I had to look up what it means to take the hemlock. It’s a very fitting analogy given the times.
(I’m not a student of philosophy but my son is- one of his favourite words is eudaimonia 😊) I’ve never been one to trust anything on the face of it, have always resorted to research to get closer to the truth, but even that’s challenging theses days when so much of the world is willing to lie for whatever the gain is, be it financial, fear, or power. I love what you say about ‘challenging one’s own ideas in as many different contexts as possible.’
I know your article goes a little deeper than what I’m getting out of it, but when I read these deep philosophical thoughts, seeds get planted, and I start seeing the world through the eyes of these growing seedlings. It makes me more thoughtful and conscientious, which is exactly what the world needs more of. So thanks 🙏
Planting a seed is really all that I hope to achieve. A lot of these things boil down to a small number of very simple ideas. What's hard, and what all philosophy ultimately boils down to as far as I am concerned, is finding a way to express them and communicate them effectively.
Even though we can’t avoid falling in to the trap of believing our thoughts to be on the side of the majority, it’s a great point, to be aware of how this belief comes about. Subconsciously surrounding ourselves mostly with those whose thoughts align, (confirmation bias) only serves to reinforce our own beliefs. This is something I keep wondering about. I feel, in light of the deep divisiveness of the current climate, that I am on the “right” side, but I can’t help wonder if that’s true, given that the other 50% believe the same thing. So how can we ever really be sure? One argument I heard recently to answer that question, is “do your beliefs stand up to the rest of time” (ie do they eventually get ‘proven’) But even that is subjective. I guess we just need to be able to let go of the need to be right.
I think you have the right idea, the whole thing of being sure in one's lack of knowledge, fallibilism and the Socratic outlook is the only way to go. The problem is that we may not all be quite so ready to take the hemlock yet.
I wish a had a good answer to this in general. It's a real problem. What I propose is that one tries to develop accurate descriptions of the world first (the broad overview) and then dial in the precision by challenging one's ideas in as many different contexts as possible. Only then can you start building stuff, and hope that they don't topple over.
It's like designing a robot to build a Jenga tower automatically. It will eventually fail if you run it infinitely, of that you can be sure, but if you take the time to tune all the parameters you can get a lot done. Or you could just buy something off the shelf and hope for the best (i.e. buy the mainstream consumer media notion of truth). Sometimes you will get a perfectly adequate product for your needs that will serve you for a long time right out the box, but sometimes you will get an overpriced, perfectly useless, Juicero.
Everything boils down to economics in the end, haha.
I had to look up what it means to take the hemlock. It’s a very fitting analogy given the times.
(I’m not a student of philosophy but my son is- one of his favourite words is eudaimonia 😊) I’ve never been one to trust anything on the face of it, have always resorted to research to get closer to the truth, but even that’s challenging theses days when so much of the world is willing to lie for whatever the gain is, be it financial, fear, or power. I love what you say about ‘challenging one’s own ideas in as many different contexts as possible.’
I know your article goes a little deeper than what I’m getting out of it, but when I read these deep philosophical thoughts, seeds get planted, and I start seeing the world through the eyes of these growing seedlings. It makes me more thoughtful and conscientious, which is exactly what the world needs more of. So thanks 🙏
Planting a seed is really all that I hope to achieve. A lot of these things boil down to a small number of very simple ideas. What's hard, and what all philosophy ultimately boils down to as far as I am concerned, is finding a way to express them and communicate them effectively.
Even though we can’t avoid falling in to the trap of believing our thoughts to be on the side of the majority, it’s a great point, to be aware of how this belief comes about. Subconsciously surrounding ourselves mostly with those whose thoughts align, (confirmation bias) only serves to reinforce our own beliefs. This is something I keep wondering about. I feel, in light of the deep divisiveness of the current climate, that I am on the “right” side, but I can’t help wonder if that’s true, given that the other 50% believe the same thing. So how can we ever really be sure? One argument I heard recently to answer that question, is “do your beliefs stand up to the rest of time” (ie do they eventually get ‘proven’) But even that is subjective. I guess we just need to be able to let go of the need to be right.
I think you have the right idea, the whole thing of being sure in one's lack of knowledge, fallibilism and the Socratic outlook is the only way to go. The problem is that we may not all be quite so ready to take the hemlock yet.
I wish a had a good answer to this in general. It's a real problem. What I propose is that one tries to develop accurate descriptions of the world first (the broad overview) and then dial in the precision by challenging one's ideas in as many different contexts as possible. Only then can you start building stuff, and hope that they don't topple over.
It's like designing a robot to build a Jenga tower automatically. It will eventually fail if you run it infinitely, of that you can be sure, but if you take the time to tune all the parameters you can get a lot done. Or you could just buy something off the shelf and hope for the best (i.e. buy the mainstream consumer media notion of truth). Sometimes you will get a perfectly adequate product for your needs that will serve you for a long time right out the box, but sometimes you will get an overpriced, perfectly useless, Juicero.
Everything boils down to economics in the end, haha.