LESSWRONG
LW

All of elhelado's Comments + Replies

Explicit and Implicit Communication
elhelado30

Was thinking something similar. I'm not familiar with the management theory/etc. that is being referenced here, and if you asked me what 'explicit communication' was, I would think it would mean being BLUNT , and not sparing anyone's feelings.

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Philosophy: A Diseased Discipline
elhelado00

The traditional definition of philosophy (in Greek) implied that philosophy's purpose was not to convey information, but to produce a transformation in the individual who practices it. In that sense, it is not supposed to be "useless", but it may appear so to someone who is looking to it for "information" about reality. By this standard, very little of what goes on in academic Philosophy departments today would qualify.

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-2mytyde
I would charge that the same 'institutionalization' which has neutered psychology has changed philosophy into a funding-chaser. Psychology was invented as a means of studying society so that the social situation could be improved: Freud was a socialist. Because many disciplines have moved to institutions, they have less freedom to pursue research and less freedom to depart from the views of their institutions. Also, because funding is dependent on people who have ulterior motives in what they choose to fund, it would be almost impossible for a school of psychology to develop which says, for instance "there's something seriously wrong with our society" because they would be hard-pressed to find research funding. That the general population surrenders so much initiative to scientists who are so strongly influenced by veiled politics is the true tragedy of our time.