About me

Keith Donald

My approach to all of this has perhaps been a little less than conventional, but my experiences with education might not be all that uncommon. My background is a bit unique with regards to studies on the history and philosophy of science, but my background also gives me a straightforward perspective on philosophical issues in real world contexts. I have attempted to develop philosophical practices while in hands on environments and I have earned several supply chain management certifications, graduated from Arizona State University (ASU) with honors, and I have maintained contact with several of my teachers throughout the development of these projects.

It is perhaps a bit surprising at times, but my background is entirely relevant to the philosophy of science. I have taken full advantage of the skills I have acquired along the way and they have enabled me to observe how institutions interact with the process of authenticating thought when ideas move from one environment to another. Experience with supply chains has helped me to evaluate how communication networks tend to grow and develop in the same way that Willard Van Orman Quine’s “webs of belief” develop in science. It is not entirely out of context to observe how paradigms in science can act like supply lines in the economy when they encourage the already existing patterns of relations over disruptions and alternative methods of engagement. Important innovations can, at times, be too costly or too uncertain to implement on massive scales and these otherwise anomalous ideas often end up getting unreasonably excluded from consideration when developing novel or otherwise sustainable practices. Under-determined innovations in the market might end up influencing development on the periphery from time to time, but existing infrastructures and institutional practices will always tend to be biased towards their own particular conceptualization of core ideas and will likely push competition out of the market instead of allowing disruptive activity to destabilize the existing paradigmatic webs of established public goods — but that shouldn’t discourage any of us from thinking freely and refining the system from within.

In this website you will get the chance to see that this background of mine provides a conceptual framework that is rich in analytical tools and has helped to inform many of the ways that I examine our history of ideas in cultural and economic contexts. Throughout the process of developing this website, I have even received advice from my teachers and peers at the American Philosophical Association (APA) and the History of Science Society (HSS). I have also come to appreciate a comparative view on educational institutions through my association with organizations like the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), as well.

You might even be able to see that the name of this website is a play on words, but it is inspired by a theoretical aspect of my approach to the philosophy of knowledge. The reader is certainly free to infer from the title what they may like, but it is meant to give reference to the point at which current ways of thinking break down and give rise to new orders of thought. It is meant to highlight the threshold at which point one thing suddenly becomes a different thing when thresholds are breached, gaps are bridged, and new conceptual connections are forged. It is an attempt to focus in on what kinds of boundary conditions we place on concepts like goodness, justice, and beauty, and the whole idea is to give reference to the point at which current ways of thinking spontaneously give rise to new orders of thought. In other words, this website is basically an exploration of how boundary conditions work to structure our thoughts in social engagements and also how they transform in-themselves with regards to the context of their cultural representation.

Interests

I am interested in the history of ideas and how they get bound up in their own local circumstances through economic arrangements and socially organized education structures. In looking at this topic, I have been continually surprised at how closely our educational institutions have been related to our sense of self and local identity within our communities. I have come to appreciate the importance of social roles and how they interact with their local cultural native and extended economic environments, because it is at the points of contact and mediums of exchange that we get the best perspective on ideas of cultural significance. I have used this website to share some of my observations on the topic, and it is my hope that the work found herein will also help to highlight the value of my complimentary research project on the history and philosophy of science.

I am very interested in the ways that innovative technologies affect society, and how technical developments can work their way towards disrupting or completely transforming social practices of community organization. Authors like Neil Postman, Thomas Kuhn, Douglas Rushkoff, Karl Polanyi, and many others have opened my eyes to the extensive impacts that technology can have on society and our methods of cultural exchange. The works of these authors have helped me to see how revolutionary ideas can have ripple effects throughout the world and see how our exchange structures work to either amplify or restrict innovative developments in our ways of thinking.

It is my belief that the exchange structures we develop can have profound influences on the kinds of thoughts that are acceptable within any given community, and it is through this lens that I hope to explore concepts within the philosophy of science and the history of ideas. It is my hope that I might be able to expand the topic of epistemology to these kinds of worldly experiences in an attempt to show how the infrastructure of our social arrangements inhibit or amplify our ways of thinking. I take the view that justification of our ideas is not just a matter of logic and reason, because there appear to be systems of justification which are implicit in the way that our institutions interact with one another. It is a topic which I will explore much further in my upcoming book, along with many of the other trappings of philosophical inquiry, as an examination of how society impinges on thought and how cultures influence the development of ideas.

Goals

Developing this website was part of the broader project of writing my book and it is my hope that I will be able to establish a greater network of associations who share similar interests so that we can collaborate and amplify each others’ work.