If you don't know who Jurgen Habermas is, then you've got some learning to do. Honestly, when I have been exposed to Habermas in classes I took long ago, the context did not engender a receptive attitude toward him. But it seems that there are number of ideas that he has that may be useful to us as a global society. But I digress.
First, I don't know how many Tipsters have Twitter accounts but I wonder how many have been "twitterjacked", that is, learn that there is a twitter account the claims to be yours when in fact it is someone else. Habermas was twitterjacked with tweets containing quotes from his writings. Turns out the fake twitter account was set-up by a Brazilian Ph.D. student studying politics in the US. The student has not provided his real name or where he is studying (his Ph.D. program might take a serious interest is such activities -- what kind of ethical breech is it to make believe you're some you're not on the internet? What Would The APA Say and Do?) Anyway, an interesting article in the Financial Times highlights the twitterjacking as well as interviews Habermas, putting some of his ideas into historical and contemporary context; see: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eda3bcd8-5327-11df-813e-00144feab49a.html Regarding psychological content, Habermas was a student of Theodor Adorno of Authoritarian Personality fame (and an example of the importance of having your last name start with an "A"), about whom Habermas has a few things to say. I came across this article because I was looking for material on Martin Heidegger (about whom Habermas has few kind words to say), who is the subject of a couple of books reviewed in today's Sunday NY Time book review; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/books/review/Kirsch-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1&pagewanted=all Heidegger, a rehabilitated Nazi, is somewhat in vogue in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, in part for his ideas on intentionality;see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionality and http://www.jstor.org/pss/2108053 and, perhaps of greatest interest to psychologists because it provides a perspective on the development of cognitive science in the second half of the 20th century, is this paper by Hubert Dreyfus on Heidegger and Heideggerian AI: http://leidlmair.at/doc/WhyHeideggerianAIFailed.pdf The books reviewed in the NY Times focus on Heidegger's Nazi activities and the extent to which his philosophical viewpoint was used to support a Nazi ideology. Given the influence Heidegger has had on cognitive science, either directly or indirectly (Dreyfus points out how Heidegger's concerns are manifested in various theories and research programs even though Heidegger is not cited), is there a problem in using Heidegger's writing and ideas? How much should one emphasize his Nazi past? Or should we just ignore the whole situation and do our work or twitterjack account of famous psychologists (is Skinner tweeting these days?). Oh, Happy Mother's Day, y'all! -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2544 or send a blank email to leave-2544-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
