Food for Thought...

[Velo Princesse]

I am reading a book titled The Big Questions: Philosophy for Everyone by Nils Ch. Rauhut. It is essentially a beginners Philosophy class in seven chapters. It has sections called 'Food for Thought', which are just questions designed to make you think. I am only in chapter one so the questions are not necessarily terribly deep, but this one struck me as interesting, so I thought I'd ask. Really, my answer was what was interesting to me and it made me wonder what your answers would be. I will not share my thoughts because I don't want to guide the thread in any one direction at this time. In either case, here is the question-

Tolstoy wrote: "Thus I proceeded to live, but five years ago something very strange began to happen with me: I was overcome by minutes at first of perplexity and then of an arrest of life, as though I did not know how to live or what to do....." In normal everyday life we tend not to be as reflective and critical as Tolstoy was when he wrote his Confessions. However, it has been suggested that we all become self-doubting and perplexed at certain points in our lives. Is that true? If yes, what kinds of experiences or situations typcially undermine our confidence that we understand the world correctly?

So, how would you answer that and what insight might you have found as a result? My response shed light on something about myself that should have been obvious to me but somehow has gone unnoticed. How interesting it is to see old things in new ways....

 

[ReluctantProphet]

However, it has been suggested that we all become self-doubting and perplexed at certain points in our lives. Is that true? If yes, what kinds of experiences or situations typcially undermine our confidence that we understand the world correctly?

[/I]So, how would you answer that and what insight might you have found as a result? My response shed light on something about myself that should have been obvious to me but somehow has gone unnoticed. How interesting it is to see old things in new ways....

The lack of confidence is obtained through practice. Confidence is obtained through practice.

Doubt comes when reality appears to be something different than expected. Expect nothing, and you obtain no doubts. Find those things that can never be different than expected and you can expect without doubt and thus gain confidence.

A great deal of today’s social effort is to instill doubt in some people and instill confidence in others. If you don't want to play that game, then don't greatly participate.

You lose confidence and begin to doubt yourself when you make a plan and then discover that you cannot succeed with that plan. You gain confidence when you make a plan and succeed with it.

Thus if you want to never doubt yourself, never make any plans that have any chance of not succeeding. That seems impossible, but it isn't. Once you know how to do that, your self-doubt gradually fades away.

Terrorism is all about creating doubt and urgency.

Anti-terrorism is all about creating confidence and calmness.

The harmony of life lay between the two.

What undermines yours confidence is your decision to take a risk (brought on by the apparent urgency). This can be forced upon you, but if you accept that it is merely a chance that you must take, then you do not lose the confidence associated with yourself, but rather with the situation. If you take risks by choice, then you lose confidence in your ability to make good choices.

To solve the problem, merely seek exact accuracy in all that you do, say, and think.

 

[exploring]

Thus if you want to never doubt yourself, never make any plans that have any chance of not succeeding. That seems impossible, but it isn't. Once you know how to do that, your self-doubt gradually fades away.

How do you do that? Surely noone knows everything.

 

[ReluctantProphet]

How do you do that? Surely noone knows everything.

You don't need to know everything. That's your first mistake. But this is not the topic of this thread.

 

[exploring]

You don't need to know everything. That's your first mistake. But this is not the topic of this thread.

fair enough. How can know that your plan has no chance of failing?

 

[ReluctantProphet]

fair enough. How can know that your plan has no chance of failing?

That MY plan has no chance of failing?

You cannot know that my plan has no chance of failing. This is what faith is all about. But I have asked for no such faith in any plan of mine.

I suggested that you can make a plan that you can know has no chance of failing.

If I tell you exactly how to do that, then you would have to have faith that I was right long enough to prove it for yourself. But that would be asking you to have faith.

 

[elman]

I am reading a book titled The Big Questions: Philosophy for Everyone by Nils Ch. Rauhut. It is essentially a beginners Philosophy class in seven chapters. It has sections called 'Food for Thought', which are just questions designed to make you think. I am only in chapter one so the questions are not necessarily terribly deep, but this one struck me as interesting, so I thought I'd ask. Really, my answer was what was interesting to me and it made me wonder what your answers would be. I will not share my thoughts because I don't want to guide the thread in any one direction at this time. In either case, here is the question-

Tolstoy wrote: "Thus I proceeded to live, but five years ago something very strange began to happen with me: I was overcome by minutes at first of perplexity and then of an arrest of life, as though I did not know how to live or what to do....." In normal everyday life we tend not to be as reflective and critical as Tolstoy was when he wrote his Confessions. However, it has been suggested that we all become self-doubting and perplexed at certain points in our lives. Is that true? If yes, what kinds of experiences or situations typcially undermine our confidence that we understand the world correctly?

So, how would you answer that and what insight might you have found as a result? My response shed light on something about myself that should have been obvious to me but somehow has gone unnoticed. How interesting it is to see old things in new ways....

We had best not be confident we understand the world correctly because none of us do.

 

[exploring]

That MY plan has no chance of failing?

You cannot know that my plan has no chance of failing. This is what faith is all about. But I have asked for no such faith in any plan of mine.

I suggested that you can make a plan that you can know has no chance of failing.

If I tell you exactly how to do that, then you would have to have faith that I was right long enough to prove it for yourself. But that would be asking you to have faith.

As far as i am concerned, "faith" means nothing more than "belief". Obviously I believe lots of things, so you neednt be worried about asking me for faith. Please tell me how I can make a plan that I know has no chance of failing.

 

[ReluctantProphet]

As far as i am concerned, "faith" means nothing more than "belief". Obviously I believe lots of things, so you neednt be worried about asking me for faith. Please tell me how I can make a plan that I know has no chance of failing.

I don't think this topic is what Velo had in mind for this thread, but it would start with a few basic ideas...

1) Define the concepts in your own mind as to how you are going to use them and stick to those. the word used to label that concept might vary with other people or you might want to relabel, but keep the concept. The concept can never be anything other than what it is, thus it will always be the same without change (one of the many things that never change). An example would be the concept of a circle or the idea that there is you and all that is not you.

2) Remember that your only real effort in life is to try the best you can. Thus regardless of whether you succeeded, if you tried the best you could with what you knew and had time and strength to manage, then you succeeded in your most fundamental plan priority. Remembering that your effort succeeded reduces the practice of failure and the feeling of doubt.

It would continue with other things.

 

[ReluctantProphet]

I don't think this topic is what Velo had in mind for this thread, but it would start with a few basic ideas...

1) Define the concepts in your own mind as to how you are going to use them and stick to those. the word used to label that concept might vary with other people or you might want to relabel, but keep the concept. The concept can never be anything other than what it is, thus it will always be the same without change (one of the many things that never change). An example would be the concept of a circle or the idea that there is you and all that is not you.

2) Remember that you only real effort in life is to try the best you can. Thus regardless of whether you succeeded, if you tried the best you could with what you knew and had time and strength to manage, then you succeeded in your most fundamental plan priority. Remembering that your effort succeeded reduces the practice of failure and the feeling of doubt.

It would continue with other things.

And btw, even though many might argue this point..

Those concepts are what they used to call "angels". They were each given names or labels. The total of all of the concepts served to help Man understand Reality. The concept known as Lucifer included many subordinate concepts associated with it. But it was finally determined that the concept of Lucifer was really a deceptive concept that caused Man to think of that one concept as Reality itself.

Once this was discovered, that concept and all of those subordinate concepts were cast into the concept of what they came to call "Hell" where the concept of Lucifer reigns supreme but causes people to be confused and tormented with anguish because they cannot see Reality. Those angels became known as "devils" because they tend to reverse the effort of life to progress (devil spelled backwards is "lived")

The other concepts helped Man to better understand Reality and get closer to the concept known as "Heaven". Thus they remain the "angels of Heaven".

the story goes on, but you can read about it in many places. The idea that an angel was some mythical creature was introduced as storytellers attempted to glorify the magic of God. The result of that story telling and seeking glorification was simply that Reality was seen as separate from what the stories were showing the angels to be. Thus by switching concepts but not the names, what was understood became seen as merely a fictional story.

Keep your concepts straight and realize that many people might be calling them by a different name.