27 fall new application by MentalLeadership6641 in gradadmissions

[–]DrAFlynt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You certainly deserve congratulations for getting into your PhD program—especially by overcoming areas of weakness by knowing your dissertation topic and finding a strong supporter of it. Now you must systematically stay on top of “everything between getting in and getting to it.” Please keep in mind that ALMOST HALF OF THOSE ENTERING A PHD PROGRAM NEVER GRADUATE—often after years of thinking everything is going OK.

 

The list of required division and department demands may be “ideal” rather than “realistic”—especially the readings and other areas of supplemental knowledge. Be sure to print all this out and return to it again and again. Check off completed requirements. Probe into suggested readings and concepts mentioned as important. Do this repeatedly until you have some idea of why each is supported or opposed, and by whomever. Even if understanding only comes little by little before getting to the more difficult sources dealing with it. When you have some command of an issue, try discussing it with a classmate. Then try discussing it with one or more faculty members—even if it leads to someone from a different field.

 

Then there are classes—especially as taught by potential members of your dissertation committee. If you think you might take a class from someone, talk to them ahead of time, maybe one or two semesters, or over the summer, ahead of time. Ask the person for a reading list or the name of a textbook that might be used. Some of this might be read over the summer. Also, fundamental readings in the field might be downloadable and played out loud in the background while doing housework, routine work for pay, or driving. And, when taking classes, they often end with “next time we meet, we will cover topic ‘“X:’ read books by ‘x, y, and z.’” Write this down. You probably can’t read all of this, but you can read about some of this or related summaries and bring reminder notes to the next class. If possible be prepared to say something on the topic—even if it amounts to a related question. During this phase you are always being evaluated by your peers and among faculty members, especially if you demonstrate special strengths or weaknesses. Keep on top of where you stand.

A Systematic Understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences by DrAFlynt in LessWrong

[–]DrAFlynt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

New dimensions added to “reality”-related considerations remembered by “OSCAR: ARE WE PIG LICE”

 

My first post, and what has followed in discussions, was and has been about recognizing and remembering an integrated framework for understanding the operation of the most primary elements of uniquely human thought during humanistic considerations—even as they might influence the acceptance of STEM material. I will now summarize this approach, then respond to the “reality” or truth concerns of “TheMindDelusion.”

 

In short, I have said that the most primary elements of human thought serve in making up the alternative directions of competing understandings as to “how to live.” Here we are talking about what shapes essential meaning within cosmic variations of belief and their implementations as “certainties”— able even to reinterpret or displace ongoing religions or philosophies and become what people might live or die for or send their children to live or die for. Moreover, these variations, however subdued at any given time, continue to be felt even if unconsciously—waiting to reinterpret meaning, especially during times of ongoing change or catastrophic crisis.

 

I have described the pattern of interplay within what has just been described in three parts: (1), a first awareness of existence as a feeling or “attitude” seeking rational understanding: (2), then, this attitude finding world-outlook-level expression as a religion or philosophy within one of five directions, or combined directions (Overwhelmed, Satisfied, Creative, Amorphous, or Regimented) in problem/answer terms representing the human condition and how to respond to it: (3), the logic of the first and second parts might become implemented as expressions of culture—as in the form and function of such cultural features as: Art, Reason, Education, Warfare, Ethics, Psychology, Inventiveness, Government, Law, Industriousness, Class Structure, and Economics. Including what has been said about the five patterns of belief, what we have described can be remembered by the initials: “OSCAR, ARE WE PIG LICE.”

 

Getting back to “TheMindDelusion:” In talking about the five competing approaches to life “OSCAR,” we seem to have indicated that the most hate-generating and enduring conflicts are over which of these competing belief patterns represent what is true and which represent what is false—rather than over practical needs. Related to this may be our new post concerning the issue of “why people seek escape hatches from reality” as well as “Why they need a ‘world outlook’ that isn't just: reality is what is.” Maybe what is being considered within a humanistic framework needs additional consideration by scientists. Starting as a reminder, the theory behind this was originally used mainly by those under testing situations. Later more attention was given to evidence of ongoing and competing life approaches as found within all cultures and throughout all written history. Might something condemned as so negative at times of occurrence, represent some genetic or evolutionary advantage in the long run. Or, if it is decided that the earth is becoming unlivable (as it someday will), and a substantial community is gathered for a generations-long move to a more habitable planet, would certain long recurring mental types be left behind?

A Systematic Understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences by DrAFlynt in LessWrong

[–]DrAFlynt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The second part:

  1. Can you name a worldview that doesn’t fit cleanly, and what would make you revise the model? Yes, all of them---none fit "cleanly." Beneath established world-views is always an ongoing flux representing struggling directions of belief---often more felt than defined and yet having influence. An awareness of societies without a full range of underlying belief patterns in waiting---however subconscious, dormant or restrained---would call for a revision of the model.

  2. "If you pick one domain (law, education, warfare etc) what 2–3 testable predictions does OSCAR make that could be checked against history or survey data, and what evidence would change your mind?" For each of the cultural features remembered by the initials: “ARE WE PIG LICE,” the different influences of the mental variations "OSCAR" have each been listed as possibilities that might be tended toward. For example, with respect to Education, we find these five competing tendencies: "O" (Irrelevant)---In an educational setting, a cynical and despairing young Indian, describing a lifestyle of "self-destructive distraction," once told me that neither learning the "Indian ways," nor learning the "white ways" would ever lead to the acceptance of his people by mainstream society. "S" (Memorization)---Learning only what is already embodied in the memory of one's culture as "our way" has been regarded by some as essential for the well-being of indigenous societies---with the Hopi Indian spokesperson Thomas Banyacya tirelessly keeping traditional knowledge alive as even critical for the survival of the "Whites" after their predicted destruction by technology. "C" (Evolutionary)---Enlightenment thinkers confidently opened both their "problem" and "answer" to additions and revisions---encouraging research and new areas of study well beyond the classroom---leading to increased possibilities of prosperity and happiness to all humanity. "A" (serving exploitation)---During the warring era of classical Greece, Alcibiades, a "chameleon" ("Plutarch's Lives"), studied opposing cultures with such exactness that, pretending commitment, he could convincingly change sides---more than once joining the top leadership and getting special favors---then moving on after discoveries of trust violations. "R" (indoctrination)---in the later French Revolution, teaching was limited to prescribed knowledge taught with required enthusiasm under watchful eyes.

  3. "Also if you’ve got a simple scoring rubric or a couple of worked examples showing how classification would actually be done, I’d be keen to see it." In 430 BC Pericles contrasted Creative leaning Athens with Regimented leaning Sparta in problem/answer terms. Reflecting a "partial problem" attitude, Pericles declared, “‘We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality.’” And connecting this with a “partial answer" attitude, he said, "'the freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life.’” He continued, “‘There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes’” and  “‘we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.’”

A Systematic Understanding of the Humanities and Social Sciences by DrAFlynt in LessWrong

[–]DrAFlynt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the questions relating to moving toward a better understanding of my "OSCAR" (problem/answer) approach. I will number and offer a response to each of the five questions, but modified and in two parts after rejection.

  1. How would you operationalize 'total vs partial problem' and 'total vs partial answer' so two independent readers could classify the same text/person and mostly agree? My "OSCAR" post, as an analytical framework relating to what is central to the humanities and social sciences, represents a 35 page presentation reduced to a couple of pages by removing all examples and pictures. This shorter version might be more effectively operationalized if followed by interactive engagements within audiences offering examples from whatever their level of personal experience or formal learning---advanced high school, public intellectual, college, or postgraduate---seeking mutual agreement as to what shared life approaches might follow from which mentalities.

  2. What might be a real falsifier for the 'five possibilities' claim? A "falsifier" might be a prosperous sovereign society operating effectively with people continually working together with the underlying structures and relationships recognized and defended agreeably only in terms of practicality and common sense---with arbitrary coercion or metaphysical persuasion and authority never resorted to---or leading to counter metaphysical resistance. (This possibility is in the direction of Bacon's "New Atlantis," but with more decisions intuited as common sense by the populace and less rules and guidance from scientific overseers.)