Socrates on allegiances

"Gentlemen, I am your grateful and devoted servant, but I owe a greater obedience to God than to you; and as long as I draw breath and have my faculties I shall never stop practicing philosophy"
Socrates, from Plato's The Apology

Ernest Rutherford on statistics

"If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment."
Ernest Rutherford

Socrates on death

"Some one will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong--acting the part of a good man or of a bad..."
Socrates, from Plato's The Apology

Meditating on the right questions

Meditations all have a common cause. In fact, they're not so much about the existence of a problem and a need to address it, but rather they stem from the very human desire to analyze, to make sense of, to bring order to where there is chaos in the mind. People will debate forever, say, the purpose of the state or the origin of beauty, but is it really the implications of these questions alone that drive us into discourse? I suspect that there is more. Meditation is not solely for the achievement of a goal, but also to identify the form of a question that's worth answering. In so doing, we render a complex problem into something tractable and worth solving.

I am of course writing not about meditation in the Eastern-mystical sense, but rather about the act of pursuing a problem, investigating its premises, eliciting its subtleties, and reducing it to its bare essence. I think the art of meditation, if it may be called an art, is something that every man, woman, and child should practice, consciously or otherwise. It is a unique ability of the human mind. And, being fundamentally human, it can satisfy in some primeval way, much like the view earned from a hike in the Rockies above timberline or the final product of many hours spent painstakingly stripping, sanding, and then refinishing an old wooden table. Much like the latter example, it is an active sort of fulfilment which requires the brain to make concrete an abstract image rather than to simply appreciate some innate aesthetic quality.

So I propose this to those struggling to make sense of something in their lives: it is the nature of human beings to meditate, and this can be used to your advantage. Think about a question that relates to your problem and decide whether it intrigues you, whether it makes you want to turn it over and examine it from every angle. If it doesn't, your natural faculties of meditation cannot aid you and it may not be worth your efforts to proceed further with a solution. Reformulate the question  and try again. Through a process of trial and error, you'll happen upon the right question that cuts to the heart of your problem.

Addendum: I found an interesting blog post that stated that people minimize the negative feelings associated with an unfortunate event if they can "make sense" of it. However, "making sense" of some act also reduces positive feelings from an event as well.

Impact bias -- apparently I'm not original

I recently (within the last year) came to the conclusion that it is a fallacy to project my current emotional state far into the future. For example, I often worry that I'll become locked into the same job for the rest of my life with no opportunity for change. However, the reality is that opportunities present themselves regularly and I always possess the freedom to find some new career.

I realized that this fallacy could be generalized to many different things and have given it as advice to others under some sort of stress. I was rather proud of this idea and thought it to be original. Like many intellectual constructs, however, I was merely reinventing the wheel.

While reading through the comments on a post at LessWrong I discovered the idea of impact bias. It's precisely what I had in mind, though much more developed. For example, it also states that we have a tendency to project positive emotions too far into the future. Take a look at the link. It's interesting and to keep it in mind helps to alleviate a lot distress we inflict upon ourselves.

Into the lion's den

Confirmation bias is the term for seeking out sources of information that positively reflect one's current beliefs. Sometimes these sources can be other people.

Today I had a conversation with an old acquaintance who readily extolled his beliefs on religious open-mindedness, problems with government, and other weighty affairs. I agreed with nearly everything he said; I found myself making small remarks in agreement. And these were the only remarks I was making.

I notice that when like-minded people converse on polarizing topics, their conversations simply reflect their collective moods and nothing much new is learned. To arrive at new conclusions, we have to challenge our beliefs. Very often this means associating with people who have very different views from our own. It's good practice at arguing, and is valuable so long as we remain open-minded to allowing our beliefs to change.

Note: I wonder if my idea of values and beliefs, as defined in LessWrong, are the same thing.

What I've learned from the past few months

I'm home for the holidays and, as always happens on these breaks, I am in a very philosophical mood. So, I decided to write a little and see what became of it.

I haven't written--at least in this blog--for a very long time, so I think a summary of things I've learned over the past few months is in order. I may expand upon each point later, but for now I'd like to simply enumerate with brief descriptions major thoughts I've had. They've all been fueled by major events in my life. If you choose, you may easily divulge what they may have been from their content.

I was asked recently what love meant to me. After a minute of thought, pouring over tired responses about dedication and sacrifice in my mind, I gave the following, honest response: I am a rationalist. I analyze ideas down to their roots. I look at them from different perspectives to gain an appreciation for how others view them and to gain new insights. I break them into their logical pieces until I possess cold, static blueprints of their workings, then I file them away until I need them to analyze other ideas. However, love is not something that I wish to subject to reason. I stubbornly refuse to define it. Love is something so intrinsic to human nature that it coexists in the hierarchy of the human being at the same level as intellect. No matter our mental faculties, we simply can't hope to understand something at so basic a level. I love, and am loved, and nothing can make me happier than this.

The greatest moments in my life have occurred during times of flux. Starting graduate school, making the conscious decision to be happy, the passing of my mom. Great moments are born when I am pushed by external circumstances to be great. Sometimes these circumstances are beyond my control, but often I possess the ability to place myself in the position to take advantage of the energy that change provides. For this reason, I don't foresee working in the same career or living in the same place for the remainder of my life.

On a related topic, I've recognized the ill effects of being in the same situation for so long. Graduate school is starting to wear on me. I think very little on the news, on philosophy, or things beyond science and optics since my thought is dominated by school. Most of my time is spent in the lab or in the office, often out of guilt for not having achieved as much the day before. My mental math skills aren't as sharp. I have more difficulties following conversations with friends. I need a change in my life to reinvigorate me. Finishing graduate school is a priority, but I don't want to slip further from my universalistic thoughts to achieve it. I'm very much looking forward to big changes in my near future. For now I must endure my current situation.

I think this is enough writing for now. My thoughts are starting to wander and I am losing focus. I am glad I managed to form these thoughts into words. I'll revisit them in the near future and hopefully act upon them accordingly.