Thursday, January 05, 2006 · posted at 1:29 AM
And then? No, no 'and then'! I'm always surprised when I ask people what they think of certain isues or theories and they reply, "I dunno, I never thought about it" or I ask them why they think a certain way and they say "I dunno, I just do."

It seems as though people are always so interested in folk psychology, figuring out the ways people behave, predicting how they'll act. This is the appeal of reality tv right? Seeing how people interact when you throw them together (Real World, Survivor) or when you break all social norms (Boiling Points). It makes sense to learn about psychology, as human interactions are necessary in all aspects of life.

But isn't it as (if not more) important to evaluate how you think and why? If psychology is the study of how people behave, philosophy can be considered the deeper question of why. So why is it that people don't know why they hold the opinions and attitudes that they do? Why do they never question the tenets which govern their everyday life?

Maybe because it's so complicated and hard to understand that you end up getting more confused and confusing others in the process (like me...I'll surely receive "your argument is weak" and "you got the defintion wrong" from those trained to even approach the subject).

I remember once I went on a twenty minute tirade about how people ultimately aren't born with a blank slate or choice or control and it's not fair... and at the very end of it while red-faced and catching my breath, the response I got was, "So?"

And I realized that my reiterating the inequalities of the world wasn't going to change anything. And if I believe that to be a truth, and the truth cannot be changed, then what? Which sounded a whole lot like the Serenity Prayer, and wow, those recovering alcoholics over at AA sure are onto something.

Maybe at the end of the proofs, theorems, and "A ยทB" expressions, the really important question is not why, but this:

So?

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