Sunday, August 28, 2022

THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 27

How did Socrates illustrate the quest for truth by talking about a toppled statue?

Subject:  Epistemology - The Warren Report and Daedalus’ Statues

Event:  The Warren Report is published, 1964


When I think of the most able students I have encountered in my teaching - I mean those who have distinguished themselves not only by skill but by independence of thought - then I must confess that all have had a lively interest in epistemology. -Albert Einstein


In very simple words, the quotation above encapsulates the purpose of one of the key branches of philosophy.  It is called epistemology: the study or theory of knowledge.  If we are, as Socrates stated, to live examined lives, we must be able to tell what is true from what is false.  The quest for the truth and the questioning of the truth is the core of epistemology.  


In Plato’s Meno, Socrates presents a metaphor to illustrate how belief differs from knowledge.  He began by describing a statue by the Greek sculptor Daedalus -- you might remember him from another story about his son, Icarus.  It was said that Daedalus’ statues were so life-like that they needed to be tethered to prevent their walking away.  Socrates compared a true belief to an untethered statue that might be easily lost or toppled.  Knowledge, however, was a statue that was tethered by cables, giving it stability.  A statue anchored by reason and tethered by examined counterarguments will stand strong even against a strong wind or storm.



                                            Socrates - Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 


One of the most important quests for truth ever published came in the form of the 888-page Warren Report issued on this day in 1964. The goal of the report was to establish the truth behind who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 29, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. The commission, chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, concluded that a lone assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.


From the moment the Warren Report was published, its validity was questioned.  In the true epistemological tradition, several of these critics were philosophers who were not convinced by the evidence presented. 


One of the skeptical philosophers was Josiah Thompson, who completed his own extensive investigation into the evidence.  In his 1967 book Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination, Thompson concluded that it was impossible for Oswald to have acted alone.  He closely examined the physical evidence and eyewitness testimony, including the Zebruder film, which captured the six-second sequence of gunshots that took President Kennedy’s life.  Because Thompson believed that it was impossible for Oswald to have fired his rifle three times in six seconds, he concluded that there must have been a second gunman.


Of course, Thompson is just one of hundreds of authors and filmmakers who have questioned the Warren Report’s conclusion.  Kennedy’s assassination is a moment in time that demonstrates the elusive nature of truth.  Even though there were dozens of eyewitnesses and a color film of the assassination, every second of the events in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza continue to be debated (1).


Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What is epistemology, and how does it relate to Daedulus’ statues and the Warren Report?

 

Challenge - True or False?:  Do some research on quotations relating to truth and falsehood.  What is the best, most insightful quote you can find about either truth, falsehood, or the relationship between the two concepts?  What is the quotation, who said it, and why do you think it is important?


ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-September 27, 1777:  On this day, the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became the nation’s capital for a single day.  Developments in the Revolutionary War forced the Second Continental Congress to pack up and move from the original capital city, Philadelphia.

-September 27, 1962:  On this day, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a book that helped launch the environmental movement, was published.  Carson’s book altered the public to the destructive toll of pesticides like DDT: "Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings, once filled with the beauty of bird song, are strangely silent." 

-September 27, 1992:  On this day the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) made a presentation to persuade the general public that “movie popcorn is fatty.”  Standing in front of table covered with a smorgasbord of greasy entrees, the CSPI spokesperson’s message what short but sticky:  “A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all trimmings -- combined!” See THINKER’S ALMANAC - May 13.


Sources:

1-Madigan, Tim.  “The Warren Report.”  Philosophy Now March/April 2008.



Preview for September 28: How did the closing argument in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial illustrate an important rhetorical principle?



THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 26

Given just five minutes and limited information, how did a Soviet colonel make a decision that saved millions of lives?


Subject: Decision Making - Petrov’s Life-Saving Decision

Event:  Stanislav Petrov saves the world, 1983


Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking. -Malcolm Gladwell


Imagine having to make a life-or-death decision that would decide not just your fate, but the fates of millions of other people?  To add a little more pressure to this decision making process, imagine you are working with incomplete information and with the clock ticking; you have 25 minutes to make your decision.


These were the circumstances of Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Air Defense Forces on the morning of September 26, 1983.  Petrov’s mission that day was to monitor Russia’s early-warning satellites over the United States. It was the Cold War, and Petrov’s job was to be alert in the event that the U.S. launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) against Russia.


That morning a computer sounded an alarm, and the early warning system indicated that 5 Minuteman ICBMs had been launched by the U.S.  Petrov now had to make a decision. Was the early warning system correct?  By reporting an incoming American strike to his superiors, Petrov knew the Soviets would respond with full nuclear retaliation.


                                                Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay


To make his decision Petrov relied on his training, which told him that a nuclear first strike would not begin with just 5 warheads; instead, it would begin with a massive number of warheads -- in 1983 the U.S. arsenal consisted of over 23,000 missiles.  Furthermore, radar installations in Russia were not detecting an attack.  Based on this limited information, Petrov contemplated his decision for an incredibly tense 5 minutes.  In the end, he concluded that the computer was registering a false alarm.  As a result, he did not report an attack.  


Fortunately for Petrov and the rest of the world, he was correct.  The Soviet early-warning system had mistaken the sun’s reflection off of clouds for an attack.  As a result of Petrov's cool thinking under pressure, he prevented the deaths of an estimated 136 to 288 million people.  For comparison, the total deaths in World War II amounted to 55 million (1).


For his decisive role in saving the world, you might think that the Soviets would have held a parade in his honor; instead, as recorded in his 2017 New York Times obituary, the hero received a reprimand for incomplete record keeping:

 

Colonel Petrov was at first praised for his calm, but in an investigation that followed, he was asked why he had failed to record everything in his logbook. “Because I had a phone in one hand and the intercom in the other, and I don’t have a third hand,” he replied. (2)


Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Petrov use the information he had to make a reasonable decision that saved thousands of lives?

 

Challenge - Decision Precision:  Do some research to find some quotations on decision-making.  Find the one quotation that gives the best insight or advice and how to make decisions or why decision-making is so important.  Explain why you think your quotation is so insightful.


ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-September 26, 1898:  Today is the birthday of Leonard E. Reed, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).  He is best known for his essay “I, Pencil” (1958), which traces the miracle of the free market from the first-person perspective of a pencil.    See THINKER’S ALMANAC - June 5.

-September 26, 1960:  On this day, the first-ever televised presidential debate was held in Chicago between Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon.  More than 65 million viewers watched as the candidates squared off, revealing the power of television as a modern medium for politics.  Although radio listeners awarded the debate to Nixon, the much larger television audience gave the prize to Kennedy, who appeared much more relaxed and confident than the sweaty and glum Nixon (3).

-September 26, 1969:  The Beatles release their last studio album, Abbey Road.


Sources:

1-Matthews, Dylan. “36 years ago today, one man saved us from world-ending nuclear war.”  Vox 26 Sept. 2019.

2-By Sewell Chan, Sewell.  “Soviet Officer Who Helped Avert Nuclear War, Is Dead at 77”  The New York Times 18 Sept. 2017.

3-Safire, William.  Lend Me Your Ears:  Great Speeches in History.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.



Preview for September 27: How did Socrates illustrate the quest for truth by talking about a toppled statue?


THINKER'S ALMANAC - January 31

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