Would you trust a Sumerian god-king to prove or disprove string theory? Different social roles such as bureaucrat, scientist, or king have different levels of intellectual authority over time and place. Read my new essay on this topic here: http://samoburja.com/intellectual-authority/ … 1/n
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This is part two of my series on intellectual legitimacy. Previously, we established that the intellectual legitimacy of an idea is determined more by institutional endorsement than by an idea’s popularity or truthfulness Read the first essay here http://samoburja.com/intellectual-legitimacy/ … 2/n
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The legitimacy of ideas is also partially determined by who communicates them. Physicists have authority on science. Economists on how society is run. But their authority is not interchangeable. We also see that, broadly, academics > journalists > bloggers, for example. 3/n
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In essence, we see that different social roles come with different levels of intellectual authority and usually with authority on specific sets of topics. The authority of these roles can also change over time. 4/npic.twitter.com/WgSHdqA8RC
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Legible intellectual success can change the authority of a social role as well. The triumphs of relativity and quantum mechanics, leading to the invention of the atom bomb, greatly enhanced the authority of physicists in the 20th century. God-kings have not fared so well. 5/npic.twitter.com/7Zp3ETAiKt
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Intellectual authority of a role or field can also narrow or expand over time, rather than simply gain or drop. 19th c. archaeologists were much less professional than today, but pursued their digs as aristocratic experts on history, mythology, linguistics, & foreign lands 6/npic.twitter.com/0SnKLzdouO
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An individual’s intellectual authority can also shift over their career, if they change social roles. Or, if they accomplish great feats, receive bureaucratic credentials, receive endorsement by other authorities, or simply credibly and publicly claim authority. 7/npic.twitter.com/WPJEGScJmt
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Some feats are so great that institutions retroactively claim the feat as their own. The patent clerk Albert Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis papers are a wonderful example. Einstein is a success of academic physics, right? Surely not of the Swiss Patent Office! 8/n
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Today, there are two notable ways to gain personal intellectual authority without having to route through normal institutions. First, write a book. Second, found a company that takes your thoughts for granted. 9/n
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...takes your thoughts as thesis maybe
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