Useful Knowledge

I just finished reading Stephen Davies 
<https://www.aier.org/staff/stephen-davies> book entitled /The Wealth 
Explosion: The Nature and Origins of Modernity/ 
<https://www.cato.org/events/wealth-explosion-nature-origins-modernity>, 
in which I learned of John Mokyr 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Mokyr>'s conceptualization of 
"useful knowledge," comprised of two types: propositional versus 
prescriptive. (pp. 165 & 166)

Mokyr considers knowledge useful if it "enables human beings to make 
more productive or effective use of their own effort and the material 
environment in which they live."

Propositional knowledge "consists of formal propositions or descriptive 
statements about the world and the natural order, and the nature and 
qualities of human beings... what matters ... is not whether they are 
actually true but whether they are /believed/ ... in other words ... 
consensus."

Prescriptive knowledge is "understanding of how to do things so as to 
bring about a given result that can be expressed in formal verbal 
instructions or written down and then followed so as to arrive at the 
desired result."  Such knowledge is closely related to the purposes of 
the StratML standard <http://stratml.us/index.htm#DefinitionPurposes>.

For most of human history, Davies notes, the two kinds of knowledge were 
disconnected, with little "feedback from practical experience and 
prescriptive knowledge to theoretical propositional knowledge."

Unfortunately, that remains far too true in good, old-fashioned politics 
(#gofpau) and government today.  However, in the U.S. not only section 
10 
<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-machine-readable-government-owen-ambur/> 
of the GPRA Modernization Act (GPRAMA) but also the new Foundations for 
Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (FEBPA 
<http://stratml.us/drybridge/index.htm#FEBPA>), including Title II, the 
OPEN Government Data Act (OGDA 
<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/open-gov-data-act-machine-readable-records-owen-ambur/>), 
offer cause for hope of a more enlightened future, supported by a more 
"modern" and knowledgeable form of governance.

Owen