12 December 2025
Dr Neville Buch (ABN 86703686642)
Unpaid-Unemployed Researcher
Management Institute for Contributory Economy (MICE)
Business Office
18 Callendar Street, Sunnybank Hills 4109
AUSTRALIA
18 Callendar Street, Sunnybank Hills 4109
AUSTRALIA
bcc. political leaders for their political wisdom and decisive action.
Dear Michael and Neil, and friends in the shadows, either by design or choice.
I hope that I may be judged by the end of year MICE performance, and not the ‘asshole’ unemployed person that it is thought I am.
ACCOUNTABILITY!
- MICE got 1273 views from the United States and South Africa on ““Assholiness” as a Philosophical Concept”;
- MICE got 1277 views from Japan, the United States, and South Africa on “The Heart of Queensland Policy and Operations”;
- MICE 1344 views from the United States, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Italy, and Canada on “The 4-Point Plan and Elements of Good Thinking”;
- MICE 1520 views from the United States, South Africa, Canada, and Taiwan on “The Non-Existent Queensland Social Policy”;
- MICE 1577 views from the United States and South Africa on “Obnoxiousness”.
I, personally, as representing MICE, am now engaged with over 500 followers around the world. I have 86,141 Public Views, and I am in the Top 0.1% of Academia.edu scope. In the last month, there have been 36,800 visitors to the MICE pages of Academia.edu site. This means, internationally, our documents have been viewed 52,361 times. My personal profile in this work has been seen by 6,546 persons. Of the 8,140 readers, 3,663 are highly engaged, 403 are in my network, and there are 1,003 across my fields of learning (a few hours ago; a moving feast). I am getting the average daily attention of 4,500 persons.
My, our, mentions ought to be better, but, as professional historians, understand that factor is in the hands of the institutions. If you think I’m an “asshole” for that, then I am an asshole. In the “Assholiness” as a Philosophical Concept it is stated,
“Assholiness,” philosophically conceived, refers to a pathological posture rooted in aggressive egotism and exclusionary cognitive practices that actively employs “bullshit” (BS) [another philosophical concept, of Harry Frankfurt] as its primary mode of communication.
…Assholiness institutionalises this intellectual disregard, transforming it from a mere error into a systematic defence mechanism aimed at protecting a simplistic, self-aggrandising worldview against the necessity of critical self-reflection and complexity.
You and your readers may wish to engage the wisdom of The Atlantic Daily editor, on this very point:
A force is pulling on Donald Trump that is even more inexorable than the march of time: political mortality.
Sometimes scandal or ineffectiveness is what fells a politician; if they survive those, term limits may get them anyway. But not even the most fearsome and durable leader escapes the eventual decay of their power. The towering Lyndon B. Johnson was forced to drop out of the 1968 presidential race, facing a tough Democratic primary; Margaret Thatcher’s powerful reign ended with a Conservative mutiny; Mitch McConnell, once the wily master of the Senate, now finds himself an ostracized backbencher.
Trump may have imagined he was immune. If so, he wasn’t alone. The rules of political gravity, journalists have often declared, sometimes seem not to apply to him. He defied the Republican Party establishment to win the 2016 nomination. He beat the odds to defeat Hillary Clinton that fall. And although he was written off as finished following the 2020 election and his attempt to steal it, Trump completed the greatest comeback in American political history in 2024, easily eclipsing Richard Nixon’s 1968 election.
One of the secrets to Trump’s success has been his control over other Republican figures, because of either their political and personal affinity or, failing that, the ability to bully them into submission with rhetorical attacks or threats of primary challenges. But as the end of Trump’s political career approaches, his grip over the GOP is showing some cracks.
Yesterday, I had began the Concept-Practice teaching document series:
Concept-Practices: A List
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642
The philosophical status of concepts-whether they are immutable, absolute forms providing fixed foundations for knowledge, or fluid, contingent constructs defined by their utility-is a central, contested issue in modern thought. The traditional position, rooted in Platonic and Cartesian foundationalism, maintained that ultimate reality resides in fixed, universal truths (Forms or a priori categories). These structures provide an immutable conceptual framework necessary for certain and demonstrable knowledge. However, the modern perspective, driven by Lebensphilosophie, pragmatism, and critical theory, contests this immutability, asserting instead that concepts are dynamic, time-bound, and function primarily as necessary instruments or guides in practice. This contest transforms concepts into practical methodologies-concepts practices-which are valued not for their correspondence to an external absolute, but for their role in structuring human experience, facilitating ethical reflection, solving problems, and advancing knowledge through ongoing processes of critique and refinement. This essay outlines the core concept-practices articulated by Dr. Buch and the major thinkers he references, illustrating the profound shift from contemplative knowledge to active intellectual application.
Concept-Practices: A.1. Human Nature
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) and later ethical writings established an influential anthropological model that profoundly reshaped philosophical inquiry by rooting consciousness and morality firmly in the human subject’s contingent psychological machinery. Hume executes a radical reduction of the self, viewing consciousness not as an ego-substance—the existence of which he implicitly denies—but as a fluid bundle of perceptions or an aggregation of sense-data. His most famous ethical claim is that rationality is driven by passions; the human understanding is fundamentally indebted to and serves the desires that originate in wants and drive knowledge acquisition. Consequently, belief is ultimately based not on immutable, eternal truths but on custom and habit, psychological mechanisms inferred from empirical regularity rather than necessary reason. This model served as the first non-sophistic anthropology, anchoring the human sciences in the empirical domain and challenging metaphysical rationalism by showing that the application of pure analytic standards to human life leads not to virtue but to skepticism and absurdity.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739) and later ethical writings established an influential anthropological model that profoundly reshaped philosophical inquiry by rooting consciousness and morality firmly in the human subject’s contingent psychological machinery. Hume executes a radical reduction of the self, viewing consciousness not as an ego-substance—the existence of which he implicitly denies—but as a fluid bundle of perceptions or an aggregation of sense-data. His most famous ethical claim is that rationality is driven by passions; the human understanding is fundamentally indebted to and serves the desires that originate in wants and drive knowledge acquisition. Consequently, belief is ultimately based not on immutable, eternal truths but on custom and habit, psychological mechanisms inferred from empirical regularity rather than necessary reason. This model served as the first non-sophistic anthropology, anchoring the human sciences in the empirical domain and challenging metaphysical rationalism by showing that the application of pure analytic standards to human life leads not to virtue but to skepticism and absurdity.
Concept-Practices: B.1. Pure Reason
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
This essay analyses the Transcendental/A Priori Method of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), focusing on the epistemological structure articulated in the Critique of Pure Reason and the ethical implications within the Critique of Practical Reason. Kant’s system holds that knowledge is conditioned by innate mental structures—namely, the pure forms of intuition (Space and Time) and the categories of understanding (such as Causality and Substance)—which precede and structure sensible experience. His “Copernican Revolution” sought to rescue objective knowledge from Humean skepticism by demonstrating that objects must conform to these subjective, yet universal, a priori conditions for the possibility of experience. While this method establishes a rigorous foundation for theoretical science and mathematics, limiting knowledge to phenomena, Kant grounds moral philosophy in an equally autonomous pure practical reason. This mandates that the rational agent must act according to the Categorical Imperative and freely affirm moral principles, thereby establishing the intrinsic value of human dignity against empirical determinism. The subsequent Dynamic of Cognition (DoC) analysis reveals how Kant’s transcendental framework, particularly his necessary commitment to the noumenal/phenomenal distinction, reflects a profound struggle against intellectual prejudice and ideological conformity.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
This essay analyses the Transcendental/A Priori Method of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), focusing on the epistemological structure articulated in the Critique of Pure Reason and the ethical implications within the Critique of Practical Reason. Kant’s system holds that knowledge is conditioned by innate mental structures—namely, the pure forms of intuition (Space and Time) and the categories of understanding (such as Causality and Substance)—which precede and structure sensible experience. His “Copernican Revolution” sought to rescue objective knowledge from Humean skepticism by demonstrating that objects must conform to these subjective, yet universal, a priori conditions for the possibility of experience. While this method establishes a rigorous foundation for theoretical science and mathematics, limiting knowledge to phenomena, Kant grounds moral philosophy in an equally autonomous pure practical reason. This mandates that the rational agent must act according to the Categorical Imperative and freely affirm moral principles, thereby establishing the intrinsic value of human dignity against empirical determinism. The subsequent Dynamic of Cognition (DoC) analysis reveals how Kant’s transcendental framework, particularly his necessary commitment to the noumenal/phenomenal distinction, reflects a profound struggle against intellectual prejudice and ideological conformity.
Concept-Practices: C.1. Understanding
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
This essay investigates Wilhelm Dilthey’s development of Verstehen (Empathetic Understanding) as the central methodological practice for the Geisteswissenschaften (Human Sciences), fundamentally distinguishing them from the causal explanation (Erklären) employed by the natural sciences. Dilthey’s methodology, rooted in Lebensphilosophie (Philosophy of Life), asserts that human reality—historical, cultural, and individual—is constituted by intentions, values, and meanings derived from lived experience (Erlebnis). In contrast to the positivist tendency to reduce human phenomena to universal causal laws, Verstehen necessitates an interpretive capacity that grasps the inherent time-bound and contextual nature of human thought. By formulating a philosophical framework for historicism and emphasizing the totality of the human subject (feeling, volition, and thought) over purely rational consciousness, Dilthey established the essential intellectual groundwork for modern hermeneutics and laid a foundation for contemporary philosophical models that prioritize contextual grounding and applied reason.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
This essay investigates Wilhelm Dilthey’s development of Verstehen (Empathetic Understanding) as the central methodological practice for the Geisteswissenschaften (Human Sciences), fundamentally distinguishing them from the causal explanation (Erklären) employed by the natural sciences. Dilthey’s methodology, rooted in Lebensphilosophie (Philosophy of Life), asserts that human reality—historical, cultural, and individual—is constituted by intentions, values, and meanings derived from lived experience (Erlebnis). In contrast to the positivist tendency to reduce human phenomena to universal causal laws, Verstehen necessitates an interpretive capacity that grasps the inherent time-bound and contextual nature of human thought. By formulating a philosophical framework for historicism and emphasizing the totality of the human subject (feeling, volition, and thought) over purely rational consciousness, Dilthey established the essential intellectual groundwork for modern hermeneutics and laid a foundation for contemporary philosophical models that prioritize contextual grounding and applied reason.
Concept-Practices: D.1 Belief
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Charles Sanders Peirce’s work, primarily articulated in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy essays of 1868, established the Fallibilist Self-Correcting Method as a pivotal philosophical concept-practice. This epistemology fundamentally rejects Cartesian foundationalism and the possibility of absolutely self-authenticating beliefs (intuitions). Instead, Peirce grounds knowledge in the communal and perpetual process of inquiry. Cognition is understood as an “infinite semiosis,” where all beliefs are signs that necessitate interpretation by further signs. The systematic procedure of inquiry—encompassing abduction, deduction, and induction—functions collectively, shifting the basis of knowledge from the clarity of the individual mind to the public cogency of inferences. Peirce upholds an epistemological realism, arguing for an isomorphism between thought and being (cognizability and being are synonymous), meaning reality is inherently knowable. This method is a normative structure: a framework for rigorously advancing towards objective truth while acknowledging that certainty is perpetually conditional and open to correction.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Charles Sanders Peirce’s work, primarily articulated in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy essays of 1868, established the Fallibilist Self-Correcting Method as a pivotal philosophical concept-practice. This epistemology fundamentally rejects Cartesian foundationalism and the possibility of absolutely self-authenticating beliefs (intuitions). Instead, Peirce grounds knowledge in the communal and perpetual process of inquiry. Cognition is understood as an “infinite semiosis,” where all beliefs are signs that necessitate interpretation by further signs. The systematic procedure of inquiry—encompassing abduction, deduction, and induction—functions collectively, shifting the basis of knowledge from the clarity of the individual mind to the public cogency of inferences. Peirce upholds an epistemological realism, arguing for an isomorphism between thought and being (cognizability and being are synonymous), meaning reality is inherently knowable. This method is a normative structure: a framework for rigorously advancing towards objective truth while acknowledging that certainty is perpetually conditional and open to correction.
Concept-Practices: E.1. Psyche
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical project, culminating in works like The Birth of Tragedy (1872), provided the essential diagnosis for the cultural collapse of meaning and laid the groundwork for Lebensphilosophie by rooting profound intellectual analysis in aesthetic and psychological concepts. The Apollinian and Dionysian principles are understood as opposing yet complementary forces defining the human condition and the function of art. The Dionysian (intoxicated passion, primitive unity, music) embodies the chaotic, non-teleological, and vitalist essence of becoming and the Will to Power, which is the intrinsic character of all force seeking to discharge its strength. In contrast, the Apollinian (serene proportion, illusory image, sculpture) represents the impulse toward form, individuation, and illusion necessary for existence. The synthesis of these forces in Attic tragedy functions as the non-utilitarian, self-creative path of active nihilism, enabling humanity to confront the resulting meaninglessness of the “death of God”. Nietzsche’s critique reveals that psychological phenomena, including the conception of the unified self, are often moral fictions—a “grammatical mistake”—that must be overcome through aesthetic and intellectual self-overcoming.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical project, culminating in works like The Birth of Tragedy (1872), provided the essential diagnosis for the cultural collapse of meaning and laid the groundwork for Lebensphilosophie by rooting profound intellectual analysis in aesthetic and psychological concepts. The Apollinian and Dionysian principles are understood as opposing yet complementary forces defining the human condition and the function of art. The Dionysian (intoxicated passion, primitive unity, music) embodies the chaotic, non-teleological, and vitalist essence of becoming and the Will to Power, which is the intrinsic character of all force seeking to discharge its strength. In contrast, the Apollinian (serene proportion, illusory image, sculpture) represents the impulse toward form, individuation, and illusion necessary for existence. The synthesis of these forces in Attic tragedy functions as the non-utilitarian, self-creative path of active nihilism, enabling humanity to confront the resulting meaninglessness of the “death of God”. Nietzsche’s critique reveals that psychological phenomena, including the conception of the unified self, are often moral fictions—a “grammatical mistake”—that must be overcome through aesthetic and intellectual self-overcoming.
Concept-Practices: E.2. Morals
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
The philosophical concept-practice of Genealogy in Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals (GM) is a radical methodological tool designed to dismantle the metaphysical foundations of traditional morality by treating moral concepts (such as morality, conscience, and punishment) as mutable, historically contested, and fundamentally interpretive. Rejecting the notion that values stem from immutable, external truths (Platonic Forms or the unconditional will to truth), Genealogy operates under the epistemological premise of perspectivism—the assertion that there are “no facts, only interpretations”. This critique investigates the “value of values” by tracing the historical origin (Her-kunft) of moral systems, demonstrating how they arise not from objective truth, but from the triumph of particular psychological and physiological drives, primarily manifested as the ressentiment of the weak (slave morality). The methodology reveals that the entire process of historical and conceptual transformation is driven by the Will to Power (WTP), which ceaselessly reinterprets and subdues existing concepts to assert its influence. Genealogy thus embodies active nihilism, serving as a critical imperative to expose intellectual errors, allowing for the conscious creation and affirmation of new, life-enhancing values.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
The philosophical concept-practice of Genealogy in Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals (GM) is a radical methodological tool designed to dismantle the metaphysical foundations of traditional morality by treating moral concepts (such as morality, conscience, and punishment) as mutable, historically contested, and fundamentally interpretive. Rejecting the notion that values stem from immutable, external truths (Platonic Forms or the unconditional will to truth), Genealogy operates under the epistemological premise of perspectivism—the assertion that there are “no facts, only interpretations”. This critique investigates the “value of values” by tracing the historical origin (Her-kunft) of moral systems, demonstrating how they arise not from objective truth, but from the triumph of particular psychological and physiological drives, primarily manifested as the ressentiment of the weak (slave morality). The methodology reveals that the entire process of historical and conceptual transformation is driven by the Will to Power (WTP), which ceaselessly reinterprets and subdues existing concepts to assert its influence. Genealogy thus embodies active nihilism, serving as a critical imperative to expose intellectual errors, allowing for the conscious creation and affirmation of new, life-enhancing values.
Concept-Practices: E.3. Perspective
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Perspectivism, articulated rigorously in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, serves as a radical epistemological thesis and concept-practice. It fundamentally denies the existence of objective fact and the Platonic ideal of a “true world,” asserting that all knowledge is inherently interpretive and conditional. Rooted in Nietzsche’s thoroughgoing naturalism, Perspectivism maintains that the sensory flux of the world is always filtered into appearance (or semblance), organized by cognitive structures (like language and reason) that systematically falsify the underlying material. This inescapable perspective is driven not by detached rationality, but by underlying biological drives, affects, and the Will to Power (WTP), which compels living beings to simplify, organize, and interpret the world for the purpose of mastery and self-preservation. While foregoing the ideal of a God’s-eye view, the doctrine redefines objectivity not as “contemplation without interest,” but as the capacity for integrating multiple, competing interpretations, thereby affirming the multiplicity and vitality of existence.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Perspectivism, articulated rigorously in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, serves as a radical epistemological thesis and concept-practice. It fundamentally denies the existence of objective fact and the Platonic ideal of a “true world,” asserting that all knowledge is inherently interpretive and conditional. Rooted in Nietzsche’s thoroughgoing naturalism, Perspectivism maintains that the sensory flux of the world is always filtered into appearance (or semblance), organized by cognitive structures (like language and reason) that systematically falsify the underlying material. This inescapable perspective is driven not by detached rationality, but by underlying biological drives, affects, and the Will to Power (WTP), which compels living beings to simplify, organize, and interpret the world for the purpose of mastery and self-preservation. While foregoing the ideal of a God’s-eye view, the doctrine redefines objectivity not as “contemplation without interest,” but as the capacity for integrating multiple, competing interpretations, thereby affirming the multiplicity and vitality of existence.
Concept-Practices: F.1. Culture
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Georg Simmel’s critique of Objective Culture offers a pioneering sociological diagnosis of modernity: the systemic tendency for specialized, structural systems—such as the metropolis, bureaucracy, and above all, modern technics—to autonomously develop, thereby overwhelming and alienating the subjective integrity of the individual person. Simmel’s analysis, rooted in the tradition of Lebensphilosophie, recognizes that the acceleration of technical evolution and the subsequent spread of purposive-rational action create a condition known as the Gestell (technical framework) where destiny is submitted to the techno-economic imperatives regulating investment calculation. This imposition leads to a discrepancy between contemporary technics and culture and precipitates the profound uprooting and immense regression of the human subject, generating a discontinuous self-caught between individual aspiration and systemic determination. The individual ceases to be an author of their life, becoming instead the machine’s servant or assembler. The fulfillment of human flourishing thus necessitates a philosophical response that champions critical reflection (Verstehen), striving for autonomy by liberating communication from the totalizing logic of calculation.
https://www.academia.edu/
Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642Abstract:
Georg Simmel’s critique of Objective Culture offers a pioneering sociological diagnosis of modernity: the systemic tendency for specialized, structural systems—such as the metropolis, bureaucracy, and above all, modern technics—to autonomously develop, thereby overwhelming and alienating the subjective integrity of the individual person. Simmel’s analysis, rooted in the tradition of Lebensphilosophie, recognizes that the acceleration of technical evolution and the subsequent spread of purposive-rational action create a condition known as the Gestell (technical framework) where destiny is submitted to the techno-economic imperatives regulating investment calculation. This imposition leads to a discrepancy between contemporary technics and culture and precipitates the profound uprooting and immense regression of the human subject, generating a discontinuous self-caught between individual aspiration and systemic determination. The individual ceases to be an author of their life, becoming instead the machine’s servant or assembler. The fulfillment of human flourishing thus necessitates a philosophical response that champions critical reflection (Verstehen), striving for autonomy by liberating communication from the totalizing logic of calculation.
Of course, this is only the beginning.
ALL I HAVE BEEN ASKING FOR IS THAT FUTURE PROFESSIONAL WORK OF MINE AND MICE IS FAIRLY PAID FOR.
ALL I HAVE EXPECTED IS THAT ONE POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVE WOULD ACCEPT MY REQUEST FOR A MEETING.
None have. What does that say about our local, state, and federal politicians? Some are excused in this case, I have actually met with them sufficiently in the past and they are the politicians unlikely to have the capacity to help MICE and myself. Unfortunately, whether by design or choice, that is a weakness.
In the tradition of Jesus, there is yet the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness. Let there be peaceful redemption!
Too often I cannot look my silent accusers in the eyes, so this image (C. Wright Mills), sign (Charles Sanders Pierce) will have to do:
—
Kind regards,
Neville Buch
Historian,
President, Sea of Faith in Australia (SOFiA)
Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES)
Convenor, Sociology of Education Thematic Group, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).
Regular Philosopher, The Philosophy Cafe Brisbane Meet Up.
Director, Brisbane Southside History Network (BSHN).
MPHA (Qld), Ph.D. (History) UQ., Grad. Dip. Arts (Philosophy) Melb., Grad. Dip. (Education) UQ.
“May I not hope to be heard with candor? God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.” William Ellery Channing, Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks in The First Independent Church of Baltimore on May 5, 1819.
The following two tabs change content below.
Neville Buch
Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- Death in Life and Life in Death: Affective, Intellectual, and Ontological Dimensions of Human Mortality – October 2, 2026
- Psychological Symbol Cards – October 2, 2026
- The Washington Post Impact Report and American Studies – October 1, 2026