The Constitution of Knowledge is the most successful social design in human history, but also the most counter-intuitive. In exchange for knowledge, freedom, and peace, it asks us to mistrust our senses and our tribes, question our sacred beliefs, and relinquish the comforts of certitude. It insists that we embrace our fallibility, subject ourselves to criticism, tolerate the reprehensible, and outsource reality to a global network of strangers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Some summary of the early chapters:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Key point: <\/strong>This is where, from pages 100 to 102, the author lists examples. Of government agencies, academic institutions, think tanks, and others, of which most people are vaguely aware, long lists of them, which he wants us to understand are the foundation of American civilization, without which our nation of some 330 *million* people could not function. It occurs to me — this is not Rauch\u2019s observation, because the book was written several years ago — that these are precisely the \u201cdeep state\u201d that the simple-minded right thinks are enemies of freedom and wants to eliminate. They have no idea what they\u2019re talking about, or how it would wreck society if they were successful. (Rather, they would complain about the government not taking care of them.)<\/p>\n This is why I want to scan and post a long sample passage, but here I am again in the early evening, and it\u2019s getting too dark, so let me try again tomorrow.<\/p>\n The remaining chapters cover these subjects:<\/p>\n I\u2019ll quote from the final pages.<\/p>\n As I wrote in chapter 1, the Constitution of Knowledge is the most successful social design in human history, but also the most counter-intuitive. In exchange for knowledge, freedom, and peace, it asks us to mistrust our senses and our tribes, question our sacred beliefs, and relinquish the comforts of certitude. It insists that we embrace our fallibility, subject ourselves to criticism, tolerate the reprehensible, and outsource reality to a global network of strangers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With examples of attacks against it.<\/p>\n Yet the reality-based community has withstood much worse. It beat back the inquisitors who imprisoned Galileo, the dictators whose gulags spanned continents, and the racists and homophobes who sought to silence voices of freedom. \u201cTomorrow morning,\u201d said Socrates, \u201clet us meet here again.\u201d The conversation he and his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9 began 2,500 years ago continues, now spanning the world instead of just Athens, despite countless efforts to squelch it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday I gave a general overview of this book, and made a few specific comments. Today I’m going to read through my notes again, and highlight some more specific comments, and maybe quotes. Like this summary, at the end. The … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/RauchCK_800x1028.jpg\")
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