On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 8:57 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ian introduced a new topic that is entitled to a subject title of its own. > At his blog, Brad DeLong discussed the topic under the long-winded and > all-capitalized title of "BUT WE MUST DO THE WRONG THING!": UNDERSTANDING > THE "ECONOMIC" ARGUMENTS AGAINST DEALING WITH GLOBAL WARMING. Meanwhile, a > commission has been set up called the "Global Commission on the Economy and > Climate" which will conclude in a report next year that "the purported > choice between economic growth and battling climate change 'is a false > dilemma,'" It's always good idea to make up your mind about the results of > your study before you actually undertake it. That way you're less likely to > be confused by facts. > > Facts? Did I say facts? The two articles below discuss the rather pertinent > issue of which facts are relevant and which are not. =================== The problems of backwards chaining-backwards induction and modus ponens as well as the underdetermination of policy options by evidence [Warren Samuels] have always been with us, no? It would be nice to have lots of folks on board with respect to the [always contested] virtues of forward chaining, but evolution on this planet just can't be bothered with such fragile human centered epistemic practices; the planet is going to keep on doing it's shit. Indeed this may be what the kapitalists throw back with ever greater fervor in the face of radicals who think we can come up with social systems that complement rather than wreck the staggering variety of ecosystem dynamics of the next century-5k years; that is, the secularized version of the impassibility of god. Indeed, Gregory Bateson pointed out this problem many years ago in "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" in his comments on St. Paul. We're way past the "benign indifference of the universe" problem of Camus and the existentialists. E. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
