I don’t think that the article is saying you should completely abandon terminal goals and truth-seeking altogether. It sounds to me like it’s saying that while in the vast majority of situations it is better to seek truth and not change terminal goals, there are particular circumstances where it is the right thing to do. For instance, if you accidentally saw greater than 50% of the exam answers of a friend who got 100% on a short but important final exam, and you did not have the option of taking a different exam or delaying it or ever taking that exam again, would you intentionally fail the exam? Or would you compartmentalize your knowledge of the answers so that you cannot access it during the exam, so you can take the exam the way you would have if you hadn’t seen your friend’s exam? In this scenario you would probably either have to change your terminal goal that the exam is instrumental to or to intentionally hide your knowledge of the answers from yourself and avoid seeking the truth about them in your own mind at least until the exam is over.
Also, I’m really scared of using these techniques because I have been conditioned not to trust myself at all if I lie to myself. Does it count as compartmentalization to ignore everything I just read here and pretend to myself that I should definitely never lie to myself intentionally, at least until I feel ready to do so without losing a large portion of my sanity and intellectual autonomy? I’m pretty sure already that the answer is yes.
However, I’m kind of new at actively thinking about and asking my own questions about my own thoughts and beliefs. I do not feel like I have observed enough examples of the quality of my reasoning ability to completely counteract the most likely false belief that I should not be intellectually autonomous because relying on my own reasoning ability is more likely to hurt others and myself instead of help.
For most of my life I have been conditioned to believe that, and it has only been very recently that I have started making progress towards eliminating that belief from my mind, rather than compartmentalizing it. I’m worried that using compartmentalization intentionally could significantly interfere with my progress in that regard.
I’m only just managing to hold this problem off right now, and that task is taking more energy and concentration then I think is realistic to be able to allocate to it on a regular basis.
If I tell myself that I don’t need to be honest with myself about myself and my thoughts 100% of the time, and that what matters is that I’m honest with myself about myself and my thoughts most of the time and only dishonest with myself when it’s necessary, then it’s probably going to be disproportionately difficult to trust myself when I test my own honesty with myself and find out that I’m being honest.
Any advice please? I’m rather inexperienced with this level of honest self cognitive analysis (if that’s what it’s called) and I think I might be somewhat out of my league with this problem. Thanks!
From what you’ve told me, I strongly recommend not using any of the techniques I mentioned until you’re much more confident in your mental control.
It seems that we come from very different mental backgrounds (I was encouraged to be intellectually autonomous from a young age), so you should definitely take my suggestions with caution, as it’s likely they won’t work for people with your background.
It sounds to me like you’re in the early stages of taking control over your beliefs, and while it seems you’re on the right track, it doesn’t sound to me like my techniques would be helpful at this juncture.
So I should continue giving my very best effort to be completely honest with myself, and just hope I don’t ever find myself in a catch-22 scenario like the one I just described before I’m ready. Admitting that lying to myself COULD be my best option in particular kinds of situations is not the same as actually being in such a situation and having to take that option. Whew! I was freaking out a bit, worrying that I would have to compartmentalize the information in your article in order to avoid using the techniques in it. Now I realize that was kind of silly of me.
Are you aware of the distinction between epistemic rationality and instrumental rationality? Although “seeking truth” and “achieving goals” can be put at odds, that’s no excuse to throw them both out the window.
I don’t think that the article is saying you should completely abandon terminal goals and truth-seeking altogether. It sounds to me like it’s saying that while in the vast majority of situations it is better to seek truth and not change terminal goals, there are particular circumstances where it is the right thing to do. For instance, if you accidentally saw greater than 50% of the exam answers of a friend who got 100% on a short but important final exam, and you did not have the option of taking a different exam or delaying it or ever taking that exam again, would you intentionally fail the exam? Or would you compartmentalize your knowledge of the answers so that you cannot access it during the exam, so you can take the exam the way you would have if you hadn’t seen your friend’s exam? In this scenario you would probably either have to change your terminal goal that the exam is instrumental to or to intentionally hide your knowledge of the answers from yourself and avoid seeking the truth about them in your own mind at least until the exam is over.
Also, I’m really scared of using these techniques because I have been conditioned not to trust myself at all if I lie to myself. Does it count as compartmentalization to ignore everything I just read here and pretend to myself that I should definitely never lie to myself intentionally, at least until I feel ready to do so without losing a large portion of my sanity and intellectual autonomy? I’m pretty sure already that the answer is yes.
However, I’m kind of new at actively thinking about and asking my own questions about my own thoughts and beliefs. I do not feel like I have observed enough examples of the quality of my reasoning ability to completely counteract the most likely false belief that I should not be intellectually autonomous because relying on my own reasoning ability is more likely to hurt others and myself instead of help.
For most of my life I have been conditioned to believe that, and it has only been very recently that I have started making progress towards eliminating that belief from my mind, rather than compartmentalizing it. I’m worried that using compartmentalization intentionally could significantly interfere with my progress in that regard.
I’m only just managing to hold this problem off right now, and that task is taking more energy and concentration then I think is realistic to be able to allocate to it on a regular basis.
If I tell myself that I don’t need to be honest with myself about myself and my thoughts 100% of the time, and that what matters is that I’m honest with myself about myself and my thoughts most of the time and only dishonest with myself when it’s necessary, then it’s probably going to be disproportionately difficult to trust myself when I test my own honesty with myself and find out that I’m being honest.
Any advice please? I’m rather inexperienced with this level of honest self cognitive analysis (if that’s what it’s called) and I think I might be somewhat out of my league with this problem. Thanks!
From what you’ve told me, I strongly recommend not using any of the techniques I mentioned until you’re much more confident in your mental control.
It seems that we come from very different mental backgrounds (I was encouraged to be intellectually autonomous from a young age), so you should definitely take my suggestions with caution, as it’s likely they won’t work for people with your background.
It sounds to me like you’re in the early stages of taking control over your beliefs, and while it seems you’re on the right track, it doesn’t sound to me like my techniques would be helpful at this juncture.
So I should continue giving my very best effort to be completely honest with myself, and just hope I don’t ever find myself in a catch-22 scenario like the one I just described before I’m ready. Admitting that lying to myself COULD be my best option in particular kinds of situations is not the same as actually being in such a situation and having to take that option. Whew! I was freaking out a bit, worrying that I would have to compartmentalize the information in your article in order to avoid using the techniques in it. Now I realize that was kind of silly of me.
Thanks for your help!