- From: Owen Ambur <Owen.Ambur@verizon.net>
- Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2019 22:58:33 -0400
- To: public-aikr@w3.org
- Message-ID: <798ed3f2-69ae-af1a-060b-0b18ce50db42@verizon.net>
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
Received on Saturday, 24 August 2019 02:59:05 UTC