Krimel said: What motivates your choices; fear of uncertainty or lust for precision?
dmb says: Dewey, being naturalistic as he was, thought that the fear of uncertainty was the intellectual equivalent of the organism's fear of insecurity or desire for safety. This desire isn't crazy and we all feel it to some extent but it can overwhelm us and in the case of philosophy it leads us to desire what can never be had and that can make you a little crazy. In fact, recent psychological research suggests that the relative strength of this motive is what separates liberals from conservatives both politically and in terms of religion. To make a long story short, conservatives are more uncomfortable with uncertainty and so tend to adopt absolutist positions to ease their discomfort. Looking at the present state of the Republican party, this makes a great deal of sense. They've tended support the excesses of the war on terror for the sake of physical safety and the excesses of religious dogma for their "intellectual" security. I'd add that this same split is observable in the choices people make at our Universities and colleges. I've heard more than one science and math student say he was drawn to such fields because, unlike things like literature, history and the other humanities, there is usually just one right answer. They like the precision of science. It makes them feel safe and certain, intellectually speaking. The professor of philosophy who teaches my Plato class was saying last time how he sees this same discomfort with uncertainties among the business students, who are "forced" to take an ethics class in the philosophy department. They don't want to engage with the ideas or otherwise think about it too much. They just want the final answer, the correct answer. Ha! As if there were one. My point? The rear of uncertainty and the lust for precision are more or less the same thing, two sides of the same coin and they can be quite intellectually crippling. In Buddhism they say that fear and desire is the cause of all suffering. I suppose that applies socially and intellectually every bit as much as it applies to the appetites of the flesh. _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™ Contacts: Organize your contact list. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/marcusatmicrosoft.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!503D1D86EBB2B53C!2285.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_UGC_Contacts_032009 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
