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“Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to
characterize our age.” “We shall not grow
wiser before we learn that much of what we have done was very foolish.”
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The spirit of our age concerns breaking unwieldy wholes into parts in order to solve problems better. We can see this process in modern science (reductionism), philosophy (analysis), and economics (the division of labor). A major danger in breaking wholes into parts is forgetting to consider the infinitely greater whole, which is important not only in philosophy (induction) and in physics (entanglement), but also in economics (learning). Although complete knowledge of this whole will remain forever beyond our grasp, we must not pass over it in silence. Expanding the scope of the problems we face helps us find better problems to solve. When we expand the scope of the problems we face to the limits of imagination, a structure of values independent of beliefs and circumstances emerges. Understanding the process by which we best progress toward these invariant ends can help us progress ever more readily. For more about this read Boundless Pragmatism, An Invariant Strategy for Deciding Well. |
recursionist economics / public science / moral science / true science