The Idea Emporium
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HOW TO THINK, TIP NUMBER ONE
"It
is a fact readily acknwledged,
that for humans,
an idea is much more powerful
than a fact."
WHEN I HEARD THAT,
I HAD A EUREKA MOMENT.
YES, I HAD SEEN THAT SO OFTEN.
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fear, censorship, self-censorship, and the unexpected.
For
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The Idea Emporium.
Critical thought, in depth analysis.
Plus fallacies found out, stupid opinions exposed.
Good ideas, thought provoking analysis.
Elsa's Idea Emporium. Challenge, stimulation, fun.
The Idea Emporium
- why and what
One of my lifelong concerns has
been trying to make sense of reality. What is happening? Why is this happening?
And with that I come to ideas - ideas about reality, ideas that need to
be checked against reality, not just believed in like the tooth fairy
is accepted by a child. But how does one check them? What qualifies as
proof, as evidence.
And why, so often, is evidence of
no interest to people? We have masses of evidence of how good many people
are at denying evidence when it goes against what they believe. Millions
have denied, and continue to deny the equality of women and men, of Jews
and nonJews, of atheists and Muslims, gays and heterosexuals. People are
incredible experts at denying reality - what is seen, experienced. Of
course we need to interpret reality - we do not know it "pure"
but through our limited senses, our limited memory, our limited ability
to perceive and make sense of the amazing array of information that does
gets perceived.
Still, it boggles the even slightly
rational mind - how can so many people be so utterly blind to, let's say,
findings about nutrition? It amazed me to find out, when I was growing
up, that there was evidence for the health benefits of whole grains over
refined products - because masses of people stuck with white flour, white
rice, white sugar. How could they be so closed to evidence? Somehow they
had a wall against the evidence.
The ideas I want to explore are
those that go with, not against, the evidence, that try to make sense
of evidence.
So, the Idea Emporium - a place
for ideas.
The Idea Emporium - a place where ideas are explored.
The Idea Emporium - a place where ideas are entertained , played with,
looked at from many angles.
The Idea Emporium, a place where ideas are evaluated.
What is an idea, by the way. I hadn't
thought of that when I chose the name of The Idea Emporium. It just seemed
the obviously right name. It was months before I realized I had a hard
time putting into words what I meant by idea. I began to think about the
word. Sentences with the word, idea, floated into my mind. Like, "I
have an idea. Why don't we order pizza?" That was an eye-opener for
me.
My guess is that most of us use
the word without knowing exactly what it means. "I have an idea of
what we might do. Maybe we could go out for Chinese food. But It's just
an idea" - meaning this need not come to pass, but we think it might
be fun. That is obviously not what I meant by idea.
"I have an idea. Maybe you left your hat in the car." Again,
no.
"My idea is that we go in together and talk to her." No.
These are all legitimate uses of the term, idea, but it's not what I meant
when I came to name The Idea Emporium. And I'm sure it's not what people
might expect if they click on The Idea Emporium - because it's not what
most people mean by the word "idea."
Word has a built-in dictionary. This is what it says:
Idea -
a personal opinion or belief;
a thought to be presented as a suggestion;
an impression or knowledge of something;
a realization of a possible way of doing something or of something to
be done;
the aim or purpose of a plan or project;
the gist or précis of something such as a book, report, project
or plan;
a thought about or mental picture of something
such as a future or possible
event;
a concept that exists in the mind only;
a mental image that reflects reality.
The last is what I'm most interested in - ideas that reflect reality as
well as possible. But I've decided that I like it that idea is such a
wide term.
Here I am taking idea to mean (and
I think this is what most of us think of when we think of the meaning
of the word, idea) some thought one has about something. "I have
an idea" - meaning, I am not sure this concept fits reality, but
it is a hypothesis I have formed.
I also think that, when I named
The Idea Emporium,
I was blurring words together in my mind -
idea, concept,
conception, understanding, hypothesis.
The Idea Emporium - a place for
all these things.
This is not the same as people having
"an idee fixe" - meaning, a fixed idea, a rigid belief that
something is one way or another.
The sooner people get rid of such ideas, the better. The Idea Emporium
is not a place to set out rock-hard beliefs and stone people with them,
hurling them like missiles at all and any that come within striking range.
That is not The Idea Emporium.
The Idea Emporium - a place to present
and explore ideas - for now my ideas.
That does not mean the idea need
to be timidly set forth, all hemming and hawing, tentative even when the
evidence is strong.
The Idea Emporium – the goal
is smart opinions, critical thought, perception, good analysis.
The Idea Emporium. Smart opinions
- meaning, drawing on every resource possible, rather than "it's
my opinion, that's why I believe it, and it's as good as yours any day.
Who are you to say blacks can do math, women can learn to read, Jews deserve
to live. I have every right to my opinion." Personally, I'd rather
do my best to think well, but many others are clearly proud of their avowed
right to be thoughtless.
That's not The Idea Emporium.
The Idea Emporium. Critical thought
- that means we do our best to think well, to apply logic, information,
all our capacities.
The Idea Emporium. Good analysis.
Again, that means we try to ensure that we use valid arguments - not,
"because it's my opinion," "because I say so" "because
I know that's right" "because my god says so" "because
everyone knows that's right" . We both draw conclusions from evidence
(so there may be evidence showing patterns and tendencies in certain groups
(for instance, I've done lots of research on the impact of rights movements
on those who get involved, and have found lots of evidence for patterns
of response) - and at the same time we are careful not to generalize,
to draw conclusions beyond what we have evidence for, and even contradicting
the evidence ("Women are ..." "Muslims believe ..."
"everyone this happens to ..." "Jews are..." "Gays
are ..."
The Idea Emporium. Perception. Not
easy to perceive. We each do it through a filter of experience, memory,
assumptions, and so on. We have all learned not to perceive many things
- denial - and to magnify other things. The goal at The Idea Emporium
(and this should be the goal everywhere) is to be as perceptive - taking
in as much information - as possible.
The Idea Emporium. i could go on
and on. But this is enough for a start. More important now to put it into
action - because it's ideas came first, surging inside me, wanting to
find a place to be heard.
I'm (among other things) a college
teacher, so my teaching gives me one outlet for my ideas, to express them,
modify them, listen to other ideas, test the evidence, the power (or lack
thereof) of different arguments.
But that hasn't been enough for
me. One small class at a time.
I have a sense that I have some
ideas that could be valuable to many people - ideas many people don't
have (many have very different ideas), ideas where my ideas may help other
people struggling with some of the same concerns, and so on. I think these
ideas could help make some kind of positive difference in the world, reach
people who are reachable, maybe even break through some shells many people
live inside, shells that stop them from perceiving things.
There will be space for the ideas
of others as well. Right now I am starting with a few ideas of mine. But
I envisage that The Idea Emporium is a place that will grow, enriching
both others and also myself - that I and my ideas will grow from some
of what comes back.
Elsa
thinking pro
copyright © Elsa Schieder 2009, 2011 - all rights reserved
publishing house - FlufferDuff Impressions 2009, 2011
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