I am also less impressed with this article than with the previous ones, however...
It seems to be that when a person really acquires knowledge they get on with applying the knowledge in the world instead of trying to inflate their self image through peer appraisal or other means.
What if the acquired knowledge contains things like “you can’t do this (efficiently) alone; and whether other people join you depends more on how impressed they are with your image, rather than the actual quality of your plan”?
In such case “applying the knowledge in the world” and “trying to inflate one’s image though peer appraisal” would happen to be the same thing.
Yes, it is a sad truth that it is easier to explain a math equation to people if you’re good-looking, have a nice voice, competently play social games and other things that should be, but are not (and we must come to terms with that), irrelevant
I believe your logic is sound. A bare bones example of using people instrumentally could be needing to move a stone for building something. Or maybe, if the goal is to kill the people in question, they can be manipulated into dying under the rock that they are themselves carrying...
To me the idea of knowledge has a moral element as it does not only tell you how to do something but also what to do. Or maybe knowledge tells you ‘how’ and wisdom tells you ‘what’. It depends on how we are defining our terms. I like to use knowledge as containing both.
So yes, you are right that in my sentence there is the implied assumption, which is also the foundation of my critique of this post, that Bound_up does not exercise knowledge but is simply gathering attention and inflating his/hers self image by assuming superiority. In this light my statement is clumsily formulated as a supporting argument.
I am also less impressed with this article than with the previous ones, however...
What if the acquired knowledge contains things like “you can’t do this (efficiently) alone; and whether other people join you depends more on how impressed they are with your image, rather than the actual quality of your plan”?
In such case “applying the knowledge in the world” and “trying to inflate one’s image though peer appraisal” would happen to be the same thing.
Yes, it is a sad truth that it is easier to explain a math equation to people if you’re good-looking, have a nice voice, competently play social games and other things that should be, but are not (and we must come to terms with that), irrelevant
I believe your logic is sound. A bare bones example of using people instrumentally could be needing to move a stone for building something. Or maybe, if the goal is to kill the people in question, they can be manipulated into dying under the rock that they are themselves carrying...
To me the idea of knowledge has a moral element as it does not only tell you how to do something but also what to do. Or maybe knowledge tells you ‘how’ and wisdom tells you ‘what’. It depends on how we are defining our terms. I like to use knowledge as containing both.
So yes, you are right that in my sentence there is the implied assumption, which is also the foundation of my critique of this post, that Bound_up does not exercise knowledge but is simply gathering attention and inflating his/hers self image by assuming superiority. In this light my statement is clumsily formulated as a supporting argument.
Thanks!