Thursday, May 6, 2021

An article about how almost everything ever written is absolutely wrong

visual representation of me coming up with excuses for not writing well
Everything written is wrong. It is only natural that almost everything ever written is wrong. Language itself is not perfect, let alone interpretations of language or grammatical errors. How many perfect sentences have ever been written. Let alone paragraphs. Let alone an entire chapter. Let alone an entire book. There are errors in thinking. There are errors in scientific studies, errors in reporting, errors of shortsightedness, errors in the scientific method itself and its interpretations. And yet despite our fumbling attempts to communicate, great leaps in reason have been made and remarkable inventions. This is in short a poor attempt to justify mistakes and rugged edges. This is an acknowledgement of the reality of large blind spots, biases, and likely irrational circular forms of reasoning that don't even have scientific names yet such as hindsight bias. It seems not enough authors tell and explain this. It's a point that should be reiterated until dull: a person's best work is their best hunch. The reason scientific reasoning often fails by examining the objective world is because it makes little to no attempt to account for the subjective mind of its audience. Therefore every text is a go-by, when accounting for the nearly endless variables of individual subjective human experience. By speaking in declarative statements that leave no room for variance or interpretation, people can close the very minds they wish to open. You see this in the zealotry of partisan politics (social political and moral extremes, polarization), for people who live by one book: people who have found not an answer, but the answer. This system may work for people to a degree, but does not allow for fluid change which is what an active mind does. Scientists and philosophers are often speaking with wisdom gained through their own personal experience, and declare what works for them to be what should be what works for all. This is why knowledge should always be questioned, with the reader or listener having the final say. A more worthwhile author might tell you his or her hunches or show you a path, but the only sane way forward is when the reader decides if it's traveled. 

No comments:

Post a Comment