Over the last month or so I have been thinking a lot about thinking.
That might sound comical but turned out to be incredibly fun. I believe every human inherently loves thinking, which is the underlying belief of this blog. Thinking is the essence of the human experience. But to get back to the point, when I say thinking about thinking I mean thinking about why, how, and what I am thinking and what I can conclude from that.
What portions of my thinking are done by my subconsciousness? How much of my thinking is actually conscious?
I have endeavored to be as conscious as possible over those last few weeks, which has offered surprisingly drastic improvements in all aspects of my life. I did so by struggling to grab thoughts that popped up in my subconsciousness with all my mental energy and dragging them into my consciousness. This has certainly offered some insight into the workings of my neocortex, which consequently led me to the following inquiries.
Does my I think or does thinking just happen? Is it something I actively do or is the fact that I have control over it an illusion?
I have come to conclude that it is a profound interplay between the two. My subconsciousness controls large portions of my thoughts, and that kind of thinking “just happens”. More specifically, I have come to conclude that most original thought construction is done by my subconsciousness. But what amazes me is that when I channeled my mental energy in the manner I elucidated above, those thoughts became entirely conscious… This usually resulted in the most fun, interesting, and introspective kind of thinking. It resulted in the most fun, interesting, and introspective kind of thinking because it let my I consciously ponder about what occupied my subconsciousness, which can be argued to be the most profound part of me.
One of the questions that originated from my subconsciousness and I dragged into my consciousness was what Descartes really meant when he said "cogito ergo sum" (usually translated to “I think, therefore I am”). I believe that contrary to seemingly popular belief, he did not mean that because he thinks he knows the experience he is having to be real, or that because he thinks he is here. I believe all he concluded is that because he thinks he can know that I exists. This raises the question of who or what is I? To that, Descartes did not seem to have a sufficient explanation, at least in my eyes. I haven’t arrived at a rational conclusion either, but I will not give up until I do so. I have faith in my neocortex to come up with a rationale in the future, hopefully the near future.
Lots of good questions, so good in fact that many people, much like René, have spend a lifetime thinking about them to seemingly no avail. Might that be my fate as well? Only time will tell.
This led me to another inquiry: Is there such a thing as truth?
It is rather obvious after all that most of our thinking, first and foremost in Academia, is spent seeking truth. But what is truth? Is there such a thing as absolute truth?
I concluded that one could make a pretty good case that the journey is the destination here, that the act of seeking truth is all there ever will be, with no final destination, no absolute truth to discover.
After all, since the human experience is entirely and inherently subjective, can there be an objective truth? And if there is, would we as subjective entities ever be able to discover it?
Can the field of mathematics offer absolute truth? 1+1=2. If we take two single M&Ms, we will always have two, so is that an example of an absolute truth? Given that a subject has to experience it in order to verify that truth, does that contest the absolute and objective nature of that very truth?
What an exhilarating thought the concept of absolute and objective truth is… In fact, isn’t that the promise of every religion? One big, beautiful, sparkling truth?
That led yet to another question: Is religion pointless after all?
Hm, lets think. ;)
Stay tuned folks.
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