I’ve been reading a blog called Mind Hacks recently, and they’ve been featuring several stories on the emerging field of “experimental philosophy”. Essentially this is a new attempt by researchers to apply the scientific method, or parts of it anyway, to the normally very “soft” science of philosophy. The results so far have been pretty fascinating, and I think one of the most striking, and universally accessible, studies to come out of this early movement is the one featured in the YouTube video above, and described in this Mind Hacks Article. Now the video is great but honestly I almost think the scenario it presents works better when read so I’ve included my paraphrasing of the situation below:
In our first scenario imagine that a vice president goes up to his CEO and tells him, “We’ve got a great plan for a new project. It will create huge profits for the company, but it will harm the environment. What do you want to do?” The CEO responds saying,… Continue reading
Well after years of talk I’ve decided to finally start a blog. Not the public diary kind mind you (we have one of those here) but the kind where I can discuss politics, philosophy, religion and other of life’s more weighty matters. Even those who know me well are probably unaware of the enormous percentage of my daily free time that’s devoted to researching these subjects. It’s far more than I’d care to admit frankly. But I’ve long been without a significant outlet for the information and ideas that are constantly swirling around in my head and I’m hoping that this blog will rectify that situation. But more than just an online sounding board, I’m hoping that this blog can become a place for similarly-interested individuals to discuss these complex issues with dispassionate rationality and constructive debate. Which brings me to my next topic.
So why the stupid name? After much thought I’ve decided to name my blog for one of the principles that I hold most dear: Intellectual Humility. This is a perspective, born of knowledge and honest self-reflection, that recognizes that what we know about the world and life pales in comparison to what we still have yet to understand. Its a principle that Einstein talked about frequently, and Lao Tzu touched on, but which Socrates said most succinctly when he said, “I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance”.
Interestingly, this kind of intellectual humility tends to grow with increasing knowledge. This principle has been clearly demonstrated to me since starting medical school, as I’ve already learned far more about many subjects than I knew there was to learn. The subject of immunology is an instructive example… Continue reading
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Quotes
"We do not need to judge nearly so much as we think we do. This is the age of snap judgments. … [We need] the courage to say, ‘I don’t know. I am waiting further evidence. I must hear both sides of the question.’ It is this suspended judgment that is the supreme form of charity. Someone has said that you cannot slice cheese so fine that it doesn’t have two sides."
-Dallin H. Oaks
"It is better to debate a question without settling it, than to settle a question without debating it...The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress."
-Joseph Joubert
"The more you know, the more you realise how much you don’t know — the less you know, the more you think you know."
-David Freeman
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
