0672 Chapter eight brings the stagecraft of “operation sheepskin” into the construction of pseudo-reality, called “operation spider’s web”.

Stiles outlines the intertwining of hidden agendas in this, the Fourth Battle of the Enlightenment Gods (1989-present).

The hidden agendas formerly disguised themselves as “capitalist” and “socialist”.

Now, capitalism and socialism intersect in a mysterious single actuality, labeled, “value_2b” in the post-truth interscope.  They do so because both fields of expertise have taken on the style of empirio-schematics, thereby constituting the psychometric sciences.  Journalism, advertising, human resources, communications, organizational analysis, criminal justice, education, counseling and social work are among the current labels for psychometric disciplines.  Each “science” takes on the style of the natural sciences.

0673 The empirio-normative judgment_2c is executed by the One Relativist Who Rules Them All_3c, whenever the opportunity arises_1c.  The empirio-normative judgment_2c acts as though the positivist intellect (relation, thirdness) brings the universality of phenomena of ‘what people say’_2a (nevermind the noumenon; what is, firstness) into relation with intelligibility of psychometric valuations_2b (what ought to be, secondness). 

0674 I must not forget that an interventionist event_2c (SV_i) activates what I think_2a (SO_i) and what I think_2a corresponds to the scholastic interscope for how humans think.

The following figure compares elements occurring in the scholastic interscope for how humans think to corresponding elements from the empirio-normative judgment_2c for the post-truth interscope, as they would be expressed during an event staged in operation sheepskin.

Here are targets within what I think.

0675 Secondness for the empirio-normative judgment targets the level of secondness in what I think.

Firstness for the empirio-normative judgment targets the level of firstness in what I think.

Here, the subscripts “a” and “b” refer to the levels of firstness (content) and secondness (situation).

0676 Secondness, the realm of actuality, emerges from and situates firstness, the realm of possibility.  Secondness tends to solidify one possibility among a suite of possible options.  Perceptions may reinforce sensations.  Perceptions may also overwhelm impressions and feelings.

Firstness, the realm of possibility, may support or undermine secondness, the realm of actuality.  If firstness narrows into only one possibility, then the corresponding actuality in secondness appears inevitable.  If firstness offers an alternate possibility, then the corresponding actuality in secondness becomes questionable, if not impossible.

0677 The media narrative (in the above figure) associates to secondness, the realm of actuality, for the empirio-normative judgment_2c, while my phantasms and my emotions associate to secondness alone (an actuality₂ on the situation_b level) for what I think.  The media narrative presents itself as real, as if the pseudo-reality is intelligible, rather than a confabulation that favors the one who has paid for the narrative_3c.  In contrast, my notions and my emotions are fallible, when it comes to my judgment in what I think.

So, my perceptions_2b in what I think hold the character of realness, rather than intelligibility.  Intelligibility is assessed with judgment_2c.

In contrast, media narratives posit intelligibility, as well as realness, thus bypassing the scrappy player’s perceptions_2b.  My judgment_2c goes into what I say.  What I say becomes phenomena for the psychometric sciences.

Media reports of staged events associate to firstness, the realm of possibility, while my sensations associate to secondness and firstness (an actuality₂ on the content_a level) for what I think.  Media reports tend to undermine my own impressions and feelings by offering a manufactured incident for my reactive body and sensate soul to respond to.  I read the news item.  I am not witnessing the event.  My impressions and feelings might be totally different if I am in the midst of the action.  The media report is potentially universal.

0678 Overall, the elements within the overlay (SO_i) spawned by the interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) target elements of within the actuality of judgment_2c assigned to the same category.  This influences what I say, and has already been mentioned in points 0668-0670.

Here is a picture comparing secondness and firstness for my judgment_2c in what I think with the corresponding categories in the empirio-normative judgment_2c in the post-truth condition.

0679 If I multiply this targeting across a host of oligarch-supported agencies and institutions, message-produces and message-spreaders, wizards and mouthpieces, then the difficulties of the scrappy player appear formidable.

No wonder elites have taken to openly ridicule the “deplorables”.

0680 However, there is one more comparison that must be made.

One comes from judgement_2c in the interscope for what I think.

One comes from the empirio-normative judgment_2c for the post-truth condition.

Here is a question.

What constitutes “success”?

0681 All spontaneous traditions associate “success” with “getting ahead”, that is, personal prosperity.  The more religious the tradition, the more “getting ahead” takes on a relational aspect.  The logical extreme, found in all religious traditions of the Axial Age, is the beatific vision, consisting of sensing (content-level actuality) and perceiving (situation-level actuality) the One Who Brings All Into Relation (perspective-level actuality).  Here, the One is a triadic relation, where the Universality of What Cannot Be Sensed (the what is of purely relational being) and the Intelligibility of What Cannot Be Perceived (the what ought to be of purely relational being) come into um… Pure Relation (the third element of a purely relation being).

The beatific vision defines “success_2c“.

All material achievement_2a pales in comparison.

0682 But, the Cold War Among Materialist Ideologies takes its toll.

Almost every scrappy player today thinks that “success_2a” means “material wealth and security”.

And, that reflects how successful operation spider’s web has been.

0683 Why?

This is precisely what the expert level promises for the crappy-level player.

And, it is not true.

Why?

The meaning of “success” is not what it seems to be.

0684 For the one of scientism_3c, “success_2c” is the execution of an empirio-normative judgment_2c, according to a particular opportunity_1c that arises from expert assessments_2b.

Yes, the game is rigged.

0685 Operation spider web is a network of operation sheepskins, sometimes working coherently, sometimes not.  Each person who serves as the one of scientism_3c must work in concert or in competition with other ones of scientism_3c.  But, each person serving as the one of scientism_3c is a relativist one_3c, who is theoretically outside of all jurisdictions, included the jurisdictions of other scientismist ones_3c.

At some point, it seems that the elites may begin fighting one another.

0686 Imagine living as a sheep among sheep, and oddly, the “leader” sheep want the herd to go in different directions, as if they no longer define the same reality, and their relationships are about to… oh, look… they are biting one another, viciously, like wolves.  Oh no!  They are wolves!  Run for your lives!

But wait.  The wolves stopped fighting with one another.  The wolves are starting to cooperate.  Oh, this is worse.

Run for your lives!

0687 Now, replace the word, “bite”, with “speaking to”.

And, replace the word, “cooperate”, with “enter into communion with one another”.

The wolves come into communion with the one idea to rule them all.

0688 Let me look at the comparison between the relation within the interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) for the post-truth condition and the relation in the judgment_2c that is on the perspective level of the scholastic interscope for how humans think.

0689 The wisdom of the Axial Age religions, as well as other now ancient traditions, provides intelligence to our perceptions and universality to our sensations.  Ancient wisdom trains us.  It calls us into communion.

The wisdom of the hidden agenda, the normative judgement_2c of the post-truth interscope, pretends to provide intelligibility and universality.  Media narratives are formulated to dominate our intelligibility.  Media reports are packaged to be so sensational as to undermine the commonality of our impressions and feelings.  This is only possible in the arena of pseudo-reality, where the reader does not directly experience the news that is being reported.

0690 Chapter nine is titled, “War of Words”.

Already, throughout my comments concerning the post-truth interscope, different definitions of “success” comes to the fore.  Scrappy players_3a,1a see “success_2a” as “getting ahead_2a“.  The one of scientism_3c sees “success” as “an exercise of the empirio-normative judgment_2c“.  Every execution of the empirio-normative judgment_2c brings an interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) to bear upon the scrappy player level (SO_i and SI_i).

Indeed, spoken words are like bombs, raining down on unsuspecting citizens.

Or, should I say, “…reigning down…”?

0691 Consider how the knowledge necessary for getting ahead_2a appears, depending on the role that one considers.

0692 Neither the capitalism of the American alliance nor the communism of the Soviet alliance stand as victors in the Third Battle of the Enlightenment Gods: The Cold War Among Materialist Ideologies (1945-1989).  The victor is science.  During the Cold War, so-called capitalist America becomes more and more socialist.  By the time the Cold War ends, an administrative state composed of experts in capitalism and in socialism are on their way to characterize the direction, reality, definition and scope of the Fourth Battle of the Enlightenment Gods: Empirio-normative domination of subject populations.  Experts on finance capitalism_3b and experts on nanny socialism_3b produce increasingly insane valuations_2b, that are then imposed upon the populace through propaganda and coercion.

0693 The war of words is real and dangerous.  Consider the demeaning labels that credentialed experts apply to crappy players who ignore the importance of experts in the post-truth interscope.

0694 Group-defining terminology condoned by the federal government puts the force of law behind words that end up creating the society that the federal government strives to overcome.  

For example, in America, “whites” are not a homogeneous ethnic identity, even though socialist experts model them as such.  “Blacks” have a historical identity that “whites” do not, but “blacks” who benefit from federal promotions (at the expense of so-called “whites”) tend not to have this historical identity.  Rather than descendants of slaves, they are from say, Jamaica.

The scholar, Thomas Sowell, studies the ironies of government “solutions” (empirio-normative judgments_2c) applied to group differences.  Any of Thomas Sowell’s books serves as a insight-filled introduction to the ways that experts situate scrappy players.

0695 I recap.

Here are two key word comparisons between the scrappy player_a and the expert_b in regards to the post-truth condition.

0696 “Success” and “value” are crucial terms.

But, since they are spoken words, they are actualities₂ within the normal context of definition₃ that arise from the potential of meaning, presence and message₁.  The nature of spoken words is one of the central concerns of Razie Mah’s masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

Clearly the scrappy player and the expert imbue the same two words with very different meanings, presences and messages.  The words sound exactly the same.  Each word may be spoken as if they have the same meaning, presence and message.  But, the potentials are not the same.  The technical definition of words like “success” and “value” benefits the expert and confounds the scrappy player.

Propaganda constitutes a war of words.

0697 Here a picture of the interscope of the post-truth condition.

0698 On the scrappy player level, the normal context of the intellect_3a brings the dyad, what I think [cannot be objectified as] what I say_2a, into relation with the potential of the will_1a.  The question has been raised.  Whose reason_3a,1a is involved in any application of the post-truth interscope?

On the expert level, disciplinary-language based expertise_3b brings the actuality of psychometric models of value_2b into relation with the potential of ‘formalized knowledge’_1b.

On the relativist one level, the normal context of the one of scientism_3c brings the actuality of an empirio-normative judgment_2c into relation with a perspective-level opportunity_1c to contextualize value_2b.

0699 Here is an example of an application.

An assistant professor_3b writes a grant_2b, proposing research that will validate a particular valuation_2b composed of financial transactions_2H that will satisfy certain organizational objectives_2V.  This grant has the opportunity_1c to occupy what ought to be for an empirio-normative judgment_2c because it is apparently intelligible (after all, the grant is written by an expert).

0700 But, why would a federal agency_3c fund the grant?

Perhaps, they_3c have a hidden agenda_1c to promote the universality of the particular political topic_2c.  They want people to encounter the topic_2a.  Plus, the research_2b does not directly reveal the hidden agenda_2c of promoting a topic that favors certain financial transactions_2H and objects^org_2V.  If the research_2b promotes the certification of more experts_3b that will write more grants_1c in this particular academic field, then why not? The agency_3c wants the grant_2c to operate as an interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) that will impact the way people reason_3a,1a and influence what they think_2a and what they are willing to say_2a.  What the granting agency_3c wants_1c serves as what is for the empirio-normative judgment_2c.  The relation then becomes rewarding a grant using taxpayer’s money.

0701 Success_2c is defined as a federal agency funding the proposed grant (that is, the execution of an empirio-normative judgment).

0702 For the scrappy player, formalized knowledge_1b includes the why and how of performing specialized and productive tasks.  The psychometric expert_3b, in contrast, regards formalized knowledge_1b, as the observation and measurement_1b of social phenomena_2a, in regards to a very narrow spectrum of opinion.

Narrow spectrum?

Yes, in the instance of the funded grant, what people say_2a becomes phenomena_2a when it pertains to what would correspond to the sign-object (SO_i) and sign-interpretant (SI_i) of an interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) impacting and influencing the scrappy player level.

0703 On the scrappy player level, what the player regards as “my” intellect_3a brings the actuality of what I think [and] what I am willing to say_2a into relation with the possibilities inherent in “my” will_1a.  In the post-truth interscope, “reason_3a,1a” is characterized as “the intellect_3a contextualizing the will_1a“.  “My” becomes “ours”.

0704 Plus, as depicted above, an SV_i can impose an SO_i and impact a person’s SI_i, simply by staging an event_2a (here, a questionnaire_2a) that produces the possibility of ‘something’ happening_1a in the normal context of what is happening_3a(corresponding to the content level of the scholastic interscope of how humans think).

0705 This leads to a question that is the topic of chapter ten.

0706 Chapter ten is titled, “Planet Vulnerable”.

In this chapter, Stiles confronts success_2c for the one of scientism_3c in the Fourth Battle of The Enlightenment Gods: Empirio-Normative Domination of Citizen-Subject Populations.

I suppose that spoken words are supposed to convey reality and bring us into a common understanding.  In our post-truth condition, the spoken words that the media utter convey a pseudo-reality (a web of narratives) that brings us into communion whether we like it or not (especially after media reports accompanying the narrative are shown to omit crucial truths).

0707 Currently, American media likes to label this communion as “our democracy”.

I guess that the administrative state is too embarrassed to call it “our tyranny”.

Labeling is crucial.

I love Stiles quotes, posted in the margins as addenda. Here is my restatement of one quote.

“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see that our tyranny is ‘our democracy’ and that our success_2c is their success_2a.”

0708 Planet Vulnerable makes me think about both history and logic. 

Why are scrappy players slowly becoming more and more vulnerable?

0709 One answer starts with a question, asking “What is the content-level actuality_2a?”, and ends with the question, wondering, “What about domination?”.

Steve Fuller looks back to the start of the modern era, when mechanical philosophers completely confused theologians, by introducing a concept that seems like Aristotle’s matter and form, but really is not.  The concept is “phenomena” defined as “the observable and measurable aspects of a thing”.  It raises a question, asking, “What is a thing?”

Here is how the question breaks.  Theologians are reduced to the scrappy player level.  Mechanical philosophers are elevated to the expert level.

0710 To start, for the natural philosopher (typically, a theologian of sorts), a thing is a hylomorphe composed of two real elements, matter and form.  Matter accounts for presence and addresses questions like, “What is it made of?”.  Formaccounts for shape and function and addresses questions like, “What is it supposed to do?”

In terms of Peirce’s three categories, hylomorphic structures should belong to secondness.  Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements.  The contiguities in the above figure are placed in brackets.  Experts trained in Aristotle may shudder when reading the label that I put into brackets.  All I am doing is adding one more technical definition to the term, “substance”.

“Substance” is “the contiguity between matter and form”.

0711 Next, for the mechanical philosopher, the expert, a thing is also a dyad.  A noumenon (the thing itself) [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena (its observable and measurable facets).  There is good reason why Kant insisted on the importance of the noumenon, the thing itself. Observations and measurements of phenomena may go bonkers.  So, there must be a noumenon as a reality check.

0712 For example, on a summer day, I measure the rise in ambient air temperature from six to nine o’clock in the morning.  Then, I graph the data and model the data with a linear extrapolation.  I then predict that, by ten o’clock at night, the ambient air temperature will be greater than the boiling point of water, and we are all going to die!

Of course, my model does not account for the noumenon, the cyclical nature of the day, when the sun warms the earth in proportion to its location in the heavens, and then sets, and does not warm the earth until the following morning.

0713 The empirio-schematic judgment is a triadic relation, where disciplinary language (relation) brings observations and measurements of phenomena (what is) into relation with mathematical and mechanical models (what ought to be).  Notice that the word, “noumenon”, does not appear in the empirio-schematic judgment.  Since the noumenon is a whole, it cannot be directly measured.  But, its phenomena can.  That is why scientists fixate on phenomena and ignore their noumenon.

Fixation and ignorance are threads woven into the fabric of The Age of Ideas.  Experts fixate on phenomena.  Experts ignore the noumenon.  In the process, scientist cultivate material and efficient causes that are divorced from final and formal causes.  They neglect final and formal causes.

0714 What does this discussion imply?

I suppose it means that the previous figure needs to be adjusted.

0715 Oh, that leads to more difficulties.

Aristotle’s foundational hylomorphe, matter [substance] form, corresponds to the noumenon, the thing itself, that scientists ignore.  Indeed, when a scientist becomes a triumphalist, he wants to replace the noumenon with his mathematical or mechanical model.  Then, the model (substituting for the noumenon) [can be objectified by] its phenomena.

0716 If the scrappy player level is occupied by theologians and natural philosophers, then what the scrappy player thinksand what the scrappy player says cannot be objectified as phenomena, that is observable and measurable facets of the thing itself.

How so?

For the most part, scrappy players say what they think.

Both thinking and talking represent the noumenon (but may, on occasion, concern phenomena, its observable and measurable facets).

So, what I think is like matter and what I say is like form. Matter [substance] form associates to a noumenon, a thing itself.

0717 This is confusing.

I thought that what I think corresponds to a noumenon and what I say corresponds to its phenomena.

It does for the psychometric sciences_3b.

What I think [cannot be objectified as] what I say is a construct that is imposed by the post-truth condition itself.  This actuality_2a occurs when reason_3a,1a is defined as the intellect_3a contextualizing the will_1a.  When reason_3a,1a is so defined, then expertise_3b can virtually situate it_3a,1a.

0718 So, maybe, I need to change the picture once again, where the person on the crappy player level becomes a thing(that can be studied by the psychometric sciences).

Ah, that is better.

0719 What I think corresponds to the first abstraction in natural philosophy according to Comments on Jacques Maritain’s Book (1935) Natural Philosophy.  A psychometric scientist cannot observe or measure this noumenon.

0720 What I say corresponds to a philosophical discussion concerning material, efficient, formal and final causalities.

Since a psychometric scientist_3b can observe and measure the phenomena of what I say_2a, then what I say concerning the subject of investigation_2a may go into the corresponding model of value_2b.  The scientist must be selective about what is observed and measured_1b.  The scientist must discriminate in so far as the phenomena_2a must apply to what the scientist intends to model_2b.  Aristotle’s four causes are acknowledged only in so far as a scientific model (with no metaphysics) can explain their content and import.

0721 What can go wrong?  What is missing?

0722  What the scientist misses is that speaking in the way of natural philosophy turns out to be crucial for thinking.  The typical person talks about material, efficient, formal and final causes.  The scientist labors to account for such talk with truncated material and efficient causes (that is, material and efficient causes shorn of any metaphysical attributes).

0723 For example, the Torches of Freedom campaign is designed to induce women to start smoking (hidden agenda).  Several gals step out of the crowd during the Easter parade and light up cigarettes in front of photographers, who happen to be there to capture the moment in pictures. What a newsworthy event!  Matter touches base with the presence of a cigarette.  Form associates to what the cigarette is supposed to do.

The scrappy player may talk about a variety of causes.  Where does she get that cigarette (material)?  How is she at the Easter parade (efficient)?  Why is she here at the Easter parade instead of hotel that allows smoking (final)?  I did not think that a cultivated person would light up a cigarette in this type of crowd.  It’s like drinking in public (formal).

0724 These typical comments_2a may be sampled_1b and analyzed_2b in order to produce a valuation_2b that a cigarette company_3c might pay for.  The truncated material cause_2b is that this woman can afford to do whatever she wants to do.  The truncated efficient cause_2b is that smoking is liberation.  These causes explain the Easter parade event, splashed across newspapers the next day.

Plus, these causes are more real than anything that the scrappy player can infer from reports and narratives.  After all, no one reveals the truth.  The Easter parade event is staged.

0725 Yes, it seems that the experts in psychometrics are missing something about how speaking is tied to thinking.  What does the elucidation of Aristotle’s four causes do?  Talk about Aristotle’s four causes places a thing or event₂, an actuality₂, manifesting as matter [substance] form₂, into a category-based nested form.

0726 Understanding consists in a completed category-based nested form.

This point is foundational in Comments on Mariusz Tabaczek’s Arc of Inquiry (2019-2024), by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.  Parts of this work are available in Razie Mah’s blog for April through June, 2024.

0727 So, what does this imply?

It implies that the scrappy player_a is open to understanding and that the expert_b is not.

The scrappy player’s understanding opens a cognitive space to immaterial causalities (formal and final).

Expert modeling constricts its cognitive space to material and physical causalities (material and efficient, divorced from formal and final).

If I associate immaterial causalities with the spiritual world and material causalities with the um… material world, then I arrive at an adjustment of the ongoing sequence of figures.

This adjustment keys into a figure in chapter 10 of Stiles’s book.

0728 This figure is not a precise reproduction.  However, it is suggestive.

The scrappy player_a may be a theologian, a natural philosopher, or someone trying to figure out what on earth is going on.  The scrappy player is interested in understanding.  Understanding entails all four of Aristotle’s causes.  So, it seems like the scrappy player wants to know the big picture, as well as the details.  Big picture items, such as final and formal causes, informs the scrappy player of directions and designs.

The expert cannot be a theologian or a natural philosopher, because the psychometric sciences are devoted to figuring out valuation in a world bounded by the intersection of capitalism and socialism.  Capitalism and socialism are all about our material world.  Both “-ism” claims to be fact-based, data-driven and scientific.

0729 The scrappy player_a and the expert_b levels are fundamentally disjointed.  The spiritual world cannot be objectified as the material world.

This is not the same as a noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena.

Or is it?

0730 The uncertainty is telling because the expert claims to know what the scrappy player does not know.

So I ask, “If the scrappy player knows what the expert knows, then would the scrappy player be an expert?”

No, because the expert follows the positivist intellect’s rule that metaphysics is not allowed.  And, that is not the same as being trained in the performance of specialized tasks, which is what the scrappy player calls, “expertise”.

0731 Final causes (intentions) and formal causes (designs) are metaphysical.  So, the expert concentrates on the material world and is happy explaining how what people say about final and formal causation is scientifically accounted for by truncated material and efficient causes.  “Truncated” means “divorced from final and formal causalities”.

0732 Meanwhile, the scrappy player wants to “get ahead” by becoming an expert in performing material and instrumental tasks, so he enters the realm of expertise by taking courses and getting credentialed.  But, that is not what expert_b level is all about.  The expert_b level is devoted to producing models of observations and measurements of what people say in order to ascertain a mysterious, yet materialist, value_2b, standing at the intersection of capitalism and socialism.

0733 What is even more confusing is that the valuations_2b produced by postmodern expertise_3b have material and instrumental ends_1c that offer opportunities_1c for the one of scientism_3c to make an empirio-normative judgment_2c, which often enough, is an operation sheepskin type of event_2c.

In other words, the empirio-normative judgment_2c is actionable.  The judgment unfolds into a nested form and constitutes an event that engages what people think_2a and what people say_2a.  And off we go again.

0734 Sign-relations, like category-based nested forms, are necessarily metaphysical, as well as physical.  The interventional sign-relation that is triggered with the execution of an empirio-normative judgment plays a significant role in the operation of the post-truth interscope.  For example, it explains why events (SO_i), scripted by operation sheepskin to engage our reason_3a,1a (SI_i), seem to involve a hidden agenda (SV_i).

0735 Indeed, the scrappy player_3a,1a (SI_i) tunes into the interventional sign-relation when he realizes that everything that the corporate media is talking about (SO_i) seems to have a hidden agenda (SV_i).

Of course, the trick is that any hidden agenda (SV_i) only manifests as an interventional sign-object (SO_i).  The interventional sign-vehicle (SV_i) cannot be witnessed  So, the feeling that there is a hidden agenda (what I think_2a) cannot be objectified by what people are talking about (what I say_2a) for more than one reason.  One is the dyadic structure of Kant’s slogan.  Two is the nature of the interventional sign-relation, which is not apparent to experts_3b.  Three is the distinction between noumenon and phenomena replaying itself as a distinction between the content and perspective levels of the post-truth interscope.

In sum, the scrappy player_3a,1a associates to a noumenon and the one of scientism_3c is inextricably dependent on materialist analysis_2b of phenomena_1b by the psychometric sciences_3b.

0736 So here is a picture of the final adjustment for a segment that starts on point 0708 and applies to chapter ten, titled “Planet Vulnerable”.

0737 Does the passage from “What is the content-level actuality?” to “What about domination?” constitute a journey into the unnerving logic of the interscope for the post-truth condition?

The journey starts with a denial and confirmation of the post-truth condition, itself.

The non-compliant scrappy player denies (or ignores) the condition.

The compliant person on the content level conforms to (or embraces) the condition.

0738 If I confront the denier and the confirmer with a simple question, “What is a thing?”, then the denier, who is like a natural philosopher or a theologian, begins with a classical ancient Greek division that is today, discredited.

How so?

Today, no scientist observes and measures matter.  No scientist worries about form.  Neither of these real elements can be mathematically or mechanically modeled.  They are not phenomena.  They are belong to the noumenon.

0739 For those who deny the post-truth condition, Aristotle’s premodern hylomorphe, captures the esse_ce (substantiating matter) and essence (substantiated form) of Peirce’s postmodern category of secondness.  Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements.  For nomenclature, the contiguity is placed in brackets.  For Aristotle’s hylomorphe, matter and form are real elements.  [Substance] labels the contiguity.  So, the hylomorphe is matter [substance] form.

0740 If I confront the denier and the confirmer with the question, “How do we approach a thing?”, then the answers differ.

The denier admits that he is interested in the noumenon.  Indeed, he will go so far as to say that the gestalt recognition of a noumenon is one of humanity’s adaptations.  Aristotle identifies our capacity to instantly recognize both presence (matter) and form (shape) because that is what we evolved to do.

The confirmer insists that scientists are only really interested in phenomena, the observable and measurable facets of their noumenon.  So, noumena are really only useful for book-keeping.  A noumenon certifies that observed and measured phenomena correspond to the same item, itself.  So, what corresponds to the item, itself?  It depends on the type of science.  For natural scientists, noumena are natural things and processes.  For social sciences, noumena are human things and processes.  For the psychometric sciences, noumena are ones who deny the post-truth interscope.

Ha.  Just kidding.

0741 Or, am I serious?

Are the ones who deny the post-truth interscope the subjects of psychometric inquiry?

0742 The process of engaging the (now “scientifically” discredited, but conclusions are complicated because of associations with Peirce’s secondness) classical Greek structure called the “hylomorphe” produces discussion concerning material, efficient, formal and final causes.  The engagement goes with what the denier thinks.

What the denier says may be monitored as phenomena that support observations and measurements for models that account for why the denier is speaking in terms of Aristotle’s four causes.

0743 Consistent with the mystery of the psychometric sciences_2b, these models will evaluate the denier’s speech in terms of capitalist ideation, such as the willingness to pay a high price for information that the client regards as “true”, and in terms of social ideation, such as persistent neglect of the community of experts addressing the nature of things in the post-truth condition.

0744 Yet, there will be something missing in the psychometric valuation_2b of the denier’s locutions_2a.

If Aristotle’s hylomorphe₂ does indeed correspond the realm of actuality₂ as characterized by Peirce’s category of secondness, and if Peirce identifies a class of purely relational structures, whereby thirdness brings secondness into relation with firstness (or normal context₃ brings actuality₂ into relation with possibility₁), and if this currently unanticipated class of triadic relations is real enough to serve as the actuality that is independent of the adapting speciesunderlying the human niche, and if scientists cannot observe and measure triadic relations, then the denier accesses a legitimate knowledge domain that cannot be modeled by capitalist or socialist critical theory.

Now, that is one long convoluted sentence.

0745 Consequently, the figure in chapter 10 of Stiles’s book, titled “Domains of Knowledge”, describes the emergence of a legitimate domain of knowledge that belongs to the scrappy player_a level (pertaining to the denier of the post-truth condition, the one who thinks that “success_2a” means “getting ahead_2a” and the subject of the psychometric sciences).

Furthermore, that legitimate domain of post-post-truth knowledge may be described using ancient terminology, so that Kant’s slogan is mockingly parodied by a post-postmodern formulation that ridicules capitalist and socialist expertise.

What is the slogan of the denier?

The spiritual world [cannot be objectified as] the material world.

On one hand, Kant is vindicated by this parody, this mockery, that is intimated in the very need to posit the noumenon in the first place.

0746 On the other hand, this slogan forces all those confirming the post-truth condition to prepare ways for the execution of a defensive empirio-normative judgment.

Defensive?

Well, the best defense is a good offense.

0747 Here is a picture of the empirio-normative judgment_2c, that is necessitated_1c by the fact that the scrappy player_3a,1amay be on the verge of ideating a legitimate domain of knowledge that cannot be reduced_1b to the scientific paradigms_2bof experts_3b on capitalism and socialism.

The scrappy players_2a who deny the post-truth condition must be observed and measured_1b then modeled_2b in such a fashion that the scrappy player_3a,1a will be overwhelmed and will capitulate to the various normative narratives_2c that are funded by the ones of scientism_3c.

0748 Necessity characterizes the opportunity_1c.  Yet, the one of scientism_3c is not disturbed.

After all, this is the Fourth Battle of The Enlightenment Gods (1989 to present) and no other enlightenment god is left standing.

Here is a diagram of the corresponding empirio-normative judgment_2c.

0267 If what I think_2a is that “success” means “getting ahead”, and if everyone is willing to say that this idea associates to the American Dream_2a, then the American Dream is an example of e pluribus unum.

Or, if the slogan, “the American Dream”, is simply an observable and measurable facet of a common agreement (e pluribus unum), indicating that “success_2a” means “getting ahead_2a“, then the slogan is a phenomenon of its noumenon.  If the phenomenon of “the American Dream_2a“ may be observed and measured_1b, then these measurements may be modeled by experts_3b in order to establish its value_2b.

0268 So, here is how Ramaswamy’s introductory claims fit into the post-truth interscope.

0269 Postmodern expertise_3b enters into the picture, asking, “How does one observe and measure_1b the American Dream_2a?”

Well, it helps if one already has a psychometric model_2b in mind.

0270 Notice that postmodern experts_3b bring psychometric models concerning values_2b into relation with the potential of observations and measurements_1b of phenomena_2a, where phenomena_2a are what people are willing to say_2a.

People are willing to talk about the American Dream.

The American Dream is about getting ahead.

But, what does “getting ahead” mean?

0271 Now, that is a question that calls for expertise_3b.

Postmodern academics_3b propose an answer to the question of what characterizes “getting ahead_2a“.  “Getting ahead’ includes education.  Thus, the issue of the affordability of education enters into one model.  At what price does someone engage in pursuit of certification?  Plus, the issue of what goes into a formal education seems like a topic that academics might be interested in.  And, since these academics are building psychometric models, educational content must consider factors such as “self-esteem”, “emotional integrity”, “sensitivity to others”, and so on.  Plus, let me not forget, because postmodern experts consider themselves to be within the scientific tradition, metaphysics is not allowed.

In practice, the experts_3b would be happy to overlay their models_2b… er… evaluations_2b over the noumenon_2a, that is, e pluribus unum.

0272 Here are a couple of associations for a big government (il)liberal America.  Yes, that is bigilib America.

Academic certification defines success.

There is no need to argue, because experts agree.

Expertise_3b is required to address anything that we are all going to agree on_2a.