Hello Philosophy Society!

Discussion 1: Love of Wisdom

Philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom. Traditionally, philosophy originated from the anxiety of Greeks as an approach towards understanding that used reason as a primary means to make sense of things. Wisdom is a larger category than only using reason to understand and explain phenomena or asking questions. Wisdom also incorporates how one lives their life, hence Aristotle’s approach towards the good life or what he called ‘Eudaimonia.’

To live a good life is wise. This means that we have an approach towards our mental health and wellbeing. Cultivating habits, beliefs, principles and skills that increase our wellbeing, proactively help us manage our mental health and respond to any mental health issues we may have would be wise. Philosophy, therefore, cannot only include a rational approach towards living but also a practical element. This practical element is what the philosophy society is about.

The reason we study and practice the cognitive distortion skills from Feeling Good is because a large percentage of people who have read the book and learned to apply the lessons from it recovered from mental health issues like depression, anxiety, procrastination, and more. It is wise to learn these skills so that we develop tools to deal with our emotions. Much of human suffering comes from poorly managed emotions so it is wise, and hence philosophical to learn effective emotional management techniques.

Much of the wisdom in good living will come from psychology as an empirical science because it has shown or demonstrated what the effects of certain techniques are. This empirical approach is one where we learn to incorporate it within our lives and support each other as a social group. That is the function of the philosophy society as a social entity. Once wellbeing and mental health are understood and best practices are established as social norms within the philosophy society, its members will be in a position to most effectively philosophize about rational subjects. If wellbeing is not taken care of at the individual and social level, it will always depreciate the individual and groups capacity to philosophize in a rational format.

Your position gives you power. What is the sense in philosophizing or reasoning when action is apparent. It is not about intellectualizing the action you are supposed to do. It is about doing the action. This is psychological and part of the philosophical process.

Philosophy is a way of life. When you determine what actions to take, from your observations and reason, you must actually do the action. This is behaviour and in the realm of the science of psychology. Therefore, psychology as a science is necessarily part of the good life and philosophy.

To dissociate oneself as a disembodied reason-er is to delude oneself about the nature of what a human being is. A human being is an animal who has developed the capacity for abstract thought that has self-awareness and volition. You are not only a reasoner, you are a ‘behaver’ and actor. Assuming full, normal functioning cognitive capacity, you have self-awareness and can direct your actions based on observations of your environment. All of these factors are part of what it means to be human and hence philosophical. To disregard any of these properties is unwise and unphilosophical.

Philosophy Academy: Feeling Good

This week we began chapter 8, Ways of Defeating Guilt, pages 214 - 228

To increase our awareness of when we say ‘should,’ we can use our phone (wrist counter in Burn’s time) to count all the times we use the distortion. The more times we spot the ‘shoulds,’ he suggests we reward ourselves for that insight. (214-215)

Burn’s next approach is to understand why it is the case that we would use ‘should’ as a coercive standard because we don’t trust ourselves. There is an assumption that if we did not impose the ‘should’ standards on ourselves we would be immorally out of control. He asks us to think if there was a time in our lives when we were happy, felt in control and if we need to use should statements to be in control. It is very likely that we can remember a time where we were not using ‘should’ statements to be in control and we were happily having fun, proving that ‘should’ statements are unnecessary for self-control. To test this, he suggests we reduce our ‘should’ statements and see what happens to our mood and self-control. (Burns 215)

Another method is to set aside a time limit, 2 minutes, where we exhaust all the ‘shoulds’ and self-persecutions to ourselves. At this moment, we exercise all of the abusive self-criticisms that come to mind. We can record ourselves and listen to it later to see how absurd the statements are. If we limit the ‘shoulds’ to these scheduled moments, we can learn to inhibit them at all other times of the day, increasing our awareness and self-control. (Burns 215)

The next approach has to do with the limits of our knowledge. (Burns 215) Sometimes, people will reflect on their past and impose a ‘should’ statement about how things could have been otherwise. This is an example of hindsight bias, where after the event has occurred, things seem self-evident but in the moment there was no way we would've known. If we know the outcome of some action or event, we would incorporate that into our decision making process. We cannot predict the future with absolute certainty so it is unrealistic to condemn ourselves when things didn't turn out the way we wanted them to. Burns states,

We can also question the should statement itself by asking, “why should I?” whenever we catch the distortion. We are challenging the evidence of the statement and revealing the problem in logic behind it. (Burns 216) For example, if we are lacking in our skill of being assertive, we will often function on our habit of not being assertive. To say we should have acted differently would mean that we would be acting contrary to our habit. Unless we have developed a new habit, it is unrealistic for us to behave differently. Acknowledging that we make mistakes is part of having a realistic attitude towards being human. (Burns 217) Burns states,

3. Learn to Stick to Your Guns: People who feel guilty can be manipulated by others because of their desire to please everyone. They can be coerced into doing things that are not in their self-interest to avoid the feeling of guilt. (Burns 218) An obsession to please others can trap a person into feelings of guilt when they cannot fulfill the other’s expectations. Burns says,

We end up enabling unhealthy expectations of the other person and acting in a way that is not good for us.

Certain close relationships, like family, long term friendships and intimate partnerships, can have an element of expectations that reside from a guilt based motivation. The other person can coerce us into doing things for them because it is expected in the relationship, even though it actually is not necessary. These expectations can be in the form of an unhealthy, exploitative form of reciprocation where the person demands favours under the assumption that they would have done the same for you. (Burns 219)

Putting limits on our relationships so that they do not compromise our own self interest is best for all parties. Other people will develop a greater sense of independence if they are not dependent on you. If there has been an established enabling of unclear boundaries and exploitation, this is where the ‘sticking to your guns’ concept comes in. You will have to assert your boundaries to the other person because they are in the habit of getting what they want and are unfamiliar with this new way of doing things. Establishing boundaries in this regard, as challenging as it may be in the moment, is best for both of you in the long term. (Burns 221)

To increase our success ast articulating our boundaries in sensitive situations, we can practice by trying out with a friend who can give us feedback or writing down a practice dialogue as shown in the book. (Burns 222)

4. Anti-whiner Technique: Sometimes people can try to make us feel guilty, frustrated or helpless by whining, complaining or nagging. The person complaining tells you something, you respond with a desire to help, they disregard what you say and complain more. If you try to disengage from the conversation, they say you are abandoning them hence making you feel guilt. They essentially want you to sit there and listen to their complaining without helping them because they do not know how to deal with their own emotions or distorted thinking patterns. (Burns 222)

The solution Burns offers is to use the disarming technique by finding something to agree with then instead of offering advice, you say something complimentary. (Burns 222) The complainer will usually not find it interesting to continue because the other person keeps on agreeing with them. In some instances, when people complain, they just want the reassurance from another that what they are experiencing is real. When we acknowledge it, they feel heard and will stop complaining.

Trying to help people who complain can motivate them to complain more because, in offering help, there is an assumption they cannot solve the problem themselves and they can perceive helping as a form of criticism.

5. Moorey Moaner Method: Sometimes a person can have too much empathy and suffer, due to the personalization distortion, because of other people’s problems. If one feels overwhelmed with others always bringing their problems to them, they can find a way to agree with them, then distract them by identifying a positive part of what they are complaining about and focus on that. (Burns 224)

6. Developing Perspective: Personalization is one of the most common distortions that causes people to feel guilt. Personalization is the

In situations where another person tells us that their suffering is due to an interaction with us, it is important for us to determine a realistic sense of responsibility so that we do not feel guilty. Burns asks,

The ability to differentiate our responsibility is called ‘disattribution,’ which is basically having a healthy perspective on things. (Burns 225)

Buy the book here:

https://a.co/d/89LT1Jq

Read a brief summary of the book here:

https://www.achillesjustice.com/post/feeling-good

Burns, David. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Harper Publishing. New York, 1999. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Mass Market Paperback – Dec 30 2008

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