Do you mind being incorrect?: Philosophy Forums

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Do you mind being incorrect?

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Do you mind being incorrect?

Vague Abstraction
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Posted 06/21/09 - 02:25 PM: Subject: Do you mind being incorrect?	#1
I hate being incorrect. That's the truth. I've tried getting exited about learning what is correct. I've tried telling myself that it really doesn't matter. I've tried reasoning that everybody is wrong sometimes, and worrying about makes no sense. It's all a lie. On the inside, it sucks. How do you feel when you're wrong? No need to lie.

Apathy Kills
Decaying Organic Matter

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Posted 06/21/09 - 03:10 PM:	#2
Sure, the sting of error and falsity does suck. But, think of the alternative, what if the particular thing which you were wrong about was not, in actuality, corrected. What if, in an alternative situation, instead of being corrected there was no opportunity to learn/realize the contrary and you remained the way you were before. I find it a worse scenario to stay in a state of ignorance, with less of a possibility to realize one's errors, than to have the chance to expand my knowledge base (it, of course, takes a profound effect on one's own humility - but we all need that at some point or other). I've shared my ideas on these forums from time to time. A lot of them have been shot-down and justifiably so. Sometimes it takes other people to "guide" you through a particular angle that you have not thought of before and probably would not have discovered on your own. I have always found some solace in the Stoics' philosophy. "What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things."... Upon realizing that when others opinions and thoughts are beyond our control, then it is foolish to let those things, that which we cannot control, control us. To some extent, I enjoy the criticisms and the opposition embodied in the contention of clashing positions. I don't think I could fathom a world truly devoid of conflict in opinions.
"Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire..." Nietzsche

Legion
Graduate

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Posted 06/21/09 - 04:31 PM:	#3
I actually enjoy it when someone else can correct me. It’s an opportunity for learning. But of course I think some people correct others gracefully while some people do it with contempt. And I really, seriously, deeply resent being corrected contemptuously. There’s no need for it in my opinion. We were all born intelligent but ignorant.
We sense. We reason. We predict. We don't always get those right.

unenlightened
everything is...

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Posted 06/22/09 - 03:21 AM:	#4
Vague Abstraction wrote: I hate being incorrect. I am not my thoughts. My thoughts are often incorrect, and I prefer them to be correct. But whenever I find my thoughts to be incorrect, I change my thoughts quite naturally and without effort. So although my thoughts have often been incorrect, I never think that they are. "I", though, how could that be incorrect? Only by hating, I suspect.
...most of our actions are the result of the past, or according to a future ideal. That's not action, that is just conformity. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

coriolis
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Posted 06/22/09 - 08:34 AM:	#5
According to my teenagers, I'm incorrect a lot. I think that teenagers are the most contemptuous of all. However, if handled with some finesse, and actually listening, but not preaching, it can be turned into a fertile opportunity to guide them into their own self-examination.
I have a love affair with Socrates but I only know him in a Platonic way.

Deus.Ex.DaRe
Initiate

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Posted 06/22/09 - 09:28 AM:	#6
It depends. If I think it's 3:00PM and it's really 4:00PM, I don't get upset. If I get a simple math problem wrong, or am wrong about who wrote a certain book, I do get upset. I'm not upset with the person or whatever that corrected me, but with myself for allowing myself to be wrong at all. Of course, this is quite silly because being human means being at least capable of being wrong. So, yes, I do get upset sometimes, but mostly at myself, and this too is something I should strive to get past. @unenlightened If you are not your thoughts, what are you and how do you know? It just seems Descartes was on to something when he said we can know our own minds better than anything else, and in fact, all else can be doubted (but I could be wrong).

Tobias
Metaphysical exorcist

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Posted 06/23/09 - 11:39 AM:	#7
The severety depends on what about, but in the end it is always annoying to be incorrect. It means you need to readjust your assessment of things which may be problematic, because your current course of action is based on your earlier and wrong assessment. It is ike finding out you need to rebuild that nice cazebo you placed in the garden. The relaitionsip between I and my thoughts has been one of the precious philosophical puzzles. My take on it is this. Every thought that I have or perceive I have, is my thought. I don't know myself in any other way than through my assessment. Pain or the feeling one hit ones head, may be immediate, but when I realise what happened it is perception again and hence thought. I don't think the two can be seperated. So that would agree with Deus ex. Yet I also know I am more than my thpughts. I know I am a body and while I can again never dislocate this body from my body, it is categorically different from my thoughts. Furthermore I know that when I would be devoid of my senses and not thinking, I would still be me if at a later point I started thinking and perceiving again. So my thought/perception/judgement, indicates I am not my thought. Or schematically, my thought divides myself in my body and my thought. Thought and body are identical and dfferent Edited by Tobias on 06/23/09 - 11:47 AM
"The Power of Kant compels you" "The Power of Kant compels you" "The Power of Kant compels you"

TempletonEsquire
Irrationally Biased

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Posted 06/25/09 - 05:22 PM:	#8
I actually enjoy the tenseness and suspense of being incorrect as long as it is over pithy enough things. Being incorrect over something truly important to health and survival is just tragic and not enjoyful. Yet there are gray areas of how things will affect your life, and in those areas being incorrect can add enough excitement that I am willing to experiment with. I find I learn the most when I express incorrectness, versus what is easily known to be correct. Yet it can backfire when someone with an objective truth disorder tries to get personal.

unenlightened
everything is...

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Posted 06/25/09 - 06:06 PM:	#9
Deus.Ex.DaRe wrote: @unenlightened If you are not your thoughts, what are you and how do you know? It just seems Descartes was on to something when he said we can know our own minds better than anything else, and in fact, all else can be doubted (but I could be wrong). If I think, say, "DEDR is wrong", I am not that thought. If I think, "I am unenlightened", I am not that thought either. I think things and maybe know things, but I am neither the thoughts nor the things. What am I? I offer you these thoughts, but not what I am; I cannot say; I can only say what I think, not what I am. Did Descartes think he was a thought? Isherwood thought he was a camera; that seems closer, but even that is only an image.
...most of our actions are the result of the past, or according to a future ideal. That's not action, that is just conformity. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

Ico
私たちは一緒に死ぬよ。

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Posted 06/29/09 - 02:05 PM:	#10
I would always prefer to know the truth, and while yes, it does frustrate me sometimes to learn that I have been believing something false for a period of time, I usually end up examining it myself until I can get to the truth and adjust myself accordingly.
...the Bible (nor any 'holy' book) should not have a favored place in our human exploration of what is true about our world ~Ellory Schempp (Abington vs. Schempp)

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