The second last paragraph under the “Ideas” topic has given me a lot of clarity towards the solution to a problem that I have had for quite a while. You say that this point that ideas are interpreted in a context has caused a lot of confusion for philosophers. You are talking about the objective subjective debate here right?
My opinion of this article is that it’s good and challenging. I feel like I had to think hard, in an enjoyable way, while reading it.
Recombining and rewording parts of this article:
- Every action requires decisions which requires thinking.
- Getting good ideas requires thinking of ideas and judging ideas.
- Judging ideas means finding ideas with errors and discarding those ideas.
- Reason is the method of choosing between ideas.
- The best ways to think use error correction.
- Error correction gets better ideas but not final truth.
- There are always more errors to find or more improvements to be made.
I think I ran into some general confusion and questions in the Ideas section.
Questions about the Ideas section:
- How do you delineate between problems and context? Aren’t problems part of context? Isn’t everything part of context for that matter? If the parts of context not relevant to the problem are to be excluded, then why isn’t that context just part of the problem?
- I think I’m a bit hazy on the idea of a problem. Should I think of problems as wants? As in, problems are questions I want answers to, or changes I want to my life context. Is that general enough to encompass all problems? Is that too general a way to describe problems? What would be a better, more specific definition, or way to conceptualize, problems?
For a single problem and a single context, there’s a single truth of the matter about the best solution.
Doesn’t the idea of breakpoints in solving problems elminate the idea of the “best solution”? Won’t there be infinitely many solutions to a single problem and a single context? All the solutions will be equivalent in binary terms of success or failure at solving the problem.
Or is this quote referring to the idea reality is objective and exact, so there’s only way for things to be? So, the quote means that there is an exact truth, even though we can never know it because we would have to know everything and specify all details about the universe.
The single truth may be like “pick any one from this set of equally good solutions and do that”.
The reason indirect solutions work – the reason it can be OK to change the problem – is because you figure out that there’s a difference between the stated problem and the problem you actually have in your life.
That’s good to know. You don’t have to stick with the same problem. You can find one that better suits your situation.
Good solutions typically explain how and why they work, and address potential objections and doubts.
That’s cool that they explain why and how they work. That means that good solutions have ideas that you can correct or focus on if you have another problem.
To provide a different perspective, instead of solving problems you can think about accomplishing goals or achieving purposes .
Oh ok somehow I didn’t connect the three. I’m used to seeing problem solving being its own category that it’s hard to describe it in other words.
A context is a situation , like your life in general, your location, and your available resources.
Context looks like the facts of your life.
I think i see why context is a situation cuz what if you’re talking about something impersonal. That’ll have a context too.
Your context includes facts about issues like: What are your moral values? How tall are you? Do you have a car, and where is it, and how long would it take to start driving it?
Oh there you go “facts about issues”. I didn’t see the first sentence of this quote the first time i read this.
Consider the problem, “What’s the best way for you to get to McDonalds today?” The answer depends on the context, such as your location, the weather, whether you have a car, your transportation budget, the time of day, the hours that various McDonalds stores are open, and your preferences (do you enjoy walking?).
Learning about your context seems like a very useful skill. Cuz like what are we using to improve our situation? Why are we doing it?