Difference between revisions of "NOV 13"

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(Created page with "==20: NOV 13 - 5. The Enlightenment, American Experience, Money and Happiness== ===Assigned=== :*McMahon, C6, “Lib and discontent” (313-331) :*"Economics of Happiness" [...")
 
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==20: NOV 13 - 5. The Enlightenment, American Experience, Money and Happiness==
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==21: NOV 13==
  
 
===Assigned===
 
===Assigned===
  
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:*McMahon, C6, “Lib and discontent” (313-331)
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:*Baltes and Smith, "Toward a Psychology of wisdom and it ontogenesis"(27)
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:*"Economics of Happiness" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-t8-Vq0HO0]
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:*[https://godspace.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/the-tree-of-contemplative-practices/  the tree of contemplative practices].  Classical liberal art diagrams abound, but hard to find today.
  
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===In-Class===
+
===Baltes & Smith, "Toward a Psychology of Wisdom and its Ontegenesis" 1990===
  
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:*Introduction to Easterlin Paradox [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlin_paradox]
+
:*Motivations for the Berlin Paradigm's research:
 +
::*study of peak performance,
 +
::*positive aspects of aging, '''General discussion question: Are the lessons from aging well confined to that time of the lifespan?'''
 +
::*work on intelligence that reflects a concern with context and life pragmatics, Baltes & Smith p. 87
  
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===McMahon, Chapter 6: Liberalism and Its Discontents (1st half to 331)===
+
:*Point on method in discussion of problem of giving a scientific treatment of wisdom, p. 89.  Wittgenstein quote. Baltes acknowledges that there are limits and differences in studying wisdom, for example, need to compare results with lived experience of wisdom.  Not typical in science. 
  
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:*'''Enlightenment liberalism''' and '''Classical Republicanism''' in the American experiment
+
:*Fundamental assumption #1: Wisdom is an "expert knowledge system"
 +
:*Fundamental assumption:#2: A dual-process model of intelligence (Mechanics / Pragmatics) is most relevant to understanding wisdom. Focus on p. 94 figure 5.1. Mechanics of intelligence decline, but pragmatics increase over time. 
 +
:*Fundamental assumption #3: Wisdom is about life pragmatics, understood as life planning, management, review. (Note.  This is easily expanded to "wise social groups" and "wise cultures".
  
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::*example of Franklin as quintessential representative of the American appropriation of Enlightenment liberalism. 
+
:*Wisdom defined as "expert knowledge involving good judgement and advice in the domain, fundamental pragmatics of life" 95
  
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::*symbol of thrift and accumulation, self-made, tract, The Path to Riches and Happiness.  But then, McMahon raises the question of whether the money - happiness connection is really central to the American experiment.  Need to go into Enlightenment thought behind the “pursuit of happiness” phrase.
+
:*'''Small Group Discussion''': When you think about times in your life when you have managed your life well, what specific things or practices have contributed to that? Try to give examples.  Does it makes sense to think of this as a form or expertise that you are acquiring?
  
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:*'''Trivial Pursuits'''
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:*The '''"Baltes Five"''' Criteria Construct for Wisdom:
  
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::*Dec. of Independence: tracing "pursuit of happiness" in enlightenment texts. Jefferson claims that he was trying to express a “common sense” of the American mind. However, he is altering Locke’s “Life, liberty, and property (estates)” phrase.  Critic might call this a smokescreen for protecting property.   
+
::*'''Rich factual knowledge''': Accumulation of knowledge which facilitates predictive ability to see how relationships, causes, and meanings will interact in a situation. "a representation of the expected sequential flow of events in a particular situation" Both general: knowing "how people work", for example; and specific: knowing how a particular person might respond or think about something; how a particular life problem tends to go.  Also, factual knowledge about the world and human psychology.
  
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::*Locke did think of happiness as a natural part of a Christian worldview, leading us to God.  Virginia Declaration on Human Rights, contemporary, shows the liberty — property — happiness connection (318).
+
::*'''Rich procedural knowledge''': accumulation of knowledge which facilitates understanding of strategies of problem solving, advice seeking.  "A repertoire of mental procedures."  (This would include characteristic biases and ways that knowledge seeking goes wrong.)
 +
:::*(Not in article, but add in) Recognizing cognitive bias and "narrative opacity" in self.  Fundamental Attribute Error (FAE), intuition discount, motivated reasoning ("Can I believe it/Must I believe it?"))
  
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::*Connotation of “pursuit” - Locke and Jeff understood hedonic treadmill at some level.  McMahon suggests that this negative connotation is part of a deeper Christian line of thought that survived in the Enlightenment.  Christianity teaches us not to expect ultimate desire satisfaction in material goods.  Sermons of the time routinely linked happiness to Christian virtues.   
+
::*'''Life span contextualism''': understanding a problem in awareness of it's place in the life span.  Knowing what part of your life you are in and understanding it's challenges for your goals.  Think about how the model will change after graduation.  ('''Question:''' Can you identify ways in which the pandemic or trends pushing marriage toward 30 have created challenges?)
  
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::*Jeffersonian Christianity focused on teachings of Jesus. The Jefferson Bible…. Jefferson is identified with “'''Classical Republican'''” less individualistic than Locke, focused on civic virtue and civic participation. Quote at 324.  Jefferson’s knowledge of the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers would also inform him of a critical issue in Locke (raised by Hutchison), that pleasure may just lead to self-centered hedonism.  Postulated “moral sense” as counterweight.  A capacity to feel pleasure from good.
+
::*'''Relativism''': Understanding and taking into account the range of values, goals, and priorities that specific human lives embody. (Example of lack of wisdom: People who have trouble believing that "people can be like that." Also, cultural naivete.)
  
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::*McMahon traces this appreciation of limits of “trivial pursuits” of pleasure in Hume and Smith.  Smith theorized that the illusory goal of desire satisfaction could have positive social effect, motivating pursuit of wealth, which is good for the society, even at the sacrifice of individual Happiness. 
+
::*'''Uncertainty''': awareness of limits of knowledge in general and in particular factual cases.  but also "strategies for managing and dealing with uncertainty" 103.  (Brief acknowledgement of uncertainty in the 2nd quarter and the 4th!)
  
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:*'''Strange Melancholy'''
+
:*Two sets of predictions:
 +
::*Wisdom has a culturally accessible and commonly held meaning
 +
::*Ontogenesis of wisdom in general, specific, and modifying factors (Fig 5.2)
  
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::*Alexis de Tocqueville's contribution: Democracy in America 1835 1840: Sociological insight into sadness in the American experiment.
+
:*Research on everyday concepts of wisdom (106)
 +
::*Implicit theories (Holiday and Chandler)
 +
::*Sworka - good character increasingly associated with wisdom by older test subjects
 +
:*Research on wisdom as expert knowledge (108)
 +
::*Follow preliminary findings 110
  
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::*Of Toq's thesis: Macmahon writes: "perhaps, the cynic, or at least the skeptic, may be on firmer ground. For in a society in which the unhindered pursuit of happiness (to say nothing of its attainment) is treated as a natural, Godgiven right, the inability to make steady progress along the way will inevitably be seen as an aberration, a suspension of the natural order of things."  big passage:  333-334
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===Wisdom Workshop: Practice Scenarios===
  
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::*really about the dynamics of equality, freedom, and democracy vs. community and social values.  U.S. a big experiment.  Tocqueville also praised Americans for self-reliance and a sense of "enlightened self interest"  -- realizing that it is in your self-interest to be concerned about others.
+
:*A married couple in their early 30s is living in Brooklyn, New York and trying to decide how to get ready to have a family.  They are pretty conservative and feel that home ownership is the best way to control various things that are important in raising kids.  But conditions do not favor buying a home now (high interest rates, high home prices in the NY area, etc.).  They both currently work remotely and enjoy access to urban culture.  How should they think about planning the next few years of their life?
  
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::*And that, Tocqueville concluded in a famous line, "is the reason for the strange melancholy often haunting inhabitants of democracies in the midst of abundance, and of that disgust with life sometimes gripping them in calm and easy circumstances." 
+
:*Your friend is a recent college graduate who wants to get started on their career in physical therapy, but also feels a strong connection to their home town and their extended family. They would like to return to their home town but openings for physical therapists might be scarce.  On the other hand, they are also curious about visiting another culture and they have achieved a good level of knowledge of Spanish.  They never had an opportunity to do study abroad and have a feeling that they should get broader experience before considering returning home. How should they think about and manage the next few years of their lives?
  
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::*More detail of Toqueville’s analysis:
+
:*You are a college senior in an intimate relationship that you and your partner both value tremendously.  However, you and your partner have different career goals that require additional education in programs that are spread around the country. You are both applying to programs and hoping to wind up in the same city, but the odds are slim, and you are worried that maintaining a long distance relationship will be difficult. How should you manage this important decision?
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:::*”self-intrest rightly understood” - today we document this as measureable mental adaptations of “impersonal prosociality” and “impersonal fairness” (Henrich, WEIRDEST People in the World)
 
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:::*”a sublunary focus of religious spirit” - in other words, we took Locke’s (and maybe Calvin’s) analysis to heart. Religion in Am context serves as counter weight to Am drives to maximize.  
 
  
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:*'''A crisis of faith''' 343
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:*You have a friend who is approaching graduation and really wondering if it was all worth it.  They did well in school and will receive a degree that guarantees a decent job, but they have a nagging feeling that they are missing something.  A job offer at good pay in a city they like has just arrived, but they are wondering if maybe they should decline it while they take more time to review where they are in their lives.  How would you help them with the life review problem?
  
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::*Mill's contribution: Autonomy and Liberal Hope
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===Write up a Wisdom Scenario for our upcoming paper===
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::*344:  image of John Stuart Mill reviewing Toq's essays and longing for democracy in Europe.  Maybe the problem isn’t equality, as Toq claims, but a British thing? Or just the “commercial spirit”. "Let the idea take hold," Mill warned, "that the most serious danger to the future prospects of mankind is in the unbalanced influence of the commercial spirit. .. ."
 
  
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::*347:  section on Mill's depression -- famous -- finds solace in romatic poetry.  why?  evocative, imaginative against starker imagination of rationalist enlightenment.  Also an example of the “internal strategy” for happiness.
+
:*Please send in a wisdom scenario of your own.  This will help with a research project of mine, but also give us more choices for the short paper that is coming up.  Use this [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfd7qU9UH3VI59YfW8IZdRlarrWcUgRQf5qGnSsicOh7QWlsQ/viewform?usp=sf_link google form] to report your scenario.  You are welcome to submit more than one.
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::*also in Mill (and Butler), the problem of indirect happiness. Q347-8. ( Mill's passage 348 breaking with simple Benthamism. Happiness too complex to reduce to pleasures. “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”  What would that “higher end” be beyond pleasure: Liberty!
 
−
 
 
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::*Mill, On Liberty passage 350 - Only legit. Power of the state is to prevent harms from rights violations.  Can't violate someone's liberty to make them happier...  “The individual is sovreign.”
 
−
 
 
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::*McM:  Liberty as liberation “from” oppressive conditions. (Early feminist.) Is there a romanticism in Mill's position on Liberty?  Perhaps a romantic faith that the “true self” would emerge.  (Note: Also in Marx.). Anti-conformity.
 
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:*'''The Capitalist Ethic and the Spirit of Happiness'''
 
−
 
 
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:*Weber's contribution: Socio-religious insight into the dynamic between capitalism and Protestant Christianity.
 
−
 
 
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::*Weber Section: 355 "In the Protestant anxiety over the fate of individual salvation, he argued, lay the motive force behind an impetus to capital accumulation, regarded as a sign and partial assurance of God's blessing. Combining ascetic renunciation, a notion of work as divine calling, and a critically rational disposition, the Protestant faith, Weber argued, brought together nascent capitalism's essential qualities: the restriction of consumption in favor of the accrual of capital, and a religiously consecrated ethic of discipline, delayed gratification, industry, and thrift.”  (Digression on contemporary approaches in cultural evolution that qualify, and enlarge, Weber’s point.)
 
−
 
 
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::*Think Ben Franklin, heir to dad’s Calvinism (though a bit of a libertine, I’ve heard).  His “ethic” was, however, about foregoing short term pleasures to accumulate wealth.
 
−
 
 
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::*Weber claimed that as the after-life diminishes as a goal, wealth accumulation becomes an end in itself.  “… a man exists for the sake of his business, not the other way around…” 
 
−
 
 
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::*358: "Indeed, it was during the very period when Weber was writing that America, and the West more generally, began to undergo what the sociologist Daniel Bell has described as a monumental transformation, "the shift from '''production to consumption''' as the fulcrum of capitalism." Bringing "silk stockings to shop girls" and "luxury to the masses," this transformation made of "marketing and hedonism" the "motor forces of capitalism," driving over all restraints that stood in the way of the enjoyment of material pleasures with a momentum that would have surprised even Tocqueville."  (Note: Galbraith, "The Dependency Effect; reliance on raising GDP; sustainability of economy and population)
 
−
 
 
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::*"Material goods," he observed at the end of The Protestant Ethic, "have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history."
 
−
 
 
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::*And yet, Weber was no hedonist. 359.  Close the chapter with the “specter of Marx” and the Russian revolution, which had it’s own (also Romantic) assumptions about liberation.
 
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===Crash Course on Happiness Economics, Adriene Hill===
 
−
 
 
−
:*the presenter [https://www.marketplace.org/author/adriene-hill/]
 
−
 
 
−
:*Typical correlates: $82K, keep your job, don't compare too much.
 
−
 
 
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:*General historical assumptions of economics: unlimited potential for desire and satisfaction, linear relationship with money.
 
−
 
 
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:*H&W Economics news!!: "Happiness economics" starts by studying the disconnects and gaps in theory based on this assumption.  The Easterlin Paradox is a central area of study.
 
−
 
 
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:*Example: non-economic satisfactions.  Cooking a meal for someone.  Being offered money could ruin the satisfaction.
 
−
 
 
−
:*Thought bubble: relative income and satisfaction.  beyond some level of income the value of additional money has diminishing returns.  Basically, the idea that the law of diminishing marginal utility applies to income. "The law of diminishing marginal utility says that the marginal utility from each additional unit declines as consumption increases."  2010, about $82k in the US. 
 
−
 
 
−
:*Life satisfaction judgements (H-l)do track income and wealth across time.
 
−
 
 
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:*Unemployment trashes H-l.  Especially middle aged unemployed.  Greater than the money loss.  Affects future outlook. 
 
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:*U-shaped curves: for unemployment, long commutes, ccard debt, inflation. 
 
−
:*Reference income hypothesis: Satisfaction from your income depends in part upon your reference set, who else you compare to. Living in a rich neighborhood in poor county give you a boost. Status.
 
−
:*Easterlin Paradox introduced: "The 'Easterlin Paradox' states that at a point in time happiness varies directly with income both among and within nations, but over time happiness does not trend upward as income continues to grow."
 
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::*Explanations: status, set point theory, hedonic adaptation (Rousseau quote 6:45), not a paradox (possible counter evidence from low income countries).
 
−
::*Steverson and Wolfers - average levels of happiness do rise in relation to GDP.
 
−
 
 
−
:*The GDP debate -- Is GDP the right focus for economic policy? Bhutan...GNH.  (Some details from Easterlin on what that might mean.)  Kennedy observations: GDP counts everything, even bad things, and misses lots of things we do value.
 

Latest revision as of 21:54, 13 November 2024

21: NOV 13

Assigned

Baltes & Smith, "Toward a Psychology of Wisdom and its Ontegenesis" 1990

  • Motivations for the Berlin Paradigm's research:
  • study of peak performance,
  • positive aspects of aging, General discussion question: Are the lessons from aging well confined to that time of the lifespan?
  • work on intelligence that reflects a concern with context and life pragmatics, Baltes & Smith p. 87
  • Point on method in discussion of problem of giving a scientific treatment of wisdom, p. 89. Wittgenstein quote. Baltes acknowledges that there are limits and differences in studying wisdom, for example, need to compare results with lived experience of wisdom. Not typical in science.
  • Fundamental assumption #1: Wisdom is an "expert knowledge system"
  • Fundamental assumption:#2: A dual-process model of intelligence (Mechanics / Pragmatics) is most relevant to understanding wisdom. Focus on p. 94 figure 5.1. Mechanics of intelligence decline, but pragmatics increase over time.
  • Fundamental assumption #3: Wisdom is about life pragmatics, understood as life planning, management, review. (Note. This is easily expanded to "wise social groups" and "wise cultures".
  • Wisdom defined as "expert knowledge involving good judgement and advice in the domain, fundamental pragmatics of life" 95
  • Small Group Discussion: When you think about times in your life when you have managed your life well, what specific things or practices have contributed to that? Try to give examples. Does it makes sense to think of this as a form or expertise that you are acquiring?
  • The "Baltes Five" Criteria Construct for Wisdom:
  • Rich factual knowledge: Accumulation of knowledge which facilitates predictive ability to see how relationships, causes, and meanings will interact in a situation. "a representation of the expected sequential flow of events in a particular situation" Both general: knowing "how people work", for example; and specific: knowing how a particular person might respond or think about something; how a particular life problem tends to go. Also, factual knowledge about the world and human psychology.
  • Rich procedural knowledge: accumulation of knowledge which facilitates understanding of strategies of problem solving, advice seeking. "A repertoire of mental procedures." (This would include characteristic biases and ways that knowledge seeking goes wrong.)
  • (Not in article, but add in) Recognizing cognitive bias and "narrative opacity" in self. Fundamental Attribute Error (FAE), intuition discount, motivated reasoning ("Can I believe it/Must I believe it?"))
  • Life span contextualism: understanding a problem in awareness of it's place in the life span. Knowing what part of your life you are in and understanding it's challenges for your goals. Think about how the model will change after graduation. (Question: Can you identify ways in which the pandemic or trends pushing marriage toward 30 have created challenges?)
  • Relativism: Understanding and taking into account the range of values, goals, and priorities that specific human lives embody. (Example of lack of wisdom: People who have trouble believing that "people can be like that." Also, cultural naivete.)
  • Uncertainty: awareness of limits of knowledge in general and in particular factual cases. but also "strategies for managing and dealing with uncertainty" 103. (Brief acknowledgement of uncertainty in the 2nd quarter and the 4th!)
  • Two sets of predictions:
  • Wisdom has a culturally accessible and commonly held meaning
  • Ontogenesis of wisdom in general, specific, and modifying factors (Fig 5.2)
  • Research on everyday concepts of wisdom (106)
  • Implicit theories (Holiday and Chandler)
  • Sworka - good character increasingly associated with wisdom by older test subjects
  • Research on wisdom as expert knowledge (108)
  • Follow preliminary findings 110

Wisdom Workshop: Practice Scenarios

  • A married couple in their early 30s is living in Brooklyn, New York and trying to decide how to get ready to have a family. They are pretty conservative and feel that home ownership is the best way to control various things that are important in raising kids. But conditions do not favor buying a home now (high interest rates, high home prices in the NY area, etc.). They both currently work remotely and enjoy access to urban culture. How should they think about planning the next few years of their life?
  • Your friend is a recent college graduate who wants to get started on their career in physical therapy, but also feels a strong connection to their home town and their extended family. They would like to return to their home town but openings for physical therapists might be scarce. On the other hand, they are also curious about visiting another culture and they have achieved a good level of knowledge of Spanish. They never had an opportunity to do study abroad and have a feeling that they should get broader experience before considering returning home. How should they think about and manage the next few years of their lives?
  • You are a college senior in an intimate relationship that you and your partner both value tremendously. However, you and your partner have different career goals that require additional education in programs that are spread around the country. You are both applying to programs and hoping to wind up in the same city, but the odds are slim, and you are worried that maintaining a long distance relationship will be difficult. How should you manage this important decision?
  • You have a friend who is approaching graduation and really wondering if it was all worth it. They did well in school and will receive a degree that guarantees a decent job, but they have a nagging feeling that they are missing something. A job offer at good pay in a city they like has just arrived, but they are wondering if maybe they should decline it while they take more time to review where they are in their lives. How would you help them with the life review problem?

Write up a Wisdom Scenario for our upcoming paper

  • Please send in a wisdom scenario of your own. This will help with a research project of mine, but also give us more choices for the short paper that is coming up. Use this google form to report your scenario. You are welcome to submit more than one.
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