Re: 20160413 Variations on a theme of Adam Smith
Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 4:53 pm
20170313 Every now and then the columnist George Will mentions Adam Smith in one way or another.
The latest example is an Opinion Forum piece entitled "New school aims to preserve our self-evident truths"
http://www.dispatch.com/opinion/2017031 ... ent-truths
In the article, Mr. Will includes mention of the "Wealth of Nations" along with the Federalist Papers as examples of writings that not everyone needs to read, but that "someone" should.
The article overall is concerned with the opening of a new institution of higher learning.
Begin Quotation:
A primary mission of institutions of higher education should be the transmission of civilization's intellectual patrimony.
End Quotation.
In the context of The Knowledge Forum, I am interested in Mr. Will's theme as a reminder that while Dr. Dartnell's opening book (in what I hope will become a shelf full of follow on publications), Dr. Dartnell's index does not mention schools, colleges, university or any other similar organized institution for collecting and propagating knowledge, let alone values. His explanation for limiting the scope of this first volume to a reasonable size certainly justifies the omission, but it seems to me that a follow on volume might profitably address the challenges of building (or re-building) social institutions after the global structures stop working. Because I am interested in the successful development of communities away from Earth, the topic of building social structures with the people who are available seems worth addressing.
Elsewhere in this forum, Dave Z has introduced an update on research into use of DNA (or a similar long lasting chemical structure) to hold information, and thus serve as a long lasting repository of human knowledge. It seems to me that the challenge of educating the younger generation after a collapse would be much less difficult if all of human knowledge that can be collected into DNA (type) repositories were so collected, reproduced, and distributed to sites around the globe for two purposes. First is the higher order purpose of preserving human knowledge. Second, and the one that might help to generate funds to support the initiative, would be to make the repositories available to local communities to study while civilization still exists.
(th)
The latest example is an Opinion Forum piece entitled "New school aims to preserve our self-evident truths"
http://www.dispatch.com/opinion/2017031 ... ent-truths
In the article, Mr. Will includes mention of the "Wealth of Nations" along with the Federalist Papers as examples of writings that not everyone needs to read, but that "someone" should.
The article overall is concerned with the opening of a new institution of higher learning.
Begin Quotation:
A primary mission of institutions of higher education should be the transmission of civilization's intellectual patrimony.
End Quotation.
In the context of The Knowledge Forum, I am interested in Mr. Will's theme as a reminder that while Dr. Dartnell's opening book (in what I hope will become a shelf full of follow on publications), Dr. Dartnell's index does not mention schools, colleges, university or any other similar organized institution for collecting and propagating knowledge, let alone values. His explanation for limiting the scope of this first volume to a reasonable size certainly justifies the omission, but it seems to me that a follow on volume might profitably address the challenges of building (or re-building) social institutions after the global structures stop working. Because I am interested in the successful development of communities away from Earth, the topic of building social structures with the people who are available seems worth addressing.
Elsewhere in this forum, Dave Z has introduced an update on research into use of DNA (or a similar long lasting chemical structure) to hold information, and thus serve as a long lasting repository of human knowledge. It seems to me that the challenge of educating the younger generation after a collapse would be much less difficult if all of human knowledge that can be collected into DNA (type) repositories were so collected, reproduced, and distributed to sites around the globe for two purposes. First is the higher order purpose of preserving human knowledge. Second, and the one that might help to generate funds to support the initiative, would be to make the repositories available to local communities to study while civilization still exists.
(th)