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Alan wrote: "Ian wrote: "A report I have never managed to verify claimed that a poll in the 1930s showed that engineers tended to be skeptical of or flatly opposed to the New Deal, whereas scientists tended to ..."The observations presented resonate with the core ideas explored in my book Global Disorder. The contrasting perspectives of engineers and scientists on the New Deal, as well as Stiglitz's critique of neoclassical economics, both highlight a fundamental challenge in modern governance and economics: the need for frameworks that combine empirical rigor with practical adaptability, free from ideological rigidity.
From a technomeritocratic standpoint, the skepticism of engineers reflects a methodical, problem-solving mindset, while the openness of scientists to experimental approaches underlines the value of evidence-based adaptability. Both perspectives are essential, but the real issue lies in the governance systems overseeing these initiatives. Traditional economic models often fail because they are either rooted in dogmatic theories, as Stiglitz critiques, or are implemented within systems biased by emotional, ideological, or vested interests.
Technomeritocracy proposes a paradigm shift: leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze complex societal needs and implement policies based on measurable outcomes, rather than abstract theories or ideological leanings. Unlike totalitarian systems, which suppress dissent and prioritize the interests of a select few, technomeritocracy is built on transparency, inclusivity, and accountability. It relies on AI not as an authoritarian tool but as an impartial advisor, devoid of human biases and capable of integrating diverse perspectives into actionable strategies.
For instance, while the New Deal was innovative for its time, a technomeritocratic system could enhance such policies by continuously assessing their impact in real time, ensuring equitable distribution of resources, and minimizing unintended consequences. Similarly, in addressing Stiglitz's critique, technomeritocracy could transcend the limitations of neoliberal economics by focusing on sustainable growth that prioritizes societal well-being alongside market efficiency.
In conclusion, while engineers and scientists represent valuable but partial perspectives, a technomeritocratic approach aims to synthesize their strengths—precision, adaptability, and evidence-based decision-making—into a unified model that fosters a just and sustainable society.
NOTICE REGARDING REASON AND HUMAN ETHICS by ALAN E. JOHNSONThis book is available in both Kindle and paperback editions at https://www.amazon.com/Reason-Human-E.... An exact PDF replica of the paperback edition is also freely accessible and downloadable at https://www.academia.edu/107899091/Re....
The errata and supplemental comment for this book can be accessed at https://www.academia.edu/88227217/Err.... All of these errata have been corrected in paperbacks printed after December 19, 2024. (I use a print-on-demand service, wherein such corrections can be easily accomplished). However, except as noted, the errata have not been corrected in the Kindle edition, which is more difficult and expensive to update. That said, these errata (typos) are quite minor and probably would not even be noticeable by most readers.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
However, it remains a historical and widespread mistake to allow issues tied to emotions, feelings, and personal perceptions to serve as guiding principles for governing nations, transforming them into fundamental pillars of existence and survival. This confusion often leads people to abandon reasoning based on logic, common sense, and critical thinking. Over time, such an approach fosters social divisions and conflicts, as emotional frameworks vary greatly among individuals, frequently spawning competing ideologies rooted in subjective experiences.
I have deleted all but one of the posts filed in this topic on January 15, 2025, US Eastern Standard Time, for noncompliance with the cross-reference rules in posts 45–46 (July 23, 2022) (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) of the Rules and Housekeeping topic of this Goodreads group.These posts also have extremely tenuous relevance to the subject matter of this Goodreads group: see the relevancy rules in posts 1, 3–4, 6, 8, 14–16, and 23–26 (various dates) in the Rules and Housekeeping topic regarding relevancy to the subject matter of the “Political Philosophy and Ethics" group.
As I have repeatedly stated, each poster is expected to read and comply with the rules set forth in the Rules and Housekeeping topic before posting any comment.
Alan E. Johnson
Founding Moderator of “Political Philosophy and Ethics” Goodreads group
PRICE REDUCTION OF KINDLE EDITION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN FOUNDER: ROGER WILLIAMS AND FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE BY ALAN E. JOHNSONI have reduced the price of the Kindle edition of my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience from $9.99 USD to $2.99 USD. Because the print length is 643 pages, I cannot reduce the paperback price below its present value on Amazon.com of $22.95 USD. I have reduced the Kindle price in order to make it more affordable to those interested in its contents. A detailed description of the book is on the Amazon.com site (https://www.amazon.com/First-American...). See also my online essay “Roger Williams: A Rhode Island and American Founder” at https://www.academia.edu/22490129/Rog.... Both the table of contents and the endnotes are hyperlinked in this Kindle edition.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
(edited March 12, 2025)
Thank you very much. I have been squeezing pennies and this helps. (The more so as I have just had to replace my aging phone.)Hence spending hours looking for free or sharply reduced Kindle books of interest. Information on which I have passed on when and where appropriate on Goodreads — for example, I don’t know of a thread for books on the history of Chinese medicine, a couple of which I have picked up along the way.
PRICE REDUCTION OF KINDLE EDITION OF REASON AND HUMAN ETHICS BY ALAN E. JOHNSONI have reduced the price of the Kindle edition of my book Reason and Human Ethics from $9.95 USD to $2.99 USD (the lowest price that Amazon will permit me to charge for the Kindle edition). The Amazon.com paperback price is $12.95 USD (261 pages). I have reduced the Kindle price in order to make it more affordable to those interested in its contents. A detailed description of the book is on the Amazon.com site (https://www.amazon.com/Reason-Human-E...). This book is also freely accessible and downloadable in PDF at https://www.academia.edu/107899091/Re...). However, the PDF does not hyperlink the table of contents and the endnotes, whereas the Kindle edition does contain such hyperlinks.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
PRICE REDUCTION OF KINDLE EDITION OF FREE WILL AND HUMAN LIFE BY ALAN E. JOHNSONI have reduced the price of the Kindle edition of my book Free Will and Human Life from $9.95 USD to $2.99 USD (the lowest price that Amazon will permit me to charge for the Kindle edition). The Amazon.com paperback price is $12.95 USD (160 pages). I have reduced the Kindle price in order to make it more affordable to those interested in its contents. A detailed description of the book is on the Amazon.com site (https://www.amazon.com/Free-Will-Huma...). This book is also freely accessible and downloadable in PDF at https://www.academia.edu/108171849/Al.... However, the PDF does not hyperlink the table of contents and the endnotes, whereas the Kindle edition does contain such hyperlinks.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
FURTHER PRICE REDUCTION OF KINDLE EDITION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN FOUNDER: ROGER WILLIAMS AND FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE BY ALAN E. JOHNSONToday, I have further reduced the price of the Kindle edition of my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience to $2.99 USD (the lowest price that Amazon.com will allow me to charge). I have reduced the Kindle price in order to make it more affordable to those interested in its contents. A detailed description of the book is on the Amazon.com site (https://www.amazon.com/First-American...). See also my online essay “Roger Williams: A Rhode Island and American Founder” at https://www.academia.edu/22490129/Rog.... Both the table of contents and the endnotes are hyperlinked in this Kindle edition.
The following is an excerpt from the Amazon.com description of this book:
This is the story of the dramatic life, thought, and work of a man [Roger Williams (ca. 1603–83) ] who refused to accept the conventional wisdom of his time and who forged a new way of thinking that came to characterize the best in the American tradition. Born and raised in England, Williams knew or otherwise personally encountered—during his youth or in later return visits—some of the greatest figures of English history: Sir Edward Coke, Sir Francis Bacon, King James I, the young man who became King Charles I, John Milton, Oliver Cromwell. In contrast to such famous contemporaries, Williams persistently argued, publicly and unambiguously, for complete liberty of conscience and a wall of separation between church and state—both for America and for Europe. At a time when most of the governments in Europe and America promulgated some form of established religion that persecuted religious dissenters, Williams founded a polity that was explicitly based on the principles and values of what became, more than 150 years later, the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.This book also discusses the history of church-state separation and freedom of conscience up to the present time, including the various challenges to these principles throughout European and American history.
Roger Williams was a Protestant minister, but (contrary to conventional wisdom) he argued for church-state separation and freedom of conscience on secular, as well as religious, grounds.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
“Introduction” (Draft) to Reason and Human GovernmentI have posted the current draft of the “Introduction” (https://www.academia.edu/129404432/_I...) to my forthcoming book Reason and Human Government on Academia.edu. The entirety of this book is scheduled for publication in late 2025 or early 2026.
I am posting the present notice in both the “Publications of Group Members Relevant to Ethical or Political Philosophy” and “General Remarks about Political Philosophy” topics of this Goodreads group.
Alan E. Johnson
Independent Philosopher, Historian, Political Scientist, and Legal Scholar
(revised May 17, 2025)
Chapter 2 (“Governmental Recognition and Protection of Individual Rights”) to my forthcoming book Reason and Human GovernmentI have posted the current draft (May 19, 2025) of Chapter 2 (“Governmental Recognition and Protection of Individual Rights”) of my forthcoming book Reason and Human Government (scheduled for publication in late 2025 or early 2026) at https://www.academia.edu/129438142/Ch... .
Congratulations, Alan! Are you enjoying the writing of this opus?
Chapter 4 (“Forms of Government”) of my forthcoming book Reason and Human GovernmentI have posted the current draft (June 8, 2025) of Chapter 4 (“Forms of Government”) of my forthcoming book Reason and Human Government (scheduled for publication in late 2025 or early 2026) at https://www.academia.edu/129631840/Ch....
(Revised June 8, 2025)
PDF OF “THE FIRST AMERICAN FOUNDER: ROGER WILLIAMS AND FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE” BY ALAN E. JOHNSONI have posted a PDF replica of the paperback edition of “The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience” by Alan E. Johnson at https://www.academia.edu/13797615/Ala.... This book is also available on Amazon.com in Kindle ebook ($2.99) and paperback ($22.95) editions. The PDF does not support toggling between the endnote references in the text and the endnotes themselves, as does the Kindle edition.
This book is about Roger Williams (ca. 1603-83), who was banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay for advocating freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, Native American rights, and related matters. He founded the town of Providence in what became Rhode Island on the basis of full liberty of conscience and complete separation of religion and government.
For Errata and Supplemental Comments, see the separate document uploaded at https://www.academia.edu/34149040/Err....
IS GOVERNMENT NECESSARY?The current draft of Chapter 1 (“Is Government Necessary?”) of my forthcoming book Reason and Human Government can now be accessed at https://www.academia.edu/143007716/Ch.... This chapter addresses the challenge of anarchism in general and anarchocapitalism in particular. It concludes that some kind of government is necessary for the foreseeable future.
Chapter 1 (“Legitimate Affirmative Powers of Government” (July 29, 2025 Draft) of Reason and Human Government (forthcoming 2025) by Alan E. JohnsonI have posted the current draft of Chapter 3 (“Legitimate Affirmative Powers of Government”) of my forthcoming book “Reason and Human Government” at https://www.academia.edu/143133870/Ch.... This chapter answers the challenges of anarchism and minarchism by delineating functions of government that are necessary and appropriate for complex societies in our epoch.
(edited July 29, 2025)
Appendix (“The Historical Background of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis”) to my forthcoming book Reason and Human GovernmentI have posted the current draft of the Appendix (“The Historical Background of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis”) of my book Reason and Human Government (forthcoming 2025) at https://www.academia.edu/143865709/Ap.... This appendix is preparatory historical material for the final chapter (“Political Leadership During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis”) of the book, which I am currently writing. I anticipate that the entire book will be published in both paperback and Kindle editions no later than October 2025.
REASON AND HUMAN GOVERNMENT
My latest book, Reason and Human Government, is now available in PDF at https://www.academia.edu/145862733/Re.... It will also soon be available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.
This is a work of political philosophy. Political philosophy is, in my view, the search for knowledge, as distinguished from opinion, regarding the nature of human government. Chapter 1 addresses the fundamental questions of what government is, its consistency with human ethics, and its necessity and desirability for human life as we know it. Chapter 2 proceeds with a discussion of governmental recognition and protection of individual rights. Chapter 3 considers the legitimate affirmative powers of government. Chapter 4 delineates and evaluates different forms of government, both philosophical and historical. Chapter 5 is a case study of political leadership in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. An epilogue states overall conclusions of this work. The appendix provides an account of the historical background of the Cuban Missile Crisis, including the Marxist roots of international Communism, the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the historical development of the Marxist-Leninist regime in the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro’s successful 1959 revolution in Cuba, and the US-instigated 1961 invasion at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.
From a technomeritocratic standpoint, the skepticism of engineers reflects a methodical, problem-solving mindset, while the openness of scientists to experimental approaches underlines the value of evidence-based adaptability. Both perspectives are essential, but the real issue lies in the governance systems overseeing these initiatives. Traditional economic models often fail because they are either rooted in dogmatic theories, as Stiglitz critiques, or are implemented within systems biased by emotional, ideological, or vested interests.
Technomeritocracy proposes a paradigm shift: leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze complex societal needs and implement policies based on measurable outcomes, rather than abstract theories or ideological leanings. Unlike totalitarian systems, which suppress dissent and prioritize the interests of a select few, technomeritocracy is built on transparency, inclusivity, and accountability. It relies on AI not as an authoritarian tool but as an impartial advisor, devoid of human biases and capable of integrating diverse perspectives into actionable strategies.
For instance, while the New Deal was innovative for its time, a technomeritocratic system could enhance such policies by continuously assessing their impact in real time, ensuring equitable distribution of resources, and minimizing unintended consequences. Similarly, in addressing Stiglitz's critique, technomeritocracy could transcend the limitations of neoliberal economics by focusing on sustainable growth that prioritizes societal well-being alongside market efficiency.
In conclusion, while engineers and scientists represent valuable but partial perspectives, a technomeritocratic approach aims to synthesize their strengths—precision, adaptability, and evidence-based decision-making—into a unified model that fosters a just and sustainable society.