Tag Archives: Knowledge

Goodreads rating 4.37. Wolff describes his experiences in rural Malaysia and in the jungle among the Sng’oi, where he learns (rather than being taught) new forms of awareness and knowledge. I saw clearly—perhaps for the first time—that most people, even scientists, can see the world only from one point of view: their own. [p. 146] Malay culture values halus—soft, gentle, polite—and despises kasar.

On VoxEU, Steven Durlauf offers an excellent overview over Kenneth Arrow’s work. Durlauf emphasizes five areas of research: The impossibility theorem, in the tradition of Condorcet. General equilibrium theory and the welfare theorems, in the tradition of Walras. Decision-making under uncertainty, the Arrow-Pratt measures of risk aversion and contingent commodities. Imperfect information, in the context of medical care and as a source of statistical discrimination. Economics of knowledge,...

In Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael,” a gorilla offers his perspective on human civilization and the narratives surrounding it. Ishmael—the gorilla—characterizes the early agricultural revolution as the takeoff of the nowadays-dominant “Takers’” culture, a culture that does not only reject the hunter-gatherer and herder life of “Leaver” tribes but also finds it acceptable to eradicate the latter. The Takers reject the notion that man is part of a balanced, competitive and evolving natural system;...