#15 The Axioms of Ideology

An invesitgation of thinking boxes that control thought and positions will have to dig deeper into them than to only recognize that they exist. We have to try to describe their essential forms.

One way to do this is to do something like what mathemativians do when they begin their investigation into a mathematival system by laying out a minimum of basic definitions and axioms upon which the system is based. I noticed an example of a natural form of this process at work in idenitfying the essentials of a thinking box by Hindrocket at Power Line. These bloggers demonstrate considerable powers to get behind the words of various writers to see what kind of epistemological stuff they are made of. The sometimes very naturally pull out the basic defining notions upon which an ideology is based, a process of abstraction akin the mathematical process of abstraction and formalization of a math system.

In the example of Hindrocket at Power Line, the thinkig box he analyzes is the anti-Iraq war ideology that also expresses dislike for President Bush. He identifies three axioms that form its basic definitions and control its reasoning. First, the war was a mistake; second, the puported absence of WMDs means there can be no good justification for the conflict; and third, all casualties are, therefore, a waste.

What is relevant in this example is not the political issue and its merits but the idea that we might be able to abstract certain definitions and axioms that would adequately define the system. Notice that this process means the writer isn't simply dismissing or distorting the anti-Iraq war ideology; the writer is in fact demonstrating a deeper understanding of the ideology. What Hindrocket identifies are facts regarding how the thinking box operates, not how Hinrocket's thinking box operates. We may disagree, of course, but the important point is he demonstrates the attemtp to factually (honestly) describe the essentials of the anti-Iraq war ideology.

So Hindrocket demonstrates a valuable epistemologic tool for analyzing thinking boxes. The fact that het provides a demonstration of how this process of analysis and abstraction can be done so efficiently and easily suggests this process of abstraction might be of general use and value in analyzing education ideologies and in paticular, the thinking boxes of those we wish to understand who prominently advance certain reform programs.