I've always believed in it.........

 

The “great man” theory of history lost favor a century ago, and for decades university faculty have found it quaint, vulgar, or problematic. Like other ideas that right-thinking people long ago discarded, its disreputable status hasn’t stopped many from believing in it anyway.

-Mana Afsari

On theories............................

 Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

-attributed to Karl Popper

Hope for our political future.........?

 Carl Jung had a theory called enantiodromia.  It's the idea that an excess of something gives rise to its opposite.

-Morgan Housel, Same as Ever

Is the Big Bang Theory in trouble................?

 It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.

-Richard Feynman

Pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope don't seem to be supporting it.  Story here.

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Truth telling.........................

 My theory is that money spent on books and music is never wasted.

In contrast...........................

 

-Murry Davis, as literally cut-and-pasted from here

ideal......................................

 . . . "my ideal of a scientific man, accepting nothing upon authority, but putting every scientific theory to the severest test. . . . I hope I have learned from Professor Ludwig's precept and practice that the most important lesson for every man of science, not to be satisfied with loose thinking and half-proofs, not to speculate and theorize but to observe closely and carefully."

-William Henry Welch, as quoted in John Barry's The Great Influenza:  The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

The truth can be elusive..........................

 Says Sherlock Holmes:

     "That process," said I, "starts upon the supposition that when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.  It may well be that several explanations remain, in which case one tries test after test until one or other of them has a convincing amount of support.  We will now apply this principle to the case in point. . . ."  

    "There remained the third possibility, into which, rare and unlikely as it was every thing seemed to fit.  Leprosy is not uncommon in South Africa.  By some extraordinary chance this youth might have contracted it. . . ."

Enters the "great dermatologist", Sir James Saunders, who says:

    "It is often my lot to bring ill-tidings and seldom good," said he.  "This occasion is the more welcome.  It is not leprosy"

     "What?"

     "A well-marked case of pseudo-leprosy or ichthyosis, a scale-like affection of the skin, unsightly, obstinate, but possibly curable, and certainly noninfective.  Yes, Mr. Holmes, the coincidence is a remarkable one.  But is it coincidence?  Are there not subtle forces at work of which we know little? . . ."

-Arthur Conan Doyle, The Blanched Soldier

Ed. Note:  In this story, the narrative is told by Holmes himself, for "The good Watson, had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which i can recall in our association."

Mimetic desire..........................

     One of the most profound intellectual influences on Peter Thiel is a French thinker named René Girard, whom he met while at Stanford and whose funeral he would eventually speak at in 2015.  Girard's theory of mimetic desire holds that people have no idea what they want, or what they value, so they are drawn to what other people want.  They want what other people have.  They covet.  It's this, Girard says, that is the source of almost all the conflict in the world.  

-Ryan Holiday, Conspiracy:  A True Story of Power, Sex, and a Billionaire's Secret Plot To Destroy a Media Empire

Learned another new word today.....

It's pretty clear that cartoonist Paula Pratt was a student of the nineteenth-century American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.  By the way, that's not a typo;  his name really did violate the rule "i" before "e," except after "c," and he pronounced it "Purse."  And that's not the only rule he broke.  He staked out new territory with is declaration that "truth is what works," and he is therefore known in the history of philosophy as a "pragmatist."  His own term for himself was "fallibilist," meaning, as he said, that "people cannot attain absolute certainty concerning questions of fact."  But in the meantime, we have to go with our best shot, based on current evidence, and see how it works out in practice.

-Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein,   I Think, Therefore I Draw:  Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons

Tethered.................................

Affection exchange theory, introduced by Professor Kory Floyd, postulates that affection strengthens bonds, provides access to resources, and communicates your potential as a parent, increasing your pool of potential mates.   I think it goes deeper.  I know a lot of people who, despite their good fortune, are wandering.  Few meaningful relationships, an inability to find reward in their professional lives, too hard on themselves, etc.  It's as if they're not grounded, never convinced of their worth . . . wandering.
     When I look at my own success, it mostly boils down to two things:  being born in America and having someone irrationally passionate about my well-being—my mom. . . .
      Having a good person express how wonderful you are hundreds of times changes everything.  College, professional success, an impressive mate—these were aspirations, not givens for a remarkably unremarkable kid in an upper-lower-middle-class household.  My mom was forty-three, single, and making $15,000 a year as a secretary.  She was also a good person who made me feel connected and, while waiting for our Opel, gave me the confidence that I had value, that I was capable and deserving of all these things.  Holding hands and laughing, I was tethered.

-Scott Galloway,  The Algebra of Happiness:  Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning

Adam..................................

......................................................hits a home run.

When the "public good was paramount"....

     Hamilton and Burr had been rivals in New York politics since the early 1790s.  During the endgame of the presidential election of 1800, when Federalists hoped to use the tie vote in the Electoral College to make Burr president, Hamilton had urged them to accept Jefferson.  "Of there be a man in the world I ought to hate," he wrote Gouverneur Morris, "it would be Jefferson.  With Burr I have always been personally well.  But the public good must be paramount."  Why was Hamilton so hostile toward Burr?  For a reason that might have interested Madison, if he had known of it.  Jefferson had bad principles, from Hamilton's point of view, but Burr had none.  "Is it a recommendation to have no theory?" Hamilton asked another Federalist.  Without theory, Burr, he believed, must be ruled entirely by ambition.

-Richard Brookhiser,  James Madison

On respect...........................

     One of the most influential ethical theories, developed initially by the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) says (among other things) that you should always treat people, including yourself, with the utmost respect, and never merely as a tool to get something you want.  If you treat someone merely as a tool, according to Kant, then you fail to treat them as a reasoning, self-directed person, and that is ethically wrong.  This is an ethical theory, or a proposal about what makes actions good or bad.  Roughly, an action is good only when it is respectful and bad when it is disrespectful.  For example, failing to pay someone for their work is bad because it fails to respect them and treats them as a mere tool.

-Nick Riggle, On Being Awesome:  A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck

The "nirvana fallacy"....................

Demsetz constantly stressed the dangers of falling prey to the “nirvana fallacy,” or the view of public policy that “implicitly presents the relevant choice as between an ideal norm and an existing ‘imperfect’ institutional arrangement. This nirvana approach differs considerably from a comparative institution approach in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements.” 

-Richard Epstein, from his article, The Greatness of Harold Demsetz

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Russell as a prophet...........................?

"Whatever you think is going to happen ten years hence, unless it is something like the sun rising tomorrow that has nothing to do with human relations, you are almost sure to be wrong.   I find this thought consoling when I remember some gloomy prophecies of which I myself have rashly been guilty. . . .
It is safe to assume that a great modern world war will not raise the level of prosperity even among the victors.  Such generalizations are not difficult to know.  What is difficult is to foresee in detail the long-run consequences of a concrete policy.   Bismarck with extreme astuteness won three wars and unified Germany.  The long-run result of his policy has been that Germany has suffered two colossal defeats.  These resulted because he taught Germans to be indifferent to the interests of all countries except Germany, and generated an aggressive spirit which in the end united the world against his successors.  Selfishness beyond a point, whether individual or national, is not wise.  It may with luck succeed, but if it fails failure is terrible.  Few men will run this risk unless they are supported by a theory, for it is only theory that makes men completely incautious."

-Bertrand Russell

This has actually aged pretty well........

    "I don't know why the economy works, but I'm sure it isn't because brilliant people are managing it.  My guess is that if you sum up all the absurd activities of management, the idiocies somehow cancel out, thus producing cool things that you want to buy, such as Nerf balls and Snapple.  Add the law of supply and demand to the mix and you've pretty much described the whole theory of economics."

-Scott Adams, from his 1996 tome, The Dilbert Principle:  A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions

Makes perfect sense to me............

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

-Douglas Adams

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On respect...............................

     One of the most influential ethical theories, developed initially by the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel  Kant (1724-1804), says (among other things) that you should always treat people, including yourself, with the utmost respect, and never merely as a tool to get something you want.  If you treat someone merely as a tool, according to Kant, then you fail to treat them as a reasoning, self-directed person, and that is ethically wrong.  This is an ethical theory, or a proposal about what makes actions good or bad.  Roughly, an action is good only when it is respectful and bad when it is disrespectful.  For example, failing to pay someone for their work is bad because is fails to respect them and treats them as a mere tool.

-Nick Riggle,  On Being Awesome:  A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck

Ah, science..............................

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