I think you will find that Stephen Carter's message comes none too early. Beyond just the rhetorical calls for civility which we find so common these days, Professor Carter provides that rare fresh breath of air that we need -- someone who has actually, seriously, intelligently, and compassionately struggled and *thought* through the issues of civility.Civility Overview

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Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life Review

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Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life Review"Biocapital" by Kaushik Sunder Rajan is an impressive book that offers a sophisticated analysis of the biotech industry. Written as an MIT graduate student well-grounded in Marxian economics and Foucauldian social theories, Mr. Rajan's ethnographic study compares and contrasts biotech companies in the U.S. and India to illuminate how industrial practices are shaped by a myriad of economic and cultural forces. Among the many insights produced in this fascinating study, the author convincingly demonstrates how the so-called 'life sciences' are representative of a new phase of capitalism that is characterized by the temporality of our postmodern time.
Mr. Rajan discusses how biotech is changing relationships and practices between public and private entities. He explains that high tech capitalism is dependent upon information in order to innovate and produce; traditionally, this service was fulfilled by publicly-funded research institutions. But the speed at which the biotech industry competes has blurred these boundaries; the race to map and "own" the human genome that pitted the National Institute of Health against Celera Genomics is a case in point. The author explores struggles over privacy and ownership rights, finding that governments are responding to these pressures by behaving more like corporations. For example, the U.S. has seen an explosion in partnerships between universities and private corporations while the Indian state has sought to retain genetic property rights for its public hospitals. In this sense, Mr. Rajan's narrative positions the biotech industry squarely in the vanguard of contemporary global economic and institutional change.
Mr. Rajan's extensive comparative analysis reveals how such dynamics play out in markedly different ways in local contexts. In the U.S., the author describes how messianic corporate leaders hype their miracle drugs as salvationary promise; venture capital sometimes finances ritualistic displays of excess that intends to inscribe corporate brands on the minds of investors and employees. The author explains that a reverence for free market capitalism and the fetish of personalized medicine compels investors to risk massive amounts of money on little more than the promise of scientific discovery. However, the process of calling the future into the present creates a tension between the promise and the reality, a problem that is addressed by corporate public relations departments -- including marketing campaigns that are aimed at introducing remedies for consumer patients-in-waiting at progressively earlier stages of intervention.
In India, Mr. Rajan traces technocapitalism to the postcolonial drive to invest in science as a path to empowering the independent state. Consequently, he finds that Indian entrepreneurship is much more conservative than in the U.S. In fact, many Indian companies tend to engage in production or research work on a contractual basis for western businesses. The author discusses how the ideal of the American free market is often balanced against socialist values that stress the sharing of scientific discovery to the benefit of the community, suggesting how struggles over the future of the Indian economy might be waged.
Interestingly, Mr. Rajan chose GeneEd as the major case study for the book in part because it highlights the experiences of Indian entrepreneurs working and living in the U.S. The fascinating narrative reveals how the hegemonic power of capitalism instills social meaning among workers who dedicate themselves to fulfilling the firm's mission. Yet the author finds age-old themes at play, such as the alienation of labor that resulted from the company's pursuit of a growth strategy that commodified some skill sets while valuing others. Despite the fact that GeneEd plays a peripheral industry role, the structural and cultural logics of biotech become visible to us thanks to Mr. Rajan's brilliantly perceptive and expert commentary. We learn how GeneEd might have evolved but was moved in a particular direction owing to a mix of external market forces and the specific decisions of its capable leadership team.
I highly recommend this book to demanding readers interested in an interdisciplinary perspective on technoscientific capitalism and its connection to our past, the present, and our many possible futures.Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life Overview

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Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World Review

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Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World ReviewAny book on worldliness faces a difficult challenge. The author who takes too firm a stand on issues may slip into legalism while the author who takes too lax a stand may slip into the worldliness he seeks to avoid. The discerning author will need to tread the line, being careful to say no more than Scripture does while still dealing effectively with issues of contemporary importance. Because such a book is long overdue I was pleased to see that Worldliness would be coming from C.J. Mahaney and those whom John Piper affectionately refers to as "his gang."
Mahaney handles the introductions in this book, beginning with a reflection called "Is This Verse in Your Bible?" He biblically defines worldliness saying that this world we're not supposed to love is "the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God." Worldliness is a love for this fallen world and, specifically, "to gratify and exalt oneself to the exclusion of God." Mahaney is careful to point out that worldliness is not extrinsic to us but intrinsic, inhabiting our fallen hearts. Worldliness does not consist of outward actions (though such actions can certainly be evidence of worldliness) but instead is a heart attitude that rebels against God. The antidote to worldliness is the cross of Christ. "Only through the power of the cross of Christ can we successfully resist the seduction of the fallen world." Worldliness dulls our affections for Christ and distracts our hearts from him. Hence it is so serious "because Christ is so glorious." While resisting worldliness is the theme of the book, its aim is to exalt Christ.
Each of the subsequent chapters is meant to build on this foundation. In "God, My Heart, and Media," Craig Cabaniss discusses issues related to the pervasiveness of media in our society. Cabaniss grounds the discussion in grace, saying "any discussion of biblical obedience, including entertainment guidelines, must spring from a robust understanding of grace." He offers the fair warning that we must guard our hearts as the conscience is prone to become dull over time. As we relax our standards and as we engage in ungodly media habits, our hearts may slowly become dulled to the things of Christ. He warns against the temptation to see anyone with stricter standards as us as legalistic while seeing anyone with more lenient standards as worldly. He encourages us to view proactively, to view accountably and to view gratefully.
In "God, My Heart, and Music," Bob Kauflin takes on the subject of music, beginning with the fact that music was God's idea long before it crossed the mind of any human. He states that "listening to music without discernment and godly intent reveals a heart willing to flirt with the world." Saying that music itself is amoral (there are no holy or unholy harmonies or melodies) he warns that music does convey three things: content, context and culture. The Christian will need to discern what is being communicated through the music he listens to in order to ensure that he is not, perhaps inadvertently, absorbing messages that would conflict with his Christian faith. Kauflin closes with some good thoughts on using music for the glory of God.
To this point I felt the book was excellent. Though in a work of this nature each of the chapters could be little more than a cursory introduction to what might have been a book-length project, I felt the authors did a great job of teaching, exhorting and illustrating while avoiding those perilous extremes of worldliness and legalism. Unfortunately I felt that Worldliness soon stalled out badly. And this is where the job of a book reviewer gets tough. What do you do when you like an author (or a group of authors) but just don't like the book they've produced?
The fourth chapter, entitled "God, My Heart, and Stuff" was authored by Dave Harvey. While I haven't ever met Dave (at least to my recollection) I have benefited from reading his book When Sinners Say 'I Do'. From my experience in reading that book I had high hopes for his contribution to this one. I was disappointed. While he addressed the heart so well in his book on marriage, in this case I found little of real depth. The next chapter, from the pen of C.J. Mahaney is titled "God, My Heart, and Clothes" and discusses the issue of modesty. It had very little application to men beyond stating that this is an issue for pastors and fathers to consider. Ultimately he provided a lot of quotes and a few good thoughts on modesty and encouraged women to dress properly. Both of the book's appendices carried on the theme, with "A Modesty Heart Check" and "Considering Modesty on Your Wedding Day." But this was a superficial look at modesty and one that offered little that we haven't heard C.J. and others say before. It did not take the issue of modesty to men (where modesty of heart and intention comes into play) but instead serves as just another encouragement to girls to check their neckline and test their hemline. Jeff Purswell concludes with a chapter titled "How to Love the World" in which he reminds the reader "To impart biblical discernment in areas that increasingly escape the scrutiny of the evangelical world so intent on 'relating to the culture.'" He offers a summary of redemptive history in the grid of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation and gives the reader a three-part charge: to enjoy the world, to engage the world and to evangelize the world. These last three chapters and the appendices were uniformly disappointing to me. I couldn't help but feel that they represented somewhat passionless efforts. Missing was the depth and intensity I'd expect from a book authored (or edited) by Mahaney.
Had I been hoping that this book might be another Humility or The Cross Centered Life, Worldliness would have been quite a disappointment. Though it got off to a strong start, it quickly tapered out. In the end it just seemed shallow--a work of far less depth and offering far less application than I'm accustomed to seeing from a book with Mahaney's name on the cover. It came across as a cobbled-together collection of essays of unequal value. I almost feel I should apologize when I say, it just isn't that good of a book.Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World Overview

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The Social Construction of What? Review

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The Social Construction of What ReviewThe Social Construction of What? marks Ian Hacking's first book-length foray into the pitched battle over the nature and status of the natural, medical and social sciences. It's a truly stunning work: elegant, analytical, insightful. It also represents a useful introduction to the various themes which characterise the collected work of arguably the greatest living philosopher of the Western world.
For the most part I endorse the thoughtful review sent in by the reader from London. I want to make a gentle amendment to her/his careful characterisation of the book. I'm not so sure that Hacking is 'Clearly on the side of the constructionists'. To put it thus is, of course, a useful corrective to the absurd implications of Daniel Johnson's review of this book in the New York Times Book Review. There Johnson tries to portray Hacking as sharing Johnson's own contempt for social constructionists, which Hacking clearly does not. But I see Hacking as doing something more than simply siding with one group against the other.
In this book Hacking carefully disentangles the various arguments being made by both parties in the culture/science 'wars'. Unlike those who indulge in knee-jerk scepticism about constructionism (a.k.a., many believe, 'postmodernism'), he finds much of value in the consciousness-raising motivations of social constructionists. He also applauds their attention to historical detail and their treatment of intellectual/theoretical pursuits like the natural and social sciences as ongoing social activities, with important, often unintended effects on our everyday lives. On the other hand, Hacking suspects that much of the current vogue for the language of social construction is simply a case of bandwagon-jumping, and explicitly states that he has seldom found that language useful in his own work. He does not hesitate to expose certain claims made by both sides as 'tomfoolery', but is careful in so doing to point out that there is an important kernel of insight in the reasoning of thinkers as starkly at odds as Steven Weinberg and Bruno Latour. As Hacking makes clear in his chapter on the natural sciences, there are important intuitions buried in the metaphysical convictions of scientists and constructionists. When it comes down to putting his money where his mouth is, Hacking's self-evaluation puts his own commitments squarely in the middle. He scores himself a 2, 3 and 4 out of 5 on the three 'sticking-points' that are at the heart of the disagreement over social construction in the sciences.
But is Hacking just sitting on the fence? I don't think so; in fact, I think he offers us a third way, so to speak. You get a taste of this third way in his discussions of 'interactive kinds', 'forms of knowledge', 'styles of reasoning', 'self-vindication', 'making up people', 'looping effects', and other unfamiliar concepts. These make up part of Hacking's own attempt to grapple with human knowledge, and they are subsumed by neither social constructionism nor mainstream analytic philosophy -- which isn't to say he hasn't drawn a lot from both.
A word to the prospective reader: be careful when interpreting Ian Hacking. His clear and polished prose can be deceptive. His own views are so sophisticated and fine-grained that it is easy to pigeon-hole him into irrelevant categories. But don't let that stop you from reading him yourself -- with some patience, you will find your efforts well rewarded.The Social Construction of What Overview

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Values-Driven Leadership: Discovering and Developing Your Core Values for Ministry Review

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Values-Driven Leadership: Discovering and Developing Your Core Values for Ministry ReviewAs a single adult pastor, I have been looking for a book that would be a guide in casting a vision for our ministry for the next 1, 3, and 5 years. Values Driven ministry does an excellent job of taking the reader back to see what drives a God-given vision--it is our biblically based values. (I strongly suggest you also read Malphurs' book: Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century--it is an incredible companion to this one).Since each of has been uniquely made in God's image we will "see" things differently and, yet, our biblically based values shape and are our basis for ministry. This is where in our uniqueness we are actually drawn together for the glory of God. The book does an excellent job of discussing in chronological order the following leadership and vision matters. CH.1: The Importance of Core Values; Ch. 2: The Definition of Core Values; Ch. 3: The Discovery of Core Values; Ch. 4: The Development of Core Values; Ch. 5: The Communication of Core Values; Ch. 6: The Implementation of Core Values; Ch. 7: The Preservation of Core Values. What is especially helpful is that both personal and corporate core values are blended together in discussion format. Two levels are being addressed at the same time; one, is to help leaders define their own personal vision for ministry; two, leaders are being guided to define their ministry's core values as well. This book has been an oasis for this thirsty pastor! I would have liked to have been able to study it in a seminary leadership class.Values-Driven Leadership: Discovering and Developing Your Core Values for Ministry Overview

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The Little Book of Plagiarism Review

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The Little Book of Plagiarism ReviewPlagiarism is not a legal offense in itself. Thus, you might think that Judge Richard Posner might not be the best of guides to it, even though he has written books about non-legal issues before. But plagiarism does sometimes include fraud, copyright infringement, theft, and unfair competition, issues that are clearly legal in nature. In _The Little Book of Plagiarism_ (Pantheon), Posner has turned a legal view onto the very gray areas of plagiarism, an offense that everyone thinks is bad, but which comes in many forms, each with variants that are not offenses at all. Plagiarism has been in the news a lot lately, with famous (or potentially famous) people damaged by the charge. In the digital age, plagiarism is easier, and so Posner has written a useful volume to guide logical thinking on a hot issue. It is indeed a little book, 109 pages of text, but there are plenty of big ideas here, expressed in pithy prose that calls out for re-reading just to appreciate its clarity and lack of superfluity.
People weren't always so picky. One of Posner's examples is that of Shakespeare's use of Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's description of Cleopatra's barge, which shows up in blank-verse paraphrase in _Antony and Cleopatra_. Posner includes both passages here, and it clear that Shakespeare really did borrow North, and also clear that Shakespeare's description is more colorful and fun to read. ("If this is plagiarism," jokes Posner, "we need more plagiarism.") If Shakespeare were writing today, he'd probably be in trouble for all his borrowed plots and characters. Plagiarism changes depending upon time, locale, and profession. So, how do we know when something is plagiarism and when it isn't? Posner suggests, among other things, that we evaluate the harm done. An example Posner returns to repeatedly is that of Kaavya Viswanathan whose novel _How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life_ came out in April 2006. She was a sophomore at Harvard University (Posner gives many examples from Harvard here, and maintains that plagiarism is no more common in that estimable school, just more conspicuous, and more enjoyed by the public when revealed). She got a half million dollar advance for her work and a film deal with DreamWorks. Attentive readers, however, found that there were passages that had been lifted from the work of a fellow "chick-lit" author Megan McCafferty. Viswanathan didn't do her readers any real harm; her book is as good as they found it. She didn't harm her publisher (until she was caught), and she herself brought any harmful consequences to herself. The harm is done to McCafferty, and not simply because McCafferty's words were lifted and re-used, but because by doing so, Viswanathan boosted herself up as a competitor within the chick-lit field, an unfair advantage.
So a key for finding plagiarism is finding that harm has been done, but Posner does not wish to see it among the harms dealt with by the criminal courts: "The harms it causes are too slight to warrant cranking up the costly and clumsy machinery of the criminal law", and often the harm is insufficient to crank up the civil courts, either. Viswanathan got her measure of "... disgrace, humiliation, ostracism, and other shaming penalties imposed by public opinion on people who violate social norms whether or not they are also legal norms." So did Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose, and Alan Dershowitz, whose cases are examined here. That high-profile authors would risk getting caught in such thefts is something that Posner cannot explain, but he does make the case that the digital technology which makes plagiarism particularly easy these days is also going to make it more detectable. There are programs on the market like Turnitin which are doing better sleuthing for plagiarism than any professor or general reader. Thousands of colleges license the program; Harvard doesn't, and Posner accuses it of being naïve. Turnitin looks for similar passages in previous works, especially those on the web (and remember that many quotations from modern books are found on the web, even if full books are not). The program also looks for similarities within papers that have been submitted to it for inspection before. Publishers aren't themselves using such programs much yet, because they would simply rather not know beforehand, but Little, Brown lost plenty on the Viswanathan affair. Posner says, "We may be entering the twilight of plagiarism." It is a rewarding intellectual amusement to share Posner's thinking about the subject, which presents plagiarism with penetrating originality.
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The Moral Imperative of School Leadership Review

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The Moral Imperative of School Leadership ReviewFullan does an excellent job of organizing school leadership into achievable levels of success. He starts with making a difference within individuals, then the school/district, followed by making a difference regionally and finally the greatest impact on school leadership and the society as a whole. Fullan discusses barriers to these accomplishments and challenges, and portrays the principalship as the key to this moral imperative.
This book serves as an outstanding resource to any leader that is trying to bring about large-scale improvement in their organization. It is the school leaders role to change the context within schools and Fullan outlines a process to do just that.The Moral Imperative of School Leadership Overview

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Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living Review

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Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living ReviewI saw this book one day when I was browsing Franklin Covey planners in the mall. It had been awhile since I read something not business related so I thought I'd give this a shot. I'll be honest when I tell you I enjoy a good read but this book took me about one year to read from beginning to end. The first few chapters weren't too bad but then it got into a section about a debate between two philosophers on the definition of virtue and why one should practice a virtuous life. I've never read anything that mentally straining in my life (my degree is in Mechanical Engineering BTW). I enjoy the arts but that one section took me about a month before I could fully digest what the philosophers were saying in the span of less than 2 pages. This one section proved so enlightening that my head hurt for about 2 days after I had a chance to chew on the content. If you had any doubts that the founding forefathers of this great nation were anything but geniuses, this should dispell any and all myths. I must say that I even had to break out the dictionary for some of the diction used in this book in that it was definitely not your everyday conversational english. If you enjoy mental challenges of a higher level and your mastery of the English language is proficient enough to understand the fine nuances of sentence structure and double, sometimes triple meanings, I would recommend this book. If you're looking for something a little more entertaining and easier on the mind, then definitely look somewhere else. But I will admit, when I did finally complete this book one year later, I actually felt a major sense of accomplishment. I guess that makes me just a little more virtuous?Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue: His Formula for Successful Living Overview

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Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World Review

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Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World ReviewThis is a great book. I've read several books on this topic, and so far, they have all had a similar issue: They are written by people who are scientists first, writers second. This book has two authors. One is a scientist and the other is a science writer. This made for a well put-together, understandable explanation of complex adaptive systems, which are what ecosystems are currently understood to be.
The authors have done a few things to make the book great. First, they have broken the topic down into a set of subtopics, with one chapter explaining each subtopic. At the end of each chapter is a summary of important points so it's clear what the authors are hoping you get out of the chapter. Each chapter is then followed by a case study that is used to illustrate the ideas just covered.
If you are looking for an introductory book on ecosystems and how humans affect their ability to maintain themselves, this is the book to read. The authors also provide several good resources at the end of the book if you would like to expand your knowledge further.Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World Overview

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The Ethics of Authenticity Review

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The Ethics of Authenticity ReviewThis is a short and powerful book. The frequent references to Taylor's "Sources of the Self" may indicate that it is a mere introduction to the longer work, but I feel that it stands well alone.
Taylor, a Canadian, observes the conservative-liberal debate in America from an outsider's position. He is able to distance himself from the rhetoric, vocabulary, and narrow categories of this debate. I found his insights well worth consideration.
In essence, Taylor attempts to redefine the debate. His concerns are threefold. First, radical individualism has disavowed most moral absolutes, eroded the meaningfulness of life, and resulted in a centripetal self-orientation that denigrates relational connectiveness. Secondly, Taylor is concerned that modern thought has become dominated by a reason that finds the highest good in the economic maximizing of ends. This "instrumental reason" demeans others as mere means to an end, disregards important perspectives that are not integral to the cost/benefit equation, and creates a technological supremacy that may cost us our humanity. Thirdly, Taylor is concerned that institutions have embraced instrumental reason as supreme and creating a power-base that may stand in the way of reform.
Most of this book deals exclusively with Taylor's thoughts on the first of these concerns. Conservatives will be upset that Taylor does not call for a return to older values and older worldviews. Instead, he accepts the modern emphasis on individualism and the corollaries of self-fulfillment and self-actualization. He parts with these liberal ideals by arguing that the centripetal self-focus can only find meaning outside of the self. Discovery of my originality and uniqueness is a dialogical process (with others, values, or deity) that demands an objective "horizon."
Hence, my definition of Taylor's authenticity is the dialogical discovery of my "being." Others are not used to complete my project, but are collaborators and partners. Together we work to throw off the shackles of psychological, institutional, and familial pressures to conform. Freedom from these shackles is not license to abuse, but becomes ground to assume responsibility for self without excuse. Radical individualism escapes meaninglessness only in dialogic connectedness and assumption of personal responsibility.
In my view, the ethics of authenticity are much needed. I hope this book finds many receptive readers.The Ethics of Authenticity Overview

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Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality Review

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Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality ReviewI was fortunate to have had this text while a seminarian at St. Patrick's Seminary, where Fr. Gula was a professor and dean. Fr. Gula's book takes a critical look at the various strains of thought in Catholic morality/ethics. By critical, I mean that he examines the major ideas, points out their strong points and weak points, and puts them within the context of Catholic teaching and Tradition. Since having left the seminary, I have had occasion to refer to this book as a reference for religious education and discussions with friends.Reason Informed by Faith: Foundations of Catholic Morality Overview

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Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples Review

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Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples ReviewLooking at Western research practices from the 'underside' of a positivist paradigm deeply entrenched and diffused throughout public and private educational, governmental, and corporate tentacles, Linda Tuhiwai Smith is a Maori (New Zealand) intellectual presenting a counter-methodological narrative stemming from a collective indigenous historical cynicism and whose voice bespeaks the refusal to be objectified by an inherently racist and imperialist mode of constructing knowledge and re-presentations of non-Western peoples. Deconstructing Western research paradigms is simply an act of defiance and resistance for Smith, particularly since she constructs a radical alternative methodology rooted in self-determination, social justice, intellectual property rights, and active participation in all knowledge-making, contributions to the research processes, and dissemination of 'findings'. The exigency of articulating a research methodology aimed at critical praxis for Western and non-Western peoples interested in indigenous issues emerges at a point where globalization and neo-liberal imperial practices and investments are opening new spaces for the unilateral and/or predominant benefit of Western research regimes that continue capitalizing and objectifying indigenous peoples through racist and incorrigible projects that erase human dignity, i.e. Human Genome Diversity Project.
The book can strategically be divided into two main sections: the first section explores the contemporary and historical legacy of an imperial tryst between Western scientific, economic, and ideological formations shaping relations with alterity (Chapters 1-5); the second section outlines a radical alternative methodology for conducting research on indigenous peoples and issues (Chapters 6-9). The first chapter reveals the 'Enlightenment' and positivist threads that weave imperialism, history, writing, and theoretical practices that continue to shape current research and socio-political policies on an international level. Smith states: 'research within late-modern and late-colonial conditions continues relentlessly and brings with it a new wave of exploration, discovery, exploitation, and appropriation' (24). Deconstructing the historical legacy of imperial practices is also a call for rewriting and rerighting history with indigenous perspectives. The second chapter outlines the Baconian processes by which Westerners come to view the world as a standing reserve of objects for empirical inquiry, discursive appropriation, and mimetic comportment processes aimed at subjugating and 'controlling' nature and indigenous peoples with an intellectual will to power stemming from racist ideologues who trace some form of theoretical lineage back to Bacon, Kant, Hegel, Hume and others. Borrowing from Stuart Hall, this process moves from classification of the world and others, to collapsing images for a convenient system of representation, to presenting a reified model for comparative analysis, and, finally, establishing criteria for hierarchical positionality. Chapter three delves further into deconstructing research, as viewed through imperial eyes, and how this methodology produced a self-perpetuating apparatus comprised of multifarious disciplines for the construction and future survival of colonial 'knowledge' and all those who invest in these truth regimes that purport to be 'universal', 'neutral', objectively sound, and constructed on a foundation of 'absolute certainty'.
Chapter four and five highlight many instances of how imperial research regimes continue to invest in the discursive and 'scientific' construction, re-presentation, and exploitation of indigenous peoples for profit and social control. The globe has become one large information colony where research is the means to inscribe social and ideological control and Westernized fabrications of history on the backs of indigenous peoples around the world. The most infamous example of how the imperial research regime continues to exist is through scientific projects stemming from private corporate entities mainly subsidized by governments. The Human Genome Diversity Project attempts to subjugate indigenous peoples by mapping and reifying DNA and possessing it as 'intellectual property' for future use. The attempt to patent the genetic make-up of the Hagahai people (New Guinea) by the U.S. government is indisputable proof of how these scientific projects threaten the future, autonomy, and human rights of indigenous peoples.
The second part of the book focuses on constructing an indigenous alternative to decolonize indigenous peoples from Western regimes of research based on emergent tribal social issues, practices, and beliefs. The center of this decolonizing project is constructed through Polynesian metaphors of 'space-time'. The center of social activity and identity is an archipelago comprised of self-determination in terms of tribal autonomy on a social, economic, and research level, as well as the full participation in inter-tribal and inter-national relations. Healing, decolonization, transformation, and mobilization are the four main 'directions' that frame the spaces of this project. Survival, recovery, and development are the main 'tides' that connect and transform all directionality of the project. This methodology is intended to transform indigenous peoples from passive objects in Western research to active-participants in an indigenous process of reconfiguring themselves and the world around them. Respect becomes the main affective principle for the survival of indigenous peoples and the project: 'through respect, the place of everyone, and everything in the universe is kept in balance and harmony'the denial by the West of humanity to indigenous peoples, the denial of citizenship and human rights, the denial of the right to self-determination'all these demonstrate palpably the enormous lack of respect which has marked the relations of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples' (120). Without respect, there is no dignity.
Chapter seven outlines a means of articulating such a project to indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and the challenges associated with it. Chapter eight provides a list of current indigenous research projects. Chapter nine provides a case study of the Maori peoples in which the method outlined in chapter six was put into practice. Chapter ten details with the methodological transformation of passive objects to active agents and lists tactics for strengthening and sustaining critical research for decolonizing processes.
Generally, when the researched become researchers, self-determination and healing can take place, communities can create and control research processes and the subsequent naming of the world, and they can define their relationship with others and the environment.
If a critical theroetical/methodological 'flaw' or problematic of this decolonial methodology exists, it might come to presence from a post-structural disdain for outlining a process by which people can 'liberate' themselves from Western imperialist research regimes. But then again, post-structural thought is mainly a Western construction and/or response to
'modernity' and its discontents.Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples Overview

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Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics Review

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Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics ReviewI never would have thought that I would come across a work of non-fiction that I couldn't put down, but here it is!
Fascinating and thought provoking, in Rethinking Life and Death, Singer shows how and why the western world has already started moving away from the Judeo-Christian sanctity of human life ethic. He sites the emphasis on 'brain death' and the acceptance of Galileo's discovery that we (humans) are not the center of the universe as the beginnings of the break down of this ethical system.
Singer reports where many western nations currently fall both legally and in mainstream medical practice with regard to controversial topics including abortion, infanticide, stem cell research, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. Furthermore, Singer uses well-reasoned logical arguments to show why these current interpretations of the sanctity of human life ethic are unsustainable.
In the last section of this book, Singer presents a working model for a new quality of life ethic and effortlessly shows how they would apply to situations in which our traditional ethic yields unsatisfactory results. Additionally, Singer shows the practical and moral justification for his most controversial stance - acceptance of infanticide.
One thing I really thought was magnificent about this book is that, while Singer obviously supports a shift to whole-hearted acceptance of a quality of life ethic, he doesn't insist that as a reader you agree with him. Singer leaves perfectly open the door of maintaining a sanctity of (all) life ethic; he just makes sure the reader understands the consequences of such an ethic in its pure and unadulterated form.
Once again, I have to compliment Singer on his amazing writing style. This book really reads more like a novel than a work of non-fiction. At the end of each section I was left on the edge of my seat, wondering what Singer would bring up next! Needless to say, I was never disappointed. Singer has wonderful wit and is equally critical of all sides of the argument. He also includes many telling narratives that make Rethinking Life and Death both entertaining and truly enlightening.
It is in no way surprising that many religious types will condemn this book. After reading Rethinking Life and Death, there is only one reasonable conclusion that one can come to: the Judeo-Christian sanctity of human life ethic is logically and morally indefensible. As individuals we can certainly choose to put our heads in the sand and ignore the problem, but as Singer states, "The question is not whether [the Judeo-Christian sanctity of human life ethic] will be replaced, but what the shape of its successor will be."Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics Overview

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Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability Review

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Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability ReviewThis book offers the following important insights:
"Just Culture" is an abstract phrase, which in practice, means that getting to an account of failure that can both satisfy demands for accountability while contributing to learning and improvement.
Professionals in safety critical industries receive two messages, "Don't ever compromise safety!" but also, "Be productive, don't cost us money!"
Reasons why professionals report, and reasons why they don't
Suggestions for improving reporting rates (maximizing accessibility and minimizing anxiety, sending feedback about what has been changed in light of the report)
The results of a reporting system where employees report to their direct supervisor versus a member of the safety/quality staff
The difference between disclosure and reporting
The categorization of errors as either technical or normative (and how the same actions before an outcome can be labeled as either, depending on who draws the line in your organization)
The pervasiveness of hindsight bias and suggestions for how to minimize it's effect on decisions made from reporting
The definition of negligence and how it can be interpreted differently by looking at the actual words in the definition
The book also delves deeply into the legal ramifications of incident reporting. This is very interesting for the policy wonks among us; less so for those who are looking to this book for practical suggestions for implementing a "just culture" in their organization.
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On Bullshit Review

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On Bullshit ReviewI got this book after seeing Prof. Frankfurt on the Daily Show with John Stewart. Having a bachelors degree in philosophy I was intrigued. Here are some of my observations:
1) This book is not traditionally funny. If you are looking for a joke book get one, this is a work of philosophy and as such has a degree of intellectual humor. Some of the observations and comments are funny but overall this is not a joke book, rather it is designed with a specific philosophical purpose... (he's an "ivy league" Philosophy Professor and published by Princeton)
2) Very short but to the point. I read the whole book in less than an hour. That being said there is a lot of content which deserves meaningful reflection... its one of those books that you will probably end up going "ahhh haaa" at least at one point.
3) Inexpensive. Its under ten bucks... some may say that its pricey for such a small book but if you enjoy it, whose to say what the intrinsic value will be to you down the road.
4) Warning... this is not the most complex or even dense piece of philosophy. Certainly its not like reading Hegel or another "headache philosopher" but this is a work of philosphy. As long as you know that going into this there should be no problems. A friend of mine read this book thinking it would be comical and fun, almost expecting jokes and punch-lines... he was disappointed.
The last thing I will say is that I really enjoyed the book and I can imagine many people really reading this book a couple of times and really liking it. I am already recommending it to some of my friends and lawschool professors... If you do decide to buy this book... ENJOY!On Bullshit Overview

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Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life Review

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Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life ReviewThis book presents a process of analytical thinking that will help you make rational decisions. It also presents many thinking exercises you can apply immediately. Of great importance is the author's descriptions of how the brain tricks itself into making wrong decisions.
The writing is very readable and generally keeps you riveted to the material. However, you must frequently stop and think about the ramifications of what the author is presenting. Each sentence, paragraph, section, chapter is deeply thought out. There is great detail and information to consider.
The exercises were useful, although there were a few that were too simplistic. Sometimes the exercises were too repetitive to material just presented in the text (repetition of the same questions, in the same order). But overall, the exercises were most valuable and I will probably return there on later readings of this book.
There is one reviewer of this book that took issue with the sections discussing how to analyze controversial issues. I had the same reservations. After presenting detailed logic on how to think through issues objectively, I thought the authors let their own anarchist biases effect their proposed analyses of controversial issues, turning these sections into a rhetoric for their political positions. If they had said that their logic was just one analysis of the issues then that would be OK, but instead they presented their controversial analyses as the correct one. These really detracted from the power of the material as I thought of many poor assumptions made on their part.
But fortunately, the political rhetoric and controversial issues section of the book was small... at most 2 chapters.
However, there is so much to like about this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn a process for critical thinking. It is so easy for our minds to let non-rational factors determine our decisions. Worse, we often don't realize that our mind is playing tricks on ourselves. And, this is to our detriment.
By applying the authors' rules and exercises you can help catch this flawed, mostly ego-centric thinking while its still in the midst of a crime.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TXCritical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life Overview

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Manifesto for Philosophy: Followed by Two Essays: "the (Re)Turn of Philosophy Itself" and "Definition of Philosophy" (Suny Series, Intersections, Philosophy and Critical Theory) Review

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Manifesto for Philosophy: Followed by Two Essays: "the (Re)Turn of Philosophy Itself" and "Definition of Philosophy" (Suny Series, Intersections, Philosophy and Critical Theory) ReviewIf anything, Badiou's book poses a serious challenge to the dominance of Heidegger in continental philosophy today. Philosophy can never announce its own end, the end of philosophy. Neither can philosophy pretend to lose itself in the linguistic turn, in the shift from logic and reason to poetry. Philosophy, Badiou argues, must be distinguished from sophistry. Just as Plato founded philosophy from the thralls of sophism of his age, we too must recapture the 'Platonism' of philosophy in an age of anti-Platonism. Badiou's middle course between Plato, on one hand, and the likes of Heidegger and Deleuze, on the other hand, proposes the ideal of philosophy that is not-yet and, more importantly, not reducible to extreme conclusions, i.e., the rejection of philosophy as a dead endeavor. Philosophy is not the antithesis of sophism, and in this the true opposed to the false, but Badiou contends that sophism is a necessary partner of philosophy. In this schema, philosophy must be distinguished from sophism; that is, we must uphold a conception of truth, or rather, of truths. Philosophy seeks the truth in the plural, truth as multiple but which is nevertheless truth and not relative 'truth.'
In 'Manifesto,' Badiou engages with the dominant currents of philosophy today in order to reimagine the possibility of philosophy despite the skeptics. In the anglo-american vs. continental split in contemporary philosophy, one is often left to choose two impossible alternatives: logic or poetry. In 'Manifesto' Badiou opens up another way, a way that is a return to that which has always been with us all along.Manifesto for Philosophy: Followed by Two Essays: "the (Re)Turn of Philosophy Itself" and "Definition of Philosophy" (Suny Series, Intersections, Philosophy and Critical Theory) Overview

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Introduction to Paradigms: Overview, Definitions, Categories, Basics, Optimizing Paradigms & Paradigm Engines Review

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Introduction to Paradigms: Overview, Definitions, Categories, Basics, Optimizing Paradigms & Paradigm Engines ReviewIn my view, this is a Nobel Peace Prize level of reflection that demands broad digestion. This is USEFUL.
I was immediately impressed by the early portion of the book, at which point I went to the back and reviewed the bibliography, which is an impressive mix of philosophical, scientific, documented conspiracy, and systems thinking.
The author takes the trouble to describe his bouncing around different school systems, which is a completely credible way of explaining how he came early on to understand that most teachers are teaching belief rather than reality.
The book provides an easily-read clear-cut solution for eradicating the ten high-level threats identified by the United Nations (LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft representing the USA). This book is a perfect complement to [Collapse of Complex Societies]. I am especially taken with how the author shows paradigms in all their relevance to the human condition and to optimizing society.
There are 23 figures, all of them helpful to the architects of the EarthGame(tm) who wish to focus on reality including the charting of belief systems as they differ from reality.
The author teaches us that paradigms, and the ability to think in paradigmatic terms, are essential to:
1) Achieve the desired outcomes efficiently; and
2) AVOID the bias, corruption, disinformation, manipulation, and withholding of information that is so characteristic of Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids and The Pathology of Power - A Challenge to Human Freedom and Safety.
The purpose of paradigms is to help human manipulate (sic) the environment. The author states and only one in ten thousand understands what a paradigm is, and laments the reality that when a paradigm in power (e.g. the neoconservative paradigm) does not parallel reality, humanity suffers in catastrophic terms.
The author points out that the prevailing Machiavellian paradigm of exploiting people continues to displace the more appropriate non-violent collaborative community paradigms of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela.
His list of failing paradigms is extraordinary; in the comments section I provide a link to my own Op-Ed on this matter written before I bought this book. He specifies:
*Education
*Employment
*National Debt
*Environment
*Food Supply
*Sick Care
*Exclusive versus Inclusive Society
*Failure of the Communist Model (allows immoral capitalism to avoid social costs)
*Event manipulation, disinformation, and cover-up.
Separately the author discusses the failure of the US financial paradigm of debt, arms subsidies, and foreign adventurism that are all unaffordable and unsustainable. The Comptroller General of the USA agrees with him, and recently informed Congress that the USA is officially "insolvent." I am NOT making this up.
The author describes paradigms as essential sense-making, pattern detecting, anomaly isolating frames of reference, and tells us there are four categories:
1) Action
2) Communication
3) Information
4) Societal
Paradigms, the author tells us, consist of factors and relationships and are best maintained by:
1) Optimizing the Truth Quotient
2) Keeping it current
3) Eliminating bias
4) Retiring & replacing as needed
Only paradigmatic thinking (along with reading, writing, mathematics, and ethics) should be taught. People need to learn how to take a "360° look" at any issue, and to recognize competing paradigms and belief systems.
The author tells us that today's real battle is not over or between paradigms, but among the larger existential challenges to Humanity:
1) Truth versus Deception
2) Survival versus Extinction
3) Enlightenment versus Exploitation
4) Living the Dream versus the Nightmare of Subsistence
5) Doing Your Thing versus Doing Someone Else's Thing
Human integrate four distinct forms of knowing and doing:
1) Body
2) Mind
3) Spirit
4) Emotion
Perceptions are biases by
1) Dimensionality
2) Paradigm filters
3) Perceptors
4) Vested interests
Efficacy is the only proof of a paradigm. The following are NOT "proof" of a paradigm: authority, legislation, logic, conviction, eloquence, poetry, rhetoric, polemics, magic tricks, ridicule, ad hominum attacks, cartoons, art, theatrics, hysteria, religion, terrorism, extortion, monopoly, fanaticism, science, law suits, nor mathematics.
Four primary paradigms that are in competition but can also be blended:
1) Authoritarian
2) Scientist
3) Empiricist (engineer that "does")
4) New Age
The author states that children have a right to be taught the truth and be taught unbiased paradigms.
Among the most terribly failed paradigms in USA the author cites, in addition to health, the Federal Reserve which usurps the Constitutional role of the US Treasury; the abdication by Congress of its Article 1 responsibilities (see The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy) andBreach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders; and the war on drugs, which is actually a profit-making enterprise for off the books operations (see Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth')
The author ends on an optimistic note, but states that at this time more information is being withheld (unlawfully) from citizens, than is available to citizens. Quite right.
He posits the need to balance among the social roles of dreamer, seeker, exploiter, consumer, referee, and operator, while hoping for the eradication of the perverter (see The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 and Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency)
He ends by defining how to optimize society, suggesting that only four basic skills are needed: reading & writing; mathematics; computer & communications technology end-user skill; and the ability to recognize & evaluate paradigms. He lists 12 occupational categories of importance to a society:
1) Food producer
2) Shelter builder
3) Species reproducer/maintainer
4) Dimensionality increaser
5) Paradigm teacher
6) Environmental preserver
7) Artifact builder
8) External societal defender
9) Internal societal greaser
10) Trader
11) Entertainer
12) Personal fixer (in his view, an honest society with open books and proper health care would eliminate the need for most doctors, lawyers, and accountants).
This is a very serious book by a very serious intellect. It could have "break-out" consequences as we move forward with the EarthGame(tm) and I certainly commend the book to anyone seeking to reflect on how we can displace all the liars and thieves that we have elected or allowed to run corporations that are publicly traded.
See also
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
Introduction to Paradigms: Overview, Definitions, Categories, Basics, Optimizing Paradigms & Paradigm Engines Overview

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