Mar 15, 2022·edited Mar 15, 2022Liked by Mike Sowden
I already took ibuprofen today so I'm good.
Love this crux-of-argument line: "We can learn to empathise with & understand wrong conclusions without flinging judgement and shame at them - including our own, when we discover them."
Several months ago I ran into an acquaintance at the playground. Our kids had gone to preschool together so we left them to play while we caught up. Sadly, I found myself almost backing away as the acquaintance went from "switched schools because we're not down with the mask mandate" to "the moon landing was totally faked and it's really easy to prove" within under five minutes.
This wasn't an exchange I was equipped for that day (no ibuprofen on hand), but I got a little fascinated when he launched into "do you really believe that that sun [waving a hand at the sun, which was shining hard in a blue sky on a pleasant autumn day, which on its own is a miracle combination where we live] is ninety million miles away?" And it was so fun to say, "Uh, yes," and explain that I'd done my capstone project as a mathematics undergrad on Newton's Principia, and what a difference it makes to trace the steps of our modern understanding of forces of gravity and having to do the calculations/deductions of the inverse relationship between distance/mass and gravity.
I've been a big believer in embodied learning for a long time -- especially the idea that experiment and doing stuff with your hands can give kids and adults a much better and more accessible understanding of science than book learning. The pandemic years have dented that belief a bit (listening to people I think of as very intelligent but also very grounded in a physical understanding of the world go all "the virus doesn't exist" really early on), but fundamentally it remains. Somehow, that exchange made me relax a little because I thought, you know, he's on his own journey of learning and understanding and maybe we'll never end up at the same place but in a way he's still in the same realm of trying to comprehend the world around him.
(Also dented a bit by "as long as he doesn't hurt anyone," while knowing that in some ways that's quite possible, but in any case your Burke journey here reminded me of that day. Also, add Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" to the Gothic list! The entire book is a piss-take of the kind of helpless-girl-in-remote-castle books that were popular at the time.)
“But when you realise that no matter what age of history you’re talking about, everyone was, on average, just as smart as they are today...” Weird but true!
For mine, one of the great aspects of science is that science as a verb (and much like weather forecasting, another topic close to my heartbrain) is n’er really right or wrong…. Rather I’d offer that it is more or less accurate (as a storied description of the reality we find our selves in). Which I find helps alleviate a LOT of that angst about being Right or Wrong and especially when you find yourself in the uncomfortable yet practically applicable in-between of right or wrong. Like your aforementioned example of quantum mechanics “vs” Newtonian mechanics. Both right and both wrong depending on the context, application, viewing scale etc…
I guess much like time or history or our self, our perception of these can lead us to think of them as linear (esp. in our linear "cause-effect" focussed current prevalent culture), and therefore they're also progressive with, naturally, our current selves as the Best Self (yet)… and I think, myself included, that that it is very difficult to embrace - that maybe I was a better person yesterday, or three years ago than I am now. Easier to do away with these notions/versions of a Self altogether I’d say BUT that’s a musing too long for a reply comment here :) The irony here is that by being a Best Self (yet), by your own premise/paradigm you are already admitting you are not The Best Self (definitive/possible), just better than your before self. How did you phrase it? Looking down through your boots at history/those gone previously? Bit like saying I'm a Good Person because I'm clearly not as Bad as That Person. Phew. No personal work needed here. Great!
As a closer, it also seems to me that reading and re-reading Classics that we might otherwise consider irrelevant is akin to exposing oneself to cultures (or paradigms, or ways of thinking etc) other than the one you’re born into or currently know - it really, really helps you to remember we are but a fish in water, and there’s not just different kinds of fish, there’s other kinds of water too! (And places with life without fish or water… Best Self Ego be like: “whaaaaaat?!?”)
I've always fancied myself as a guy who can read something once and have a sense of it. The second pass solifies what I think I read. This one required three passes. There may be ibuprofen in my near future. I love your writing and the connections you make.
Newton is one of my heroes. He managed to explain the world when only one of the four fundamental forces of nature was LOOSELY understood. Even that required him to ponder and go back to the drawing board and invent calculus so he could explain it to everyone else. I think because he gave us the world of calculus, limits, derivatives and integration, he created the language where the rest of the world could be unlocked. All while not considering the other three fundamental forces (first principles of nature). The makings of a hero.
I already took ibuprofen today so I'm good.
Love this crux-of-argument line: "We can learn to empathise with & understand wrong conclusions without flinging judgement and shame at them - including our own, when we discover them."
Several months ago I ran into an acquaintance at the playground. Our kids had gone to preschool together so we left them to play while we caught up. Sadly, I found myself almost backing away as the acquaintance went from "switched schools because we're not down with the mask mandate" to "the moon landing was totally faked and it's really easy to prove" within under five minutes.
This wasn't an exchange I was equipped for that day (no ibuprofen on hand), but I got a little fascinated when he launched into "do you really believe that that sun [waving a hand at the sun, which was shining hard in a blue sky on a pleasant autumn day, which on its own is a miracle combination where we live] is ninety million miles away?" And it was so fun to say, "Uh, yes," and explain that I'd done my capstone project as a mathematics undergrad on Newton's Principia, and what a difference it makes to trace the steps of our modern understanding of forces of gravity and having to do the calculations/deductions of the inverse relationship between distance/mass and gravity.
I've been a big believer in embodied learning for a long time -- especially the idea that experiment and doing stuff with your hands can give kids and adults a much better and more accessible understanding of science than book learning. The pandemic years have dented that belief a bit (listening to people I think of as very intelligent but also very grounded in a physical understanding of the world go all "the virus doesn't exist" really early on), but fundamentally it remains. Somehow, that exchange made me relax a little because I thought, you know, he's on his own journey of learning and understanding and maybe we'll never end up at the same place but in a way he's still in the same realm of trying to comprehend the world around him.
(Also dented a bit by "as long as he doesn't hurt anyone," while knowing that in some ways that's quite possible, but in any case your Burke journey here reminded me of that day. Also, add Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" to the Gothic list! The entire book is a piss-take of the kind of helpless-girl-in-remote-castle books that were popular at the time.)
Excellent read. Now, I need ibuprofen. Lol
Excellent piece here! Thanks.
This is really great Burke
“But when you realise that no matter what age of history you’re talking about, everyone was, on average, just as smart as they are today...” Weird but true!
Thanks Mike for a great think-seed here :)
For mine, one of the great aspects of science is that science as a verb (and much like weather forecasting, another topic close to my heartbrain) is n’er really right or wrong…. Rather I’d offer that it is more or less accurate (as a storied description of the reality we find our selves in). Which I find helps alleviate a LOT of that angst about being Right or Wrong and especially when you find yourself in the uncomfortable yet practically applicable in-between of right or wrong. Like your aforementioned example of quantum mechanics “vs” Newtonian mechanics. Both right and both wrong depending on the context, application, viewing scale etc…
I guess much like time or history or our self, our perception of these can lead us to think of them as linear (esp. in our linear "cause-effect" focussed current prevalent culture), and therefore they're also progressive with, naturally, our current selves as the Best Self (yet)… and I think, myself included, that that it is very difficult to embrace - that maybe I was a better person yesterday, or three years ago than I am now. Easier to do away with these notions/versions of a Self altogether I’d say BUT that’s a musing too long for a reply comment here :) The irony here is that by being a Best Self (yet), by your own premise/paradigm you are already admitting you are not The Best Self (definitive/possible), just better than your before self. How did you phrase it? Looking down through your boots at history/those gone previously? Bit like saying I'm a Good Person because I'm clearly not as Bad as That Person. Phew. No personal work needed here. Great!
As a closer, it also seems to me that reading and re-reading Classics that we might otherwise consider irrelevant is akin to exposing oneself to cultures (or paradigms, or ways of thinking etc) other than the one you’re born into or currently know - it really, really helps you to remember we are but a fish in water, and there’s not just different kinds of fish, there’s other kinds of water too! (And places with life without fish or water… Best Self Ego be like: “whaaaaaat?!?”)
Best of the co-confusion to yee! :)
J
I've always fancied myself as a guy who can read something once and have a sense of it. The second pass solifies what I think I read. This one required three passes. There may be ibuprofen in my near future. I love your writing and the connections you make.
Newton is one of my heroes. He managed to explain the world when only one of the four fundamental forces of nature was LOOSELY understood. Even that required him to ponder and go back to the drawing board and invent calculus so he could explain it to everyone else. I think because he gave us the world of calculus, limits, derivatives and integration, he created the language where the rest of the world could be unlocked. All while not considering the other three fundamental forces (first principles of nature). The makings of a hero.
Mike, this was fantastic! You’ve given me a lot of food for thought for my own articles on mental illness in ancient civilisations! Thank you!