Gary Z McGee, Contributor
Waking Occasions

“Philosophical considering that doesn’t do violence to at least one’s settled thoughts isn’t any philosophical considering in any respect.” ~Rebecca Goldstein

Consolation zones are a curious factor. So heat and safe. So protected and reassuring. So satisfying and sure. Beliefs have an identical impact on us. Particularly the core beliefs that we take as a right. However beliefs are consolation zones with strengthened invulnerability; or, a minimum of, the phantasm of it.

Such reinforcements are like jail bars that almost all of us are usually not even conscious of. We’re so fully indoctrinated, so completely pre-programmed, that we don’t even know that we don’t know that we’ve been conditioned to blindly imagine in one thing just because sufficient folks satisfied us it was true.

The issue with strengthened consolation zones is that there is no such thing as a development. A daily consolation zone, you possibly can stretch. A strengthened consolation zone, you’re normally not even conscious it must be stretched. A daily consolation zone permits for trial and error, it permits for questioning, and so there’s a minimum of potential for self-improvement and self-overcoming. However a strengthened consolation zone doesn’t permit for trial and error. It doesn’t permit for “blasphemous” questioning, as a result of it’s taken as a right as already excellent or “merely the best way it’s.”

Common consolation zones will be wholesome, giving us a protected haven, a spot the place we are able to heal and lick our wounds. However strengthened consolation zones are pointless security nets primarily based upon concern (of God, the Unknown, Demise) placation, and self-pity. It’s a spot the place cognitive dissonance guidelines and any notion of making an attempt to assume exterior the field is met with: You merely must place confidence in the “field”.

The Battle In opposition to Bewitchment:

Philosophy is a battle in opposition to the bewitchment of our intelligence by way of language.” ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

Self-Inflicted Philosophy is on the forefront of the battle in opposition to bewitchment. Self-inflicted philosophy is about upsetting settled minds. It’s about toppling the strengthened consolation zones of blind perception. It’s about flattening the “field” that everybody talks an enormous sport about considering exterior of however when it actually comes all the way down to it, they cling to the “field” out of concern of the unknown or out of religion in what they imagine they know.

Foremost, self-inflicted philosophy is about questioning the self to the nth diploma via self-interrogation. However you possibly can solely get to this point in such questioning earlier than you’re met with the strengthened consolation zone of a blind perception. So, self-inflicted philosophy can also be about questioning the layer-upon-layer of cultural, political, and spiritual indoctrination that led to that strengthened consolation zone to start with.

If you don the cloak of a self-inflicted thinker, no perception, irrespective of how true it could appear, is off the hook for being questioned with ruthless skepticism and unwavering circumspection. Within the battle in opposition to bewitchment, the destruction of a perception, irrespective of how highly effective, is mere collateral harm to the Occam’s razor of common fact. Hell, even “common fact” will not be past questioning.

If you don the cloak of a self-inflicted thinker, the idea of perception is nixed out of your interpretation of the universe. There is no such thing as a place for perception right here, solely thought, solely deep inquiry, solely imaginative curiosity. You change all utilization of “perception” or “imagine” with “thought” or “assume”. You don’t imagine that you just actually exist, you “assume” that you just “in all probability” exist. However you may be flawed. So that you stay circumspect, for even your interpretation of your personal existence could possibly be an phantasm, irrespective of how “true” it could really feel.

There shall be those that will say, “You’re merely believing that you just don’t imagine.” However that’s patently false, as a result of you aren’t “believing” in non-belief, you’re “considering/inquiring/imagining” via non-belief, with the understanding, the flexibleness that your considering “may” be flawed. And that’s the rub: it’s a lot simpler to change a thought than a perception. It’s virtually unimaginable to change a perception. You usually tend to query a thought than you’re a perception. And so, relatively than get trapped in a strengthened consolation zone, you keep forward of the curve by considering relatively than believing, after which by questioning what you assume so that you just don’t unintentionally start to imagine it.

Within the spirit of upsetting settled minds, you don’t imagine in having an unsettled thoughts, you assume that having an unsettled thoughts is extra productive, extra progressive, and extra open-minded than having a settled thoughts (an unquestioning perception). You understand that perception normally is counterproductive, since you perceive that the human thoughts is a delusion-generator relatively than a truth-generator. It pumps out delusions like a spider pumps out webs. However, in contrast to the spider, it tends to get caught in them. Thereby, you perceive that the one window to fact is thru a questioning, circumspect, and a skeptical mindset, relatively than via an unquestioning, dogmatic, and sure mindset.

The one answer to a delusion-generator is a question-generator. Fortunately, the human mind is each. As a self-inflicted thinker, you don’t imagine that that is actually true; relatively, you assume that that is in all probability true. And also you’re keen to query every thing to “show” it. Certainly, you’ve reworked Descartes’ “I feel subsequently I’m” into I feel, subsequently I query.

Tapping into the question-generator:

“It is much better to know the universe because it actually is than to persist in delusion, nevertheless satisfying and reassuring.” ~Carl Sagan

The issue with the human mind is that’s by no means is aware of when it has been duped by a delusion, so it’s virtually at all times higher to not imagine something simply in case it’s a delusion. A type of reverse Pascal’s Wager. It’s virtually at all times higher to, as Aristotle advised, “entertain a thought with out accepting it.” Simply take all of it into consideration and let it go via the sieve of likelihood. Then, no matter doesn’t insult your soul, give it some thought, dissect it, inquire about it. Be interested by it. Simply don’t make the error of believing it.

You usually tend to grasp the universe “because it actually is” by questioning it than by believing it. You don’t imagine the universe is actually a sure means; relatively, you assume the universe could also be a sure means, however you’re keen to query additional in order to get you nearer to the best way the universe “actually is”. Should you cling to a specific perception of how the universe is, then you definitely block your self from ever getting nearer to the universe “because it actually is.” Higher to easily not have a perception within the first place. Higher to easily assume and hold the motor operating on the question-generator in order to maintain the delusion-generator in examine.

The alternative of perception is neither disbelief nor doubt, however readability of a thought. With out beliefs reinforcing the consolation zone, you’re liberated to stretch it. You’re clear sufficient to assume exterior it, you’re brave sufficient to query it. When the reinforcements fall away, the consolation zone turns into a sacred relatively than stagnant place. It’s free to develop via self-improvement relatively than stay caught in self-reassurance. Certainly, with out beliefs cluttering the mindset, you’re lastly capable of drop the “set” and transfer into “thoughts.”

Freed from the “mindset” of a settled thoughts, you progress into the mindfulness of a questioning thoughts. You turn into a strolling, speaking, question-generator, capable of constantly counter-balance the delusion-generator of the human situation. You’re forward of the curve, browsing Aslam’s Infinite Circle on the surfboard of Occam’s razor. In absolute awe over the gorgeous unfolding of an finally unknowable universe. On the sting of your personal curiosity, questioning all “solutions” countering all beliefs, elusive of all delusions. You’re a self-inflicted thinker, and never even God is protected out of your ruthless inquiry.

Concerning the Creator

Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned thinker, is the creator of Birthday Swimsuit of God and The Wanting Glass Man. His works are impressed by the nice philosophers of the ages and his unsleeping view of the fashionable world.

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