Zen, Science, and a Challenge.

How can we acquire an unmediated experience of the world, when the being that experiences is, in itself, mediated and constructed?

Zen teaches that the means to this end is to reduce desire, and seek Nirvana, the "blowing out" of certain portions of the self. I've already put up a fun little broken koan about this, linked at the top of the blog (if you haven't read that, go on).

The scientific method aims to refine terms and conceptions, self-correcting through review and comparison with basic information, to build discourses that run parallel to reality. Effectively, this means rebuilding your thinking to match the reality around you. It also means acquiring a huge load of language and expertise for each topic you want to "get".

A few times, I've mentioned the need for better 'folk science' - the need to spread basic rules of judgment that need no special language, but contain a basic, rule-of-thumb reflection of reality. I believe that it's more useful to spread good guidelines than it is to attack misperceptions.

So here's my challenge to you...



The "One Simple Rule" Challenge

Think for a minute about fields of knowledge where you've got some real grip on things. It doesn't matter what field it is. It can be shelf-stocking in stores, the nature of ecosystems, the way that cartoons are made, the hard science of genetics.

Think of one thing that everyone tends to get wrong - a basic fact that is represented dead wrong in discussions, media, and the like. Again, this can be anything. Now, instead of only discussing what's wrong with that perception, try to come up with a one simple rule that expresses the real thing as well as the error.

This can be about wrong word use: "Evolution means this; it doesn't mean that." It can be about procedure "Real soldiers do this; they don't do that".

Post your rule somewhere. In the comments here, on your blog, journal, on facebook, wherever. Give me a link to it if it's outside the comments (again, here, or email me: levi.kornelsen@gmail.com ).

Share your corrections in basic thinking. Show us something you know.

I bloody well dare you.

11 comments:

  1. All right.

    Being a librarian does not mean you get to sit in a quiet room and read books all day, avoiding the world. It means talking to people who have poorly articulated needs, figuring out what they really want, and resolving them. It also means actively (or perhaps proactively) convincing them to come into the library in the first place. In short, being a librarian is customer service and is not a profession for those who are anti-social.

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  2. "You did not need to print that. You wanted to print that."

    James

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  3. "Learning is most effective as a social process. Not a solitary one."

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  4. Evolution is the change within and of species through time, there is no "final product".

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  5. From Facebooks....

    A hacker is a computer hobbyist who delights in the low-level details of how hardware and software work. People who mess with telecom systems are phreakers, while people who circumvent computer security are crackers.


    And....

    Knowing and believing are two COMPLETELY different concepts.

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  6. The absence of commentary does not denote the absence of opinion.

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  7. My response is elsewhere: https://tommibrander.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/nollan-parillisuus-parity-of-nil/

    (I also follow this blog.)

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  8. "the finding of absence is not the absence of finding" this relates to scientific pursuits.

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  9. Science beats every alternative. Those who disagree are living in denial.

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  10. When poststructuralists become crazy and incomprehensible, we're usually not discussing some sort of mysticism or understanding of the world that has no relation to reality - we're probably talking about linguistics.

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  11. Zen is a specific religion. Like all religions, it has dogma, faith, scriptures, sects, schisms, historical shames, and controversies. It is not a license for whatever hippy bullshit anyone might happen to like.

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