Polymath with specialities in health, finance, business, psychology and philosophy.
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Posted August 27, 2023
Fantastics insights I got shortly after this week last study group meeting
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"This is quite amazing, after dr Elder talked about her story about learning to draw and about overcoming the doubts about not being able to draw I finally got an amazing insight which on retrospect seemed quite obvious.\nIt's about my speaking impediement where I speak fast and do not articulate well, previously, I always thought that this problem was \"bigger than me\", that my problem was different from others that had the same problem, that my problem was as unsolvable as it got, that I was different, that I had to live with that problem t'il I found some obscure solution etc, etc.\n\nI now realized that all that thinking was uncritical, very poor and toxic thinking that pretty much kept me where I was.\nI always have been able to speak slowly and clearly in certain cases before, so it's not like I couldn't do it, the problem just happenened in certain common cases.\nShortly after the meeting on thursday I registered for an online course on diction which includes some coaching.\nI started doing the exercises and I'm surprinsingly not that bad, it seemed like 90% of the problem was my thinking and attitude towards the problem, which was fixed after I got the obvious insight about it after the meeting. It seems in 99% of my life I understand that I can learn or change pretty much anything if I put the effort and learning into it, this knowledge just seemed to not have generalized to one of my most important problem I had that had to do with my speaking and communication for some reason.\nProof that knowledge we have do not necessarily generalize automatically to important areas of our life.\n\nAnywoo, I'm immensely grateful to the discussions we had during our last study group session which brought me that insight and I look forward to mastering yet a new skill, the one of speaking slower and more clearly and with good diction and breathing :-)\n\nI'm sure that it's this kind of changes dr Elder and foundation know that studying critical thinking can achieve for self-actualization :-)\n\nGratefully,\n\nNick \n"}]}
Posted August 24, 2023
Intellectual Virtues: Going Deeper with Confidence in Reason podcast thoughts
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"The primary organizing idea is the concept of confidence in reason as defined as \"the belief that reasoning things out is the best way to go along with the willingness to follow the facts wherever they lead us.\"\n\nThe secondary organizing ideas are:\nWhat confidence in reason is not ( overthinking, thinking in the moment of performances)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\"Intuitive critical thinking\" as thoughtfully trained beforehand thinking"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"the opposites of confidence in reason"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"the barrier of feeling the need to be validated or confirmed by other people"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"the probable implication of becoming more lonely as we develop as a critical thinker"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n3 insights I got from listening to the podcast:\n\"Intuitive critical thinking\" may be a kind of \"crystalized critical thinking\" to borrow the term from intelligence assesment term \"crystalized intelligence\" as opposed to \"fluid intelligence\""},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"the opposite of confidence in reason may be thought of as kinds of epistemologies (how we know things) that people have"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"confidence in reason put more emphasis on thinking on our own and therefore \"living in the future\" as we live the examined life as opposed to naively trusting the current system or authorities and \"knowing ourselves\" instead of relying on the unexamined authorities of others"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Other thought: as all human behvaviours seem to be in the end a search for knowledge (ie a man wanting to be a millionnaire really want to know how it's like to be a millionnaire, etc), in the end we want to \"know\" that we are doing the right thing, or that we are valueable, or loveable, etc. That knowledge can only be there if we own it ourselve and do not rely on the authorities of others."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted August 5, 2023
Intellectual autonomy podcast homework
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"The main organizing idea is the concept of intellectual autonomy as thinking and acting for oneself and acting in accord with our own thinking.\nA second organizing idea is the distinction between autonomy and intellectual autonomy. And a third organizing idea is the interconnections between intellectual autonomy and the other intellectual virtues.\n\n3 insights:\nAbout the need of approval from others and wanting to have and give respect from other, the neuro-linguistic programming concept of \"rapport\" may be a key to respectfully disagree with people while maintaining the connection and good feelings. Rapport is the non-verbal feeling of attunement, connection and agreement we can have with people like good friends where you can say almost anything with the proper non-verbal and the other will not take it badly."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"About \"certifying in our mind that we use the standards\", this seem related to the NLP evaluation metaprogram of \"internal frame of reference\" (vs external frame of reference)."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"About story of dramatic situation where rationality is key, the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov may be a special case which at the same time illustrates the limits of rationality."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n3 Questions:\nCan we \"think and act for ourselves\" without determining clearly our goals and values from having alone time with ourselves?"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Is there an additional aspect to intellectual autonomy having to do with having confidence in our ability to think through something or thinking on the spot in addition to having confidence in the past products of our thinking? (the process of thinking rather than the product of our thinking)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"In the same way, is thinking that our thinking is not perfect but \"good enough\" and that we can fix almost any unexpected problem than may appear about it also part of intellectual autonomy in addition to having confidence in our past thinking?"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted July 22, 2023
Intellectual Humility podcast homeworks
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"The organizing idea is about the intellectual virtue of intellectual humility as\nthe ability to distinguish what we know from what we do not know (also known as \"meta-cognition\"),"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"the suspicion that we might be wrong or not have key information "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"and the idea that you may need some knowledge that you don't have."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n3 Insights I got from watching the podcast are:\nOur purpose (as a person) or values can be a form a cognitive biases."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":" About mistakes:"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Being clear about our purpose and values hierarchy can put mistake in their relative place of importance."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Damage may come more from not taking into account all the important variables in our goal-seeking behaviours than from thinking errors."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"For example, the thinking that got our societies into its current problems (like the environnemental ones) are akin to \"gross intellectual moves\" that didn't take into account other important variable (comparison to gross muscular movement and fine muscular movements) , The kind of thinking needed now is more like fine intellectual movements which take into account more variables and values. The gross intellectual move stage of humanity was probably a necessary developmental stage to the finer thinking."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Some otherwise preventable mistakes may or may not be preventable based on the allocated attention and energy budget given to the task and to each value and their priority one might want to optimize in the endeavour."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Multivariable calculus teaches that we can't optimize something for two values (or more) equally, a relative order of priority must be given to each value."},{"attributes":{"indent":2,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nQuestions:\nIsn't some level of intellectual arrogance inevitable as at some point we must take and defend positions despite being uncertain and not having complete knowledge?"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Can knowledge of self be a good and sufficient protection against indoctrinations?"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"If intellectual humility deprioritize the importance of our current knowledge in favour of knowledge we do not yet have and deprioritize our sense of our self-importance or our group's importance in favour of conceptual notions of the problematics, could we say that part of intellectual humility is prioritizing talking about ideas instead of talking about people or events and putting the ideas at the forefront?"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\t\nOther comments:\nI think making the distinction from general semantics of the difference between the \"object\" level and the \"description\" level can create an instant sense of intellectual humility as the world of objects is way more detailed and complex than what any strings of words could ever describe, so there is always some information being left out of any description.(The object level being the non-verbal world out there that we can sense through our sensory organs, like the colors we see when we look at the object of a \"pen\", and the description level being the world of words we use to describe the object level and other things, like the word \"pen\") "},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted July 8, 2023
On the importance of fairminded critical thinking: The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"Thinking errors are often more insiduous and almost imperciptible like this story here; had it been an explosion or the like, it would have evidently been the worst accident ever but since it was more insiduous almost nobody knows about it...\n\n\"The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History\"\n Video here: "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA"},"insert":"https://youtu.be/IV3dnLzthDA"},{"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted July 8, 2023
Thoughts on (Ep. 17) Intellectual Virtues: Going Deeper - Overview & Intellectual Empathy
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"Insights from the video:\n\nThere seems to be a connection between the elements, standards and virtues and the 3 levels of first-order, second-order and ternary cybertnetics ( "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://web.archive.org/web/20161021092049/http://hfr.org.uk/ternality-pages/index.htm"},"insert":"https://web.archive.org/web/20161021092049/http://hfr.org.uk/ternality-pages/index.htm"},{"insert":" )"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Standards - what you are doing"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Elements - what you are doing it on"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Traits - what you are doing it for"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"On intellectual curiosity"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"It has become my understanding after reading much about information theory that ultimately all actions are aimed at satisfying some level of intellectual curiosity, wanting to know what it’s like to x. Intellectual seem to realize this more and seek information more than sensations."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"For instance some people \"want to be rich\", what they mean is they want to know what it's like to be rich, or they want to know what it's like to own and travel in their 100 millions dollar yacht with gold plated walls and stuff."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Intellectuals tend to prefer to have understanding over sensations, to have the awe of understanding rather than the awe of ignorance."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"It can be guessed that the rich industrial who take a trip on is 100 millions dollar yacht have more the awe of ignorance over his yacht than the awe of understanding since he probably knows nothing about nautical navigation or boat architecture or design and stuff, so he can only partially and superficially appreciate it."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Intellectual virtues seem to be about recognizing the beingness and value of others and of self. Similar to “love”."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Curiosity seem to be linked to intellectual humility and knowing about our ignorance."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Saying it in our own words is probably more \"right-brain\" thinking than left."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Intellectual empathy is connected to spy work as spies must pretend to have the ideology of their enemy in order to infiltre him, or must \"act as\" a phone repair man or janitor or a plumber or whatever."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nPeter singer’s argument appears like it couild apply to people with great skills or great knowledge as well, as they should also share part of these with people who don't have them."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"“Sharing the wealth” “happiness shared is happiness doubled”"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nFear of rationality, logical force/coertion, can be wrong, mistrust of reason"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Ex: People killing themselves in the seine river in Paris after reading depressing philosophical books [need reference, can't find it on google for some reason] "},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Also, a main sssumptions people may have about mistrust of reason: “I’m too weak-minded and gullible”"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"-> intellectual courage"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"-> Confidence in reason "},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"On persuasion"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"There seems to be a kind of non-rational, charisma-like “sway” some people can have on other, reverence/respect etc"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nSalient actionnable Tips from the video:\nIn an argument, say it from the point of view of the other and ask if the rendition is accurate"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Let’s each argue from the other’s point of view for 20 minutes"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nQuestions:\nAny argument/counter-arguments or comments on the insights mentionned."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted July 8, 2023
Thoughts on Intellectual standards podcasts - Intellectual humility
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"It appears to me that non-Aristotelian logic lies behind much of the virtues"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"For instance, the principle of non-allness (which replace Aristotelian's allness (\"A is all A\")) seems to imply intellectual humility as a direct implication"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"So making the non-Aristotelian logic foundation of these virtues more explicit by explaining non-aristotelian logic might \"install\" irreversibly a very strong foundation for intellectual humility to grow for instance"},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The \"extensional device\" known as \"etc.\" in general semantics, which is an application of general semantics's non-Aristotelian logic exemplify this."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Only non-Aristotelian logic can solve the dilemma of enquiry and learning by explicitly showing that we can know parts of a topic while at the same time not knowing other parts of it."},{"attributes":{"indent":1,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"That is opposed to the Aristotelian implication of it's allness principle which imply that a person can know *all* about a topic and that he or she either know *all* about a topic or know *nothing* about it. A person may not admit to this attitude when asked but this kind of attitude nevertheless is the default attitude most people have at an unconscious level because it is an implication of Aristotelian logic."},{"attributes":{"indent":2,"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"About interests in things, I think these interests are related to how we value these topics or how much we recognize their value."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Thinking about intellectual humility, I think that learning computer programming is a great way to develop some level of intellectual humility as the computer gives accurate feedback on our inevitable thinking errors and we can notice the normal frequency and ubiquity of out thinking and acting errors (when the challenge is adjusted to our skills level)."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"About \"absolute truth\" like \"we are talking to each others right now\" - there is the peculiar happenstance of D.M.T. trips, drug trips from this powerful entheogenic drug called dimethyltryptamine ( or ayahuasca when taken as a tea) where people reports being transported to \"other worlds\" and having complex discussions with all kinds of other entities, something bringing back special knowledge from their trips and often reporting the \"realness\" as seeming more \"real\" than what we usually consider \"real\"."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"}]}
Posted May 27, 2022
Comment on podcast 8 on the elements
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"I’ve just watched the 8th podcast on the element and the discussion of intellectual virtues toward the end made me wonder if there was any material on the logic of each intellectual virtue (like there is for the logic of certain emotions).\n\nI looked in the community site and library and haven’t found anything on that.\n\nI think it would be great to have the logic of each virtues, which would probably underline and explain their beneficial goals and implications.\n"}]}
Posted January 27, 2022
50% of adults can’t read text at an 8th grade level…
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"Here’s the surprising reference on this here:\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https://americanenglishdoctor.com/four-levels-of-literacy/"},"insert":"https://americanenglishdoctor.com/four-levels-of-literacy/"},{"insert":"\n\nand 70% of people can't read above the 8th-grade level.\n\nHere's another resource:\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/"},"insert":"https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/"},{"insert":"\n\nThose kinds of stats are about the same in all developed countries.\n\nI've searched a bit on how to write to be sure to be understood by people with a level 2 or 3 reading level and what comes up over and over again is the writing of short sentences.\n\ni haven't found much concerning the rationale behind this, no formal studies or anything.\n\nBut I did find that this theory held up when direct marketers sent ads by mail and compared their effectiveness with various kinds of sentence length and stuff and the shorter sentences worked more efficiently (sold more).\n\n(By the way, as an aside, it's interesting to note the parallels between the elements of a salesletter and the elements of thought ( "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://michelfortin.com/copywriting/naked-salesletter/"},"insert":"https://michelfortin.com/copywriting/naked-salesletter/"},{"insert":" )).\n\nso that's it, for what it's worth, 8th grade level reading ain't much unfortunately..\n\n\n"}]}
Posted January 15, 2022
The 3 types of thinkers from a neurogenetics perspective
Posted by: Nicolas M Kirchberger | Posted for: the Community
{"ops":[{"insert":"Here's an extract from a book on the human condition website that talks about the 3 types of thinkers, they correlate perfectly with the 3 types of thinkers identified in the critical thinking foundation's material.\n\nThe human condition's website's material now offers us a new quick and effective way of turning anyone into a full fairminded critical thinker by resolving all its blocks in one sweep.\n\nHere's the extract from the site:\n\"Part 10:2 The Three Varieties of Thinkers\n\tFrom all that has been presented about the difficulties of thinking about the human condition it should be clear that human thought has fallen into three categories. There has been thinking undertaken in an unresigned, denial-free, truthful and thus effective, prophetic way; thinking that tried to do so as truthfully and honestly as possible from a position of having resigned to living in denial of the human condition; and thinking in a way that was fully committed to the resigned strategy of denying the issue of the human condition. Put simply, you could confront the human condition, you could avoid it but try to be as honest as possible, or you could determinedly deny it.\n\tFor example, earlier in Part 4, when looking at the history of biological analysis of our human situation, we saw how Darwin took honest, truthful thinking about humans’ biological origins as far as it was able to go without confronting the human condition. Then we saw how E.O. Wilson, Robert Wright and others developed a biological account of human behaviour that was committed to denying the issue of the human condition.\n\tIt needs to be emphasised here again that the key, yet totally denied, issue in understanding human behaviour as it has existed for some two million years under the duress of the human condition is alienation. As R.D. Laing said, "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘Our alienation goes to the roots. The realization of this is the essential springboard for any serious reflection on any aspect of present inter-human life.’"},{"insert":" Acknowledgment or "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘realization’"},{"insert":" that "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘our alienation goes to the roots’"},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"is"},{"insert":" "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘the essential springboard for any serious reflection on any aspect of present inter-human life’"},{"insert":". To not recognise the element of alienation when attempting to understand and talk about human behaviour is really as absurd as trying to understand and talk about how bread is made while not admitting the process involves flour. The problem has been that precisely because "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘our alienation goes to the roots’"},{"insert":" we haven’t been able to acknowledge that truth, make that "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘realization’"},{"insert":". We haven’t been able to be alienated and not be alienated—which is precisely why what was needed to look into alienation and thus human behaviour was freedom from alienation. Alienation can’t investigate itself. We can’t be living in a state of denial/insecurity about the human condition/psychosis (which literally means soul-illness, derived as the word is from ‘psyche’ meaning ‘soul’ and ‘iasis’ meaning ‘abnormal state or condition’)/truth-evasion/alienation/corruption/dysfunction/upset/hurt and at the same time not be living in a state of denial/insecurity/psychosis/soul-illness/truth-evasion/alienation/corruption/dysfunction/upset/hurt. We can’t be committed to being false and at the same time be committed to being honest. We can’t lie and simultaneously tell the truth. We haven’t been able to acknowledge our condition while we couldn’t confront it. Alienation has been the denied ‘elephant in the living room’ of the lives of humans, the main feature of human behaviour in the world today, but the one that hasn’t been able to be universally acknowledged—until now. It is only now with the dignifying understanding of the human condition found that it becomes both safe and necessary to acknowledge alienation, and the degrees of it, in order to undertake "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘serious reflection on…"},{"insert":"[all]"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"aspect"},{"insert":"[s]"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":" of present inter-human life’"},{"insert":".\n\tThere is much to learn about in the new denial-free world, most of all about alienation, its characteristics and the extent to which it exists within us all. The main distinction that can and must be made is that between unresigned, denial-and-alienation-free minds, and resigned, denial-practicing, alienated minds. A denial-free thinker is someone who was sufficiently free from hurt in their infancy and childhood to not have to resign themselves to living in denial of the issue of the human condition in their adolescence. Not living in such denial meant that the denial-free, truthful, effective thinkers or prophets were thinking in a completely different way to resigned, denial-practicing, evasive, ineffective minds.\n\tWhile this freedom from denial, or alternatively, commitment to it, has been the main difference that has existed in human minds there has also existed degrees of soundness within the two categories. While denial-free thinkers or prophets could think truthfully because they had avoided Resignation, they did vary in how sound they were and thus how easily and effectively they were able to confront and think about the issue of the human condition, and any subject related to it, which is virtually all subjects. We have already seen in the analysis of the life of Moses and other Old Testament prophets how some of them were more able to confront God/the integrative ideals "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"‘face to face’"},{"insert":" than others. Similarly, amongst those individuals who had to resign themselves to living in denial of the issue of the human condition there has existed a spectrum of soundness whereby some were more sound and as a result could afford to think more truthfully than others.\n\tTo illustrate the overall situation, a mind could be just sound enough to have avoided Resignation and yet that mind would be almost totally different in the way it thought to the mind of someone who was nearly as sound as that person but not quite sound enough to have avoided Resignation. In this instance, the resigned mind had become committed to denial of the human condition and any issues that brought the subject into focus, while the other mind hadn’t. One mind had become committed to and practiced in lying while the other hadn’t. In terms of the issue being looked at here of being able to find understanding of the human condition, once a mind became resigned to denial its ability to find that understanding, despite its attempts or intentions to do so, was severely limited.\n\tThe first two categories of thinkers mentioned above were denial-free thinkers and those who were resigned to living in denial but were sound enough to try to think honestly about issues related to the human condition. Because both these categories were involved in thinking honestly they can be termed as Unresigned Prophets and Resigned Prophets. The Resigned Prophets, those who tried to think from a basis of honesty even though they were not sound enough to avoid having to resign to living in denial of the human condition obviously ran the risk of becoming psychologically destabilised, dangerously depressed. Trying to think truthfully and honestly when you weren’t sound enough to do so required great courage but such thinkers could and have managed to contribute valuable insights about human life—they have managed to be prophetic, hence their description, ‘Resigned Prophets’.\n\t(Before going on it should be emphasised once again that with understanding of the human condition we can know that while humans differ in their degree of alienation as a result of their differing encounters with and participation in humanity’s heroic battle to find sufficient knowledge to liberate our species from the human condition, all humans are equally good and worthwhile. No one is inferior or superior. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the concepts of good and evil disappear from the conceptualisation of ourselves and therefore from our languages.)\n\tWith this overview of there having been three fundamental categories of thinkers—Unresigned Prophets, Resigned Prophets and Dishonest Thinkers, with the latter being those who are resigned and committed to denying the issue of the human condition—we are now in a position to look more closely at Unresigned Prophets, those few people in recorded history who have been able to confront and think honestly about the human condition.\"\n\nfrom "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://www.humancondition.com/freedom-expanded-book1-the-three-varieties-of-thinkers/"},"insert":"https://www.humancondition.com/freedom-expanded-book1-the-three-varieties-of-thinkers/"},{"insert":" :-)\n"}]}