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Applying Principles: Short Essays Based the Philosophy of Ayn Rand, Economics of Ludwig von Mises, and Psychology of Edith Packer
Applying Principles is a collection of short essays published between January 2007 and December 2016 as monthly blogposts. The author's aim was to write interdisciplinary, serious posts to inspire critical thinking. Topics, grouped as chapters, range from capitalism and politics to epistemology, academia, education, psychology, youth sports, and the arts.
The title derives from the author's thirty-six years as educator in the applied science of business marketing. Applied sciences, the author realized early in his career, require a deductive process of applying general, more fundamental principles to specific issues. The business disciplines rest on economics and psychology, and those two in turn, as all sciences, rest on philosophy.
The essays therefore are not journalistic, though many deal with recent issues; they apply fundamental ideas to concrete areas. Examples: “Choice Theory and Capitalism versus Dictatorship,” “The Ethics and Epistemology of Peer Review,” “Interest and the Core Curriculum,” “Ensuring that Disposition Trumps Situation,” and “Nutrition and the Argument from Uncertainty.”
Posts included in “youth sports” came about because the author's daughter played softball; many comments bring up issues in psychology. And “the arts”—only two posts—stem from the author's lifelong interest in music.
Applied science gathers all relevant concrete facts of the specific case it is working on, then uses, that is, applies, the universal concepts and principles of the fundamental sciences on which it rests, plus the narrower concepts and principles of its discipline.
Excerpt from “Describe, Don’t Evaluate,” pp. 201–02:
This principle—describe, don’t evaluate—has broad application and includes relationships not just of sellers to customers, but also of parents to children, teachers to students, and employers to employees, among others. The principle is recommended as a replacement for negative criticism: “The milk spilled!” (describe) as opposed to “I don’t believe you did it again! How could you!” (evaluate). Name-calling, sarcasm, threats, berating, and the like, undercut self-esteem and cause defensiveness by attacking the other person’s character or personality.
Factually describing the incident helps the other person (child or student or employee) avoid drawing negative conclusions about him- or herself. The recipient of the criticism is then allowed to regroup and correct the situation. “Constructive criticism,” child psychologist Haim Ginott in Between Parent and Child says, “confines itself to pointing out what has to be done, entirely omitting negative remarks about the personality of the child” (or, by extension, student or employee).
Ginott goes on to apply this principle to the extravagant praise that is often heaped on children, such as the ubiquitous “Good job” or “We’re so proud of you.” Says Ginott, “Direct praise of personality, like direct sunlight, is uncomfortable and blinding. It is embarrassing for a person to be told that he is wonderful, angelic, generous, and humble. He feels called upon to deny at least part of the praise. . . . [and he] may have some second thoughts about those who have praised him: ‘If they find me so great, they cannot be so smart.’ ”
The same applies to the puffery heaped on students and employees.
The title derives from the author's thirty-six years as educator in the applied science of business marketing. Applied sciences, the author realized early in his career, require a deductive process of applying general, more fundamental principles to specific issues. The business disciplines rest on economics and psychology, and those two in turn, as all sciences, rest on philosophy.
The essays therefore are not journalistic, though many deal with recent issues; they apply fundamental ideas to concrete areas. Examples: “Choice Theory and Capitalism versus Dictatorship,” “The Ethics and Epistemology of Peer Review,” “Interest and the Core Curriculum,” “Ensuring that Disposition Trumps Situation,” and “Nutrition and the Argument from Uncertainty.”
Posts included in “youth sports” came about because the author's daughter played softball; many comments bring up issues in psychology. And “the arts”—only two posts—stem from the author's lifelong interest in music.
Applied science gathers all relevant concrete facts of the specific case it is working on, then uses, that is, applies, the universal concepts and principles of the fundamental sciences on which it rests, plus the narrower concepts and principles of its discipline.
Excerpt from “Describe, Don’t Evaluate,” pp. 201–02:
This principle—describe, don’t evaluate—has broad application and includes relationships not just of sellers to customers, but also of parents to children, teachers to students, and employers to employees, among others. The principle is recommended as a replacement for negative criticism: “The milk spilled!” (describe) as opposed to “I don’t believe you did it again! How could you!” (evaluate). Name-calling, sarcasm, threats, berating, and the like, undercut self-esteem and cause defensiveness by attacking the other person’s character or personality.
Factually describing the incident helps the other person (child or student or employee) avoid drawing negative conclusions about him- or herself. The recipient of the criticism is then allowed to regroup and correct the situation. “Constructive criticism,” child psychologist Haim Ginott in Between Parent and Child says, “confines itself to pointing out what has to be done, entirely omitting negative remarks about the personality of the child” (or, by extension, student or employee).
Ginott goes on to apply this principle to the extravagant praise that is often heaped on children, such as the ubiquitous “Good job” or “We’re so proud of you.” Says Ginott, “Direct praise of personality, like direct sunlight, is uncomfortable and blinding. It is embarrassing for a person to be told that he is wonderful, angelic, generous, and humble. He feels called upon to deny at least part of the praise. . . . [and he] may have some second thoughts about those who have praised him: ‘If they find me so great, they cannot be so smart.’ ”
The same applies to the puffery heaped on students and employees.
382 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2021
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About the author
Jerry Kirkpatrick
5 books16 followersJerry Kirkpatrick is professor emeritus of international business and marketing at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), and is author of In Defense of Advertising: Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism and Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education. Inspired in high school to think about fundamental ideas, Kirkpatrick majored in philosophy as an undergraduate before pursuing his advanced degrees. He now writes a monthly blog at jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com, discussing, among other topics, his special interests in epistemology and psychology.
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June 23, 2024
I read this book on the strength of his three earlier works: In Defense of Advertising, Montessori, Dewey and Capitalism and Independent Judgment and Introspection.
It is a collection of essays originally published on his blog at jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com from 2007 to 2016.
He ranges over a wide array of subjects in politics, academia, education, psychology and even youth sports. His major theme is the instilling and the application of independent judgment. It is interesting to read essays written about a specific contemporary issue years later. In some cases, the concern seems quaint and in others you want to say, “Why didn’t you shout louder?”
In his preface, he says “Application is one of the two fundamental methods of cognition and is deductive. Generalization is the other and is inductive.”
All of the essays are good and insightful, particularly: “Choice Theory and Capitalism versus Dictatorship,” “Ayn Rand, of Course, Was Right,” “On Killing Creativity,” The Triumph of Ethics over Practicality: A Tale of Two Cities” and “Polylogism, the Right to Lie and Serial Embellishers.”
It is a collection of essays originally published on his blog at jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com from 2007 to 2016.
He ranges over a wide array of subjects in politics, academia, education, psychology and even youth sports. His major theme is the instilling and the application of independent judgment. It is interesting to read essays written about a specific contemporary issue years later. In some cases, the concern seems quaint and in others you want to say, “Why didn’t you shout louder?”
In his preface, he says “Application is one of the two fundamental methods of cognition and is deductive. Generalization is the other and is inductive.”
All of the essays are good and insightful, particularly: “Choice Theory and Capitalism versus Dictatorship,” “Ayn Rand, of Course, Was Right,” “On Killing Creativity,” The Triumph of Ethics over Practicality: A Tale of Two Cities” and “Polylogism, the Right to Lie and Serial Embellishers.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review