There are arguably more serious problems globally today culturally, politically, and especially environmentally than ever in history that necessitate the study of epistemology or theory of knowledge, individually and collectively, and of the role of creativity and imagination.  Our epistemic crises center on culture wars and the Technopolis in the realms of free speech protection, higher education goals, climate knowledge, environmental and species protection, the power of historical records, future of democracies, and extinction itself. I am working on an anthology/textbook, with a first chapter on epistemology or theory of knowledge, that examines the very possibility of knowledge and reality in the midst of all of this with rampant misinformation and disinformation, echo chambers etc. It will focus on critical thinking, media literacy and climate .

One of the clearest ways to understand critical thinking is as applied epistemology. This carefully curated anthology will be of interest and of value to students and others who want to first consider the nature of good thinking/critical thinking that is not fully explained in schools and colleges, as well as media literacy, and also begin to envision a future of possibilities in the natural world.

While designed with students in mind, this book is also inspiring for those who want to be a part of the global movement to craft a New Story of an Ecological Civilization, via their communities, in the ocean of information, for the common good. Taking the reality of ignorance (Agnotology) into account as part of our nature, this process of discovery is a tall order for anyone because of domination,  over-consumption, waste, and narrow and exclusionary definitions of knowledge and the knowable, and the shunting aside of other important ways of knowing and being.  But the pace of change in society and the increasing dominance of the Technopolis makes this effort a necessity. This is the realm of both epistemology and ontology and the search for truth and vital belief systems to create an infosphere of hope and love, inspired by indigenous knowledge-making over thousands of years, where humans are not separated from nature.  It is the realm of higher education as a keystone for our future, and about how to encourage and build deep learning about complex systems. Here is my Google Drive of Creative Commons material for background.

In a world dominated by finance and the power of Capitalism (for now) business must be involved.  Our overuse of planetary resources calls into question the fundamental functioning and validity of uncontrolled free and Neoliberal markets, bringing into discussion the concepts of natural capitalism and ecological economics.  

Benjamin Barber is featured by the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (2009) in “Climate Change and the Politics of Interdependence” He starts thusly: “What does the climate-change crisis have to do with capitalism, and couldn’t we deal with it quickly by getting rid of capitalism? I want to talk about climate change and its challenges in relation to the reality of our economy and our politics today because when you put climate change in the economic and political context, it becomes more complicated and difficult to cope with than when we simply sit together and talk about what we need to do on the upcoming International Day of Climate Action, what we need to do to support the 350.org movement, and what we need to do to create a greener world. The questions I want to raise have to do specifically with the problem of how to find the political will to do it…”

His lecture is also on Amazon where we read: “We have created a system in which votes made with the dollar speak louder than votes at the poll. Today’s capitalism, Benjamin Barber argues, makes little distinction between wants and needs. Half a century ago, the model capitalist was one who figured out how to produce something that people truly needed and made a profit selling it. Now that our needs are met (for many, but certainly not all, in the US and the rest of the world) a version of “paper capitalism” has emerged, in which making a profit is more important than making a product. Barber points out that there are dire crises—global warming being the most pressing—for which solutions need to be invented to combat them. His argument is that this cannot be done in a system where individuals think of themselves first as consumers and only secondarily as citizens. To solve today’s most pressing issues we must reclaim our citizenship and strengthen the voices speaking out for the common good.“

Two other possible sources include Out of Crisis: Rethinking Our Financial Markets, by David A. Westbrook, Paradigm Publishers, 2009 and  Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, And Swallow Citizens Whole, by Benjamin Barber.

Former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan said (around 2008-09) that the risk management paradigm is broken; thus our understanding of financial regulation no longer makes sense. More generally, the recent financial crisis obliges us to rethink the relationships among “financial markets” and “governments.”

In Out of Crisis financial analyst David Westbrook illuminates the intellectual, business, and policy errors that have led us into the present morass. Through a vivid legal and political analysis he shows how the ideologies of the right and left have distorted financial thinking and policy. The book sketches the emergence of a new understanding of risk management and bureaucratic regulation that can be gained by learning from these errors. Out of Crisis begins the tasks of rethinking the structures that constitute financial markets and exploring how such structures may be strengthened. By taking responsibility for the markets we build to do so much of our society’s work, we may yet become mature capitalists.

“Professor Westbrook’s fascinating new book is not just an exegesis of the recent financial crisis – it is a compelling and entertaining diatribe against some of the sacred cows of finance, among them the notions that markets are presumed efficient, corporations can self-regulate, sophistication matters, risk management reduces risk, and securities regulation makes markets transparent.” (Frank Partnoy, University of San Diego and author of Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets)