Language, Etymology, William Jones, Science, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Paradigm Shift

 Philologist (individual studying historical language skills), William Jones (1746-1794) remarked during a lecture in Calcutta the following:

 The sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps no longer exists.

 What William Jones achieved during his life-long stay in India was nothing less than to bring about a revolution. Before Jones showed that languages change and evolve and that languages can be related to each other, it was generally believed among "the scholars of Europe" that the different languages had been created at the same time and made different since the Almighty God had punished humanity when they in their pride built the "Tower of Babel ". - An interesting example of the stupidity in believing "Holy Scriptures".
  When Europe learned and embraced the idea that gradual change was something that ever took place, it resulted in a paradigm shift, which came to influence European thinking.
 It also resulted in creating a new study - Ethymology.

 Ludwig Feuerbach: To religion only that which is holy is true. - To Philosophy: Only that which is true is holy.

 Socrates: I cannot teach anybody anything. - All I can do is make them think.

Todde

PS. More about paradigm shit and disruption at:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2016/05/interesting-lecture-on-how-technology.html

and about "Holy Scriptures":

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/12/christianity-religion-holy-scriptures.html

and about "Friendship":

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/03/friends-true-friend-is-someone-you-know.html

Also check the application of a "Modern Socratic Method" (dialectics) at:

https://www.duga.se/

 An excellent article in a Swedish Daily Newspaper today (2016-06-20) on Contributions/Aid and a finding that the philosophy of "bleeding hearts" and political correctness often results in more evil than goodness.

Todde

Aid does not always result in Prosperity

 Last Wednesday Bill Gates launched his latest aid project: one hundred thousand chickens will be sent to the world's poorest countries. To get maximum media attention he brought live chickens to the press conference, held on the 68th floor of the World Trade Center in New York. But the action was not appreciated by everyone. Bolivia - a major producer of chickens - said definitetly NO!.

 The project is yet another reminder of the aid industry's major shortcomings. Bolivia gave birth last year, up 197 million chickens, with an estimated export capacity of 36 billion. If Bill Gates chickens reached the country it would have been a blow to the country's domestic production. Who wants to pay for chicken if you can get it for free? It does not help to just like good - those who want to help people through active actions are responsible for the consequences of their intentions. A basic problem with aid is that poverty is rarely caused by lack of resources, but by bad political systems. Those who want to help need to understand the mechanisms that actually drives development forwards, and what the consequences of aid are, so they can direct them towards positive results.

 Bolivia is one of the world's poorest countries. But some things are moving in the right direction: reducing corruption, and from 2007 to 2014, GDP per capita has increased from 1390 dollars to 3124 dollars.

 However, there is no link between aid and increased living standards - on the contrary. The clearest example is South Korea compared to Kenya. In 1965 both countries had the same GDP per capita. Today we see South Korea is twenty times richer. The most important difference is that the South Korea opened up for international trade, while Kenya did not. Prosperity requires functioning markets; Aid history give us few examples of functioning coexistence. When will the western world realize this? That is still an unanswered question.

 The original article in Swedish is available in Swedish at:

https://www.svd.se/valstand-springer-inte-ur-bistand

ALEXANDRA IVANOV alexandra.ivanov@svd.se

 Maybe you would also be interested in this article: 

http://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2016/04/economykeynes-national-economics.html

 A BBC program "How we built the World" is now in the replay and can be seen on SVT Play.

 The program is useful for modern people to watch and contemplate, as we usually are very unaware of how our modern world was created and what problems needed to be solved to realize our modern urbanized world.

 All the programs are in English with Swedish subtitles and they can only be seen in Sweden.

  "How we got to Now part 1 - 6".

 The Art of  Printing, electricity and space - some things keep on returning when human progress is descussed. But who cares about how cities solved their drainage problems? How we learned to measure time? How glass became an important material?

 ”How we got to Now” is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 1 can be seen on SVT Play until Friday, June 24th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3001332/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-1 

Part 2 of 6. Early on it was enough to use the sun to gauge the time. Eventually we got out of that with clocks that could go wrong 20 minutes in a day. Today we have atomic clocks with extreme precision. And we are lucky, without them clapping our delicate systems together. "How we got to Now" is about the practical milestones of humanity.
 But as clocks have leberated us to some extent, we have alsdo been enslaved by "keeping time"

The program part 2 can be seen on SVT Play until Saturday, June 25th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3022818/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-2 

Part 3 of 6. We take it for granted and may react only when it breaks down. But the ability to make glass of sand was a real milestone in the development of civilization. Today, these fantastic materials are all around us.

  That glass is a wonderful material and that it has been so important in the development of our modern civilization makes this program even more interesting.

The program part 3 can be seen on SVT Play until Sunday, June 26th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3022818/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-3

Part 4 of 6. For tens of thousands of years, man's only sources of light were the sun and fire. A hundred and fifty years ago, a revolution was started. Inventor Thomas Edison pioneered the lights - and our habits changed forever. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 4 can be seen on SVT Play until Monday, June 27th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3063757/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-4?start=auto 

Part 5 of 6 : About cold . For half a million years, humans have been able to warm themselves by fire . Providing refrigeration to keep food fresh is an invention a lot younger but equally important. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

Personally, I'm a slightly against the population of our world becoming increasingly dependent on " energy-consuming artificial means " to survive. When/if we might one day produce energy in large quantities without fossil energy, I am of course willing to change my mind.

The program part 5 can be seen on SVT Play until Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3067388/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-5 

Part 6 of 6 : Sound . The sound is rarely considered as important as the image. Steven Johnson wants to change that and highlight the enormous importance of sound. He begins his journey in a northern French cave where the first traces found by human attempting to document the sound. "How we got to Now" is about humanity's practical milestones.

The program part 6 can be seen on SVT Play until Monday, July 4th, 2016 at:

https://www.svtplay.se/video/3074645/sa-byggde-vi-varlden/sa-byggde-vi-varlden-avsnitt-6?info=visa 

  Maybe you are also interested in:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2016/05/interesting-lecture-on-how-technology.html 

Todde

Two of life's great questions

What is? What matters?

 An interesting philosophical lecture. Starts in English with Swedish subtitles after 1,5 minutes. Especially the last 11 minutes (from 18 minutes) are very interesting.

 I like to quote Socrates: A life lived without reflection (= meditation) over life is meaningless (= not worth living). The most important thing in life is not to be influenced by others. The most important thing is to develop oneself (= true self). Therefore: Make sure that you constantly have a thirst for wisdom, to develop your judgement - Wisdom achieved with rigor, power and discipline. Rectitude achieved through training and discipline to overcome personal shortcomings and weaknesses.

 and another quote from the lecture: Filo-sofia is beautiful and young - poetry is her brother in arms in the service of good.

 I recommend especially the last 11 minutes (from 18 minutes)

Production year: 2014 - Duration: 29:10 - Available until July 1, 2020

The philosopher and writer, Rebecca Goldstein, has a passionate relationship to the philosophy that allowes her to constantly examine and reassess different beliefs. Here she talks about the importance of a renaissance of the thoughts from the time of the Enlightenment. She believes that there are two kinds of philosophical questions that we humans wrestle with: questions about what is and questions about what is significant. For example, we must ask ourselves what kind of universe we exist in, and how we see our own identity and significance.

 Recorded November 10th 2014 at Rival in Stockholm. Organizer: Freedom of thought publishers and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The program is available at UR Play:

http://www.ur.se/Produkter/187188-UR-Samtiden-Zombier-kvantbiologi-och-extrema-hjarnor-Tva-av-livets-stora-fragor

Todde

Interesting lecture on how technology will drastically change our future 

Tord informed me about this "good news"?

Clean Disruption - Why Energy & Transportation will be Obsolete by 2030

 Lecture at Oslo, March 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM 

Todde

Maybe you would like to read about "Decadence"?

At: http://axiom1a.blogspot.se/2015/03/dekadens-dekadens-wikipedia-betyder_25.html

Economy Keynes national economics Piketty Money economy

 An interesting article in the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet by Richard Wall about:

J.  Meynard Keynes and his talented economic theories

Keynes turned the subject of national economy upside down

 The idea to keep the money during booms and spend them during recessions turned John Maynard Keynes into one of the most significant economists of the 1900s. But in today's market economy his view of government regulation is not highly valued.
  Today it is 80 years since the most groundbreaking book on Economics of the 1900s was published - John Maynard Keynes "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money ".
 It is also70 years since its author, undoubtedly the most influential economist of the last century, passed away. However, it is sometimes argued that even the whole school of education that was founded by Keynes - Keynesianism is dead. I will explain why that rumor, however, is greatly exaggerated.
 Keynes was born in the summer of 1883. The young Keynes grew up in an academic environment. His father was a professor of economics at Cambridge. Thereby, but also on his own merits, he came to get valuable help in his career in the early 1900s by various leading scholars of national economy. Keynes presented his doctoral thesis, "A Treatise on probability," in 1907. He became editor of The Economic Journal year in 1911.
 During the First World War he worked for the British Treasury, and subsequently was appointed its representative at the peace negotiations in Versailles. After intensive academic activities, he at the end of the 20’ies was becoming famous as the most prominent national economist in the world. But then the Great Depression hit the world. As a result Keynes name today is mainly associated with a recipe for how to help an economy to emerge from recession.
 Before the publication of the "General Theory" in 1936, Keynes made the contents known in a variety of lectures and articles. Several of his thoughts and recommendations were at odds with what until the early 30th century had been considered self-evident. One such belief was that the self-healing market forces ensure that the economy is constantly moving toward equilibrium with full employment. The Great Depression, however, meant mass unemployment of unprecedented scope, which also did not want to give in despite years going by. Economists were perplexed.
 In this situation Keynes presented the first macro-economic model that explained how an economy can get stuck in equilibrium with high unemployment. More importantly, he also gave suggestions on how to act in times of unemployment. Established thinking had previously decided that everybody, including the state, should be responsible and not spend money in bad times. Keynes recommended the opposite: the state should stimulate the economy during a recession to increase demand, drive down unemployment and nudge the economy toward equilibrium with full employment. During a boom, the state would similarly tighten spending. This to prevent overheating the economy, but also because saving during good times would make it possible to spend during bad times. Keynes thus introduced the concept of countercyclical economic policy, something that finance ministers today try to apply as much as possible. New thinking then, self-evident today.
 Keynes' model represents a major step forward for economic science. His political ideas were applied in the 1930s in countries such as Sweden and the USA. However, Keynes model includes only the "real" part of the economy, focusing on employment and national income. But already in 1937 another British economist, John Hicks, succeesfully added to the Keynes model, i.e. a model that included money and interest rates. In Hicks model an economy can be in equilibrium only if both the real and monetary sectors simultaneously are in equilibrium.
 Both Keynes and Hicks models described closed economies, i.e. those where neither exports nor imports exists. During the 30s and 40s trade between countries in the world was insignificant. The models gave a good picture of what reality looked like then. But with time trade between countries increased. In response to this development, Robert Mundell and Marcus Fleming in 1962 expanded Hicks model. What was added was a country's trade with the outside world. According to the Mundell-Fleming model, a country may be in equilibrium only if the real and monetary sector is in equilibrium when at the same time there is a balance in foreign trade. Thus the Keynesian model was fully developed.
 Common to the Keynes, Hicks and the Mundell-Fleming models was that they all deallt with commercial demand. If consumers demand products the economy adopted to produce what was requested; An assumption that reflected the conditions of the 1930’ies with mass unemployment and unused production capacity. During the record years of the 1960'ies economists began to be increasingly aware of the economy's supply side. They saw signs that supply had difficulties meeting increasing demand pressures. Instead of the economy supplying more goods and services, inflation arose when buyers competed for a finite product range.
 The oil crises of the 1970ies proved that not all production resources can always be assumed to be available in unlimited quantities. They saw further that high taxes can effect labor supply. The consequence was that it kept the Keynesian framework as a model for the demand side of the economy, but now, supply was also considered. During the 1980'ies the concept the of supply-side of economics was taken into consideration, and implemented politically by the likes of Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the United States. This was a paradigm shift. The textbooks in economics were rewritten on this basis in the mid-1980ies.
 Since then, to this day, not much has been added to the development of the macro-economic models. The theoretical backbone that was established in the 1970ies and 1980ies still applies, and the foundation was laid by Keynes in the 1930ies.
 Keynes's idea that the state should save in the barns in good times and put the money rolling in bad has been hampered. It soon turned out that it was far more difficult to save during the good times than spend during the bad. State budgets in most countries therefore showed severe deficits over the economic cycle. State debts rose. Many countries had such weak public finances when the financial crisis broke out in 2008 that they almost went broke trying to fend off the effects of the crisis with an expansionary fiscal policy; Greece is probably the clearest example. Keynes had argued that the state and the state alone, possessed resources that were large enough to affect the economy. A few years around 2010, many wondered uneasily if things had gone so far that even the state did not have enough money. Today we can hope (!) to feel safe with our international financial system as it might have survived the stresses of the financial crisis (the future will informm us about the truth of this).
 Keynes developed not only the foundation of economic policies of our time. After the Second World War, he laid out the guidelines for how the entire economic policy should be shaped. The counter-cyclical policy was one of several foundations. Another had an ideological tinge - that the state should increase its financial responsibilities. Keynes argued that market forces needed regulation. Much of this may seem to be in line with the rationing and regulation economy forced onto the nations by the first world war. For Keynes it, however, was more based on the conviction that the state should control prices, banks, interest rates, credit and rents, conduct business activities and regulate both public and private monopolies. Keynes considered it particularly important that the state controlled international capital flows - a prerequisite for a country to maintain a fixed exchange rate, which Keynesian economists in general considered desirable. Fixed exchange rate gives companies engaged in foreign trade stability in the money flows. With Keynes as the main architect, the West constructed a fixed exchange rate system, the Bretton Woods system, which had its heyday in the 1950'ies and 1960'ies.
 The Bretton Woods system lasted until the 1971 when fluctuating inflation rates in several large countries made it impossible to keep exchange rates fixed. Then came the oil crisis and stagflation (stagnant growth and high inflation). This confronted Western economies facing new challenges that the Keynesian economic model, the Bretton Woods system and government regulations could not handle. Instead, we switched to a world of floating exchange rates, increased globalization with freer international capital movements and greater scope for market forces, with abolition of state monopolies and deregulation. In that sense, one can say that since the 1980’ies we are in a postkeynesiansk era.
 Yet the foundation of our macro-economic models are still based on Keynes 1930’ies model; Modern economic policies pursue countercyclical strategies à la Keynes. In that sense, Keynesianism is very much alive.
 And the fact is that although many important building blocks of the economic models that characterize postkeynesianismen - the importance of expectations for policy action and so-called natural rate of inflation - already discussed by Keynes, although he did not take them into account in his economic model.
It is tempting to exclaim: everything is in the "General Theory"!

Todde

Also check:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2016/01/loans-trap-andimpoverishing-middle.html

About Socrates and his attitude to women

 The fact that women have been subjected to repression during almost the entire history of the world is today a recognized fact.

 My favorite philosopher from history, Socrates, was unusual in his Greece of antiquity. He lived and worked in Athens. He expressed himself as a true revolutionary in Plato's dialogue "REPUBLIC", where he pointed out that it is folly not to take advantage of all talents in a society when talented individuals are in short supply everywhere. Therefore talents should be recruited from all groups in society - including women.

 What about this quote from Socrates: Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

 Moreover, Socrates pointed out (in "REPUBLIC") that you can determine the maturity of a society by studying how that society treats its women. That Socrates was sentenced to death by the governing men of his Athens becomes even less surprising when you realize this.

 That we today have modern societies where the rights of women's are protected to a greater extent than ever before in the history of the world, is something we in the modern democratic societies should be proud of and prepared to defend. That very many politically correct people do not realize this is distressing. Have they learned nothing from our history? Or are they unaware (which is worse than deliberatly denying women their rights according to Socrates in Plato's dialogue "Hippias")?

 Is it time for citizens of the Western world to begin to defend themselves, their civilisation and their women against the prejudiced dogma of the old patriarch Athens and their followers from backward patriarch nations of today?

 There is a program on the Web TV where you can learn about the situation:

Women's power in world history

 A British BBC documentary series from 2015 UR Play.

 In the series "Women's power in world history" the BBC's TV host Amanda Foreman focuses on the role of women, from the cradle of civilization to modern times.

 Part 1 of 4. Civilization. Amanda Foreman travels to Turkey, Siberia and Greece and talks about the history of women in early settlements like Mesopotamia and ancient Greece. It is about the origin of patriarchy, women's power, and how and why the status of women decreased while humanity at large became richer. Foreman explores the world's first laws passed in Mesopotamia, where, issues relating to divorce, abortion and the use of the veil are made into written law. We also hear about the extraordinary women in history who like Enheduanna, the world's first among famous writers and Hatshepsut, the pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

See the program at (English spoken with Swedish subtitles):

http://urplay.se/program/193175-kvinnors-makt-i-varldshistorien

 This program confirms our ideas of philosophy about the craziness of the Patriarch of ancient Athens

Please check also:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/03/from-socrates-1-curse-of-person-who.html

and

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/06/socrates-gossip-filter-gossip-slander.html

PS. I intend to also see the other three programs in the series, and perhaps even recommend them

 Also check how a "Modern Socratic Method" (dialectics) can be used to create a greater society at:

https://www.duga.se/ - use Google Translate

Todde