diff --git a/_index.db b/_index.db index cffbde96c..052dabccd 100644 Binary files a/_index.db and b/_index.db differ diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Schulman_book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Schulman_book)-0.md index dce37fa3e..1f10e1093 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Schulman_book)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Schulman_book)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Briefer_History_of_Time_(Schulman_book)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:17:11.836229+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:23.032213+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-0.md index bdd53f97f..fead2ceaa 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:37.887411+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:48.703831+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-1.md index 806e3afd0..79cf57ee9 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:37.887411+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:48.703831+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-2.md index eeab3198b..91f8b567d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:37.887411+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:48.703831+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-3.md index f956dcc7c..db9a1652b 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:36:37.887411+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:48.703831+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(book)-0.md index 2f5e7e3cf..31b694bfd 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(book)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(book)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(book)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:51:03.150829+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:06.308265+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam's_Curse-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam's_Curse-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..253b90e5d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam's_Curse-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Adam's Curse" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam's_Curse" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:07.473261+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men (also known as Adam's Curse: A Story of Sex, Genetics, and the Extinction of Men) is a 2003 book by Oxford University human genetics professor Bryan Sykes expounding his hypothesis that with the declining sperm count in men and the continual atrophy of the Y chromosome, within approximately 125,000 years men shall become extinct. +Sykes thinks one of the options for humanity's survival is unisex reproduction by females: female eggs fertilised by the nuclear X chromosomes of another female and implanted using in vitro fertilisation methods. He also introduces the possibility of moving the SRY and associated genes responsible for maleness and male fertility to another chromosome, which he refers to as "the Adonis chromosome", engendering fertile males with an XX karyotype. + + +== Reception == +BBC News reported in 2012 that a US study in Nature suggests the genetic decay has all but ended and that "The conclusion from these comparative studies is that genetic decay has in recent history been minimal, with the human chromosome having lost no further genes in the last six million years, and only one in the last 25 million years." +In a review for the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Kevin Jon Williams wrote that the book "desperately needs an editor’s scalpel — plus a dose of common sense." + + +== Publication history == +Sykes, Bryan (2003), Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men, Bantam, ISBN 0-593-05004-5 +Sykes, Bryan (2004), Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-05896-4 + + +== See also == +Sex-determination system +Y-chromosomal Adam + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Review of Adam's Curse from The Daily Telegraph +Review of Adam's Curse in The Journal of Clinical Investigation \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_a_Dimension-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_a_Dimension-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e08590005 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_a_Dimension-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Adding a Dimension" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_a_Dimension" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:08.669199+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Adding a Dimension is a collection of seventeen scientific essays by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. It was the third of a series of books collecting essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1964. + + +== Contents == +Part I: Mathematics +T-Formation (August 1963) +One, Ten, Buckle My Shoe (December 1962) +Varieties of the Infinite (September 1959) +A Piece of Pi (May 1960) +Tools of the Trade (September 1960) +The Imaginary that Isn't (March 1961) +Pre-Fixing It Up (November 1962) +Part II: Physics +The Rigid Vacuum (April 1963) +The Light that Failed (June 1963) +The Light Fantastic (August 1962) +Part III: Chemistry +Slow Burn (October 1962) +You, Too, Can Speak Gaelic (March 1963) +Part IV: Biology +The Lost Generation (February 1963) +He's Not My Type (January 1963) +Part V: Astronomy +The Shape of Things (September 1962) +Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (October 1963) +Part VI: General +The Isaac Winners (July 1963) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Asimovonline.com +Adding a Dimension at The Thunder Childv +Adding a Dimension title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Survey-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Survey-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cf53d4e89 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Survey-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "African Survey" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Survey" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:12.989787+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +An African Survey: A Study of Problems arising in Africa South of the Sahara, often simply known as African Survey, was a report originally published in 1938 under the auspices of The Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) which paved the way for the reorganisation of research into the situation of the British Empire in Sub-Saharan Africa through the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1940. The report was published by Oxford University Press and ran to 1,837 pages. It was subsequently republished in several revised editions. + + +== Origins == +The publication's origins arose out of a proposal by Jan Smuts in 1929 when he delivered the Rhodes Memorial Lecture at Oxford University. +The missionary Joseph Oldham played a key role in getting the survey under way. John Cell has argued that reference to Jan Smuts in Lord Lothian's foreword to the work should not be given much weight. Smuts had advocated White settlement throughout the highlands of East Africa, with a view of creating a similar dominion to South Africa. This proposal, centred on Oxford University, lost out to other viewpoints. In 1931 Oldham got an agreement for the survey to be funded from the Carnegie Foundation, however a suitable director would have to be found. Three people declined the role, William Marris, George Schuster and Whitney Shephardson before the two year search was over. Lionel Curtis, a friend of Lord Hailey sounded him out and he was soon seen as an ideal candidate for the role. Hailey formally accepted the role in July 1933 + + +== The production of the survey == +As director for the Survey, Hailey became recognised as a leading voice calling for colonial reform in the 1940s. Hailey had retired from a career in British India and whilst it was officially claimed he would bring "fresh eyes" to Britain's African territories, it has also been suggested that there was a hope that a similar method of controlling separate African territories could be established as had been done in India. He was aided by Lucy Mair and Audrey Richards, both anthropology students of Bronisław Malinowski, who were seconded to the Colonial Office; E. B. Worthington, a Cambridge biologist who assisted with a scientific survey; and Hilda Matheson, who was hired as a secretary to the project, but ended up serving more as an executive manager of the endeavor. +Hailey was ill from 1937-8, and much of the work was taken up by Frederick Pedler who took over editorial responsibility during this period. +One of the key points made by the report was that rather than have research develop as a piece-meal response to specific problems, it should be integrated into an overall plan with suitable funding from the treasury. +The report became a regular item to be found on administrators’ desks across colonial British Africa. + + +== Contents == +The survey indicted the colonial systems and advocated for reform, particularly economic ones focussed on development. It also called for a review of the "indirect rule" system, prevalent throughout Britain's colonies. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos-0.md index ca3981a5b..3706fb94c 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid_on_the_Edge_of_Chaos" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:16:40.174492+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:11.045498+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Cybernetics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Cybernetics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..126d538df --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Cybernetics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "An Introduction to Cybernetics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Cybernetics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:46.235790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +An Introduction to Cybernetics is a book by W. Ross Ashby, first published in 1956 in London by Chapman and Hall. An Introduction is considered the first textbook on cybernetics, where the basic principles of the new field were first rigorously laid out. It was intended to serve as an elementary introduction to cybernetic principles of homeostasis, primarily for an audience of physiologists, psychologists, and sociologists. Ashby addressed adjacent topics in addition to cybernetics such as information theory, communications theory, control theory, game theory and systems theory. +A second English edition was published in 1964 by Methuen & Co. with no changes to the original text, alongside the original preface. +An Introduction was translated into many languages. Editions were published in Russian and French in 1957, Spanish in 1958, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian in 1959, German in 1965, and Bulgarian and Italian in 1966. + + +== Reception == +Reviews of An Introduction to Cybernetics were mostly positive, alongside some mixed opinions. Positive reviews highlighted Ashby's clear explanations of complex concepts, as well as his inclusion of examples and exercises. Detractors were critical of Ashby's marked new vocabulary, replacing the usual terminology even when unnecessary ("components with independence" in lieu of "degrees of freedom", "decaying variety" as compared to "entropy", "transmission of variety" versus "transmission of information" etc). Additionally, some took issue with the philosophical nature of Ashby's claims in a largely mathematically rigorous text. + + +== Table of contents == + + +=== Part one: Mechanism === +In this section, Ashby lays out a terminological grounding for his later discussions of variety and regulation. He begins with a discussion of the analysis of systems in discrete states, and how they may change and become different. Along with a set of terms to be used, Ashby introduces the mathematical notation that he will use for the rest of the book. + + +=== Part two: Variety === +This part of the book introduces ideas of information and communication. Ashby discusses his concept of "variety", which he defines roughly as a set of possible states that a system may take. + + +=== Part three: Regulation and Control === +Part Three deals with what Ashby notes is the "central theme" of cybernetics. It relates Ashby's concept of variety with regulation and control. Finally, it contains an explanation of Ashby's well known Law of Requisite Variety. + + +== Key ideas == + + +=== New terms === +This work introduces a new set of terms for discussing properties of systems, both biological and mechanical. Donald M. MacKay, a pioneer of information theory and cybernetics himself, writes in a review in a 1957 issue of Nature: Ashby's treatment of the 'decay of variety' in a determinate system is particularly illuminating, and his discussions of the concepts of 'system', 'model', 'black box' and the like are excellent in the clarity with which they distinguish his usage from other people's.In An Introduction, Ashby ties these terms together as a new vocabulary for cybernetics, and formally defines them. + + +=== Law of requisite variety === +One of Ashby's most important ideas in An Introduction was his "Law of Requisite Variety", also known "Ashby's Law" and "the adequacy principle." It serves as an important connection between the ideas that Ashby sets forth in this work and the information theory of Claude Shannon. The law, as it is usually stated, is "Only variety destroys variety." Pickering explains that the law holds that a regulator must be able to at least represent that which it regulates, writing: A regulator is a blocker—it stops some environmental disturbance from having its full impact on some essential variable, say, as in the case of the Homeostat. And then it stands to reason that to be an effective blocker one must have at least as much flexibility as that which is to be blocked. If the environment can take on twenty five states, the regulator had better be able to take on at least twenty five as well—otherwise, one of the environment’s dodges and feints will get straight past the regulator and upset the essential variable. + + +== Influence == +This work is best known for pulling together related fields in information theory and relating them to the (as of then) mostly theoretical field, and providing biological applications of general theories of systems. An Introduction is widely seen as a classic, influential text in the field of cybernetics, going beyond the work already done by Norbert Wiener in laying out a basic mathematical theory. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Former_World-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Former_World-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..62a6055c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Former_World-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Annals of the Former World" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Former_World" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:12.236712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Annals of the Former World is a book on geology written by John McPhee and published in 1998 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. +The book presents a geological history of North America, and was researched and written over the course of two decades beginning in 1978. It consists of a compilation of five books, the first four of which were previously published as Basin and Range (1981), In Suspect Terrain (1983), Rising from the Plains (1986), and Assembling California (1993), plus a final book, Crossing the Craton. A narrative table of contents provides an overview of the project, which largely consisted of a series of road journeys by McPhee across the North American continent in the company of noted geologists. +In 2023, the composers and artists John P. Hastings and Benjamin Mayock completed a visual and audio translation of the book entitled The Former World. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Annals of the Former World at Open Library +Archived copy of Annals of the Former World, formerly on John McPhee's website +New York Times Book Review, July 5, 1998 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51 b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51 new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_AI-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_AI-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1984f893d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_AI-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Atlas of AI" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_AI" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:36.900389+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence is a book by Australian academic Kate Crawford. It is based on Crawford's research into the development and labor behind artificial intelligence, as well as AI's impact on the world. + + +== Overview == +The book is mainly concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence. +Chapters 1 and 2 criticise Big Tech in general for exploitation of Earth's resources, such as in the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, and human labor, such as in Amazon warehouses and the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Crawford also compares "TrueTime" in Google's Spanner with historical efforts to control time associated with colonialism. +In Chapters 3 and 4, attention is drawn to the practice of building datasets without consent, and of training on incorrect or biased data, with particular focus on ImageNet and on a failed Amazon project to classify job applicants. +Chapter 5 criticises affective computing for employing training sets which, although natural, were labelled by people who had been grounded in controversial emotional expression research by Paul Ekman, in particular his Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which had been based on posed images; it is implied that Affectiva's approach would not sufficiently attenuate the problems of FACS, and attention is drawn to potential inaccurate use of this technology in job interviews without addressing claims that human bias is worse. +In Chapter 6, Crawford gives an overview of the secret services' surveillance software as revealed in the leaks of Edward Snowden, with a brief comparison to Cambridge Analytica and the military use of metadata, and recounts Google employees' objections to their unwitting involvement in Project Maven (giving their image recognition a military use) before this was moved to Palantir. +Chapter 7 criticises the common perception of AlphaGo as an otherworldly intelligence instead of a natural product of massive brute-force calculation at environmental cost, and Chapter 8 discusses tech billionaires' fantasies of developing private spaceflight to escape resource depletion on Earth. + + +== Reception == +The book received positive reviews from critics, who singled out its exploration of issues like exploitation of labour and the environment, algorithmic bias, and false claims about AI's ability to recognize human emotion. +The book was considered a seminal work by Anais Resseguier of Ethics and AI. It was included on the year end booklists of Financial Times, and New Scientist, and the 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles booklist. +Data scientist and MIT Technology Review editor Karen Hao praised the book's description of the ethical concerns regarding the labor and history behind artificial intelligence. +Sue Halpern of The New York Review commented that she felt the book shined a light on "dehumanizing extractive practices", a sentiment which was echoed by Michael Spezio of Science. Virginia Dignum of Nature positively compared the book's exploration of artificial intelligence to The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis_and_Cognition b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis_and_Cognition new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Science-0.md index 39fafbda3..97312211e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Science-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Science-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:17:02.120509+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:17.077756+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binas_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binas_(book)-0.md index e4385ab75..779372d1c 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binas_(book)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binas_(book)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binas_(book)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:17:07.119306+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:20.616565+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Awakening_in_Capitalist_America-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Awakening_in_Capitalist_America-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5816f451b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Awakening_in_Capitalist_America-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Black Awakening in Capitalist America" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Awakening_in_Capitalist_America" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:15.360995+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Black Awakening in Capitalist America is a 1969 social sciences and history book by American scholar Robert L. Allen that analyzes the experience of Black residents of the United States as that of a colonized nation within a nation. Allen primarily analyzes Black organizing in the 1960s and often draws from the work of Frantz Fanon. + + +== Summary == +Allen focuses on Black activism in the United States following the Civil Rights Movement and details how corporate interests and White-led power structures co-opted and de-radicalized Black Power and Black nationalism. Allen cites the Ford Foundation funding of the Congress of Racial Equality as an example of how Black-led movements are influenced to align with the interest of more mainstream organizations. Allen further explores this idea through the response to the 1967 Newark riots and critiques Black leaders who focused on electoral representation instead of systemic change for communities. As part of his analysis of potential avenues for change he also stridently critiques Black capitalism as a method for social change. N. D. B. Connolly, an American historian and professor writes: For Allen, the most unjust characteristics of the country's economy—chronic African American underemployment, housing segregation, police brutality, the expansion of corporate power, and the gaping and growing chasm between the wealthy and everyone else—existed for two reasons: (1) the crushing power of white capital and (2) the willingness of black chiefs to broker land and influence with whites as part of the more general workings of capitalism. + + +== Legacy == +Black Awakening has been described as "seminal" and "groundbreaking" in the field of Internal Colonialism Theory, and as "the most incisive application of Internal Colonialism Theory to African America." It has also been described as "important" for its examination of Black capitalism. Despite being well-received at its original publication, Allen's work grew neglected as Internal Colonialism Theory lost prominence after the 1970s. +In 2009, an academic conference was held in Berkeley, California to commemorate the forty-year legacy of the book. Allen's work was described as "an often neglected, yet unfortunately all-too timely, work in addressing twenty-first century concerns." +Incite! includes an excerpt of Black Awakening in Capitalist America as a chapter in The Revolution Will Not be Funded (2017). + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Holes,_Wormholes_and_Time_Machines-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Holes,_Wormholes_and_Time_Machines-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c04562a25 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Holes,_Wormholes_and_Time_Machines-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Holes,_Wormholes_and_Time_Machines" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:21.780263+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines is a book by physicist Jim Al-Khalili, published in 1999. Al-Khalili talks about a range of modern science topics, from geometry to the theory of relativity. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Dynamics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Dynamics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0e08813d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Dynamics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Business Dynamics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Dynamics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:39.206515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Business Dynamics is a book by John Sterman that applies system dynamics to business. +The book introduces systems dynamics modeling for the analysis of policy and strategy, with an emphasis on business and public policy applications. System dynamics is both a conceptual tool and a powerful modeling method. This allows the building of computer simulations of complex systems. These simulations can then be used to test the effectiveness of different policies on business outcomes. + + +== References == +Sterman, John D. (2000). Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-231135-5. +Book website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Recovering_Environmentalist-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Recovering_Environmentalist-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e026dbc82 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Recovering_Environmentalist-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Recovering_Environmentalist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:30.223326+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist is a collection of essays by Paul Kingsnorth published in 2017. + + +== Synopsis == +Much of the book recounts Kingsnorth's personal history with the environmental movement and with nature. He starts the book with a description of his upbringing, his engagement with the Dongas road protest group, and with his engagement with environmentalism and journalism through his twenties. Kingsnorth then describes how he pivoted into a cynicism with mainstream environmentalism, a cynicism centered on what Kingsnorth feels is a "single-minded obsession with climate change" that "has trumped all other issues," resulting in "a curious, plastic world." He highlights some of the ways that this has occurred in England. Kingsnorth finished his book with a chapter titled The Eight Principles of Uncivilisation, which he presents as his manifesto in how to re-evaluate myths of progress and human centrality. + + +== Reception == +In his review for The Guardian, Ian Jack argues that, while Kingsnorth's depiction of environmentalism seems reductionist and unfair, the author "writes insightfully about England - presciently, too." Jack describes the book as "Kingsnorth at his plainest and most provocative," noting that the tone of the book differs significantly from that of Kingsnorth's "romantic" work Uncivilization. Describing the work overall, Jack says, "Hope finds very little room in this enjoyable, sometimes annoying and mystical collection of essays." +Writing for Minnesota's Star Tribune, Scott Parker describes the perspective in Confessions as "refreshing in both a literary respect and an environmental one.... so radical that, if put into practice, it could effect meaningful preservation." However, when it comes to putting it into practice, Parker finds Kingsnorth's approach "somewhat disappointing... when Kingsnorth adopts the rhetorical cautiousness so common to contemporary environmental writing" when he upholds his ideas as an individual matter, not to be thrust upon readers or society at large. Though Parker finds Kingsnorth's worldview "much-needed," he finds his muted call for change useful in explaining "why Kingsnorth's critics call him a defeatist." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructing_Post-Colonial_India-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructing_Post-Colonial_India-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..87b2266df --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructing_Post-Colonial_India-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Constructing Post-Colonial India" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructing_Post-Colonial_India" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:16.531482+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School is a 1998 book by Indian sociologist Sanjay Srivastava that surveys post-colonial Indian identity with a focus on The Doon School, an elite all-boys boarding school founded in 1935 in Dehradun, India. From 1989 through 1993, Srivastava conducted field research at the school, and he interviewed parents and teachers as well as the school's graduates. The book's main argument is that to be post-colonial in India necessitates the espousal of values such as secularism, rationalism, and a modernity that is not Occidental-inspired, but is contextual to the country. + + +== See also == +Colonial India +Postcolonialism + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official page - Routledge UK \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_the_Eons-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_the_Eons-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..256ac938b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_the_Eons-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Counting the Eons" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_the_Eons" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:31.404115+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Counting the Eons is a collection of seventeen nonfiction science essays written by Isaac Asimov. It was the sixteenth of a series of books collecting essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, these being first published between August 1980 and December 1981. It was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1983. + + +== Contents == +The Earth +Light as Air? (March 1981) +Too Deep for Me (April 1981) +Under Pressure (May 1981) +The Word I Invented (October 1980) +Yes! With a Bang! (June 1981) +Let Me Count the Days (October 1981) +Counting the Eons (November 1980) +The Stars +The Runaway Star (July 1981) +The Dance of the Stars (August 1981) +The Universe +Getting Down to Basics (September 1980) +And After Many a Summer Dies the Proton (September 1981) +Let Einstein Be! (December 1981) +Beyond Earth's Eons (December 1980) +The Crucial Asymmetry (November 1981) +All and Nothing (January 1981) +Nothing and All (February 1981) +Literature + Milton! Thou Shouldst Be Living at This Hour (August 1980) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Asimovonline.com \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Rationalism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Rationalism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a76e1053e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Rationalism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Critical Rationalism" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Rationalism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:32.584283+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Critical Rationalism: A Restatement and Defence (1994) is a book on the philosophy of science by the philosopher David Miller. Book reviews include those of John Watkins in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science and Michael Redhead in Analytic Philosophy. The book seeks to restate and extend the epistemology of Karl Popper, whose general philosophy has been termed 'critical rationalism'. +The book criticizes the use of "good reasons" in general (including evidence supposed to support the excess content of a hypothesis). He argues that good reasons are neither attainable, nor even desirable. Basically, the case, which Miller calls "tediously familiar", is that all arguments purporting to give valid support for a claim are either circular or question-begging. That is, if one provides a valid deductive argument (an inference from premises to a conclusion) for a given claim, then the content of the claim must already be contained within the premises of the argument (if it is not, then the argument is ampliative and so is invalid). Therefore, the claim is already presupposed by the premises, and is no more "supported" than are the assumptions upon which the claim rests, i.e. begging the question. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwiniana-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwiniana-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..095c27930 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwiniana-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Darwiniana" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwiniana" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:34.974242+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism is a collection of essays by botanist Asa Gray, first published in 1876. These widely read essays both defended the theory of evolution from the standpoint of botany and sought reconciliation with theology by arguing theistic evolution — that natural selection is not inconsistent with Christianity. Gray considered natural selection to be the cause of new species, which was itself caused by some inherent power imparted in the beginning by Godhead. + + +== Notes == + + +== References == +Gray, Asa (1876). Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton and Company (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; and by Biodiversity Heritage Library). doi:10.5962/bhl.title.19483. ISBN 978-1-108-00196-0. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) +Gray, Asa (1888), Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism, New York: D. Appleton and Company, retrieved 2008-02-17 +Zirkle, Conway (8 May 1964). Review: "Darwiniana", Science, Vol. 144, Issue 3619, pp. 724–725. + + +== External sources == +Asa Gray (1876). Darwiniana; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism +Miles, Sara Joan (2001), "Charles Darwin and Asa Gray Discuss Teleology and Design", Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, vol. 53, pp. 196–201, retrieved 2009-02-09 +Darwin and design: historical essay. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Fossilium-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Fossilium-0.md index 9a08548cd..ebd4431ee 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Fossilium-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Fossilium-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Fossilium" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:29:49.241517+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:36.218687+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..66c8120ee --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:58.497641+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins - Ein Beitrag zur Lehre vom Transitorischen Irresein in klinisch-forensischer Hinsicht für Aerzte, Richter, Staatsanwälte und Vertheidiger (English: Transitory Disorders of Consciousness) is an 1868 book by the Austro-German psychiatrist and author Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902). The book comprises seven chapters, each dealing with a different kind of transient disturbance of consciousness, and it is meant to be a handbook for physicians, judges, prosecutors and defenders. At the beginning of each chapter, Krafft-Ebing introduces the general theme and discusses its relevance in a clinical-forensic context. He then precedes with the illustration of several case histories for each subsection. The book was reprinted and published by Hansebooks in January 2017. + +== Context == +At the end of the 19th century, medicine and psychiatry was largely influenced by Bénédict Morel's degeneration theory. Degeneration was seen as weakening of higher brain regions that would allow more primitive and uncontrollable behavior to emerge. Proponents of this world view were convinced that a process of devolution was taking place in society and that the causes of this decline were rooted within biological causes. Inspired by evolutionary theories of Darwin and Lamarck, European degenerationists increasingly believed that mental disorders were disorders of heredity and therefore biologically determined. According to Morel, degeneration could be caused by several factors, including intoxication, social environment or mental illness. Although Krafft-Ebing himself was said to be a liberal and progressive psychiatrist, in many respects he was still a child of his time. He was a loyal supporter of Morel's ideology and advocated the idea that modern civilization posed enormous demands on the nervous system causing impulsive malfunctions. In 1879, he published his "Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie" (English: "Textbook of Insanity"), which would soon become the German bible of degeneration theory. He believed that alcohol abuse or immorality would cause lack of voluntary control in higher order brain functions which would consequently lead to so called moral insanity. With beginning of the 20th century and the end of the victorian era, degeneration theory began to lose its popularity and slowly paved the way for a multi-causal framework of mental illnesses. + +== Content == +The book comprises seven chapters, each devoted to a different altered state of consciousness and its sub-categories. At the beginning of each chapter, Krafft-Ebing defines each of those states and evaluates how they are related to each other. To underline his conclusions regarding the clinical-forensic context, he presents several case histories that he calls "Beobachtungen" (English: Observations) at the end of each chapter. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6fdb19939 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:58.497641+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +I. Dream States: Krafft-Ebing sees dream states as the most frequent and well-known altered states of consciousness. During sleep, mental functions that are linked to our self-consciousness, like attention or conscious thought, are reduced or completely shut down while sensory input is blocked and motor commands are inhibited. At the same time, certain emotions lead to the production of sensory images that are experienced and perceived in this ASC. Somnolence, or drowsiness, refers to the state between sleep and wakefulness which is marked by reduced self-consciousness and apperceptive activity. Somnambulism, or sleepwalking, describes a state of low self-consciousness that is accompanied by the phenomenon of motor behavior in form of walking or talking during sleep. Due to the uninhibited triggering of motor movement outside of consciousness, actions performed in a somnambulate state are difficult to evaluate in terms of accountability for a crime and people may not be held responsible for their actions. +II. States of Intoxication: Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state induced by the depressant ethanol (alcohol) that reduces arousal and stimulation in several areas of the brain. Krafft-Ebing describes that the legislator saw such a drug-induced state as self-inflicted and therefore, any unlawful action committed during intoxication should be seen as punishable. In contrast, physicians equated alcohol-induced states with those of mentally ill individuals (for example psychosis), and according to them, unlawful acts should be evaluated in the same light as mental disorders. +III. Acute Delirium in States of Fever: An increased body temperature can alter brain functioning that may lead to temporary ASCs expressing themselves in a delirium or hallucinations. Affected individuals experience a state of emotionally frightening illusions that lead to acute states of anxiety and restlessness. Such a delirium is not insignificant in a forensic context, since there have been several cases reported in which feverish and delusional individuals committed a crime. +IV. The Big Neuroses: Mania epileptica comprises several mental states of epileptics that cannot simply be described by mania. Such states often resemble those of manic patients, but can also be characterized by melancholia or depression, which often lead to suicide, homicide, arson or other types of unlawful actions. Likewise, Krafft-Ebing describes hysteria and dysthymia as two further states of altered consciousness, though different in nature. While hysteria is primarily marked by manic symptoms, dysthymic individuals are in a state of chronic depression. +V. Transient Psychoses: Mania transitoria describes insanity of very short duration which may resemble the mania epileptica. In contrast to dysthymia, mania transitoria is more prevalent in males than in females and its onset is more sudden. In no less than 20 minutes to 6 hours, the symptoms of mania transitoria may appear and alter the state of consciousness in a way that the individual fully loses the sense of self. Another transient psychosis is raptus melancholicus, a term that has rarely been used in scientific or clinical discussions to date. Krafft-Ebing describes this altered state of consciousness as a state of extreme anxiety accompanied by symptoms of depression. Because affected individuals experience an intense feeling of restlessness, they see committing a serious crime as their only way to get rid of this negative energy. Such crimes most often include murder, mutilation, vandalism or suicide. +VI. Pathological Affect of Sensory Confusion: Changes in physiological affect are a day-to-day phenomenon and according to Krafft-Ebing experienced by every individual. To a certain extent, these changes in effect are controllable and the administration of justice should consider whether a committed crime was evitable or not. Pathological affect is hard to distinguish from this physiological affect. Such mental state may become pathological due to lovesickness, jealousy or despair. In such cases, the judge alone cannot decide on the accountability for the crime and must consult a medical record of the accused. +VII. Transient Disturbances of Self-Consciousness in Parturients: During childbirth or in a short time frame after, a woman may find herself in an altered state of consciousness that may lead to infanticide. In such cases, medical jurisprudence is of great importance, since medical evidence is often the only option to trace back the happening. These altered states of consciousness may be elicited by a huge amount of blood loss, anxiety or despair. + +== Reception == +Richard von Krafft-Ebing had the reputation of being one of the leading psychiatrist of his day. He was the author several leading textbooks in psychiatry and was especially known for his foundational work on Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) that had a wide and non-professional readership. Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins is one of his less well known publications and did not get much public reaction in academia or press. In many instances, it is not even listed as one of his official publications. Nonetheless, in 2002 the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel elected Krafft-Ebing as "Entdecker des Dämmerzustands" (English: Discoverer of the Twilight-State), to which the work on Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins contributed the idea of altered states of consciousness. In 2016, Krafft-Ebings ideas on transitory disturbances of consciousness, especially epilepsy, were cited in an essay on "Transitorischer Wahnsinn" (English: Transitory Mania). Apart from that, most of the reviews on Krafft-Ebing's work concentrate on his publications on sexuality. That is because he soon shifted his attention from pre-dominantly lower socio-economic subjects of his asylum work to a different clientele. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..14d366386 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_transitorischen_Störungen_des_Selbstbewusstseins" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:58.497641+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Insanity defence in the 21st century == +Nowadays, criminal responsibility is usually presumed in cases of adult offenders. An indication for possible insanity defence can often only be given by a medical or psychiatric expert witness and is not solely based on the judgments of physicians, judges, prosecutors or defenders anymore. The evidence put forward by an expert witness is often a crucial judgment that leads to a well-informed and considered judgment. Further guidance is given by the German penal code (Strafgesetzbuch, StGB). According to §21, a mitigation of sentence can be considered when an offender lacks insight due to one of the reasons stated in §20. These include morbid mental disorders, like psychoses due to alcohol intoxication, or disorders of consciousness that can be due to fatigue, somnolence or parasomnia. In such cases, the offender cannot be held fully responsible for the criminal offense despite posing a possible threat to society. According to §63 and §64, the inculpable offender has to be accommodated in a psychiatric hospital (German: Maßregelvollzug) in which they are primarily treated as patients, not criminals. The main focus of therapy is "Besserung and Sicherung" (English: "Recovery and Safety") and in contrast to a prison sentence, the duration of stay is individually determined by improvement in mental stabilization and rehabilitation. The treatment usually extends over several years and the requirements of legal dismissal are high. Dismissal on probation is only feasible with a clear and favorable forecast by several forensic experts, including psychiatrists and physicians. + +== See also == +Consciousness +Altered state of consciousness +Insanity defence +Diminished responsibility + +== Literature == +Krafft-Ebing, Richard. Die transitorischen Störungen des Selbstbewusstseins: Ein Beitrag zur Lehre vom transitorischen Irresein in klinisch-forensischer Hinsicht, für Aerzte, Richter, Staatsanwälte und Vertheidiger. Erlangen: F. Enke. (1868). + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life_Support_Systems-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life_Support_Systems-0.md index f1bc225b3..a01c563d8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life_Support_Systems-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life_Support_Systems-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_Life_Support_Systems" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:38:57.240711+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:40.397733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_System_Theory b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_System_Theory new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_Man-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_Man-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fcc335627 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_Man-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +title: "Grammatical Man" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_Man" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:43.910553+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life is a 1982 book written by Jeremy Campbell, then Washington correspondent for the Evening Standard. The book examines the topics of probability, information theory, cybernetics, genetics, and linguistics. +Information processes are used to frame and examine all of existence, from the Big Bang to DNA to human communication to artificial intelligence. + + +== Part 1: Establishing the Theory of Information == +The book's first chapter, The Second Law and the Yellow Peril, introduces the concept of entropy and gives brief outlines of the histories of Information Theory and cybernetics, examining World War II figures such as Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener. +The Noise of Heat gives an outline of the history of thermodynamics, focusing on Rudolf Clausius's 2nd Law and its relation to order and information. +In The Demon Possessed Campbell examines the concept of entropy and presents entropy as missing information. +Chapter Four, A Nest of Subtleties and Traps, takes its name from a critique of one of the earliest theorems in probability theory, Law of large numbers (Bernoulli, 1713). The chapter outlines the history of probability, touching on characters such as Gerolamo Cardano, Antoine Gombaud, Bernoulli, Richard von Mises, and John Maynard Keynes. Campbell examines information and entropy as a probability distribution of possible messages and says that subjective versus objective interpretations of probability are made largely obsolete by an understanding of the relationship between probability and information. +Not Too Dull, Not Too Exciting addresses the problem of clarifying order from disorder within communication by highlighting the role that redundancy plays in information theory. +In the last chapter of Part 1, The Struggle Against Randomness, Campbell addresses the concepts published by Shannon in 1948—that a message can be sent from one place to another, even under noisy conditions, and be as free from error as the sender cares to make it, as long as it is coded in the proper form. + + +== Part 2: Nature as an Information Process == +Campbell uses Arrows in All Directions discusses the potential inverse relation between entropy and novelty, invoking such concepts as Laplace's Superman. Campbell quotes David Layzer: For Laplace's "intelligence," as for the God of Plato, Galileo and Einstein, the past and future coexist on equal terms, like the two rays into which an arbitrarily chosen point divides a straight line. If the theories I have presented are correct, however, not even the ultimate computer --the universe itself-- ever contains enough information to specify completely its own future states. The present moment always contains an element of genuine novelty and the future is never wholly predictable. Because biological processes also generate information and because consciousness enables us to experience those processes directly, the intuitive perception of the world as unfolding in time captures one of the most deepseated properties of the universe. +Chapter 8, Chemical Word and Chemical Deed, examines the processes of DNA as information processes. Campbell makes the distinction between first order DNA messages and second order, or structural, DNA messages (e.g., "how to bake a cake" versus "how to read a recipe"). This distinction he relates to the linguistic principles of Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar. +In Jumping the Complexity Barrier, Campbell discusses the concept of emergence and notes that Information Theory, thermodynamics, linguistics, and the theory of evolution make significant use of terms and phrases such as "complexity," "novelty," and "constraints on possibilities." Campbell writes: To understand complex systems, such as a large computer or a living organism, we cannot use ordinary, formal logic, which deals with events that definitely will happen or definitely will not happen. A probabilistic logic is needed, one that makes statements about how likely or unlikely it is that various events will happen. Campbell also discusses John von Neumann in relating information theory, evolution, and linguistics to machines. The chapter closes with an examination of emergent systems and their relation to Gödel incompleteness. +Something Rather Subtle + + +== Part 3: Coding Language, Coding Life == +Algorithms and Evolution +Partly Green Till the Day We Die +No Need for Ancient Astronauts +The Clear and the Noisy Messages of Language +A Mirror of the Mind + + +== Part 4: How the Brain Puts It All Together == +The Brain as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Other Fallacies +The Strategies of Seeing +The Bottom and Top of Memory +The Information of Dreams +The Left and Right of Knowing +The Second-Theorem Society + + +== See also == +The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood +Decoding the Universe +Systems theory + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Encyclopedia_of_Systems_and_Cybernetics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Encyclopedia_of_Systems_and_Cybernetics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5ccf36d70 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Encyclopedia_of_Systems_and_Cybernetics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Encyclopedia_of_Systems_and_Cybernetics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:45.101887+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The book International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics is an authoritative encyclopedia for systems theory, cybernetics, the complex systems science, which covers both theories and applications in areas as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences. This book first published in 1997 aimed to give an overview over more than 40 years developments in the field of Systems and Cybernetics. +This book offers a collection of more than 3000 keywords and articles of Systems and Cybernetics. Many items contain quotes from authors from the field. +The book is edited by Belgian systems scientist and diplomat Charles François with an Academic board including members such as John N. Warfield, Robert Trappl, Ranulph Glanville, G. A. Swanson, Nicholas Paritsis, Daniel Dubois, Heiner Benking, Francisco Parra Luna, Anthony Judge, Markus Schwaninger, Gerhard Chroust, G. A. Swanson, Matjaž Mulej and Stuart Umpleby. +The first edition was published in 1997 in one volume with 450 pages by publisher K.G. Saur in Munich. The second edition was published in 2004, in two volumes and 741 pages by the same publisher. This update consisted of 1700 articles, some of them with figures, tables and diagrams, and 1500 bibliographical references. The genesis of the Encyclopedia was published by Anthony Judge in the Wall Street Journal and as Festschrift in 2001: UIA - Saur Relations: Sharing a Documentary Pilgrimage. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics short intro. +Book review: International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, by: John P. van Gigch. +Some general references and terms in the 2nd edition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_Imperialism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_Imperialism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fa1b0546d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_Imperialism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Linguistic Imperialism" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_Imperialism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:21.247869+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Linguistic Imperialism is a book written by Robert Phillipson, research professor at Copenhagen Business School's Department of English, published in 1992 by Oxford University Press. +In Linguistic Imperialism, Phillipson argues that Western countries have used English as a tool of imperialism to dominate colonies and former colonies. He further explores the ideologies transmitted through the English language. +The book was followed by Linguistic Imperialism Continued, first published by Routledge in 2010. + + +== See also == +Cultural imperialism +English as a lingua franca +Hegemony +Linguistic imperialism + + +== References == + +Sources \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Jardim_das_Aflições-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Jardim_das_Aflições-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..057167a2f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Jardim_das_Aflições-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "O Jardim das Aflições" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Jardim_das_Aflições" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:27.128115+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +O Jardim das Aflições – De Epicuro à ressurreição de César: ensaio sobre o Materialismo e a Religião Civil (The Garden of Afflictions – From Epicurus to the Resurrection of Caesar: An Essay on Materialism and Civil Religion) is a book by Brazilian writer Olavo de Carvalho, published in 1995. +O Jardim das Aflições along with the other works, A Nova Era e a Revolução Cultural (1994) and O Imbecil Coletivo (1996), make up a trilogy of what the author considers "combat works." On Amazon.com, it is listed among the top 100 bestsellers in the Politics and Social Sciences category, being the second most commercially significant book by the author on the platform. +The book inspired a film of the same name, O Jardim das Aflições, released in 2017. + + +== Synopsis == +The book is an essay whose fundamental thesis is that the history of the West is marked by the idea of Empire. The expansion of the Empire's domains to the limits of the visible world is a permanent objective through successive attempts at restructuring, even under different guises. It is an original and disturbing book that, starting from the analysis of an apparently minor event, uses it as an occasion to show the connections between the small and the great, the everyday and the eternal, the mundane and the erudite, among other dichotomies, expanding in concentric circles to encompass, in a complex philosophy of history, the entire horizon of Western culture. + + +== Critical reception == + +The book's reading has been pointed out as challenging due to its winding language and dense text. Some critics considered the work to be a keen analysis of various movements that marked modernity and their reflections in today's world, in a text that provokes deeper reflection and observation of the reality of the contemporary world in the reader. While others considered the work a daring analysis of historical elements with a sensationalist appeal when invoking conspiracy theories. The book was included in the List of 100 books of the program "Expedições pelo mundo da cultura," by Prof. José Monir Nasser, ranked 12th, between The Red and the Black (Stendhal) and The Man without Qualities (Robert Musil), being one of the two Brazilian works listed (the other: Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis). +Bruno Tolentino, in his preface, considered the work a rigorous and intriguing investigation of afflictions. For him, "(...) Olavo de Carvalho once again tells us loudly and clearly: enough of napping in the shadow of utopia and mental lethargy, it is more than time to wake up and spit... and think! As for me, where I left a country, thirty years later I found a depressing coupling of pedantry and show business, the joyful feast at the funeral ends—once more!—with this admirable book, our frightening portrait, O Jardim das Aflições. Let the dead bury their dead: make way, reader...". The Rio de Janeiro poet, upon receiving a copy of O Jardim das Aflições, is also said to have mentioned that the book's structure reminded him of the symphonies of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Olavo stated that it was at Tolentino's insistence that he published the work in a larger print run by a professional publishing house, as at the time he only published his books for a small circle of students and friends. +Rodrigo Constantino disagreed with some points in the book, for example, he did not consider Epicurus' Garden to be the "Garden of Afflictions" and said he did not see any sense "(...) in the accusation that the Epicurean seeks the pleasures of the body in an uncontrolled manner". According to Joel Pinheiro da Fonseca, O jardim das aflições "(...) is a book without unity, which goes from a distressing attempt to refute Epicurus, denigrated as a "hypnotist" (an accusation that would make more sense if directed at Olavo himself) to the dangers of Neuro-linguistic Programming, a pseudoscience already discredited when the book was published. It also discusses Freemasonry, communism, esoteric currents, millenarianism. Supposedly, the central theme is the concept of empire in the West, but in practice, it is little more than the sensationalist application of conspiracy theories." Another disagreement is about the supposed refutation of Cantor's theorem that the philosopher made in the work, where critics considered it unsuccessful and pretentious, as the philosopher would not have understood the argument and even exceeded its scope. +Ronaldo Castro de Lima Junior emphasized that the book, "(...) despite its rich vocabulary, classical narrative, and ideas of almost vertiginous complexity, can be understood by those with relatively basic education. That is why it is a masterpiece." In a column in O Globo, Caetano Veloso made brief comments about O Jardim das Aflições, describing it as an "eloquent book against Epicurus" and writing that in it "Olavo disapproves of the pragmatists". Pedro Sette-Câmara, in Folha de S. Paulo, regarding the work: "I admired the attempt—especially because such undertakings are now ill-regarded—to encompass an object as vast as the history of the West. I admired the transition from journalistic style to philosophical argumentation, the variation between a humorous and mystical tone. It was what I expected, unoriginally, from an aesthetic virtue: the text was appealing because it served the subject." +Leopoldo Serran defined the book as "marvelous, a flash of light in the darkness". Josué Montello, of the ABL, considered having read few books with the same interest and gratitude. Vamireh Chacon praised the author's method and writing style, considering it concise, precise, and rigorous. According to Antonio Fernando Borges, "O jardim das aflições presents us with a scathing critique of the Brazilian intelligentsia, in its irresponsible march towards egalitarianism". Paulo Briguet (2017) wrote that "Reading a book like O Jardim das Aflições, published in 1995, is to find a prophetic panorama of all the tragicomedy experienced by Brazilian society in the last 20 years. The author described precisely the power project that completely undermined the cultural and spiritual basis of Brazil so that a criminal elite could reign over the country". According to Fabrício de Moraes, the book "demonstrates how the Empire, not being a theory but a reality, underlies all transformations and conflicts, even the most intense and antithetical ones." +In the author's note in the second edition of the book, two years after its release, Olavo de Carvalho considered that "despite the praises from Antonio Fernando Borges, Vamireh Chacon, Roberto Campos, Josué Montello, Herberto Sales, Leopoldo Serran, and many others," the book did not receive the attention from the public that O Imbecil Coletivo, published in 1996, received. The philosopher stated in the note that "if there is a book in which the author said everything he wanted to say, it is this one. I only repeat the appeal that the reader does not read it askew and jumping, but in the order of the chapters (...)". In the afterword of the third edition, he answers questions around the ideas present in the work and its relationship with the current sociopolitical scenario in the world. + + +== See also == +O Imbecil Coletivo +O Mínimo que Você Precisa Saber para não Ser um Idiota +O Jardim das Aflições + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Control_(Kelly_book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Control_(Kelly_book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e271f2139 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Control_(Kelly_book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Out of Control (Kelly book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Control_(Kelly_book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:49.865688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (ISBN 978-0201483406) is a 1992 book by Kevin Kelly. Major themes in Out of Control are cybernetics, emergence, self-organization, complex systems, negentropy and chaos theory. The book can be seen as a work of techno-utopianism. + + +== Summary == +The book's central theme is that several fields of contemporary science and philosophy point in the same direction: intelligence is not organized in a centralized structure but is much more like a beehive composed of small, simple components. Kelly applies this view to bureaucratic organizations, intelligent computers, and the human brain. + + +== Reception == +Although the book was not widely reviewed upon its initial release in 1992, it gained visibility, was reviewed, and was extensively cited in subsequent years. Reviews often discussed Kelly's hive-mind analogy as a metaphor for the New Economy. +Reviewers have called the book a "mind-expanding exploration" (Publishers Weekly) and "the best of an important new genre" (Forbes ASAP). +Critics of the book have contended that its position precludes a critical approach to politics and social power. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +The book's homepage (includes the complete book online) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Cybernetics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Cybernetics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..960778658 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Cybernetics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +--- +title: "Psycho-Cybernetics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Cybernetics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:51.041937+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psycho-Cybernetics is a self-help book written by American writer Maxwell Maltz in 1960. Motivational and self-help experts in personal development, including Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy have based their techniques on Maxwell Maltz. The book combines the cognitive behavioral technique of teaching an individual how to regulate self-concept, using theories developed by Prescott Lecky, with the cybernetics of Norbert Wiener and John von Neumann. The book defines the mind-body connection as the core in succeeding in attaining personal goals. +Maltz found that his plastic surgery patients often had expectations that were not satisfied by the surgery, so he pursued a means of helping them set the goal of a positive outcome through visualization of that positive outcome. Patients thinking that surgery will solve their problems is an example of the XY problem. Maltz became interested in why setting goals works. He learned that the power of self-affirmation and mental visualization techniques used the connection between the mind and the body. He specified techniques to develop a positive inner goal as a means of developing a positive outer goal. This concentration on inner attitudes is essential to his approach, as he believes that a person's outer success can never rise above the one visualized internally. + + +== The operator and the "mechanism" == +Maxwell Maltz drew inspiration from Norbert Wiener's book, Cybernetics, which describes both animals and the self-guided missiles he helped develop in WWII as goal-seeking mechanisms. +In Psycho-Cybernetics, Maltz observed from Wiener's work the following on cybernetic mechanisms: + +There's a "mechanism" which +can accept a "goal" +has sensing equipment (cameras, radar, infrared, lasers) +has a propulsion system +has a correcting device +has some form of memory +The operator gives the mechanism a goal and "starts" it +During propulsion, the mechanism subtracts what it senses from the goal from the data received +If on track, nothing is done and it keeps going +If off track, the correcting device shifts until "the goal minus what it senses" is on track. +The mechanism refers to successful moves in its memory, hitting the goal without having to search for the answer again. +He noted that Wiener sees that man operates the same way. From this, he drew the following conclusions on a human being: + +A person, for what is conscious, is "the operator", which can identify and offer goals +What's traditionally called the "subconscious mind" isn't a "mind" but a cybernetic mechanism built on our nervous system. +it can accept a goal--image and an emotion determines if it accepts it +The mechanism has sensing equipment like the eyes and ears +The various systems, primarily the musculature and nervous systems, propel the mechanism +The nervous system works with other systems as the correcting device +The memory can be used to see past successes, making future success more likely +The operator gives a goal to the mechanism (called the "Automatic Success Mechanism" and "Automatic Failure Mechanism", which refer to the same mechanism). +The mechanism responds no matter what, whether the goal is "positive" or "negative". It will move toward it. +The most powerful goal image is an image of ourselves, because it causes a wide variety of useful or harmful behaviors from the mechanism. +When successful responses are found, we can remember past successes, and our mechanism will repeat the successful response. +The core of nearly all bad results is the conscious giving bad goal images to the mechanism. +Maltz viewed worry, or focusing on negative possibilities, as generating negative goal images that cause the mechanism, the subconscious, the set of human systems like the musculature, to drive toward it. At the same time, he viewed it as evidence that you could generate goal imagery, and that you could "worry" about positive images instead of negative. +Positive results come from a positive goal focus. To see positive goals, he says that we need a realistic and adequate self-image that recognizes these goals as possible and consistent with the self. +He refers heavily to Prescott Lecky's idea that whatever is not consistent with the system of ideas a person has will get rejected. To have positive goals that the mechanism will move toward, the system of ideas, primarily the self-image, needs to be set so that the positive goal image will be consistent with the other ideas. This will allow the operator to comfortably keep the goal image in mind, which the mechanism will act on. + + +== Other key ideas == +Maltz also teaches that: + +We act on our mental representation of things, not the things themselves. We could respond with fear appropriate to seeing a bear, whether it's an actual bear, an actor, or a large shaggy dog. +Negative feedback should be used to correct toward our goals. If corrective action on negative feedback isn't progressing one toward a goal, the correct response is no response. +In cybernetic mechanisms, once success is found, it is focused on and errors are forgotten. Maltz encourages readers to recall past successes and happy moments. +He saw self-image change as self-image realization, "Oh, this is who I am". This is where dramatic behavior change happens. +Hypnosis is the relaxed acceptance of ideas (beliefs). Accepted ideas determine what we're willing to see and therefore what goals we pass into the mechanism. +Each (agonist) muscle has an opposite, antagonist muscle. When a hypnotist instructed a weight lifter that he couldn't pick up a pencil, he noted that the antagonistic muscles opposed his conscious effort, and he couldn't pick it up. +Imagination: The first Key to Your Success Mechanism. + + +== Posthumous editions == +Several adaptations have been produced since Maltz's death in 1975. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Governance-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Governance-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5ce52bf9e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Governance-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Quantum Governance" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Governance" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:29.467603+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Quantum Governance is a book about citizen-centric global progress and rewiring the foundation of public policy, written by Fadi Farra and Sir Christopher Pissarides. + + +== Overview == +The book was written by Fadi Farra in collaboration with Nobel Prize laureate in Economics, Sir Christopher Pissarides, and published in July 2023 as Quantum Governance: Rewiring the Foundation of Public Policy by Emerald Publishing Limited. Quantum Governance explores the fundamentals of AI economics and its application in shaping public policy. It delves into the concept of 'development' and the evolutionary dynamics of 'progress' within human civilization. The authors explore the transformation of human society, from the earliest urban settlements in Mesopotamia to the modern era's green smart cities, and from the initial agricultural societies to the contemporary knowledge economy. The book discusses how people and governments have built the world we live in and what the future might look like. +The book posits that questioning fundamental aspects of human development and progress has become an overlooked practice, both among individuals and policymakers. However, it emphasizes the significance of these foundational inquiries in shaping and understanding the boundaries of human civilization. "Quantum Governance" advocates for the rekindling of this introspective and analytical approach, particularly during times of crisis. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescuing_Prometheus-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescuing_Prometheus-0.md index a08675c53..c86370f92 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescuing_Prometheus-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescuing_Prometheus-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescuing_Prometheus" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:37:15.701550+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:52.254253+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Origins_of_Dictatorship_and_Democracy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Origins_of_Dictatorship_and_Democracy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f30fc5083 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Origins_of_Dictatorship_and_Democracy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +--- +title: "Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Origins_of_Dictatorship_and_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:30.617898+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (1966) is a book by Barrington Moore Jr. +The work studied the roots of democratic, fascist and communist regimes in different societies, looking especially at the ways in which industrialization and the pre-existing agrarian regimes interacted to produce those different political outcomes. He drew particular attention to the violence which preceded the development of democratic institutions. +Initially, Moore set out to study a large number of countries, but reduced his number of cases to eight. The book took more than ten years to write. +It is a cornerstone to comparative historical analysis in social science. + + +== Overall argument == +Moore's concern was the transformation of pre-industrial agrarian social relations into "modern" ones. He highlighted what he called "three routes to the modern world" - the liberal democratic, the fascist, and the communist - each deriving from the timing of industrialization and the social structure at the time of transition. + + +== The route to democracy == +In the simplest sense, Social Origins can be summarized with his famous dictum, "No bourgeois, no democracy". +However, Moore lists five conditions for the development of Western-style democracy (through a "bourgeois revolution"): + +the "development of a balance to avoid too strong a crown or too independent a landed aristocracy" +a shift toward "an appropriate form of commercial agriculture" +a "weakening of the landed aristocracy" +the "prevention of an aristocratic-bourgeois coalition against the peasants and workers" [which would lead to fascism] +a "revolutionary break with the past". +In England, the effect of the "bourgeois impulse" was to change the attitudes of a portion of the landed elite towards commercial farming, leading to the destruction of the peasantry through the enclosure system and the English Civil War which led to an aristocratic, but moderate democracy. +In France, the French Revolution did directly include the bourgeoisie, but it was the overwhelming influence of the peasantry that determined "just how far it could go." The peasantry remained thereafter a reservoir of reactionary attitudes. +In the United States, the industrial north's victory over the Southern planter elite in the Civil War cemented the U.S. path to modernity through liberal democracy, but only after southern planters "acquired a tincture" of urban business - essentially changing their attitudes towards capitalist accumulation. The result, however, was that once this transformation took place, the Northern capitalists ended Reconstruction and allowed the South to implement Jim Crow. + + +== Routes to dictatorship == +Moore also directly addressed the Japanese transition to modernity through fascism and the communist path in China, while implicitly remarking on Germany and Russia. + +For Moore, the influence of the bourgeoisie in Japan was significantly more limited than in England, France, and the U.S. Instead of the capitalist accumulation through the "bourgeois impulse" as it did in those three cases, Japan's late transition to industrial modernity was induced through "labor repressive" agriculture — squeezing the peasantry to generate the necessary capital for modernization. This "revolution from above" served to cement a reactionary alliance of a weak bourgeoisie and powerful landowners that culminated in fascism. +In China, the overwhelming strength of the peasantry vis-a-vis the bourgeoisie and the landed elites resulted in the Chinese Communist Revolution, but they were its first victims. Here, the bourgeoisie allied with the peasants, and created a "revolution from below." Moore criticized attempts by other sociologists to retroactively identify some kind of useful "function" served by the Chinese system of imperial government, and argued that the more likely reason for its prolonged survival was that most people, especially peasants, simply accept their social system "unless and until something happens to threaten and destroy their daily routine." +Moore's theme of the bourgeoisie was that in the states that became democratic, there was a strong bourgeoisie. In Japan and China, the bourgeoisie was weak, and allied with the elites or peasants to create fascism or communism, respectively. + + +== Reception == +Theda Skocpol and Margaret Somers described Moore's book as a "work of virtually unparalleled ambition" in terms of substantive scope and complexity of its research design. +Jørgen Møller credits Moore's work for reviving "the classic field of research" of "comparative historical analysis" that Møller traces back "to Tocqueville, Weber, Hintze, Schumpeter, and Bloch." +Many authors have questioned parts of Moore's arguments. Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Stephens, and John D. Stephens, in Capitalist Development and Democracy (1992) raise questions about Moore's analysis of the role of the bourgeoisie in democratization. +Samuel Valenzuela argues that, counter to Moore's view, the landed elite supported democratization in Chile. +A comprehensive assessment conducted by James Mahoney concludes that "Moore's specific hypotheses about democracy and authoritarianism receive only limited and highly conditional support." + + +== Legacy == +In 2006, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson published a book called Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, a comparative economic analysis in which the authors expressly acknowledged their "natural intellectual debt to Moore". In 2024, Acemoglu, Robinson, and Simon Johnson won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their work. + + +== Notes and references == + + +== Further reading == +Bernhard, Michael. 2016. “The Moore Thesis: What’s Left after 1989?” Democratization 23(1): 118–40. +Castles, Francis. 1973. “Barrington Moore’s Thesis and Swedish Political Development.” Government and Opposition 8(3): 313–31. +Mahoney, James. 2003. “Knowledge Accumulation in Comparative Historical Research: The Case of Democracy and Authoritarianism,” pp. 131–74, in James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer (eds.), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press. +Møller, Jørgen. 2017. State Formation, Regime Change, and Economic Development. London: Routledge Press, Chapter 6, "Barrington Moore and the Rebirth of the Discipline." +Munck, Gerardo L., and Richard Snyder. 2007. Passion, Craft and Method in Comparative Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Interview with Barrington Moore, Jr.] +Rueschemeyer, Dietrich Evelyne Stephens, and John D. Stephens. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. +Skocpol, Theda. 1973. "A Critical Review of Barrington Moore's Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy [Book Review]." Politics and Society 4(1): 1-34. +Smith, Dennis. 1983. Barrington Moore: Violence, Morality and Political Change Contemporary Social Theory. London: Macmillan, Ch. 1. +Snyder, Richard. 2013. "The Uses and Abuses of Barrington Moore, Jr." APSA-CD: The Newsletter of the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA) 11:13 (Winter). +Stephens, John D. 1989. “Democratic Transition and Breakdown in Europe, 1870-1939: A Test of the Moore Thesis.” American Journal of Sociology 94(5): 1019–77. +Valenzuela, J. Samuel. 2001. “Class Relations and Democratization: A Reassessment of Barrington Moore’s Model,” pp. 240–86, in Miguel Angel Centeno and Fernando López-Alves (eds.), The Other Mirror: Grand Theory Through the Lens of Latin America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_to_an_Ecology_of_Mind-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_to_an_Ecology_of_Mind-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..66805f83a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_to_an_Ecology_of_Mind-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +--- +title: "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steps_to_an_Ecology_of_Mind" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:53.444195+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Steps to an Ecology of Mind is a collection of Gregory Bateson's short works over his long and varied career. Subject matter includes essays on anthropology, cybernetics, psychiatry, and epistemology. It was originally published by Ballantine Books in 1972 (republished 2000 with foreword by Mary Catherine Bateson). + + +== Part I: Metalogues == +The book begins with a series of metalogues, which take the form of conversations with his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson. The metalogues are mostly thought exercises with titles such as "What is an Instinct" and "How Much Do You Know." In the metalogues, the playful dialectic structure itself is closely related to the subject matter of the piece. + +DEFINITION: A metalogue is a conversation about some problematic subject. This conversation should be such that not only do the participants discuss the problem but the structure of the conversation as a whole is also relevant to the same subject. Only some of the conversations here presented achieve this double format. +Notably, the history of evolutionary theory is inevitably a metalogue between man and nature, in which the creation and interaction of ideas must necessarily exemplify evolutionary process. +Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (01948, previously unpublished) +Why Do Frenchmen? (01951, Impulse ; 01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) +About Games and Being Serious (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) +How Much Do You Know? (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. X) +Why Do Things Have Outlines? (01953, ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. XI) +Why a Swan? (01954, Impulse) +What Is an Instinct? (01969, Sebeok, Approaches to Animal Communication) + + +== Part II: Form and Pattern in Anthropology == +Part II is a collection of anthropological writings, many of which were written while he was married to Margaret Mead. + +Culture Contact and Schismogenesis (01935, Man, Article 199, Vol. XXXV) +Experiments in Thinking About Observed Ethnological Material (01940, Seventh Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences ; 01941, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 8, No. 1) +Morale and National Character (01942, Civilian Morale, Watson) +Bali: The Value System of a Steady State (01949, Social Structure: Studies Presented to A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes) +Style, Grace, and Information in Primitive Art (01967, A Study of Primitive Art, Forge) + + +== Part III: Form and Pathology in Relationship == +Part III is devoted to the theme of "Form and Pathology in Relationships." His essay on alcoholism examines the alcoholic state of mind, and the methodology of Alcoholics Anonymous within the framework of the then-nascent field of cybernetics. + +Social Planning and the Concept of Deutero-Learning was a "comment on Margaret Mead's article "The Comparative Study of Culture and the Purposive Cultivation of Democratic Values," 01942, Science, Philosophy and Religion, Second Symposium) +A Theory of Play and Fantasy (01954, A.P.A. Regional Research Conference in Mexico City, March 11 ; 01955, A.P.A. Psychiatric Research Reports) +Epidemiology of a Schizophrenia (edited version of a talk, "How the Deviant Sees His Society," from 01955, at a conference on "The Epidemiology of Mental Health," Brighton, Utah) +Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia (01956, Behavioral Science, Vol. I, No. 4) +The Group Dynamics of Schizophrenia (01960) +Minimal Requirements for a Theory of Schizophrenia (01959) +Double Bind, 1969 (01969) +The Logical Categories of Learning and Communication (01968) +The Cybernetics of "Self": A Theory of Alcoholism (01971) + + +== Part IV: Biology and Evolution == +On Empty-Headedness Among Biologists and State Boards of Education (in BioScience, Vol. 20, 1970) +The Role of Somatic Change in Evolution (in the journal of Evolution, Vol 17, 1963) +Problems in Cetacean and Other Mammalian Communication (appeared as Chapter 25, pp. 569–799, in Whales, Dolphins and Purpoises, edited by Kenneth S. Norris, University of California Press, 1966) +A Re-examination of "Bateson's Rule" (accepted for publication in the Journal of Genetics) + + +== Part V: Epistemology and Ecology. == +Cybernetic Explanation (from the American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 10, No. 8, April 1967, pp. 29–32) +Redundancy and Coding (appeared as Chapter 22 in Animal Communication: Techniques of Study and Results of Research, edited by Thomas A. Sebeok, 1968, Indiana University Press) +Conscious Purpose Versus Nature (this lecture was given in August, 1968, to the London Conference on the Dialectics of Liberation, appearing in a book of the same name, Penguin Books) +Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation (prepared as the Bateson's position paper for Wenner-Gren Foundation Conference on "Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation". Bateson chaired the conference held in Burg Wartenstein, Austria, July 17–24, 1968) +Form, Substance, and Difference (the Nineteenth Annual Korzbski Memorial Lecture, January 9, 1970, under the auspices of the Institute of General Semantics; appeared in the General Semantics Bulletin, No. 37, 1970) + + +== Part VI: Crisis in the Ecology of Mind == +From Versailles to Cybernetics (previously unpublished. This lecture was given 21 April 1966, to the "Two Worlds Symposium" at (CSU) Sacramento State College) +Pathologies of Epistemology (given at the Second Conference on Mental Health in Asia and the Pacific, 1969, at the East–West Center, Hawaii, appearing in the report of that conference) +The Roots of Ecological Crisis (testimony on behalf of the University of Hawaii Committee on Ecology and Man, presented in March 1970) +Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization (written for a conference convened by Bateson in October 1970 on "Restructuring the Ecology of a Great City" and subsequently edited) + + +== See also == +Double bind +Information ecology +Philosophy of mind +Social sustainability +Systems philosophy +Systems theory + + +== Notes and references == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..33f7171ab --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +title: "Systemantics" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:54.605255+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +General Systemantics (retitled to Systemantics in its second edition and The Systems Bible in its third) is a systems engineering treatise by John Gall in which he offers practical principles of systems design based on experience and anecdotes. +It is offered from the perspective of how not to design systems, based on system engineering failures. The primary precept of the treatise is that large complex systems are extremely difficult to design correctly despite best intentions, so care must be taken to design smaller, less-complex systems and to do so with incremental functionality based on close and continual touch with user needs and measures of effectiveness. + +== History == +The book was initially self-published after Gall received rejection letters from 30 publishers. After several reviews in academic journals, it was picked up by Quadrangle–The New York Times Book Company, who published it in 1977. A condensed version was also published in The New York Times prior to the book's publication. + +== Title origin == +The term systemantics is a commentary on prior work by Alfred Korzybski called general semantics which conjectured that all systems failures could be attributed to a single root cause – a failure to communicate. Gall observes that, instead, system failure is an intrinsic feature of systems. He thereby derives the term general systemantics in deference to the notion of a sweeping theory of system failure, but attributed to an intrinsic feature based on laws of system behavior. He observes as a side-note that system antics also playfully captures the concept that systems naturally "act up." + +== Contents == + +=== Background === + +==== Premise ==== +Systems in general work poorly or not at all. +This is more a universal observation than a law. The origin of this observation is traced back via: + +Murphy's Law that "if anything can go wrong, it will", +Alfred Korzybski's general semantics notion of failure's root cause being a communication problem, +Humorist Stephen Potter's One-upmanship on ways to "game" the system for personal benefit, +Historian C. Northcote Parkinson's principle called Parkinson's Law – "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" +Educator Lawrence J. Peter's widely cited Peter Principle – "In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence ... in time every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties ... Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." + +==== Scope ==== +By systems, the author refers to those that "...involve human beings, particularly those very large systems such as national governments, nations themselves, religions, the railway system, the post office..." though the intention is that the principles are general to any system. +Additionally, the author observes: + +Everything is a system. +Everything is part of a larger system. +The universe is infinitely systematized, both upward (larger systems) and downward (smaller systems). +All systems are infinitely complex. + +=== First principles === +New systems mean new problems. +Once a system is set up to solve some problem, the system itself engenders new problems relating to its development, operations and maintenance. The author points out that the additional energy required to support the system can consume the energy it was meant to save. This leads to the next principle: + +The total amount of anergy in the universe is fixed. +The author defines anergy as the effort required to bring about a change. This is meant as a tongue-in-cheek analog of the law of conservation of energy. + +Systems tend to expand to fill the known universe. +One of the problems that a system creates is that it becomes an entity unto itself that not only persists but expands and encroaches on areas beyond the original system's purview. + +=== Why systems behave poorly === +Complicated systems produce unexpected outcomes (Generalized Uncertainty Principle). +The author cites a number of spectacular unexpected behaviors including: + +The Aswan Dam diverting the Nile River's fertilizing sediment to Lake Nasser (where it is useless) requiring the dam to operate at full electrical generating capacity to run the artificial fertilizer plants needed to replace the diverted sediment. +The space Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center designed to protect vehicles from weather is so large that it produces its own weather. + +=== Feedback === +Not only do systems expand well beyond their original goals, but as they evolve they tend to oppose even their own original goals. This is seen as a systems theory analog of Le Chatelier's principle that suggests chemical and physical processes tend to counteract changed conditions that upset equilibrium until a new equilibrium is established. This same counteraction force can be seen in systems behavior. For example, incentive reward systems set up in business can have the effect of institutionalizing mediocrity. +This leads to the following principle: + +Systems tend to oppose their own proper function. + +=== What's in a name === +People performing roles in systems often do not perform the role suggested by the name the system gives that person, nor does the system itself perform the role that its name suggests. + +People in systems do not actually do what the system says they are doing (Functionary's Falsity). +The system itself does not actually do what it says it is doing (The Operational Fallacy). + +=== Inside systems === +The real world is what is reported to the system (The Fundamental Law of Administrative Workings [F.L.A.W.]). +In other words, the system has a severely censored and distorted view of reality from biased and filtering sensory organs. This distorted view displaces understanding of the actual real-world, which in turn pales and tends to disappear. This displacement creates a type of sensory deprivation and a kind of hallucinogenic effect on those inside the systems, causing them to lose common sense. In addition to negatively affecting those inside the system, the system attracts to it people who are optimized for the pathological environment the system creates. Thus, + +Systems attract systems-people. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10bf756bf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +--- +title: "Systemantics" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:54.605255+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Elementary systems functions === +A complex system cannot be "made" to work. It either works or it does not. +A simple system, designed from scratch, sometimes works. +Some complex systems actually work. +A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. +A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. One has to start over, beginning with a working simple system. + +=== Advanced systems functions === +The Functional Indeterminacy Theorem (F.I.T.): in complex systems, malfunction and even total non-function may not be detectable for long periods, if ever. +The Newtonian Law of Systems Inertia: a system that performs a certain way will continue to operate in that way regardless of the need or of changed conditions. +Systems develop goals of their own the instant they come into being. +Intrasystem goals come first. + +=== System failure === +The Fundamental Failure-Mode Theorem (F.F.T.): complex systems usually operate in a failure mode. +A complex system can fail in an infinite number of ways. (If anything can go wrong, it will; see Murphy's law.) +The mode of failure of a complex system cannot ordinarily be predicted from its structure. +The crucial variables are discovered by accident. +The larger the system, the greater the probability of unexpected failure. +"Success" or "function" in any system may be failure in the larger or smaller systems to which the system is connected. +The Fail-Safe Theorem: when a fail-safe system fails, it fails by failing to fail safe. + +=== Practical systems design === +The Vector Theory of Systems: systems run better when designed to run downhill. +Loose systems last longer and work better. (Efficient systems are dangerous to themselves and to others.) + +=== Management and other myths === +Complex systems tend to produce complex responses (not solutions) to problems. +Great advances are not produced by systems designed to produce great advances. + +=== Other laws of systemantics === +As systems grow in size, they tend to lose basic functions. +The larger the system, the less the variety in the product. +Control of a system is exercised by the element with the greatest variety of behavioral responses. +Colossal systems foster colossal errors. +Choose systems with care. + +== Reception == +Money stated in 1978 that the author "clearly set out to write another Peter Principle". A 1977 review in Etc: A Review of General Semantics states that the book's aim is unclear, commenting, "As a put-down of institutional practices it works well, as good as anything in print", but "As a slam at systems theory the book is less successful, even ambiguous." A Library Journal review from 1977 comments, "Like some of its predecessors, the book pretends to rebuke people for their manifold stupidities, but is, in fact, an invitation to take pleasure in them. That's not a failing, just a fact. Recommended." A 2004 review in the American Society of Safety Professionals' Professional Safety says, "It is at once deadly serious with all the outrageous contrived irony of Gary Larson's 'Far Side' cartoons" and that "the book is one continuous insight after another." PCMag called the book "small but insightful". + +== See also == +The purpose of a system is what it does – Systems thinking heuristic +Cascading failure – Systemic risk of failure + +== References == + +== Sources == +Gall, John (2003). The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small (3rd ed.). Walker: General Systemantics Press. ISBN 9780961825171. +Gall, John (1986). Systemantics : The Underground Text of Systems Lore. How Systems Really Work and How They Fail (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor: General Systemantics Press. ISBN 9780961825102. +Gall, John (1978). Systemantics : How Systems Really Work and How They Fail (1st ed.). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 9780671819101. + +== External links == +Bart Stewart's Explanation of Systemantics +Commentary on the principles of "Systemantics", by Anthony Judge +c2 wiki entry on Systemantics \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..405212d17 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "The Age of Em" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:09.870865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth is a 2016 nonfiction book by Robin Hanson. + + +== Summary == +The book explores the implications of a future world in which researchers have not created artificial general intelligence but have learned to copy humans onto computers, creating "ems," or emulated people, who quickly come to outnumber the real ones. + +There have been three human eras so far, based on foraging, farming, and industry. The next era is likely to arise from artificial intelligence in the form of brain emulations, sometime in the next century or so. This book paints a detailed picture of this new era. +The book's main scenario proposes that in about a hundred years from now, human brains will be scanned at "fine enough spatial and chemical resolution," and combined with rough models of signal-processing functions of brain cells, "to create a cell-by-cell dynamically executable model of the full brain in artificial hardware, a model whose signal input-output behavior is usefully close to that of the original brain." + + +== Reception == +Seth Baum reviewed the book in Futures. He commended the book for bringing a social science perspective, for the detail it gives, and for providing a starting point for further study. He also criticized some of the book's arguments and stated that different authors would reach different conclusions about the same topic. + + +== See also == +Mind uploading in fiction +Mind uploading + + +== References == + + +== External links == +http://ageofem.com/ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ape-Man_Within-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ape-Man_Within-0.md index faf279cb9..7d39209d9 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ape-Man_Within-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ape-Man_Within-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ape-Man_Within" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:16:47.161550+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:13.461251+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..da127ba5e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "The Authoritarian Personality" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:14.203855+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Authoritarian Personality is a 1950 sociology book by Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford, researchers working at the University of California, Berkeley, during and shortly after World War II. +The Authoritarian Personality "invented a set of criteria by which to define personality traits, ranked these traits and their intensity in any given person on what it called the 'F scale' (F for fascist)." The personality type Adorno et al. identified can be defined by nine traits that were believed to cluster together as the result of childhood experiences. These traits include conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and "toughness", destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concerns over sex. +Though criticized at the time for bias and methodology, the book was highly influential in American social sciences, particularly in the first decade after its publication: "No volume published since the war in the field of social psychology has had a greater impact on the direction of the actual empirical work being carried on in the universities today." + +== Institutional context == +Theodor Adorno and a team of researchers—Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford—working at University of California, Berkeley, produced The Authoritarian Personality as part of the "Studies in Prejudice" series sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Department of Scientific Research. From 1936 to 1945, American social scientists conducted over 400 surveys on antisemitism as part of a larger goal of fortifying democracy in the United States against fascism. In 1943, the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) initiated a comprehensive study of the prevalence of antisemitism among American workers. Max Horkheimer, from the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, and Adorno, conducted the research for these studies. Starting in 1944, the exiled Institute was hired by the JLC to conduct a study led by Leo Löwenthal and others, with assistance from Adorno. Their 1500-page report based on empirical data on "Antisemitism among American Labor", found that American workers held strong antisemitic tendencies and were drawn to fascism. This labor study, which was never published, has been identified by some scholars as the "conduit" between Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment and The Authoritarian Personality. +The research was conducted during and after World War II and the Holocaust — the genocide of European Jews by Adolf Hitler's National Socialist regime — a period when significant concerns about the origins of fascism and authoritarianism had been raised. Adorno had been a member of the "Frankfurt School", a group of philosophers and Marxist theorists who fled Germany when Hitler shut down their Institute for Social Research. Adorno et al. hoped to identify and measure factors that were believed to contribute to antisemitic and fascist traits. + +== Sources and influences == +The Authoritarian Personality was based in part on earlier Frankfurt School analyses undertaken in Germany, but with a few key changes. First, their Marxist and radical roots were downplayed. For example, the earlier "authoritarian personality/revolutionary personality" axis was changed to an "authoritarian personality/democratic personality" axis in America. Thus, values and behaviors earlier associated with revolutionary Marxism were now associated with support for democracy. Second, the book abandoned and/or modified traditional Marxist sociological and economic explanations for human behavior in favor of psychological explanations, earning scorn from more orthodox Marxists. +Generally, Adorno et al. took an antipositivist position; More generally, the Frankfurt School has been critical of reductionism and the +third-person perspective in the social sciences. Instead, it recognizes that +social science research is inevitably value-laden, which calls for a model of +scientist who is a self-reflective interpreter, rather than a technical +problem-solver. Furthermore, it assigns a practical purpose in social science. +Following a Marxist tradition, it requires that theories in social +science should not only describe and explain the social world, but also should +serve a human emancipation agenda in all circumstances of oppression and +dominance. This is a different approach in philosophy of science than falsification, more popular in the natural sciences. + +== Content == +A central idea of The Authoritarian Personality is that authoritarianism is the result of a Freudian developmental model. Excessively harsh and punitive parenting was posited to cause children to feel immense anger towards their parents; yet fear of parental disapproval or punishment caused people to not directly confront their parents, but rather to identify with and idolize authority figures. Moreover, the book suggested that authoritarianism was rooted in suppressed homosexuality, which was redirected into outward hostility towards the father, which was, in turn, suppressed for fear of being infantilized and castrated by the father. +Frenkel-Brunswik's account spread through culture to become a stereotype, though subsequent research produced inconclusive or contradictory results. Authoritarianism was measured by the F-scale. The "F" was short for "pre-fascist personality." Another major hypothesis of the book is that the authoritarian syndrome is predisposed to right-wing ideology and therefore receptive to fascist governments. + +== Methodology == +The study employs both quantitative and qualitative components. The first part +of the research resembles a survey type of research with structured +questionnaires. Based on the scores on the questionnaires, a smaller number of +participants was elected for clinical interviews and administration of the +Thematic Apperception Test. Interviews were coded with the techniques of +content analysis. + +=== Sample === +"The majority of the subjects could be characterized as white, non-Jewish, +native-born, middle-class Americans and the authors guessed that their findings +would hold for this population" +[Critique point]: The individuals were sampled from formal organizations. There +are reasons to believe that there are systematic differences between such a +sample and the aforementioned population (see section Overall Criticism). + +=== Response format === +Likert type items ranging from −3 to +3 without a middle point. + +=== Psychometric scales === +Anti-Semitism Scale +Ethnocentrism Scale +Political & Economical Conservatism Scale + +==== Anti-Semitism scale ==== +This is a listing of the content categories featured in the items. These traits +are attributed to Jewish people. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..522385c72 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ +--- +title: "The Authoritarian Personality" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:14.203855+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Offensive (conceited, sensual, dirty) +Threatening (ruthless, competitive, radical) +Attitudes (discriminative action to be taken) +Seclusive (clannish, keeping apart from gentiles) +Intrusive (desire to intrude where not welcome) +All items were phrased in affirmation of the Anti-Semitic sentiment. Brown (2004, p. 48), +together with many others, criticizes this choice as "unwise". +The items were phrased in a superficially moderate language, which nonetheless +conveyed the saliency of Jews to the respondent and a negative sentiment towards +them + +==== Ethnocentrism ==== +Split-half reliability for the scale was .91 (high). The correlation between +Ethnocentrism and Anti-Semitism scales was .80 (relatively high). This +result is "evidence that antagonism to the culturally unlike is a generalized +sentiment" + +==== Political and economical conservatism ==== +Split-half reliability for PEC scale was .73 (moderate). The scale's correlation +with A-S and E was not strong, but in none of the groups was it negative. "[...] +neither ethnocentrism nor Anti-Semitism ever showed a tendency to go with +leftist liberal views." + +==== F Scale ==== +The F scale targets an authoritarian, anti-democratic personality profile that makes a person susceptible to Fascist propaganda. The items were written in accordance to fascist propaganda materials as well as priory held TAT protocol data and interviews with ethnocentric participants. + +Conventionalism: Adherence to conventional values. +Authoritarian Submission: Towards ingroup authority figures. +Authoritarian Aggression: Against people who violate conventional values. +Anti-Intraception: Opposition to subjectivity and imagination. +Superstition and Stereotypy: Belief in individual fate; thinking in rigid categories. +Power and Toughness: Concerned with submission and domination; assertion of strength. +Destructiveness and Cynicism: hostility against human nature. +Projectivity: Perception of the world as dangerous; tendency to project unconscious impulses. +Sex: Overly concerned with modern sexual practices. +Across various participant groups, the average item-total correlation was 0.33. Subsequent factor analysis confirmed a one-dimensional structure of these content subsets of items (Eysenck 1954, p 152, ref by Brown, p. 53). The first form of the F-Scale correlated 0.53 with A-S, 0.65 to E and 0.54 to PEC. The scale was revised by dropping items with low item-total correlations and/or low predictive value of A-S and E scores. The revised form correlated by 0.75 to a combined A-S/E scale, and 0.57 to PEC. Ethnocentrism, anti-Semitism and potentiality for fascism were inter-related to each other, as well as to conservatism, although not as prominently. + +==== Correlations with IQ, SES, and education ==== +Ethnocentrism is negatively correlated with both IQ and years of education. Subsequent analyses by Christie showed that education is the mediating factor in this set of relationships. Intelligence is not as strongly correlated to E per se if years of education are partialed out, the partial correlation being as small as -.20. Christie also estimated the expected correlation between "either IQ and F scores or years of education and F scores for a representative cross-sectional sample, range between -.50 and -.60". + +=== Clinical and projective data === + +==== Interviews ==== +The interviewers were instructed to obtain information of the following areas. +There were more specific instructions and points of emphasis within each of +these areas. + +Vocation +Income +Religion +Clinical Data +Family Background: Sociological Aspects +Family Figures: Personal Aspects +Childhood +Sex +Social Relationships +School +Politics +Minorities and Race +[Critique Point] Interviewers (but not coders) were aware of the participants +responses and were instructed to study them before interview. This choice was +also "severely criticized" +"In considerable degree, [...], the projective data confirm the covariation of +implicit antidemocratic trends with prejudice which was demonstrated by the +questionnaire data". + +==== Construction of personality ==== +Self Glorification vs Objective Self Appraisal +Conventional Idealization of Parents vs Objective Appraisal +Family status-concerned vs Family status-relaxed +Additional: Coping with Ambivalence about Self and Others, Lack of acceptance +of aggressive feelings towards the parents, Projection of sexual and aggressive +impulses to minorities, and its psychological function. "Repression of impulses +leads to projection which functions as rationalization for an expression.' + +[Critique Point]: Coding and Interpretation is informed by psychoanalytic +theory. + +==== Cognitive style ==== +Rigidity vs Flexibility +Intolerance of Ambiguity vs Tolerance of Ambiguity +(see Jaensch's Typology) +[Critique Point] Due to the coders having access to the protocols, the +dependency between prejudice and rigidity may be biased. + +=== Overall criticism === + +==== Sampling ==== +Participants were recruited through formal organizations. Christie reports +though that people belonging to at least one organization differ significantly +from people that do not belong to organizations at all. Thus the sample taken +was not representative of white, non-Jewish, middle-class, Americans. The +correlations between A-S, E and F vary in different samples, subsequent studies +showed. However, a negative correlation was never found between those scales. + +==== Acquiescence Response Set ==== +Couch and Keniston (1960) addressed the problem of the items being all phrased in an affirmative direction towards anti-Semitism. In a large number of psychometric instruments, they showed that the tendency to respond affirmatively (Yeasayers) or negatively (Naysayers) is a relevant psychological factor despite the content of specific questionnaires. +It is now accepted that a greater proportion of variance can be attributed to +individual response patterns rather than the targeted Anti-Semitic attitude. +This poses a validity problem: The scale may not accurately record the +variable it is intended to measure. +Bass found a .20 correlation between F-scale and an item-by-item reversed version. +(expected correlation if the phrasing played no role would be −1.00) +Christie used more elaborate reversal of items accounting for linguistic and +psychological subtleties preserving the original rationale of the items +preparation. See section on Overall Criticism. + +==== Criticisms of content analyses ==== +Interviewer Knowledge of Questionnaire Responses +Examination of Data in Advance of Coding +Coding Multiple Variables from the Same Content +Reporting Inter-rater Reliability for Too General Coding Categories \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..afa027eec --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "The Authoritarian Personality" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:14.203855+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Explanation in terms of socio-economic status (SES) rather than repression ==== +"We can easily imagine plausible reasons for the association of each +authoritarian trait with the cluster that includes low IQ, little education, and +low SES and so the explanation of covariation among the traits is simply their +several particular ties to the same underlying factors. [...][However][...] +Norms are not put together at random or incidentally. When they stabilize into a +particular combination it must be because that is a combination that works for +human personalities" (Brown, p. 75) + +==== Left wing authoritarianism ==== +A number of studies have examined the external +criterion validity of F scale, with various demographic and political groups. +Such groups included: German cosmetic factory workers (Cohn and Carsch, 1954); +English fascists and communists, compared to 'politically neutral' soldiers +(Coulter, 1953). Both studies found high scores (>5) in F-Scale. +However, the Coulter study also found the Communists scored higher in F-Scale than +the politically neutral group. Eysenck (1954, ref. by Brown, p. 80) commented that Coulter's results indicate +that the F-Scale actually measures general authoritarianism, rather than +fascist tendencies in particular. (see Left-Wing authoritarianism) +Christie (1956) attributed Coulter's findings to sampling fluctuation, pointing +out the politically neutral group was unusually low in F-Scale, compared to +50 known group means at the time. Rokeach (1960) obtained F-Scale scores from 13 +Communist college students in England. Their mean was the lowest of all known +groups. +Brown, (2004, p. 80) states: "... the Berkeley researchers seem to have been correct in their belief that the +F-Scale is a measure of fascism." + +== Authors and conflicts == +Sanford and Levinson were both psychology professors at Berkeley. They did much of the preliminary work on ethnocentrism and statistical measurement. Frenkel-Brunswik examined personality variables and family background with a series of interview studies. Adorno provided a political and sociological perspective to the book. Although Adorno's name heads the alphabetical list of authors, he arrived late to the project and made a relatively small contribution. Adorno, in a 1947 letter to Horkheimer, said that his main contribution was the F-scale, which in the end was the "core of the whole thing." An agreement among the authors held that each one was to sign the individual chapters to which he or she had contributed, and that all four were to sign the chapter on the F-scale; Adorno was credited in 5 of the 23 chapters. +The initially planned title for the book was The Fascist Character and the Measurement of Fascist Trends, but as early as 1947 Adorno feared that the assistants at Berkeley would try to sanitize it to a more innocuous title like Character and Prejudice. The final title was the result of a compromise. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..319ce845f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +--- +title: "The Authoritarian Personality" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:14.203855+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Responses == +The Authoritarian Personality inspired extensive research in psychology, sociology, and political science during the 1950s and early 1960s on the relation between personality traits, behavior, and political beliefs. The Authoritarian Personality has often provoked polarized responses: "The Berkeley study of authoritarian personality does not leave many people indifferent". +The study "has been subjected to considerable criticism" since the 1950s, particularly for various methodological flaws, including sample bias and poor psychometric techniques. +In 1973, Gaensslen et al. found that a dogmatism scale containing anxiety items is methodologically questionable. +In 1980, sociologist J.J. Ray argued that the project of The Authoritarian Personality was "obviously false" noting authoritarians on both ends of the political spectrum.:40 Ray criticized the study for not asking questions regarding libertarian politics (which according to Ray are typically more anti-authoritarian than right-wing politics);:41 for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian/right-wing beliefs are correlated with psychopathology; and, most importantly, for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian beliefs are associated with authoritarian behavior. In 1993, over a decade later, the latter point was also criticized by Billings et al. Milton Rokeach proposed adding an open/closed mindedness dimension of politics.:40 +The book concludes that right-wing, authoritarian governments produce hostility towards racial, religious, or ethnic minorities. Psychologist Bob Altemeyer argued against that conclusion, saying that Fascist Italy was not characterized by antisemitism, and that Jews occupied high positions in Mussolini's government until pressure from Hitler disenfranchised these Jews. +Rubenstein's research in Israel revealed that Orthodox Jews scored higher on right wing politics and authoritarianism as traits than Reform Jews, and that both groups scored higher than Secular Jews. However, it cannot be said that there is no relationship between traits of Right-Wing Authoritarians and antisemitism. In fact, Adorno's nine traits of the "F scale" are rather general and have been thought to identify fascist as well as anti-Semitic individual attributes. The fact that Rubenstein himself affirms that "the results confirm the validity of the RWA" represents a particularly interesting outcome: Orthodox and Reform Jews in Israel are classified closer to the fascist and anti-Semitic traits, as thought in 1950 by Adorno et al., compared to Secular Jews in Israel. +Some observers have criticized what they saw as a strongly politicized agenda to The Authoritarian Personality. Conservative social critic Christopher Lasch argued that by equating mental health with left-wing politics and associating right-wing politics with an invented "authoritarian" pathology, the book's goal was to eliminate antisemitism by "subjecting the American people to what amounted to collective psychotherapy—by treating them as inmates of an insane asylum". +The Authoritarian Personality remains widely cited in the social sciences and continues to inspire research interest today. +Hyman and Sheatsley 1954 +"Our major criticisms lead us inevitably to conclude that the authors' theory +has not been proved by the data they cite". +Brown 2004 +"The most serious defects in the questionnaire work are the inadequate sampling +methods and the operation of response sets. [In spite of that] there is a +substantial residual probability that the chief conclusion of the questionnaire +work is correct: attitudes of Anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism, and authoritarianism +do generally go together. [...] some of the findings of the questionnaire study +were replicated in the projectives study, and while this latter work has its own +deficiencies, some account must be taken for the convergence in the two sets of +data." +"Perhaps the least well supported of all the findings in the Berkeley study are +those concerning the genesis of authoritarianism in childhood. [...] However, +Frenkel-Brunswik has directly studied prejudice in childhood and adolescence. +She reports confirmation of most of the original findings." +Christie and Cook 1958 +Christie and Cook (1958) cite 230 titles relating to The Authoritarian +Personality and they conclude that: +"...the overall picture shows consistency of findings in many of the most +intensively studied areas. The E and F scales are found to be significantly +correlated in a wide array of samples and predictions of relationships with +attitudinal measures are almost invariably confirmed" + +== See also == +Ambiguity tolerance +Authoritarian personality +Narcissistic personality disorder +Right-wing authoritarianism +Psychohistory +The Mass Psychology of Fascism + +== References == +Notes + +Citations + +== Further reading == +Adorno, Theodor; Frenkel-Brunswik, Else; Levinson, Daniel; Sanford, Nevitt (1993) [1950]. The Authoritarian Personality. Studies in Prejudice Series. Vol. 1. New York City: Harper & Row and W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31112-0.. +Altemeyer, Bob (1988). Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 978-1-55542-097-0. +Altemeyer, Bob (1996). The Authoritarian Specter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05305-2. +Altemeyer, Bob (2006). "The Authoritarians" (PDF). Retrieved 13 October 2007. +Christie, Richard; Jahoda, Marie, eds. (1954). Studies in the Scope and Method of 'The Authoritarian Personality'. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press. ASIN B000LZ1YXG. +Gerhardt, Christina. "The Authoritarian Personality: Then and Now." The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies. Eds. Zachary Goldberg and Susanne Knittel. Routledge, 2019. 61–73. +Jost, John T.; Glaser, Jack; Kruglanski, Arie W.; Sulloway, Frank J. (2003). "Political conservatism as motivated social cognition" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 129 (3): 339–375. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339. PMID 12784934. +Martin, John Levi (2001). "The Authoritarian Personality, 50 Years Later: What Questions Are There for Political Psychology?". Political Psychology. 22 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00223. JSTOR 3791902. +McClosky, Herbert; Chong, Dennis (1985). "Similarities and Differences between Left-Wing and Right-Wing Radicals". British Journal of Political Science. 15 (3): 329–363. doi:10.1017/S0007123400004221. JSTOR 193697. S2CID 154330828. +Shils, Edward (1954). "Authoritarianism: "Right" and "Left"". In Christie, Richard; Jahoda, Marie (eds.). Studies in the Scope and Method of 'The Authoritarian personality'. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press. ASIN B000LZ1YXG. + +== External links == +1969 edition available to borrow on Open Library \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_of_Mischief-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_of_Mischief-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f854110a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_of_Mischief-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "The Big Book of Mischief" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Book_of_Mischief" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:18.253155+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Big Book of Mischief (TBBOM) is a book by David Richards. This manual describes the process of creating and detonating a wide variety of explosives. The end products include dry ice bombs and nitroglycerin. Construction of the devices described in the book is generally illegal, in addition to being highly dangerous. +According to the file's revision information, a version of TBBOM, then known as The Terrorist's Handbook (by The Jolly Roger), was compiled between 1987 and 1989. The more familiar version, built on the Handbook and other underground BBS text resources, was first posted in the early morning of August 8, 1990, as The Complete Terrorist Today. It assumed its final title with the March 31, 1991, revision. +The most common edition of TBBOM is the 1.5 release (1993). +In 2018, a British teenager was sent to youth custody for four years and eight months after admitting that he had downloaded the book to his phone. + + +== See also == +The Anarchist Cookbook +E for Ecstasy + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule-0.md index a28b46831..f82b5b38d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Billion-Dollar_Molecule" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:17:05.911040+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:19.425522+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collapse_of_Chaos-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collapse_of_Chaos-0.md index d9517f032..57e655e9a 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collapse_of_Chaos-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collapse_of_Chaos-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collapse_of_Chaos" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:17:17.751962+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:25.424480+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Generational_Storm-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Generational_Storm-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..317936526 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Generational_Storm-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "The Coming Generational Storm" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Generational_Storm" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:26.626161+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future (2004) is a book by Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns. +In the Prologue on page xii, the authors say the United States was "heading into one God-awful fiscal storm, the full dimensions of which are hard to fathom." Further, they say on page xiii the book offers suggestions for United States public policy and personal finance to help deflect the "storm". Moreover, they state: + +We feel we have some unique insights into the demographic and economic problems facing our country based on our own research and that of other economists and financial analysts. Our goal is to leave you with a real sense of what's coming, why it's coming, when it's coming, and where national and personal economic salvation does and does not lie. +"Averting America's Bankruptcy with a New New Deal", published by The Economists' Voice - February 2006, outlined some of the solutions promoted in the book.[1] Kotlikoff also discusses his book in the Tax Foundation's podcast titled "Laurence J. Kotlikoff on Long-Term Fiscal Problems in the U.S.".[2] + + +== Table of contents == +The following is a copy of the book's table of contents. + +Acknowledgments +Prologue +From Strollers to Walkers +Truth is Worse Than Fiction +Driving in LA with a Map of New York +Popular Tonics, Snake Oils, and Other Easy Fixes +Going Critical +Changing Course +Grab Your Life Jacket +Securing Your Future +Epilogue +Notes +Index + + +== See also == +Generational accounting + + +== References == + +Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Scott Burns (2004). The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future'. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-11286-8. Description and chapter-preview links, p. vii. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Global_Superstorm-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Global_Superstorm-0.md index 7574801c4..d0153c245 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Global_Superstorm-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Global_Superstorm-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coming_Global_Superstorm" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:38:20.577653+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:27.815448+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Guide_to_Breast_Cancer-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Guide_to_Breast_Cancer-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d961a9b3a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Guide_to_Breast_Cancer-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Guide_to_Breast_Cancer" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:29.045223+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer is a self-help book, published by Vermilion (imprint of Penguin Random House) in 2018, and written by Trisha Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care and retired general practitioner, and Liz O'Riordan, a retired breast surgeon. The book uses their own experiences of having breast cancer and British evidence-based guidelines to educate the reader on its diagnosis, treatment and recovery period. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6e0671a14 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +--- +title: "The Cultural Creatives" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cultural_Creatives" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:17.716588+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World is a nonfiction social sciences and sociology book by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson (born 1942). The authors introduced the term "Cultural Creatives" to describe a large segment in Western society who since about 1985 have developed beyond the standard paradigm of modernists or progressives versus traditionalists or conservatives. Ray and Anderson claim to have found 50 million adult Americans (slightly over one quarter of the adult population) can now be identified as belonging to this group. They estimated an additional 80–90 million "Cultural Creatives" exist in Europe as of 2000. + + +== Two types == +Ray and Anderson divide "Cultural Creatives" into two subdivisions: + + +=== Core "Cultural Creatives" === +Just under half of the CC population comprises the more educated, leading-edge thinkers. This includes many writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists, alternative health care providers and other professionals. They combine a serious focus on their spirituality with a strong passion for social activism. + + +== Characteristics == + +Ray and Sherry Anderson created a questionnaire to identify "Cultural Creatives" in Western society. The characteristics below were identified as qualities of a "Cultural Creative". Agreement with 10 or more indicates status as a "Cultural Creative". + +love of nature and deep caring about its preservation, and its natural balance. +strong awareness of the planet-wide issues like climate change and poverty and a desire to see more action on them +being active themselves +willingness to pay higher taxes or spend more money for goods if that money went to improving the environment +emphasize the importance of developing and maintaining relationships +emphasize the importance of helping others and developing their unique gifts +volunteer with one or more good causes +intense interest in spiritual and psychological development (personal growth) +see spirituality as an important aspect of life, but worry about religious fundamentalism +desire equality for women and men in business, life and politics +concern and support of the well-being of all women and children +support spending more money on education, community development programs, and the support of a more ecologically sustainable future +unhappy with the left and right in politics +optimism towards the future +involved in creating a new and better way of life +concerned with big business and the means they use to generate profits, including destroying the environment and exploiting poorer countries +unlikely to overspend or be heavily in debt +dislike the emphasis of modern cultures on "making it" and "success", on consuming and making money +like people, places and things that are different or exotic + + +== Values == +Ray and Anderson assert "values are the best single predictor of real behavior". The list below outlines the values dictating a "Cultural Creative"'s behavior: + +Authenticity, actions consistent with words and beliefs +Engaged action and whole systems learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected +Idealism and activism +Globalism and ecology +The growing cultural significance of women +Core "Cultural Creatives" also value altruism, self-actualization, and spirituality. + + +== In business == +The concept of "innerpreneurs" to denote persons who create a business that focuses mainly on their own inner goals and development was first introduced by Rebecca Maddox in her 1996 book Inc. Your Dreams The "innerpreneurs" concept is also central to Ron Rentel's 2008 book Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs, in which he identified the "Cultural Creative" subculture in entrepreneurship. Rentel named entrepreneurial "Cultural Creatives", "innerpreneurs". "Innerpreneurs" have the defining characteristics of an entrepreneur: + +high need for achievement +high need for independence +low need for conformity +internal focus of control +love of ambiguity +propensity for risk-taking +obsession with opportunity +But while entrepreneurs use their business for monetary gain, "innerpreneurs" use their business to find personal fulfillment (creatively, spiritually, emotionally) and create social change. +In 2008, there was much discussion in the Western media on the 'creative economy' and the importance of the 'creative class'. Richard Florida published a series of books on this identified 'creative class' and their upcoming economic importance. Bill Gates spoke at the World Economic Forum 2008 on the need for 'creative capitalism' as a solution to the world's problems. They theorize that being creative and inventive will be the key to business success in the 21st century and that a country's economic success will be determined by its capitalists' ability to mobilize, attract and retain human creative talent. See Douglas Rushkoff for an update on how this evolved. + + +== Use of the term integral == +Ray gives the term "Integral Culture" to the growing subculture. He also refers to this as transmodernism, which he refers to as the "Cultural Creatives". They are concerned with ecological sustainability and in the case of a core group have a commitment to personal and spiritual development. These are individuals who can meld the best of traditionalism and modernism to create a new synthesis, having a cognitive style based on synthesizing varied information from many sources into a big picture. This term can also apply to integral theory, a conceptual framework expounded by Ken Wilber. Use of the term 'integral' in reference to the creative-spiritual growth and transformation of human species was first made in early 1900s by Aurobindo Ghosh, who published teachings on Integral Yoga along with Mirra Alfassa, who founded the first international community of 'Cultural Creatives' in 1968, known as Auroville. + + +== See also == +Creative class +Conscious business +LOHAS + + +== Notes == + + +== References == +Hamilton, Clive (November 2003). Downshifting in Britain: A sea-change in the pursuit of happiness. "The Australia Institute Discussion Paper No. 58". pp. 14–16. ISSN 1322-5421 + + +== Further reading == +Cole, Gary, "Artless: The Odyssey of a Republican Cultural Creative". Portland: Ooligan Press, 2006. ISBN 1-932010-12-2. +Lietaer, Bernard (2001) Sustainable Abundance. In The Future of Money (pp. 260–298). London: Century. Describes the connection between Cultural Creatives and new vision of the global economy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Ground_of_Spirit-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Ground_of_Spirit-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3ae5d0ab2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Ground_of_Spirit-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "The Dark Ground of Spirit" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Ground_of_Spirit" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:33.809656+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Dark Ground of Spirit: Schelling and the Unconscious is a 2012 book by the philosopher Sean J. McGrath, in which the author examines how the psychoanalytical concept of the unconscious originates in German Idealism, especially the work of the German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. + + +== Reception == +The Dark Ground of Spirit has been reviewed by David Tacey, Benjamin Berger and J. A. F. Marshall. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discovery_of_Grounded_Theory-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discovery_of_Grounded_Theory-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fdedafa50 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discovery_of_Grounded_Theory-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "The Discovery of Grounded Theory" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Discovery_of_Grounded_Theory" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:57:37.428205+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Discovery of Grounded Theory is a 1967 book (ISBN 0-202-30260-1) by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss on grounded theory. +After their success with Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss decided to write a book on methodology. The Discovery of Grounded Theory was meant to invite and motivate people to use the newly developed methodology. Unlike later works, it does not provide much advice on how to put the theory into practice. +The authors had several goals in mind when writing the book: + +Legitimize qualitative research. Having a reference book by established authors helped students defend qualitative studies, which were not widely accepted at the time. +Criticize functionalists like Talcott Parsons, and his student Robert K. Merton, who in turn had been a teacher of Barney Glaser. +Demonstrate the possibility of building theories from data, something that many qualitative researchers doubt to this day, instead choosing to stick with mere ethnographic descriptions. + + +== References == +Legewie, Heiner & Schervier-Legewie, Barbara (September 2004). "Forschung ist harte Arbeit, es ist immer ein Stück Leiden damit verbunden. Deshalb muss es auf der anderen Seite Spaß machen". Anselm Strauss interviewed by Heiner Legewie and Barbara Schervier-Legewie. Forum: Qualitative Social Research On-line Journal, 5(3), Art. 22. Interview as MP3 audio (English) / edited German translation of interview. Accessed on May 20, 2005. +Glaser, Barney G. and Strauss, Anselm L. (1967) The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Chicago.: Aldine. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c682f807 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "The Fifth Discipline" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:41.490253+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization is a book by Peter Senge about developing learning organizations by focusing on group problem solving using five basic disciplines or "component technologies", the "cornerstone" of which is systems thinking. The other four disciplines are personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning. + + +== Reception == +In 1997, Harvard Business Review identified The Fifth Discipline as one of the seminal management books of the previous 75 years. + + +== See also == +Agile management +Learning agenda +Organizational learning +System archetype + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Fullerton, John. "Review of The Fifth Discipline". Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Standard_and_the_Logic_of_Naturalism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Standard_and_the_Logic_of_Naturalism-0.md index 467d8fffa..b85e1ad7e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Standard_and_the_Logic_of_Naturalism-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Standard_and_the_Logic_of_Naturalism-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gold_Standard_and_the_Logic_of_Naturalism" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:53:56.603262+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:20.069462+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-0.md index d89bcb916..6219cf8b5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-1.md index 79092eb42..edc2d46c6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-2.md index 011fdbca8..f4baf78e8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-3.md index 5317db3b7..9c5f9bc9d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-4.md index baffbaf3d..21f86a876 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-5.md index 6ef0d1d53..8f5a883b5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-5.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth-5.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 6/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:40:05.601237+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:47.468680+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Schoolbook-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Schoolbook-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..03d670950 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Schoolbook-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "The Little Red Schoolbook" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Schoolbook" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:22.438308+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Little Red Schoolbook (Danish: Den Lille Røde Bog For Skoleelever; English: The Little Red Book For School Pupils) is a book written by two Danish schoolteachers, Søren Hansen, Bo Dan Andersen and writer Jesper Jensen, first published in 1969. It was subject to much controversy upon its publication and was translated into many languages in the early 1970s. + + +== Synopsis == +The book encourages young people to question societal norms and instructs them on how to do this. Out of 200 pages, it includes 20 pages on sex and 30 on drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. Other topics included adults as "paper tigers", the duties of teachers, discipline, examinations, intelligence, and different schools. + + +== Reception == +As a result of its subject matter and its targeted audience of schoolchildren, politicians in many countries criticised the book, fearing it would erode the moral fabric of society and be an invitation for anarchy in schools. The LRSB was banned in France and Italy. +In Switzerland, the Bernese cantonal politician Hans Martin Sutermeister led a campaign against the book. He was initially successful in temporarily blocking the introduction of the book into the country. The subsequent controversy, however, ended his political career, costing him his job as director of the schools of the Swiss capital and contributed to a split in his party, the Ring of Independents, which led to its mid-term decline. +The book was banned in the Australian state of Queensland by the Queensland Literature Board of Review in 1972. Beatrice Faust contributed to the Australian edition of The Little Red Schoolbook. It was not banned in New Zealand despite some "moral outrage". + + +=== United Kingdom === +The book was translated into English by Berit Moore, a Norwegian living in England in 1970. +The English edition was first distributed in Ireland by Filmbank Publications, Dublin during April 1972 and was available until the Censorship Publications Board banned it on 28 April 1972. +In the UK, Christian morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse pressed for the book to be prosecuted in a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, although action was already being taken. She was quoted in a Daily Telegraph article published on 29 March 1971 asserting the book "had caused 'incalculable harm' to children" in Denmark"; it "normalises the most licentious behaviour", she believed. Ross McWhirter, in a letter to The Guardian, thought "the real issue" about the book was its seditious nature. +The offices of the book's British publisher, Richard Handyside, were raided by the police and the eventual prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act was successful. Headmistress Elizabeth Manners, a witness for the prosecution at the trial, said: "It is not true to say that masturbation for girls is harmless, since a girl who has become accustomed to the shallow satisfactions of masturbation may find it very difficult to adjust to complete intercourse. This should be checked, but I believe it to be a fact". The court's decision was upheld on appeal on the basis that Handyside had not shown the public interest was served by issuing the book. It reached the European Court of Human Rights in the case known as Handyside v United Kingdom. The government however allowed a second, censored edition to be published, in which some of the passages criticised in court were amended or cut. +It was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary in 2008 presented and produced by Jolyon Jenkins. It was also discussed critically by Peter Hitchens in his 2009 book The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way. +An unexpurgated edition of the book, bar one minor cut, was published in the UK in July 2014. + + +== See also == +Handyside v United Kingdom + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Documentary about the book's effect in Australia: "As It Happened: The Book that Shook the World". EnhanceTV. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2007. +Prosecution of the book in the UK (with further references): "As It Happened: The Book that Shook the World". MILESAGO. 2004. Retrieved 2 November 2007. +In Living Memory: The Little Red Schoolbook – BBC Radio 4 documentary episode \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Modern_Physics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Modern_Physics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44f2624f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Modern_Physics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "The Logic of Modern Physics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Modern_Physics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:23.634182+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Logic of Modern Physics is a 1927 philosophy of science book by American physicist and Nobel laureate Percy Williams Bridgman. The book is notable for explicitly identifying, analyzing, and explaining operationalism for the first time, and coining the term operational definition. Widely read by scholars in the social sciences, it had a huge influence in the 1930s and 1940s, and its major influence on the field of psychology in particular surpassed even that on methodology in physics, for which it was originally intended. + + +== History == +The Logic of Modern Physics is a 1927 philosophy of science book by American physicist and Nobel laureate Percy Williams Bridgman notable for explicitly identifying, analyzing, and explaining operationalism for the first time. +Pragmatic philosophers like Charles Sanders Peirce in the 1870s had already advanced solutions to the related ontological problems. +Also, Sir Arthur Eddington had discussed notions similar to operationalization in 1920 before Bridgman. Bridgman's formulation, however, became the most influential. +In 1955 the variant operationism was described by A. Cornelius Benjamin. + + +== Influence == +Operationalism can be considered a variation on the positivist theme, and, arguably, a very powerful and influential one. +The book was widely read by scholars in the social sciences, in which it had a huge influence in the 1930s and 1940s, In the social sciences, the main influence has been in psychology, (behaviorism), where it has been even greater than that on the methodology in physics, for which it was originally intended. Examples of the influence on psychology in the 1930s and 1940s include Stanley Smith Stevens (The Operational Basis of Psychology and The Operational Definition of Psychological Concepts), and Clark L. Hull (The Principles of Behavior: An Introduction to Behavior Theory). Since then, it has been the central influence of the official epistemology governing psychological method for the whole century." + + +== See also == +Edward C. Tolman +Heisenberg uncertainty principle +Henry Schultz +Herbert A. Simon +Talcott Parsons + + +== Notes and references == + + +== External links == +Full text of The Logic of Modern Physics at the Internet Archive \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9412004a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Matriarchal_Prehistory" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:24.754373+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future is a 2000 book by Cynthia Eller that seeks to deconstruct the theory of a prehistoric matriarchy. This hypothesis, she says, developed in 19th century scholarship and was taken up by 1970s second-wave feminism following Marija Gimbutas. Eller, a retired professor of religious studies at Claremont Graduate University, argues in the book that this theory is mistaken and its continued defence is harmful to the feminist agenda. + + +== Thesis == +Eller sets out to refute what she describes as feminist matriarchalism as an "ennobling lie". +She argues that the feminist archaeology of Marija Gimbutas had a large part in constructing a late twentieth-century feminist myth of matriarchal prehistory. She questions whether Gimbutas's archaeological findings adequately support the claim that these societies were matriarchal or matrifocal. She says that we know of no cultures in which paternity is ignored and that the sacred status of goddesses does not automatically increase female social status. Eller concludes that inventing prehistoric ages in which women and men lived in harmony and equality "is a burden that feminists need not, and should not bear." In her view, the "matriarchal myth" tarnishes the feminist movement by leaving it open to accusations of "vacuousness and irrelevance that we cannot afford to court." + + +== Criticism == +Max Dashu wrote that Eller might, in some cases, lack sufficient ability to distinguish clearly between cases in scholarly studies and expressions of the burgeoning Goddess movement, including novels, guided tours, market-driven enterprises." + + +== Editions == +The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why An Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future, Beacon Press (2000), ISBN 978-0-8070-6792-5. + + +== See also == +Matriarchal religion +Heide Göttner-Abendroth +The Inevitability of Patriarchy +Third-wave feminism +When God Was a Woman +Steven Goldberg + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official author site +"Knocking Down Straw Dolls" - critique by Max Dashu +Early Human Kinship was Matrilineal, by Chris Knight. +Marler, Joan. The Myth of Universal Patriarchy: A Critical Response to Cynthia Eller’s Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory. Feminist Theology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 163-187 (2006) (2003 version) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsourced_Self-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsourced_Self-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4bf3784ba --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsourced_Self-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "The Outsourced Self" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsourced_Self" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:28.316225+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times, by Arlie Russell Hochschild, was published in 2012. It focuses on the "emotional terms of engagement" individuals develop as they increasingly outsource tasks associated with intimate life. These range from for-pay internet dating, long-distance elder care and take-out dinners to "rent-a-friends" and global commercial surrogacy. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +The Outsourced Life(NYTimes.com: May 5, 2012) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Money-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Money-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c8c593896 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Money-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "The Psychology of Money" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Money" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:52.618040+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Psychology of Money is a book by Morgan Housel, published in 2020. It examines how people think about money and how behaviour and emotions influence financial decisions. + + +== Overview == +The book is organised as a series of short chapters that use stories and examples to explain psychological biases and common mistakes people make with money. It argues that success with money depends less on technical skill and more on behaviour, patience and perspective. + + +== Reception == +A Financial Times review stated that The Psychology of Money makes a persuasive case that financial decisions are shaped more by human behaviour than by data. +Forbes noted that The Psychology of Money effectively shows how emotions and behaviour shape financial decisions, praising its accessible approach to personal finance. +The Economic Times highlighted that the book emphasises building wealth quietly through savings and investments rather than flashy spending, arguing that “real wealth is invisible, not on social media handles.” It also praised the author for stressing the importance of habits like saving without a specific goal and benefiting from long-term compounding, calling those ideas powerful tools for long-term wealth creation. + + +== Editions == +The book was published in 2020. The original publisher in the UK edition is Harriman House. + + +== Author == +Housel has also published "Same as Ever: Timeless Lessons on Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life" (2023) and "The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life" (2025). + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..56fe960fc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Christs_of_Ypsilanti" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:56.103326+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: A Narrative Study of Three Lost Men is an American book-length psychiatric case study by Milton Rokeach, concerning his experiment on a group of three males with paranoid schizophrenia at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. The book details the interactions of the three patients—Clyde Benson, Joseph Cassel, and Leon Gabor—each of whom believed himself to be Jesus Christ. + + +== Synopsis == +Rokeach got the idea from an article in Harper's Magazine describing two women who both believed they were the Virgin Mary. After being assigned as psychiatric hospital roommates, one of the women recovered from her delusion as a result of conversations with the roommate and was discharged. Rokeach was also influenced by Cesare Beccaria's essay On Crimes and Punishments, concerning the subject of Simon Morin, who was claimed to have been potentially cured in a similar way. As a similar study of delusional belief systems, Rokeach brought together three men who each claimed to be Jesus Christ and confronted them with one another's conflicting claims, while encouraging them to interact personally as a support group. Rokeach also attempted to manipulate other aspects of their delusions by inventing messages from imaginary characters. He did not, as he had hoped, provoke any lessening of the patients' delusions, but did document a number of changes in their beliefs. +While initially the three patients quarreled over who was holier and reached the point of physical altercation, they eventually each explained away the other two as being patients with a mental disability in a hospital, or dead and being operated by machines. The graduate students who worked with Rokeach on the project have been strongly critical of the morality of the project because of the amount of dishonesty and manipulation by Rokeach and the amount of distress experienced by the patients. Rokeach added a comment in the final revision of the book that, while the experiment did not cure any of the three Christs, "It did cure me of my godlike delusion that I could manipulate them out of their beliefs." + + +== Editions == +The Three Christs of Ypsilanti was first published in 1964. Rokeach came to think that his research had been manipulative and unethical, and offered an apology in the afterword of the 1984 edition of the book: "I really had no right, even in the name of science, to play God and interfere round the clock with their daily lives." The book was re-published by New York Review Books in 2011. + + +== Cultural impact == + + +=== Literature === +The title is also mentioned in Anne Sexton's poem 'Rapunzel' in her 1971 collection Transformations. + + +=== Music and theatre === +The book served as inspiration for the song "Ypsilanti" on the Detroit band Protomartyr's debut album No Passion All Technique. +The book also served as the inspiration for the memory play Trinity by Gary C. Hopper, with music by Tim Kloth. +In 2010 it was announced that Corey Dargel (score) and Honor Molloy (libretto) were developing a stage musical based on the book. The project received a Meet The Composer Commissioning Music/USA Award, and had a developmental workshop presentation at New York Theatre Workshop in 2011. In 2012 Dargel and Molloy received a MAP Fund grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to further develop the musical. + + +=== Movie adaptation === + +A drama film based on the book, Three Christs, starring Peter Dinklage, Richard Gere, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford, and directed by Jon Avnet, was released on September 12, 2017. + + +== See also == + +Folie à deux +Religion and schizophrenia +Religious delusion + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trauma_Myth-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trauma_Myth-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10f932459 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trauma_Myth-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "The Trauma Myth" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trauma_Myth" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:53.818791+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Trauma Myth: The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children – and Its Aftermath is a psychology book by Susan A. Clancy, published by Basic Books. +In the book, Clancy states that sexual acts between adults and minors most often do not result in any traumatic reaction. The findings of the book is based on Clancy's ten years experience of interviewing people who had gone through such experiences, as well as on academic literature dating back to the early 20th century. She also discusses some specific accounts from her interviews in the book. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c54a8ca03 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "The Turning Point (book)" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:55.878831+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture is a 1982 book by Fritjof Capra, in which the author examines perceived scientific and economic crises through the perspective of systems theory. + +== Summary == +Capra outlines and traces the history of science and economics, highlighting flaws in the Cartesian, Newtonian, and reductionist paradigms which have come to light in the context of contemporary empirical understanding of the physical sciences. He writes that these paradigms are now inadequate to guide human behavior and policy with regard to modern technology and ecology, then argues that society needs to develop the concepts and insights of holism and systems theory to solve its complex problems. His argument is clearly and strongly expressed, for a wide readership, presuming no prior knowledge of any branch of the sciences. For physicists the book is an instructive guide to why and how today's new science may affect tomorrow's society. For non-scientists it will provide a rare insight into the world of scientific endeavours; for all readers alike this will be a useful synthesis of the histories of all branches of qualitative and quantitative enquiry. + +== Overview == + +=== PART I: Crisis and Transformation === +This section introduces the main themes of the book. + +==== The Turning of the Tide ==== +Amid the disciplines that have been influenced by the Cartesian world view and Newtonian physics and will have to adjust to be compatible with current physics' theories, Capra focuses on those dealing with health in the broadest ecological sense: from biology and medical science through psychology and psychotherapy, sociology, economics, and political science. + +=== PART II- The Two Paradigms === +In this section, the historical development of the Cartesian world view and the dramatic shift of basic concepts that has occurred in modern physics is described. + +==== The Newtonian World-Machine ==== +In this chapter, Capra states that Newtonian mechanics had lost its place as the fundamental theory of natural events by the end of the nineteenth century. Maxwell's electrodynamics and Darwin's theory of evolution both included elements that went beyond the Newtonian paradigm. This indicated that the universe was far more complicated than Descartes and Newton had envisioned. This scenario significantly changed in the first three decades of the twentieth century. + +==== The New Physics ==== +Capra states that his presentation of modern physics in this chapter is influenced by his personal beliefs and allegiances. He emphasized certain concepts and theories that are not yet accepted by the majority of physicists, but ones that he considers significant philosophically, of great importance for the other sciences and for our culture as a whole. + +=== PART III- The Influence of Cartesian-Newtonian Thought === +The profound influence of Cartesian-Newtonian thought on biology, medicine, psychology, and economics is discussed, and Capra presents his critique of the mechanistic paradigm in these disciplines. + +==== The Mechanistic View of Life ==== +In this chapter, Capra highlights the limitations of the reductionist approach. + +==== The Biomedical Model ==== +Capra argues that modern medicine loses sight of the patient as a human being because it focuses on smaller and smaller portions of the body. By reducing health to mechanical functioning, it is no longer able to cope with the phenomenon of healing, he argues. The mechanistic perspective of life has influenced physician attitudes regarding health and illness. He concludes that we can only transcend the biomedical model if we are prepared to adjust other aspects of our health for a social and cultural shift. + +==== Newtonian Psychology ==== +This chapter highlights how theory of mind may help psychiatrists to move beyond the typical Freudian framework when dealing with the whole range of human consciousness. Capra describes how the expansion of physicists' research to atomic and subatomic phenomena has led them to accept notions that defy all of our common-sense beliefs. + +==== The Impasse of Economics ==== +Capra argues that future economic philosophy will make explicit reference to human attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles, making his suggested new science fundamentally humanistic. It will deal with human goals and potentials and incorporate them into the global ecosystem's underlying matrix. Capra writes that such an approach could outperform existing scientific approaches. + +==== The Dark Side of Growth ==== +Capra outlines how the new framework will be deeply ecological, compatible with many traditional cultures' viewpoints, and fit with current physics' conceptions and theories. As a physicist, he finds it rewarding to see that modern physics' worldview has the potential to be therapeutic and culturally unifying, in addition to having a great impact on other sciences. + +=== PART IV- The New Vision of Reality === +In the fourth part of the book, the critique is followed by a detailed discussion of the new vision of reality. + +==== The Systems View of Life ==== +In contrast to the neo-Darwinian theory, Capra evaluates Teilhard de Chardin's theory of evolution. In this chapter, Capra expresses his confidence that his ideas will be seen in a new light as a result of the new systems approach to the study of living beings, and that they will contribute considerably to the popular recognition of the harmony between scientists and mystics. + +==== Wholeness and Health ==== +In this chapter, Capra discusses the Simonton approach, which is a conceptual framework and therapy developed by Carl Simonton, a radiation oncologist, and Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, a psychotherapist. Cancer patients, for example, are compelled to consider their life objectives, and relationship to the universe as a whole, which is why Capra feels their approach is so useful to health care as a whole. + +==== Journeys Beyond Space and Time ==== +If experiential psychotherapies are familiar with the new paradigm coming from current physics, systems biology, and transpersonal psychology, they will be far more effective. The final impediment to experiential therapies is no longer an emotional or physical barrier, but rather a cognitive one. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..129b4b69d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "The Turning Point (book)" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:55.878831+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== The Passage to the Solar Age ==== +In the final chapter, Capra concludes that while the revolution is occurring, the decaying culture refuses to compromise, clinging to old notions with increasing tenacity; and the dominant social institutions will not relinquish their leadership roles to the new cultural forces. Capra argues that these institutions will, however, inevitably collapse, while the developing culture will continue to rise and finally take over as the dominant culture. As the turning point advances, he says, the awareness that large-scale evolutionary changes cannot be halted by short-term political manipulation gives us the most optimism for the future. + +== Reception == +A review by Catherine Twomey Fosnot, published by the journal Educational Communication and Technology, stated that Capra's book says nothing regarding education. Yet, due to the fact that it offers a vastly different, contemporary physicist's view of technology, it has the potential of becoming a ‘turning point’. +James Connolly of the Bethlehem University Journal expressed in his review that there was a certainty that some individuals would be +will be tempted cynically to reflect that they have heard of previous books offering survival mechanisms to humanity, when picking up The Turning Point. However, given the nuclear threat, the millions of avoidable yearly deaths through starvation on our planet and the ruination of our environment by technological products, Connolly voiced that "any author who suggests a cure for these evils is worthy of the attention of those who are anxious to see their fellow humans survive…”. +Somaditya Banerjee of the Physics Bulletin reviewed that Capra's argument was clearly and strongly expressed, for a wide readership, presuming no prior knowledge of any branch of the sciences. For physicists the book is an instructive guide to why and how today's new science may affect tomorrow's society. For non-scientists it will provide a rare insight into the world of scientific endeavours; for all readers alike this will be a useful synthesis of the histories of all branches of qualitative and quantitative enquiry. At least in this latter respect, this thought-provoking and well researched book is likely to remain unrivalled for some time to come. +Philip Zaleski's review in The Boston Phoenix was more skeptical, noting that "In Taoist terms, which Capra favors, we suffer from too much yang (masculine aggression, competition and analysis) and too little yin (feminine cooperation, intuition and synthesis). Salvation lies in 'a new paradigm — a new vision of reality, a fundamental change in our thoughts, perceptions and values.' Capra dubs this futuristic philosophy 'deep ecology,' and hails it, with all the fervor and faith of a soapbox evangelist, as the grand confluence of the 'systems view of life, mind, consciousness and evolution; the corresponding holistic approach to health and healing; the integration of Western and Eastern approaches to psychology and psychotherapy; and an ecological and feminist perspective which is spiritual in its ultimate nature.' The Turning Point busies itself with evoking, elaborating, and encouraging each of these promising potions for spiritual rejuvenation."..."If Capra’s 'new paradigm' smells a bit stale, like a whiff of air from a time capsule buried some 15 years ago, you're not mistaken."..."Capra fails to persuade, in part, because his vocabulary is so hip it sounds worn out. 'Holistic,' 'oneness,' and other buzzwords swarm around his pages like intellectual will-o’the-wisps." + +== Influence == +The 1990 film, Mindwalk, is based on the book. +A review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of the film, Mindwalk, directed by Bernt Capra, stated that for the characters, “talking about the world of ideas and values is an adventure. Those of like mind will savour Mindwalk's smorgasbord approach to science, history, politics, the nature of evil, and the Gaia Hypothesis as a real treat.” +Michael Wilmington of the LA Times, said, “There’s only one problem: Just as this movie’s conversation suggests one man talking to himself ardently, the often excellent “Mindwalk” is most likely to appeal to people who already agree with it.” +In 2009, a journal report was published by African Journals Online, on Capra’s health and well-being approach in The Turning Point. Their topic of interest in the article is with the paradigm shift advocated by Capra in the book and the progress that has since been made. + +== Publication data == +Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture, (1982), Simon and Schuster, Bantam paperback 1983: ISBN 0-553-34572-9 +Doubleday Dell, mass market paperback 1984: ISBN 0-553-34148-0 +Flamingo Press, 1990 edition: ISBN 0-00-654017-1 +Sounds True audio cassette, 1990 + +== See also == +Mindwalk (film) +The Tao of Physics (book) + +== References == + +Banerjee, S. (1984). "The Turning Point: Science, Society and the Rising Culture". Physics Bulletin. 35 (5): 201. doi:10.1088/0031-9112/35/5/024. +Brussat, F., & Brussat, M. (2006). Mindwalk | Film Review | Spirituality & Practice. Retrieved from https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/6133 +Capra, F. (1982). The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. London: Bantam Books. +Connolly, James (1985). "Reviewed work: The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra". Bethlehem University Journal. 4: 162–168. JSTOR 26445037. +Fosnot, Catherine Twomey (1986). "The turning point, by Fritjof Capra". Ectj. 34 (3): 183–186. doi:10.1007/bf02768425. S2CID 59786588. +Kirsten, Tiaan G.J.C.; Van Der Walt, Hannes J.L.; Viljoen, Charles T. (2009). "Health, well-being and wellness: An anthropological eco-systemic approach". Health Sa Gesondheid. 14. doi:10.4102/hsag.v14i1.407. +Wilmington, M. (1991). MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Mindwalk’: Alluring but Limited Look at World. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-25-ca-58-story.html \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconscious_God-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconscious_God-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..46aa948a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconscious_God-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "The Unconscious God" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unconscious_God" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:02.001577+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Unconscious God (German: Der Unbewußte Gott) is a 1949 book by Viktor E. Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist and founder of Logotherapy. The book was the subject of his dissertation for a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1948. +The Unconscious God is an examination of the relation of psychology and religion. + + +== Key ideas == +The term "the unconscious God" refers to a "hidden relationship with the hidden God". +In his work, Frankl advocates for the use of the Socratic dialogue or "self-discovery discourse" to be used with clients to get in touch with their "Noetic" (or spiritual) unconscious. +Human religiousness is a deeply individual decision, and aligns with the process of discovering meaning in even the most difficult of situations. +In comparing Protestant ministers and parishioners, Frankl contends that a mature involvement with a religious group increases the sense of purpose in life. + + +== Published editions == +Frankl's book was originally published as Der Unbewußte Gott by Ehrlich Schmidt in 1949; the English language version was published by Simon & Schuster in 1975 under the title The Unconscious God: Psychotherapy and Theology. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..12edc95c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "The Vectors of Mind" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:03.169025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Vectors of Mind is a book published by American psychologist Louis Leon Thurstone in 1935 that summarized Thurstone's methodology for multiple factor analysis. + +== Overview == +The Vectors of Mind presents Thurstone's methods for conducting a factor analysis on a set of variables that allow for more than one factor, an important extension of Spearman's unifactor method. Having multiple factors adds significant complications and much of the book is focused on the problem of rotation. It attempts to solve this problem by providing an objective basis for the rotation factors, called simple structure, and advocates for the use of oblique (correlated) factors to achieve a simple structure. The book utilizes his centroid method of factor extraction, which made it feasible to complete the arduous calculations necessary for a factor analysis at a time when fast electronic computers had not even been imagined. This is a predominantly technical book that relies heavily upon mathematical presentations and provides multiple numerical examples. However, the early chapters delve into philosophical questions of the nature of science and present Thurstone's understanding of measurement theory. + +== Synopsis == +Preface. This book extends and presents more formally the findings from the author's Multiple Factor Analysis paper of 1931. The author notes that he only recently learned matrix theory and presumes that other psychologists have had similar limitations in their training. He finds existing textbooks on the topic inadequate and the book begins with a presentation of matrix theory, written for those with undergraduate instruction in analytic geometry and real number calculus. The author expresses indebted to various professors in the mathematics department of the University of Chicago for helping him to develop his ideas. He also expresses appreciation to his computer (a person, Leone Chesire), who also wrote the appendix on the calculations used in the centroid method. He foresees a bright future for the use of factor analysis and expects to see the simplification of the computational methods. He expects factor analysis to become an important technique it the early stages of science. For example, the laws of classical mechanics could have been revealed by a factor analysis, by analyzing a great many attributes of objects that are dropped or thrown from an elevated point, with the time of fall factor uncorrelated with the weight factor. Work by Sewell Wright on path coefficients and Truman L. Kelley on multiple factors differs from factor analysis, which Thurstone sees as an extension of professor Spearman's work. +Mathematical Introduction. A brief presentation of matrices, determinants, matrix multiplication, diagonal matrices, the inverse, the characteristic equation, summation notation, linear dependence, geometric interpretations, orthogonal transformations, and oblique transformations. +Chapter I. The Factor Problem. Natural phenomena are only comprehensible through constructs that are man-made inventions. A scientific law is not part of nature; it is but man's way of understanding nature. Examples are provided of such man-made constructs from physics. He responds to skepticism from the practitioners of "rigorous science" that human behavior can ever be brought into the fold of such science by pointing out that there is considerable individuality in physical events even though described by rigorous scientific laws, such as the fact that every explosion is unique. Human abilities are the cause of individual differences in the "completion of a task". The science of psychology will reduce a large number of psychological abilities down to primary reference traits. Formal definitions are provided for the concepts of trait, ability, test, score, linear independence, statistical independence, experimental independence, reference abilities, primary abilities, and unitary ability. These conceptions constitute a theory of measurement that defines factors common to all tests in a battery (the communality of the test battery), a specific factor that is unique to one test (the specificity of the test), and the error variance. Factor analysis can determine the communality of a test, but cannot separate the uniqueness into the specific factor and the error factors. The reliability coefficient is the sum of communality and the specificity of a test. +Chapter II. The Fundamental Factor Theorem. The factor matrix post-multiplied by its transpose gives the reduced correlation matrix: this is the fundamental factor theorem. The task of factor analysis is to find a factor matrix of the lowest possible rank (the least number of factors) that can reproduce the off-diagonal members of the observed correlation matrix as close as can be expected, allowing for sample variation. The bulk of the chapter considers mathematical issues, including the rank of a matrix and methods for estimating the commonalities of the correlation matrix (the diagonal elements). +Chapter III: The Centroid Method. A computation method is developed for factoring a correlation matrix, which is a symmetric matrix of real elements. After a conceptual presentation of the method, some worked examples are provided, including one with eight variables, and another with fifteen variables that are factored into four factors. The mechanics of the calculations are given in Appendix I, which provides the specific steps in making the calculation (the algorithm). +Chapter IV: The Principal Axes. A method is presented for determining a desirable rotation of the orthogonal factors called the principal axes. The mathematical foundations are provided, as well as worked examples. This approach is distinguished from Hotelling's method, which the author feels has limited usefulness to factor analysis. The unrotated solution for 15 psychological tests given in chapter III are rotated to their principal axes. +Chapter V: The Special Case of Rank One. Spearman presented factor analysis with a single factor (a matrix with rank one) thirty years, but recent advances have made it possible to extend factor analysis to multiple factors. The shortcomings of Spearman's method of tetrad differences are detailed and the current approach found to be more accurate. A numerical example is given. +Chapter VI: Primary Traits. Rotation does not affect the results of the fundamental factor theorem. All rotations result in the same reduced correlation matrix so other criteria must be used to ascertain the best rotation. Criteria refer to "simple structure": the book presents very detailed criteria for simple structure, but more generally it consists of minimizing the number of loading for each variable and wide variance for loadings of each factor. Realizing simple structure may require uses of oblique (correlated) factors. Three additional criteria are given that define when the simple structure is unique. Graphical-mathematical methods are developed for understanding and defining the structure that reveals primary traits–the scientific goal of factor analysis. The prior worked example of fifteen psychological traits is rotated to an oblique simple structure to reveal three intercorrelated primary traits. +Chapters VII - X: The remaining chapters explore more specific details and problems that can arise. Chapter VII considers several methods for isolating primary traits, with numerical examples given. Chapter VIII addresses the methodological problems that can arise when the correlation matrix has negative correlations. Though most scientific investigations of primary abilities will entail oblique factors, there are situations where the factors are likely to be orthogonal. Chapter IX looks at techniques for achieving orthogonal rotations. The results of a factor analysis can be used to estimate each individual's score on the primary abilities based upon the individual's scores on the tests. Chapter X presents a method for obtaining the regression weights for estimating primary abilities from subject scores, and well as for estimating subjects scores from the primary traits (for estimating the components of variance of the subject scores). +Appendices. I: Outline of Calculations for the Centroid Method with Unknown Diagonals. II: A Method of Finding the Roots of a Polynomial. III: A Method of Determining the Square Root on the Calculating Machine. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ce23ec7c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "The Vectors of Mind" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vectors_of_Mind" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:03.169025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Historical context == +In 1904 Charles Spearman published a paper that largely founded the field of psychometrics and included a crude form of factor analysis that attempted to determine if a single factor model was appropriate. There was limited subsequent work on factor analysis until Thurstone published a paper in 1931 called Multiple Factor Analysis, which expanded Spearman's single-factor analysis to include more than one factor. In 1932, Hotelling presented a more accurate method of extracting factors, which he called principal components analysis. Thurstone rejected Hotelling's approach because it set the commonalities to 1.0, and Thurstone realized that will introduce distortions to the factor loadings when variables include unique components. Hotelling's method was also limited by the fact that it required too much calculation to be usable with more than about ten variables. A year after Hotelling's paper, Thurstone presented a more efficient way of extracting factors, called the centroid method, which allowed the factor analysis of a far larger number of variables. Later that year he gave his presidential address to the American Psychological Association wherein he presented the results of several factor analyses, including a factor analysis of 60 adjectives describing personality traits, showing how they could be reduced to five personality traits. He also presented analyses of 37 mental health symptoms, of attitudes towards 12 controversial social issues, and of 9 IQ tests. In those analyses, Thurstone had made use of tetrachoric correlation coefficients, a method for estimating continuous variable correlations from dichotomous variables. Tetrachorics require extensive calculations but in early 1933, he and two colleagues at the University of Chicago published a set of computing diagrams that greatly reduce the calculations needed for those coefficients, another aspect of making his method of factor analysis practical with more than just a few variables. His 1933 presidential address was published in early 1934 with the title Vectors of the Mind. It lacked methodological and mathematical details of his technique, which is then the subject of this book. A 2004 conference called Factor Analysis at 100 produced a book with two chapters that document the historical importance Thurstone's contributions to factor analysis. Thurstone's approach to factor analysis remains an important method in psychological research and it has since been used in numerous other fields of study. It is now considered part of a family of methods for analyzing the covariance structure of variables, which includes principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. + +== External links == +Online Archive.org +The vectors of mind: Multiple-factor analysis for the isolation of primary traits. APA PsychNET + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Rage-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Rage-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..09e608f76 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Rage-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "The Velvet Rage" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Rage" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:04.380467+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World is a self-help book by clinical psychologist Alan Downs, originally published on May 24, 2005, by Lifelong Books. The book explores the challenges faced by gay men as they navigate societal expectations, discrimination, and internalized shame. It delves into the impact of heteronormativity, the struggle for acceptance, and the development of a gay identity. Downs also provides insights and strategies for overcoming the psychological barriers that may hinder personal growth and fulfillment. +The Velvet Rage has been praised for its candid and compassionate approach to addressing the unique struggles faced by gay men, and it has become a widely discussed and influential work within the LGBTQ community. Reviews in the Toronto Star and the Washington Blade found the book to make overgeneralizations. +A second edition was published on June 5, 2012. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..28fafa2da --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "The Velvet Underground (book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:32.900461+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Velvet Underground is a paperback book by journalist Michael Leigh, published in September 1963, that reports on paraphilia in the US. + + +== Content == +Leigh investigates "aberrant" sexual behavior between consenting adults; that is, everything other than simple intercourse conducted in privacy by a heterosexual couple, e.g., husband and wife swapping, group sex, sex orgy parties, homosexual activities, sado-masochism. The author reports on the various ways in which such practices are solicited (newspaper advertisements, clubs, etc.), and by following these leads, manages to get into touch with many of its participants, usually through written correspondence. The book liberally includes quotations from this material. This is complemented with quotes from various magazines. +The author's general aim is to establish that a shift in attitude toward sexuality is taking place in society that not only allows a large cross-section of the American population to partake in such non-standard sexual practices, but also allows them to believe that what they are doing is perfectly healthy and normal. A central passage in the book is a quote/paraphrase from a 1961 article in the French Esprit magazine, which calls this liberal attitude toward sex the sexual revolution, and attributes it to the general availability of contraceptives. +The book is ambiguous in tone, posing as an objective investigative report on a social phenomenon, while being, at the same time, full of subjective language reflecting the author's seeming moral bias against the practices and attitudes observed. + + +== UK edition and sequel == +The Velvet Underground was republished in 1967 in the United Kingdom under the title Bizarre Sex Underground. +In 1968, Harry Roskolenko (1907-1980) brought out a sequel, The Velvet Underground Revisited, which was attributed to Michael Leigh, even though he had died in 1965. + + +== Band == +The New York band The Velvet Underground, founded in 1964, was named after the book. Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison's friend, filmmaker Tony Conrad, found a copy lying in the street. Morrison has reported the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema," and fitting, due to Reed's already having written "Venus in Furs", inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, dealing with sado-masochism. + + +== References == + + +== Bibliography == +Michael Leigh. The Velvet Underground. Macfadden Books MB 60–142, US, 192 pp., 1963 + + +== External links == +Article about the UK edition, Bizarre Sex Underground \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c7041b9a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Think (book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:54.945621+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye is a non-fiction book by editor and journalist Michael R. LeGault, released in January 2006. It was published under Threshold Editions, a conservative publishing imprint under Simon & Schuster run by Mary Matalin. +Think claims to refute Blink, the best-selling 2005 book by Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell. It argues that United States and the West are in decline because of an intellectual crisis. Think contends that blink-like snap judgments are the cause of major failures such as the Hurricane Katrina response. LeGault maintains that relying on emotion and instinct instead of reason and facts is ultimately a threat to our freedom and way of life. + + +== Summary == + +Think begins as a critique of the decline of critical thinking in America. LeGault briefly mentions Blink as the height of this irrationality, but moves on to other failures in government, schools, media, and industry. +LeGault offers several examples of irrationality and mediocrity throughout the book: + +Poor decision-making at General Motors and the decline of the American auto industry. +The politically correct reaction to remarks by Lawrence Summers, regarding gender differences. +The failures of affirmative action to close the achievement gap. +Sensationalist journalism, and the decline of newspaper readership. +Over-emphasis on stress relief in marketing and media. +The banning of DDT by the Environmental Protection Agency, in reaction to the book Silent Spring. +The rise of relativism, as described by Allan Bloom in his book, Closing of the American Mind. +Much of the book deals with examples of failures or anomalies in American achievements. LeGault often attributes these shortcomings to a growing attitude or influential group. On page 93, he describes the problem of overmedicating children with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: + +The fact that the vast majority of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD are boys naturally raises the suspicion that the trend is part of a larger feminist agenda. ... From this perspective Ritalin, it would appear, is being used to treat nothing more than a 'boy' gene, not a true medical condition". +In view of LeGault's description of the problem, he closes the book by offering solutions. Specifically, he calls for higher standards, especially among parents and schools. + + +== Reception == +The book received praise for its analysis and refutation of the points brought up by Gladwell. However, LeGault has been criticized as a dealer of conspiracy theories as the book occasionally attributes the problems in American society to specific groups. + + +== References == + +Houle, Zachary (March 21, 2006). "Think!: Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye by Michael R. LeGault". PopMatters. Retrieved November 20, 2018. + + +== External links == +Official webpage +Author's presentation at The Heritage Foundation on C-SPAN \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_or_to_Be-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_or_to_Be-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..23fcaa336 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_or_to_Be-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "To Have or to Be?" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_or_to_Be?" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:57.306728+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +To Have or to Be? is a 1976 book by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, in which he differentiates between having and being. It was originally published in the World Perspectives book series edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen for Harper & Row publishing firm. +Fromm writes that modern society has become materialistic and prefers "having" to "being". He mentions the great promise of unlimited happiness, freedom, material abundance, and domination of nature. These hopes reached their highs when the industrial age began. One could feel that there would be unlimited production and hence unlimited consumption. Human beings aspired to be Gods of earth, but this wasn’t really the case. The great promise failed due to the unachievable aims of life, i.e. maximum pleasure and fulfillment of every desire (radical hedonism), and the egotism, selfishness and greed of people. In the industrial age, the development of this economic system was no longer determined by the question of what is good for man, but rather of what is good for the growth of the system. So, the economic system of society served people in such a way in which only their personal interests were intended to impart. The people having unlimited needs and desires like the Roman emperors, the English and French noblemen were the people who got the most out of it. +Society nowadays has completely deviated from its actual path. The materialistic nature of people of "having" has been more developed than "being". Modern industrialization has made great promises, but all these promises are developed to fulfill their interests and increase their possessions. In every mode of life, people should ponder more on the "being" nature and not towards the "having" nature. This is the truth which people deny and thus people of the modern world have completely lost their inner selves. The point of being is more important as everyone is mortal, and thus having of possessions will become useless after their death, because the possessions which are transferred to the life after death, will be what the person actually was inside. + + +== See also == +Post-materialism + + +== References == +infed.org + + +== External links == +Erich Fromm 1976 interview with the BBC on To Have or to Be? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_and_Dreams-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_and_Dreams-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..66a7d4ecb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_and_Dreams-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Trauma and Dreams" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_and_Dreams" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:59.648785+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Trauma and Dreams is a 1996 book edited by Deirdre Barrett and published by Harvard University Press. Chapter authors are prominent psychologists and physicians including Oliver Sacks and Robert J. Lifton. +Barrett opens the Introduction with a quote from poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." The book describes how trauma affects the content of dreams, differentiating between the typical effects of adult vs. childhood trauma and between one-time traumas vs. those that are experienced repeatedly. It discusses what dreaming can tell us about trauma and how dreamwork may be employed in psychotherapy to aid the recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). + + +== Reviews == +"Trauma and Dreams provides evidence that important information can be gleaned through examination of [PTSD] dreams...Barrett's coverage of the subject is far-reaching, with dream research on war veterans, rape survivors, kidnapping victims, multiple personality patients, and traumatized children. Barrett also considers the connection between dreams and relatively commonplace traumas such as divorce and bereavement...Trauma and Dreams is well researched and includes contributions by several experts in the fields of trauma and dream analysis." – Choice +"Trauma and Dreams is...an honest and compassionate book, based usually on direct clinical experience and mercifully free of second-hand-trauma-posturing by cultural studies professors." – Ben Shephard The Times Literary Supplement +"Violence against one's person, one's body or one's race is difficult to forget and the representation of such violence in one's dreams is therefore persistent. Trauma and Dreams is a collection of essays that attests to these twin truths by describing a wide variety of studies on the longevity and evolution of unhappy dream memories. For clinicians and for trauma victims, the book thus presents its 'Lest We Forget' thesis most emphatically. The authors and their information are privileged communications of a message that is important to human morality. +"Beyond that important, but non-scientific import, the book also provides a few interesting surprises for the student of sleep and dreams. One is Ernest Hartmann's astute suggestion that the terrifying dreams of post-trauma victims are neither nightmares nor night terrors but a completely unique species of nocturnal horror: the intrusion of unadulterated waking visions into almost any stage of sleep. Another is Oliver Sack’s view of dreaming as a possible aid in the diagnosis of emerging degeneration in the brain." – J. Allan Hobson in Nature Medicine + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1717c0191 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Verbal Behavior" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:05.628712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Verbal Behavior is a 1957 book by psychologist B. F. Skinner, in which he describes what he calls verbal behavior, or what was traditionally called linguistics. Skinner's work describes the controlling elements of verbal behavior with terminology invented for the analysis - echoics, mands, tacts, autoclitics and others - as well as carefully defined uses of ordinary terms such as audience. + +== Origins == +The origin of Verbal Behavior was an outgrowth of a series of lectures first presented at the University of Minnesota in the early 1940s and developed further in his summer lectures at Columbia and William James lectures at Harvard in the decade before the book's publication. + +== Research == +Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior drew heavily on methods of literary analysis. This tradition has continued. The book Verbal Behavior is almost entirely theoretical, involving little experimental research in the work itself. Many research papers and applied extensions based on Verbal Behavior have been done since its publication. + +== Functional analysis == + +Skinner's Verbal Behavior also introduced the autoclitic and six elementary operants: mand, tact, audience relation, echoic, textual, and intraverbal. For Skinner, the proper object of study is behavior itself, analyzed without reference to hypothetical (mental) structures, but rather with reference to the functional relationships of the behavior in the environment in which it occurs. This analysis extends Ernst Mach's pragmatic inductive position in physics, and extends even further a disinclination towards hypothesis-making and testing. Verbal Behavior is divided into 5 parts with 19 chapters. The first chapter sets the stage for this work, a functional analysis of verbal behavior. Skinner presents verbal behavior as a function of controlling consequences and stimuli, not as the product of a special inherent capacity. Neither does he ask us to be satisfied with simply describing the structure, or patterns, of behavior. Skinner deals with some alternative, traditional formulations, and moves on to his own functional position. + +== General problems == +In the ascertaining of the strength of a response Skinner suggests some criteria for strength (probability): emission, energy-level, speed, and repetition. He notes that these are all very limited means for inferring the strength of a response as they do not always vary together and they may come under the control of other factors. Emission is a yes/no measure, however the other three—energy-level, speed, repetition—comprise possible indications of relative strength. + +Emission – If a response is emitted it may tend to be interpreted as having some strength. Unusual or difficult conditions would tend to lend evidence to the inference of strength. Under typical conditions it becomes a less compelling basis for inferring strength. This is an inference that is either there or not, and has no gradation of value. +Energy-level – Unlike emission as a basis for inference, energy-level (response magnitude) provides a basis for inferring the response has a strength with a high range of varying strength. Energy level is a basis from which we can infer a high tendency to respond. An energetic and strong "Water!" forms the basis for inferring the strength of the response as opposed to a weak, brief "Water". +Speed – Speed is the speed of the response itself, or the latency from the time in which it could have occurred to the time in which it occurs. A response given quickly when prompted forms the basis for inferring a high strength. +Repetition – "Water! Water! Water!" may be emitted and used as an indication of relative strength compared to the speedy and/or energetic emission of "Water!". In this way repetition can be used as a way to infer strength. + +== Mands == + +Chapter Three of Skinner's work Verbal Behavior discusses a functional relationship called the mand. Mand is verbal behavior under functional control of satiation or deprivation (that is, motivating operations) followed by characteristic reinforcement often specified by the response. A mand is typically a demand, command, or request. The mand is often said to "describe its own reinforcer" although this is not always the case, especially as Skinner's definition of verbal behavior does not require that mands be vocal. A loud knock at the door, may be a mand "open the door" and a servant may be called by a hand clap as much as a child might "ask for milk". +Lamarre & Holland (1985) study on mands demonstrated the role of motivating operations. The authors contrived motivating operations for objects by training behavior chains that could not be completed without certain objects. The participants learned to mand for these missing objects, which they had previously only been able to tact... + +== Behavior under the control of verbal stimuli == + +=== Textual === +In Chapter Four Skinner notes forms of control by verbal stimuli. One form is textual behavior which refers to the type of behavior we might typically call reading or writing. A vocal response is controlled by a verbal stimulus that is not heard. There are two different modalities involved ("reading"). If they are the same they become "copying text" (see Jack Michael on copying text), if they are heard, then written, it becomes "taking dictation", and so on. + +=== Echoic === +Skinner was one of the first to seriously consider the role of imitation in language learning. He introduced this concept into his book Verbal Behavior with the concept of the echoic. It is a behavior under the functional control of a verbal stimulus. The verbal response and the verbal stimulus share what is called point to point correspondence (a formal similarity.) The speaker repeats what is said. In echoic behavior, the stimulus is auditory and response is vocal. It is often seen in early shaping behavior. For example, in learning a new language, a teacher might say "parsimonious" and then say "can you say it?" to induce an echoic response. Winokur (1978) is one example of research about echoic relations. + +== Tacts == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37ff2b61d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Verbal Behavior" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:05.628712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Chapter Five of Verbal Behavior discusses the tact in depth. A tact is said to "make contact with" the world, and refers to behavior that is under functional control of a non-verbal stimulus and generalized conditioned reinforcement. The controlling stimulus is nonverbal, "the whole of the physical environment". In linguistic terms, the tact might be regarded as "expressive labelling". Tact is the most useful form of verbal behaviour to other listeners, as it extends the listeners contact with the environment. In contrast, the tact is the most useful form of verbal behaviour to the speaker as it allows to contact tangible reinforcement. +Tacts can undergo many extensions: generic, metaphoric, metonymical, solecistic, nomination, and "guessing". It can also be involved in abstraction. Lowe, Horne, Harris & Randle (2002) would be one example of recent work in tacts. + +== Intraverbal == +Intraverbals are verbal behavior under the control of other verbal behavior. Intraverbals are often studied by the use of classic association techniques. + +== Audiences == +Audience control is developed through long histories of reinforcement and punishment. Skinner's three-term contingency can be used to analyze how this works: the first term, the antecedent, refers to the audience, in whose presence the verbal response (the second term) occurs. The consequences of the response are the third term, and whether or not those consequences strengthen or weaken the response will affect whether that response will occur again in the presence of that audience. Through this process, audience control, or the probability that certain responses will occur in the presence of certain audiences, develops. Skinner notes that while audience control is developed due to histories with certain audiences, we do not have to have a long history with every listener in order to effectively engage in verbal behavior in their presence (p. 176). We can respond to new audiences (new stimuli) as we would to similar audiences with whom we have a history. + +=== Negative audiences === +An audience that has punished certain kinds of verbal behavior is called a negative audience (p. 178): in the presence of this audience, the punished verbal behavior is less likely to occur. Skinner gives examples of adults punishing certain verbal behavior of children, and a king punishing the verbal behavior of his subjects. + +== Summary of verbal operants == +The following table summarizes the new verbal operants in the analysis of verbal behavior. + +== Verbal operants as a unit of analysis == +Skinner notes his categories of verbal behavior: mand, textual, intraverbal, tact, audience relations, and notes how behavior might be classified. He notes that form alone is not sufficient (he uses the example of "fire!" having multiple possible relationships depending on the circumstances). Classification depends on knowing the circumstances under which the behavior is emitted. Skinner then notes that the "same response" may be emitted under different operant conditions. Skinner states: + +"Classification is not an end in itself. Even though any instance of verbal behavior can be shown to be a function of variables in one or more of these classes, there are other aspects to be treated. Such a formulation permits us to apply to verbal behavior concepts and laws which emerge from a more general analysis" (p. 187). +That is, classification alone does little to further the analysis—the functional relations controlling the operants outlined must be analyzed consistent with the general approach of a scientific analysis of behavior. + +== Multiple causation == +Skinner notes in this chapter how any given response is likely to be the result of multiple variables. Secondly, that any given variable usually affects multiple responses. The issue of multiple audiences is also addressed, as each audience is, as already noted, an occasion for strong and successful responding. Combining audiences produces differing tendencies to respond. + +== Supplementary stimulation == +Supplementary stimulation is a discussion to practical matters of controlling verbal behavior given the context of material which has been presented thus far. Issues of multiple control, and involving many of the elementary operants stated in previous chapters are discussed. + +== New combinations of fragmentary responses == +A special case of where multiple causation comes into play creating new verbal forms is in what Skinner describes as fragmentary responses. Such combinations are typically vocal, although this may be due to different conditions of self-editing rather than any special property. Such mutations may be "nonsense" and may not further the verbal interchange in which it occurs. Freudian slips may be one special case of fragmentary responses which tend to be given reinforcement and may discourage self-editing. This phenomenon appears to be more common in children, and in adults learning a second language. Fatigue, illness and insobriety may tend to produce fragmentary responding. + +== Autoclitics == + +An autoclitic is a form of verbal behavior which modifies the functions of other forms of verbal behavior. For example, "I think it is raining" possesses the autoclitic "I think" which moderates the strength of the statement "it is raining". An example of research that involved autoclitics would be Lodhi & Greer (1989). + +== Self-strengthening == +Here Skinner draws a parallel to his position on self-control and notes: "A person controls his own behavior, verbal or otherwise, as he controls the behavior of others." Appropriate verbal behavior may be weak, as in forgetting a name, and in need of strengthening. It may have been inadequately learned, as in a foreign language. Repeating a formula, reciting a poem, and so on. The techniques are manipulating stimuli, changing the level of editing, the mechanical production of verbal behavior, changing motivational and emotional variables, incubation, and so on. Skinner gives an example of the use of some of these techniques provided by an author. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8aa6b7842 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Verbal Behavior" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:05.628712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Logical and scientific == +The special audience in this case is one concerned with "successful action". Special methods of stimulus control are encouraged that will allow for maximum effectiveness. Skinner notes that "graphs, models, tables" are forms of text that allow for this kind of development. The logical and scientific community also sharpens responses to assure accuracy and avoid distortion. Little progress in the area of science has been made from a verbal behavior perspective; however, suggestions of a research agenda have been laid out. + +== Tacting private events == +Private events are events accessible to only the speaker. Public events are events that occur outside of an organism's skin that are observed by more than one individual. A headache is an example of a private event and a car accident is an example of a public event. +The tacting of private events by an organism is shaped by the verbal community who differentially reinforce a variety of behaviors and responses to the private events that occur (Catania, 2007, p. 9). For example, if a child verbally states, "a circle" when a circle is in the immediate environment, it may be a tact. If a child verbally states, "I have a toothache", she/he may be tacting a private event, whereas the stimulus is present to the speaker, but not the rest of the verbal community. +The verbal community shapes the original development and the maintenance or discontinuation of the tacts for private events (Catania, 2007, p. 232). An organism responds similarly to both private stimuli and public stimuli (Skinner, 1957, p. 130). However, it is harder for the verbal community to shape the verbal behavior associated with private events (Catania, 2007, p. 403). It may be more difficult to shape private events, but there are critical things that occur within an organism's skin that should not be excluded from our understanding of verbal behavior (Catania, 2007, p. 9). +Several concerns are associated with tacting private events. Skinner (1957) acknowledged two major dilemmas. First, he acknowledges our difficulty with predicting and controlling the stimuli associated with tacting private events (p. 130). Catania (2007) describes this as the unavailability of the stimulus to the members of the verbal community (p. 253). The second problem Skinner (1957) describes is our current inability to understand how the verbal behavior associated with private events is developed (p. 131). +Skinner (1957) continues to describe four potential ways a verbal community can encourage verbal behavior with no access to the stimuli of the speaker. He suggests the most frequent method is via "a common public accompaniment". An example might be that when a kid falls and starts bleeding, the caregiver tells them statements like, "you got hurt". Another method is the "collateral response" associated with the private stimulus. An example would be when a kid comes running and is crying and holding their hands over their knee, the caregiver might make a statement like, "you got hurt". The third way is when the verbal community provides reinforcement contingent on the overt behavior and the organism generalizes that to the private event that is occurring. Skinner refers to this as a "metaphorical or metonymical extension". The final method that Skinner suggests may help form our verbal behavior is when the behavior is initially at a low level and then turns into a private event (Skinner, 1957, p. 134). This notion can be summarized by understanding that the verbal behavior of private events can be shaped through the verbal community by extending the language of tacts (Catania, 2007, p. 263). +Private events are limited and should not serve as "explanations of behavior" (Skinner, 1957, p. 254). Skinner (1957) continues to caution that, "the language of private events can easily distract us from the public causes of behavior" (see functions of behavior). + +== Chomsky's review and replies == +In 1959, Noam Chomsky published an influential critique of Verbal Behavior. Chomsky pointed out that children acquire their first language without being explicitly or overtly "taught" in a way that would be consistent with behaviorist theory (see Language acquisition and Poverty of the stimulus), and that Skinner's theories of "operants" and behavioral reinforcements are not able to account for the fact that people can speak and understand sentences that they have never heard before. +According to Frederick J. Newmeyer: + +Chomsky's review has come to be regarded as one of the foundational documents of the discipline of cognitive psychology, and even after the passage of twenty-five years it is considered the most important refutation of behaviorism. Of all his writings, it was the Skinner review which contributed most to spreading his reputation beyond the small circle of professional linguists. +Chomsky's 1959 review, amongst his other work of the period, is generally thought to have been influential in the decline of behaviorism's influence within linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science. One reply to it was Kenneth MacCorquodale's 1970 paper On Chomsky's Review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior. MacCorquodale argued that Chomsky did not possess an adequate understanding of either behavioral psychology in general, or the differences between Skinner's behaviorism and other varieties. As a consequence, he argued, Chomsky made several serious errors of logic. On account of these problems, MacCorquodale maintains that the review failed to demonstrate what it has often been cited as doing, implying that those most influenced by Chomsky's paper probably already substantially agreed with him. Chomsky's review has been further argued to misrepresent the work of Skinner and others, including by taking quotes out of context. Chomsky has maintained that the review was directed at the way Skinner's variant of behavioral psychology "was being used in Quinean empiricism and naturalization of philosophy". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..db2a98e65 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Verbal Behavior" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Behavior" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:05.628712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Current research == +Current research in verbal behavior is published in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB), and other Behavior Analytic journals such as The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA). Also research is presented at poster sessions and conferences, such as at regional Behavior Analysis conventions or Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) conventions nationally or internationally. There is also a Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) which has a mailing list. +Journal of Early and Intensive Behavior Intervention and the Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis both publish clinical articles on interventions based on verbal behavior. +Skinner has argued that his account of verbal behavior might have a strong evolutionary parallel. In Skinner's essay, Selection by Consequences he argued that operant conditioning was a part of a three-level process involving genetic evolution, cultural evolution and operant conditioning. All three processes, he argued, were examples of parallel processes of selection by consequences. David L. Hull, Rodney E. Langman and Sigrid S. Glenn have developed this parallel in detail. This topic continues to be a focus for behavior analysts. Behavior analysts have been working on developing ideas based on Verbal Behaviour for fifty years, and despite this, experience difficulty explaining generative verbal behavior. + +== See also == +The Analysis of Verbal Behavior +Applied behavior analysis +Child development +Experimental analysis of behavior +Functional analytic psychotherapy +Jack Michael +Reinforcement +Relational frame theory + +== References == + +== External links == +An Introduction to Verbal Behavior Online Tutorial +Chomsky's 1959 Review of Verbal Behavior +On Chomsky's Appraisal of Skinner's Verbal Behavior: A Half Century of Misunderstanding +The Analysis of Verbal Behavior pubmed archive +abainternational.org +contextualpsychology.org +ironshrink.com +A Tutorial of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanting b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanting new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Don't_Students_Like_School-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Don't_Students_Like_School-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0f9203d04 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Don't_Students_Like_School-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Why Don't Students Like School?" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Don't_Students_Like_School?" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:07.968067+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom is a 2009 educational psychology book by Daniel T. Willingham, published by Jossey-Bass. The work applies cognitive science research to classroom teaching practices, presenting nine principles about how students think and learn. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, wrote the book to bridge the gap between cognitive psychology research and practical teaching methods. + + +== Summary == +In Why Don't Students Like School? Willingham's explores the intersection between cognitive science and educational practice. He seeks to clarify why students often struggle to engage with schoolwork and outlines cognitive principles that educators can leverage to improve student learning and enjoyment of school. Central to Willingham’s thesis is the idea that the human brain is not primarily designed for thinking but rather to avoid it. Thinking is characterized as slow, effortful, and uncertain, which leads individuals to rely on memory and previously learned strategies to navigate most situations. Willingham asserts that people do enjoy thinking when the cognitive challenges they face are within their abilities to solve. The satisfaction of successfully resolving a cognitive challenge can motivate further learning and engagement. +Willingham emphasizes that student curiosity and willingness to engage cognitively depend greatly on the level of challenge presented. If problems are perceived as too easy or too difficult, students lose interest or become frustrated. The ideal cognitive task is described as one that is challenging yet achievable, generating feelings of satisfaction upon successful completion. This understanding is crucial for educators aiming to craft effective classroom experiences. One prominent issue addressed in the book is the reliance on rote memorization in education, often criticized as ineffective or superficial. However, Willingham argues that factual knowledge is essential to higher-order cognitive processes like critical thinking and problem-solving. Without a solid foundation of background knowledge, students struggle to understand and engage deeply with new information. The book encourages an educational approach that integrates the teaching of factual knowledge with skills development. +Willingham also explores specific educational topics through the lens of cognitive science, such as standardized testing, abstract concept comprehension, and differentiated instruction. He argues that standardized tests, despite their perceived shortcomings, can effectively measure foundational knowledge necessary for advanced cognitive skills. He discusses why students often remember information presented through television or visual media better than classroom lectures, attributing this difference to the cognitive mechanisms engaged by narrative and visual imagery. +The book addresses the difficulties students face in understanding abstract ideas, suggesting that educators make abstract concepts concrete through examples and analogies. Willingham proposes instructional practices such as deliberate and thoughtful drilling to promote automaticity of foundational skills, freeing cognitive resources for more complex problem-solving tasks. +Another important topic covered is the adjustment of teaching strategies to accommodate different types of learners. Willingham critiques common misconceptions about learning styles, arguing that rather than categorizing students, educators should focus on varying instructional approaches to enhance engagement and understanding universally. +In response to the challenges posed by technological integration in education, Willingham dedicates significant attention to evaluating educational technologies. He advises educators to critically assess new technologies by considering their proven effectiveness, cost, ease of use, and their alignment with pedagogical goals. This approach seeks to prevent reliance on technology as a panacea and instead promotes its purposeful integration. +The final chapters of the book reflect on how educators can support slower learners effectively. Willingham emphasizes the importance of understanding cognitive limitations, differentiating instruction carefully, and fostering an inclusive classroom environment that acknowledges and accommodates varied learning paces. + + +== Reception == +The book received positive reviews from major publications and educational journals. The Wall Street Journal wrote that "Mr. Willingham's answers apply just as well outside the classroom. Corporate trainers, marketers and, not least, parents—anyone who cares about how we learn—should find his book valuable reading." The New York Times referenced the book's discussion of educational practices, noting Willingham's analysis of how "drilling often conjures up images of late-19th-century schoolhouses, with students singsonging state capitals in unison without much comprehension of what they have learned." +Lauren Vega O'Neil, reviewing the book for the educational publication "Learning and the Brain," noted that Willingham "successfully reaches his goal of providing fundamental cognitive principles that are true in the laboratory and the classroom" and praised his analyses as "pragmatic and profound." Academic reviewers in the Journal of Legal Studies Education highlighted the book's central premise that "learning requires thinking" and its contribution to understanding how to create effective classroom environments. +The book has been translated into thirteen languages and is considered among the most influential education books of the 21st century, alongside works by E.D. Hirsch and Doug Lemov. A second edition was published in 2021, updating research on intelligence and adding new material on technology in education while maintaining the original's core principles. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_I_Want_to_Fuck_Ronald_Reagan-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_I_Want_to_Fuck_Ronald_Reagan-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea68ae8de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_I_Want_to_Fuck_Ronald_Reagan-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_I_Want_to_Fuck_Ronald_Reagan" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:09.126392+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (1968), by J. G. Ballard, is a short story written in the style of a scientific report on a series of experiments intended to measure the psychosexual appeal of the Californian politician Ronald Reagan, who then was governor of the state of California, and also a candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, which he lost to Richard Nixon. +First published as a pamphlet in 1968 by the Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, the short story was later republished in The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), a collection of thematically related short stories. It was later used as part of a prank at the 1980 Republican National Convention, at which Reagan was nominated as president. + + +== History == +In the preface to the 1990 edition of The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), the novelist J.G. Ballard said that he was impressed and inspired by the phenomenon of media politicians who speak for private interests, whilst pretending to speak for the public interest, because: + +In his commercials Reagan used the smooth, teleprompter-perfect tones of the TV auto-salesman to project a political message that was absolutely the reverse of bland and reassuring. A complete discontinuity existed between Reagan’s manner and body language, on the one hand, and his scarily simplistic right-wing message on the other. Above all, it struck me that Reagan was the first politician to exploit the fact that his TV audience would not be listening too closely, if at all, to what he was saying, and indeed might well assume, from his manner and presentation, that he was saying the exact opposite of the words actually emerging from his mouth. +A bookseller who sold the pamphlet-edition of the short story “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan” was charged with the crime of public obscenity. In 1970, the Doubleday publishing house included the pamphlet edition as an appendix to the first U.S. edition of The Atrocity Exhibition, which is a collection of thematically related short stories and condensed novels. +Moreover, at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan, as a political prank, ex-Situationists distributed a copy of the short story “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan”, the cover of which was decorated with the official seal of the Republican Party in order to impress and deceive the delegates of the report's documentary credibility. Ballard said that the political delegates readily accepted the short-story fiction for what it resembled: a scientific report about the psychological dynamics of the subliminal appeal of the media politician Ronald Reagan who was proffering himself as a Republican candidate for the national presidency. + + +== Quotes == +Patients were provided with assembly kit photographs of sexual partners during intercourse. In each case Reagan's face was super imposed upon the original partner. Vaginal intercourse with "Reagan" proved uniformly disappointing, producing orgasm in 2% of subjects. +"Faces were seen as either circumcised (JFK, Khrushchev) or uncircumcised (LBJ, Adenauer). In assembly-kit tests Reagan's face was uniformly perceived as a penile erection. Patients were encouraged to devise the optimum sex-death of Ronald Reagan." + + +== See also == +Crash, a Ballard novel which focuses on similar themes +Ronald Reagan in music + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Things_Bite_Back-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Things_Bite_Back-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8792f7042 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Things_Bite_Back-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Why Things Bite Back" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Things_Bite_Back" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:34.059970+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences is a 1997 book by former executive editor for physical science and history at Princeton University Press Edward Tenner that is an account and geography of modern technology. +Edward Tenner's book describes how technology has had unintended effects on society. + + +== See also == +Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Tenner, Edward (1997). Why things bite back : technology and the revenge of unintended consequences. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-74756-7. OCLC 37570811. +Basson, M.S. (1995) South African Water Transfer Schemes and their Impact on the Southern African Region, in Matiza, T., Craft, S. & Dale, P. (Eds.) Water Resource Use in the Zambezi Basin. Proceedings of a Workshop held in Kasane, Botswana, 28 April - 2 May 1993. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. +Blanchon, D. & Turton, A.R. (2005) Les Transferts Massifs d’Eau en Afrique du Sud. In Lasserre, F. (Ed.) Transferts Massifs d’Eau: Outils de Development ou Instruments de Pouvoir? (In French). Sainte-Foy, Quebec: Presses de l’Université du Québec. (Pp 247 – 283). +Cowan, Ruth (1983). More work for mother : the ironies of household technology from the open hearth to the microwave. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-04732-1. OCLC 9619681. +Heyns, P. (2002) Interbasin Transfer of Water Between SADC Countries: A Development Challenge for the Future. In Turton, A.R. & Henwood, R. (Eds.) Hydropolitics in the Developing World: A Southern African Perspective. Pretoria: African Water Issues Research Unit (AWIRU). pp157–176. +Norman, Donald (1993). Things that make us smart : defending human attributes in the age of the machine. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-201-62695-7. OCLC 27036310. +Postman, Neil (1992). Technopoly : the surrender of culture to technology. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-74540-2. OCLC 24694343. +Rochlin, Gene (1997). Trapped in the net : the unanticipated consequences of computerization. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00247-7. OCLC 614505530. +Smith, Merritt (1994). Does technology drive history? : the dilemma of technological determinism. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-19347-4. OCLC 28929481. +Snaddon, C.D.; Davies, B.R.; Wishart, M.J. (1999). A Global Overview of Inter-Basin Water Transfer Schemes, with an Appraisal of their Ecological, Socio-Economic and Socio-Political Implications, and Recommendations for Their Management. Water Research Commission Report No. TT120/00 (PDF) (Report). Pretoria: Water Research Commission. + + +== External links == +Why Things Bite Back at Randomhouse.com +Why Things Bite Back's Author Interview by AmericanHeritage.com \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_Luther-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_Luther-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..155fbca75 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_Luther-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Young Man Luther" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_Luther" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:10.292656+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History is a 1958 book by the psychologist Erik Erikson. It was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson found in Martin Luther a good model of his discovery of "the identity crisis". Erikson was sure he could explain Luther's spontaneous eruption, during a monastery choir practice, "I am not!" +According to Erikson, Luther suffered through an environment that fomented crisis, and succeeded in a healthy resolution, thereby becoming more fulfilled than if the crisis had not been experienced. In the end Luther chose the obedient, provincial leadership path his father had wished for him, rather than the national fame he could have easily pursued after his celebrity and wealth, but only after Luther had disobeyed and suffered many years in an identity crisis. + + +== Summary == +Erikson believed that rebellion is most likely to manifest in the youth stage of life. He suggested that before the rebellion can occur intensely, young people must first have believed in the thing they are rebelling against. Luther was thirty-four, and he had believed desperately in the authority of the very church he was rebelling against, for failing to follow the Bible. The most vocal critic will have been the most devoted and attached. +Erikson's interpretation of Martin Luther's life is that "great figures of history often spend years in a passive state. From a young age, they feel they will create a big stamp on the world, but unconsciously they wait for their particular truth to form itself in their minds, until they can make the most impact at the right time. +Erikson makes the point that Martin's standing up to a Holy Roman Church can only be understood in the context of his initial disobedience to his father. Luther was not, Erikson suggests, rebellious or disobedient by nature, but having done it once, he was the reluctant "expert" who was not. He also observes that although Martin Luther made a theological point, the church was not particularly out of line with the times of the era, but it was simply Martin Luther's own personal, internal issues with himself, that manifested against the church, and by projection, a crisis of identity. +Erikson identifies a second birth with the identity crisis when it is successfully maneuvered. William James gave Erikson the idea that while once born people conform, en masse, painlessly to the consensus reality of the age, twice born people get their direction by enduring an identity crisis of such tortuous magnitude that their souls are transformed and permanently fixed into a direction as such as a reformer role for that time for that society. In Martin's case it was a "good son" vs. "good monk" crisis that gave him direction to play the good reformer of the bad church for having more concern for filling their coffers at the expense of the very souls for whom it was their true calling and their spiritual leadership role to properly attend to by the word of the Bible, and not by the whim of the institution's temporal needs. + + +== Reception == +The critic Frederick Crews called Young Man Luther "one of the most challenging books that attempt a psychoanalytic understanding of historical problems." The historian Peter Gay called the book "pioneering though severely flawed", noting that it received a "devastating review" from the church historian Roland Bainton. +The author Richard Webster compared Young Man Luther to the classicist Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death (1959), observing that both works point to similarities between Luther's view of the human condition and psychoanalysis. + + +== See also == +Reformation + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Commentary on Young Man Luther from 50 Psychology Classics (2007) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Brain-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Brain-0.md index d3a5cc452..69ab86b7f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Brain-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Brain-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Brain" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:59.207860+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:11.475431+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..51b8b7a85 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:00.840950+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele (English: About the conflicts of a child's soul) was published in Leipzig in 1910 by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. In this book, Jung processes statements from a four-year-old girl that provide deep insight into the meaning of sexual interest. He discusses the problems that arise over the years, the conflicts they create as well as the solutions that help and those that do not. + +== Context == +After studying medicine at the University of Basel Jung worked at the Burghölzli Asylum of the University of Zürich. At Burghölzli he began to apply association tests initiated by earlier researchers and was especially interested in patients' illogical responses to stimulus words. Jung observed that these specific responses were caused by emotionally charged clusters of associations that were restrained from consciousness because of their obnoxious and often sexual content. Jung's findings confirmed many of Freud's ideas. Together they were close collaborators for five years. Jung held important positions in the psychoanalytic movement and is widely known as the most likely successor to the founder of psychoanalysis. Due to temperamental reasons and differences of viewpoint Freud's and Jung's collaboration ended. Jung disagreed with Freud's insistence on the sexual bases of neurosis. Three years prior to the end of his collaboration with Freud Jung published Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele. It was written during the period of Jung's editorship of the Yearbook for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research and his position as chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's goal was to complement Freud's case of Der kleine Hans (English: Little Hans), which, in Freud's view, was the first to provide evidence for infantile sexuality as "the (constitutional) common property of all human beings". In the case of Der kleine Hans from 1909 Freud analyses the beginning, process and the apparent solution of a horse phobia of a five-year-old child named Hans. In Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele Jung it is mentioned that the observations he made have so much in common with Freud's information about "Little Hans" that he could not refrain from making this material accessible to a wider audience. + +== Content == +In the book, Jung discusses several observations made by a father about his four-year-old daughter Anna. Jung chronologically talks about Anna's behavior over two years and explains it by retracing her thought process. +When Anna's mother is pregnant Anna starts questioning her parents about where babies come from, which is the core question discussed throughout the book. Anna's search for the answer to this question influences her behavior in many ways. She builds her own theories, finds new information, which leads to a renewal of her theories. Anna is in a constant process of adjusting her knowledge. At first, she comes up with the theory that old people turn into angels when they die and then become children again. But since her mother did not die after she gave birth to Anna's little brother, she rejects this theory. After asking her mother where her brother came from, Anna gets the explanation that the baby grew inside of her mother just like a flower growing out of the ground. Anna figures that he must have come out of either the hole in her mother's breast or through her mouth. This raises the question, of how her brother got into the mother's body in the first place. For Anna, it makes perfect sense, that everything that lands in the body has to enter it through the mouth. This leads to her thinking, that swallowing a whole orange will make Anna pregnant since she will have a huge belly just as pregnant women do. Another question that arises is the purpose of the father in the process of having a baby. After her father tells her, that he cannot have a baby Anna starts thinking about an alternative purpose for him. Her main inference at the end of the book is that her father's genitals must be important in the whole process. +Jung's conclusion regarding the education of children is, that parents should not use false theories in order to explain something to their children since this can cause serious distrust. Also, it is not useful to insist on the correct explanations of difficult topics, because it suppresses the freedom of a child's thought development. Early education, even about sexual topics, is not problematic since it relieves a child's fantasy and avoids that this fantasy negatively impacts the free development of thinking. + +== Editions == +Jung modified Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele three times and his perspective on this topic changed from version to version. In his first version from 1910, the influence of Freud's drive theory is clearly noticeable. The same year that Jung publishes this version, he is elected president of International Psychoanalytic Association. Three years later he resigns as president and has his final break with Freud. In 1915 he publishes the second version of the book in which he strongly invalidates the theses he had expressed under Freud's influence. Although he continues to assign sexual interest a causal role in the development process of children's thinking, he believes that this child's sexual interest does not necessarily strive for an immediate sexual goal. Rather this interest strives for the development of thinking, which is why the solution to this conflict does not need the granting of a sexual goal. Over the next years he continues to publish books about unconscious processes and instincts. In his third version from 1938 he mentions that in the field of psychology, theories can be highly devastating. He explains that we need certain theoretical points of view, but they should be seen as mere auxiliary ideas that can be put aside at any time. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..862c5c50c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Über_Konflikte_der_kindlichen_Seele" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:56:00.840950+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reception == +Together with Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, Jung was very influential in the field of depth psychology, which is closely related to the topic of sexuality. Together with Kleiner Hans, Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele was one of the first books that write about sexuality of children. In Jung's opinion infants and young children are psychologically a part of the parents' psyche. He claims that a child's psychological disorder is exclusively caused by disturbances in the psychic sphere of the parents. This statement, which emphasizes the importance of parents for early childhood development, was not widespread at Jung's time. It is also partly confirmed in modern research on young children. Some psychologists such as child psychiatrist and Jungian analyst Michael Fordham, did not fully agree with Jung's statement. He states that a child should be seen as its own psychological individual. It should not be seen as merely an appendage of the parental psyche. When Freud presented a phase of development characterized by a lack of experience with objects in his essay Zur Einführung des Narzissmus (English: Introduction of Narcissism), he also referred to the concept of an introversion of the libido, which Jung introduced in Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele. Freud differentiated the meaning of this concept in many ways in his work Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (English: Changes and Symbols of Libido). +In 1977 Jung's book was mentioned in psychology magazines such as Neue Bücher zur Seelsorge und Psychologie (English: New books about pastoral care and psychology). Jung's explanations of Anna's dreams where also mentioned in books such as Die Sprache des Traumes by Wilhelm Stekel, which is a textbook about interpreting dreams, written for doctors and psychologist. Almost 100 years after publishing Über Konflikte der kindlichen Seele, Jung's findings and statements are still being proved and used, for example for psychodynamic family therapy and family counseling. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file