"What most human beings really want to attain is not knowledge, but certainty. Gaining real knowledge requires taking risks and keeping the mind open—but most people prefer to be reassured rather than to learn the complex and often unsettling truth about anything."
Human beings prefer to be reassured of what they already know, rather than to confront the "complex and often unsettling truth about anything." This applies to scientific discoveries as well as personal truths.
For the most part, scientific discovery is not the result of the knowledge quest. During the Scientific Revolution, individuals sought to learn more about the universe God had created. When Copernicus developed a heliocentric theory of the universe, and challenged the geocentric norms of society, he was not attempting to gain more knowledge about the universe. He also was not trying to challenge the Church's teaching. In the process of scientific discovery, he found "unsettling truth" in the form of patterns about the movement of the stars and planets. Copernicus was open-minded about the process of discovery, and he was willing to take the risk to discover. Nevertheless, he found truth in the process of affirming what he already knew.
More interesting, perhaps, is the pursuit of self-knowledge, which I believe often results in an elaborate act of pretending. We pretend to know who we are, what we prefer, and what we want to do but for the most part, our insecurities and hesitancies are further ingrained in our psyches than we can even acknowledge. The purpose of psychological tests for example, like the Myers Brigg Personality Test or career inventory tests, assume that individuals are honest about themselves. These tests must necessarily assume that we are truthful about ourselves. The validity of these tests assumes that honesty is a prerequisite for any self-reporting methods. For example, it is assumed that we don't already have assumptions about what we want to be, and so, our selections on these tests is biased from the beginning. I believe that the assumption about self-honesty is faulty because it is difficult for individuals to know truly what they want. These personality tests are way to reassure us about what we already know about ourselves. It keeps us from having to confront the complexity of our personalities. We would rather have our person reduced to a set of letters, patterns, types in order to gain certainty about ourselves, not true knowledge of the self.
The author prescribes two essential ingredients for the attainment of certainty: ( 1) an open mind and (2) risk-taking. While I agree that these are important, I think that these two things are relevant to the attainment of personal discovery as well. I think we must keep an open mind about what we truly prefer, what we truly want and also, that we must take risks for the sake of our own selfhoods. It is essetentail to develop a curiosity about ourselves as well as the world around us. But I agree that it is as the author describes, not a process of attaining knowledge but a process of affirming what we already know to be true.
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I am not sure if this made any sense at all, but I am attempting to relearn how to write and think after taking a long break from these processes. This past year has been an incredible period of growth, of learning, and discovering what I already knew to be true. I took a number of risks and enjoyed the acquisitions of those risks. But now, I am in the process of reevaluating, reading and gaining advice from mentors. I am going to try to do what I want to do because that's all there is in the end: an attempt at something bigger, better and more refined.
Human beings prefer to be reassured of what they already know, rather than to confront the "complex and often unsettling truth about anything." This applies to scientific discoveries as well as personal truths.
For the most part, scientific discovery is not the result of the knowledge quest. During the Scientific Revolution, individuals sought to learn more about the universe God had created. When Copernicus developed a heliocentric theory of the universe, and challenged the geocentric norms of society, he was not attempting to gain more knowledge about the universe. He also was not trying to challenge the Church's teaching. In the process of scientific discovery, he found "unsettling truth" in the form of patterns about the movement of the stars and planets. Copernicus was open-minded about the process of discovery, and he was willing to take the risk to discover. Nevertheless, he found truth in the process of affirming what he already knew.
More interesting, perhaps, is the pursuit of self-knowledge, which I believe often results in an elaborate act of pretending. We pretend to know who we are, what we prefer, and what we want to do but for the most part, our insecurities and hesitancies are further ingrained in our psyches than we can even acknowledge. The purpose of psychological tests for example, like the Myers Brigg Personality Test or career inventory tests, assume that individuals are honest about themselves. These tests must necessarily assume that we are truthful about ourselves. The validity of these tests assumes that honesty is a prerequisite for any self-reporting methods. For example, it is assumed that we don't already have assumptions about what we want to be, and so, our selections on these tests is biased from the beginning. I believe that the assumption about self-honesty is faulty because it is difficult for individuals to know truly what they want. These personality tests are way to reassure us about what we already know about ourselves. It keeps us from having to confront the complexity of our personalities. We would rather have our person reduced to a set of letters, patterns, types in order to gain certainty about ourselves, not true knowledge of the self.
The author prescribes two essential ingredients for the attainment of certainty: ( 1) an open mind and (2) risk-taking. While I agree that these are important, I think that these two things are relevant to the attainment of personal discovery as well. I think we must keep an open mind about what we truly prefer, what we truly want and also, that we must take risks for the sake of our own selfhoods. It is essetentail to develop a curiosity about ourselves as well as the world around us. But I agree that it is as the author describes, not a process of attaining knowledge but a process of affirming what we already know to be true.
---
I am not sure if this made any sense at all, but I am attempting to relearn how to write and think after taking a long break from these processes. This past year has been an incredible period of growth, of learning, and discovering what I already knew to be true. I took a number of risks and enjoyed the acquisitions of those risks. But now, I am in the process of reevaluating, reading and gaining advice from mentors. I am going to try to do what I want to do because that's all there is in the end: an attempt at something bigger, better and more refined.
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