Brett Devereaux writes insightfully about epistemologies.
On the other end, some things are impractical to test empirically; empirical tests rely on repeated experiments under changing conditions (the scientific method) to determine how something behaves. This is well enough when you are studying something relatively simple, but a difficult task when you are studying, say, a society.
In our actual lives and also in the course of nearly every kind of scholarship (humanities, social sciences or STEM) we rely on a range of epistemologies. Some things are considered proved by the raw application of deductive reasoning and logic, a form of rationalism rather than empiricism (one cannot, after all, sense-perceive the square root of negative one). In some things testimony must be relied on...
Mentitation[1] shares with psychology a reliance on introspection and self-report. Furthermore, mentitation primarily seeks to be useful to people for practical purposes. It aims grow through accumulated metis, or the practical wisdom of practitioners.
When scientific literature can inform this metis, it ought to be incoporated readily. The literature on memory, visualization, spaced repetition, and many other topics is key. Mentitation uses science, ought to be scientifically testable, and can incorporate scientific methods into its own development.
However, just as you do not have to read the scientific literature to figure out how to organize your room, you likewise do not need to depend on scientific research to figure out how to organize your thoughts. Practical achievement depends on individual direct perception and reasoning about the facts on the ground (or in the head), and that is the starting and ending point for mentitation. Scientific research is an important waystation in the middle. Application of mentitation to challenging practical tasks where success and failure is easy and objective to measure is the gravity that keeps the mentitation train on the rails of truth.
All this is to say that nobody should trust mentitation. If it intrigues them, they can try it for themselves and see if it benefits them. My experience is that trying to figure it out for myself took me several years of persistent effort, which involved self-experimentation, reading a decent amount of psychology and learning research, drawing on several unusual aspects of my background as a teacher and learner, failing quite a few times, and having the privilege of drawing on rationalist writings to inform my thinking. I think that would be quite a barrier for many people, so I hope that as I continue to practice mentitation, I can also create resources that will smooth the path for others.
Toward an epistemic stance for mentitation
Brett Devereaux writes insightfully about epistemologies.
Mentitation[1] shares with psychology a reliance on introspection and self-report. Furthermore, mentitation primarily seeks to be useful to people for practical purposes. It aims grow through accumulated metis, or the practical wisdom of practitioners.
When scientific literature can inform this metis, it ought to be incoporated readily. The literature on memory, visualization, spaced repetition, and many other topics is key. Mentitation uses science, ought to be scientifically testable, and can incorporate scientific methods into its own development.
However, just as you do not have to read the scientific literature to figure out how to organize your room, you likewise do not need to depend on scientific research to figure out how to organize your thoughts. Practical achievement depends on individual direct perception and reasoning about the facts on the ground (or in the head), and that is the starting and ending point for mentitation. Scientific research is an important waystation in the middle. Application of mentitation to challenging practical tasks where success and failure is easy and objective to measure is the gravity that keeps the mentitation train on the rails of truth.
All this is to say that nobody should trust mentitation. If it intrigues them, they can try it for themselves and see if it benefits them. My experience is that trying to figure it out for myself took me several years of persistent effort, which involved self-experimentation, reading a decent amount of psychology and learning research, drawing on several unusual aspects of my background as a teacher and learner, failing quite a few times, and having the privilege of drawing on rationalist writings to inform my thinking. I think that would be quite a barrier for many people, so I hope that as I continue to practice mentitation, I can also create resources that will smooth the path for others.
My tentative term for practicing the ability to observe and control our own conscious mental activity in order to learn more efficiently.