What breed of doggie is your favorite?
Speaking of doggies, what’s the best treat to give them?
Do you do a lot of introspection, and do you trust the results?
Paul’s Daily Three for September 20, 2018
Who is the worst thinker you personally know?
How old is the oldest thing in your wardrobe, and does it have sentimental value to you? Do you still wear it?
Which do you prefer: Cake or pie? Which kind of cake or pie is your favorite?
How Do We Know Unconditional Love Exists?
SUMMARY: I attempt to answer three questions about unconditional love including how we know it exists.
(About a 5 minute read)
We humans are a strange animal. For one thing, we seem to be, in about equal measures, a social species and an individualistic species.
Put differently, we have contradictory needs. On the one hand, we feel an emotional need for companionship and to get along with each other. On the other hand, we feel just as much of an emotional need for independence and not to be bothered by each other.
Perhaps because we are a social species, we often feel a need for people to share our beliefs, and perhaps because we are an individualistic species, we often resent it when others try to make us believe as they do.
Continue reading “How Do We Know Unconditional Love Exists?”
Paul’s Daily Three for September 19, 2018
Roughly how many miles are there between you and your best internet friend?
Who is the easiest going person in your life?
Did you ever play with fire and it get out of hand?
Paul’s Daily Three for September 18, 2018
What was something very important to you that you eventually realized you were wrong about?
What was something very important to you that you had an “Ah hah!” moment when you realized you were even more right about it than you had suspected?
Who is the most intellectually honest person you personally know?
How Young is Too Young to Love?
SUMMARY: I discuss two separate questions. First, how old must someone be to feel love? Second, how mature should someone be to handle love? I address the first question — which is a factual question — through science. I address the second question — which is a matter of opinion or judgement — through five measures or standards for maturity.
(About a 12 minute read)
After I had reached puberty, a number of adults — including my mother and some of my teachers — cautioned me and others my age that we were “too young to love”. No explanation was ever given for why we were too young for romantic love. It was just so. Lucky for me, I bought into the idea.
I say I was lucky because during high school I became deeply infatuated with a girl in my class. Had I not bought into the notion I was too young to love, I might have fancied myself in love with her — which would not only have been factually untrue, but I can only image the trouble it would have caused me at the time to think I was in love with her.
Yet, the question of whether I was too young to love is ambiguous. It can be interpreted in at least two ways. First, was I too young to feel love (had I actually felt it)? Second, was I too young to cope with love?
Thinking in Absolutes vs. Thinking in Probabilities
SUMMARY: There seem to be two basic ways of thinking. That is, thinking in absolutist terms or thinking in probabilistic terms. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps wisdom consists in knowing when to use one or the other.
(About a 5 minute read)
When I became a fire fighter, I had to change some deeply ingrained ways of thinking. For instance, growing up, I had thought largely in terms of absolutes. Something either was or it was not the case. My teachers were either good or they were bad. An idea was either true or it was false. A classmate was either nice or he or she was not.
Yet, few things are absolutely certain in a fire, and absolutely counting on something is a good way to get yourself — or your fellow fire fighters — injured or killed. In fact, fire fighting requires realism perhaps more than anything else — including courage. And realism often enough boils down to thinking in terms of the odds something will or will not happen.
That is, realism requires you to largely think in terms of probabilities. The man in front of you on the hose line is not going to advance. He is likely to advance. The nine foot high wall of flames in front of you is not going to be knocked down by your stream of water. It might be knocked down. The room is not safe to enter. It is possibly safe.
Continue reading “Thinking in Absolutes vs. Thinking in Probabilities”
