The Epistemology of the President

[Stephen3141]

Donald Trump has begun a mafia-like struggle for global power

But the new rules do not suit America

www.economist.com

This "vision" of American democracy, is making a clear break with the historical
values of America.

The break, is being made much easier, because of the ditching of formal logic by the
younger american generations, and the trend that younger Americans do not read books,
and do not read history. This is made worse, as many social media users do not go to any
verifiable news source to get their "news".

When verifiable fact-checking is thrown out, then literally ANYTHING can be substituted
for truth, by the social media platforms.
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For Christians, the core topic should be what the definition of truth is. And, what the
proper methodology is, to test whether or not some proposition is actually TRUE.

If Christians do not again EMBRACE HISTORICAL EPISTEMOLOGY, then the horrendous
side effects will be the loss of all objective thinking. And, this includes objective
biblical hermeneutics, and critical Bible study skills.

I do not think that the electronic screen generations, have thought carefully
about this core problem.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

The values of America for the last 25 years have been about invading and subverting governments which didn't align with your values. Endless war for liberal democracy, endless expansion of American hegemony. If Trump is reversing this, it's a good thing.

 

[FireDragon76]

Donald Trump has begun a mafia-like struggle for global power

But the new rules do not suit America

www.economist.com

This "vision" of American democracy, is making a clear break with the historical
values of America.

The break, is being made much easier, because of the ditching of formal logic by the
younger american generations, and the trend that younger Americans do not read books,
and do not read history. This is made worse, as many social media users do not go to any
verifiable news source to get their "news".

It's not just abandoning formal logic or critical thinking, but a wider phenomenon where people disengage from civic and religious participation in favor of private experiences. It leaves people atomized, lonely, unmoored, ripe for an authoritarian to come and give them a parasocial relationship with cult-like dynamics.

For Christians, the core topic should be what the definition of truth is. And, what the
proper methodology is, to test whether or not some proposition is actually TRUE.

If Christians do not again EMBRACE HISTORICAL EPISTEMOLOGY, then the horrendous
side effects will be the loss of all objective thinking. And, this includes objective
biblical hermeneutics, and critical Bible study skills.

I do not think that the electronic screen generations, have thought carefully
about this core problem.

Look up John Vervaeke. He's a cognitive scientist in Canada. I agree with his approach to truth/sensemaking, and I think it's the right path forward.

 

[Jipsah]

This "vision" of American democracy, is making a clear break with the historical
values of America.

OK, I translate that to "Orange Man Bad; Orange Man Hitler". OK, noted, but that stuff has aged poorly, hasn't it?

 

[Jipsah]

The values of America for the last 25 years have been about invading and subverting governments which didn't align with your values. Endless war for liberal democracy, endless expansion of American hegemony. If Trump is reversing this, it's a good thing.

Yeah, a lot of us are weary of endless "Wars of Liberation" where no one is liberated except the sellers of war material.

 

[Stephen3141]

(By the way, I am MUCH more concerned with the epistemological
dysfunctions of a lot of Americans, than with who the current president is.

(I assert that) the current president does have his own dysfunctions, with
regard to epistemology. So do the billionaires who own the large social
media networks (and generally, don't want ANY fact-checking done on
them. So do CHRISTIANS, is they confuse "freedom of speech" with the
moral-ethical OUGHT to speak responsibly.

Multiple generations of Christians have gone by now, who have NOT paid
enough attention to the philosophical basics, such as Epistemology, or
the nature of our shared reality. Now, the younger electronic screen generations
of Christians may have a hard time understanding why I am focussing in on
dysfunctional epistemology, as this is hardly a prime topic in the social
media echo chambers.)

 

[The Liturgist]

Yeah, a lot of us are weary of endless "Wars of Liberation" where no one is liberated except the sellers of war material.

The irony is that many of the people complaining about Trump’s refusal to engage in military actions were members of the Stop The War coalition in the 2000s.

What happened to pacifism? What happened to the fear that everyone should have of nuclear retaliation? Why is Europe and the political left obsessed with dangerous provocations one of the world’s three great nuclear powers?

Provoking any nuclear power is inadvisable, but provoking the only country with an arsenal comparable in size to that of the US is to risk the annihilation of the human race. Since at some point, some of the actions that have been engaged in or have been proposed could result in Russia feeling that a measured nuclear response was required. And these situations can escalate, which was admitted even by the likes of Otto Kahn of the RAND Corporation (who many regard as a nuclear “hawk” although this is probably an unfair criticism) in Thinking About The Unthinkable.

 

[The Liturgist]

By the way, I am MUCH more concerned with the epistemological
dysfunctions of a lot of Americans,

Perhaps you might provide an exact list of what those dysfunctions are, in your opinion, and how they pertain with a US policy of reducing further military support to Ukraine in favor of some kind of cease-fire and de-escalation of the conflict.

 

[The Liturgist]

It's not just abandoning formal logic or critical thinking, but a wider phenomenon where people disengage from civic and religious participation in favor of private experiences

The Eastern Orthodox Church and several other traditional denominations have experienced a large uptick in membership since the pandemic, with record baptisms which have now reached a level sufficient to offset the attrition that we had been experiencing along with all other churches, so that it can actually be said that the Orthodox Church in the US is growing, with the possible exception of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, which is the only Orthodox jurisdiction to share some values with the mainline Protestant churches (but within GoArch you have the monasteries of Elder Ephraim which compensate for that, and likewise within the Patriarchate of Constantinople, you have Mount Athos, which again acts as a counterweight on the secular agenda of that jurisdiction).

On the other hand by all accounts the Episcopal Church, ELCA and other mainline churches, especially the UMC, continue to lose friends and alienate people. I attribute this largely to the influence of secular politics on these churches and a willingness to abandon clearly Scriptural doctrine when it has become politically unpopular.

Conversely, the Unitarian Universalist Association, which with the exception of a few parishes such as King’s Chapel in Boston, basically rejected Christianity in favor of a new religion based on a shared set of political values and ideas, is growing, and is also the wealthiest church on a per-capita basis. Ironically, the poorest church, per-capita, is the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which likewise was founded over the idea of denying the uncreated divinity of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, the uncreated and only-begotten Son of the unoriginate Father, reigning together with the Holy Spirit, three distinct, uncreated, undivided and consubstantial persons united as a family eternally, the Holy, Undivided, Consubstantial and Life-Giving Trinity, ever one God, now and ever and unto the ages of all ages.

Human beings are social, called to live together, and to unite in person, and not individually, because we are created in the image of God. We are called to Communion, to Eucharistic fellowship with God and all the members of the Church, both on Earth and in Heaven, in which we participate in the Last Supper and receive the benefits of the one supreme atoning sacrifice of Christ our True God.

Thus, military actions which kill other humans is not something Christians should promote in most circumstances. While I disagree on many issues with the Peace Churches, frankly, I wish more people subscribed to their ideology, or likewise the ideology of the Jains and certain Hindu groups which reject all violence.

 

[The Liturgist]

The values of America for the last 25 years have been about invading and subverting governments which didn't align with your values. Endless war for liberal democracy, endless expansion of American hegemony. If Trump is reversing this, it's a good thing.

It would be more accurate to have accused us of invading and subverting governments which did not align with our perceived geopolitical interests, as opposed to our values. For example, the European Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, in their opposition to free speech and the free exercise of religion, as demonstrated during the global pandemic, clearly showed a dramatic break with the values they had historically shared with the US (except ironically Sweden for a time). Likewise, the values of the US conflict with those of various Islamic regimes that we are allied with, like Saudi Arabia.

The only allies of the US that really reflect our values, on a cultural and constitutional basis, are countries like Singapore, the Republic of China, and South Korea (which unfortunately is increasingly under PRC influence).

 

[Stephen3141]

For those who want a precise "list" of dysfunctional reasoning examples,
I would say (kindly) that you do not understand formal logic. THAT would
be like asking for a precise list of all possible math errors.

Logic errors fall into 2 large categories...

1. Logical fallacies
2. Logical unsoundness.

Any step in a logical proof (or argument) commits a logical fallacy,
IF it asserts some proposition that is not arrived at by using one of
the 20 Rules of Inference, or the Quantification Rules.

Any definition in a proof/argument is Unsound, if it does not match our
shared reality.

There are uncountably infinite possible logical fallacies, and logical
unsoundnesses.

 

[The Liturgist]

For those who want a precise "list" of dysfunctional reasoning examples,
I would say (kindly) that you do not understand formal logic. THAT would
be like asking for a precise list of all possible math errors.

Logic errors fall into 2 large categories...

1. Logical fallacies
2. Logical unsoundness.

Any step in a logical proof (or argument) commits a logical fallacy,
IF it asserts some proposition that is not arrived at by using one of
the 20 Rules of Inference, or the Quantification Rules.

Any definition in a proof/argument is Unsound, if it does not match our
shared reality.

There are uncountably infinite possible logical fallacies, and logical
unsoundnesses.

Indeed, I am intimately familiar with formal logic, since I finance my Christian ministry with my work as a systems programming consultant on embedded computers, and formal logic is very helpful for those working in computer science. Indeed, the prolog language is actually built around formal logic and relies upon logical predicates as a means of performing computations. It is a uniquely powerful tool.

However, ironically I would say your digression into this area is itself fallacious, a red herring, an informal logical fallacy, as opposed to a fallacy of formal logic, since you have stated you believe Americans are embracing “epistemological dysfunctions,” and I asked you to explain what those dysfunctions are, and how they pertain to US policy in Ukraine.

Additionally, I would argue that you are prioritizing formal fallacies over informal fallacies. A formal fallacy is syntactic in nature, broadly speaking, whereas informal fallacies are semantic in nature, but both classes of fallacy are equally fallacious.

Lastly, I have never heard anyone assert that there are an infinite number of logical fallacies, if by logical fallacies, you mean types of logical fallacies, as opposed to possible fallacious statements using existing known logical fallacies. Indeed, our ability to recognize and react to fallacious statements is part enabled by the fact that both formal and informal fallacies are not great in number; rather, what tends to happen is people fall back on a few common fallacies with annoying frequency (such as begging the question, the appeal to unqualified authority, the appeal to ignorance, the fallacy of composition, etc).