Concept of Knowledge Revisited

[kmaherali]

Book Review

Foes of Judgment

Numbers don’t always reveal the true nature of things

The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller; Princeton University Press, 240 pp., $24.95

Ever since Isaac Newton explained the complex motions of the planets with four simple mathematical laws, thinkers have tried to create a social “science” of similar power. These “moral Newtonians,” as intellectual historian Élie Halévy has called them, announce that we can at last dispense with judgment based on experience in favor of ironclad laws expressible in mathematical form. In our time, this sort of thinking has led to what Jerry Z. Muller, a professor of history at Catholic University, calls a “metric fixation” afflicting the military, medicine, police work, universities, elementary education, charity, foreign aid, and, of course, business.

Aristotle pointed out that although some fields demand theoretical reasoning modeled on mathematics, others are essentially different. They seek truths that obtain not everywhere, but locally, and hold not absolutely like geometrical proofs but only “on the whole and for the most part.” Medicine, navigation, and ethics, he explains, may use science where available, but cannot be reduced to it, since they require essentially unformalizable judgment. That is why young people sometimes make excellent mathematicians but are never very good at ethics. By contrast, the modern apostles of measurement, who imagine that nobody ever addressed the issue before, insist that something as “subjective” as judgment is always a poor substitute for measurement.

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https://theamericanscholar.org/foes-of- ... urce=email#

[kmaherali]

Ismaili Philosophy

Ismailism belongs to the Shi‘a main stream of Islam. Recent scholarship, based on a more judicious analysis of primary sources, has shown how Ismaili thought was in constant interaction with and to a certain extent influenced well-known currents of Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism.

Shi‘i and Ismaili philosophy use ta’wil as a tool of interpretation of scripture. This Qur’anic term connotes going back to the original meaning of the Qur’an. The objective of Ismaili thought is to create a bridge between Hellenic philosophy and religion. The human intellect is engaged to retrieve and disclose that which is interior or hidden (batin).

Ismailism presents a cosmology within an adapted Neoplatonic framework but tries to create an alternative synthesis. The starting point of such a synthesis is the doctrine of ibda‘ (derived from Qur’an 2:117). In its verbal form it is taken to mean 'eternal existentiation' to explain the notion in the Qur’an of God’s timeless command (Kun: ‘Be!’). The process of creation can be said to take place at several levels. Ibda‘ represents the initial level. The human intellect eventually relates to creation and tries to penetrate the mystery of the unknowable God.

Human history operates cyclically. The function of the Prophet is to reveal the religious law (shari‘a) while the Imam unveils gradually to his disciples the inner meaning (batin) of the revelation through the ta’wil.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Language and Meaning: The Stance of Ismaili Philosophy
Manifesting Transcendence: Knowledge of the Cosmos

More...

http://www.iep.utm.edu/ismaili/

[kmaherali]

Speaking as a White Male …

How much are you in control of your own opinions? I ask this sincerely because, as you’ll see, I’m trying to think this through and I’m not sure how.

If you go back to the intellectuals of the 1950s, you get the impression that they thought individuals could very much determine their own beliefs. People like Hannah Arendt and Irving Howe believed that if you stood alone and researched carefully and hard, you could transcend your own background and render independent and objective judgments about society.

Writers like George Orwell believed that experience was more important than identity, that if you put yourself in other people’s shoes, you could feel what other groups were feeling and communicate that experience. Lionel Trilling put great faith in imagination, certain that Shakespeare could capture the experience of being a woman, though he was not a woman.

Busy fighting communism and fascism, people back then emphasized individual reason and were deeply allergic to groupthink.

We don’t think this way anymore, and in fact thinking this way can get you into trouble. I guess the first step was the rise of perspectivism. This is the belief, often traced back to Nietzsche, that what you believe is determined by where you stand: Our opinions are not guided by objective truth, because there is no such thing; they are guided by our own spot in society.

More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/opin ... dline&te=1

[kmaherali]

Aristotle’s Wrongful Death

Excerpt:

Part of the skepticism toward traditional majors reflects a correct feeling that at some schools, some fields of study and course offerings are preserved largely because the faculty have a selfish investment in the status quo. If seats in the classroom are perpetually empty and money is sorely needed elsewhere, colleges shouldn’t ignore that.

But it’s a balancing act, because colleges shouldn’t lose sight of what makes traditional majors — even the arcane ones — so meaningful, especially now. And they shouldn’t downgrade the nonvocational mission of higher education: to cultivate minds, prepare young adults for enlightened citizenship, give them a better sense of their perch in history and connect them to traditions that transcend the moment. History, philosophy and comparative literature are bound to be better at that than occupational therapy. They’re sturdier threads of cultural and intellectual continuity.

And majoring in them — majoring in anything — is a useful retort to the infinite distractions, short attention spans and staccato communications of the smartphone era. Perhaps now, more than ever, young people need to be shown the rewards of sustained attention and taught how to hold a thought. That’s what a major does. There’s a reason that it’s often called a discipline.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/opin ... 3053090527

[kmaherali]

Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning

Machine learning algorithms don’t yet understand things the way humans do — with sometimes disastrous consequences.

You’ve probably heard that we’re in the midst of an A.I. revolution. We’re told that machine intelligence is progressing at an astounding rate, powered by “deep learning” algorithms that use huge amounts of data to train complicated programs knows as “neural networks.”

Today’s A.I. programs can recognize faces and transcribe spoken sentences. We have programs that can spot subtle financial fraud, find relevant web pages in response to ambiguous queries, map the best driving route to almost any destination, beat human grandmasters at chess and Go, and translate between hundreds of languages. What’s more, we’ve been promised that self-driving cars, automated cancer diagnoses, housecleaning robots and even automated scientific discovery are on the verge of becoming mainstream.

The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, recently declared that over the next five to 10 years, the company will push its A.I. to “get better than human level at all of the primary human senses: vision, hearing, language, general cognition.” Shane Legg, chief scientist of Google’s DeepMind group, predicted that “human-level A.I. will be passed in the mid-2020s.”

As someone who has worked in A.I. for decades, I’ve witnessed the failure of similar predictions of imminent human-level A.I., and I’m certain these latest forecasts will fall short as well. The challenge of creating humanlike intelligence in machines remains greatly underestimated. Today’s A.I. systems sorely lack the essence of human intelligence: understanding the situations we experience, being able to grasp their meaning. The mathematician and philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota famously asked, “I wonder whether or when A.I. will ever crash the barrier of meaning.” To me, this is still the most important question.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/opin ... 3053091106

[kmaherali]

The Limits of Expertise

“People are sick of experts.” These infamous and much-derided words uttered by UK Conservative parliamentarian Michael Gove express a sentiment with which we are now probably all familiar. It has come to represent a sign of the times—either an indictment or a celebration (depending on one’s political point of view) of our current age.

Certainly, the disdain for expertise and its promised consequences have been highly alarming for many people. They are woven through various controversial and destabilising phenomena from Trump, to Brexit, to fake news, to the generally ‘anti-elitist’ tone that characterises populist politics and much contemporary discourse. And this attitude stands in stark contrast to the unspoken but assumed Obama-era doctrine of “let the experts figure it out”; an idea that had a palpable End of History feeling about it, and that makes this abrupt reversion to ignorance all the more startling.

The majority of educated people are fairly unequivocal in their belief that this rebound is a bad thing, and as such many influential voices—Quillette‘s included—have been doing their best to restore the value of expertise to our society. The nobility of this ambition is quite obvious. Why on earth would we not want to take decisions informed by the most qualified opinions? However, it is within this obviousness that the danger lies.

I want to propose that high expertise, whilst generally beneficial, also has the capacity in certain circumstances to be pathological as well—and that if we don’t recognise this and correct for it, then we will continue down our current path of drowning its benefits with its problems. In short, if you want to profit from expertise, you must tame it first.

More...
https://quillette.com/2018/06/04/the-li ... expertise/

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What Experts Do and Don’t Know

Excerpt:

These experiences make it easy to see why “trust experts” is a good rule of thumb in many cases. However, to elevate this to a sacred principle misses the full picture. There are versions of the anti-expert story that are not necessarily naive, contain a great deal of truth, and may not be obvious.

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https://quillette.com/2016/07/27/what-e ... rce=Direct

[kmaherali]

How Would You Draw History?

When cracks start to appear in the world order, the old textbook timeline just won’t do.

Recent world events — take your pick — might have you wondering about where human history is headed, and by what route. You would not be alone.

The fracturing of global alliances and the rise of hard-right movements like those in Hungary, Brazil and the United States have caused many of us to question the inevitability of what we generally call progress. Ecological disasters like the California wildfires, plausibly connected to climate change and suburban development, raise the specter of a human history moving inexorably toward self-destruction.

The philosophy of history, which flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries and has enjoyed periodic revivals in the hands of thinkers like Arthur Danto and Francis Fukuyama, set itself the remarkably ambitious project of describing the forces that shape human events: history’s structure, its direction, its aim, its point and even its end. There are good reasons to be skeptical of such a project, which we might associate above all with the names Marx and Hegel, and it is possible that history has no coherent shape or direction, or many. It may be, too, that the shape of history depends on our decisions and not on impersonal forces. But the philosophy of history is also a seductive project because, among other things, it seems to promise an understanding — even an approximate one — of what might happen next.

Diagrams and more...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/opin ... 3053091120

[kmaherali]

Why Citing a Scientific Study Does Not Finish An Argument

“Actually Studies Show…”

Chances are you’ve found yourself in a heated conversation among a group of friends, family, or colleagues when someone throws down the gauntlet: “Actually, studies show…” Some nod in silent agreement, others check their text messages, and finally someone changes the subject.

It’s hard to know what to say when people cite scientific studies to prove their point. Sometimes we know the study and its relative merits. But most of the time we just don’t know enough to confirm or refute the statement that the study is supposed to support. We are floating in a sea of information, and all we can do is flounder around for the nearest buoy to support a view that’s vaguely related to the conversation.

All of us lack the time to understand more than a small fraction of scientific research. For the most part, this works out well: scientists conduct research and publish papers, each new study adds another piece to the puzzle, and bit by bit we steadily increase the total stock of knowledge. Eventually, we hope, journalists and teachers will bring scientific knowledge together and distill it to the general public.

Of course, that’s not always how science works, or how knowledge is spread. A single study is rarely anything more than suggestive, and often it takes many replications under a variety of circumstances to provide strong justification for a conclusion. And yet, poorly supported studies often make their way into newspapers and conversations as if they are iron clad truths.

According to a spate of recent articles, many scientific results are difficult to replicate. The problem has been studied in detail by social psychologists, but the problem appears to be much more pervasive than initially thought. Some have argued that throughout the sciences most published research findings are false.

Correlations are Cheap, Patterns are Ubiquitous

Science typically involves gathering data, finding interesting correlations, and proposing hypotheses to explain the correlations. For example, suppose we find a set of sick people for whom antibiotics work, and a set for whom they don’t work. We might infer that those for whom antibiotics didn’t work had an antibiotic-resistant strain of a bacterial infection. Or we might think that the patients who didn’t recover had a different disease than those who did recover, perhaps a viral infection for which antibiotics don’t work.

Correlations are everywhere, and given enough data from enough studies, we will find correlations that are surprising and interesting. But as the sick patient example suggests, causation is difficult to infer, and some correlations are flukes that don’t admit of a common cause, or that can’t be consistently replicated.

We are pattern-seeking creatures, and correlations are patterns that cry out for explanation. But sometimes our political views infect our prior beliefs, and these beliefs lead us to look for patterns until we find them. Given enough tests and time, we will find them.

Consider the case of “stereotype threat.” The idea behind stereotype threat is that when a member of a group (e.g. race, sex, or religion) is asked to perform a task, but primed with information about how most people in their group perform that task, they will tend to perform in accordance with the group average rather than according to their own ability.

What the initial studies seemed to suggest was that stereotype threat is not just statistically significant, but large. It appeared as if when blacks were told that the test they were taking was an indicator of intellectual ability, they scored worse than whites. But when told that it was just a problem-solving exercise not indicative of ability, they scored about the same as whites.

Think about why people would be happy to find this result: if all we need to do to improve the outcomes of people in poorly performing groups is to prime them with certain kinds of information (or shield them from other kinds of information, such as negative stereotypes), we could dramatically improve test scores at school and productivity at work.

As you can imagine, the results were too good to be true, and stereotype threat has not stood up especially well to scientific scrutiny. It probably exists in some cases (some people gain or lose confidence when primed with certain kinds of information), but the magnitudes are usually small, and the social implications are unclear. Yet this hasn’t stopped universities and businesses from implementing training programs to combat the alleged evils of stereotype threat in the classroom and in the boardroom.

Publication Bias and Perverse Incentives

Researchers who discuss the “replication crisis” in science often emphasize publication bias and professional incentives as the primary culprits. Publication bias occurs when journal editors or ordinary readers place too much weight on a statistically significant study because they fail to think about the likely failure of many other attempts to find similar results. In other words, scientists often run tests and find data that don’t yield interesting results. But a “null result” is rarely published for the obvious reason that it’s not very surprising or interesting.

Even when a scientific study does find dramatic results, and the results can be replicated, subsequent results are generally less dramatic than the initial study. According to Brian Nosek, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia, we should predict that “replication effect sizes would be smaller than original studies on a routine basis—not because of differences in implementation but because the original study effect sizes are affected by publication and the replications are not.”

Researchers want to find interesting results, and are professionally rewarded for doing so. The rewards come in the form of career advancement, reputational enhancement, and a higher likelihood that journal editors will publish their results. These rewards usually help push science forward. But they can also slow science down rather than speed it up.

Consider the original study in the Lancet that linked the MMR vaccine to autism. The result was juicy, especially to journalists. The study found that taking the MMR vaccine significantly elevated the risk of autism in children, but that not taking the vaccine, or separating it into three separate components, would lower the risk of autism. If we could tackle autism this easily the world would be a much better place. The study fed into a widespread desire for an easy answer to a hard problem. But the study was wrong, and it took over a decade before the record was corrected.

In this case, the initial study itself turned out to be poorly designed. The publication of the autism study, and its promotion by journalists, probably cost lives as some parents declined to vaccinate their kids, and protested vaccine mandates.

But quite apart from the quality of the autism study, many studies that are reasonably well-designed are hard to replicate, and are probably either false or overblown.

Scientism

The proliferation of scientific studies and the norms that make scientific journals more likely to publish surprising results than failed replication attempts are unnerving for a couple of reasons. First, politicians pass laws based on studies their advisors cite. Sometimes these laws are silly, and betray an absurd ignorance of science. For example, in 1998 the Governor of Georgia signed a law providing free classical music CDs to expectant mothers in order to boost their children’s IQ. Of course, this was based on, at best, weak evidence which has no business informing any type of policy.

But sometimes these laws are far-reaching, like the macro-economic policies that governments pursue in a financial crisis. We can easily find studies suggesting that providing a “stimulus” to the economy by increasing government spending in the short run can jump-start the economy during a downturn. But we can also find plenty of studies suggesting that the opposite happens, and these arguments go back to the early days of economics.

The right answer, almost certainly, is that we don’t know. Both sides gather immense amounts of data and weave theory and data into an intricate tapestry, translated into the universal language of math. But the mathematical sophistication of modern economics often gives us the illusion that we know more than we do.

The second reason to worry about the replication problem in science is that it becomes all too easy for teachers, friends, and colleagues (quite apart from politicians) to fool us into accepting a poorly supported conclusion that is intuitively satisfying but ultimately wrong. Malcolm Gladwell is a master of this. He has made a career out of telling stories that make people feel good about themselves by cherry-picking scientific studies that produce surprise and hope rather than fear and anxiety. Yet we should expect science to do both, since the truth doesn’t care about our emotional reactions.

We’re not advising you to commit social suicide by interrupting every conversation with a demand for more evidence. But we do think the phrase “studies show…” should be met with cautious skepticism, especially when the study supports the politically-motivated preconceptions of the person who’s talking.

https://quillette.com/2017/04/25/citing ... rce=Direct

[kmaherali]

The Two Types of Knowledge: The Max Planck/Chauffeur Test

Charlie Munger, the billionaire business partner of Warren Buffett, frequently tells the story below to illustrate how to distinguish real knowledge from pretend knowledge.

At the 2007 Commencement to the USC Law School, Munger explained it this way:

I frequently tell the apocryphal story about how Max Planck, after he won the Nobel Prize, went around Germany giving the same standard lecture on the new quantum mechanics.

Over time, his chauffeur memorized the lecture and said, “Would you mind, Professor Planck, because it’s so boring to stay in our routine, if I gave the lecture in Munich and you just sat in front wearing my chauffeur’s hat?” Planck said, “Why not?” And the chauffeur got up and gave this long lecture on quantum mechanics. After which a physics professor stood up and asked a perfectly ghastly question. The speaker said, “Well I’m surprised that in an advanced city like Munich I get such an elementary question. I’m going to ask my chauffeur to reply.”

The point of the story is not the quick-wittedness of the protagonist, but rather — to echo Richard Feynman — it’s about making a distinction between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
— Albert Einstein

Two Types of Knowledge
In this world we have two kinds of knowledge. One is Planck knowledge, the people who really know. They’ve paid the dues, they have the aptitude. And then we’ve got chauffeur knowledge. They’ve learned the talk. They may have a big head of hair, they may have fine temper in the voice, they’ll make a hell of an impression.

But in the end, all they have is chauffeur knowledge. I think I’ve just described practically every politician in the United States.

And you are going to have the problem in your life of getting the responsibility into the people with the Planck knowledge and away from the people with the chauffeur knowledge.

And there are huge forces working against you. My generation has failed you a bit… but you wouldn’t like it to be too easy now would you?

Real knowledge comes when people do the work. This is so important that Elon Musk tries to tease it out in interviews.

On the other hand, we have the people who don’t do the work — they pretend. While they’ve learned to put on a good show, they lack understanding. They can’t answer questions that don’t rely on memorization. They can’t explain things without using jargon or vague terms. They have no idea how things interact. They can’t predict consequences.

The problem is that it’s difficult to separate the two.

One way to tease out the difference between Planck and chauffeur knowledge is to ask them why.

In The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli offers some commentary on distinguishing fake from real knowledge:

With journalists, it is more difficult. Some have acquired true knowledge. Often they are veteran reporters who have specialized for years in a clearly defined area. They make a serious effort to understand the complexity of a subject and to communicate it. They tend to write long articles that highlight a variety of cases and exceptions. The majority of journalists, however, fall into the category of chauffeur. They conjure up articles off the tops of their heads or, rather, from Google searches. Their texts are one-sided, short, and— often as compensation for their patchy knowledge— snarky and self-satisfied in tone.

The same superficiality is present in business. The larger a company, the more the CEO is expected to possess “star quality.” Dedication, solemnity, and reliability are undervalued, at least at the top. Too often shareholders and business journalists seem to believe that showmanship will deliver better results, which is obviously not the case.

One way to guard against this is to understand your circle of competence.

Dobelli concludes with some advice worth taking to heart.

Be on the lookout for chauffeur knowledge. Do not confuse the company spokesperson, the ringmaster, the newscaster, the schmoozer, the verbiage vendor, or the cliché generator with those who possess true knowledge. How do you recognize the difference? There is a clear indicator: True experts recognize the limits of what they know and what they do not know. If they find themselves outside their circle of competence, they keep quiet or simply say, “I don’t know.” This they utter unapologetically, even with a certain pride. From chauffeurs, we hear every line except this.

***

If you liked this, you’ll love these other Farnam Street articles:

Circle of Competence — Knowing your Circle of Competence helps intelligent people like Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett stay out of trouble.

Learn Anything Faster with the Feynman Technique — The Feynman Technique helps you learn anything faster by quickly identifying gaps in your understanding. It’s also a versatile thinking tool.

https://fs.blog/2015/09/two-types-of-knowledge/

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Frameworks lead to Innovation. Formulas Lead to Imitation

Formulas are seductive and easy to sell. Follow these 5-steps, and you'll get this result. But in every formula, there's one variable that throws it off: the person using the formula. Two people can take the same actions and get drastically different results.

My sister and I went to Berkeley. I got fired from all my jobs. She rose to the top of her field. But conventional wisdom tells us that a famous college like Berkeley is a predictor of how successful you'll be later in life.

I could stand next to my mother on the stove, mimic every detail of one of her recipes, and her food will inevitably taste better. Taking a formulaic approach overlooks the fact that she's had 30 years of experience in the kitchen. My friend attempted to do this with his mother, and her food was still better.

Formulas breed dependency on gurus, coaches, mentors, and teachers. It's hard to do anything unmistakable if you're sitting around waiting for someone to tell you what to do.

In 2009, I enrolled in an online course about how to start a blog, but it led me to start a podcast. Because it was a course about starting a blog, I couldn't just keep following the instructions.

Frameworks teach you how to think. If you modify a formula, discard what doesn't work or don't follow the instructions to the letter, it becomes a framework. A framework forces you take responsibility for your results. Frameworks lead to innovation. Formulas lead to imitation.

https://unmistakablecreative.com/framew ... imitation/

[kmaherali]

The Anti-College Is on the Rise

Students, teachers and reformers are pushing back against the failures of mainstream higher education.

A small band of students will travel to Sitka, Alaska, this month to help reinvent higher education. They won’t be taking online courses, or abandoning the humanities in favor of classes in business or STEM, or paying high tuition to fund the salaries of more Assistant Vice Provosts for Student Life. They represent a growing movement of students, teachers and reformers who are trying to compensate for mainstream higher education’s failure to help young people find a calling: to figure out what life is really for.

These students will read works by authors ranging from Plato and Herbert Marcuse to Tlingit writers. The point is to “develop and flex a more rigorous political imagination,” according to one course syllabus. They will take on 15 to 20 hours a week of manual labor in Sitka, and set their group’s rules on everything from curfews to cellphones. Last summer’s cohort discouraged the use of phones during class and service hours and ordered everyone to turn off the internet at 10 p.m.

This is Outer Coast, one of an expanding number of educational experiments born out of a deepening sense that mainstream American colleges are too expensive, too bureaucratic, too careerist and too intellectually fragmented to help students figure out their place in the universe and their moral obligations to fellow humans.

There are alternative colleges that replace traditional courses with personalized study; gap-year programs that combine quasi-monastic retreats with world travel; summer seminars devoted to clearing trails and reading philosophy. They aim to prove that it is possible to cultivate moral and existential self-confidence, without the Christian foundation that grounded Western universities until the mid-20th century. They seek to push back against the materialism and individualism that have saturated the secular left and right, all at an affordable price. It’s a tall order.

Their work is inspiring, but it is also a sobering indictment — particularly for those of us who teach in the humanities, whose job it once was to lead students in a survey of how civilization’s greatest minds wrestled with philosophical problems. In recent decades, a stultifying mix of hyperspecialized research and pressure to emphasize “practical skills” — as well as a political reluctance to prioritize canonical texts or universal questions — have sapped our confidence.

“The question of the value and purpose of living, of the sources of fulfillment available to us as mortal creatures with ambitions of the most varied kinds, has been pushed to the margins of respectability even in the humanities,” wrote Anthony Kronman, a professor at Yale Law School, in his 2007 book “Education’s End.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opin ... y_20190610

[kmaherali]

The new astrology

By fetishising mathematical models, economists turned economics into a highly paid pseudoscience

Excerpt:

Unlike engineers and chemists, economists cannot point to concrete objects – cell phones, plastic – to justify the high valuation of their discipline. Nor, in the case of financial economics and macroeconomics, can they point to the predictive power of their theories. Hedge funds employ cutting-edge economists who command princely fees, but routinely underperform index funds. Eight years ago, Warren Buffet made a 10-year, $1 million bet that a portfolio of hedge funds would lose to the S&P 500, and it looks like he’s going to collect. In 1998, a fund that boasted two Nobel Laureates as advisors collapsed, nearly causing a global financial crisis.

The failure of the field to predict the 2008 crisis has also been well-documented. In 2003, for example, only five years before the Great Recession, the Nobel Laureate Robert E Lucas Jr told the American Economic Association that ‘macroeconomics […] has succeeded: its central problem of depression prevention has been solved’. Short-term predictions fair little better – in April 2014, for instance, a survey of 67 economists yielded 100 per cent consensus: interest rates would rise over the next six months. Instead, they fell. A lot.

Nonetheless, surveys indicate that economists see their discipline as ‘the most scientific of the social sciences’. What is the basis of this collective faith, shared by universities, presidents and billionaires? Shouldn’t successful and powerful people be the first to spot the exaggerated worth of a discipline, and the least likely to pay for it?

In the hypothetical worlds of rational markets, where much of economic theory is set, perhaps. But real-world history tells a different story, of mathematical models masquerading as science and a public eager to buy them, mistaking elegant equations for empirical accuracy.

More....

https://aeon.co/essays/how-economists-r ... rce=Direct

[kmaherali]

Be A Generalist

If you look at any of the great Stoics, you’ll notice that philosophy was just one of their many diverse interests. Seneca was a philosopher and a playwright and a political advisor. Marcus Aurelius was dabbling in philosophy...as he had the most important job on the planet. Cato was a senator who led the opposition to Julius Caesar. Cleanthes was a boxer and a water-carrier. And Zeno, the founding teacher of the philosophy, began his career as a successful merchant voyager.

The stereotype of the philosopher is one who spends all day and night with their dense textbooks and their denser thoughts. When the truth is that the great philosophers we hold up as having made these brilliant insights into human nature and the human experience were reading and studying philosophy in addition to many other endeavors and activities. They, David Epstein would say, had “range,” they were “generalists.” In his new book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, Epstein put to bed the myth that going all in on a particular field is the key to lasting success. As he told us in our interview for DailyStoic.com:

We miss out on wisdom if we’re too narrow...Specialists become so narrow that they actually start developing worse judgment about the world as they accumulate knowledge...Breadth of training predicts breadth of transfer. Transfer is your ability to take knowledge and skills and apply them to a problem or situation you have not seen before. And your ability to do that is predicted by the variety of situations you’ve faced...As you get more variety, you’re forced to form these broader conceptual models (in the classroom setting called “making connections” knowledge), which you can then wield flexibly in new situations.

One can imagine Zeno translating things he learned on the open sea as a merchant into lessons for his students at the Stoa. Maybe Cleanthes discovered something about himself during his manual labors. It's unquestionable that Marcus Aurelius's real world responsibilities provided insights for his philosophical studies and vice versa. As for Seneca, his philosophy influenced his politics and his bloody and dark plays are undoubtedly influenced by what he experienced walking the halls of power.

The more things we open ourselves up to, the more we experience, the better philosophers we’ll be, the better leaders, employees, individuals we’ll be. Today, put an emphasis on variety, on opening yourself up to the opportunity of being a little outside your comfort zone. Read philosophy. Read subjects outside your field. Pursue those curiosities you’ve been postponing. Say yes to the experience you’re reluctant to make time for.

You’ll be better for it.

P.S. Check out our full interview with David Epstein https://dailystoic.com/david-epstein-interview/ and if you haven’t already, check out his book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
https://www.amazon.ca/Range-Generalists ... lidayca-20

[kmaherali]

Addenda to Secondary Sources in Ismaili Studies: The Case of the Omissions

MELA Notes: Journal of Middle Eastern Librarianship 86 , 2013Nawazali A Jiwa

Nawazali A Jiwa

This bibliographic study identifies over 600 secondary sources published up to and including 2003 that have been omitted in previous bibliographies in Ismaili studies, namely, Farhad Daftary’s "Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies" (London, 2004) and Nagib Tajdin’s "A Bibliography of Ismailism" (Delmar, 1985). It encompasses all aspects of Ismaili thought and history, including the Fatimid and Alamut periods, as well as studies on modern Ismaili communities. The study consists of: an introduction that describes the research methods utilized, the omissions arranged in author-alphabetical order, and a subject index.

Volume: 86
Page Numbers: 20-101
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: MELA Notes: Journal of Middle Eastern Librarianship 86

The study can be downloaded at:

https://www.academia.edu/8752690/Addend ... o=download

[kmaherali]

The World’s Smartest Chimp Has Died

Her life helped us answer the question: What do animals think about?

Do other animals think, and what do they think about? Sarah, a chimpanzee who died last week in her late 50s, offers some important clues.

Sarah, who could have been deemed the world’s smartest chimp, was brought to the United States from Africa as an infant to work with David and Ann Premack in a series of experiments designed to find out what chimpanzees might think. In order to determine what, if anything, might be on Sarah’s mind, she was one of the first chimpanzees to be taught a human language. The Premacks taught her to use plastic magnetic tokens that varied in size and color to represent words. She formed sentences by placing the tokens in a vertical line. Ann Premack noted that her earliest words named “various interesting fruits,” so that Sarah “could both solve her problem and eat it.”

Food plays an important role in chimpanzee life, and in Sarah’s case, food often took on meaning beyond sustenance. She clearly had favorite foods, like chocolate, and much of the time would only correctly answer the questions she was asked if chocolate was forthcoming. She often would create sentences of the form “Mary give Sarah apple” but when Mary would change the order to read “Sarah give Mary apple” Sarah would not be happy and knock the sentence off the board.

The Premacks noted that one of the difficulties in teaching language to a caged subject is finding things to talk about. There is only so long even food-motivated chimpanzees will be willing to talk about bananas. Finding new sources of interest was important and for Sarah it was clear that asking her about her favorite people and promising her M & Ms provided strong motivation.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/opin ... 3053090810

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The Circular Vision of Existence: From Ismaili Writings to the Works of Ibn al-Arabi

Michael Ebstein
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[email protected]

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the symbol of the circle and elucidate its significance in two medieval Islamic corpora: classical Ismaili writings, composed in the 4th/10th-6th/12th centuries, and the works of the famous Andalusi mystic Muyil-Deen Ibn al-Arabi (560/1165-638/1240). The discussion in the article focuses on two main areas: cosmology and sacred human history. Attention is also given to notions that are in this context unique to Ibn al-Arabi. The study reveals that the symbol of the circle and cyclical conceptions figure prominently in both Ismlaili and Akbarian thought; moreover, the article demonstrates how Ismaili teachings are important for under-standing the background against which Ibn al-Arabi developed his distinctive circular vision of existence.

Keywords

circle – cyclical history – Shia – Ismailiyya – Ikhwan al-Safa– mysticism – sufism – Ibn al-Arabi – al-Andalus

Introduction

The circle is a most powerful and intriguing symbol in human cultures. Whether visually expressed in art and architecture or conceptually reflected in religious, philosophical, and historical ideas, this symbol has had an enduring presence worldwide, from ancient to modern times.The form of the circle is flawless—it has no angles, neither a beginning nor an end, and comprises other shapes such as the point and the line; hence its association with beauty and perfection, wholeness and unity, timelessness and infinity. Cyclical changes in nature as well as astronomical phenomena and astrological theories have likewise contributed to the symbolic appeal of the circle. As in other traditions, in Islam too the circle plays a significant role, particularly in Islamic mysticism. In what follows I shall attempt to elucidate some aspects of this role by examining two corpora: classical Ismaili writings, composed in the 4th/10th-6th/12th centuries, and the works of al-Shaykh al-akbar (“the greatest Shaykh”), the famous Andalus mystic Muyu l-Din Ibn al-Arabi(560/1165-638/1240).My discussion will focus on two main areas: cosmology and sacred human history, while in the third section of the article I will outline ideas that are presumably unique to Ibn al-Arabi As we shall see, the symbol of the circle and cyclical conceptions figure prominently in both Ismaili and Akbarian thought. Moreover, as I hope to demonstrate in this article, Ismaili teachings are important for understanding the background against which Ibn al-Arabi developed his distinctive circular vision of existence.

The whole article can be accessed at:

https://www.academia.edu/37262516/The_C ... view-paper

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Towards an Online Searchable Bibliographic Database for Ismaili Studies
Theological Librarianship 11: 1, 2018Nawazali A Jiwa

Nawazali A Jiwa

Research in the field of Ismaili Studies has increased exponentially during the last decades. However, all of the existing bibliographies in the field are print-based, which lack the efficient and effective searchability offered by online bibliographic databases. This paper explores some ideas towards creating an ideal online searchable database dedicated exclusively to Ismaili Studies. It covers elements of an ideal database such as search features, subject headings, linking, metadata, abstracting, and indexing. Moreover, it provides the rationale for a specialized database, as opposed to using multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary databases to conduct research in Ismaili Studies. The database can serve as a model to implement a similar specialized database for other areas of research within and beyond theological and religious studies.

Doi: https://doi.org/10.31046/tl.v11i1.478
Issue: 1
Volume: 11
Page Numbers: 37-50
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: Theological Librarianship 11: 1

The entire paper can be accessed at:

https://www.academia.edu/37680649/Towar ... view-paper

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Teachers: Shaping the future of humanity

We often hear that the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow; that they will shape the future; and that the destiny of humankind lies in their hands. On the occasion of World Teachers’ Day, 5 October 2019, we explore the positive impact made by teachers and educators within the Jamat and beyond.

Throughout history, societies around the world have witnessed some of the greatest minds - who have nurtured, encouraged and laid the foundations for human progress. Individuals such as the early philosophers of Greece, the great sages of India and the famous Prophets of the revealed scriptures became forces of great change in the societies where they lived. Yet, the wisdom of their teachings reached far beyond the confines of those societies. These teachers embodied the art of teaching. They were exemplary models of enlightened and ethical living.

It is not simply through their words, but also through the nobility of their actions and their visionary purpose, that they were able to have great impact. By giving of themselves totally – body, mind, and spirit – they were able to guide their students by the hand, to open their hearts and touch their souls. These students, in turn, developed a sense of passion, igniting the spark of creativity and innovation - in hopes of building a better world.

Ultimately, the art of teaching is a mission. Those who embark upon the journey of teaching seek to transform individuals and communities, inspired by a sense of purpose. In Muslim belief, this purpose is clear, as Mawlana Hazar Imam explained at the Foundation Ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka in 2008. In illustrating how faith and learning are intimately linked within Islam, he said:

“The Holy Qur’an sees the discovery of knowledge as a spiritual responsibility, enabling us to better understand and more ably serve God’s creation. Our traditional teachings remind us of our individual obligation to seek knowledge unto the ends of the earth - and of our social obligation to honour and nurture the full potential of every human life.”

The seeking of knowledge, as described by Hazar Imam is not only a spiritual act; the imparting of that knowledge for the benefit of others is a sacred duty. The relationship between teaching and the connection of one human being to another is clear. Inspired by a vision to move society forwards, and to improve the quality of human life, teaching has always required time, commitment, wisdom, and generosity of self. These are the ethical premises that underpin the endeavour to teach.

In Ismaili history, this noble tradition of sharing knowledge has played a central role. Today, many members of the Jamat follow in this tradition. They continue to give of their time and knowledge in service of the Imam and his Jamat. Thousands of Baitul Ilm teachers, academics, camp facilitators, waezeen, and other educators, contribute to the learning of the Jamat. Their selfless voluntary service is inspirational to younger generations.

In addition, every year, countless hours are spent reading curricula, creating lesson plans, designing resources, and participating in training, for a shared purpose; to ensure that leaders of the future are confident in their identity, progressive in their outlook, and ethical in their action.

Many members of the Jamat also teach professionally in secular schools, contributing to the progress of wider society. In a speech at the Aga Khan University in Karachi in 2000, Mawlana Hazar Imam said that, “Teaching is one of the most valued professions because it opens minds to greater self-awareness as well as to the knowledge that gives learners greater control over their destinies.”

Teachers and educators are an invaluable resource for the Jamat — from Kampala to Karachi, and from Dallas to Dushanbe — their selfless service is an inspiration to us all. For this noble gift of service, we say to our teachers today, thank you! With your time, effort, and commitment to the ethical traditions of seeking knowledge and sharing wisdom, we can be confident that the future will be bright, happy, and prosperous.

https://the.ismaili/our-stories/teacher ... -173435533

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Why Aren’t We Curious About the Things We Want to Be Curious About?

You’ve been clickbaited by your own brain.

You can learn anything on the internet, so why do I so often learn things I don’t want to know? When I’m surfing the web I want to be drawn in by articles on Europe’s political history or the nature of quasars, but I end up reading trivia like a menu from Alcatraz prison. Why am I not curious about the things I want to be curious about?

Curiosity feels like it’s outside your control, and trying to direct it sounds as ill conceived as forcing yourself to find a joke funny. But if you understand what prompts curiosity, you may be able to channel it a little better.

Across evolutionary time, curious animals were more likely to survive because they learned about their environments; a forager that occasionally skipped a reliable feeding ground to explore might find an even better place to eat.

Humans, too, will forgo a known payoff to investigate the unknown. In one experiment, subjects were asked to choose one of four photos, each carrying some chance of paying a cash prize. Photos repeated, so subjects learned to pick the best-paying, but when a novel photo popped up, they chose it more often than the odds dictated they should. This preference for novelty is, of course, the reason manufacturers periodically tweak product packaging and advertising.

But it’s good to know about your environment even if it doesn’t promise a reward right now; knowledge may be useless today, but vital next week. Therefore, evolution has left us with a brain that can reward itself; satisfying curiosity feels pleasurable, so you explore the environment even when you don’t expect any concrete payoff. Infants prefer to look at novel pictures compared with familiar ones. Preschoolers play longer with a mechanical toy if it’s difficult to deduce how it works.

What’s more, curiosity doesn’t just ensure new opportunities for learning, it enhances learning itself. In a recent experiment, subjects read trivia questions and rated how curious each made them feel. Later, they saw the questions again, each followed by a photograph of a face, and judged whether that person looked like he or she would know the answer. In a surprise final memory test for the faces, subjects better remembered those appearing after trivia questions that made them curious. Curiosity causes a brain state that amplifies learning.

This function of curiosity — to heighten memory — is the key to understanding why we’re curious about some things and not others. We feel most curious when exploration will yield the most learning.

Suppose I ask you, “What’s the most common type of star in the Milky Way?” You’ll obviously feel no curiosity if you already know the answer. But you’ll also feel little interest if you know nothing about stars; if you learned the answer, you couldn’t connect it to other knowledge, so it would seem nearly meaningless, an isolated factoid. We’re maximally curious when we sense that the environment offers new information in the right proportion to complement what we already know.

Note that your brain calculates what you might learn in the short term — your long-term interests aren’t a factor. That’s why a cardiac surgeon who is passionate about her job will nevertheless find a conference presentation on the subject boring if her brain decides that the talk won’t add to her knowledge. Conversely, when a friend persuades her to watch a documentary on type fonts, her brain may calculate that this will be a rich source of information — and she finds herself fascinated.

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It’s that disconnect between long- and short-term interests that makes frothy articles so frustrating. The feeling of curiosity promised you’d learn something and, admittedly, you did — now you know French citizens’ favorite macaron flavor — but you’re disappointed because your new knowledge doesn’t contribute to your long-term interests. You’ve been clickbaited by your own brain.

If following curiosity results in disappointment, maybe it shouldn’t be allowed to take the lead. Why not just search for topics you truly want to learn about? That sounds logical, but a search for “quasars” will yield thousands of hits and no way of knowing which offers the just-right match to your current knowledge that will maintain your curiosity. You’ll probably end up like the surgeon at the boring conference talk.

If you wish for more serious reading when you surf the web, the opportunistic approach is actually fine. You just need to frequent better foraging grounds.

Many websites that snare your time feature scores of stories on the front page, banking that one will strike each reader’s sweet spot of knowledge. So visit websites that use the same strategy but offer richer content, for example, JSTOR Daily, Arts & Letters Daily or ScienceDaily.

And pay more attention to bylines. Curiosity arises from the right balance of the familiar and the novel. Naturally, writers vary in what they assume their audience already knows and wants to know; when you find an author who tends to have your number, stick with her.

Einstein famously advised a young student to “never lose a holy curiosity.” Given our evolutionary history, there’s little danger any of us will. The challenge is changing its focus from the momentary to something more enduring.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/opin ... 3053091020

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National Management Training Program Focusing on Children’s Education

“Educating effective future leaders is a high responsibility. To do it well, we must look beyond the world which is passing from sight and turn our eyes to the uncharted world of the future. We must rise above the antiquated approaches of earlier days and instead infuse our students with what I would call three “A’s” of modern learning - the spirit of anticipation, the spirit of adaptation and the spirit of adventure. This will happen best in learning environments which are both serious and focused on the one hand, but which are also joyous and inspiring places, operating on the cutting edge of pedagogy and knowledge.” -Mawlana Hazar Imam, Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, August 14, 2007.

Teachers play a crucial role in the intellectual and spiritual formation of our children. Last month, over 200 teachers and religious education staff gathered in Houston to undergo a weekend-long professional development training.

Describing the objectives of the National Management Training Program (NMT), ITREB Chairman Murad Abdullah said that “it seeks to provide a platform for learning, training, building new skills. We hope this training module will motivate and inspire participants to create relationships and learn across the institutions.”

ITREB Honorary Secretary Asif Makhani commented: “What we are really trying to do with religious education is to complement their secular education and complete it, so our children grow up as confident and proud American Ismaili Muslims, with a sound understanding of their faith, their roots, and their values. Ultimately, this should lead to young people with a strong sense of ownership over their community and society that they live in, and a fuller understanding of the social and ethical issues surrounding them.”

The training was packed with a wide range of useful sessions on classroom management and developing learning outcomes, to using pre-prepared lesson plans and engendering critical thinking skills. The weekend was packed with fun-filled case studies, personal reflections on best practices, and open dialogue around knowledge exchanges.

There was a particular focus on Early Childhood Development (ECD). National Program Manager for ECD, Shamsha Jivani, explained her team’s recent work in developing innovative and creative pedagogies as well as age-appropriate learning materials. She traced the history of the program to 1988, when it was first developed. At that time, Shamsha noted, the focus was on physical language, social/emotional and cognitive development. More recently, new modules on Faith and Ethics have been added with guidance from Hazar Imam. These modules emphasize central themes of Shia Islam, namely, Tawhid, Nubuwwa and Imama.

Hon Sec. Asif explained that ITREB plans to continue to invest in the professional development of teachers: “We need to continuously invest in the professional development of our teachers and management so that the quality of education our children receive is as good or better than what's out there. Our teachers and leaders need to not only understand deeply our curriculum aims but also what our students are experiencing everyday in the secular system. That sets a high bar of excellence needing a strong culture of a growth mindset.”

In closing, AKEB USA Chairman Rozina Damanwala Mussani remarked, “It’s been incredible to see the energy and excitement among all the volunteers. Their commitment to educating tomorrow’s leaders is inspiring for all of us.”

Summarizing her experience at the training, Sana Momin, Religious Education Coordinator from Houston Headquarters said, “It was a great opportunity to meet others, collaborate and help each other grow by learning best practices.” Adnan Ali, Coordinator from Central region added, “This year’s NMT provided an integrated and holistic experience by combining ITREB and AKEB. It offered a clear and strong vision to move toward an impactful future.”

Photos at:

https://the.ismaili/usa/national-manage ... rce=Direct

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What is the Difference Between Theology and Religious Studies?

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6_ARME ... rce=Direct

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The Fatimid library was a Wonder of the World

Posted by Nimira Dewji
“More than a millennium ago, as early as the 8th century, the original Abbasids, ruling as Caliphs in Baghdad, set up academies and libraries where new knowledge was honoured – independent of its source. The Fatimids continued this tradition – reaching out from their base in Cairo – established in the 10th century – to welcome learned figures from distant lands.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam Aga Khan IV
Cairo, Egypt, June 15, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
Speech

The first revelation to the Prophet was about knowledge and learning. The value placed on the pursuit of knowledge, the central message of Revelation, to strive toward a deeper understanding of God, became the foundation for the development of education among Muslims. Prophet Muhammad is said to have “instructed his followers to become lovers of knowledge, because doing so is compulsory for all Muslims, men and women” (Laugu, The Role of Mosque Libraries, p 93). “The acquisition of knowledge thus came to be perceived as part of one’s daily life and as a way of enhancing its practices; faith and learning were seen to be interactive and not isolated from each other” (Nanji, The Muslim Almanac p 409).

Initially, the learning involved memorising and understanding verses of Revelation and the sayings of the Prophet. Hence, the mosque was the earliest space of learning although other informal discussion circles evolved who gathered in mosques or in private residences. In time, dynastic powers established centres of learning connected to the mosque, the first of which was founded in Medina in 653 for the education of boys and girls (Zaimecha, Education in Islam p 3).

The al-Qarawiyyin in Fez Morocco, one of the oldest mosques, funded by a wealthy woman Fatima al-Fahiri and built in the year 859, had three libraries endowed by three patrons.

As Islam spread outside the Arabian peninsula, the new Muslim rulers came into contact with people who had relatively sophisticated ideas about theology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics; the rulers incorporated these new ideas into their own way of looking at the world. A vast movement of translation took place in Baghdad at the Bayt al-Hikma, in the eight and ninth centuries, where scholars of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds worked together to translate the works of the Greeks. Halm notes that the Bayt al-Hikma “was not so much a university as it was a library and the place of work for scholars, whose main task consisted of translating…” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 72). Its library was famous until the end of the thirteenth century with a collection of several volumes on secular and religious sciences.

By the tenth century, Islamic civilisations were characterised by a diversity of intellectual and literary traditions in law, philosophy, arts, mysticism, natural sciences, among others. Islamic sciences developed into “an immensely rich, complex and very intriguing intellectual tradition” (Kennedy, Intellectual Traditions in Islam p 30). Hence libraries developed as a result of the commitment to learning and existed all over the Muslim regions.

The pursuit of knowledge was emphasised by the first Imam of the Shi’i Muslims, Hazrat Ali, and his descendants, who founded and endowed institutions of learning such as the Al-Azhar and Dar al-Ilm in their capital Cairo, a city founded by Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mu’izz (r. 953-975).

Al-Azhar Cairo Jami
Al Azhar, Cairo. Photo: Nasser Rabbat, Archnet.
Al-Azhar is the earliest mosque/ university complex, named after the title al-Zahra (‘the luminous’), which is associated with Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet and the wife of Imam ‘Ali, from whom the Fatimids claimed direct descent. Initially founded as a congregational mosque for Friday prayers, it soon developed into a seat of learning, continuing to exercise this role throughout Muslim history.

Halm notes “the palace in Cairo acquired a library unmatched anywhere in the contemporary world.… When this palace library was plundered by Turkish soldiers in the year 1068 it consisted of forty rooms. The works of classical authors alone comprised 18, 000 volumes” (The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 91)

Ibn Abi Tayyi (d. ca. 1228-33), a Shi’i poet and historian, described the Fatimid palace library:

“It was one of the wonders of the world, and it was said that in all the lands of Islam there had been no greater library than the one in the palace of Cairo…” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 92).

At the Dar al-Ilm, a scientific academy founded by Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Hakim in 1005, the historian al-Musabbihi (d. 1029) stated:

“Into this house they brought all the books that the commander of the faithful al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered to bring there, that is, the manuscripts in all domains of science and culture, to an extent to which they had never been brought together for a prince…he granted substantial salaries to all those who were appointed by him there to do service – jurists and others… He also donated what people needed: ink, writing reeds, paper and inkstands…” (Cited in The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 73).

When the fortress of Alamut was captured by the Mongols in 1256, Juwayni, the vizier of the ruler Hulagu reported in his work ‘The History of the World Conqueror’ that he was “desirous of inspecting the library, the fame of which had spread throughout the world” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 95).

Several dynasties including the Mamluks, Safawids, Mughals, and others were renowned for their book collections. Other institutions such as hospitals as well as the ribat (retreat), and the khanqah (lodge) of the Sufi tariqah, also housed small libraries to support the needs of the patrons.

Libraries played an important role in the transmission of knowledge.

“This tradition of learning and the transmission of knowledge is at the heart of Islam and the practice of the faith.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam Aga Khan IV
Mopti, Mali, April 24, 2008
Speech

Sources:
Azim A. Nanji, “Education and Learning,” The Muslim Almanac, Gale Research Inc., Detroit, 1996
Francis Richard, “The Kitabkhana: An Institution in the Service of Culture and the Art of the Book,” Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the Book & Calligraphy
Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 1997
Hugh Kennedy, “Intellectual Life in the First Four Centuries of Islam,” Intellectual Traditions in Islam, Edited by Farhad Daftary, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 2000
Nurdin Laugu, The Roles of Mosque Libraries Through History
Ruth Stellhorn Mackensen, Four Great Libraries of Medieval Baghdad, Internet ArchiveSalah Zaimecho, “Education in Islam: The Role of the Mosque,” Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, June 2002

nimirasblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/06/the-fatimid-library-was-a-wonder-of-the-world/?utm_source=Direct

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Video Quote : MHI On Ongoing Learning

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMYbRxK86D8

Speech by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Annual meeting of the International Baccalaureate, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 18 April 2008.

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Google translation of the article in Portuguese

Fungi in the Garden: Closing the Cycle

At this time of year, with the first rains, many woods and gardens are filled with mushrooms, to the delight of children and curious visitors. With varying shapes, sizes and colors, mushrooms are actually the breeding structures (or carpophores) of some types of fungi, whose base structure is usually invisible to the naked eye.

Apart from their charm, mushrooms - or more precisely fungi in general - play a key role in the life cycle of any ecosystem. This group of living beings (neither animals nor plants, they are a kingdom apart!) Has the particularity of using organic matter to grow, giving rise to simpler elements, a process called “decomposition”, fundamental to closing the cycle of life. matter.

In addition to fungi, there are bacteria and protozoa with this ability to break down organic matter, transforming it into nutrients that are later absorbed by plants, so they all play a key role in the global balance.

According to Celeste Santos e Silva and Rogério Louro, from the University of Évora ( www.naturlink.pt ), the kingdom of fungi comprises about 1.5 million different species. They are, therefore, the largest group of living beings on earth, and are distributed throughout the globe, from rainforests to the icy Antarctic plains.

We also all know that there are some useful mushrooms in the diet, but there are also highly toxic species. So whenever you see a mushroom, appreciate its beauty, photograph it or draw it, but don't touch it unless you are accompanied by a specialist!

https://the.ismaili/portugal/os-fungos- ... do-o-ciclo

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Why some people are impossibly talented

Polymaths excel in multiple fields. But what makes a polymath – and can their cross-discipline expertise help tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges?

If it weren’t for an actress and a pianist, GPS and WiFi might not exist.

In the late 1930s and early 40s, Hedy Lamarr was already the toast of Hollywood, famed for her portrayals of femme fatales. Few of her contemporaries knew that her other great passion was inventing. (She had previously designed more streamlined aeroplanes for a lover, the aviation tycoon Howard Hughes.)

Lamarr met a kindred spirit in George Antheil, however – an avant-garde pianist, composer and novelist who also had an interest in engineering. And when the pair realised that enemy forces were jamming the Allied radio signals, they set about looking for a solution. The result was a method of signal transmission called ‘frequency-hopping spread spectrum’ (patented under Lamarr’s married name, Markey) that is still used in much of today’s wireless technology.

It may seem a surprising origin for ground-breaking technology, but the story of Lamarr and Antheil fits perfectly with a growing understanding of the polymathic mind.

The research suggests we could all gain from spending a bit more time outside our chosen specialism

Besides helping to outline the specific traits that allow some people to juggle different fields of expertise so successfully, new research shows that there are many benefits of pursuing multiple interests, including increased life satisfaction, work productivity and creativity.

Most of us may never reach the kind of success of people like Lamarr or Antheil, of course – but the research suggests we could all gain from spending a bit more time outside our chosen specialism

What’s a polymath?

Even the definition of “polymath” is the subject of debate. The term has its roots in Ancient Greek and was first used in the early 17th Century to mean a person with “many learnings”, but there is no easy way to decide how advanced those learnings must be and in how many disciplines. Most researchers argue that to be a true polymath you need some kind of formal acclaim in at least two apparently unrelated domains.

One of the most detailed examinations of the subject comes from Waqas Ahmed in his book The Polymath, published earlier this year.

The inspiration was partly personal: Ahmed has spanned multiple fields in his career to date. With an undergraduate degree in economics and post-graduate degrees in international relations and neuroscience, Ahmed has worked as a diplomatic journalist and personal trainer (which he learnt through the British Armed Forces). Today, he is pursuing his love of visual art as the artistic director of one of the world’s largest private art collections, while also working as a professional artist himself.

Despite these achievements, Ahmed does not identify as a polymath. “It is too esteemed an accolade for me to refer to myself as one,” he says. When examining the lives of historical polymaths, he only considered those who had made significant contributions to at least three fields, such as Leonardo da Vinci (the artist, inventor and anatomist), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (the great writer who also studied botany, physics and mineralogy) and Florence Nightingale (who, besides founding modern nursing, was also an accomplished statistician and theologian).

More...

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20 ... -than-ever

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Mawlana Hazar Imam: “Ours is an intellectual tradition which premiates the pursuit of knowledge…”

“Ours is an intellectual tradition which premiates the pursuit of knowledge that is to be used for the good of larger society. Live your faith through acquiring knowledge with which to help others.”

Mawlana Hazar Imam
July 11, 2017

The earliest revelation to Prophet Muhammad was about knowledge and learning. The Quranic injunction and Prophetic tradition to seek knowledge led to the founding of many institutions of learning. Scientific research was considered a response of the faithful to the persistent call of the Quran to ponder the universe in order to understand God’s creation. Research was recognised as a way of intellectual growth, ‘an ethical duty since the human intellect is a divine gift to be cherished.’1

Early Muslim thinkers debated about philosophy, revelation, the place of reason, intellect, and creation in a person’s relationship with the Creator. Knowledge, according to Islamic ethics, is be used in the service of others, to improve the quality of life of the marginalised.

With the expansion of Muslim rule into the eastern Mediterranean regions and western Asia, the diverse pre-Islamic traditions of learning were incorporated by the Muslim rulers into their cultures, fostering an intellectually fertile environment.

A vast movement of translation and development took place in the eighth to tenth centuries where scientists and scholars from various backgrounds worked together and achieved significant advances in science and philosophy, which were later transmitted to Europe and Asia, forming an important link in modern intellectual development. Knowledge was valued and resources were allocated for its advancement.

Endowed institutions were established such as the Bayt al-Hikma by the Abbasids, Al-Azhar and Dar al-Hikma by the Fatimid Ismaili dynasty, among others, as well as libraries, hospitals, observatories, which flourished even after the disintegration of the major empires and the establishment of local dynasties.

Al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo. Source: Archnet
The contribution of classical and medieval Islamic science to contemporary mathematics survives in our continuing usage of the terms “Arabic numerals,” “algorithm,” and “algebra” which came to be established as an independent mathematical subject. Mathematicians of Islamic civilisations were also engaged in geometry, trigonometry, as well as the solution of equations.

In the physical sciences, Muslim scientists were engaged in problems of natural philosophy, optics, and astronomy which required innovation in measuring instruments. Muslim astronomers revised instruments, designing new ones, and sometimes building extremely large ones to increase accuracy.

During the thirteenth century, Arabic manuscripts of important philosophical, medical, astronomical, and pharmaceutical works were copied and and later translated into Latin in Toledo, Spain and Palermo, Sicily. For example, the Persian scholar Ibn Sina (d.1037) wrote a five-volume encyclopedia Qanun fi’l-tibb (Canon of Medicine) advancing the knowledge of the ancient civilisations. It was translated into Latin in Toledo, Spain, in the thirteenth century. The Canon became the most influential medical encyclopedia and was taught in European universities well into the eighteenth century.

Ibn Sina Avicenna Qanun Canon of Medicine
Ibn Sina’s Qanun [fi’l-tibb] Canon of Medicine) Volume 5, dated 1052, Iran or Iraq. Source: Aga Khan Museum
Ibn Butlan (d.1066) wrote about good health and hygiene based on moderate lifestyles in Taqwim al-Sihhah bi’l-Asbab (Maintenance of Health Through Six Methods), which was translated into Latin in Sicily in 1266 under the title Tacuinum Sanitatis, subsequently becoming a popular text in Europe.
Taqwim Ibn Butlan Aga Khan Museum
Taqwim al-sihhah bi’l-asbab al-sitta, dated 1344, Iraq or Syria. Source: Aga Khan Museum.
The pen and pen boxes became associated with the learned as well as people of high ranks. Elaborately decorated pen boxes and inkwells are among the finest objects associated with writing in the medieval Islamic world. Pen boxes were both practical and symbolic: they served as the scribes’ tools, but they also represented the power of the state.

pen box Anatolia Aga Khan Museum
Gold and silver-inlaid brass pen box, North-west Persia or Anatolia, c. 1300. Aga Khan Museum
Inkwell Khurasan Iran Persia Aga Khan Museum
Bronze with silver and copper inkwell, Khurasan, c. 1200. Aga Khan Museum.
In the Shia interpretation, the message from God contained inner meanings that could not be understood through human reason alone and therefore, a religious authoritative guide, or Imam, was needed. The Prophet’s successor was responsible for interpreting and teaching the message of Islam. A person with such qualifications could only belong to the Prophet’s family (ahl al-bayt), which came to be defined to include Hazrat Ali and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, and certain members of their progeny.

The institution of Imamat is the central doctrine of Shi’ism based on the belief in the permanent need for mankind for a divinely guided leader in spiritual and temporal matters. In keeping with the Quranic ethos, Imams valued learning and gave knowledge a prominent and central role. In the Shia tradition, the role of the intellect is an integral part of faith, hence the inkwell symbolises Islam’s emphasis on knowledge in the service of humanity and the Imam’s guidance for understanding Allah’s revelation.

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Sources:
1Aga Khan Development Network: An Ethical Framework Prepared by The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Hasan Al-Khoee, Ethics in Action: The Role of Waqf in Early Muslim Society, The Institute of Ismaii Studies
Alnoor Dhanani, Muslim Philosophy and the Sciences, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Pattern and Light: Aga Khan Museum, Skira Rizzoli Publication

nimirasblog.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/mawlana-hazar-imam-ours-is-an-intellectual-tradition-which-premiates-the-pursuit-of-knowledge/?utm_source=Direct

[kmaherali]

The Illusory Truth Effect: Why We Believe Fake News, Conspiracy Theories and Propaganda

When a “fact” tastes good and is repeated enough, we tend to believe it, no matter how false it may be. Understanding the illusory truth effect can keep us from being bamboozled.

***

A recent Verge article looked at some of the unsavory aspects of working as Facebook content moderators—the people who spend their days cleaning up the social network’s most toxic content. One strange detail stands out. The moderators the Verge spoke to reported that they and their coworkers often found themselves believing fringe, often hate-mongering conspiracy theories they would have dismissed under normal circumstances. Others described experiencing paranoid thoughts and intense fears for their safety.

An overnight switch from skepticism to fervent belief in conspiracy theories is not unique to content moderators. In a Nieman Lab article by Laura Hazard Owen, she explains that researchers who study the spread of disinformation online can find themselves struggling to be sure about their own beliefs and needing to make an active effort to counteract what they see. Some of the most fervent, passionate conspiracy theorists admit that they first fell into the rabbit hole when they tried to debunk the beliefs they now hold. There’s an explanation for why this happens: the illusory truth effect.

The illusory truth effect

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
— Aldous Huxley

Not everything we believe is true. We may act like it is and it may be uncomfortable to think otherwise, but it’s inevitable that we all hold a substantial number of beliefs that aren’t objectively true. It’s not about opinions or different perspectives. We can pick up false beliefs for the simple reason that we’ve heard them a lot.

If I say that the moon is made of cheese, no one reading this is going to believe that, no matter how many times I repeat it. That statement is too ludicrous. But what about something a little more plausible? What if I said that moon rock has the same density as cheddar cheese? And what if I wasn’t the only one saying it? What if you’d also seen a tweet touting this amazing factoid, perhaps also heard it from a friend at some point, and read it in a blog post?

Unless you’re a geologist, a lunar fanatic, or otherwise in possession of an unusually good radar for moon rock-related misinformation, there is a not insignificant chance you would end up believing a made-up fact like that, without thinking to verify it. You might repeat it to others or share it online. This is how the illusory truth effect works: we all have a tendency to believe something is true after being exposed to it multiple times. The more times we’ve heard something, the truer it seems. The effect is so powerful that repetition can persuade us to believe information we know is false in the first place. Ever thought a product was stupid but somehow you ended up buying it on a regular basis? Or you thought that new manager was okay, but now you participate in gossip about her?

The illusory truth effect is the reason why advertising works and why propaganda is one of the most powerful tools for controlling how people think. It’s why the speech of politicians can be bizarre and multiple-choice tests can cause students problems later on. It’s why fake news spreads and retractions of misinformation don’t work. In this post, we’re going to look at how the illusory truth effect works, how it shapes our perception of the world, and how we can avoid it.

The discovery of the illusory truth effect
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”
— Henry David Thoreau

The illusory truth effect was first described in a 1977 paper entitled “Frequency and the Conference of Referential Validity,” by Lynn Hasher and David Goldstein of Temple University and Thomas Toppino of Villanova University. In the study, the researchers presented a group of students with 60 statements and asked them to rate how certain they were that each was either true or false. The statements came from a range of subjects and were all intended to be not too obscure, but unlikely to be familiar to study participants. Each statement was objective—it could be verified as either correct or incorrect and was not a matter of opinion. For example, “the largest museum in the world is the Louvre in Paris” was true.

Students rated their certainty three times, with two weeks in between evaluations. Some of the statements were repeated each time, while others were not. With each repetition, students became surer of their certainty regarding the statements they labelled as true. It seemed that they were using familiarity as a gauge for how confident they were of their beliefs.

An important detail is that the researchers did not repeat the first and last 10 items on each list. They felt students would be most likely to remember these and be able to research them before the next round of the study. While the study was not conclusive evidence of the existence of the illusory truth effect, subsequent research has confirmed its findings.

Why the illusory truth effect happens

“The sad truth is the truth is sad.”
— Lemony Snicket

Why does repetition of a fact make us more likely to believe it, and to be more certain of that belief? As with other cognitive shortcuts, the typical explanation is that it’s a way our brains save energy. Thinking is hard work—remember that the human brain uses up about 20% of an individual’s energy, despite accounting for just 2% of their body weight.

The illusory truth effect comes down to processing fluency. When a thought is easier to process, it requires our brains to use less energy, which leads us to prefer it. The students in Hasher’s original study recognized the repeated statements, even if not consciously. That means that processing them was easier for their brains.

Processing fluency seems to have a wide impact on our perception of truthfulness. Rolf Reber and Norbert Schwarz, in their article “Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Judgments of Truth,” found that statements presented in an easy-to-read color are judged as more likely to be true than ones presented in a less legible way. In their article “Birds of a Feather Flock Conjointly (?): Rhyme as Reason in Aphorisms,” Matthew S. McGlone and Jessica Tofighbakhsh found that aphorisms that rhyme (like “what sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals”), even if someone hasn’t heard them before, seem more accurate than non-rhyming versions. Once again, they’re easier to process.

Fake news

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. ”
— Carl Sagan

The illusory truth effect is one factor in why fabricated news stories sometimes gain traction and have a wide impact. When this happens, our knee-jerk reaction can be to assume that anyone who believes fake news must be unusually gullible or outright stupid. Evan Davis writes in Post Truth, “Never before has there been a stronger sense that fellow citizens have been duped and that we are all suffering the consequences of their intellectual vulnerability.” As Davis goes on to write, this assumption isn’t helpful for anyone. We can’t begin to understand why people believe seemingly ludicrous news stories until we consider some of the psychological reasons why this might happen.

Fake news falls under the umbrella of “information pollution,” which also includes news items that misrepresent information, take it out of context, parody it, fail to check facts or do background research, or take claims from unreliable sources at face value. Some of this news gets published on otherwise credible, well-respected news sites due to simple oversight. Some goes on parody sites that never purport to tell the truth, yet are occasionally mistaken for serious reporting. Some shows up on sites that replicate the look and feel of credible sources, using similar web design and web addresses. And some fake news comes from sites dedicated entirely to spreading misinformation, without any pretense of being anything else.

A lot of information pollution falls somewhere in between the extremes that tend to get the most attention. It’s the result of people being overworked or in a hurry and unable to do the due diligence that reliable journalism requires. It’s what happens when we hastily tweet something or mention it in a blog post and don’t realize it’s not quite true. It extends to miscited quotes, doctored photographs, fiction books masquerading as memoirs, or misleading statistics.

The signal to noise ratio is so skewed that we have a hard time figuring out what to pay attention to and what we should ignore. No one has time to verify everything they read online. No one. (And no, offline media certainly isn’t perfect either.) Our information processing capabilities are not infinite and the more we consume, the harder it becomes to assess its value.

Moreover, we’re often far outside our circle of competence, reading about topics we don’t have the expertise in to assess accuracy in any meaningful way. This drip-drip of information pollution is not harmless. Like air pollution, it builds up over time and the more we’re exposed to it, the more likely we are to end up picking up false beliefs which are then hard to shift. For instance, a lot of people believe that crime, especially the violent kind, is on an upward trend year by year—in a 2016 study by Pew Research, 57% of Americans believed crime had worsened since 2008. This despite violent crime having actually fallen by nearly a fifth during that time. This false belief may stem from the fact that violent crime receives a disproportional amount of media coverage, giving it wide and repeated exposure.

When people are asked to rate the apparent truthfulness of news stories, they score ones they have read multiple times more truthful than those they haven’t. Danielle C. Polage, in her article “Making Up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories,” explains that a false story someone has been exposed to more than once can seem more credible than a true one they’re seeing for the first time. In experimental settings, people also misattribute their previous exposure to stories, believing they read a news item from another source when they actually saw it as part of a prior part of a study. Even when people know the story is part of the experiment, they sometimes think they’ve also read it elsewhere. The repetition is all that matters.

Given enough exposure to contradictory information, there is almost no knowledge that we won’t question.

Propaganda

“If a lie is only printed often enough, it becomes a quasi-truth, and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article of belief, a dogma, and men will die for it.”
— Isa Blagden

Propaganda and fake news are similar. By relying on repetition, disseminators of propaganda can change the beliefs and values of people.

Propaganda has a lot in common with advertising, except instead of selling a product or service, it’s about convincing people of the validity of a particular cause. Propaganda isn’t necessarily malicious; sometimes the cause is improved public health or boosting patriotism to encourage military enrollment. But often propaganda is used to undermine political processes to further narrow, radical, and aggressive agendas.

During World War II, the graphic designer Abraham Games served as the official war artist for the British government. Games’s work is iconic and era-defining for its punchy, brightly colored visual style. His army recruitment posters would often feature a single figure rendered in a proud, strong, admirable pose with a mere few words of text. They conveyed to anyone who saw them the sorts of positive qualities they would supposedly gain through military service. Whether this was true or not was another matter. Through repeated exposure to the poster, Games instilled the image the army wanted to create in the minds of viewers, affecting their beliefs and behaviors.

Today, propaganda is more likely to be a matter of quantity over quality. It’s not about a few artistic posters. It’s about saturating the intellectual landscape with content that supports a group’s agenda. With so many demands on our attention, old techniques are too weak.

Researchers Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews at the Rand Corporation refer to the method of bombarding people with fabricated information as the “firehose of propaganda” model. While the report focuses on modern Russian propaganda, the techniques it describes are not confined to Russia. These techniques make use of the illusory truth effect, alongside other cognitive shortcuts. Firehose propaganda has four distinct features:

- High-volume and multi-channel
- Rapid, continuous and repetitive
- Makes no commitment to objective reality
- Makes no commitment to consistency

Firehose propaganda is predicated on exposing people to the same messages as frequently as possible. It involves a large volume of content, repeated again and again across numerous channels: news sites, videos, radio, social media, television and so on. These days, as the report describes, this can also include internet users who are paid to repeatedly post in forums, chat rooms, comment sections and on social media disputing legitimate information and spreading misinformation. It is the sheer volume that succeeds in obliterating the truth. Research into the illusory truth effect suggests that we are further persuaded by information heard from multiple sources, hence the efficacy of funneling propaganda through a range of channels.

Seeing as repetition leads to belief in many cases, firehose propaganda doesn’t need to pay attention to the truth or even to be consistent. A source doesn’t need to be credible for us to end up believing its messages. Fact-checking is of little help because it further adds to the repetition, yet we feel compelled not to ignore obviously untrue propagandistic material.

Firehose propaganda does more than spread fake news. It nudges us towards feelings like paranoia, mistrust, suspicion, and contempt for expertise. All of this makes future propaganda more effective. Unlike those espousing the truth, propagandists can move fast because they’re making up some or all of what they claim, meaning they gain a foothold in our minds first. First impressions are powerful. Familiarity breeds trust.

How to combat the illusory truth effect

So how can we protect ourselves from believing false news and being manipulated by propaganda due to the illusory truth effect? The best route is to be far more selective. The information we consume is like the food we eat. If it’s junk, our thinking will reflect that.

We don’t need to spend as much time reading the news as most of us do. As with many other things in life, more can be less. The vast majority of the news we read is just information pollution. It doesn’t do us any good.

One of the best solutions is to quit the news. This frees up time and energy to engage with timeless wisdom that will improve your life. Try it for a couple of weeks. And if you aren’t convinced, read a few days’ worth of newspapers from 1978. You’ll see how much the news doesn’t really matter at all.

If you can’t quit the news habit, stick to reliable, well-known news sources that have a reputation to uphold. Steer clear of dubious sources whenever you can—even if you treat it as entertainment, you might still end up absorbing it. Research unfamiliar sources before trusting them. Be cautious of sites that are funded entirely by advertising (or that pay their journalists based on views) and seek to support reader-funded news sources you get value from if possible. Prioritize sites that treat their journalists well and don’t expect them to churn out dozens of thoughtless articles per day. Don’t rely on news in social media posts without sources, from people outside of their circle of competence.

Avoid treating the news as entertainment to passively consume on the bus or while waiting in line. Be mindful about it—if you want to inform yourself on a topic, set aside designated time to learn about it from multiple trustworthy sources. Don’t assume breaking news is better, as it can take some time for the full details of a story to come out and people may be quick to fill in the gaps with misinformation. Accept that you can’t be informed about everything and most of it isn’t important. Pay attention to when news items make you feel outrage or other strong emotions, because this may be a sign of manipulation. Be aware that correcting false information can further fuel the illusory truth effect by adding to the repetition.

We can’t stop the illusory truth effect from existing. But we can recognize that it is a reality and seek to prevent ourselves from succumbing to it in the first place.

Conclusion

Our memories are imperfect. We are easily led astray by the illusory truth effect, which can direct what we believe and even change our understanding of the past. It’s not about intelligence—this happens to all of us. This effect is too powerful for us to override it simply by learning the truth. Cognitively, there is no distinction between a genuine memory and a false one. Our brains are designed to save energy and it’s crucial we accept that.

We can’t just pull back and think the illusory truth only applies to other people. It applies to everyone. We’re all responsible for our own beliefs. We can’t pin the blame on the media or social media algorithms or whatever else. When we put effort into thinking about and questioning the information we’re exposed to, we’re less vulnerable to the illusory truth effect. Knowing about the effect is the best way to identify when it’s distorting our worldview. Before we use information as the basis for important decisions, it’s a good idea to verify if it’s true, or if it’s something we’ve just heard a lot.

Truth is a precarious thing, not because it doesn’t objectively exist, but because the incentives to warp it can be so strong. It’s up to each of us to seek it out.

https://fs.blog/2020/02/illusory-truth-effect/

[kmaherali]

Early Ismailis produced diverse literature from legal texts and poetry to philosophical treatises
Posted by Nimira Dewji

The Ismailis have produced diversified literature, mainly in Arabic, Persian, and a number of Indian languages, on a variety of subjects and religious themes in different periods of their long history. These texts range from a few historical and biographical treatises, legal texts of al-Qadi al-Nu’man, and elaborate works on the central Shi’i doctrine of the Imamat, to complex philosophical treatises.

al-Numan Da'a'im Pillars

Title page of the second volume of Al-Numan’s “Da’a’im al-Islam” produced in India in 1686. Source: The Ismailis An Illustrated History
From early in the 9th century, a large portion of Ismaili literature related to works on ta’wil, or esoteric interpretation of verses of the Qur’an, as well as the commandments of Islamic law. Ismaili authors such as Ja’far b. Mansur al-Yaman and al-Qadi al-Nu’man made important contributions to this literary tradition. Ismaili literature is also rich in religious and devotional poetry.

The bulk of the classical Ismaili literature produced mainly in Fatimid times (909-1171) by da’i-authors such as al-Sijistani, al-Kirmani, and al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din al-Shirazi was written in Arabic; only Nasir-i Khusraw wrote exclusively in Persian. The da’is of the Iranian lands, starting with al-Nasafi and al-Razi formulated a new synthesis of reason and revelation, combining Ismaili theology (kalam) with other philosophical traditions. This led to the development of a unique intellectual tradition, known as “philosophical tradition,” within Ismailism.

A genre specific to Ismaili literature was that of sermons or lectures (majalis), prepared by the chief da’i, pre-approved by the Imam of the time, for the exclusive education of members of the community.

Al-muayyad shirazi majalis fatimid

Pages from the al-Majalis of al-Mu’ayyad al-Shirazi dated 1840. Source: The Ismailis An Illustrated History
Istitar al-Imama Al-Naysaburi

Al-Naysaburi’s Kitab al-Istitar al-imama. Source: The Ismailis: An Illustrated History
The Nizaris of Persia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia have produced a variety of texts during the Alamut (1090-1256) and subsequent periods, starting with Hasan-i Sabbah’s works on the doctrine of ta’lim.

In the early post-Alamut centuries, Ismailis disguised themselves under the mantle of Sufism to escape persecution. Hence, the relatively limited Nizari literature of this period became permeated with such terminologies as pir and murid, which are more distinctly associated with Sufism.

From the middle of the 15th century, there appeared a renaissance known as Anjundan revival, in the literary activities of the Persian-speaking Nizaris. Abu Ishaq Quhistani and Khayrkhwah-i Harati were among the pioneers of this revival. The Syrian Nizaris elaborated their own literary tradition using Arabic language. They also preserved numerous Arabic Ismaili texts of the Fatimid period. The Nizaris of South Asia, or Khojas, elaborated their indigenous Satpanth religious tradition. The da’is, known as pirs, developed, in various Indian languages, a distinctive literary genre of the form of hymn-like devotional poems known as ginans, which have been preserved in writing mainly in the Khojki script.

Sadr al-Din Pir Ginan Saloko

Saloko Nano by Pir Sadr al-Din. Source: The Institute of Ismaili Studies
The Tayyibi Musta’lian Ismailis, especially those belonging to the Da’udi Bohra branch, have produced a number of works in Arabic on the history of their da’wa and da’is in Yaman and India. Since the middle of the 20th century, a number of Tayyibi and Nizari scholars began to compose historical accounts of their communities.

Ismaili History

Writings on history have been closely related to the Ismaili da’wa and the changing political situations during the various phases of their history. The Ismailis were often persecuted, necessitating the observance of concealment. The da’is, who were trained as theologians but were also scholars and authors of their communities, operated in hostile surroundings; hence there are only few works of the historical genre.

During the Fatimid and Alamut periods, when the Ismailis possessed states of their own, events needed to be recorded by reliable chroniclers. In Fatimid times, histories of the Fatimid dynasty were written by contemporary historians, both Ismaili and non-Ismaili. The Ismailis of the Fatimid period also produced some biographical works of the munazarat or disputation genres with great historical value. However, only a few chronicles of the historical genre survived the demise of the Fatimid dynasty such as al-Qadi al-Nu’man’s Iftitah al-da’wa. In later medieval times, only one general history of the community was compiled by an Ismaili author, namely the Uyun al-akhbar of Idris al-Din. There are also certain brief but highly significant accounts of particular events in Ismaili history, such as Istitar al-imam of the da’i al-Nisaburi (Naysaburi).

The Ismailis of the Alamut period did maintain a historiographical tradition, which commenced with the Sargudhasht-i sayyidna covering the life of Hasan-i Sabbah, the first of the eight Nizari Ismaili rulers in Persia. Other Persian chronicles covered the reigns of Hasan’s successors. These official chronicles, kept at the libraries of Alamut and other Nizari castles, perished in the Mongol invasions or soon afterward. However, the Nizari texts were referenced extensively by later scholars in their writings about the Ismaili state. The Persian Nizari tradition of historiography was practically discontinued after the collapse of the Nizari state. The Nizari Khojas did not elaborate any historiographical tradition as they continued to practice concealment.

In 1931, Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah employed Ivanow to conduct research into the literature and history of the Ismailis. Ivanow identified a large number of texts of Ismaili literature, described in his A Guide to Ismaili Literature, the first catalogue of the Ismaili sources published in modern times.

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah commissioned the first comprehensive history of the Ismaili Imamat in Gujarati, the most widely spoken language among the Khojas of the Indian subcontinent. The task of documenting the reigns of 48 Ismaili Imams was assigned to Ali Muhammad Jan Muhammad Chunara (d.1966). Imam had also recommended to Fida’i Khurasani (d.1923), a prominent Persian Nizari Ismaili author and poet, to compose a history of Ismailis, the Hidayat al-mu’minin (Guiding the Faithful).1

Chunara published the 180-page history of the Ismaili Imamate in 1936, the year commemorating Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah’s Golden Jubilee. The text had an Arabic title, Nuram Mubin, ‘Manifest Light,’ a Qur’anic expression (4:174) that is interpreted by Ismailis as a reference to the ‘Light of Imamate’ manifest in the world as a divinely ordained guidance for humanity.

In 1946, Imam established the Ismaili Society of Bombay, where the bulk of Ivanow’s translations of Ismaili texts appeared in the institution’s series of publications. The Society’s latest publication, and Ivanow’s final work, Ismaili Literature (Tehran, 1963), is a bibliography of the existing Ismaili manuscript literature providing detailed information on some 900 titles.

By 1964 the Society’s publication series was discontinued and the institution was absorbed by the Ismaili Association of Pakistan in Karachi. The Institute of Ismaili Studies is now the steward of the Ismaili Society’s collection of manuscripts along with other texts. See Ismaili Texts and Translation Series.

1Farhad Daftary, The Ismailis Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge University Press, p 537

Adapted from “Literature,” “Historiography,” and “Ismaili Society,” in Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis by Farhad Daftary, Scarecrow Press, 2011

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[kmaherali]

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Key to Innovation

Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right.

“If I have seen further,” Isaac Newton wrote in a 1675 letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

It can be easy to look at great geniuses like Newton and imagine that their ideas and work came solely out of their minds, that they spun it from their own thoughts—that they were true originals. But that is rarely the case.

Innovative ideas have to come from somewhere. No matter how unique or unprecedented a work seems, dig a little deeper and you will always find that the creator stood on someone else’s shoulders. They mastered the best of what other people had already figured out, then made that expertise their own. With each iteration, they could see a little further, and they were content in the knowledge that future generations would, in turn, stand on their shoulders.

Standing on the shoulders of giants is a necessary part of creativity, innovation, and development. It doesn’t make what you do less valuable. Embrace it.

Everyone gets a lift up
Ironically, Newton’s turn of phrase wasn’t even entirely his own. The phrase can be traced back to the twelfth century, when the author John of Salisbury wrote that philosopher Bernard of Chartres compared people to dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants and said that “we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.”

Mary Shelley put it this way in the nineteenth century, in a preface for Frankenstein: “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

There are giants in every field. Don’t be intimidated by them. They offer an exciting perspective. As the film director Jim Jarmusch advised, “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.’”

That might sound demoralizing. Some might think, “My song, my book, my blog post, my startup, my app, my creation—surely they are original? Surely no one has done this before!” But that’s likely not the case. It’s also not a bad thing. Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson states in his TED Talk: “Admitting this to ourselves is not an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness—it’s a liberation from our misconceptions, and it’s an incentive to not expect so much from ourselves and to simply begin.”

There lies the important fact. Standing on the shoulders of giants enables us to see further, not merely as far as before. When we build upon prior work, we often improve upon it and take humanity in new directions. However original your work seems to be, the influences are there—they might just be uncredited or not obvious. As we know from social proof, copying is a natural human tendency. It’s how we learn and figure out how to behave.

More...

https://fs.blog/2020/04/shoulders-of-giants/

[kmaherali]

The quote below reinforces the message of the post above on the purpose of innovation

"Designers of genius are those who have managed to extend that space of possible solutions and to convince the populations concerned of the appropriateness of the solutions that have pushed back the boundaries of the acceptable. Innovations, by getting accepted, expand the domain of the ordinary. But innovations, to be accepted, must be rooted in a profound knowledge of self and of society and its needs if they are not to be mere artifice or caprice. Such knowledge of society and its needs requires an understanding of history and religion as much as of sociology, politics, or economics. Without such a wellspring of knowledge to draw upon, the inspiration of the designers is likely to promote an impoverished vision and produce a pedestrian output."

Mawlana Hazar Imam, Indonesia, October 1990

[kmaherali]

Mental Models For a Pandemic

Mental models help us understand the world better, something which is especially valuable during times of confusion, like a pandemic. Here’s how to apply mental models to gain a more accurate picture of reality and keep a cool head.

It feels overwhelming when the world changes rapidly, abruptly, and extensively. The changes come so fast it can be hard to keep up—and the future, which a few months ago seemed reliable, now has so many unknown dimensions. In the face of such uncertainty, mental models are valuable tools for helping you think through significant disruptions such as a pandemic.

A mental model is simply a representation of how something works. They are how we simplify complexity, why we consider some things more relevant than others, and how we reason. Using them increases your clarity of understanding, providing direction for the choices you need to make and the options you want to keep open.

Models for ourselves

During a pandemic, a useful model is “the map is not the territory.” In rapidly changing situations like a global health crisis, any reporting is an incomplete snapshot in time. Our maps are going to be inaccurate for many reasons: limited testing availability, poor reporting, ineffective information sharing, lack of expertise in analyzing the available information. The list goes on.

If past reporting hasn’t been completely accurate, then why would you assume current reporting is? You have to be careful when interpreting the information you receive, using it as a marker to scope out a range of what is happening in the territory.

In our current pandemic, we can easily spot our map issues. There aren’t enough tests available in most countries. Because COVID-19 isn’t fatal for the majority of people who contract it, there are likely many people who get it but don’t meet the testing criteria. Therefore, we don’t know how many people have it.

When we look at country-level reporting, we can also see not all countries are reporting to the same standard. Sometimes this isn’t a matter of “better” or “worse”; there are just different ways of collating the numbers. Some countries don’t have the infrastructure for widespread data collection and sharing. Different countries also have different standards for what counts as a death caused by COVID-19.

In other nations, incentives affect reporting. Some countries downplay their infection rate so as to not create panic. Some governments avoid reporting because it undermines their political interests. Others are more worried about the information on the economic map than the health one.

Although it is important to be realistic about our maps, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to improve their quality. Paying attention to information from experts and ignoring unverified soundbites is one step to increasing the accuracy of our maps. The more accurate we can get them, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to unlock new possibilities that help us deal with the crisis and plan for the future.

There are two models that we can use to improve the effectiveness of the maps we do have: “compounding” and “probabilistic thinking.”

Compounding is exponential growth, something a lot of us tend to have a poor intuitive grasp on. We see the immediate linear relationships in the situation, like how one test diagnoses one person, while not understanding the compounding effects of that relationship. Increased testing can lead to an exponential decrease in virus transmission because each infected person usually passes the virus onto more than just one other person.

One of the clearest stories to illustrate exponential growth is the story of the man who asked to be paid in rice. In this story, a servant is to be rewarded for his service. When asked how he wanted to be paid, he asks to be paid in rice, using a chessboard to determine the final amount. Starting with one grain, the amount of rice is to be doubled for each square. One grain on the first square looks pathetic. But halfway through the chessboard, the servant is making a good yearly living. And after doubling the rice sixty-four times, the servant is owed more rice than the whole world can produce.

Improving our ability to think exponentially helps us understand how more testing can lead to both an exponential decrease in testing prices and an exponential increase in the production of those tests. It also makes clear just how far-reaching the impact of our actions can be if we don’t take precautions with the assumption that we could be infected.

Probabilistic thinking is also invaluable in helping us make decisions based on the incomplete information we have. In the absence of enough testing, for example, we need to use probabilistic thinking to make decisions on what actions to pursue. We ask ourselves questions like: Do I have COVID-19? If there’s a 1% chance I have it, is it worth visiting my grandparents?

Being able to evaluate reasonable probability has huge impacts on how we approach physical distancing. Combining the models of probabilistic thinking and map is not the territory suggests our actions need to be guided by infection numbers much higher than the ones we have. We are likely to make significantly different social decisions if we estimate the probability of infection as being three people out of ten instead of one person out of one thousand.

Bayesian updating can also help clarify the physical distancing actions you should take. There’s a small probability of being part of a horrendous chain of events that might not just have poor direct consequences but also follow you for the rest of your life. Evaluating how responsible you are being in terms of limiting transmission, would you bet a loved one’s life on it?

Which leads us to Hanlon’s Razor. It’s hard not to get angry at reports of beach parties during spring break or at the guy four doors down who has his friends over to hang out every night. For your own sanity, try using Hanlon’s Razor to evaluate their behavior. They are not being malicious and trying to kill people. They are just exceptionally and tragically ignorant.

Finally, on a day-to-day basis, trying to make small decisions with incomplete information, you can use inversion. You can look at the problem backwards. When the best way forward is far from clear, you ask yourself what you could do to make things worse, and then avoid doing those things.

Models for society

Applying mental models aids in the understanding the dynamics of the large-scale social response.

Currently we are seeing the counterintuitive measures with first-order negatives (closing businesses) but second- and third-order positives (reduced transmission, less stress on the healthcare system). Second-order thinking is an invaluable tool at all times, including during a pandemic. It’s so important that we encourage the thinking, analysis, and decision-making that factors in the effects of the effects of the decisions we make.

In order to improve the maps that our leaders have to make decisions, we need to sort through the feedback loops providing the content. If we can improve not only the feedback but also the pace of iterations, we have a better chance of making good decisions.

For example, if we improve the rate of testing and the speed of the results, it would be a major game-changer. Imagine if knowing whether you had the virus or not was a $0.01 test that gave you a result in less than a minute. In that case, we could make different decisions about social openness, even in the absence of a vaccine (however, this may have invasive privacy implications, as tracking this would be quite difficult otherwise).

As we watch the pandemic and its consequences unfold, it becomes clear that leadership and authority are not the same thing. Our hierarchical instincts emerge strongly in times of crisis. Leadership vacuums, then, are devastating, and disasters expose the cracks in our hierarchies. However, we also see that people can display strong leadership without needing any authority. A pandemic provides opportunities for such leadership to emerge at community and local levels, providing alternate pathways for meeting the needs of many.

One critical model we can use to look at society during a pandemic is Ecosystems. When we think about ecosystems, we might imagine a variety of organisms interacting in a forest or the ocean. But our cities are also ecosystems, as is the earth as a whole. Understanding system dynamics can give us a lot of insight into what is happening in our societies, both at the micro and macro level.

One property of ecosystems that is useful to contemplate in situations like a pandemic is resilience—the speed at which an ecosystem recovers after a disturbance. There are many factors that contribute to resilience, such as diversity and adaptability. Looking at our global situation, one factor threatening to undermine our collective resilience is that our economy has rewarded razor-thin efficiency in the recent past. The problem with thin margins is they offer no buffer in the face of disruption. Therefore, ecosystems with thin margins are not at all resilient. Small disturbances can bring them down completely. And a pandemic is not a small disturbance.

Some argue that what we are facing now is a Black Swan: an unpredictable event beyond normal expectations with severe consequences. Most businesses are not ready to face one. You could argue that an economic recession is not a black swan, but the particular shape of this pandemic is testing the resiliency of our social and economic ecosystems regardless. The closing of shops and business, causing huge disruption, has exposed fragile supply chains. We just don’t see these types of events often enough, even if we know they’re theoretically possible. So we don’t prepare for them. We don’t or can’t create big enough personal and social margins of safety. Individuals and businesses don’t have enough money in the bank. We don’t have enough medical facilities and supplies. Instead, we have optimized for a narrow range of possibilities, compromising the resilience of systems we rely on.

Finally, as we look at the role national borders are playing during this pandemic, we can use the Thermodynamics model to gain insight into how to manage flows of people during and after restrictions. Insulation requires a lot of work, as we are seeing with our borders and the subsequent effect on our economies. It’s unsustainable for long periods of time. Just like how two objects of different temperatures that come into contact with each other eventually reach thermal equilibrium, people will mix with each other. All borders have openings of some sort. It’s important to extend planning to incorporate the realistic tendencies of reintegration.

Some final thoughts about the future

As we look for opportunities about how to move forward both as individuals and societies, Cooperation provides a useful lens. Possibly more critical to evolution than competition, cooperation is a powerful force. It’s rampant throughout the biological world; even bacteria cooperate. As a species, we have been cooperating with each other for a long time. All of us have given up some independence for access to resources provided by others.

Pandemics are intensified because of connection. But we can use that same connectivity to mitigate some negative effects by leveraging our community networks to create cooperative interactions that fill gaps in the government response. We can also use the cooperation lens to create more resilient connections in the future.

Finally, we need to ask ourselves how we can improve our antifragility. How can we get to a place where we grow stronger through change and challenge? It’s not about getting “back to normal.” The normal that was our world in 2019 has proven to be fragile. We shouldn’t want to get back to a time when we were unprepared and vulnerable.

Existential threats are a reality of life on earth. One of the best lessons we can learn is to open our eyes and integrate planning for massive change into how we approach our lives. This will not be the last pandemic, no matter how careful we are. The goal now should not be about assigning blame or succumbing to hindsight bias to try to implement rules designed to prevent a similar situation in the future. We will be better off if we make changes aimed at increasing our resilience and embracing the benefits of challenge.

https://fs.blog/2020/05/pandemic/