BELIEF: AN OWNER’S MANUAL
ARTICLE 6
VIEWPOINT:
THE THIRD OF THREE CHARACTERISTICS
THAT AFFECT THE GUIDANCE
BELIEFS PROVIDE
To understand a belief’s role as a cognitive tool, we must also know its “viewpoint.” Inspired by the thought of Bernard Lonergan (Lonergan, 1957), Daniel Helminiak (Helminiak, 1996), Willard Van Orman Quine (Quine & Ullian, 1970), and Alfred Korzybski (Korzybski, 1933), “viewpoint” refers to the issue a belief addresses.
THE VIEWPOINTS
A belief may be about:
• the kind of person one should strive to be
• the nature of reality
• the goodness of things as they are
• what improvement or perfection might look like
• one’s obligation bring about the envisioned improvement or perfection
Viewpoints fall into a natural hierarchy. Beliefs about the kind of person one should try to be (including how one should choose, evaluate, discuss and utilize one’s beliefs) occupy the foundational (Existential) viewpoint. Beliefs about the nature of reality, which are shaped by our (Existential Viewpoint) assumptions and values, occupy the next higher (Realist) viewpoint. Beliefs about the goodness of that reality, which are based on what we believe reality to be, occupy the next higher (Ethical) viewpoint. Visionary Viewpoint beliefs, which describe what improvement or perfection might look like, are, in turn, based on our (Ethical Viewpoint) conceptions of goodness. And Quest and Commitment Viewpoint beliefs, which address the nature of our obligation to bring about the improvement or perfection we envision, are grounded in our (Visionary Viewpoint) conceptions of that improvement or perfection.
Justifiable confidence in the guidance a belief provides is limited by the inherent ambiguity of its viewpoint. The most precise Realist Viewpoint beliefs may offer very specific answers to the question, “What is?” But the guidance offered by Ethical Viewpoint judgments of goodness, which are inherently subjective, can be no more specific than that offered by imprecise beliefs. Visionary Viewpoint beliefs, which describe fantasies about improvement or perfection, do little more than inspire longing for what might be, and are thus incapable of offering more precise guidance than rules of thumb. And Quest and Commitment Viewpoint beliefs, which describe one’s obligation to bring about the improvement or perfection one imagines, embody nothing more than falsification-resistant – and thus profoundly imprecise – existential choices.
In addition, the precision of a belief is limited by the ambiguity of the least precise line of reasoning essential to its support. Simply, one’s ability to know what is, is limited by one’s commitment to objectivity, one’s awareness of the flaws in what one takes to be knowledge, and the skill with which one chooses and deploys one’s beliefs. One’s ability to know whether what is, is good is limited by the accuracy of one’s beliefs about what is. The accuracy of one’s fantasies about improvement or perfection is limited by the firmness of one’s grasp of goodness. And, as the failures of ideological utopias and the horrors committed in their pursuit demonstrate, the wholesomeness of commitments to making the world a better place is limited by the flaws in the beliefs on which they’re grounded. Yet we often have more faith in our conclusions than we should have in the beliefs and observations that support them.
Of course, beliefs often influence one another. Many beliefs change the way we think about, feel about, act toward, or investigate the more fundamental same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs that nominally ground them. For example, those who believe that the citizens of a nation are obliged to treat those who’ve entered that nation illegally with generosity are likely to evaluate information about members of that group differently than are those who believe they have no such obligation. The conclusions that we desire influence the information we expose ourselves to and how we interpret that information. More poignantly, when confronted with evils we feel powerless to change, humans often look away (as many Jews and others did in Nazi Germany). In response to our desperate desire to believe that the intolerable is tolerable, we avoid data that argue otherwise.
But allowing our desires to bias our observations is illogical. Any allegedly informative belief that biases the same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs on which it depends is, to the extent of that bias, self-invalidating.
However, similar biases have little effect on the utility of comforting beliefs. In fact, as the articles that follow detail, where such biases make a difference, they make comforting beliefs more comforting.
In these ways and others, deliberate attention to a belief’s viewpoint alerts us to the issue the belief addresses and to its relationships with other beliefs. That’s why this website offers you tools you can use to identify the viewpoints of your beliefs, the assumptions you make about those viewpoints, and the consequences of any viewpoint-related errors or oversights.
EXERCISE 6:
INCREASING YOUR AWARENESS
OF THE VIEWPOINTS
OF YOUR BELIEFS
Choose a few practice beliefs. Some should be informative, others should be comforting. Ask yourself whether each belief belongs to the Existential, Realist, Ethical, Visionary, or Quest and Commitment Viewpoint. Indicate why you believe it belongs there. Record your responses electronically or on paper.
1) If you view the belief as “Informative,”
a) identify some of the more important same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs that support it
b) determine the precision of those same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs (i.e., are they precise, imprecise, rules of thumb, or data-refractory narratives?)
c) determine the precision of the guidance the target belief offers. As noted above, the precision of that guidance can be no more precise – and is often less precise — than that of the same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs that support it
d) ask yourself whether the precision you assume the target belief to offer is greater than that which it actually offers
2) If you view the belief as “comforting,” identify some of the ways that belief has encouraged you to interpret same-or-lower-viewpoint “facts.”
3) What thoughts and feelings did you become aware of while doing this exercise?
REFERENCES
Helminiak, D. A. (1996). The Human Core of Spirituality: Mind as Psyche and Spirit. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Korzybski, A. (1933). Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. Englewood, NJ: Institute of General Semantics.
Lonergan, B. J. (1957). Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. London, UK: Longmans, Green & Co.
Quine, W. V., & Ullian, J. S. (1970). The Web of Belief. New York: Random House.