Does an Intellectual Life Endanger Peace of Mind?

[First Thought]

How does one prove any assertion wrong? By presenting evidence that the claim is untrue, of course. :doh

Opinions do not have to be based on evidence. What are you having a hard time understanding?

 

[Slartibartfast]

Opinions do not have to be based on evidence. What are you having a hard time understanding?

Valid opinions are.

 

[First Thought]

Valid opinions are.

Whether an opinion is valid or not can also be viewed subjectively.

 

[coberst]

It also helps to contrast to reasoning...how can you get really good at identifying reason when there are no "bad cases" to measure against? Don't the best systems get built when they are constantly tested and improved? I think they do.

I suspect that we have an abundance of "bad cases" but our problem is to find "good cases" that will raise the level of sophisticated reasoning. I suspect that that we are sinking lower and lower in our "confidence in reason".

Where are the good reasoners marching to match the level of attention given to the abundance of crazies?

 

[Simba]

Does an Intellectual Life Endanger Peace of Mind?

Few individuals discover and display a talent, a personal resonance that can truly excite public appreciation. Those who do display such a resonance are truly rewarded. However, I am not particularly interested in those few but I am interested in considering all the rest of us who have resonances (talents?) and especially all those that remain undiscovered by ourselves.

I am of the opinion that we all have a number of personal resonances (talents?) that if discovered give great emphasis to our life’s satisfaction. Those individuals who discover and exploit such a personal resonance can find great self-satisfaction. If that particular resonance strikes a social resonance then the accompanying social display of appreciation can add to the personal satisfaction to the individual.

I think a successful artist is a good example of what I speak. The singing artist who happens not only to discover a particular musical talent and, if that talent is in accord with a public musical taste, that individual would reap great personal and economic satisfaction. The actor or painter, or any of many possible talents that are appreciated by the public would serve as examples of what I mean by resonance.

It seems that society and all its institutions are focused upon making everyone of us efficient producers and consumers. Nothing prepares us for self-discovery when such discovery is not supportive of a drive to produce and consume. I think that most social pressure from birth to death is directed at the drive to make us effective producers and consumers.

I chose to use the word “resonance” rather than talent because I think our sense of the meaning of the word “talent” will distort the point I wish to make. “Talent” is such a ‘produce and consume’ word. In fact we have little vocabulary available when discussing what I mean.

At mid-life when our career ambitions dim and our family are cared for is the time that is available to us to begin to de-emphasize the world of ‘production and consumption’ and begin exploring the world of the intellect directed as an end-in-itself’. Our intellects have been so totally directed as a means to an end that we will have some difficulty thinking of knowledge and understanding that is considered as an end-in-itself.

Our first encounter with resonance, as the word is normally used, might have been when we first discovered on the playground swing that a little energy directed in synchronization with the swing’s resonant frequency would produce outstanding movement. What a marvelous discovery. We might make similar marvelous discoveries if we decide, against all that we have learned in the past, that the intellect can be used as an end-in-it-self.

I also think that if a person reaches mid-life without having begun an intellectual life that person will be unlikely to begin such a life. It appears to me that if we do not start such an effort before mid-life we will never have an intellectual life. After our school daze are over it might be wise for a person to begin the cultivation of intellectual curiosity even though there may not be a lot of time available for that hobby.

Get a life—get an intellectual life!

Absolutely not! Keep up the thinking, or others will think for you. And, alot of their thinking might be even more hollow than your own.

 

[Cephus]

Opinions do not have to be based on evidence. What are you having a hard time understanding?

As someone else said, valid opinions are. And whether or not they are, they must still be based on logic and logic can be examined and dissected.

The fact that the poster didn't even bother to try is a clear sign that they weren't rejecting it on intellectual grounds, but on emotional ones.

 

[lizzie]

I suspect that we have an abundance of "bad cases" but our problem is to find "good cases" that will raise the level of sophisticated reasoning. I suspect that that we are sinking lower and lower in our "confidence in reason".

I'm not so convinced of that. I suspect that in our current age of mass information available, we are just more exposed to the reality that many people don't use sound reason. I doubt the numbers are growing proportionally.

 

[coberst]

I'm not so convinced of that. I suspect that in our current age of mass information available, we are just more exposed to the reality that many people don't use sound reason. I doubt the numbers are growing proportionally.

I am convinced that modernity provides us with more information but modernity encourages less understanding. Information often is in sound bites and bumper stickers. A steady diet of Twinkies and chips will give us a fat gut and a steady diet of sound bites and bumper stickers will give us a fat head.

 

[danarhea]

Although I agree, it's not pathetic in that I have a distaste for them as people, but that I understand they may not be capable and/or interested. This certainly does not make them any less as human beings.

True, but believing that Jesus rode a dinosaur is ridiculous......

Wait, just a minute. They are right. Damn, just look at this dinosaur, after a tent revival. :mrgreen:

 

[alexa]

The most intelligent people I have known have all been deeply feeling as well.

 

[lizzie]

The most intelligent people I have known have all been deeply feeling as well.

I know plenty of intelligent people, and I can't say that emotional expression necessarily makes them seem more so, but it definitely makes them more interesting to be around. I think intellect is a wonderful thing to have, reason is a definite advantage, and emotional honesty in a healthy proportion is a really nice balance. I enjoy the fact that I can think and analyze and I'm great with math and sciences, but without the ability to deeply love and appreciate life, nature, and people, my life would be much less fulfilling.

 

[alexa]

I know plenty of intelligent people, and I can't say that emotional expression necessarily makes them seem more so, but it definitely makes them more interesting to be around. I think intellect is a wonderful thing to have, reason is a definite advantage, and emotional honesty in a healthy proportion is a really nice balance. I enjoy the fact that I can think and analyze and I'm great with math and sciences, but without the ability to deeply love and appreciate life, nature, and people, my life would be much less fulfilling.

I would agree emotional expression does not necessarily aid intelligence because it is basically a reaction to something.

I differentiate feeling and emotion. Emotions as I said being a reaction, something which sometimes is completely appropriate.

Feeling however is deeper. It is more about integration at a gut level. As such I have found that people well in touch with themselves and with emotions well acknowledge and hence under control are more intelligent than a person who just comes from their intellect.