Friday, November 15, 2013
(LCR) Krugman on Appeals to Authority
Here is a very sharp, short column by economist Paul Krugman, in which he discusses the virtues and limits of credentials. It well demonstrates, in case such demonstration were necessary, how widely applicable logical and epistemological principles are, even to practical matters such as economics. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19742-alan-greenspan-doing-his-best-to-make-things-worse
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4 comments:
I wonder whether any given academician could write an article using sources outside of academia or what is normally viewed as authoritative and whether they could just find some smart people around where they live or take the train into the city and ask anyone walking by, I wonder whether they could suffer the indemnity of consulting the Unauthoritative. Granted, there are specialists but it seems that quite frequently specialists let their specialty go to their head, especially in lit studies. "I am a specialist in Victorian literature." But anyone who's not a specialist wouldn't be fully believed. The guise of having knowledge power, also, can be so manipulative far past the point of hilarity; technocracy/geniocracy as a combined form of government is on my list of 100 things that couldn't be scarier.
I would hesitate quite a bit before making such sweeping statements about academics. After all, on the basis of what (better than anecdotal) evidence would we assert such a thing, or on whose authority? No doubt ego and specialized entrenchment are real problems, but there are many brilliant exceptions to such a blanket condemnation. Moreover, in addition to the petty and self-serving motivations, there are good reasons to value expertise and legitimate authority on many subjects.
Yes. It's incorrect to make sweeping judgments. It's highly likely that I've had generally bad experience with experts flaunting what they are decreed with knowing but something I'd like to consider is: the possibility of any person learning a substantial amount and writing their own works, extra-academia. I get the feeling anyone doing this wouldn't be trusted by extra-academicians or academicians or whatever group there is. As you know from my paper thesis, my problem with academia is pretty singular; the language isn't conducive for learning. It often seems like it could be the case that a given scholar is wielding massive words just for looks. I don't deny that philosophy and other fields have their vocabularies but also I'll never deny that learning and knowledge should be fun.
Of course learning should be fun.
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