Hello Philosophy Society!

Discussion 1: Logical, Physical and Technological Possibility

We can evaluate the plausibility of an idea based on these three criteria. For something to be logically possible, it would not contradict Aristotle’s laws of thought which are:

The Law of Identity A = A

A is A

The Law of Non-Contradiction A =/ -A

No thing is both A and Not- A

The Law of the Excluded Middle A v -A

Everything is either A or Not- A

When we are evaluating how our thoughts are composed, it is important that we follow these laws so that we make sense. If a thought violates one of these laws of thought, then that thought is not possible. The laws of thought are based on how the concepts or categories of things hang together. Certain arrangements are valid whereas others are impossible modes of thought.

Physical possibility has to do with the physical state of the cosmos. Water being solid at room temperature after many days of exposure is not logically impossible, but it is physically impossible. That state of affairs goes against nature in our cosmological environment. The facts of nature, in contrast to the conceptual arrangement of ideas, determine if something is physically possible or not. A cow jumping over the moon does not violate logical possibility due to the concepts themselves but on our planet with the limitations of cows in space, it is physically impossible.

Technological possibility has to do with the limitations of humanities current technology. It may not be logically or physically impossible to travel to the moons of Jupiter, as in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it is technologically impossible right now. Technological possibility slowly changes over time as humanities technology improves.

It is important to have a sense of the different types of possibility when evaluating claims and evidence.

Philosophy Academy: Feeling Good

Today we finished chapter 3 of Feeling Good. The last part of this chapter is 10 practice problems where the reader gets a chance to apply the distortions listed on page 42. It is important to look at each statement specifically and systematically determine if that statement has any of the distortions.

When we are reading certain statements or observing our thoughts, there will be indicator words that can give us hints that a distortion may be present. It is not necessarily the case that every time we see an indicator word a distortion will be present but it is important to pay attention to these thoughts to make sure.

For example, the term ‘never’ can be an indicator word for all or nothing thinking. Here we can use our wisdom from the three forms of possibility, logical, physical and technological, to determine if never is distorted or realistic. If I am communicating about a past circumstance, like “I have never been to the moon,” this is a true and realistic use of the term never. But if I communicate a thought like “I was wrongly convicted and I will never see justice,” this thought is distorted. It is not true that someone who was wrongly convicted of a crime will never see justice. It is logically and physically possible and may hinge on the technology of our current justice system if it occurs. To develop this kind of attitude could easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy that demotivates and reduces a person’s efforts to find the necessary means to prove their innocence.

Another indicator word, ‘should,’ is one that we benefit from being mindful of. The distortion of ‘should statements’ impose unrealistic expectations on ourselves and others. If we do not meet those expectations, we can feel disappointed and frustrated with ourselves and others. We can also create anger due to the dissonance of having an expectation that was not fulfilled.

When we see the term ‘should’ we can easily swap out the term with the term ‘could.’ In this rendition of the same kind of thought, we loosen the grip of expectation as a necessary outcome to a possible outcome with us having the choice to do so. For example, ‘you should buy the car’ to ‘you could buy the car.’ The use of the term ‘could’ gives us the option to do so if we decide to, whereas ‘should’ has a normative judgment that if we do not choose the option, some negative consequences will result or there is something wrong with our decision making process.

Another phrase we can use instead of ‘should’ is ‘the best decision would be’ or ‘it appears it would be best to.’ In this rendition of the idea, we would contrast ‘you should pick up the money’ to ‘ it would be best for you to pick up the money.’ Even though it appears to be the best option, you still have a choice to take it or not, or communicate some third alternative that was unknown at the time of the statement being communicated.

The practice of regulating our thinking and thoughts is the core wisdom from the book Feeling Good. The method is simply to identify the automatic thought that comes from a negative emotion, determine what the distortion is from that thought and learn to replace the automatic thought with a rational response. The rational response is something that we would want to be in line with our well being. If the thought does not increase your well being, it would only be adding to an already existing negative circumstance. The thought about a negative circumstance can summarize its current state but can now lead you to the next position that increases your wellbeing. What is the purpose of thought if it is not helping you in some way? If our thoughts are making our lives worse, that is something we are in control of and that we can change.

Counseling Practice: Beliefs and Feelings

Post traumatic stress disorder can be very difficult to live with. I have been working with someone who has been suffering from some symptoms that fall in the range of PTSD and Borderline personality disorder. The situation is very difficult because the place they live has memories associated with near death experiences and violence. Giving up their home would be a great cost because their rent is low, the location is 5 minutes from work and they have enough space to live comfortably.

Some of the symptoms they deal with is recurrent nightmares that wake them up, an inability to process the memories that are triggered from living in the home, and intrusive negative thinking patterns of suicidal thoughts. These thinking patterns are networked in an unsound belief system that they have been developing for many years and is very difficult for them to break away from. To try and deal with these issues, they have learned to turn to alcohol to fall asleep. The problem is that under the influence of alcohol, they develop a psychotic state that is self-destructive and it becomes difficult to break away from the suicidal thinking.

The person decided to try to smoke an indica strain of marijuana to see how the effects would help with the negative thinking patterns and the sleep problems. They have had positive results from vaping flower based indica that have stopped the negative thinking patterns and allow them to fall asleep. To be clear, weed will not work for everyone for every problem. In this situation for this specific person it is making a difference. We have to learn what works for us and weigh the costs and benefits of our decisions. If someone is able to improve the quality of their lives without losing autonomy or damaging their body then that is a better option.

Using marijuana will not correct the cause of the symptoms that have developed but has given them the ability to function even though they carry the weight of the negative experiences. Through recommendations from the bridging program at CAMH, they were given the contact information for a psychologist that was affordable and have begun talking to them twice a week. Relationships with mental health workers take time to develop. The counselor has to learn who you are so that they can share the perspective and tools they have within the context you understand it. The information from a counselor is something that needs to be applicable to the person’s life which takes some time but worth the investment.

First, one needs to be connected to the mental health community so that they have access to experts who know the best practices within the specific domain of the problem the person is facing. Next, daily functioning like eating, sleeping, working etc is needed to be balanced. In this case the transition from alcohol to a small amount of vaporized indica marijuana has helped with this. Lastly, learning the wellbeing philosophy of mental health method will give the person the ability to deal with their first person experiences and process them in a healthy way.

We have been working on the nature of belief and feelings. All of our beliefs can be true or false and have some relationship with us and our environment. Beliefs can be understood as a disposition to behave, the belief will create a motivation in us towards some kind of action. Our beliefs can be evaluated in the context of objective principles or goals like wellbeing, growth and meaning and purpose. We can ask ourselves two questions:

1) What is the function of the belief?

2) What is the relationship between feeling and belief?

We can follow the principle that ‘Every belief is to be evaluated based on how it brings us closer to our objective or goal.’

My feeling is my subjective sense of things. For example, I feel my emotions which means I have the capacity to be mindful of my emotions without necessarily following them. Placing ‘feeling’ in this way categorically above emotions means that we can be mindful of our emotions without allowing our emotions to control us.

Our feelings can be understood by following some principles like ‘short term loss for a long term gain.’ This can be understood with the self-talk, ‘I will accept being uncomfortable now to gain greater overall wellbeing.’ When doing uncomfortable but important actions I have negative emotions towards, it is important to be mindful of those emotions, prepare resilience to contain those emotions, and contextualize them in a long term cost/benefit analysis. We evaluate our feelings based on our objective standard or goal.

Consulting the Optimizing Entrepreneur: Locus of Control, Google Forms for Efficiency

This week I helped out a friend who was struggling with finding time between work and their personal life. First we talked about their weekly schedule and how it is important to segregate time that isolates work from our own personal lives. If some job has more time required than can be completed in one day, we have to learn to set aside our work responsibilities so that we can take care of ourselves. If we do not, we can easily become unbalanced and many negative consequences can begin to arise like problems with our close relationships with our family or intimate partner and our self-love habits deteriorate from not exercising or regulating or stress.

They communicated how they feel a need to be present for these other people because the other people are in an immediate state of suffering. We first discussed boundaries, the locus of control and the personalization distortion. It is important that we determine what is in our control and develop boundaries, meaning not becoming upset about factors that are not in our control, so that we do not engage in the personalization distortion.

To expend effort and emotional energy on factors that are outside of our control, like the client did not accept the offer, is something that we only have some influence over. It is constructive to determine what that influence is but not become upset that someone else did not make the decision we wanted them to make. We can take time to understand their decision making process but ultimately, their decision is a function of them being an autonomous agent. If we are responsible for negotiating some deal, there are factors that we are responsible for like identifying the needs of both parties, making sure that both parties comprehend the needs of the other side and determining if the match is appropriate.

The best option in some deals is no deal. Compromising is not necessarily and both parties accepting some loss is not necessarily the best option. We want to look for win/win circumstances where everyone can build trust through transparency and the practice of honesty. As we develop healthy relationships, our reputation will demonstrate that whoever works with us gets the service of virtue. The outcome of a particular deal is not necessarily the most important factor for the way that we do business or relate with others is actually the means that will lead us to successful and long lasting deals.

First, one must create balance in their lives before they are able to facilitate deals with others. Helping others means that you have the capacity for awareness in yourself so that you can bring greater awareness to others. With the increased awareness, others are able to make more autonomous decisions because of the information that they did not have previously.

The individual I was helping was feeling unbalanced because of a sense of duty to their clients. The first step was to find a way to make some of their efforts automated or more efficient so that they would have more time for themselves and that the clients' needs would be met. They had a chat group where their team would post daily progress and they would read the updated progress of each client.

I simply created a google form template for two of their processes that could automate these processes, track the progress of each member and subordinate of the team, and give awareness to the team the current states of each client's file. This immediately met the needs of the clients and gave greater efficiency to the person I was helping by creating increased awareness to them and their team. Now they can simply check the progress of each form instead of having to read through the chat group everyday.

Next we planned on developing a website and an informed automated number to call so that clients who were in need would have access to the relevant information to their specific situation. This gives the person I am consulting the ability to feel that their clients have access to the information they require but also the freedom to step away from always being present to meet those needs.

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