Overcoming The Philosophical Arguments That Destroy Unguarded Minds
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Overcome Philosophical Traps
- Ch: 5.6 of How To Get Your Sh!t Together -
“Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly is not freedom, except in the minds of those who prefer darkness to light and chains to liberty. The more true information we can acquire, the better for our enfranchisement.” – Robert Hugh Benson
I am on a constant search for meaning. I read, meditate, study, contemplate and challenge myself daily. This process involves exploring a diverse range of philosophical concepts, lines of reasoning, cultural opinions and differing points of view.
My basic goal with this search is to ensure that I am on the ‘right path’ (if such a thing is even possible), and that I am honing the ‘lens’ by which I judge myself and my world by.
The search for freedom means running from ignorance. But unfortunately, this can also result in a distinct lack of bliss. Words and concepts have power, they can act like a seed or a virus.
The impact is small at first, barely noticed, but over time the impact grows, and the concept begins to seep into all aspects of life. If left unchallenged it can potentially consume us. This is why people read a book, hear a speech, or join a club, and in a short time they are a completely different person. Their world view has been redefined to be based entirely around a new core concept.
This change may be positive, neutral or negative, but unfortunately it is impossible to know how you will be impacted by a piece of content prior to consuming it.
The ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach to life would suggest to bury our heads in the sand and not risk it. However if we ever want to make any kind of change in our lives, grow in any capacity or experience anything novel at all, we have to expose ourselves to new concepts.
There is a real risk that we will come across a line of reasoning or a thought process that makes us question our own existence, makes us doubt the point of living, or otherwise traps us into a downward spiral of mental affliction as we ruminate over the consequences of our newfound knowledge – a ‘Philosophical Trap’.
In this chapter I hope to address some of the ‘Philosophical Traps’ that have caused me hours of mental anguish. I hope to give you some of the solutions to those Traps and subsequently to save you from hours of suffering in the process.
I was hesitant to include this chapter, because in order to discuss the counters to the ‘Philosophical Traps’, I first need to explain the Traps, and show you how they could be troubling. Clearly the issue here is that I could be inadvertently introducing you to the very Trap I am trying to help you to overcome. Please consider this warning. Once you know something, it is almost impossible to ‘unknow’ it.
If you are feeling vulnerable, or mentally afflicted, skip this chapter for a later stage, when you are in a good mental state.
I chose to include this chapter because these Traps are out there anyway. If you think, read, or talk enough, you will eventually stumble across them. Therefore I would like to give you the mental armour necessary, to not be completely derailed by their discovery.
Furthermore, there is definitely a positive side to delving deeply into challenging Philosophical Traps, as they will help you to establish a deeper sense of meaning. If you do come across a Philosophical Trap that challenges you, causes you mental distress, or leaves you doubting what you believe, that is a good thing. It suggests that whatever that Trap is focusing on is important to you in some capacity and therefore needs to be investigated.
If you find that a Trap triggering, realise that people have been contemplating these very same concepts for millennia, so the answers will be out there.
Search for ‘the name of your Trap debunked’ or ‘counters to your trap or ‘addressing the depressing nature of your Trap’. That will show you some of the ways that people before you have come to terms with the concept you are currently grappling with.
Finally it is important to mention that these ‘Philosophical Traps’ are only truly depressing when I am already in a depressed state of mind. When I am feeling good, succeeding, occupied or otherwise not mentally afflicted, these traps rarely come to mind. When they do, they simply don’t matter as much. The issue really comes when I am already in a bad state of mind, then these traps have a tendency to become the point of rumination and despair.
Having counters on hand to ‘Philosophical Traps’ is a great way to nip them in the bud, before they completely take hold of my mental state.
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Philosophical Trap 1:
We Will All Die, So What’s The Point?
If you are religious, this one may seem confusing. Since most religions promise a life after death, the point of life is to secure a place in heaven while avoiding eternal punishment. Therefore to the religious person, death is merely a transitional state.
For those who are not religious, (or are lacking enough religious conviction), the prospect of death can result in a feeling of pointlessness. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, when their life ends, that’s it. They may argue that since we will all eventually die, and that everyone that we ever meet and interact with will also die, life is meaningless. Eventually you and I will not be here, and we will be completely forgotten.
This motion has some merit. How many generations of your direct ascendants (parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc) can you even name, let alone state anything about their character, accomplishments or lives at all?
How far back do you need to go before they have been completely forgotten? How many generations will it take for you to be completely forgotten in turn?
Science suggests that eventually the universe itself will suffer from ‘heat death’. The complete and total extinction of all forms of heat, energy, and therefore life.
Without something beyond this life, and even with the concept of an afterlife, the concept of heat death can make this life seem completely pointless.
Counter 1:
The fact that it all ends and will leave nothing, makes life itself seem completely pointless. However that pointlessness is not in itself necessarily a bad thing.
If there is ultimately no point, that means that you are free to let go of everything that you are worried about. If all of your stress, obligation, concerns and challenges are pointless, then the weight of them is significantly reduced. This won’t stop your suffering, but it will show you just how pointless your suffering is. This realisation may help you to move on from many things that are holding you back, because regardless of where you end up, the result is the same (pointlessness). You may as well attempt to make a change, move away from pain and into something new, something that could potentially bring you joy.
In a pointless universe, joy is still better than pain, so why not risk making change?
Counter 2:
If you don’t believe in God, or the afterlife, this life is all that you really have. Prior to your birth, there essentially was an eternity of blackness, or complete nothingness. After you die, there will be much of the same.
Therefore, right now is the only point of difference, the only point of light, or ‘somethingness’.
It is important to realise that the life that you are living right now is the only point of light in an infinite void of nothingness. That alone gives it meaning, or at least makes it special. Feeling bad may be the opposite of feeling good, but not feeling at all is the opposite of feeling. Therefore while your worst experiences in this life may not be pleasant, they are still feelings nonetheless.
Since life is the only point of difference that we know of, it is imperative that we make the most of the short time that we have, while we can. The void will be waiting for you when you are done regardless. So while it may be ‘pointless’ because we won’t be remembered, and because the universe will eventually end, that is not the place to focus on. Instead, focus on the fact that you are alive, that by some freak occurrence, you are experiencing all of this pointlessness.
The fact you get to feel, that you are here at all, says something. Don’t squander it.
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Philosophical Trap 2:
Without God, There Are No Objective Morals
Similar to the first Philosophical Trap, religious people can rely on God’s word to help guide their moral behaviours. If they are not sure about the ‘rightness’ of a particular act, they can consult their religious text or their religious leaders for advice. To a believer, God is the creator of the universe and therefore has dictated what is objectively right or wrong behaviour, thus it is clear how one should act.
To the non-believer, there is no objective, external source of morality. It must come from within.
The next logical step for the nonbeliever is to realise that this is true for everyone. They may argue that if there is no God, that our morals are simply a construct of our environments. That our inherent feelings of right or wrong are guided by our parent’s influences, personal experiences, as well as the time and place that we were born. Thus morals are truly subjective, and can therefore lead to dubious and dangerous practices. They are not wrong to think this way mind you. A quick look though history and across cultures will show a wide range of acceptable moral practices that seem abhorrent or confusing to the modern reader.
The realisation that every person is making it all up and that there is nothing greater than themselves to look up to can be extremely overwhelming. Imagine looking at everyone and realising that they are either getting their morals from a fictional book (to the nonbeliever, religious texts are a work of fiction), or from their own fallible minds.
Once they leave the safety and guidance of their parent’s homes, the nonbeliever is on their own. Left to ponder the nature of morality for themselves. This leads to many confusing thoughts: How can a mere human possibly know what is right or wrong? How could one person have the insight or wisdom necessary to know the right way to act? Life is far too complicated. Without a source of objective morality to guide us as a race, we will surely falter.
Counter:
While this apparent lack of direction places all of the responsibility on you, it also places all of the consequences, decisions and choice on you as well. While potentially overwhelming, this is also completely freeing. The answer to the question “Who am I to decide what’s right or wrong?” becomes “Who am I not to?”
Yes it’s a daunting concept having to determine a set of morality that suits you, one that you would want to live by and, by extension, would want others to live by. But you are free to choose whatever morals you like, based on whatever reasoning you choose. There is no higher force to justify your choices to.
I have not yet cemented my moral code, and I am uncertain if I ever will, I rather prefer to look on it as a journey of discovery. The more I read and the more I am exposed to, the more I am shaped into discovering what I truly feel is right. In ‘Live By Your Values’ (chapter 5.2) I talk about how to discover, consider and then potentially integrate those concepts into your life. I have found inspiration for my own moral codes through learning about what individual people value as well as from looking into the moral codes of different cultures and religions.
It will be an ongoing journey of self-discovery to determine what you value, and when you do settle on a moral philosophy of your own, you may look back in disgust at your past actions.
Be forgiving and know that it is only you that you have to answer to, not God or anyone else.
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Philosophical Trap 3:
How Do I Know That Anything Exists Other Than Myself?
This philosophical trap is also known as ‘solipsism’. There are many ways that solipsism can be expressed, but they all revolve around the inability to prove that anything other than the self exists.
Some common expressions include:
- How do I know that I am not dreaming right now?
- How do I know that I am not stuck in some computer simulation?
- How do I know that I am not just a brain in a vat being electro stimulated to perceive sensations?
- How do I know that I am not hallucinating?
“What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” – Morpheus, in The Matrix
The issue arises when you realise that it is impossible to prove that anything exists beyond the sense of self. To prove that anything external exists requires external stimulus and therefore the use of sensory inputs. Unfortunately sensory information does not in and of itself ‘prove’ that anything external exists. The brain does not actually ‘see’ anything, it just interprets sensations sent from the eye via the optic nerve. The same is true for all senses. This is why dreams seem so real. To your brain, you are actually sensing what is occurring, because your brain is receiving those same sensations.
During a hallucination, the individual is really seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting things that are not ‘real’. But because they are sensing it, it certainly feels real. It can be very challenging to discern the difference between reality and hallucination.
Finally, as technology develops, the gap between reality and simulation will become blurred. It is not hard to imagine a game system so immersive that the users struggle to tell if it is real life or not.
Given the exponential nature of technological development, it is reasonable to assume that eventually we will invent a simulation game so realistic that the people in the simulation will create a simulation inside of the first simulation, and then those simulations will create a complex simulation themselves. What are the chances that we are the original ‘real’ creators, and not one of the potentially infinite simulations?
Counter
The answer to the problem of solipsism, is to simply act as if the reality that we are experiencing is real. There is no way to prove or disprove Solipsism. So by acting as if life is real, we are guaranteed to be acting according to our best interests. Regardless of if we are dreaming, stuck in a computer simulation, a brain in a vat, or are in fact living in the real world complete with sentient inhabitants, our choices and the consequences of those choices will be in line with what we would want them to be.
The only caveat for this solution is for those who know that they suffer from hallucinations. I would strongly advice seeing a professional and following their advice to gain some control and begin to recover.
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Philosophical Trap 4:
Fate Versus Free Will
People sometimes believe that God, the universe, or fate itself has a predetermined path set out for their lives. They will believe that the place, cause and time of their death is set from the moment of birth. They may act in a reckless or careless manner, putting the consequences of their choices down to fate, ‘It was just going to happen anyway’. They may also not strive for goals, or even to overcome the simplest of hurdles because they believe that it is their ‘fate’ to suffer. They can’t have much, if any joy in any accomplishments that they do manage to achieve as it ‘Was their fate’ to do so anyway. They had no real impact on the course of events.
This fatalistic approach to life takes away all self-autonomy, as well as the concept of free will. If there is a guiding hand, one that sets the world in motion and ‘knows’ all that will happen before it happens, then our choices truly don’t matter. This line of reasoning can lead one down many dark mental paths.
Counter
It is impossible to actually determine if our fates are set, or if this is all a product of chance and free will. Since we live in the universe that we would hope to test, there is literally no way of knowing if our actions and the subsequent consequences are caused by random chance or by fate.
Although the probability of my next coin flip is 50/50 heads or tails, the coin landing on tails could be a result of chance, or due to fate. How could I possibly determine which one it was? It is impossible. This applies to every single aspect of life. So just like the solution to Solipsism presented above, the best course of action is to act like you have free will. That way, your life will improve, regardless of whether you were destined to do so or not.
You either improved because you made a concerted effort to do so, or because you were fated to do so. Regardless, your life has improved.
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Philosophical Trap 5:
Thoughts Of Suicide
If you are feeling suicidal, or feel at risk of suicide, please seek the help of an expert immediately.
One of the scariest symptoms of depression are the thoughts of ending your own life. Suicide is a significant issue in the community, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it was the leading cause of death for 15-44 year olds, and the second leading cause of death amongst 45-54 year olds (these statistics are similar across most western countries). While thoughts of suicide are not exactly a ‘Philosophical Trap’, suicidal thoughts are clearly quite common and are sadly often acted upon, which is why I feel that they should be addressed here.
Typically people attempt suicide as a way to end their own suffering, and because they feel that the world would be ‘better off without them’.
Counter 1:
It is vital to realise is the suicide doesn’t end the pain, it simply passes it on to those who care for you. Although it may feel like people don’t care about you, or won’t care if you are gone, but that is simply not the case. The pain that you are feeling now, while considerable, will be transferred onto all of those who care for you.
Even those who you don’t interact with that often will be impacted. Suicidal thoughts are dangerous as they can be quite contagious. If somebody commits suicide, it opens that as a door for other people to consider doing the same. If those people are close to the person who committed suicide, there is an increased risk that they will also commit suicide.
I know that it is a terrible thing to consider, but the action of taking your own life will have tremendous consequences beyond you personally. Although you will be gone, know that by taking your own life, you will be the cause of significant suffering amongst those close to you.
Counter 2:
Before making the decision to end it all, the main questions to ask yourself are ‘Have I tried everything possible to change my circumstances and mental state?’, ‘Have I done everything to attempt to address the issues in my life?’
Often we can feel immensely depressed even to the point of suicide due to the circumstances happening in our lives. For whatever reason, it can seem like a better option to kill ourselves than to change something drastic and see if that changes our outlook. This is simply not the case.
It may be true that something will shift how you are feeling. If you are considering ending it all, what harm can possibly come from trying a bunch of different things beforehand?
At best, you have a whole new lease on life, and at worst, you are in the same situation as you were before.
- Have you tried seeing a psychologist?
- Have you tried medication?
- Have you tried meditation?
- Could you change jobs?
- Could you sell your house and travel?
- Could you quit your job?
- Could you break up with your partner?
- Could you try something new?
- Have you reached out to your friends and family for support?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q) Although I know the logical solutions to these kinds of issues, I am still depressed by them. What can I do?
A) If you are at risk, or struggling, speak to a professional therapist for support. They will be able to help guide you through your specific challenges.
I get hung up contemplating these ‘Philosophical Traps’ when I am in a bad mental state. Whereas, when I am in a good place, I can still logically appreciate the line of thought that each Trap proposes, but it loses its strength. Although the conclusion is the same, it no longer matters as much, and I can more easily see the positive side of things.
If you are struggling with the solutions to a Philosophical Trap, keep searching for a solution, while also taking action to ‘Guard Your Mental State At All Costs’ (chapter 2.1) – do things that will make you feel good.
Q) I am stuck on a particular line from a novel. It is impacting my life in many negative ways. You didn’t address it in this chapter, what can I do?
A) This happened to me when I read Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture Of Dorian Gray’. In it, there is an entire discussion that leaves the reader very much aware of the power, pull and allure of youth, while simultaneously informing the reader that it is disappearing and will never return to them.
This concept rocked me for a while, I felt a deep sense of regret for a ‘wasted youth’ and subsequently felt bad about wasting my current youth (future me will surely curse my lack of adventure). Ultimately this passed, but not before causing significant duress. I overcame this by looking into quotes and discussions into the transient nature of youth, and ended up discovering that while I would act differently had I had my time again, that is both impossible and impracticable. I am a different person to what I was then. All I can do is search for and be the best version of myself now. I suggest that you look into your issue deeply. Read more, ask questions and talk to others. Ask their advice and use them as a starting point for your search.
Resources
The Ego Is The Enemy, Ryan Holiday
The Obstacle Is The Way, Ryan Holiday
12 Rules For Life, Jordan Peterson
You Are Not So Smart, David McRaney
Summary
Ideas can be enlightening, but also depressing. If left unanswered, some lines of thought can cause tremendous duress. Realise that people have contemplated these same lines of thought for millennia - the solution is out there to be found.
Read another chapter from How To Get Your Sh!t Together
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