My latest book haul

I just ordered a bunch of books to get me through the fall.

First, I’ve gotten more interested lately in the direction that paleontology has gone regarding dinosaur modeling. Will be quite an experience to see how the scholarship today differs from that of my childhood, when most dinosaurs were these quick-footed carnivorous lizards and plodding herbivorous titans.

I read The Landmark Herodotus several years ago. I was intensely invaluable to see maps alongside the text. Not being from the area that the military campaigns cover, I was able to see way more context to the story. On a whim, I just ordered most (all?) of the series.

I don’t always agree with Francis Fukuyama, but I appreciate that a) his positions are regularly atypical, and b) he is professional enough to formally recognize when he’s wrong. His old Wilsonian nation-building position of his younger years was utter crap, but it seems that he’s settled into a more realist position in terms of his historiography and political philosophy.

Logical positivism (a sort-of offshoot/brief inheritor of pragmatism and analytical philosophy) has been derided for several decades to the point of lacking all credibility. The basic gist is that logical positivism is based on the concept of verificationism – not solidifying something as fact until it is directly observed. Philosophically, there are substantial issues with this theory of truth. Do you know there’s no teacup floating in space until you simultaneously observe ALL of space? In a real situation, black swans were known to not exist until they were suddenly found. These sorts of situations make logical positivism untenable in philosophical situations. Scientific theorists like Karl Popper advanced falsification instead – ie. something is potentially true until you can falsify it.

But I’d argue that logical positivism and verificationism speaks the language of business, and is a great fit in industry. Traditionally, verification reflects the traditional demands of due diligence.

“Did you make sure that X is Y before you acted?”

“I just want a single version of the truth.”

etc.

I think it’s time to resurrect a form of logical positivism as a philosophy of business.