Author Archives: Robert Frodeman

The Dangers of AI

Described in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

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Scenes from another academic conference

In Binghampton, NY for ‘Making Possible Futures in Research: Working Across the Disciplines’. I don’t seem to know how to make this rap more popular. I’ve been thinking about this for 25 years. I think it’s right, or at least … Continue reading

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How can we do interdisciplinarity if disciplines dont exist?

Disciplines have little or no epistemic basis: they are managerial entities, congeries of skills collected together at some point to address one or another problem, which then became ossified into institutional housings called departments. Disciplines mainly exist in textbooks taught … Continue reading

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The Metaphysics of the Shutdown

In all the commentary about the government shutdown and the impending breaching of the debt ceiling, no one has yet noted that we are witnessing a clash of metaphysics. Andrew Sullivan calls it a “cognitive abyss:” “That’s where we are. … Continue reading

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Cantor and Smith on the NSF

Two prominent republicans have taken NSF to task, in the pages of USA Today. Overall, it’s a rather toothless piece:

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The Demise of Barnes & Noble

An interesting article, at

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Interdisciplinarity and Neoliberalism

Is interdisciplinarity a neoliberal plot? Are interdisciplinarians simply neoliberal tools? There’s a danger of that happening (for that matter, there are instances that we can point to that qualify already). By bypassing disciplinary standards for quality, or even acceptable theoretical … Continue reading

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Paying Obeisance to the Tribe

One might imagine that thinking about inter- and transdisciplinarity would require a wide acquaintance with the world, e.g., one part philosophy, another policy studies; some historical perspective, some understanding of how science works; some educational theory and a smattering of … Continue reading

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The Value of Disinterestedness

Disinterestedness as an ideology within the natural sciences — described as ‘curiosity-based research’ — serves to protect the natural scientists from the social consequences of his discoveries. Disinterestedness as an ideology in the social sciences seeks to inoculate the social … Continue reading

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The Future of the Humanities

From Andrrew Sullivan’s Dish:

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Proceduralism and the Absence of Courage

From Rawls: “Pure procedural justice obtains when there is no independent criterion for the right result: instead there is a correct or fair procedure such that the outcome is likewise correct or fair, whatever it is, provided that the procedure … Continue reading

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Why Philosophy is Hopeless Today

So, let me tell you about the absurd. I’m at a conference on the philosophy of technology. I’m at a plenary. A big shot (who I have never heard of, but that does not say much anymore) is at the … Continue reading

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IITs of India

An interesting read: on the leading universities of India.

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Hirschman on creativity

Nice Albert O. Hirschman quote brought to us by Malcolm Gladwell at the New Yorker: …The only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it … Continue reading

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Academic Sustainability

The academy may be filled with leftists–so we are told–but it has yet to apply its Marxist interpretive skills to its own situation. For the academy suffers from epistemic overproduction. We can expect a crash. This overproduction shows itself both … Continue reading

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Limiting Knowledge Production

What? Now why would anyone want to do that? The field of sustainability studies can be seen as being about two things: limits and technology. We are concerned about sustainability because we fear that we are approaching (or have already … Continue reading

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Online education at NAU

This is a bit dated now–July, 2012–but I just ran across a striking step in the development of online education at NAU

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the future locus of knowledge production

Nota bene: Age 25 and Over (2011)[2] Education Percentage in the US High school graduate 87.58% Some college 56.86% Associate’s and/or Bachelor’s degree 39.89% Bachelor’s degree 30.44% Master’s degree 7.95% Doctorate or professional degree 3.00% -what conclusion can we draw … Continue reading

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Knowledge Useful?

Interdisciplinarity is motivated by the 20th century failure of disciplinary knowledge to be relevant. But rather than questioning whether knowledge itself is relevant to our problems, rather than, say, being a matter of will (cf. Nicomachean Ethics Book 7, on … Continue reading

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The Central Concept of Disciplinarity

The central idea of disciplinarity: the separation of knowledge production from knowledge use. This means: talk of method is hopeless, since there is no method to politics.

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The Death of TV

I watched the SCOTUS ruling today on ACA, in real time online, on scotusblog while bouncing between Sullivan’s Daily Dish, the NYTs, Drudge, and others. Sullivan too was collating comments from all over. And he posted screen captures of both … Continue reading

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Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses

Is the dam about to break? Watch out, UNT…. Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses – NY Times

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Philosophical Pathologies II

I grant that there are two historical tasks to philosophy, one socratic and outward looking, testing ideas within the community, and a second turned inward, philosophers addressing one another on recondite questions that the community will not understood or will … Continue reading

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Philosophical Pathologies

There are many. One of which is this: Philosophers do not keep a sufficient eye out for when a field or topic has become largely ‘emptied out’–where most of the useful work has been done. I’d argue that this is … Continue reading

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KONY 2012 – YouTube

KONY 2012 – YouTube. If you haven’t seen it, see it.

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