vol 3: Development
cap 1: Epistemology
page 5: Honesty
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Honesty
Physics
Am I telling the truth? Or am I deceiving you? I say there is no conscious deceit here. I am trying to express my ideas as clearly and straightforwardly as possible. Nevertheless, I might be communicating something false. Clearly conscious and unconscious deceit play a significant role in life.
Deceit in communication is possible because, in general, a communication is abstract. The information shared by two communicating entities is only a fraction of the information available within the entities. Assuming I write 10 and you read 100 words per minute, the bandwidth of this written channel lies between about 10 and 100 bits per second.
Yet we know that in our minds as I encode and you decode, millions of neurons are interacting over millions of channels: the bandwidth of the minds encoding and decoding this message are many orders of magnitude greater than the bandwidth of this communication channel. Only a very compressed versions of our brain states can be communicated by writing. Many of the details are unspeakable.
This situation does not arise, we believe, in the physical world. Here we find that particles are created and annihilated as they communicate. Zee In other words, they communicate their complete internal states to one another. This suggests that all the fundamental particles understand themselves perfectly and communicate their meanings exactly.We return to this idea in the pages on physics.
Biology
Physical particles may be too simple to deceive one another, but it is otherwise with living things. Since the physical world is limited, whereas reproduction has no limits, living creatures must, at least in times of scarcity, compete for the resources to live. Deceit has a role here. An important factor affecting survival is productivity, the ratio of the return from an action (like a nice meal) to its cost (days of hunting). If one can increase ones productivity by deceit, deceit will become part of the survivors repertoire. It is not surprising that all sorts of deceit are inclined to enter our interpersonal trade.
Morality
The protocols of behaviour put in place by evolution are supplemented in living communities by social protocols learned after birth. The function of these protocols is to enable individuals to live cooperatively. Honest communication serves to preserve the integrity of a society which delivers benefits to its members in terms of security, nutrition, health and so on. So we often find deception deprecated: 'its a sin to tell a lie'; 'honesty is the best policy'. As far as we are allowed to go is the poker face, the 'no comment'. This moral precept is based on the observation that deception leads to the breakdown of society.
Politics
Highly organized deceit, by secrecy, 'spin doctoring' and even straight out lies is an endemic feature of politics, and seems to have been throughout history, giving rise to the dictum 'power corrupts'. The problem lies in abstraction. Politicians are trying to promote course of action which will be adequately acceptable to their constituency. If they, fail, they are likely to lose their jobs. Since it is very hard to get large numbers of people to agree on anything, the temptation to deception may be very strong.
Honesty
How do we judge whether a source is honest? There is no easy way, but we can learn a little by considering the interests of the source. We are all inclined to doubt people extolling their own virtues and denigrating their opposition. It is in their interest to do so, and so expected. On the other hand, if we want to increase the probability that politicians, governors, company directors and people in general are acting honestly, it is customary to exclude them from decisions in which they have an interest.
My inerest
I have an interest in this site. Ultimately I would like to make a living out of it which, in internet business, means attracting traffic. My aim is to attract traffic honestly, by developing a product which is worth your time to read.
Books
| Bateson, Gregory, and Mary Catherine Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution and Anthropology, University of Chicago Press 2000 Jacket: 'This collection amounts to a retrospective exhibition of a working life. ... Bateson has come to this position during a career that carried him not only into anthropology, for which he was first trained, but into psychiatry, genetics, and communication theory. He ... examines the nature of the mind, seeing it not as a nebulous something, somehow lodged in the body of each man, but as a network of interactions relating the individual with his society and his species and with the universe at large.' D W Harding, New York Review of Books Amazon back |
| Bell, John S, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics, Cambridge University Press 1987 Jacket: JB ... is particularly famous for his discovery of a crucial difference between the predictions of conventional quantum mechanics and the implications of local causality ... This work has played a major role in the development of our current understanding of the profound nature of quantum concepts and of the fundamental limitations they impose on the applicability of classical ideas of space, time and locality. Amazon back |
| Collins, Paul, Papal Power: A Proposal for Change in the Catholicism's Third Millennium, HarperCollinsReligious 1997 Jacket: 'The papacy of the Roman Catholic Church is the world's oldest continuous institution. Paul Collins, historian and inveterate Vatican watcher, has looked beyond the details of this astonishing parade of over 260 popes to uncover the dynamics of papal power. ... He traces the developments in theory and reality that have led to a modern papacy that exercises virtually sole and total rule over the world's largest religious community. Collins' provocative ... study proposes a new model in the Catholic Church as it enters its third millennium - one that would allow all Catholics to participate in the work and decision-making of the Church.' Amazon back |
| Goebbels, Paul Joseph, and (Translated and Edited by Fred Taylor), The Goebbels Diaries 1939-1941: The historical journal of a Nazi war leader , Sphere 1983 Jacket: 'The Voice of War. Dr Paul Josef Goebbels was the voice of Hitler's Germany. As Minister for Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment, heused his savage journalistic skills to glorify the Third Reich and justify its policies to the world. These grimly compelling diaries cover the the crucial years between the last months of peace in 1939 and the invasion of Russa in 1941. Cruel and sentimental, a tireless exponent of the twisted dogma he helped to refine, Goebbels emerges from these pages as a perverted idealist, an inspired man of straw.' Amazon back |
| Harrison, Kate, and Anne Cossins, Documents, Dossiers and the inside dope: A practical guide to Freedom of Information law, Allen and Unwin 1993 Amazon back |
| Jaynes, Julian, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Haughton Mifflin 1990 Jacket: 'At the heart of this book is the revolutionary idea that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but is a learned process brought into being out of an earlier hallucinatory mentality by cataclysm and catastrophe only 3000 years ago and still developing.' Amazon back |
| Kutchins, Herb, and Stuart A Kirk, Making Us Crazy: DSM: The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders, The Free Press 1997 Jacket: 'What makes a person crazy? Nowadays it's the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV). For many mental health professionals, the DSM is an indispensable diagnostic tool, and as the standard reference book for psychiatrists and psychotherapists everywhere, it has an inestimable influence on the way we view other human beings. Deciding what we call sane and normal, and reflecting the prejudices and values of each generation, it's not surprising that the DSM has become a battleground. What goes in it, and stays out, is of monumental importance. Homosexuals, for example, fought long and hard to have their "lifestyle" erased from its pages.' Amazon back |
| Lifton, Robert Jay, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: a study of 'brainwashing' in China, 1989 Jacket: 'Brainwashing has often been described in sensational terms; but Dr Lifton's painstaking investigation of Thought Reform is based on psychological studies (with follow up interviews) of Western civilians and Chinese intellectuals who underwent the process in a variety of prisons, universities and other settings." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807842532/tnrp">Amazon back |
| Lonergan, Bernard J F, and (edited by Frederick E Crowe and Robert M Doran, Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St Thomas Aquinas, Jacket: "Grace and Freedom represents Lonergan's entry into subject matter that would occupy him throughout his lifetime. At the same time it is a manifestation of the thinking that has made him one of the world's foremost Thomist scholars. ... Lonergan's thesis is that from the sixteenth century onwards, commentators on Thomas Aquinas lacked historical consciousness, raised questions that Thomas had never considered, and obfuscated the issues. Lonergan's achievement consists in having retrieved the actual postion by adopting a historical approach that has reconstructed [Thomas's] intellectual development on grace. ... What Lonergan also adds is a unique diagnosis of the mistakes made by the modern scholastic authors in their treatment of grace. Throughout this work, Lonergan discovers in Thomas a mind in constant development, displaying radical shifts on fundamental questions. ... ' http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0232511462/tnrp">Amazon back |
| Miller, Richard Lawrence, Drug Warriors and Their Prey: From Police Power to Police State, Jacket: 'The war on drugs is a war on ordinary people. Using that premise, historian Richard Lawrence Miller analyzes America's drug war with a passion seldom encountered in scholarly writing. Miller presents numerous examples of drug law enforcement gone amok, as police and courts threaten the happiness, property and even lives of victims - some of whom are never chareged with a drug crime, let alone convicted of one. Miller not only argues that criminal justice zealots are harming the democracy they are sworn to protect, but that authoritarians unfriendly to democracy are stoking public fear in order to convince citizens to relinquish traditional legal rights. Those are the very rights that thwart implementation of an agenda of social control through government power. ... 'back |
| Packard, Vance, The Hidden Persuaders, Pelican/Penguin Books 1957-1974 Amazon back |
| Schlesinger, Stephen, Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Super Powers, Secret Agents, Wartime Allies & Enemies and Their Quest for a Peaceful World, Westview Press 2003 When President Roosevelt died in April 1945, the plans for a United Nations suddenly fell into peril. Many wondered if the unassuming new president from Independence, Mo., would postpone the long-planned San Francisco conference scheduled to begin in two weeks' time. But Truman's commitment to the global organization was steadfast. For the previous 50 years, he had carried in his pocket a folded piece of paper with the words of his favorite poem, "Lockesley Hall," by Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd/In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World./There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe/And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law." Thus, nothing halted the gathering of delegates from all over the world to discuss the thorny issues that would be addressed in the U.N. charter. Most of Schlesinger's book covers the nine-week San Francisco conference, a fascinating web of intrigue, power and greed. Most interesting is the performance by the American secretary of state, Edward Stettinius, chief overseer and coordinator of the conference. While his ability was doubted and he was criticized by many, Stettinius performed brilliantly, according to Schlesinger, who credits him with the conference's success. Whatever the reader's opinion of the U.N. and its current role, Schlesinger, director of the New School University's World Policy Institute, provides a masterful account of the drama acted out on the pressure-filled stage of San Francisco. He handles the complexities with ease and provides the reader with an engaging and thorough account. 16 pages of b&w photos. 40,000 first printing. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon back |
| Watson, Don, Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant & Management Jargon, Knopf/Random House Australia 2004 Jacket: 'If you are curious to know what 'plausible deniability' and 'asset footprint' actually mean - or if you want to mock the very idea - tthis is the book for you. An essential reference for victims and saboteurs, Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words is a serious weapon in the struggle against those whose words kill brain cells and sink hearts. Sobering, scathing and wickedly funny, this companion to the bestselling Death Sentence flushes out political and managerial weasels and their hollow words, lampoons linguistic abuse and strikes a much needed blow for truth and clarity.'back |
| Zee, Anthony, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton University Press 2003 Amazon book description: 'An esteemed researcher and acclaimed popular author takes up the challenge of providing a clear, relatively brief, and fully up-to-date introduction to one of the most vital but notoriously difficult subjects in theoretical physics. A quantum field theory text for the twenty-first century, this book makes the essential tool of modern theoretical physics available to any student who has completed a course on quantum mechanics and is eager to go on. Quantum field theory was invented to deal simultaneously with special relativity and quantum mechanics, the two greatest discoveries of early twentieth-century physics, but it has become increasingly important to many areas of physics. These days, physicists turn to quantum field theory to describe a multitude of phenomena. Stressing critical ideas and insights, Zee uses numerous examples to lead students to a true conceptual understanding of quantum field theory--what it means and what it can do. He covers an unusually diverse range of topics, including various contemporary developments,while guiding readers through thoughtfully designed problems. In contrast to previous texts, Zee incorporates gravity from the outset and discusses the innovative use of quantum field theory in modern condensed matter theory. Without a solid understanding of quantum field theory, no student can claim to have mastered contemporary theoretical physics. Offering a remarkably accessible conceptual introduction, this text will be widely welcomed and used. Amazon back |
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