Interesting post. Is self-pretension ever the most rational course?
All that would be required to convince me is a single example where self-delusion yields a win where the complete truth does not. However, I’m not convinced. It is my intuition (I recently asserted exactly this in a post draft and worried over how to defend it) that the complete truth will always be enough.
Consider the example in this post: it seems to me that if you believe in the notion of “alpha-males”, then you’re already deep in illusion before your self-pretension that you are an alpha male.
[Take the outside view: Any girl who is not an alpha-female will be evolutionarily conditioned to settle for less than the alpha-male by, perhaps, convincing herself that you’re an alpha male even if you’re not. In other words, you’re still in the game even if you didn’t think so.]
Consider, in more detail, the example this post was originally a response to. Here, a hot iron is approaching your face, but if you flinch, you will be shot.
While this is a horrible dilemma, I think it presents a clear case in which the complete truth is enough. The complete truth is that you have only two choices: the hot iron or the bullet. You realize with certainty that the iron is the better choice. So, next, instead of pretending that the iron is cool (which will only backfire when the iron approaches) you actively choose the iron: you will yourself to desire the burn of the iron. Your thoughts would be: ‘I want to feel the iron’s heat’, ‘I want to feel the pain of the iron’, and that will be the truth. When the iron meets your cheek, you will feel a sense of elation, because your desire for pain was met. Rationally, you’re happy because it wasn’t the bullet.
There are two obstacles that I can think of in this dilemma. The first would be psychological: distracting yourself and diminishing your desire for the iron by wishing that you didn’t have to suffer it. However, wishing that an unchangeable situation is different is embracing a non-truth. Second, it may be physiologically impossible to not flinch, regardless of your thoughts. In which case, there’s no win either way.
Your thoughts would be: I want to feel the iron’s heat, I want to feel the pain of the iron, and that will be the truth. When the iron meets your cheek, you will feel a sense of elation, because your desire for pain was met. Rationally, you’re happy because it wasn’t the bullet.
This sounded extremely odd to me, until I reread it and realized that I’d already come close to using it. I did West Side Story my junior year. The whole score to the show is structured around the half-octave (also called the tritone, or the Devil’s Interval—basically the most dissonant interval in all of music). There’d be roaring finishes to songs where we’d be on these incredibly dissonant intervals, and the only way I could find to keep my voice from rounding to the nearest pleasant interval—a major fourth or fifth—was to push myself into a state of sheer bloodymindedness, where I wanted the dissonance, loved it, wanted to put as much of it into the world as I could, absolutely gloried in the ugliness of those notes together.
It was a lot of fun, and I was on pitch, so I can’t help but wonder if the same would work in the iron/bullet scenario. I also can’t help but wonder whether my “find your happy place” method would stand a chance.
I also can’t help but wonder whether my “find your happy place” method would stand a chance.
Definitely, it would be effective. But does handling reality by escaping it count as self-deception? (assuming here we wish to avoid self-deception, if possible)
I think not necessarily. I can think of one set of examples where it seems more truthful to ‘find the happy place’, and this example set suggests some criteria for measuring the integrity of escaping. However, I have a tendency to build too much from the first example I think of, and would like to hear other thoughts on this.
By the way: I loved your vivid description of embracing dissonance in music. I wonder if this is also how/why the audience enjoys the piece.
Interesting post. Is self-pretension ever the most rational course?
All that would be required to convince me is a single example where self-delusion yields a win where the complete truth does not. However, I’m not convinced. It is my intuition (I recently asserted exactly this in a post draft and worried over how to defend it) that the complete truth will always be enough.
Consider the example in this post: it seems to me that if you believe in the notion of “alpha-males”, then you’re already deep in illusion before your self-pretension that you are an alpha male.
[Take the outside view: Any girl who is not an alpha-female will be evolutionarily conditioned to settle for less than the alpha-male by, perhaps, convincing herself that you’re an alpha male even if you’re not. In other words, you’re still in the game even if you didn’t think so.]
Consider, in more detail, the example this post was originally a response to. Here, a hot iron is approaching your face, but if you flinch, you will be shot.
While this is a horrible dilemma, I think it presents a clear case in which the complete truth is enough. The complete truth is that you have only two choices: the hot iron or the bullet. You realize with certainty that the iron is the better choice. So, next, instead of pretending that the iron is cool (which will only backfire when the iron approaches) you actively choose the iron: you will yourself to desire the burn of the iron. Your thoughts would be: ‘I want to feel the iron’s heat’, ‘I want to feel the pain of the iron’, and that will be the truth. When the iron meets your cheek, you will feel a sense of elation, because your desire for pain was met. Rationally, you’re happy because it wasn’t the bullet.
There are two obstacles that I can think of in this dilemma. The first would be psychological: distracting yourself and diminishing your desire for the iron by wishing that you didn’t have to suffer it. However, wishing that an unchangeable situation is different is embracing a non-truth. Second, it may be physiologically impossible to not flinch, regardless of your thoughts. In which case, there’s no win either way.
This sounded extremely odd to me, until I reread it and realized that I’d already come close to using it. I did West Side Story my junior year. The whole score to the show is structured around the half-octave (also called the tritone, or the Devil’s Interval—basically the most dissonant interval in all of music). There’d be roaring finishes to songs where we’d be on these incredibly dissonant intervals, and the only way I could find to keep my voice from rounding to the nearest pleasant interval—a major fourth or fifth—was to push myself into a state of sheer bloodymindedness, where I wanted the dissonance, loved it, wanted to put as much of it into the world as I could, absolutely gloried in the ugliness of those notes together.
It was a lot of fun, and I was on pitch, so I can’t help but wonder if the same would work in the iron/bullet scenario. I also can’t help but wonder whether my “find your happy place” method would stand a chance.
Definitely, it would be effective. But does handling reality by escaping it count as self-deception? (assuming here we wish to avoid self-deception, if possible)
I think not necessarily. I can think of one set of examples where it seems more truthful to ‘find the happy place’, and this example set suggests some criteria for measuring the integrity of escaping. However, I have a tendency to build too much from the first example I think of, and would like to hear other thoughts on this.
By the way: I loved your vivid description of embracing dissonance in music. I wonder if this is also how/why the audience enjoys the piece.