Tag: Jeremy Bentham

Are We Still Too Dumb for Democracy?

Posted in anarchism, intelligence, modernism, philosophy, politics, power, societyTagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’ve resurrected a book project (working title Dumbocracy) that I commenced at the end of 2021. I’ve revisited the structure and made some amends to the outline before I move forward. I’ve done more research and feel the topic is (sadly) still as relevant now as then. The approach I am taking is to present:

  1. definition and summary
  2. historical perspective of advocates and detractors
  3. the main thesis and antithesis
  4. alternatives
  5. future prospects

I’ve got a lot going on, so this may whither or die on the vine, but I’m hoping to reach the goal line this time. Since I already invested many hours over days since Autumn 2020, the groundwork is already laid.

If anyone has any contributions, I welcome them.

Revised Chapter Order

  1. Position and Setup
    • Introduce the central thesis and set the stage for the book.
  2. Historical Backdrop – Pre-Enlightenment Until Now
    • Provide historical context to ground the reader in the evolution of democratic ideas.
  3. Celebrity Supporters
    • Highlight influential figures who supported democracy, setting up the positive aspects and idealism associated with it.
  4. Celebrity Anti-Democracy Figures
    • Present notable critics of democracy to introduce scepticism and counterpoints early on.
  5. Prima Facie Arguments
    • Lay out the initial arguments against democracy, building on the scepticism introduced in the previous chapter.
  6. Shaky Grounds and Necessarily Suboptimal Outcomes: Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
    • Dive into the mathematical and theoretical flaws in democratic voting systems to provide a strong foundation for the critiques.
  7. Essential Steelman Counterarguments
    • Present the strongest counterarguments to the prima facie arguments, offering a balanced perspective.
  8. Are We Too Dumb for Democracy?
    • Analyze cognitive limitations and their impact on democratic decision-making.
  9. Dealing with Rational Ignorance and Unknown Unknowns
    • Address the issues of rational ignorance and the limits of voter knowledge.
  10. Reconciling Worldviews: Individualism Versus Collectivism
    • Discuss the philosophical tensions and their implications for democracy.
  11. Possible People-Based Solutions
    • Introduce potential reforms and solutions to address the identified flaws.
  12. People-Based Counterarguments
    • Defend democracy by presenting strong arguments for the capability and resilience of the populace.
  13. Against Democracy
    • Explore Jason Brennan’s epistocracy and other critiques in depth.
  14. Effective Mob Rule
    • Discuss ways to improve voter quality and address historical injustices.
  15. The Representatives
    • Debate the idea of electing more qualified representatives.
  16. Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon — Watching the Watchers
    • Consider the concept of surveillance and accountability in governance.
  17. US / UK Politics
    • Critique the current state of politics in the US and UK, providing contemporary relevance.
  18. SCOTUS Partisanship
    • Examine the partisanship in the Supreme Court and its implications for democracy.
  19. Jury Systems
    • Analyze the jury system as a microcosm of democratic principles.
  20. What About…?
    • Anarchy and Libertarianism
    • Deliberative Democracy
    • Republicanism
    • Epistocracy
    • Sortition
    • Other Potential ‘What Abouts’
  21. Tea Leaves
    • Speculate on the future of democracy and potential reforms or alternatives.
  22. And So What? Where to Go from Here?
    • Summarize the findings and suggest practical steps for addressing the flaws in democracy and exploring alternatives.

NB: As is typical, these are working titles subject to change.

Moral Tribes

Posted in modernism, morality, philosophyTagged , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Aside from the political realm, in my quest to gain more perspective on Anarchism in 2022, I am interested in behavioural aspects of the human condition. It seems to me that political constructs as dynamic systems are inherently unstable. Whilst I am predisposed to Anarchy versus the alternatives to which I’ve been exposed, it too is fraught will deficiencies. The question is which system has the fewest deficiencies at any given time. More on this later.

On my journey, I’ve come across Moral Tribes by Joshua Greene, a book recommended in Behave by Robert Sapolsky—perhaps my favourite non-fiction book of the trailing decade, which is also to say my favourite book over this period. Professor Greene summarises his concepts on YouTube.

But

Of course, there’s a but. Joshua Greene seems to come from the same mould as Stephen Pinker. Two Pollyanna defenders of the Enlightenment and Humanism. As such, they are Moderns in the pejorative sense. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. They both buy into the Classical Western narrative.

What interested me in Greene’s work was the conflict management aspect. I don’t believe in inherent morality, but I do believe in constructed morality, perhaps better known as ethics. I believe that these are self-serving, whereby self represents any entity at some point or limited expanse of time. They never derive from some neutral place without benefiting some at the expense of others.

The axe I have to grid with Greene in Moral Tribes is his belief in facile notions such as loyalty and some sense of definitive goodness and badness. These things, he believes are instinctual. If we can tap into them and manipulate those with broken instincts—or marginalise them—, all will be milk and honey—or wine and roses. Take your pick.

Deep Pragmatism

Greene is effectively a utilitarian as descended from Jeremy Betham and John Stuart Mill, and he views pragmatism as a sort of panacea. Although I operate as a pragmatist as a fallback position from my more existential nihilistic core, I don’t feel that his recharacterising utilitarianism as Deep Pragmatism™ is a viable solution. Presuming that one could actually dimensionalise a society in a manner to measure this utility is a fool’s errand at the start. And, as I’ve gathered from other sources, he not only believes that there is a best morality, and he’s found it—because of course he has. In my book this is a red flag—a flaming red flag signalling a rubbish claim. In some circles, they’d straight up call it bollox.

Given this foundation, I am not sure how much more I’ll be able to maintain my interest. But for now, I’m not optimistic that he’s relying on anything more than hoping to convert ises from oughts with his magic Modern wand. I’ll give it as least a few more pages, but I won’t promise not to skim through to the end.

The Ones Who Walk Away

Posted in philosophyTagged , , , , , , 3 Comments

As a (slightly) more considered response to Marvin Edwards’ comment in response to a prior post: ‘I’m working under the presumption that “the best good and least harm for everyone” is behind every rule that our consequentialists have created…’, I wanted to bring to the forefront the adolescent-appropriate short story, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (PDF). Among the key themes,  author Ursula K Le Guin paints a thought experiment that showcases the weakness of the foundation of Utilitarianism.

To summarise, Omelas is a utopian city, and the residents are copacetic—all but one. The one is a veritable scapegoat. The one suffers all of the pain, to create a system wherein the best good and the least harm could be experienced. Whilst the concept breaks down well before this scale, this thought experiment illustrates the absurdity of the claim. At a more basic (and classic) level, we can simply look at the various trolley experiments or the conceptual dilemma proposed in the scenario wherein some number—4 and 5 seem to be popular—of ill people may be saved at the expense of 1 healthy one.

At a more conceptual level, at its inception in the Age of Reason by Bentham and Mill, a time where Scientism was wrestling the reins from the Age of Superstition Scholasticism, utililty was thought to be able to be quantified and measured. As with other non-ontic concepts, it can’t be.

As with other non-ontic concepts, utility is specious. Like a Pointillist painting, it looks coherent at a distance, but upon any scrutiny, it becomes incoherent, and the best an adherent can do is to step back until it again feels rational, arguing that to get any closer is to make perfection the enemy of the good. But that’s not the point, to ask for a workable definition prior to engaging in discourse is not about perfection; it’s creating a common basis for discussion. Utility offers little utility.

Henri Cross - Three Nudes
Henri Cross – Three Nudes

Utilitarianism

Posted in equality, philosophyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

As I read his Utilitarianism, I want to like John Stuart Mill. He seems like such a clever man, but he is a victim of his Enlightenment Age. Attempting to fabricate order created by science’s encroachment on the absolutes of religion and the shifting sentiments toward monarchies, Mill tries to replace this moral compass with Jeremy Bentham‘s utility.

£1 ≠ £1

The problem is that despite (sort of) dispensing of religious doctrine, Mill was still fettered by the dogma of virtue ethics of dignity and duty. To this, he adds happiness. Not to go full-on Foucault, but these are concepts leveraged, like religion, to maintain power—take an elevated system in a constructed society, and the duty becomes a burden to the bottom, save for pretence of duty and dignity at the top.

I’ve had an issue with the concept of virtue and all of its offspring: duty, justice, and so on. I’ll likely write about this later. I expect that I’ll be reading Mill’s On Liberty next, so stay tuned.

Ignoring my contention that Utilitarianism is baseless, I have two other issues, using economic examples, each related to prospect theory (pdf):

  1. Regressivity: A person with less money values an incremental dollar more than a person with more money.

  2. Loss to gain asymmetry due to risk aversion: A person values losing a dollar more than earning a dollar, ceteris paribus.

Pareto efficiency, a cornerstone of Classical economics, does not take this into account. For this theory, all dollars are created (or perceived to be) equal, so it doesn’t matter whether person A, who earns £10,000 p.a., or person B, who earns £100.000 p.a.,  gets £100, but in the real world, person A would give it a higher value, so a transfer from A to B would be an inferior transaction to a B to A transaction.

This said, person B values the £100 more than having gained the amount, but it is not clear how to reconcile (in order to reach perceived parity) what the fair equilibrium would be, allowing that equality of outcome might not be the desired outcome.