Categoria: academic life – living in academia

The other dimension

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy

The other day I was sitting together with a friend, chatting about human and artificial intelligence and the calculability of everything. We talked about Her and life emerging Ex Machina. Emotions – they play a role, and we have, can, should simply enjoy them. That moment, I could not agree more, did not want to think about rationalising every single step, did not want to stop enjoying the moments, loving the people when they are lovable and showing the anger  when anger is appropriate … – Isn’t it finally true?: Wer denkt, ist nicht wütend.  Here for the first part of the Docu in Theodor W Adorno, Der Bürger als Revolutionär.

The less revolutionary version coming to mind is the one we know from Einstein:

Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.

wisely popularised as “You can’t blame gravity for falling in love”.

Love or show anger …, carpe diem and give the answer …

****

Anyway, a few days later a headline hits the news, informing that a

Tesla driver dies in first fatal crash while using autopilot mode

Surely a sad occurrence, but what makes it remarkable for me here is a sentence I find in the article, saying that

America’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an inquiry into the accident.

It leaves  me with a silly question. As sociologist I know that that NHTSA is an institution, following administrative and juridical rules, without “human intelligence”, reflecting law that is without consideration of right. As driver of a car I know that there is no point in asking the truck and trailer; and the sky …, it does have as many answers as it lacks having limits. So, at the end it may then be the driver of the truck who may be be blamed for being, for taking the freedom of being in the way of artificial rules …

****

Part of the limitations of artificial intelligence, in its excess child of bourgeois enlightenment, is surely that it established a certain inability to think unity as matter of contradiction. To take it from Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment

Bourgeois society is ruled by equivalence. It makes the dissimilar comparable by reducing it to abstract quantities. To the enlightenment, that which does not reduce to numbers, and ultimately to the one, becomes illusion.

There is surely some Madness of Sincerity of which I learned again – finally

Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death. So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a right only to their skepticism.”

It may then be that The Fall comes before The Stranger.

The Next Round?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, general

I just heard/read the news from Istanbul. Sounds like another terrible round …, and still it is the old story? So they write:

— Ataturk Airport is “one of the most secure airports in the world,” CNN senior law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes says. But the airport has been “very overwhelmed for several decades with terrorism from PKK.”

— The White House issued a statement: “Ataturk International Airport, like Brussels Airport which was attacked earlier this year, is a symbol of international connections and the ties that bind us together.

It is difficult to make any “negative” comments in face of what is just a human tragedy. But still I am wondering if what I read should be easily translated into:
White House and Erdogan together against PKK and the others … – it is a worrying constellation and is a worrying constellation looking at it in the wider perspective of BREXIT, and some “progressives” now claiming we should habe more exits, return to localism …
And we in academia follow, pretending excellence, striving for rankings and serving leisure interests?

Looking back: 教授给学生开设Workshop

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, Peter's Log, works, works, projects, publications

为了让学生学习更多的经济学知识及研究方法，提高学生自主学习能力，我院Peter Herrmann教授针对2014级金融学、会计学两个专业特别开设Workshop。经过面试并遴选40名学生后，Peter Herrmann教授围绕经济学开展一系列专题讨论，包括“大学与市场 (University and Markets)”，“金砖五国与薄荷四国 (From BRICS to MINT)”，“知识产权的维度 (Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights – Economics and Property)”等。在专题讨论中，Peter Herrmann教授引出话题，学生对各个话题进行深入讨论、发表见解，最后Peter Herrmann教授对主题进行总结，并提出一些问题留给学生课后思考。这种教学模式鼓励学生进行独立思考、自主研究。学生们纷纷表示受益匪浅。更令学生欣喜的是，Peter Herrmann教授给他们颁发了有他和学院教学副院长签名的结业证书。

(from: http://www.bangor.edu.cn/xydt/201606/t20160622_50616.html)

BREXIT – is that actually the real topic

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, general, thoughts on life and its philosophy

I was just approached by Yang Yuhan, asking for my opinion on the results in the UK.

I mentioned in a brief note some of the problems, e.g. that the result may be just the date of preparing a new referendum (as it happened so often), that the claimed economic strength by the “leavers” may be just another illusion but also that it is a strategy of one country to look for advantage on the back of others.
And then I said, “as it had been the case with (in particular) the German-Greek relationship.
As Yang said she would not know about Germany-Greece-relationships
 I answered in a nutshell – more is barely possible via QQ:
Perhaps we meet at some stage again, and we can chat. Too much to write …: Germany forced Greece to take loans, knowing that they would not be able to repay. Germany also kept the economy of Greece down, not allowing them to develop – we talked about world-systems, center-periphery etc. in the workshop. After a while the Germans said: now you have to return the money. And because you cannot do it “easily”, we dictate the conditions under which you do it. In consequnece, for instance, the social security systems had been dismantled (people getting 60 % of the retirement they expected, and it must in many cases serve the entire family; the health system is deteriorating; children cannot go to school, or they cannot concentrate because they are hungry …), the ariports had been “bought” by the German FRAPORT (Frankfurt airport), without proper pay …
Of course, the Germans could rely o their “European supporters” and the IMF and the World Bank but still they had been the main drivers.
And I directed her to things I wrote earlier – about Two Dreams and One Nightmare, there looking in particular at the second dream. Indeed, many things had been not known to the public, they had been veiled in populist disguises, hiding the
 And so we may even take up on people like Churchill who said, in a different context:
This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
And as Henry added in the mail he sent a few minutes ago:
the beginning of the complete disintegration of the EU….
Cunning of unreason – including the unreason of populist movements back in the other home? There was one star in Bethlehem, now there are five in Rome …
Just received another mail . actually taking up on the point I alluded to in the blog entry:
“The triumph of malign populism and a betrayal of the younger generation.”
Yes, there had been some betrayal, and my generation is guilty, if not directly betraying, allowing those others they dirty business …
Seeing all this in a wider context, I just feel miserable, actually since a couple of days already, the BREXIT is only a small part. It is about “us” – the elderly, the Europeans, the “better Europeans” … all these … “superiors” who claim to know everything and know everything better, and in which way ever, it is differ difficult to “escape”, difficult to remain sane and honest, and the only thing ome can do is to talk to some students, encouraging them …, to do what we cannot do anymore to the extent to which we want: move on and be honest …. – but also considered, not following the populist tendencies that lurk around everywhere, making education to a fun-park.

Un manifiesto de 177 economistas pide el voto para Unidos Podemos

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation, general
ELECCIONES GENERALES

Un manifiesto de 177 economistas pide el voto para Unidos Podemos

Académicos como Thomas Piketty o Vicenç Navarro apoyan el texto

[… y también algunas luces más pequeñas ;-)]

Un total de 177 economistas de universidades españolas e internacionales ha suscrito un manifiesto que reclama el fin de las políticas de austeridad en España y en Europa, y pide el voto para la candidatura de Unidos Podemos a las elecciones generales del próximo 26 de junio. El texto —que firman expertos como Thomas Piketty, de la Escuela de Economía de París; Viçenc Navarro, de la Universidad Pompeu Fabra (ambos asesoraron a Podemos con su programa); o Ann Pettifor, asesora del líder laborista Jeremy Corbyn— asegura que el programa de la coalición “servirá para poner punto final a las políticas de austeridad en España y, con ello, servirá también para abrir un nuevo tiempo en Europa”. ….

 

 

“There is no right life in the wrong one”

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, social quality

a friend of mine recently mentioned “stupidity” while talking about the situation that emerged after somebody passing away and the bereavement and non-bereavement  … – unfortunately I see stupidity increasingly in life itself, not in death and surrounding it; it is about permanent hypocrisy, death being somewhat part of the solution. There we are teaching, excellence (the new general trend: we all are “excellent” and we are easily forgetting that, if everybody is standing on the tiptoes, nobody can see better), and we are accepting  non-excellence, swimming in and with the  stream because swimming against it, ends most likely in drowning, and this way we are drowning in the stream with which we swim …., dead already while still breathing, not allowing for alternatives, paradoxically by claiming that only we – as individuals, as Asians, as Europeans, as Latinos, as men or women are the alternative. Establishing false identities as individuals or groups that define us not by saying who we are but by saying that there is “the other”.

*****

… “one of the girls”, one of my students was in the office last week, handing in an admin document. I never really talked to her throughout the entire year (no surprise – excellence is a mass product) and invited her to sit down for a chat. … “actually I know, I have to study harder [though she is one of the “good students”] and I will do what I have to do in order to finish my education. But then …, I do not know … My dream is to open a bakery shop, be happy and pass my happiness on to the customers”. It sounds familiar? I heard similar stories from a couple of students … – and in some I really saw the deep sorrows and I also saw the real excitement – in some way I felt the joy and happiness they were talking about …
…, knowing that there are illusions and romanticisms, knowing that the argument I put forward, stating that there cannot be excellence for and by all”, is in danger of being close to elitism, I still think there is some cause for consideration (re-consideration I should say as we ventilated this issue so often). Why are we pushing towards “higher education” in this way if the result is that

[a]ccording to one analysis, fully 43 percent of Chinese workers already consider themselves to be overeducated for their current positions.

Mind, I am not talking about China and robots. But .., how to say …? Is it correct saying that I am talking about this world in which education is dominated by administration, encapsulated in the iron cage Max Weber was talking about and offering little space for the development of personalities, replicating itself by forcing everybody to follow the supposed wisdom  of “if you can’t beat them, join them”, a fatal motto as we all know that

…

*****

…

And how then can we settle …?
Chatting with Yi, Xiao, Tricia, Tomi, Liu and Lv and Steph of course  … to name a few from the many years; working with the few who are really ready to co-work; and thinking about just meeting friends for a good and “innocent” laugh. Traveling recently with Jiaying to 岳陽 (Yueyang)  was nice, and so are meetings with 邹, talking about “uncombed ideas” (to use her words), flowing in the stream to change its direction …

And nice was the trip to the Forum in Shanghai. Actually the meeting itself was “just OK” – some really exciting discussions, but then too many screenplays of presentation of the “we” against the other, but it had been nice to come back to 上海 (Shanghai), to do the boat trip and chat with interesting people – and to make the 5(ish) hour trip from Changsha to Shanghai and back by train – I really like it, being able to work a bit, but also to look out of the window: the beautiful landscape and its variety, letting the thoughts flow …, thinking about the people living there along the route, making their living but also making their life …

Well, and then it is so strange when we are teaching and studying, we are supposed to forget all this, we are dealing with forms and matrices and equations … and we are forgetting what studying is about: helping us making their life and, of course, then making a living …

… a strange world, indeed,, while sitting other time in an “excellence centre”: strange is a world that is turning things around, and  excellence is actually flat …, and reality claims to exist in perfected algorithms …

I remain skeptical, and still think with Bohr that

[w]e must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

But still, and I admittedly did not fully theory of relativity or quantum mechanisms , we have to acknowledge that

E = hf
is superior over
E = mc²
In this way we have to make sure that the sentence that saying
Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable only through their interaction with other systems. (Bohr)
also means changes we aim for have to go beyond changes of particles. A theory of revolution – in science and society – wi be inspired by quantum mechanics and we may consider the need to establish a theory of quantum mechanical economics and quantum mechanical social quality.

班戈学院Peter Herrmann教授接受湖南日报记者专访

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, general, joys - what we usually take for it, Peter's Log

(for the original see here – credit for the photos: 熊雨晴; Weibo:@大象在拍照; scroll down for the English version)

日前，我院德国籍经济学教授、欧洲基金会顾问彼得·赫尔曼（Peter Herrmann）先生接受了湖南日报记者柏润的专访。访谈全文如下：

记者：

Herrmann教授，你好，您在班戈学院工作的第一年已接近尾声，能和我们的读者谈谈您这一年的感受吗？

Peter:

当然，能在班戈学院工作是我的荣幸。可以说这一年是风平浪静的一年。虽然班戈学院是一所新成立的中外合作办学机构，但是学院各项工作都开展的很顺利。这种合作办学方式对中英两校来说不仅是新的办学模式，更是两校从未跨入过的一个新领域。这一片崭新的土地上原本是很容易困难丛生的，然而所有参与其中的人都以出色的工作、极大的耐心和充分的相互理解克服了重重困难。班戈学院的成功都根植于所有教职员工和学生的付出中。

 

记者:

您是说学生吗? 但是我听说您和您的同事偶尔也会对学生颇有抱怨？是这样吗？

Peter:

当然，我们也会有抱怨。抱怨可以说是教师天性中的一小部分。但是说实话，我们的学生面对的是巨大的挑战，他们要面对全新的课题。开始学术学习就像学习一门新的语言，需要完全转变过去的思维方式。而且，班戈学院的学生接受的是全英文教学，上课和作业都是使用英文，所以你也可以认为他们在进行学术学习的同时也在学习语言。能够面对这样挑战的孩子是值得我们尊重的。

记者:

原本您和班戈学院只签了一年的合同，现在您又决定再续签一年，是这样吗？是什么使您改变主意留下来呢？

Peter:

原因有很多。我一生在不同的机构工作过：既曾在多所大学教书，也有幸受邀在科研机构工作，最近一次是在杭州担任外国高级专家。我曾经有过一些非常难得的机会，能够进入现有条件相当不错的机构工作，我本是不想放弃的。我在国际化环境中工作了30多年，这是我人生的主要组成部分。但是，在班戈学院工作是更加令我兴奋的挑战，能够为两所高校的合作办学贡献力量是一种全新的经历。并且，我的教育范围是非常广泛的，从经济学、社会学到哲学、政治学，还包括一些法律。我的工作范围也涵盖了教学，研究和政治。在班戈学院，我有一个夙愿，希望能够从一个更加广泛的角度进行经济学教学，不仅仅局限于各种方程式，而是使经济学成为人们的实际生活当中能够运用的规则。从而帮助每一个人理解经济学，运用经济学，而不是只有小部分人能使用它。

还有一个原因就是班戈学院的人都非常友善，这是班戈学院“卓越”的一个重要体现。“卓越”这个词现在非常流行，真正的卓越不仅仅是我们能够共同做出一些成绩。有人说我们学者是站在巨人的肩膀上 。但是人们容易忘记，那些“巨人们”在很大程度上也要依靠我们这些“小矮人”——行政人员，教师还有学生。我们需要充分尊重参与学院工作的所有人员，才能保证学院长足的发展。任何一方过于强势都可能造成危机。换句话说，我们要更加重视中英两校的相互学习。

记者:

感谢您参加这次访问。

*****

      Peter Herrmann教授正在专心研读

采访英文原稿如下：

Interviewer:

Peter, the first year of your work at BCC is now coming more or less to an end.

Can you tell our readers a little bit about your impressions?

 

Peter:

Of course, it is actually a pleasure for me. In some way it had been a quiet

year – things went smoothly although the BCC as cooperation between a

Chinese and European university is new: a new experience for the two

participating universities but also in general some new terrain. So, this was

enough new ground for possible problems. However, all, who participated had

been doing a wonderful work and proved by their patience and mutual

understanding that the real value of such project is grounded in people. And

having said“all, who participated” means not least the students.

Interviewer:

The students? But I heard you and your colleagues occasionally complaining a

little bit about the students. Was that a wrong impression?

 

Peter:

Of course we are complaining – it is a little bit part of the nature of teachers:

complaining. But let us be honest: the students face a tremendous challenge.

They enter a subject that is entirely new to them. Academic studying is a world

of entirely different thinking than we are used to – you may say they learn a new

language. And in the case of BCC, the students have to do this by using a

foreign language – all the work is undertaken in English. So you may say that

they are learning two languages at the same time. Taking up this challenge

deserves huge respect.

Interviewer:

Let me come to another point. Originally you signed a contract for one year –

and now you decided to stay for another year. Is that right? And if so, why did

you change your mind and stay on?

 

Peter:

There are different reasons – and in some way it is actually very much linked to

the first point. Throughout my life, I worked in different institutions: teaching at

different universities, having been lucky that I had been invited to join research

programmes – the latest was actually the position of Foreign Senior Expert in

Hangzhou. There had been many outstanding opportunities – and they had

been outstanding because I could join into excellent existing settings. I surly do

not want to miss that. However, here in Changsha the exciting challenge is to

be part of developing something that is more or less new: this joint venture

between the two universities. And as I worked for at least 30 years in

international settings, this seems to be a kind of master plan of my life. It is not

just working internationally, but it is also about contributing to shaping this

process. Of course, it is a small project if we look at the overall development of

international education. And my role in it is small tiny – just one of the many

teachers. Still, there are the different points to it. Working in a new project

means having the opportunity to develop something new. Also: my education is

very broad, beginning from economics and sociology, going to philosophy and

political science and including some law; my professional background

consists of teaching, researching and politics. From there I have a little bit the

ambition to mark the beginning of the teaching economics as something that

has to take a broad perspective, being more than areligion of equations. It has

to be a discipline for people’s real life. As such it can help us to

understand things and to make them work for everybody,not a minority. And not

least: people here are nice – and this is surely part of “excellence” – a term that

is so fashionable today. Real excellence is not least the ambition that we can

develop together something that has a small impact. There is a saying that we

as academics are standing of the shoulders as dwarfs: the administrators, the

teachers and not least the students. And we have to make sure that it moves

further by giving full respect to all sides that are involved. Any dominance from

one side would be dangerous. It also means that the process of mutual

learning need to be emphasised more.

 

Interviewer:

Thank you for the time.

 

Political Economy

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, publications, works, works, projects, publications

Three videos had been uploaded, presenting in German language the foundations of political economy.- Thank you to MrMarxismo.

 

Grundlagen der Politischen Ökonomie – Prof. Dr. Peter Herrmann – (attac Sommerakademie 2015 in Marburg). http://www.attac.de/bildungsangebot/s… – Sowohl in der Krisenanalyse der vergangenen Jahre als auch in der allgemeinen Diskussion und Darstellung von wirtschaftspolitischen Fragen finden sich oft zwei grundlegende Fehlannahmen:
o Vorgeschlagen wird ein Wirtschaftsverständnis, bei dem weitgehend ausgeblendet wird, dass es sich um inhärent soziale Verhältnisse handelt.
o Vorgeschlagen wird, dass es sich um nichtpolitische Verhältnisse handelt, bei denen es sich um reine Sachkonstellationen handelt – im Extrem können diese in Algorithmen gefasst werden.
Oft wendet sich gerade die linke Diskussion gegen solche Positionen, ohne die tatsächlichen Konzeptionen in Rechnung zu stellen.
Das Seminar will mit der Darstellung Klassischer, Marxistischer und Keynesianischer Konzepte zumindest die Grundbegriffe aufbereiten und damit auch Alternativen der Wirtschaftspolitik systematischer verstehbar zu machen.
Themen:
o Klassische Politische Ökonomie – Die Rechtfertigung des Nationalismus
o Keynes – Modernisierung der Nationalökonomie vor dem Hintergrund der Neuordnung der Welt
o Marx – Proletarier aller Länder – (wie) könnt ihr euch einigen?
Im Zusammenhang mit diesen Grundverständnissen werden auch weitere Konzepte (etwas Finanzialisierung, Lange Wellen etc.) aufgearbeitet.

Exam time

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, quotes, thoughts on life and its philosophy

What we – as teachers and students – have to acknowledge, always and in particular the days of exams, even if we are not any kind of genius.

I don’t know what I may seem to the world. But as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than the ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

(Isaac Newton)
It is not least a genuine sardino while we are pretending to and striving for living excellence of global imperialism where power and pretension counts more than excellence.
Acknowledging that we are dwarfs, standing the shoulders of giants, thus finding ourselves in a large machine, we still have to decide for ourselves if and to which extent we want to be a small cog in the wheels or if we want to throw a spanner in the works.
One thing I learned again from my students:  Real wisdom is the ability to ask genuine questions and the courage to ask them. So rare in a world of excellence that follows the rule of stating answers we know already on questions that are not relevant. To my students, the wide and brave amongst them:
Thank you all!

Education – the Fairy tale of not having enough money

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, contemporary socio-economic situation

Of course, different arguments and dimensions have to be taken into account when it comes to incomes that university staff receive. And the

shameless greed of university fat cats

is surely one point.

However, looking at the overall picture the really alarming fact is a different one: the increase of the income of admin staff, which goes much beyond the increase of the income of academic – the

Times Higher Education pay survey 2016

reveals surely interesting data, and may provoke once more the question if we are talking about education or systems that are established for the purpose of generating gain?

It fits too well into the debate on the recently leaked TISA-documents. And so it was also part of the teaching – which will soon be available as recordings (17/18).

And with few exceptions this is obviously a male dominated system.