[MD] 42

[david]

Arlo said:
...Another article that came to my attention today is just from last Friday, but I think it touches on everything we've been talking about (although this article lacks Pirsig's vocabulary to frame the problem). http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/17/the-death-of-expertise/


dmb says:
I'll be sharing that article. It expresses my sentiments exactly and otherwise makes me feel sane. Some really great lines: "..every discussion must take place within limits and above a certain baseline of competence."  "...it is simply exhausting ... to have to start from the very beginning of every argument and establish the merest baseline of knowledge,"   "...the democratization of knowledge.. is endangered by the utterly illogical insistence that every opinion should have equal weight..."

Arlo continued:
...education is much more about examining the 'reality goggles' as it is about describing reality through those goggles. The first part of his statement (induction into the logic of the present system) is about just the latter, while his second point (creatively transforming the system) rests on critical evaluation and adjustments to the goggles.

dmb says:
Excellent. That also works as a definition of "philosophy" or "freedom".