Difference between “Philosophy” and “Thoughts”

Before I start rambling about this topic, I wanna give a short explanation, why this post is classified as philosophy and what the difference is between the category philosophy and thoughts. Most of what I classify as thoughts has a philosophical connection and is somehow based on philosophical considerations. However, what I classify as a thought is something that has a real world application and does not require an elevated level of abstraction - you’ll see what I mean by that shortly. Philosophy is more fun and experimental and in a sense less applicable and reliable - again, that’s just how I evaluate these words. But now to the real topic before all the philosophy people run me over with their hypothetical truck.

Why do people think the earth is flat?

Because the earth is flat! Really, it is! Look at all the proof that is out there!!!! NASA is lying to you!!!
No, but seriously. The only way that people can believe anything is if it fits into their world view/ideology. This does not go for all people but for now we will assume a simple mind. Let’s assume this simple mind chooses what to believe is quite easy. Whenever it is confronted with multiple options - in this case the earth being round or the earth being flat (or the earth being a cube) - it will choose the option that fits better into their world view. After all - why not? It’s quite convenient, isn’t it? I like to imagine this process as choosing between a certain amount of doors - simply because I find the imagination so amusing. The simple mind chooses whichever door is closest. Most people are not simple minds but they are very close to it.

Taking a path

Every door we take to get to the next level changes the location of the doors that we will encounter next - if you always take the left door, then eventually a door that is in reality at the central location that you started at, will be very far to the right. This is just a simplification and it’s really not supposed to be symbolic for political opinions. I just want to show that the main reason why people believe that the earth is flat is that the corresponing door is closer to their path than the door that corresponds to the earth being round.

Revisiting doors

When taking our path through the various doors, eventually we will encounter doors that we have already seen. Most of the time, however, these doors are at a different location relative to us. The main reasons for this are new information and a changed world view. In general, this is not an inconvenience. People change and so do their beliefs.

Detecting bad paths

So far we have only really looked at this whole thing quite objectively. But how do we know if our world view is inconsistent or questionable and thus our path bad? Well, there are two ways to objectively evaluate the consistency of our path. The first one is to revisit the same doors over and over again and to see if we take the same doors or if the doors that we previously took are still in reach. If they seem very far or we choose a different door depending on the doors we chose just before then the world view might be inconsistent. Another way of detecting an inconsistent world view is by checking for the amount of reachable doors we have for each iteration. If there is usually only one or two doors that are realistically reachable then our world view might be very restrictive and not flexible enough. This usually indicates that we are on a path very far away on the others and should try to get back again.

Recognizing a good path

Of course we can recognize a good path by applying the methods to detect bad paths. It is also very important to be as neutral as possible when evaluating the location of the doors. All of this is a thought experiment and it only works if we are honest to ourselves. Whenever the location of a door that we have already passed changes, we want to ask ourselves why and find a satisfying answer.

Alright, enough

I’m working on a short story that I might post soon, I need to improve my writing. Cy@