States of Shock by Bernard Stiegler

[Philosophy Now]

Peter Benson recovers from States of Shock.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/111/St ... d_Stiegler

[Gary Childress]

Stiegler uses the example of mathematics to explain the difference between information and knowledge. Take Pythagoras’s Theorem. One might simply tell someone that the sides of any right-angled triangle are always related by the formula a2+b2=h2. This is useful information, and could be applied to calculations during building work, but it is not knowledge. Knowledge is acquired when people are shown the proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem and come to understand why it is always true, rather than just taking this fact on trust. If they have properly learnt the proof – not by rote-learning like a parrot, but by reconstructing the linked steps of the reasoning – they should be able to repeat it themselves. The point of learning geometry is not merely to acquire information, but to train our capacity for reasoning. In this way, we become less stupid.

Interesting article. I have forgotten how to do a mathematical proof or a logical proof. I haven't studied mathematics or formal logic in about 25 years (since my first tour of college) and sleep apnea and possibly the anti-psychotic drug I take have pretty much eroded a lot of my memory. I guess that would qualify me as "stupid" according to Stiegler. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot I can do about it. It seems like a rather daunting task to relearn all the things I've forgotten (and probably only to forget them again). It's hard for me to commit anything to long term memory anymore.