tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post7162921442944365667..comments2024-03-13T04:57:22.459-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: Is the Xerox Corporation supervenient?Dan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-90302172770750969452019-03-04T10:48:42.176-05:002019-03-04T10:48:42.176-05:00You mentioned Silicon and it brought to mind the ...You mentioned Silicon and it brought to mind the changes that can be had by small changes in dopants added to it. Same might be said of organizations where the addition of just one individual can change the direction of the organization. From the outside the organization looks the same as before but is on a very different path. Xerox had the inventor of the internet at PARK but other individuals up the chain could not capitalize on his work. Maybe all is really random.dilbert dogberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09637308390558302302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-33058490824028832022019-02-20T14:05:33.238-05:002019-02-20T14:05:33.238-05:00Dear Professor Little,
I read this post carefully...Dear Professor Little,<br /><br />I read this post carefully a couple of times without gaining any sense of what it is about. Could you write an abstract that might help me understand the post?<br /><br />LTRAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-14270315673243207252019-02-19T22:26:15.861-05:002019-02-19T22:26:15.861-05:00Well, I tried, this with a Harvard doctorate... I...Well, I tried, this with a Harvard doctorate... I am lost and disappointed, and annoyed because the writer should have an obligation to be readily comprehensible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-37426379152564712002019-02-19T19:55:00.063-05:002019-02-19T19:55:00.063-05:00Good grief, I think I would like to understand thi...Good grief, I think I would like to understand this essay and I am capable of doing so but the writing strikes me as absurd. I will try the essay when I have the time and inclination to translate this to, well, English, but this sort of writing of needless beyond trying to impress journal reviewers.<br /><br />I do not mean to be at all rude, but I really am an adept, schooled reader and this is written so as not to be read but more than say 5 people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-47275423495129722852019-02-19T08:19:43.401-05:002019-02-19T08:19:43.401-05:00Augustus Caesar in his Res Gestae states that in t...Augustus Caesar in his Res Gestae states that in the period between the founding of Rome (canonical date, 753) and his accession to power (31), the Gates of War were closed only twice. Rome and its allies were fighting a war or wars somewhere almost every year for seven centuries. Any list of vanquished foes during that time is simply mind-boggling. The unchecked spread of Roman power and control from a spot on the Tiber River to the empire's full extent is mind-boggling. <br /><br />Was the "worldwide" empire established and maintained by the ancient Romans supervenient? An explanation that points to the properties and relations of individual Romans, together with non-Romans who were nonetheless agents within and dependent upon that empire, strains credulity. I mean that speaking loosely, not as a philosopher of anything, an average person might express scepticism that a tiny eight-century settlement on the Palatine Hill could eventually become the sprawling Roman Empire via anything other than, well, supernatural intervention. Which, of course, was the go-to explanation for the Romans themselves. Rome's glory and power were ordained by cosmic fate and consistent with the will of the gods. <br /><br />What I take from your post, to the extent that I understand your argument (again, not a philosopher or a social scientist), is a way of understanding that when the poet Virgil took up a question implicit in your analysis, he answered it by saying, in essence, "Yes, there is a kind of supervenience at work here. Rome supervenes upon the character and behavior of individuals and the groups to which these individuals belong. And inasmuch as this is so, because Rome will be Rome come hell or high water, there must be a process or system by which individual deviation from the necessary character and behavior are corrected." Accordingly, what we read in Virgil's epic poem is a description of what the original (proto-)Roman undergoes to be brought by degrees into that necessary and proper condition. What he undergoes is dark, it's ugly, it's heartbreaking. So: sad but necessary, or an outrage against our very humanity? Every reader decides for him- or herself, and that's what makes it art, I suppose. <br /><br />Thanks for your posts. Glad to have stumbled onto your blog.Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15416995733819316438noreply@blogger.com