Re: [PEN-L] uncertainty and incomplete information

[michael a. lebowitz]

At 14:51 14/02/2006, Michael Nuwer had some nice things to say about a comment I made about uncertainty in an atomistic world vs a world in which social institutions are being created to facilitate the exchange of information. There's been quite a bit of discussion since (which I've avoided while struggling with a chapter), but I thought the point was self-evident. Here's an excerpt from my "knowledge of a better world' which appeared in Monthly Review last summer and which will be a chapter in the MR book I'm now finishing, 'Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century' (due out this summer):

            The existence of institutions which make knowledge property and a source of private gain, then, are contrary to the concept and ethos of knowledge and demonstrate the social irrationality of those institutions. Take the grading mechanism in many universities, for example. It is a common practice for professors in North America to grade according to a normal statistical curve--- so, many A’s, B’s, C’s. etc to F’s­regardless of over-all student performance. What kind of behaviour does this make rational for those who function within such a structure? Clearly, it is to keep knowledge to themselves (or to a small subset of friends). The more other students know, the lower are one’s own chances for a good grade. (In fact, it makes rational giving other students false information.) The structure in this case puts students in competition--- a situation that Robert Wyatt, the British singer, once sang about with the line, ‘How can I rise, if you don’t fall?’ This artificially created structure produces a zero-sum game in the case of knowledge which, by its very nature, is not zero-sum. Thus, whereas ideally a university might be viewed as an environment dedicated to the fullest possible development and dissemination of knowledge--- something which a collective learning process would encourage, we can see that the creation of an environment which rewards private ownership of knowledge is contrary to the idealised concept of the university.

Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at

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