epistemology || introspective meditation || social (and judgmental) hierarchies

[itsjustaname]

In 1 sense it pays to be smart - to know things. Not just anythings, specific things. Knowing in the form of skills or valuable knowledge can be sold in the marketplace. More frivolously, the more knowledge you (*think) you have, the more you can deal with arguments. Arguments of a philosophical nature. Arguments with premises and conclusions. Sound arguments, which are dependent on the truth of the premises beyond the mere mathematical/deductive logical format or computation. So apart from rapid thinking on your feet which logic practice can be good for, knowing facts can enable you to assess if the premises are facts/true, and therefore to build sound (conclusive) arguments.

In another sense it pays to be dumb(?). Let me explain. If induction fails as is historically attributed to David Hume, and rational thought alone can’t quite give us information about the world, on what basis can we reliably know anything at all? There are other reasons to turn to large scale skeptical arguments just as there are not to (primarily common sense or practicality).

If you can’t *truly* or *philosophically” (in epistemologically principled) know anything, then why dive into knowledge? In another post I made before, there does seem to be a workable solution for all of this, but even that is kind of spooky. If Descartes was right (up until the god stuff) that all we can truly know is ourselves, then it wouldn’t make sense studying physics or literature or math. But there is one major tradition that seems to allow for Descartes principled epistemology: introspective, contemplative, reflective, meditation.

Finally, I’ll add on a much more mundane level. In a given social group, is hierarchy the only sensible social structure? When I was taking classes a while back I heard about research in leadership including flat structures. I haven’t given this much careful analytical thought, however, I am thinking of entering a new social group in the form of a small college for a semester, and I don’t want any censorship or holier than thou leadership to curtail my goals and values and potentially offensive free speech. Marketplace of ideas, right?

[itsjustaname]

expounded:

smart is because to build arguments you have to have facts ("true premises" in philosophical critical thinking jargon)
but dumb because skepticism seems to say you can't know anything - there are no facts

so spending your life learning "facts" seems like a waste OR you just buy into a mitigated skepticism and accept things that you know you can't prove, if only to please people who otherwise would punish you for not trying to acquire knowledge and advance society with "facts"

think of "work ethic". some people argue that is a bare minimum of spiritual values. but there is no reason why we have to work hard, except for fear of retribution.

college is just try to live a utopia, without any 1 person or group of people (in administration, AKA "BOSSes") limiting a potential spiritual/philosophical growth spurt that extends into the solar system