[Paleopsych] Some interesting reflections...

[Steve Hovland]

My main art form is photography, but I find
that drawing and painting improves my
ability to perceive all sorts of visual information,
and this improves my photography.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Lee" <unstasis at gmail.com>
To: <paleopsych at paleopsych.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 11:54 AM
Subject: [Paleopsych] Some interesting reflections...


> Thought you guys would find this interesting.
> got this from here:
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/reenka/194939.html#cutid1
> Here it is reposted for ease of perusement:
> --
> (feed your head)
> So, I made another list on a bus. Or, not a list, maybe... more like
> an outline. Clearly, I have too much free time.
> 
> "The way I think," condensed into easy-to-follow recipe format!
> 
> 
> - Question everything.
> 
> - The question is more important than the answer. The question is
> growth; the answer is entropy.
> 
> - Assumptions are never objective-- identify your assumptions &
> analyze the resulting reasoning for linear or associative jumps
> (though some jumps are, of course, inevitable).
> 
> - Assumptions/beliefs which aren't 'refreshed' or challenged will
> naturally attract flawed/jumpy reasoning with time, like bread
> attracts mold.
> 
> - Thus, pure belief/assumption thinking is always wrong-- though
> there's no superiority implied by that statement. It's simply the
> flip-side of the basic tenet of subjectivism: everyone is right. It
> only follows that everyone is also wrong.
> 
> - Saying 'everyone is wrong' is as lazy as 'everyone is right', but
> it's helpful to realize that principle of uncertainty.
> 
> - The key is learning how to think & not accepting even your own
> conclusions as more than working theories. This is the difference
> between learning and knowing. 'Knowing' is not thinking; it's not a
> learning-curved process and is therefore subject to deteriorative
> behavior.
> 
> - Most people's errors in judgement happen because they don't know how
> to think without becoming complacent.
> 
> - The process of sharpening your perception is more useful than any
> possible result.
> 
> - Love or any other emotion shouldn't become an excuse for operating
> in a static mindset.
> 
> - Avoid using excuses in general-- they prevent further questioning
> and are thus unhelpful.
> 
> - Mental stasis based on unquestioned beliefs/assumptions creates
> holes in perception and thus one's overall intelligence.
> 
> - Therefore an unquestioned, static religious belief is detrimental to
> overall mental acuity. On the other hand, a 'humbler', more
> philosophical approach to metaphysical subjects isn't intrinsically
> 'the opiate of the masses', as per Marx.
> 
> - No single -fixed- philosophical system can be correct.
> 
> - 'Subjectivism' doesn't excuse accepting stasis. True 'progress'
> doesn't have an end goal in mind-- the progress is a continuous
> process of minute adjustments to and re-evaluations of all mental
> constructs.
> 
> - Intelligence is directly proportional to the degree of mental
> fluidity coupled with perceptive acuity in motion.
> 
> - Motion is life. Stasis is entropy.
> 
> - The X-Files had it right: Trust No One's (version of reality--
> even-- especially your own). And The Truth Is Out There.
> 
> - Finding contradictions means you're on the right track.
> 
> - As long as you don't take yourself too seriously, you can imagine,
> invent and play in thousands of make-believe worlds made of symbol and
> non-linear association. Dreams are doors to your own truths.
> 
> - The truth is multifaceted and contradictory, like a crystal with
> incomprehensible levels of complexity. But it -is- out there.
> 
> - You'll never find it. Keep looking.
> ~~
> 
> {So that was the main parts of interest to the list as far as I could
> see.  Hope You found this Interesting too}
> 
> Stephen Lee
> --
> When there's nothing left...
> There's always something or you're dead.
> Use it.
> --
> http://www.freewebs.com/rewander/
> http://hopeisus.fateback.com/story.html
> http://www16.brinkster.com/quibbit/pid/
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