|
Guard him, ye poetic Powers! Watch his Minutes, watch his Hours: Lest your Tuneful Nine inspire him; Lest poetic Fury fire him |
|---|
|
Namby-Pamby: |
- Then, blessing all, 'Go, children of my care!
- To practice now from theory repair. 580
- All my commands are easy, short, and full:
- My sons! be proud, be selfish, and be dull.
- Guard my prerogative, assert my throne:
- This nod confirms each privilege your own.
I like epigraphs!
"true eloquence I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth: And that whose mind so ever is fully possest with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words (by what I can expresse) like so many nimble and airy servitors trip about him at command, and in well order'd files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places."
"when complaints are freely heard, deeply considered and speedily reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for." "For he who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best covenant of his fidelity."
Other Puritans set high standards in the Westminster Larger Catechism:
- A144: The duties required in the Ninth Commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man,[1] and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; [2] appearing and standing for the truth;[3] and from the heart,[4] sincerely,[5] freely,[6] clearly,[7] and fully,[8] speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice,[9] and in all other things whatsoever;[10] a charitable esteem of our neighbors;[11] loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name;[12] sorrowing for,[13] and covering of their infirmities;[14] freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces,[15] defending their innocence;[16] a ready receiving of a good report,[17] and unwillingness to admit of an evil report,[18] concerning them; discouraging talebearers,[19] flatterers,[20] and slanderers;[21] love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth;[22] keeping of lawful promises;[23] studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.[24]
- A145: The sins forbidden in the ninth commandment are, all prejudicing the truth, and the good name of our neighbors, as well as our own,[1] especially in public judicature;[2] giving false evidence,[3] suborning false witnesses,[4] wittingly appearing and pleading for an evil cause, outfacing and overbearing the truth;[5] passing unjust sentence,[6] calling evil good, and good evil; rewarding the wicked according to the work of the righteous, and the righteous according to the work of the wicked;[7] forgery,[8] concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause,[9] and holding our peace when iniquity calleth for either a reproof from ourselves,[10] or complaint to others;[11] speaking the truth unseasonably,[12] or maliciously to a wrong end,[13] or perverting it to a wrong meaning,[14] or in doubtful and equivocal expressions, to the prejudice of truth or justice;[15] speaking untruth,[16] lying,[17] slandering,[18] backbiting,[19] detracting,[20] tale bearing,[21] whispering,[22] scoffing,[23] reviling,[24] rash,[25] harsh,[26] and partial censuring;[27] misconstructing intentions, words, and actions;[28] flattering,[29] vainglorious boasting,[30] thinking or speaking too highly or too meanly of ourselves or others;[31] denying the gifts and graces of God;[32] aggravating smaller faults;[33] hiding, excusing, or extenuating of sins, when called to a free confession;[34] unnecessary discovering of infirmities;[35] raising false rumors,[36] receiving and countenancing evil reports,[37] and stopping our ears against just defense;[38] evil suspicion;[39] envying or grieving at the deserved credit of any,[40] endeavoring or desiring to impair it,[41] rejoicing in their disgrace and infamy;[42] scornful contempt,[43] fond admiration;[44] breach of lawful promises;[45] neglecting such things as are of good report,[46] and practicing, or not avoiding ourselves, or not hindering: What we can in others, such things as procure an ill name.[47]
Jack C. Kiefer and Jacob Wolfowitz were two statisticians and mathematical scientists. Their eponymous theorems include the "Kiefer-Wolfowitz" (first-order) optimality criterion in the optimal design of statistical experiments and also the "Kiefer-Wolfowitz" methods of stochastic approximation (estimating an optimum when using only noisy function evaluations).
I am a statistician by profession and a mathematical scientist by schooling and avocation.
In statistics, my interests include experimentation, computational statistics, and statistical inference. In the statistical decision theory of Abraham Wald, optimal statistical procedures solve problems of stochastic optimization, which may be sequential. The formalism of maximizing expected utility and methods for stochastic programming are useful for operations research and economic decisions, e.g. for designing optimal experiments.
Some thoughts (following some edits of History of macroeconomic thought, which again has added fringe economics).
The first Encyclopaedia was created by French philosophes during the Enlightenment. Since the time of Diderot and D'Alembert, Encyclopedias have striven to cover the best currently available thought and to sketch the development of these thoughts.
Immanuel Kant wrote an essay "Idea towards a universal history with a cosmopolitan intent" (along with "What Is Enlightenment?").
Charles Sanders Peirce wrote extensively on the history of science:
His familiarity with science, as a practitioner and as a historian "at close quarters", helped him to formulate and to give an improved account of the scientific method, which accounted for progress in mathematics, logic, and science:
Peirce's student, John Dewey, adapted some of Peirce's ideas—any changes always being for the worse. (Dewey's politics were excellent, however: He supported unions in the Pullman Strike, was a founder of the League for Industrial Democracy, defended victims of Soviet communism and Stalinist purges, etc.).
Alasdair MacIntyre has written about the philosophy of science:
MacIntyre has written several philosophically sophisticated histories of ethics:
MacIntyre has acknowledged the genius of Peirce's account of progress in the last decades.
