I had taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog, but that does not mean I was not thinking, learning, applying or educating. Maybe the first three actions were more prominent than the last one. But here is my attempt to make it right.
So, I was in conversation with a friend, when he suddenly turned around and told me, what I was saying contradicted what I had said before, and that I was not being very logical. I completely agreed with him and yet heard myself lash out, 'If you want logic, why don't you go out with a machine, why bother with humans?'.
At another instant I recall another friend of mine telling me if he had to follow a religion, it would be that of logical reasoning. And I remember, at so many points I have found him so very very illogical and I have tried proving it to him, but with no success at all.
Scraps of conversations like this made me wonder about this situation. Is logical reasoning really an absolute as we make it out to be? Or is it only a set of rules developed by us humans to build computing machines? We feel, this way of thinking is simple, predictable and repeatable and thus it must make sense. But isn't it because we have created this world, and every rule that we have created is followed strictly within the boundaries of this world that it all appears simple?
Human minds however are not governed by these rules. We don't yet understand completely what our 'rules' are. Maybe we do have sets of rules (even if they are different and more complex) but the fact is we are still a bit of mystery to ourselves. And yet so many times I have found myself and even others (often people with more technical background) trying to fit inside these made up rules of logic and getting annoyed at others because they are not being 'logical'.
Personally I do believe that human minds follow patterns, and that we are a responsive species. But the most I can do is take time out every once in a while and try to truly understand why I did do something or not. (Unfortunately I have also realised it is quite easy to fool the mind to believe in a cause which was not true when the action was performed, but seems like the perfect reason in retrospect. This alteration of our own past happens almost naturally and makes me wonder if there is an unknown variable at work here which I cannot quite see.)
While I always feel there is a cause and effect for everything I think or do, I sometimes defy this by doing something completely random and surprising myself.
But is it really random? I guess I will never know. Not unless I am outside the boundaries of the human system, and I know every rule and every variable there is to know. Until then I guess I will have to make do with my will to learn, my best educated guess and my survival instinct.
Finally let me leave you with this, which I do believe in:
"Upon this first, and in one sense this sole, rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry."
- Charles Sanders Peirce, "First Rule of Logic"
p.s. I know psychologists study the human mind, but I have never studied this subject formally, and honestly most people I meet in life are these so called 'logical' engineers (including myself) and I guess this post is more for people like us. Although I would very much love the perspective of a psychologist and what their views are on the topic of 'logic'.
So, I was in conversation with a friend, when he suddenly turned around and told me, what I was saying contradicted what I had said before, and that I was not being very logical. I completely agreed with him and yet heard myself lash out, 'If you want logic, why don't you go out with a machine, why bother with humans?'.
At another instant I recall another friend of mine telling me if he had to follow a religion, it would be that of logical reasoning. And I remember, at so many points I have found him so very very illogical and I have tried proving it to him, but with no success at all.
Scraps of conversations like this made me wonder about this situation. Is logical reasoning really an absolute as we make it out to be? Or is it only a set of rules developed by us humans to build computing machines? We feel, this way of thinking is simple, predictable and repeatable and thus it must make sense. But isn't it because we have created this world, and every rule that we have created is followed strictly within the boundaries of this world that it all appears simple?
Human minds however are not governed by these rules. We don't yet understand completely what our 'rules' are. Maybe we do have sets of rules (even if they are different and more complex) but the fact is we are still a bit of mystery to ourselves. And yet so many times I have found myself and even others (often people with more technical background) trying to fit inside these made up rules of logic and getting annoyed at others because they are not being 'logical'.
Personally I do believe that human minds follow patterns, and that we are a responsive species. But the most I can do is take time out every once in a while and try to truly understand why I did do something or not. (Unfortunately I have also realised it is quite easy to fool the mind to believe in a cause which was not true when the action was performed, but seems like the perfect reason in retrospect. This alteration of our own past happens almost naturally and makes me wonder if there is an unknown variable at work here which I cannot quite see.)
While I always feel there is a cause and effect for everything I think or do, I sometimes defy this by doing something completely random and surprising myself.
But is it really random? I guess I will never know. Not unless I am outside the boundaries of the human system, and I know every rule and every variable there is to know. Until then I guess I will have to make do with my will to learn, my best educated guess and my survival instinct.
Finally let me leave you with this, which I do believe in:
"Upon this first, and in one sense this sole, rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry."
- Charles Sanders Peirce, "First Rule of Logic"
p.s. I know psychologists study the human mind, but I have never studied this subject formally, and honestly most people I meet in life are these so called 'logical' engineers (including myself) and I guess this post is more for people like us. Although I would very much love the perspective of a psychologist and what their views are on the topic of 'logic'.
