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I know one of the founders, and she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, as I do as well. Astrology as a contemplative and epistemolog

I know one of the founders, and she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, as I do as well. Astrology as a contemplative and epistemological practice has deep roots; the idea that astrology is "real" in a physical causal sense goes back to Ptolemy and only persists because of the historical influence of the Christian church. I've written a bit on the topic here: https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology As an engineer who's also studied a bit of astrology and has played around with how one might produce a description language to support the astrological symbolic apparatus, I think a functional language is a great choice. The idea of strict types defined as a set of symbols makes perfect sense in astrological terms. Although I'm much more familiar with OCaml/SML than Haskell, a basic outline would be something like: type Planet = Sun | Moon | Mercury | ... type Sign = Aries | Taurus | ... | Pisces type House = 1 | 2 | ... | 12 Using this, you could represent a whole chart in a pretty straightforward way. And then you could have higher order constructs, which represent meaningful formal relationships, like: type Aspect = (Planet, Planet, Degree) type Rulership = (Planet, Sign) etc. It's a pretty natural idea, to use a strong type system to represent what is effectively a formal language (astrology).

whimsicalism 5y ago
> I know one of the founders, and she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, as I do as well. Astrology as a contemplative and epistemological practice has deep roots; the idea that astrology is "real" in a physical causal sense goes back to Ptolemy and only persists because of the historical influence of the Christian church. I've written a bit on the topic here: https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology Sorry, how does this justify lying and deceiving people for profit? > she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, By "deep background" you mean she got a BA in psychology?
- Nav_Panel 5y ago
  > lying and deceiving people for profit? Who here exactly is being lied to? Some people feel that doctors lie to them, so they don't go to doctors. Similarly, if someone feels like astrology is all a big lie, they don't have to use the app. > By "deep background" you mean she got a BA in psychology? I mean she's done quite a lot of reading on enlightenment and modern philosophy, can hold a conversation on Kant, Hegel, etc. as well as Freud, Lacan, RD Laing, and others. Humanities degrees tell me very little about the quality of someone's understanding.
cogman10 5y ago
> Astrology as a contemplative and epistemological practice has deep roots I've never understood this as an argument for veracity. There are lots of ideas and practices with "deep roots". Blood letting has "deep roots", yet we've pretty thoroughly debunked humor balancing and good medicine. Astrology, like other psuedosciences, seems built on the notion that if you add enough lingo it becomes valid. Yet a quick skeptical consideration of "Ok, what does the position of a rock in the sky have to do with my day to day life" seems like it should readily debunk it. Why does the position of Jupiter, for example, have more effect on my life than say the position of the moon? Or 624 Hector? If I throw a rock over someone's head does that have an appreciable effect on their "luck" or how their day will go? Does the composition of said rock impact a person's luck?
- Nav_Panel 5y ago
  > Why does the position of Jupiter, for example, have more effect on my life than say the position of the moon? It doesn't particularly matter. You can use a randomly generated chart and it will still "work", because the use of astronomy in astrology is basically as RNG, and astrology itself is a psychological language. > Blood letting has "deep roots", yet we've pretty thoroughly debunked humor balancing and good medicine. Do you really think modern medical psychology has moved past the "blood letting" phase of knowledge? If so, then why are so many people still depressed, anxious, etc, despite all the supposed advances? The fact is that psychology has a long way to go before it can be treated as a proper physical science, requiring researchers to bridge vast gaps in neuroscience and the structure of experience, which includes the huge and significant role of symbols in life. As it stands, the person with the most knowledge of your own life is... you, and tools like astrology function as mirrors to help you avoid your own biases when developing self-knowledge. This is entirely unlike any medical intervention I'm aware of, and cannot be compared in kind.
  - cogman10 5y ago
    > Do you really think modern medical psychology has moved past the "blood letting" phase of knowledge? If so, then why are so many people still depressed, anxious, etc, despite all the supposed advances? A common misunderstanding of psychology is that it's about "curing" psychological illnesses. Almost all psychological illnesses are chronic and not diseases that can be cured. As such, the work of a psychologist is almost always around managing, not curing. You wouldn't, for example, look at the physical therapy an amputee receives and go "Physical therapy must be no better than blood letting because amputees still exist!" > The fact is that psychology has a long way to go before it can be treated as a proper physical science, requiring researchers to bridge vast gaps in neuroscience and the structure of experience, which includes the huge and significant role of symbols in life. That's happened perhaps more than I think you'd expect. This is where, for example, SSRIs have come from. It's not random shots in the dark and guesses. The unfortunate problem is there's a bunch of stigma around taking medicine for psychological problems.

whimsicalism 5y ago

> I know one of the founders, and she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, as I do as well. Astrology as a contemplative and epistemological practice has deep roots; the idea that astrology is "real" in a physical causal sense goes back to Ptolemy and only persists because of the historical influence of the Christian church. I've written a bit on the topic here: https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology https://listed.to/@simpolism/27322/what-is-astrology Sorry, how does this justify lying and deceiving people for profit? > she has a deep background in philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, By "deep background" you mean she got a BA in psychology?

Nav_Panel 5y ago
> lying and deceiving people for profit? Who here exactly is being lied to? Some people feel that doctors lie to them, so they don't go to doctors. Similarly, if someone feels like astrology is all a big lie, they don't have to use the app. > By "deep background" you mean she got a BA in psychology? I mean she's done quite a lot of reading on enlightenment and modern philosophy, can hold a conversation on Kant, Hegel, etc. as well as Freud, Lacan, RD Laing, and others. Humanities degrees tell me very little about the quality of someone's understanding.

cogman10 5y ago

> Astrology as a contemplative and epistemological practice has deep roots I've never understood this as an argument for veracity. There are lots of ideas and practices with "deep roots". Blood letting has "deep roots", yet we've pretty thoroughly debunked humor balancing and good medicine. Astrology, like other psuedosciences, seems built on the notion that if you add enough lingo it becomes valid. Yet a quick skeptical consideration of "Ok, what does the position of a rock in the sky have to do with my day to day life" seems like it should readily debunk it. Why does the position of Jupiter, for example, have more effect on my life than say the position of the moon? Or 624 Hector? If I throw a rock over someone's head does that have an appreciable effect on their "luck" or how their day will go? Does the composition of said rock impact a person's luck?

Nav_Panel 5y ago
> Why does the position of Jupiter, for example, have more effect on my life than say the position of the moon? It doesn't particularly matter. You can use a randomly generated chart and it will still "work", because the use of astronomy in astrology is basically as RNG, and astrology itself is a psychological language. > Blood letting has "deep roots", yet we've pretty thoroughly debunked humor balancing and good medicine. Do you really think modern medical psychology has moved past the "blood letting" phase of knowledge? If so, then why are so many people still depressed, anxious, etc, despite all the supposed advances? The fact is that psychology has a long way to go before it can be treated as a proper physical science, requiring researchers to bridge vast gaps in neuroscience and the structure of experience, which includes the huge and significant role of symbols in life. As it stands, the person with the most knowledge of your own life is... you, and tools like astrology function as mirrors to help you avoid your own biases when developing self-knowledge. This is entirely unlike any medical intervention I'm aware of, and cannot be compared in kind.
- cogman10 5y ago
  > Do you really think modern medical psychology has moved past the "blood letting" phase of knowledge? If so, then why are so many people still depressed, anxious, etc, despite all the supposed advances? A common misunderstanding of psychology is that it's about "curing" psychological illnesses. Almost all psychological illnesses are chronic and not diseases that can be cured. As such, the work of a psychologist is almost always around managing, not curing. You wouldn't, for example, look at the physical therapy an amputee receives and go "Physical therapy must be no better than blood letting because amputees still exist!" > The fact is that psychology has a long way to go before it can be treated as a proper physical science, requiring researchers to bridge vast gaps in neuroscience and the structure of experience, which includes the huge and significant role of symbols in life. That's happened perhaps more than I think you'd expect. This is where, for example, SSRIs have come from. It's not random shots in the dark and guesses. The unfortunate problem is there's a bunch of stigma around taking medicine for psychological problems.