Stephen Straker wrote:
>
> Concerning this exchange about expertise and the future --
>
> > Durant wrote:
> > > Engineers can get things wrong even when they are working in the
> > > field where they are experts; ...
> > > we cannot delegate an elite to create our future ... in response to Jay:
> > > > We should "draft" the best system engineers in the country then let
> > > >them design the system. It's the last chance we have.to which Brad respondss:
> > Surely engineers can help us clarify ...
> > And, as citizens, engineers can have valuable input ...
> > But the key thing ... is that ... objectives ...
> > enhance opportunities for *every* person actively to participate
> > in the process ... and then quotes Fredric Jameson (1991) ...
> > The setting of social priorities --
> > also known in the socialist literature as planning --
> > would have to be a part of such a collective project. ... --->
>
> It all puts me in mind of the vision set out by Lewis Mumford in TECHNICS
> AND CIVILIZATION (1932) and in later works. He even had the courage to
> reduce this vision to slogans, suitable for placards:
[snip]
> As the world seems to be cycling back towards the 1890s (or perhaps
> worse), it may be that a visionary from the 1930s has something to say!
>
> Any views on Mumford? Perhaps a critique of Mumford would be a
> foundation on which to build?
[snip]
How can there be too many minds and hands among those
living and no longer living, the traces
they have left us in texts, endeavoring to
do good work? If *I* didn't mention Mumford, it's because of
the "perspectival" nature of human existence: you can only
look at one thing at a time, which means *not* looking at
a lot of other things at that moment.
My only comment would be to pluralize that phrase:
"visionary from the 1930s", to include, e.g., Husserl (as
interpreted, e.g., in Enzo Paci's apparently little known
but remarkable book: _The Function of the Sciences and the
Meaning of Man_). "We have never yet really been
modern." -- but (in my opinion) seem to be off on
a bunch of "Holzwege" like "postmodernism", brain
physics, etc.
Mumford I'd forgotten about. How many constructive
authors haven't I even heard about? (But I would
still be willing to wager that, added all together,
the sum total of their both their
"headcount" and their printed output may not amount
to even one percent of the total, alas.)
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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