- 4 days ago
In this episode, I examine inner monologues and their influence on thought and communication. We discuss varied experiences of having or lacking an inner voice, referencing insights from a CBC article. Personal anecdotes highlight how cognitive styles affect relationships and memory. Drawing on psychologist Russell Hurlburt's classifications of thought processes, I explore the benefits and drawbacks of inner dialogue. I conclude by encouraging listeners to reflect on their cognitive styles and their implications for reasoning and ethics.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hey, everybody, it's the family from Freedom Aid.
00:03So I put a tweet out a couple of weeks ago that seemed to go into some interest.
00:07I wanted to put some more details behind it of what it's like living without an inner monologue.
00:14And look, it's not a good or bad or plus or minus.
00:18It's just really, really important to embrace the diversity of human thought.
00:24So this is from CBC.
00:27Well, you know, they're taking my tax money.
00:29I might as well get the article out of it.
00:31So the article here starts,
00:34Hi there, are you hearing this sentence in your head right now?
00:36Well, I guess because I'm narrating it, you are.
00:38Is your inner critic voicing its thoughts on the sentence structure?
00:41Is it saying this is an odd start to a news story?
00:44The concept of an inner monologue, the term now commonly used to describe the voice in your head,
00:49recently sparked a flurry of discussion on social media.
00:52A tweet by a chiroplant emoji, blah, blah, blah, brought the topic into the forefront,
00:56informing the internet that not everyone has an inner monologue.
01:02And as when I posted it, and I first learned about this a couple of years ago,
01:07when I posted it, there's a certain amount of shock and horror.
01:10You know, for those of us who are ADHD, hyper-Hamlet types,
01:14constantly arguing and debating with ourselves and having to deal with a cacophony,
01:20a multiplicity of aspects of ourselves they call alter egos or alters.
01:24I call it the ecosystem, like I'm not just a me, I'm a me plus influential people I've met,
01:29what would Jesus do, and so on.
01:32So there's a lot that goes on.
01:34And for people who don't have these sort of inner voice or inner voices,
01:39it's a very different kind of life.
01:42Now, most of the people who follow what I do would have that sort of inner debate,
01:46inner dialogue, inner voice, because we're into philosophy, we're into self-knowledge,
01:52we're into self-criticism, and so on.
01:54And I mean, I write plays and novels, and I do role plays in call-in shows with listeners
01:59if there's a particular, say, family member who I need to get a sense of how they think.
02:03I'll ask that person to imitate their family member, I'll pretend to be them.
02:05So you can just sort of adopt these sort of other voices and other characteristics and so on.
02:09And you can't be a good novelist, of course, if you can't figure out how other people speak and think.
02:14So, I mean, there's pluses and minuses for sure.
02:16I mean, the plus is, I think, a more structured and self-critical form of thinking.
02:23The minuses is it's easy to get paralyzed with overthinking.
02:26So, again, strengths and weaknesses to both.
02:27All right.
02:30So this woman, sorry, this man, Kyle, wrote,
02:33Fun fact, some people have an internal narrative and some don't.
02:36As in, some people's thoughts are like sentences they hear,
02:39and some people just have abstract and non-verbal thoughts,
02:41have to consciously verbalize them.
02:43Most people aren't aware of the other type of person.
02:45There's a lot of self-sorting that goes on in society.
02:48And, you know, if you sit down with someone and they say,
02:52Oh, I woke up yesterday.
02:53I was really unmotivated.
02:54I had this stern talk with myself.
02:55I had a conversation with myself.
02:57I'm debating this internally.
02:58I have this inner conflict or whatever it is.
03:00Then you tend to be drawn to each other.
03:03Whereas the people who think in images and colors and instincts and gut sense,
03:07and again, I know this sounds like I'm trying to diminish.
03:09I'm not at all, but it's just a different way of thinking.
03:13Olivia Rivera, 22, said she figured out she doesn't have an internal monologue
03:17when her co-workers at a Regina,
03:19Regina is the city in Canada.
03:22They had an advertising slogan once,
03:26Regina, what rhymes with fun?
03:28Anyway, Regina Salon started talking about the viral debate.
03:31She said that until then,
03:31she didn't know that some people actually have a voice in their head
03:34that sounds like their own voice.
03:37She said,
03:37When I hear that other people have like a constant kind of dialogue
03:41and stream in their head,
03:43and that when they're doing a task,
03:45they'll just be thinking about things the entire time they're doing a task,
03:47it actually feels a little overwhelming.
03:49How do you deal with that?
03:50What does that feel like?
03:52You may have seen inner monologue portrayed in TV shows
03:55where a detective debriefs the situation via narration,
03:58or maybe you've seen the movie What Women Want,
04:00where Mel Gibson's character can read the minds of his female co-workers
04:02and romantic interests.
04:04Rivera said she first confronted with,
04:07that's interesting, I think that's a newism,
04:10she first confronted with
04:11the concept of an inner voice as a child,
04:14watching the show Lizzie McGuire,
04:17in which a small animated version of the main character
04:18shared her thoughts and commentary on what was happening.
04:21Rivera said she never understood the explanatory device
04:24was supposed to mimic the voice inside the character's head.
04:26Right, so if you do things and they sort of go outside your comfort zone,
04:30you get this view from the outside in,
04:32like the cringe factor.
04:35And the view from the outside in is another kind of inner voice
04:37where you, it's called a third eye,
04:40where you get to observe what it is that you're doing
04:42and give yourself feedback.
04:43Now, a lot of this is critical, and the criticism isn't bad.
04:46When I first started doing public speaking,
04:48I had an outside voice that looked at me and said,
04:51is this kind of ridiculous, this kind of goofy,
04:53the mannerisms are too much,
04:55the jokes are falling flat,
04:56and that helped me sort of fine-tune
04:59what I do in terms of public speaking
05:01to become better.
05:03And now, usually, if I see myself
05:04giving a speech on video,
05:07I'm usually quite pleased with that.
05:08There's still a few tweaks and so on
05:10that are worth doing, but the outside voice,
05:13it's like you think of an orbiting space station
05:17that's constantly radiating back to you the weather,
05:19which is your, you know, pluses and minus
05:20in what you're doing.
05:23All right, so this woman says,
05:25I don't have that, like this dialogue,
05:27inner dialogue, so that's always been weird to me.
05:29So what does Rivera's mind look like?
05:32She described her inner thoughts as jot notes.
05:35I don't really know that that explains much.
05:37Okay, so she says that if she's running late for work,
05:39she would know that she was late,
05:40but wouldn't be thinking,
05:41I'm late, I need to stop sleeping in,
05:42I need to go to bed earlier, et cetera.
05:44If she's having a panic attack,
05:46her anxiety manifests in more of a physical way
05:48rather than with compulsive, repetitive thoughts.
05:52I'm not telling myself to panic,
05:54and I'm not like, oh my gosh, Olivia,
05:55she said, I never think like that.
05:57That feels weird to say,
05:58I would never address myself.
06:00Other times, Rivera said she thinks
06:02in a more visual way.
06:03She does have songs just pop into her head.
06:04In those cases, she will hear it
06:06in the singer's voice.
06:07Russell Hurlburt,
06:10it's an orc name,
06:12a psychology professor at the University of Nevada
06:15has been studying what he calls
06:16inner experience for more than 40 years.
06:18He's written six books on it
06:20and worked with hundreds of participants.
06:21He gives them each a beeper,
06:22and when it goes off at random times throughout the day,
06:24they'll have to know what's going on in their minds.
06:26He said people generally think in five ways.
06:29Some people experience them all.
06:31Five main ways of thinking.
06:32Inner speaking, inner monologue.
06:34Example, talking to yourself,
06:35hearing your voice or someone else,
06:36or audibly recalling a phone number.
06:39So, I'm trying to think.
06:40I don't want to make this about me.
06:42Okay, you know what?
06:42Let's not make it about me.
06:43Let's just make it about the article.
06:44All right.
06:45It's not about me.
06:46Inner seeing.
06:47See, there's an inner dialogue.
06:49I was just like,
06:49should I make this about me,
06:50or should I tell you the ways that I think?
06:52But then,
06:53I think people are more interested
06:54in how other people think.
06:55I guess that could be one of the things.
06:57See, here I am,
06:57I'm doing it again,
06:58having this argument of the debate with myself.
07:00Is it good to share
07:01the ways in which I think?
07:02Would that be helpful to you?
07:03Or is that kind of self-involved?
07:05And, oh, me, I, me, me, I.
07:07Anyway, so there's my inner debate live
07:09for you to enjoy.
07:11Okay, so inner speaking, inner monologue.
07:13Talking to yourself,
07:14hearing your voice or someone else.
07:15Or audibly recalling a phone number.
07:18The second is inner seeing slash visual imagery.
07:21Thoughts with a visual symbol.
07:22Picturing a memory or a place
07:24you wish you lived.
07:27Feelings.
07:27A conscious experience of emotional process.
07:29Example,
07:30feeling sad after the death of the loved one.
07:32Unsymbolized thinking.
07:33No water images associated with your thoughts.
07:35Pouring your morning coffee cup
07:37without telling yourself to.
07:40Sensory awareness.
07:41Paying attention to a sensory aspect
07:43of the environment
07:44for an unimportant reason.
07:45For example,
07:46hearing someone talk
07:47but seeing the light reflecting
07:48off their glasses.
07:51According to Hulbert.
07:53Hulbert?
07:55Hulbert.
07:56Hulbert.
07:56Oh, they're missing an R.
07:57Oh, my judgy judgeness is occurring.
08:00According to Hulbert,
08:02not many people have an inner monologue
08:04100% of the time,
08:05but most do sometimes.
08:07He estimates that inner monologue
08:08is a frequent thing
08:09for 30 to 50% of people.
08:11He said there are very big
08:13individual differences.
08:14Some people have absolutely none
08:15and some people have pretty close
08:16to 100%.
08:17So,
08:20I think if you've ever had dreams
08:22where there's no talking,
08:24there's no language in particular,
08:26you know,
08:26maybe you're flying over a landscape
08:27or maybe you're swimming
08:28or climbing a mountain
08:29or something like that
08:30and there's no particular dialogue,
08:33I think that's the closest
08:34to understanding
08:35how people without
08:36inner monologues
08:37or dialogues
08:38experience thought.
08:41The pros and cons
08:42of inner monologues.
08:42People who don't have
08:43an active inner monologue
08:44can teach themselves too,
08:45Hulbert said,
08:46but he doesn't think
08:47it's necessarily
08:48a good or bad thing.
08:49He said having,
08:50I guess it's Hulbert,
08:51not Hurlbert.
08:54Okay, that's fine.
08:55It doesn't matter.
08:55Hulbert.
08:56We'll go with Hulbert.
08:57Not,
08:58okay, so.
09:00He said having an inner monologue
09:03can make it easier
09:04for people to create
09:04a sequential plan
09:05and solve logical problems,
09:06but other ways of thinking
09:07have benefits too.
09:09People who see visual imagery
09:11very often see imagery
09:11that doesn't exist
09:12in the real world,
09:13he said.
09:14People who are given credit
09:15for being imaginative
09:16probably don't have much
09:17of an inner monologue.
09:19Yeah, see,
09:19that's the thing too.
09:21I have to,
09:22oh, let's make it repeat.
09:23I think this will be helpful.
09:24I think I have the two modes.
09:25So, for instance,
09:26when I am thinking
09:29rationally,
09:30like creating a logical argument,
09:31working through a syllogism
09:33or a set of philosophical problems,
09:34it's extremely language-based
09:36and I'm very invested in it.
09:40I mean,
09:41I want a certain outcome.
09:42And of course,
09:43I have the self-criticism
09:43to say,
09:44well,
09:44don't fake it
09:46to get the certain outcome
09:47you want.
09:47Like,
09:48try to be critical
09:49and try to push back
09:50against it, right?
09:51But during the time
09:52of actually working
09:52on those arguments,
09:53I'm enthusiastically
09:54putting forward
09:55the arguments,
09:55particularly if they accord
09:56with things like
09:57the non-aggression principle,
09:58property rights,
09:59peaceful parenting,
09:59and so on,
10:00stuff that I'm heavily invested in
10:02and have actually proven.
10:03So, I'm very invested.
10:04So, if somebody makes an argument
10:06that says,
10:07murder is good, right?
10:09Obviously,
10:09I think murder is evil,
10:10so I'm very invested
10:11in pushing back on that.
10:12Or somebody says to me,
10:13free will is an illusion.
10:14I'm very invested in that.
10:15So, I push hard on that
10:17and I'm 100% invested
10:19in making it work
10:19and then after I'm done,
10:21I look back at it
10:21more critically.
10:22On the other hand,
10:23when I'm writing fiction,
10:25if I'm writing a chapter
10:26of my new novel,
10:27I have to be ego-less.
10:29I have to not try
10:31and control the dialogue,
10:32not try and control
10:33the characters
10:33because that way
10:34they're the most vivid
10:35and alive
10:35and I'm not trying to,
10:37in a sense,
10:38conscript them
10:38into serving
10:39a particular philosophical
10:40or moral goal, right?
10:43So, that to me
10:44is the spontaneous
10:47form of writing
10:47has a lot of liveliness
10:49to it,
10:49but is often quite chaotic
10:50and doesn't often
10:51serve a moral goal.
10:52On the other hand,
10:53if you take the sort of
10:54the Ayn Rand route
10:55or the Plato route
10:57and you, in a sense,
10:58conscript the characters
10:59to pursue
11:00a particular narrative
11:01that you want
11:02for a moral
11:03or epistemological goal,
11:05then the characters
11:06tend to be
11:06kind of lifeless.
11:08They tend to be
11:08sort of marionettes.
11:09So, I want the liveliness
11:10of spontaneity,
11:11but I also want to wrestle them
11:12into some sort of
11:13moral narrative.
11:14Otherwise, really,
11:14what's the point
11:15of writing the book?
11:15So, yeah,
11:18with philosophical arguing,
11:20I pour myself
11:21into the arguments
11:22and criticize them afterwards.
11:25With writing,
11:26I just have to be ego-less.
11:29I have to be not there.
11:31I have to be like
11:31a pane of glass
11:32through which you see
11:33a view, right?
11:35If you notice the glass,
11:36then the glass maker
11:38has done a bad job
11:39because it's got ripples
11:39and specks
11:40and spots and bubbles
11:41or something like that.
11:42Like, I need to be
11:43as clear a pane as possible.
11:44I need to be as ego-less
11:45as possible
11:45in order to create
11:47from a fictionist standpoint.
11:49But when it comes
11:49to philosophical arguments,
11:50I have to be
11:51very ego-invested
11:52to get the driving force
11:53to push through
11:54my own inner resistance
11:55and the arguments
11:56of others.
11:57So, all right.
11:59Rivera said that
11:59not having an inner monologue
12:01has been good for her
12:01in some ways
12:02because she can block out
12:03negative memories
12:04or thoughts
12:04relatively easily.
12:06It also brought
12:06some challenges.
12:07She said that
12:08when she was growing up,
12:09her mother often told her
12:09to think before she spoke,
12:11but she couldn't.
12:11I can be blunt
12:13and I have no filter.
12:14Sometimes I say things
12:15I shouldn't say,
12:16she said.
12:16People often know
12:17what I'm thinking
12:17because I will say
12:18exactly what I'm thinking.
12:21Do you really have
12:22an inner monologue
12:22all the time?
12:24Oh, we're back to the R.
12:25Hurlbert said,
12:27the recent buzz
12:28around inner experience
12:29is a good thing
12:29if it leads people
12:30to explore what's really
12:31going on in their minds
12:32rather than believing
12:32it is one way
12:33and not questioning it.
12:35Yeah, I mean,
12:36do you ever get this sense?
12:38I mean, I think really
12:39on social media
12:39it's quite common.
12:42I get the sense
12:43when I'm on social media
12:44and I'm debating
12:46or arguing with people,
12:47I get a sense
12:48that I often encounter
12:52a very foreign
12:53or alien mind.
12:56And again,
12:56foreign or alien
12:57doesn't mean bad,
12:58it just means
12:58really, really dissimilar
13:00from my own mind.
13:03And it's frustrating
13:05because they're frustrated
13:06with me
13:06and I'm frustrated
13:07with them, right?
13:08So I say,
13:09here are my recent arguments
13:10and they say,
13:11I feel that you're wrong.
13:12And that just feels
13:12like I'm encountering
13:13a really, really different mind.
13:16Or I'll put forward
13:17an argument
13:18that I believe
13:20in very passionately
13:21that I think is important
13:22and other people
13:23would get upset
13:24and offended.
13:26Now,
13:26I can often predict,
13:27though not always,
13:28what is going to upset
13:29or offend people,
13:30but, you know,
13:31if it's any consolation
13:32out there,
13:33in case anyone's curious
13:34about this,
13:35I think this is true
13:35of most, quote,
13:36controversial people,
13:38if there's any consolation,
13:40the arguments
13:40that I put out
13:41that offend you,
13:42offend me first, right?
13:44And so other people
13:44are like,
13:45well, how can he be so blunt?
13:46He's got to be,
13:47there's got to be
13:48something wrong with him.
13:49It's like,
13:49well,
13:50but bluntness
13:50is kind of important.
13:51I was raised with,
13:52thou shalt not bear
13:53false witness
13:53and tell the truth
13:54though the skies fall.
13:56And so,
13:57yeah,
13:57I understand it.
13:58I have sympathy.
14:00But for me,
14:00it's like,
14:00well,
14:00I've been able
14:01to overcome
14:01my own,
14:02quote,
14:02offense at what
14:03this sort of fact is
14:05that I'm putting out.
14:06Why can't you?
14:07And other people,
14:08they just seem to go
14:09with that being offended
14:10and because they're offended,
14:11they think that I'm wrong
14:13and they're right,
14:14right?
14:14So,
14:14if you upset me,
14:15Steph,
14:16you're wrong
14:16for upsetting me,
14:18which is such a foreign way
14:19of thinking that
14:20I really have a tough time
14:22getting in there.
14:23All right.
14:23The peace thing too,
14:24right?
14:24Sassy Sunflower wrote,
14:26it's a great name.
14:26I want to know the peace
14:27that comes with not having
14:28a constant inner monologue,
14:29right?
14:30See there,
14:30Sassy Sunflower,
14:31I thought it was a great name.
14:31All right.
14:33Hurlburt said,
14:34what he calls
14:34armchair introspection
14:36likely won't teach you
14:36much about your own mind
14:37because the act of
14:38paying attention
14:39screws up your everyday
14:39inner life.
14:40Right,
14:41so it's hard to read
14:42a book
14:43if you're noticing
14:44what reading a book
14:45is like,
14:46right?
14:47So when you read a book,
14:48when I read this,
14:49I get the words in my head.
14:51I don't hear them like
14:52an audio book
14:53or somebody whispering
14:53in my ear
14:54and they certainly don't form,
14:57the words don't form
14:58in my mind,
14:59like sort of flaming hypertext
15:00or something like that.
15:02But
15:02there is definitely
15:06an internalization
15:07of the language.
15:09And for me,
15:10there's a lot of sort of
15:11thrust and parry
15:11just in conversation.
15:12So as you can sort of hear
15:13when I'm just talking
15:14about this kind of stuff,
15:15I'll say something,
15:16I'll have another thought,
15:18maybe I'll let that thought
15:19interrupt me,
15:19maybe it's a good thought,
15:20maybe it's a bad thought,
15:21should I talk about myself,
15:22should I comment on
15:23whether Sassy Sunflower
15:24is a cool name,
15:25which it is.
15:26And so that inner dialogue
15:28to me is really,
15:29really important.
15:30I don't know
15:31that you can understand
15:33abstract ethics
15:35without an inner dialogue.
15:36And again,
15:37this is not to say
15:37that the people
15:38who don't have
15:38the inner dialogue
15:39or monologue
15:40are not ethical,
15:40but they would be
15:41instinctually ethical
15:42rather than
15:43syllogistically ethical.
15:45And I saw this
15:46when I was arguing
15:47with the atheists recently.
15:48They all said,
15:49well, I tell the truth
15:50because I don't like to lie.
15:51It's too complicated
15:52and difficult for me.
15:53I have to remember
15:54too many stories
15:54and I get social benefits
15:55from telling the truth.
15:58So that's not
15:59syllogistical reasoning.
16:00That's,
16:01I like the benefits
16:02of telling the truth
16:03and I don't like
16:04the feeling or complication
16:05of lying.
16:07But that's hedonistic,
16:08right?
16:08Which is,
16:09I get a reward
16:10for telling the truth
16:11and I get a punishment
16:12from my conscience
16:12or uneasiness when I lie.
16:14That's hedonism.
16:15And I don't know
16:16how people organize
16:17their life morally
16:18when they're just doing
16:19what they like.
16:20That's kind of like saying,
16:21well,
16:21my nutritional plan
16:22is to eat what tastes good
16:23to me
16:23and not eat the things
16:24that don't taste good
16:25to me.
16:25It's like,
16:25that's kind of hedonistic
16:27and maybe you're lucky
16:28and everything your tongue
16:29likes is also good
16:30for your body
16:30but usually the tongue
16:31is at war with the body
16:33in that the tongue
16:33likes fatty,
16:34salty,
16:35sweetie things
16:35and the body
16:36doesn't necessarily do
16:37so well with all
16:38of those things.
16:39So I think
16:40that philosophy
16:41in essence
16:43is really
16:44in the dialogue.
16:46You have to argue
16:46with yourself,
16:47you have to come up
16:47with syllogisms
16:48and syllogisms
16:50are not
16:51instinctual.
16:53They can't be resolved
16:54instinctually
16:54and the people
16:55who are instinctual
16:56usually end up
16:57with this offense
16:58my sensibilities
16:59therefore it's bad
17:01which is like crazy
17:02conservative
17:02in a certain kind
17:03of way.
17:04So yeah,
17:05I'd love to know
17:06what you think.
17:07The other thing too,
17:08last thought,
17:09and I mentioned this
17:09in the conversations
17:11about the inner dialogue
17:11stuff,
17:12is that there are
17:13a lot of engineers
17:14who are very concrete.
17:15This is what my wife
17:16says,
17:16she's a mental health
17:17professional for many
17:17decades.
17:18A lot of engineers
17:19are very concrete
17:20and they're very
17:24intelligent
17:24but they don't
17:26reason with language
17:28a lot of times,
17:28they reason with objects
17:30like there's lots
17:32of people out there
17:32in the world,
17:33East Asians are really
17:33good at this stuff,
17:34rotating 3G objects
17:36in your mind,
17:36right?
17:37I'm not too bad at it
17:38but there's people
17:39that are way,
17:40way better,
17:40right?
17:42Spatial reasoning,
17:43my daughter,
17:43is absolutely fantastic
17:44at spatial reasoning
17:45and it's not a particular
17:47strength of mine.
17:47I tend to focus
17:48or cluster more
17:49on the language
17:49and syllogism side
17:50of things
17:51and so a lot
17:53of times engineers
17:54are very good
17:54at what they do
17:55because they're
17:56fantastic at
17:57manipulating shapes,
17:59objects and so on
18:00in their minds
18:00which is not
18:01a language-based thing,
18:02right?
18:02If you get those things
18:03like how many cubes
18:04are there in this
18:05jumble of cubes
18:07together,
18:07right?
18:07Because you have to
18:08think of all the
18:09middle and the back,
18:09you have to rotate it
18:10in your mind
18:10and figure out
18:11all of that stuff
18:12so that's a particular
18:13type of intelligence
18:14that's fantastic
18:15for getting bridges
18:16built but not
18:16necessarily great
18:17for building
18:17arguments.
18:21So,
18:22I definitely
18:24debate with myself.
18:25I have,
18:26this is a British
18:26thing too,
18:27right?
18:27Like,
18:27am I being
18:28embarrassing?
18:28Am I imposing?
18:30Right?
18:31Am I imposing
18:31on someone?
18:32Like,
18:32I want something
18:33from someone
18:33but am I imposing?
18:35And it can get
18:35kind of paralytic,
18:37right?
18:38I mean,
18:39if you get a,
18:41I have this debate
18:42every time,
18:42every time I'm out
18:43someplace and I'll
18:44pick up a food
18:45or I'll get a coffee
18:46or something like that,
18:46pick up some food
18:47and let's say the
18:49coffee comes
18:49and it's kind of cold
18:50and I'm like,
18:52well,
18:52I don't want them
18:53to waste it,
18:54it'll be fine,
18:56I'm basically just
18:57here for the caffeine,
18:58it doesn't matter
18:59the temperature
18:59and so on
19:00but it's not ideal
19:01or,
19:02you know,
19:02if you order something
19:03and the fries come
19:04and fries are like
19:05a really delicate thing
19:06because they've got
19:06to be crispy,
19:07they don't want
19:07to be soggy
19:08and all of that
19:09and I don't eat
19:09a lot of fries,
19:10I don't want to like,
19:10oh,
19:11I don't eat a lot of fries,
19:12you know,
19:12but I don't generally,
19:13I had some fries yesterday,
19:15I had some fish and chips
19:16wrapped in newspaper,
19:17it's very old school,
19:18very British
19:18and the fries
19:21were kind of soggy
19:22and I was like,
19:23but they're fine,
19:23I don't want them
19:24to make again
19:25and,
19:25right?
19:25But at the same time,
19:26I'm aware that
19:27if I was running a restaurant
19:28and the food
19:29that I was producing
19:30was deficient
19:31in some manner,
19:32I'd really want people
19:33to tell me,
19:33I'd want them to say
19:34this is not great,
19:36here's the problem
19:36because otherwise
19:37people come once or twice,
19:39they get food
19:39that isn't particularly great
19:41and they just won't come back
19:42and I'd much rather
19:43throw out some fries
19:44and keep the customer
19:45than sell a couple
19:46of extra fries
19:47and not keep the customer
19:48so I have this debate,
19:50I don't want to impose
19:51and I also,
19:51you know,
19:52when you grow up poor
19:52you hate throwing out stuff
19:53and you just know
19:54that the food
19:55that they're going to give,
19:56give you,
19:57so the food they take back
19:58they're just going to throw out
19:59and I hate throwing out stuff
20:00because, you know,
20:01when you grow up poor
20:01that's just kind of
20:02an instinct that you have.
20:03So, you know,
20:04having these kinds of debates,
20:05I don't know
20:06how the people
20:07who don't think
20:08in terms of language
20:10in that way,
20:11who don't have
20:11those inner dialogues,
20:12I think they just
20:13have a feeling.
20:14I feel it's okay
20:15to keep it,
20:16I'd feel bad
20:17if I sent it back
20:18rather than having
20:19this debate
20:19and I think
20:21to get to abstractions
20:22and universals
20:22you've just got to have
20:23that inner dialogue.
20:25I think you can get
20:25to the universals
20:26about physical matter
20:27with shape brilliance,
20:30you know,
20:30the engineer rotating shapes
20:32because the shapes,
20:32you know,
20:33cube is universal,
20:33math is universal
20:34and so on,
20:35but math is a form
20:36of language
20:36so I assume
20:38that mathematicians,
20:39although they have
20:40a great grasp
20:40of language,
20:41sorry,
20:41of numbers instinctually,
20:43they still have to verify
20:44it with actual,
20:45you know,
20:45equations and formulas
20:46but I think
20:48you can get to universals
20:49in terms of physics
20:50without language
20:52but when it comes
20:53to abstract values
20:54and virtues,
20:55syllogism's philosophical
20:56arguments
20:57which is where
20:57the absolute truth
20:58of concept formation,
21:01the validity of the senses
21:02and the defense
21:04of free will
21:05and the establishment
21:06of universal ethics,
21:07that's all language based
21:08and I think I face
21:09that challenge
21:10when I'm talking
21:11about these universal ethics
21:12so when the atheists
21:13are coming in
21:14and they're saying
21:15I get benefits
21:17from telling the truth
21:19and I get negatives
21:20from lying
21:20either emotionally
21:21or in terms
21:22of complications
21:22they're saying
21:24I'm lying
21:26because I'm telling the truth.
21:27There's a little bit
21:27of narcissism in that
21:28to some degree
21:29because thinking that
21:31because you don't like
21:32to lie
21:32and you prefer
21:33to tell the truth
21:34that somehow
21:35that becomes a universal
21:36is failing to understand
21:38that there's many people
21:39whose minds
21:40are very different
21:40from yours
21:41and this is what
21:43I kept saying
21:44to the atheists
21:44is like okay
21:45I guess that's fine
21:46for you
21:46but what about
21:47the people
21:48who really like
21:48to tell the truth?
21:49Sorry,
21:50what about the people
21:50who really like
21:51to lie?
21:52What about the people
21:53who get a kick
21:54out of lying?
21:55They get lots of resource
21:56out of lying.
21:57Lying is their most efficient
21:58way to get resources.
21:59What about them?
22:00How do you get them
22:01to not lie?
22:01If you're going to say
22:02hedonism is the foundation
22:03and I should tell the truth
22:05because it feels good
22:05to tell the truth
22:06and it feels bad to lie
22:07that is not a universal experience.
22:08Lots of people lie
22:09to get resources.
22:12I mean
22:12if you're an atheist
22:13you think that religion
22:14is false.
22:15Religion gets a lot more
22:16resources than atheism does
22:17and so if you're
22:19an atheist
22:20you know
22:21that a lot of people
22:21get resources by lying
22:23and how do you convince
22:24them to tell the truth
22:25which is why
22:25I go with sort of
22:26the universal
22:26syllogistical ethics
22:28and virtues
22:28because that's a way
22:29of getting people
22:30to change their behavior
22:31outside of hedonism.
22:33Right?
22:33So anyway
22:34I'm curious what you think
22:35and I mean
22:37does your social circle
22:38include different kinds
22:40of thinkers?
22:43I don't know
22:43that mine does.
22:44I'm sort of reviewing this.
22:46I don't know
22:46that mine does.
22:47Certainly in my friends
22:48we tend to be pretty
22:49inner dialogue
22:50inner monologue focused
22:52but friend of friends
22:53and you know
22:55if I'm friends with
22:56families as I am
22:57with kids
22:58not all of the kids
22:59are language based
23:00and yeah
23:02it is a challenge.
23:03It's almost like
23:04you just need to get
23:05into a completely
23:06different mindset
23:06in order to have
23:07effective communications
23:08or just stay on
23:09the shallower topics
23:10you know
23:11news and weather
23:11and stuff like that
23:12because I think
23:13once you start to go deep
23:14the thinking styles
23:16really diverge
23:17to the point
23:17where I don't even know
23:18that there's a translator
23:19that can get
23:20get across the gap.
23:22All right
23:22thanks
23:22I hope that you find
23:23this interesting
23:24free domain.com
23:25slash donate
23:25to help out the show
23:26lots of love my friends
23:28bye
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