John Protevi's Blog

Graham Harman on the use of "folk"

Use of the adjective “folk” to describe one’s opponents is a shining example of the concept. Essentially, anything that Metzinger, Ladyman, Ross et al. don’t like is dismissed as the “folk” view on the topic.

via doctorzamalek2.wordpress.com

Matthew Ratcliffe, Rethinking Commonsense Psychology (Palgrave, 2006) shows that even the folk don't do "folk psychology"! It's a philosophical myth foisted on them. (IOW, we never really infer mental states (beliefs and desires) of others based on evidence presented to our senses of their outward behavior).

Here’s what I said about it in my foreword to the book when we adopted it into the New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science series I co-edit with Mike Wheeler:

The New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science series welcomes its second volume, Matthew Ratcliffe’s Rethinking Commonsense Psychology. Ratcliffe tackles the problem of other minds, and our supposed ability via folk psychology to understand their workings on the basis of our own cognitive processes, that is, our supposed ability to infer the contents of other minds on the basis of an interpretation of external behaviour. Now philosophers have long been devoted to rethinking the folk or commonsense notions of the people, but Ratcliffe provides us with a twist: what if folk psychology itself doesn’t belong to the people at all in their everyday practice, but is instead an invention of philosophers, a manner of speaking we learn at school and work with professionally? What would happen if, following the lead of the phenomenologists, we examine more closely and carefully what really happens when people understand each other, and thereby substitute the category of person for that of mind? Furthermore, what would happen if we examine the social context on which interpersonal understanding depends, instead of presupposing a bare encounter of isolated minds?

These are the challenges Ratcliffe undertakes with verve and intelligence. Once relieved of a false philosopher’s picture of isolated minds interpreting each other’s behaviour, we can see what really happens in interpersonal understanding in social context, and develop a vocabulary adequate to that reality, one that resonates both with classic work in phenomenology and with recent work in situated or embodied / embedded cognition. For its critical re-assessment and its positive contributions, then, Rethinking Commonsense Psychology is a welcome addition to the series.

Short Simondon translation: pages 146-151 of L'Individu

The translation is here: http://www.protevi.com/john/Simondon_physical_individuation.pdf. 

The section is entitled "Topology, chronology, and order of magnitude in physical individuation." 

Draft of 19 July 2010. This translation is provided for academic use (personal study and classroom use) only; it is not for commercial purposes, nor for citation in any publication. A translation of Simondon’s L’Individu is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press (by another translator, not me). Think of this as just a taste of the excellent philosophy of Simondon and hence an encouragement to buy the translation when it appears.

Translation of short section from Simondon: "Topology and ontogenesis"

The translation is here: http://www.protevi.com/john/Simondon_topology_ontogenesis.pdf. 

The section is pages 222-227 of Simondon's L'Individu et sa genèse phsycio-biologique (Grenoble: Millon, 1995).

Draft of 19 July 2010. This translation is provided for academic use (personal study and classroom use) only; it is not for commercial purposes, nor for citation in any publication. A translation of Simondon’s L’Individu is forthcoming from University of Minnesota Press (by another translator, not me). Think of this as just a taste of the excellent philosophy of Simondon and hence an encouragement to buy the translation when it appears.

Academic use only; not for commercial purposes. 

Comments welcome at protevi@lsu.edu. 

Tales of the Neoliberal University, vol. 4352

The same day LSU officials discussed gloom-and-doom budget and layoff scenarios, the LSU Board of Supervisors on Friday approved a bevy of pay raises, most within the athletic department.

via www.2theadvocate.com

The athletic program is able to enter the university sports market niche (part of the overall sports market, distinguished from the professional niche only by the ability to deny wages to the athletes*) by means of the LSU brand name, which has been built over the years by the staff and professors at LSU. Using that brand name, they can generate revenue directly from the public.**

This is the future for all university units, from research centers through academic departments: generate your own funds using the university brand name. The administration then becomes the franchising agent for each unit, allowing it access to the brand name in exchange for a percentage of the revenue.

Notes:
* Yes, yes, the athletes receive tuition and housing, etc. But let's be realistic.
** A good accountant would be able to show how much the athletic program benefits from public infrastructure, starting with Tiger Stadium.

David Rothkopf: monster or clown?

What if the idea of Haiti as a country simply won't work?

via rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com

This article is a farrago of distortions and lies. No mention of the French debt? The US Marine invasion of 1915? The US support for the Duvaliers? The continuation of the IMF debt run up by the Duvaliers? Unbelievable. Can only be explained as preparing justification for another coup. Despicable. Execrable. Disgusting.

You stay classy, Dan Gilbert, billionaire owner of Quicken Loans, and Cleveland's vox populi

Dan Gilbert is trying to moralize a business decision, that is, capitalize on the desperation of the Cleveland community via their emotional commitment to a sports figure. That's bad for Cleveland and it's bad for sports, though I didn't see him complaining when that love for James increased the value of the franchise that Saint Dan Gilbert bought (after James was on board mind you) by hundreds of millions of dollars. He can cry me a river. You stay classy, Dan Gilbert.

What this comes down to is a billionaire financial whiz posing as the vox populi. A break, please give me. What do the people of Cleveland deserve? Relief from decades of de-industrialization in the form of good schools, good health care, good housing, good libraries, good parks, good jobs, etc. They also deserve people to see through Dan Gilbert's trying to speak for "the community" and to examine closely the role that the financialization of the US economy played in the destruction of Cleveland. Owner of Quicken Loans cares about the Cleveland community? He's made billions on refinancing of mortgages which was a major means by which the vast majority of people whose wages stagnated over the last thirty years (see "de-industrializaton" above) have cashed out the equity in their houses. I say Dan Gilbert and his financializing vampire industry can KMRIA, and he can do it twice for trying to speak for "the community" from whose wage stagnation he's benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.