...and it's becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Wouldn't it be great if everyone had more self-awareness around the narratives we use to make sense of Reality? While it's a hard truth that we're only able to control our own attitude and beliefs, and not the attitudes and beliefs of others, we can learn to orient ourselves to the world around us in more productive ways. To do so we need to learn how to self-examine our own attitudes and beliefs, which begins by cultivating a more sophisticated understanding of how our minds work. And in particular, of how we develop emotional attachments to whatever it is that we use to orient ourselves to Reality; be it a religion, a scientific paradigm, a political ideology, or good old fashioned 'common sense'.
In 7 PROVISIONAL TRUTHS, we'll be taking a 'guided tour' of how our minds acquire valid knowledge about Reality. Unlike works of academic philosophy that are largely written for other professional philosophers, or pop-philosophy which tends not to cover its subject matter in a great deal of depth, this work will strive to make advances in philosophy of mind accessible to a wider audience; and without losing the delicious depth that makes these ideas penetrating and worthwhile.
- What constitues valid knowledge?
- How do our minds interface with Reality?
- What is the connection between our minds and our bodies?
- When it's mentioned that something is 'socially constructed', what does that mean?
And while we're at it, what the heck is a Construct?
- How can we know if we're being bullshitted?
And more importantly, how do we know if we're bullshitting ourselves?
- Where has Western philosophy gotten ideas about the mind wrong?
And can we learn anything about minds by turning to Eastern philosophy?
- Are there limits to what we can understand through science?
If so, can science be enriched through other forms of understanding?
WE DRIFT AMIDST A RISING TIDE OF misinformation, conspiracism, and bullshit in public discoursE
SOME OF WHAT THIS BOOK WILL EXPLORE:
THE 7 PROVISIONAL TRUTHS
1.) MINDS DISCLOSE WORLDS
2.) KNOWLEDGE IS MOSTLY SITUATED COPING
3.) CATEGORIES ARE ALWAYS CONTEXTUAL
4.) ALL PERSPECTIVES ARE PARTIAL
5.) INTELLECT SERVES INTUITION
6.) MOTIVATED REASONING IS THE NORM
7.) BELIEFS SERVE US BEST WHEN HELD LIGHTLY
Brandon Watson is a metro-Detroiter with an intererest in philosophy and metamodernism. When he's not playing at being an iconoclast, he enjoys riding his bike, roleplaying games, and delving into imaginative world building.