5 ms·

What topics are academic? Which are not? Which questions are fair game for academic inquiry? Which are not? How do we know ahead of time what will be useful

by pgayed 4y ago

What topics are academic? Which are not? Which questions are fair game for academic inquiry? Which are not? How do we know ahead of time what will be useful and what won't be? Is the question above this line academically useful?

082349872349872 4y ago
Having some free time, I'll take a rough draft cut at these: > What topics are academic? Which are not? Topics which discuss general ideas which are logically (or at least rhetorically) decidable are academic. Topics which discuss particular individuals and are matters of taste are not. > Which questions are fair game for academic inquiry? cf supra > Which are not? cf supra > How do we know ahead of time what will be useful and what won't be? If a topic falls under an existing academic discipline, it will likely be useful. As stated above, matters of taste are unlikely to be useful. (possibly, if one has reason to believe one can capture a global distribution of tastes? or provide a theory of changes in distributions of tastes, etc.) > Is the question above this line academically useful? Useful for a "philosophy of academics" discipline, probably not so useful for any non-meta discipline. Note, however, that discipline's core questions will change over time, as one subfield gets overworked and new subfields are discovered.
- pgayed 4y ago
  How do you know matters of taste are unlikely to be useful? Is taste arbitrary? Do human preferences have a basis? Do human preferences have constraints? If so, are these bases or constraints available for academic study?
  - 082349872349872 4y ago
    De gustibus non est disputandum Can you suggest bases and/or constraints? If you can make a coherent theory of it, then sure, that'd* be worthy of inquiry. (cf gp) * similar to how stat mech. and quantum have very little to say about any individual transition, but can discriminate over the macro-states available to a whole collection of micro-states?
082349872349872 4y ago
To provide one general example, you do not need any answers to the questions above (which furthermore, only relate to a specific case, so the answers may not even be relevant to the general). (I would like to provide an example, but I attempted and can't think of any)

by pgayed 4y ago

082349872349872 4y ago

Having some free time, I'll take a rough draft cut at these: > What topics are academic? Which are not? Topics which discuss general ideas which are logically (or at least rhetorically) decidable are academic. Topics which discuss particular individuals and are matters of taste are not. > Which questions are fair game for academic inquiry? cf supra > Which are not? cf supra > How do we know ahead of time what will be useful and what won't be? If a topic falls under an existing academic discipline, it will likely be useful. As stated above, matters of taste are unlikely to be useful. (possibly, if one has reason to believe one can capture a global distribution of tastes? or provide a theory of changes in distributions of tastes, etc.) > Is the question above this line academically useful? Useful for a "philosophy of academics" discipline, probably not so useful for any non-meta discipline. Note, however, that discipline's core questions will change over time, as one subfield gets overworked and new subfields are discovered.

pgayed 4y ago
How do you know matters of taste are unlikely to be useful? Is taste arbitrary? Do human preferences have a basis? Do human preferences have constraints? If so, are these bases or constraints available for academic study?
- 082349872349872 4y ago
  De gustibus non est disputandum Can you suggest bases and/or constraints? If you can make a coherent theory of it, then sure, that'd* be worthy of inquiry. (cf gp) * similar to how stat mech. and quantum have very little to say about any individual transition, but can discriminate over the macro-states available to a whole collection of micro-states?

082349872349872 4y ago

To provide one general example, you do not need any answers to the questions above (which furthermore, only relate to a specific case, so the answers may not even be relevant to the general). (I would like to provide an example, but I attempted and can't think of any)