- May 7, 2013
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Reading some of the threads on the "Mobile Devices & Gadgets" forum I remembered something I read and wanted to share. I have found quite a lot on the various threads to remind me of the following:
It was John Kenneth Galbraith who coined the phrase “conventional wisdom.”
He didn't consider it a compliment. “We associate truth with convenience,” he wrote, “with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.”
Economic and social behaviors, Galbraith continued, “are complex, and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.”
So the conventional wisdom in Galbraith’s view must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting - though not necessarily true.
It would be silly to argue that the conventional wisdom is never true.
But noticing where the conventional wisdom may be false - noticing, perhaps, the contrails of sloppy or self-interested thinking - is a nice place to start asking questions.
This isn't the right forum for philosophy.
-ViRGE
It was John Kenneth Galbraith who coined the phrase “conventional wisdom.”
He didn't consider it a compliment. “We associate truth with convenience,” he wrote, “with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.”
Economic and social behaviors, Galbraith continued, “are complex, and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.”
So the conventional wisdom in Galbraith’s view must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting - though not necessarily true.
It would be silly to argue that the conventional wisdom is never true.
But noticing where the conventional wisdom may be false - noticing, perhaps, the contrails of sloppy or self-interested thinking - is a nice place to start asking questions.
This isn't the right forum for philosophy.
-ViRGE
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