Care concept engineering - anyone? [ concepts-maths ii/iii ]

"Concepts are the building blocks for thought, and from Socrates onward one of the goals of philosophers in the Western tradition has been to analyse important philosophical concepts like knowledge, justice, beauty and freedom. For some, the motive was just to get clearer about these fundamental units of thought. For others, the goal was more ambitious. Not content to analyse our concepts, these philosophers hoped to improve them - an old project that has recently acquired a new name: "conceptual engineering". p.98.

"Well, good conceptual engineers, like good engineers in other domains, should start with as much information as possible about which options have already been tried and how well they have worked. If we are going to build a better concept of knowledge, or justice, or moral permissibility, or freedom, we would do well to begin by seeing how these concepts (or their closest analogs) are constructed in cultures around the world, and how well existing varieties work. We would also do well not to restrict ourselves to the millennia old method of cases in studying concepts. Over the last century, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists and neuro-scientists have developed many new methods and technologies for studying concepts. Philosophers who are serious about conceptual engineering should embrace these methods." p.100.

Stich, S., Machery, E., A Possible Future For Philosophy, The Philosopher's Magazine, 1st Quarter 2018. 80: 98-100. 
https://www.stephenstich.com/_files/ugd/0ad9d7_2679b985ce0e43b693d197c775c08e46.pdf

You can call it [conceptual engineering] whatever you wish; in nursing, concept analysis is well established for example. However described, you may find that Hodges' model useful. If you can demonstrate that Hodges' model is not suited to the task, due to its undoubted Cartesian credentials (baggage'), then this would also be progress.

There are no doubt many previous posts this one can be connected to. Most immediately is:

Rediscovering nursing ...? [ concepts-maths i/iii ]

- to follow iii.

This issue of TPM is long gone. In the clear out, I'd drafted these posts.

'It takes a village ...

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

... to raise a child.'

"The artist returned to this subject almost  twenty years after he had drawn his red chalk  studies of children walking and standing,  shown nearby. As was typical in Rembrandt's  later works, facial expressions and gestures  are indicated with sparse and abbreviated  lines. It is remarkable that with such economy  the artist conveys an encouraging atmosphere  from the figures who surround the child, as it  takes its first steps. The British artist David  Hockney described this as 'a perfect drawing' in an interview in 2016." 1912,0416.2'

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) A child being taught to walk, around 1656  Pen and brown ink on grey-brown paper.

The British Museum, Room 90. 28th September 2024.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/new-life-rembrandt-and-children

"No argument, we should teach critical thinking" by Julian Richer

Spring and summer reading includes Our Housing Disaster. Julian Richer's weekly column in the Sunday Times is very interesting; business yes, but socially oriented and positive in the values conveyed.

I'm 100 pages into The Systems View of Life, posts to follow, but before getting to OHD, I noticed another of Richer's columns:

#36 "No argument, we should teach critical thinking"

Sunday 14th July 2024

"... all the successful bosses I’ve ever worked with encourage an open flow of communications in all directions (internally — up, down, across — and with the outside world, too) with no taboos. They try to surround themselves with good people who can see the world independently, draw their own conclusions and have the confidence to express their ideas."

"It’s very difficult to craft a culture of critical thinking and open debate in a business unless it’s been taught at school, as our parents tend to be more stuck in their ways. Unfortunately, schools spend so much time on teaching and testing reading, and particularly writing, that they don’t have enough time to teach thinking and speaking. These require practice, too. And they are also very important life and business skills."

 

The discussion on Parallel Histories reminds me of philosophical talk, virtue-seeking is not enough. It needs to applied practically, if it is to make a difference.

 

"An added benefit is that kids who have learnt calm and reasoned debate will use this knowledge to help them in their adult life. Certainly, those going on to join the business world will be very pleased to have received these negotiating and people skills, both essential."

Hodges' model provides a structure for reflection, reflective practice, and critical thinking and inevitably light-weight can be carried as lifelong learning resource and tool.

History: Hepatoscopy and the Census

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

"Perhaps it was merely an oversight of this historian that he failed to mention another religious practice, hepatoscopy. For this, the Romans down to imperial times relied on Etruscans. Divination from the liver of sacrificed animals was a most complicated business.

To get the interpretation right required a sound knowledge not only of astronomy but also of anatomy and pathology. In 1877 at Piacenza a bronze model of a liver was found. It was evidently a model used in a priests' school for teaching the art of haruspicy, and of a fairly late period. On the upper surface are marked sixteen divisions in which are inscribed the names of some thirty gods, some more than once. Each of the sixteen divisions corresponded to a section of the heavens, for the Etruscans regarded the liver as an image of the cosmos, as a microcosm of the universe. The liver, it was believed, exactly reproduced the heavenly firmament with its sacred laws and controlling divinities and its division, first into four, by the intersecting axes and then into sixteen subdivisions." p.87.

The Etruscans

"Censuses for purposes of taxation and military service still exist. But not many know that it was an Etruscan king who first legally established such a registration in Rome, from whence, with the rise of the Roman empire, it spread throughout Europe."  "What this measure was is stated by Livy thus: 'The population was divided into classes and 'centuries' according to a scale based on the census, and suitable for both peace and war." p.146.

Keller, W. (1975) The Etruscans. Norfolk: Book Club Associates. [Cover image: AbeBooks]

Travelling to the Spiritual ... Liminal ...

"I am on a lonely road and I am ...

 INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

blue traveling,	traveling,
traveling,	traveling

.. Looking for something, what can it be? ..."

Joni Mitchell

BLUE cover image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_(Joni_Mitchell_album)

@jonimitchell

Source: Blue CD track 1 "All I Want" – 3:34 in the car travelling from Hay-on-Wye back to the NW England.

Still looking - listening: 'Both Sides' ...