Links to BBC radio interview with NNT. HatTip to Dave Lull.
The intellectual guru Nassim Taleb has published
a collection of philosophical aphorisms.
He explores his favourite theme of the limitations of human knowledge.
NNT BBC Radio 12/14/10
Shared by JohnH
Excerpt from a new post from our friend David Lemus.
And so I spoke concerning the tension between the Rationalist and the Empiricist. As the evening winds down, I pick up my copy of Taleb’s ” The Bed of Procrustes” and slowly read at loud the aphorism: “The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist an imbecile-proof one, or, even better, a rationalist-proof one” (pg 71)
Two minds come to my mind, the Rationalist who conjures theories and provides proofs based on assumptions, who draw maps and builds models, and the Empiricist who wants to walk on the city streets and see the aesthetic architecture; smell the smooth air of the surroundings; taste the delicacies, and watch the girls; and see and be with nature and the people who prove the Rationalist wrong over and over again.
The Rationalist, thinking himself very astute, builds the models of how the world should work. I trenchantly enter the chambers of his mind and he gives me an amiable tour.–Look–he smirks–I have maps of Japan, of England, of America, of the whole world, there is not one single terrain which I haven’t drawn a map. –But–I respond–Have you been there? Have you stroll through the dark street in Tokyo? Have you walk at night through London’s poet corner trying to find the burial ground of some long gone author? Have you been lost in Manhattan on East 42nd and 3th attempting to talk to strangers, lots of strangers, to find your way to a decent room?
Shared by JohnH
HatTip to Dave Lull
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
Shared by JohnH
This (intelligent and humorous) anti-fan might even fall into the camp of ‘enemy’, in the sense that… “You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend no admirer and no partner will flatter you with equal curiosity.”
As to its flaws, it reminded me of one of my favorite aphorisms: “the man who early on regards himself as genius is lost.” He inverts the observation that geniuses are often misunderstood to the insight that misunderstood people are geniuses, and critics of such people are imbeciles who don’t even have the taste to appreciate genius. My criticisms are therefore consistent with him being right or wrong, but falsification is not symptomatic of punditry in general or Taleb in particular.
Shared by JohnH
HatTip to Dave Lull.
To be fair, Taleb challenges us to think for ourselves, a
job too many shirk. He’s as severe with the high and mighty as
he is with the plebs.
At one point, for example, he voices concern about “the
growing separation of the ethical and the legal.” A footnote
reads: “Former U.S. Treasury secretary ‘bankster’ Robert Rubin,
perhaps the biggest thief in history, broke no law.”
As for Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, he inspired this
line: “How superb to become wise without being boring; how sad
to be boring without being wise.”