I’ll be posting a series of my notes so you can get an idea of what I’m studying in Praxis. Module 4, which is month four of Praxis focuses on consuming content and critical thinking, rather than creating something every day.
Notes
The Work Required to Have an Opinion
- Be informed instead of just opinionated
- Before having an opinion, know the other side’s argument better than they do
- Continually learn or destroy ideas
You are Wrong
How so?
- You’re asking the wrong questions
- Your beliefs (scientific, religious, and so on)
- Thinking with emotions instead of logic
- Why you believe/feel them
- When and why you changed your mind
- The accuracy of your perceptions and self-evaluations
- The accuracy of memories
- Not admitting or knowing how wrong you are
- Not knowing yourself
Why Philosophers Make Formidable Entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneurs are philosophers in action
- Philosophy is more practical than you think
- Many successful tech entrepreneurs don’t even have a tech background
-Patrick Byrne, Overstock
-Josh Snyder, Treeline Labs
-Damon Horowitz, Aardvark
-Steve Jobs, Apple - Philosophers are planners
-They can organize the chaos of uncertainty in a startup and come up with a plan to execute - Philosophers are analytical
-They reduce business risk by looking at facts, figures, and logic instead of gut instinct - Philosophers love debate
-Entrepreneurs debate well in order to convince investors to raise money - Philosophers are not afraid of risk
-Both disciplines are in fields where there is a lot of uncertainty
-Must make their own opportunities to become successful
What is Philosophy?
- Literally means love of wisdom
- It’s the pursuit of truth, induction, logic, and wisdom
- Simple but complex question
-It’s vague and very open-ended
-Nobody has the right or wrong answer
-Difficult to define in one sitting
-But like art, you know it when you see it
-You realize what you don’t know and accept it
-Philosophy is the pursuit of curiosity and asking the right (thought invoking) questions - Critical thinking
-It’s a lot of reflection and humbleness
-The fact that you don’t know much but care to pursue the unknown or controversial ideas
-Ability to argue the opposing argument
-The awareness of how your own thinking works - Sensemaking
-Making sense of the world we live in
-Philosophy affects the way we think and problem-solve
-We see evidence of how different zeitgeist philosophy affected people’s outlook on life, i.e. anti-intellectualism, nihilism, postmodernism. - Presuppositions
-It is theoretical
-Use of logic and reasoning to reach conclusions, often these conclusions have no empirical (scientific) evidence
-It doesn’t stop at just the conclusion
-It’s a method of thinking - Philosophy and science are intertwined
-Sometimes science reaches a level of difficulty where empirical evidence can’t answer certain questions
-Like the abortion argument, ethics and moral philosophy steps in
-Sometimes data is misinterpreted - Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and other famous thinkers were able to develop their theories because of blending the empirical and conceptual
Hypothetical Thinking is Essential for Intellectual Clarity
- Young children in various stages of development will constantly ask questions
-Age two, “Why?”
-Age five, “What if…?”
-Age ten and on, “What about…?” - “What if our home catches on fire? What if our second home also catches on fire? And our third home?”
- It’s a method to prepare for the worst
- Posing highly unlikely situations, even ridiculous ones helps to anticipate the future
- Depends on the relevancy of the question which makes it not anti-intellectual or evasive
- For entrepreneurs, they need to consider all possibilities that can go wrong
-What if my seemingly harmless product kills someone?
-What if thieves steal everything from my business and home? What if the thieves were the government trying to confiscate my property?