Andrew Hamilton
11-06-2008, 10:18 AM
I have written a short article on my personal political philosophy and I have copied and pasted it below. I would like to hear what people’s opinion of it is:
Polfitism By: Andrew Hamilton. (word count: 2108)
This is my personal account of my personal political philosophy that I call ‘polfitism’:
What is Polfitism
Polfitism is a form of democracy (or, to be more precise, an extension of democracy) where every political candidate, prior to any election, must perform a special intelligence test called a ‘polfitness test’ (the words ‘polfitness test’ come from the words ‘political fitness test’ and the ‘polfit’ in ‘polfitism’ obviously comes from the word ‘polfitness’). The polfitness test is to be a scientifically devised test that tests the candidate for various mental attributes that would help to make a politician more likely to make good and intelligent decisions. After a political candidate has done the polfitness test, the results of such a polfitness test must then be made public prior to the election so that voters are given the opportunity to make a more rational decision on who to vote for by taking into account the test results of this polfitness test. This is essentially what polfitism is.
But, obviously, there is nothing stopping the less rational voters from simply ignoring the results of such a test. Obviously there is no point in having polfitism if the vast majority of voters completely ignore the test results. So, for polfitism to work, a significant proportion (preferably the majority) of the electorate must be persuaded to take into significant account the test results when choosing who to vote for. The state should make every effort to educate and persuaded the voters to take the polfitness test results fully into account when choosing who to vote for at elections.
A democratic state that uses this polfitness test in this way may be called a ‘polfit state’.The science on how to do well in the polfitness test and the theories of what are the mental attributes that makes one person a better politician than another and what therefore are the mental attributes the polfitness test should test for may be called ‘polfitology’. A person who generally supports polfitism may be called a ‘polfitist’.
What the polfitness test tests for
The things the polfitness test tests for are:
1, The person’s non verbal IQ. The polfitness test would include the standard non verbal IQ test because this tests for the person’s general problem-solving ability and a person’s ability to make good decisions is obviously effected by their non verbal IQ. Incidentally, the candidate’s verbal IQ probably isn’t relevant and so probably should not be tested for because while being a good communicator would obviously help the person be a successful politician, it want necessarily make that person a good politician because to be a good politician requires making gooddecisions. What is much more relevant to making good decisions is the person’s logic and problem-solving ability rather than how well he communicates.
2, If science ever finds a way to measure such a thing; the polfitness test should test for the person’s proneness to form delusional beliefs such as absurd superstitious beliefs that are based on either flimsy evidence or no evidence. This could be an important part of the polfitness test because if you form irrational beliefs then you may make decisions based on those irrational beliefs. For example, if you are the head of a superpower and you have the irrational belief that global nuclear war is inevitable within your lifetime then you may decide it wouldn’t be a crime if you were the one to start it because you will belief that if you don’t then somebody else will anyway. From there it would be a small step for you to decide to do just that.
3, The polfitness test should test directly how well a person forms decisions (with the assumption that those decisions are based on rational beliefs). There has been a great deal of research on this very subject so it should be possible to make a good test to test peoples ability to make good decisions.
4, The polfitness test should test for any brain disorders that can be detected with the help of a brain scan and which may cause significant behavioural problems. This should include a test for whether or not the person suffers from ‘prefrontal lobe dysfunction’ which is a condition that can lead to behaviour problems or may even cause a person to be a psychopath. This would require a brain scan to measure the electrical activity in the person‘s ‘prefrontal lobes’ . It has been scientifically demonstrated that the part of the human brain called the prefrontal lobes is responsible for the ability to empathize as well as sympathise with other people although it has various other functions.
The test should also scan for any other brain disorders that could potentially adversely effect the person’s ability to form decisions.
5, The polfitness test should test for the person’s level of understanding of scientific method as a means of acquiring new knowledge. This part of the test must include a test to see how well the person really understands such things as what is meant by the ‘placebo effect’ and the reason for the ‘control’ in scientific experiments as well as the ‘double blind test’ etc.
6, The polfitness test should test for the person’s level of understanding of basic science (and only the very basic science as this is all that is necessary). This should include basic knowledge of such things as the law of the conservation of energy and other simple basic physical principles as well on some basic knowledge on genetics, nano-technology, renewable energy, recycling and climate change as these fields of knowledge have relevance to politics.
In addition, I strongly believe that the polfitness test should also test the person’s level of understanding of Darwinian evolution. This may not seem to have much to do with politics but the reason for this would be because it would be a very good test for general ability to understand basic scientific concepts because, judging from my own observations, many people who don’t believe in Darwinian evolution do not believe it because they have completely misunderstood it. However, having said that, the polfitness test should not test whether or not you actually believe the theory of Darwinian evolution; only your understanding of it. Thus the polfitness test would not necessarily be biased against religious views in favour of atheistic views.
7, If ever the science of psychology finds a way of producing some kind of measure of how ‘kind’ the person is (this may also involve scanning the brain) then this should also be part of the test.
The polfitness test would never be a perfectly accurate test nor a fool-proof test for how fit a person is to be a politician no mater how well developed it is. One reason for this is because the polfitness test would generally only test for some of the minimum requirements that a person must have to be capable of thinking intelligently and (possibly) kindly. But, just because a person is capable of thinking intelligently and kindly does not mean that that person does think intelligently and kindly in his everyday life. This does not mean that polfitism is flawed because it is better to be able to apply a moderately inaccurate test for how intelligent and (possibly) how kind the political candidates are than to apply absolutely no such test at all. However, as science of psychology becomes more and more advanced, the polfitness test should continually be evolve and improve to take fully into account of the new knowledge of psychology so that it becomes ever more accurate at measuring peoples suitability for politics and becomes ever more foolproof with time.
I would leave the fine details of how the polfitness test should be designed to psychologists that know a lot more about psychology than I do.
The purpose of polfitism
One reason for having polfitism is to reduce the probability of a complete lunatic being voted into power. This is partly because the polfitness test should test for prefrontal lobe dysfunction and also test for any mental attributes that can currently be detected in a test given the current tests that have been developed in the science of psychology and which may cause significant behavioural problems. The polfitness test should ideally, without actually asking what the candidate actually believes, also test for general proneness to form irrational and absurd beliefs such as the absurd belief that all black people are inferior etc. I see no reason why, with the help of such a test, polfitism couldn’t prevent at least some future wars because as at least some wars are started because of irrational paranoia, hatreds, prejudices, delusional beliefs and various irrational and unintelligent ways of thinking. Polfitism would also help stop candidates with low intelligence being voted into power.
Another reason for having polfitism is for the basic principle that, just as you should not employ a doctor that has no understanding of basic human anatomy or a maths teacher that cannot count, you should not employ a politician to be a politician if he has no ability to make intelligent decisions as this is exactly what politicians are employed to do. So, just as a doctor must pass an exam to be considered to be a qualified doctor, a politician should only be considered to be a qualified politician if he does the polfitness test and gets a score from the test that is publicly perceived to be an acceptably high score. Most types of professionals require qualifications to be allowed to do their profession. So, in this respect, why should politicians be treated any different from other types of professionals such as doctors, teachers etc?
Another reason for having polfitism is because if you are a voter and you want to know something about the psychology of the various political candidates, why should you be denied such information? After all, it is undemocratic to be denied such information since to be denied such information when you desire it would mean that you are less able to make a well informed choice of candidate and that would go against the basic principle of democracy because democracy is about making not just a choice but an informed choice of who should go into political office.
Laws to prevent corruption in a polfit state
The polfitness test should not, by law, be allowed to be designed by politicians else there would be the possibility of corruption because a politician could design the polfitness test to be politically biased to favour his own political views. The polfitness test should be designed by the most qualified psychologists and, in the case of the part of the test that requires a brain scan, neurologists.
Although it is possible for there to be some slight inadvertent politically bias in the polfit, the law should clearly state that, for a polfitness test to be valid, the polfitness test must not be designed to have deliberately politically biased and, in particular, the polfitness test must not ask the person being tested what either his political nor religious beliefs are.
To prevent any possibility of either conscious or unconscious bias from the people that mark the completed polfitness tests, measures should be made to ensure that when a person marks a completed polfitness test, he is given as little clue as possible to the name, identity, age, sex, ethnic origin, religion, or political beliefs of the person that completed the test (incidentally, I think this principle should also be applied to the marking of virtually all kinds of academic exams and written tests). Also, for a polfitness test result to be considered to be valid, the person that has done the test must not have given any information nor deliberate clues in his/her written answers to his/her name, identity, age, sex, ethnic origin, religion, or political beliefs else he/she should be disqualified from being a political candidate.
Special prevision should be made for those who either have difficulty reading or simply cannot read by, for example, offering the polfitness test in a purely verbal non-written form etc else the polfitness test would by unfairly biased against those with reading difficulties. There must be ample time allowed for the polfitness test so that, for the vast majority of people, the time limit put on the test will not limit the number of questions they answer nor make them have to rush to answer the questions. After all, the written parts of the polfitness test is not meant to test to see how quickly you can read, write and think but how intelligently you make decisions!
Polfitism By: Andrew Hamilton. (word count: 2108)
This is my personal account of my personal political philosophy that I call ‘polfitism’:
What is Polfitism
Polfitism is a form of democracy (or, to be more precise, an extension of democracy) where every political candidate, prior to any election, must perform a special intelligence test called a ‘polfitness test’ (the words ‘polfitness test’ come from the words ‘political fitness test’ and the ‘polfit’ in ‘polfitism’ obviously comes from the word ‘polfitness’). The polfitness test is to be a scientifically devised test that tests the candidate for various mental attributes that would help to make a politician more likely to make good and intelligent decisions. After a political candidate has done the polfitness test, the results of such a polfitness test must then be made public prior to the election so that voters are given the opportunity to make a more rational decision on who to vote for by taking into account the test results of this polfitness test. This is essentially what polfitism is.
But, obviously, there is nothing stopping the less rational voters from simply ignoring the results of such a test. Obviously there is no point in having polfitism if the vast majority of voters completely ignore the test results. So, for polfitism to work, a significant proportion (preferably the majority) of the electorate must be persuaded to take into significant account the test results when choosing who to vote for. The state should make every effort to educate and persuaded the voters to take the polfitness test results fully into account when choosing who to vote for at elections.
A democratic state that uses this polfitness test in this way may be called a ‘polfit state’.The science on how to do well in the polfitness test and the theories of what are the mental attributes that makes one person a better politician than another and what therefore are the mental attributes the polfitness test should test for may be called ‘polfitology’. A person who generally supports polfitism may be called a ‘polfitist’.
What the polfitness test tests for
The things the polfitness test tests for are:
1, The person’s non verbal IQ. The polfitness test would include the standard non verbal IQ test because this tests for the person’s general problem-solving ability and a person’s ability to make good decisions is obviously effected by their non verbal IQ. Incidentally, the candidate’s verbal IQ probably isn’t relevant and so probably should not be tested for because while being a good communicator would obviously help the person be a successful politician, it want necessarily make that person a good politician because to be a good politician requires making gooddecisions. What is much more relevant to making good decisions is the person’s logic and problem-solving ability rather than how well he communicates.
2, If science ever finds a way to measure such a thing; the polfitness test should test for the person’s proneness to form delusional beliefs such as absurd superstitious beliefs that are based on either flimsy evidence or no evidence. This could be an important part of the polfitness test because if you form irrational beliefs then you may make decisions based on those irrational beliefs. For example, if you are the head of a superpower and you have the irrational belief that global nuclear war is inevitable within your lifetime then you may decide it wouldn’t be a crime if you were the one to start it because you will belief that if you don’t then somebody else will anyway. From there it would be a small step for you to decide to do just that.
3, The polfitness test should test directly how well a person forms decisions (with the assumption that those decisions are based on rational beliefs). There has been a great deal of research on this very subject so it should be possible to make a good test to test peoples ability to make good decisions.
4, The polfitness test should test for any brain disorders that can be detected with the help of a brain scan and which may cause significant behavioural problems. This should include a test for whether or not the person suffers from ‘prefrontal lobe dysfunction’ which is a condition that can lead to behaviour problems or may even cause a person to be a psychopath. This would require a brain scan to measure the electrical activity in the person‘s ‘prefrontal lobes’ . It has been scientifically demonstrated that the part of the human brain called the prefrontal lobes is responsible for the ability to empathize as well as sympathise with other people although it has various other functions.
The test should also scan for any other brain disorders that could potentially adversely effect the person’s ability to form decisions.
5, The polfitness test should test for the person’s level of understanding of scientific method as a means of acquiring new knowledge. This part of the test must include a test to see how well the person really understands such things as what is meant by the ‘placebo effect’ and the reason for the ‘control’ in scientific experiments as well as the ‘double blind test’ etc.
6, The polfitness test should test for the person’s level of understanding of basic science (and only the very basic science as this is all that is necessary). This should include basic knowledge of such things as the law of the conservation of energy and other simple basic physical principles as well on some basic knowledge on genetics, nano-technology, renewable energy, recycling and climate change as these fields of knowledge have relevance to politics.
In addition, I strongly believe that the polfitness test should also test the person’s level of understanding of Darwinian evolution. This may not seem to have much to do with politics but the reason for this would be because it would be a very good test for general ability to understand basic scientific concepts because, judging from my own observations, many people who don’t believe in Darwinian evolution do not believe it because they have completely misunderstood it. However, having said that, the polfitness test should not test whether or not you actually believe the theory of Darwinian evolution; only your understanding of it. Thus the polfitness test would not necessarily be biased against religious views in favour of atheistic views.
7, If ever the science of psychology finds a way of producing some kind of measure of how ‘kind’ the person is (this may also involve scanning the brain) then this should also be part of the test.
The polfitness test would never be a perfectly accurate test nor a fool-proof test for how fit a person is to be a politician no mater how well developed it is. One reason for this is because the polfitness test would generally only test for some of the minimum requirements that a person must have to be capable of thinking intelligently and (possibly) kindly. But, just because a person is capable of thinking intelligently and kindly does not mean that that person does think intelligently and kindly in his everyday life. This does not mean that polfitism is flawed because it is better to be able to apply a moderately inaccurate test for how intelligent and (possibly) how kind the political candidates are than to apply absolutely no such test at all. However, as science of psychology becomes more and more advanced, the polfitness test should continually be evolve and improve to take fully into account of the new knowledge of psychology so that it becomes ever more accurate at measuring peoples suitability for politics and becomes ever more foolproof with time.
I would leave the fine details of how the polfitness test should be designed to psychologists that know a lot more about psychology than I do.
The purpose of polfitism
One reason for having polfitism is to reduce the probability of a complete lunatic being voted into power. This is partly because the polfitness test should test for prefrontal lobe dysfunction and also test for any mental attributes that can currently be detected in a test given the current tests that have been developed in the science of psychology and which may cause significant behavioural problems. The polfitness test should ideally, without actually asking what the candidate actually believes, also test for general proneness to form irrational and absurd beliefs such as the absurd belief that all black people are inferior etc. I see no reason why, with the help of such a test, polfitism couldn’t prevent at least some future wars because as at least some wars are started because of irrational paranoia, hatreds, prejudices, delusional beliefs and various irrational and unintelligent ways of thinking. Polfitism would also help stop candidates with low intelligence being voted into power.
Another reason for having polfitism is for the basic principle that, just as you should not employ a doctor that has no understanding of basic human anatomy or a maths teacher that cannot count, you should not employ a politician to be a politician if he has no ability to make intelligent decisions as this is exactly what politicians are employed to do. So, just as a doctor must pass an exam to be considered to be a qualified doctor, a politician should only be considered to be a qualified politician if he does the polfitness test and gets a score from the test that is publicly perceived to be an acceptably high score. Most types of professionals require qualifications to be allowed to do their profession. So, in this respect, why should politicians be treated any different from other types of professionals such as doctors, teachers etc?
Another reason for having polfitism is because if you are a voter and you want to know something about the psychology of the various political candidates, why should you be denied such information? After all, it is undemocratic to be denied such information since to be denied such information when you desire it would mean that you are less able to make a well informed choice of candidate and that would go against the basic principle of democracy because democracy is about making not just a choice but an informed choice of who should go into political office.
Laws to prevent corruption in a polfit state
The polfitness test should not, by law, be allowed to be designed by politicians else there would be the possibility of corruption because a politician could design the polfitness test to be politically biased to favour his own political views. The polfitness test should be designed by the most qualified psychologists and, in the case of the part of the test that requires a brain scan, neurologists.
Although it is possible for there to be some slight inadvertent politically bias in the polfit, the law should clearly state that, for a polfitness test to be valid, the polfitness test must not be designed to have deliberately politically biased and, in particular, the polfitness test must not ask the person being tested what either his political nor religious beliefs are.
To prevent any possibility of either conscious or unconscious bias from the people that mark the completed polfitness tests, measures should be made to ensure that when a person marks a completed polfitness test, he is given as little clue as possible to the name, identity, age, sex, ethnic origin, religion, or political beliefs of the person that completed the test (incidentally, I think this principle should also be applied to the marking of virtually all kinds of academic exams and written tests). Also, for a polfitness test result to be considered to be valid, the person that has done the test must not have given any information nor deliberate clues in his/her written answers to his/her name, identity, age, sex, ethnic origin, religion, or political beliefs else he/she should be disqualified from being a political candidate.
Special prevision should be made for those who either have difficulty reading or simply cannot read by, for example, offering the polfitness test in a purely verbal non-written form etc else the polfitness test would by unfairly biased against those with reading difficulties. There must be ample time allowed for the polfitness test so that, for the vast majority of people, the time limit put on the test will not limit the number of questions they answer nor make them have to rush to answer the questions. After all, the written parts of the polfitness test is not meant to test to see how quickly you can read, write and think but how intelligently you make decisions!