On why we shouldn't think too much

Was reading this book and didn't know it was supposed to be partially-philo until page 20+, which is quite a lot, since it was quite a mouthful to swallow. Well anyway, it was nice, and actually made me a happier person. Haha, quite hard to take this fact eh? Its ‘The age of fallibility’ by George Soros, you know the guy who occasionally appears on CNN to comment on the Bush administration? Well, the book was supposed to be based on the consequences of the war on terror, mainly about Bush and the States if you ask me. But then again, its best to put it in a generalized manner to avoid possible law suits eh? Soros divided the book into two parts, one mainly about the philo stuff and the second is basically about “What’s wrong with America?”

He spoke about the relationship between thinking and reality. Knowledge is represented by true statements but the truth cannot be known because its based on what we think. So, our knowledge is incomplete and the imperfect understanding becomes part of reality which caused misconceptions to be internalized within us. And because we rely partially on our incomplete knowledge to make decisions, our decisions would be very much erred compared to the perhaps ideal decisions made if we possess all the relevant facts. But then again, we can’t possibly attain all the relevant facts because of the human uncertainty principle. Quote “The relationship between thinking and reality is not between two separate entities but between a part and a whole.” So what we think is never complete and can never actually corresponds fully with reality as we aren’t and never will be able to achieve the complete picture of reality in the first place. In short, what we think is distorted and perhaps, biased towards our selected and very much processed knowledge which might be very different from reality.

So its a kinda chicken-and-egg cycle if you ask me. First we think, but we realize that what we think does not fully correspond to the reality cos of the incomplete knowledge which then again might not be true cos its partially based on what we think and so here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush…

Poof, I think I’m done. That was pretty much a mouthful, eh? I don’t think I’m really coherent so pardon me if you find that confusing. So all in all, we shouldn’t worry about our woes cos we will never be able to find a sound reason behind it. Perhaps, we all should avoid mind-reading and get started with some real effective communications. Haha, now I know why Soros said in his Intro that the philosophy featured in this book veers towards the positive side.