[Ron]
Ayn Rand made some observations about the most common assumptions
being to place faith in the words of an authority figure over
individual thought...
[Arlo]
Charles Peirce's essay "The Fixation of Belief" is also a great read
in this avenue of thought. His central premise is that the mind
dislikes uncertainty, and there are a series of options available to
us to "fix belief" and cure uncertainty. He calls these tenacity
(stubborn clinging to an idea in the face of contrary evidence),
authority, a priori reasoning, and lastly scientific methodology.
(His essay predates Pirsig by quite a while, so go easy on him).
http://www.peirce.org/writings/p107.html
I can't really make a circular diagram here, but the basic operation
for Peirce would be something like "Belief -> Observation -> Doubt ->
Inquiry -> Belief" (with feedback loops embedded throughout).
"Inquiry" is where most of this particular essay by Peirce spends its
time, and I think ZMM had a good deal to say about "Observation".
Just some thoughts.
Arlo
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