Fortnightly Issue #5
Critical thinking, ancient Greece, and more
Hello, friends!
I must confess. I’m really bad at critical thinking.
Critical thinking
Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself rather smart and capable of studying things. I know how to be doubtful but that doesn’t happen in a systemic way. It’s notably hard for me to discern falsehoods in a consistent narrative. I’m easily led astray by red herrings and other fish. So I prefer to learn from widely accepted academic courses and textbooks: even if there are mistakes, they are almost by no means intentional.
It’s often troublesome for me to dissect an article and see it as a set of statements and arguments. My recent note-taking experience certainly nudged me to see information as if being represented as a graph. Chains of logical arguments correlate more with vertices and edges than linear narratives.
One more flaw I can brag about is, when I understand a complex idea, I usually find it difficult to describe it to other people in a clear and concise way.
But all this should impede me no more.
For I started taking steps toward a cognitive framework of my own, with checklists and strict processes regarding all incoming information. I shall employ all possible methods to achieve mental discipline of a very high standard. I will also be honing my presentation skills. And I will certainly report on my progress here.
Books
Not too long ago, I’ve read three books. Reading them wasn’t yet a part of the systemic approach I’m now aimed for but they certainly contributed a lot. Here they are:
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins;
Scale by Geoffrey B. West;
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
Only the last one’s central theme directly concerns the works of our mind but all of them are written in such a sharp intellectual manner that you cannot resist absorbing said manner when following the author’s thought.
Right now I’m reading a book that covers this specific topic, Critical Thinking by Tom Chatfield. So far — I’m now in the first half of it — it is brilliant and eloquent, with all the key ideas highlighted and proper questions asked from the reader. Some of those questions prompted me to ponder and write about critical thinking today, so I guess this alone is a tremendous contribution for which I’m thankful.
The notes on critical thinking and meta-learning are steadily accumulating in my Obsidian graph, and there will certainly be a dedicated post on those in the future.
And now, traditionally, let’s turn to more earthly matters!
Ancient Greece
Did you know that what we usually think of as ancient Greece was never one country with borders and all? Before Alexander the Great united it — along with many other lands — under what’s now called the Hellenistic World, multiple city-states comprised ancient Greece. You may know them under the word “polis” which also often bears a philosophical connotation.
Long before the poleis (that’s the plural form) came to be, the Minoans inhabited the island of Crete. Their language has not been deciphered. Here’s a photo of a tablet with the Linear A (that’s the name for the writing system) glyphs on it:
Another fun fact is that, for many years, historians thought that the Trojan war was a myth until the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered and excavated both Troy and Mycenae. The famous poet Homer who sang about that war might have been not one person but several people, and — that was the most shocking for me — his epic poems were recorded a couple hundred years after his death mostly because there was no written language at the time he was alive.
During the archaic Greece period, the poleis scattered from Spain to the eastern shores of the Black Sea, and from Northern Africa to the territory of modern Ukraine.
Many facts about ancient Greece were messed up in the mass culture, and I suggest you discover that fabled world in detail on your own.
Stray quotes
Sometimes, it is just impossible to withhold from quoting some wise words. Today’s quote belongs to Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the US:
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
You see, it even soundly resonates with the main topic of this post!
Recommendations
To listen well, get curious. To learn well, do the same. Reality has a surprising amount of detail, and this is something to firmly grasp and keep in mind. When we direct our attention to something, the complexity of the phenomenon unfolds, and we see much more than is accessible to a common quick glance.
The last thing I want to share with you today is this tweet by Grant Sanderson, where he lists his advice on problem-solving. It helps me a lot with my math studies.
It was a pleasure to write today for you, and I hope to meet you next time. Cheers!