from Bemsha Swing (Jonathan Mayhew)

Tuesday, December 02, 2003
"The poverty of introspection: It is not that the results are not "rich" and rewarding on their own terms. Only that they are, on the whole, illusory. We don't really know how we actually think. We cannot solve this problem by merely observing our own thought processes."

posted by Jonathan Mayhew at 6:22 AM


This is like visualizing introspection
as a house without windows.
Introspection is the
essence of thinking,
one of the few pathways
to insight.

Insight results from the
alternation of looking
without and
searching within.
"I searched out myself."
-Heraclitus

A computer thinks
without introspection;
it follows orders.
People think with introspection.
Without introspection, no empathy.
Without empathy,
no transcending one's
own presuppositions.
Without transcending
one's own presuppositions,
endless assumptions
based on received information,
beliefs and points
of view.
Without introspection,
a person is incapacitated
in thinking for themselves.
Without introspection
no antenna for self-deception.

"That doesn't sound right
or feel right to me"
is the beginning of introspection.
When a person asks
of themselves
"Who is this person
who thought that way?
How could I have
said such and so,
how did I
come to such a
conclusion?"
the process of clear
understanding
has begun.