{"id":67,"date":"2018-06-26T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T19:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/?page_id=67"},"modified":"2019-12-18T07:51:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T12:51:42","slug":"article-6","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/article-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

BELIEF: AN OWNER\u2019S MANUAL<\/strong>
ARTICLE 6<\/strong>
VIEWPOINT: <\/strong>
THE THIRD OF THREE CHARACTERISTICS <\/strong>
THAT AFFECT THE GUIDANCE<\/strong>
BELIEFS PROVIDE<\/strong><\/p>\n

To understand a belief\u2019s role as a cognitive tool, we must also know its \u201cviewpoint.\u201d 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), \u201cviewpoint\u201d refers to the issue a belief addresses.<\/p>\n

THE VIEWPOINTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

A belief may be about:
\u2022 the kind of person one should strive to be
\u2022 the nature of reality
\u2022 the goodness of things as they are
\u2022 what improvement or perfection might look like
\u2022 one’s obligation bring about the envisioned improvement or perfection<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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, \u201cWhat is?\u201d 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\u2019s obligation to bring about the improvement or perfection one imagines, embody nothing more than falsification-resistant \u2013 and thus profoundly imprecise \u2013 existential choices.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s ability to know what is, is limited by one\u2019s commitment to objectivity, one\u2019s awareness of the flaws in what one takes to be knowledge, and the skill with which one chooses and deploys one’s beliefs. One\u2019s ability to know whether what is, is good is limited by the accuracy of one\u2019s beliefs about what is. The accuracy of one\u2019s fantasies about improvement or perfection is limited by the firmness of one\u2019s 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\u2019re grounded. Yet we often have more faith in our conclusions than we should have in the beliefs and observations that support them.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In these ways and others, deliberate attention to a belief\u2019s viewpoint alerts us to the issue the belief addresses and to its relationships with other beliefs. That\u2019s 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\u00a0 oversights.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

EXERCISE 6:<\/strong><\/span>
INCREASING YOUR AWARENESS<\/strong><\/span>
OF THE VIEWPOINTS<\/strong><\/span>
OF YOUR BELIEFS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

1) If you view the belief as \u201cInformative,\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

a) identify some of the more important same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs that support it<\/span>
b) determine the precision of those same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs (i.e., are they precise, imprecise, rules of thumb, or data-refractory narratives?)<\/span>
c) determine the precision of the guidance the target belief offers. As noted above, the precision of that guidance can be no more precise \u2013 and is often less precise — than that of the same-or-lower-viewpoint beliefs that support it<\/span>
d) ask yourself whether the precision you assume the target belief to offer is greater than that which it actually offers<\/span><\/p>\n

2) If you view the belief as \u201ccomforting,\u201d identify some of the ways that belief has encouraged you to interpret same-or-lower-viewpoint \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

3) What thoughts and feelings did you become aware of while doing this exercise?<\/span><\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helminiak, D. A. (1996). The Human Core of Spirituality: Mind as Psyche and Spirit. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.<\/p>\n

Korzybski, A. (1933). Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. Englewood, NJ: Institute of General Semantics.<\/p>\n

Lonergan, B. J. (1957). Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. London, UK: Longmans, Green & Co.<\/p>\n

Quine, W. V., & Ullian, J. S. (1970). The Web of Belief. New York: Random House.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BELIEF: AN OWNER\u2019S MANUALARTICLE 6VIEWPOINT: THE THIRD OF THREE CHARACTERISTICS THAT AFFECT THE GUIDANCEBELIEFS PROVIDE To understand a belief\u2019s role as a cognitive tool, we must also know its \u201cviewpoint.\u201d Inspired by the thought of Bernard Lonergan (Lonergan, 1957), Daniel Helminiak (Helminiak, 1996), Willard Van Orman Quine (Quine & Ullian, 1970), and Alfred Korzybski (Korzybski, … Continue reading “Article 6”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/barneysplace.net\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}