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ABSTRACT: H.G. Callaway, in his Dewey-L post "Castles in the Sky"
referred to an article reporting that Alan Greenspan had defended his
record as Fed Chairman and stated that "speculative excess" is
inevitable in long periods of prosperity. Callaway then suggested
that "the answer to excessive speculation is empiricism and the
introduction of a more scientific attitude. Surely, the attitude of
the scientific thinker, the orientation to facts, experiment and
attempts at falsification is important in our attempts to control the
excesses of philosophical speculation and the related tendency
toward, let us say, 'castles in the sky'." But philosophers are not
the only ones who build "castles in the sky." The sky castle
building of traditional economists such as Alan Greenspan and
Lawrence Summers, who seem to regard the economic system as divorced
from the ecosystem, has been roundly criticized by ecological
economists such as Herman Daly. Mihai Sarbu, in response to Callaway,
opined that " 'castles in the sky' could be a timely conversation
topic, given the seriousness of the current environmental challenges
and the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen: how can John Dewey's theory
of inquiry be applied to educating for ecological responsibility?" I
think education in Dewey's inquiry mode plus e.g., Tim Jackson's
"Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet" and Daly &
Townsend's "Valuing The Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics" might help.
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H.G. Callaway (2009) in a Dewey-L post titled "Castles in the Sky"
wrote [bracketed by lines "CCCCC. . . ."; my insert at ". . .
.[[insert]]. . . ."]:
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
I came across the following short report on views of former Fed
Chairman, Alan Greenspan, this morning. Greenspan basically defended
his record as Fed Chairman and stated that "speculative excess" is
inevitable in long periods of prosperity. I wonder what readers of
the list may make of the ideas: <http://tinyurl.com/ydlbjz9> . . .
.[[this URL (made tiny from the long URL given by Callaway) was
*dead* on 27 November 2009 - however a reasonable substitute appears
to be "Greenspan: Another Crisis Is Inevitable" [Iacono (2009)]]. . .
. .
It strikes me that such excess will only be "inevitable" if it is
unconstrained by effective competition--that there is always
something of insider trading involved in such episodes of speculative
excess--such as that which produced the recent banking crisis.. . . .
Greenspan also states that there is a tension between the forces
favoring globalization of the economy and the attempt to introduce
new regulation to protect the finance system and the world economy
against the danger of a new financial crisis. This strikes me as
correct. We can't have both, ever expanding world growth . . . .
.[[in my opinion, on a finite planet we can't have "ever expanding
world growth" PERIOD -- see my comments below]] . . . . and economic
integration, plus effective control of the dangers of financial
collapse. . . . . Whether you believe that Greenspan is right or
wrong, these are certainly interesting claims and well worth
consideration.
Beyond the purely economic questions, however, I sense an important
analogy to the issue of philosophical speculation--akin to Deweyan
"brain storming." In that context, it strikes me that the answer to
excessive speculation is empiricism and the introduction of a more
scientific attitude. Surely, the attitude of the scientific thinker,
the orientation to facts, experiment and attempts at falsification is
important in our attempts to control the excesses of philosophical
speculation and the related tendency toward, let us say, "castles in
the sky."
Comments invited. Has "American philosophy" been insufficiently
scientific in recent years?
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
In my opinion, philosophers are not the only ones who build "castles
in the sky." The sky castle building of traditional economists such
as Alan Greenspan and Lawrence Summers, who seem to regard the
economic system as divorced from the ecosystem, has been roundly
criticized by ecological economists such as Herman Daly
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Daly> - see e.g., Daly &
Townsend (1992), Daly & Cobb (1944), Daly (1997), Daly & Farley
(2003), Daly (2008, 2009), and my posts:
a. "Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the Elephant in the
Room: Overpopulation #4," aka "Herman Daly's Ecological Economist
View Contrasted with the Traditional Economist View of Lawrence
Summers and the World Bank" [Hake (2009a) and
b. "Misconceptions in the Population/Energy Debate #2" [Hake (2009b)].
Callaway's (2009) post initiated an interesting thread, accessible at
<http://tinyurl.com/yhrfc8c>, which consisted of 21 posts (as of 26
November 13:03:00-0800). The last was by economist Mihai Sarbu
(2009) who wrote:
"Maybe this . . . . [[Castles in the Sky]]. . . . could be a timely
conversation topic, given the seriousness of the current
environmental challenges and the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen: how
can John Dewey's theory of inquiry be applied to educating for
ecological responsibility?"
Good question! Education in the Dewey's inquiry mode [see e.g.,
Ansbacher (2000)] plus e.g., Tim Jackson's (2009) "Prosperity
without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet" and Daly & Townsend's
(1992) "Valuing The Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics" might help.
"Universities must take the lead in developing knowledge and
educating the world's citizens to allow us to live upon our planet
while protecting it. "
James J. Duderstadt (2002) Duderstadt is President Emeritus
and University Professor of
Science and Engineering, University of Michigan.
"Clearly the economy must conform to the rules of a steady state -
seek qualitative development, but stop aggregate quantitative growth.
GDP increase conflates these two very different things."
Herman E. Daly (2008)
"Nowadays, error in economics must be maintained by complicated
mathematics rather than easy logic. Personally, I do not see a brave
army of heretics yet emerging from the economics departments across
our nation. The curriculum is designed to spot potential heretics
early and flunk them out. RENEWAL IS MORE LIKELY TO COME FROM OUTSIDE
CHALLENGES TO THE DISCIPLINE. . . . . [[My CAPS.]. . . . Is it
reasonable to hope for help from the physical sciences and the
humanities? Is it part of the role of each discipline to challenge
other disciplines? In the name of truth, beauty, and righteousness,
can scientists, humanists, and citizens ask economists if maybe the
system is sufficiently imperfect that people really do need to be
good? It would be folly to pretend that people are so good that any
system will work but is it not also folly to believe that the system
can be so perfect that it will really transform private evil into
public good? Maybe economics should return to its origins as a part
of moral philosophy."
Herman Daly (2009).
REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
Ansbacher, T. 2000. "An interview with John Dewey on science
education." The Physics Teacher 38(4): 224-227; freely online as a
1.3 MB pdf <http://www.scienceservs.com/> / "Articles in pdf" at top
of page / "An interview with John Dewey" (where "/" means "click
on"). An especially thoughtful and well-researched treatment that
shows the consonance of Dewey's educational ideas (as quoted straight
from Dewey's own writings, not from the accounts of sometimes
confused Dewey interpreters) with the thinking of most current
science-education researchers, viz., conceptual understanding can be
more effectively promoted through "interactive engagement of
students in heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) activities which
yield immediate feedback through discussion with peers and/or
instructors" [Hake (1998a,b)].
Callaway, H.G. 2009. "Castles in the Sky" Dewey-L post of 10 Sep 2009
09:11:01-0400; online on the OPEN! Dewey-L archives at
<http://tinyurl.com/ybbphtu>.
Daly, H.E. & J.B. Cobb. 1944. "For the Common Good: Redirecting the
Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future."
Beacon Press; 2nd, Updated edition. Amazon.com information at
<http://tinyurl.com/yff5eqc>.
Daly, H.E. 1997. "Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable
Development." Beacon Press; publisher's information at
<http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?SKU=4709>. Amazon.com
information at <http://tinyurl.com/ygemamr>. A searchable Google book
preview is online at <http://tinyurl.com/yjc4nc9>. For a good review
see Hobson (1999). Pages 1-10.3 of the 23 page "Introduction" with
links to Daly (1994) and Hansen (1995)] are online at
<http://acratcliffe.free.fr/sustainability/beyond%20growth.htm>,
thanks to Pierre Ratcliffe (2009). See also Daly & Townsend (1992),
Daly & Cobb (1994), Daly (1994), Hansen (1995), Daly & Farley (2003),
and Daly (2008).
Daly, H.E. & J. Farley. 2003. "Ecological Economics: Principles And
Applications." Island Press, publisher's information at
<http://www.islandpress.com/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=389>.
Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/yzwf3ul>. Note the
searchable "Look Inside" feature. A good companion text for an
interdisciplinary economics/physics might be Aubrecht (2006).
Daly, H.E. 2009. "Incorporating Values in a Bottom-Line Ecological
Economy," Bulletin of Science, Technology, & Society 29(5): 349-357;
online to subscribers at <http://bst.sagepub.com/current.dtl>.
Hake, R.R. 1998a. "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A
six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory
physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66: 64-74; online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/ajpv3i.pdf> (84 kB).
Hake, R.R. 1998b. "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory
mechanics courses," online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/IEM-2b.pdf> (108 kB). A crucial
companion paper to Hake (1998a).
Hake, R.R. 2009a. "Energy Efficiency, the Jevons Paradox, and the
Elephant in the Room: Overpopulation #4," online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://tinyurl.com/yj2pmqp>. Post of 20 Oct 2009
14:25:15 -0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, PhysLrnR, & Physoc. The abstract
only was transmitted to various discussion lists (but not to Dewey-L)
under the more descriptive title "HERMAN DALY'S ECOLOGICAL ECONOMIST
VIEW CONTRASTED WITH THE TRADITIONAL ECONOMIST VIEW OF LAWRENCE
SUMMERS AND THE WORLD BANK."
Hake, R.R. 2009b. "Misconceptions in the Population/Energy Debate
#2," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://tinyurl.com/yf7zybn>. Post of 16 Nov 2009 09:49:41-0800 to
AERA-L & Net-Gold. The abstract only was sent to several discussion
lists but not to Dewey-L.
Iacono. T. 2009. "Greenspan: Another Crisis Is Inevitable," Seeking
Alpha blog entry of 9 Sept, online at <http://tinyurl.com/ygzdqzw>
with 15 comments as of 27 November 2009..
Jackson, T. 2009. "Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite
Planet." Earthscan Publications Ltd; publisher's information at
<http://tinyurl.com/yzck432>.
Sarbu, M. 2009. "Re: Castles in the Sky" Dewey-L post of 26 Nov 2009
14:27:11-0500; online on the OPEN! Dewey-L archives at
<http://tinyurl.com/y8no7k9>.