I've been an inquisitive kid when I was young. I remember picking up random things and asking endless series of questions etc etc. I still do all those. I can be relentless when it comes to looking for answers that do not satisfy my internal metric for truth.

This was partially inspired by a Episode 41 (Belief) from the Philosophize This! podcast, and partially about certain things that I have observed in myself, but did not really want to address/accept.

Everything that follows is what I think and this is true for me at this point in time and space. There is a very good chance that the definition will evolve and grow

What is truth and how to find it ?

There is no objective truth. There is no objective truth because I as a human being do not have complete information about the world.

You almost never have full information hence you will never find the ultimate truth. This however does not mean that you should stop looking. In fact, far from it actually. I would argue that the fact that there is no ultimate truth, makes it all the more valuable to keep looking for it.

Imagine how boring it would be to live in a world with a finite amount of truth in it. Once you have figured out a that amount of truth, there would be nothing left to do because you have figured it all out.

Having no definitive truth makes life interesting, for there is always something new to learn; something new to find out. Moreover, having partial truths is better than not having any truths in the first place.

The internal Truth Police and skepticism

I have an internal metric for truth. This means that if some hypothesis does not reconcile with my metric for truth then I find it very difficult to accept said hypothesis. This often manifests in the form of dissatisfaction from a proposed solution to a problem at work or not trusting a narrative until a convincing argument is presented, etc etc. Needless to say this makes me quite obnoxious and a difficult person at times.

I've been reading a bunch of old philosophy and one school of thought that I find myself agreeing with a lot is is Skeptics (and the Stoics as well). I would argue that this deliberate skepticism is good. It keeps me on my toes and I can see bullshit from half a mile away. This habit has made me take myself and my beliefs very seriously as well.

It has also made me very very skeptical of grand claims that seem too good to be true. After all, there is no free lunch, and everything has a cost.

Belief

During growing up, I learnt very early on that most of the things that my family told me about how the world works is False.

The biggest of these experiences heppened when I was moving to Bangalore and everyone I knew in Kolkata told me that South India was a weird place. Their food, their language and their customs are different and they are very racist towards outsiders. My personal experience was much different and exactly the opposite. There was a similar mismatch between what people said and how my experience was when I travelled to Chennai and until quite recently when I moved to Mumbai. The point is, I learnt to be skeptical about everything I hear and that has consumed certain other parts of my life.

In the podcast we talk about how Belief and truth are two different things. When you think about it, it makes sense. After all, just because you believe in something does not mean that it has to be true. So, how do you make sure that your beliefs are as close to the truths as possible ?

In the podcast the host says that one way to make sure that your beliefs are as close to the truth as possible is by scrutinizing your beliefs in the most ruthless and the most thorough manner possible. Now, this is not an easy work. Moreover, this is not a one-off task. It's a lifelong endeavour. Pledging your allegiance to the Truth means that you have a lifelong responsibility to make sure that your beliefs are as closer to the truth as possible.

The aim is to as intellectually rigorous as possible.

Intellectually Rigorous Thinking

I do not idolize a lot of people, however I do idolize certain kind of behaviour in people. I really value knowledge and I hold learning/the ability and willingness to learn new things above everything else.

In my experience the most forward thinking, interesting, wise and calm and kind people are the ones who never stopped learning in the first place.

I read somewhere that

Life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can.

and I agree with this completely.

So, one thing that I noticed amongst the people I idolized was that they had a very lear way of thinking about things. I'm not talking about a certain ideology. I'm talking about a way of thinking about things no matter which ideology they follow.

Initially I was quite impressed by Jordan Peterson and he advocated to "think for yourself". That was quite powerful, until I discovered Slavoj Zizek and a bunch of other philosophers (can not recall then but the Hellinistic age was rad), and its amazing to see how they can think through an issue or a problem.

One major thing that all these people have in common and all of them advocate for is to read a lot, or in other words to study as much as possible. The world is increasingly complex with a lot of interrelated connections and you can only begin to make sense of it by trying to understand how these relationships unfold. What I am presonally impressedd by is that after a certain amount of time you begin to see things you could not see before, like hidden patterns that show you how the world works. Listening to people like Bill Gates, Harari, Peterson (to some extent), Zizek etc etc gives you a feeling of that.

I recently came across Hellinistic Skepticism and one of the major take aways from learning about Hellinistic Skepticism is that they believed that truth is not binary and it was impossible to attain it and they valued knowing both sides of an argument very well.

I read somewhere that

You don't know something unless you can argue both for and against it; cause otherwise your opinions are not well informed.

This was a major learning moment for me personally. The fundamental idea is to analyze your life trough a very critical lens, so you can be sure that whatever you say, however you act, everything you do can be reconciled with your internal metric of truth. Otherwise, what's the point ?

Kindness and Empathy

In this process to find the closest truth one can often become quite unkind, both to one's self and to other people. This is something that I am guilty of myself and I am trying my best to get better at being kind.

I will with a quote -

Doubt is not a pleasant condition but Certainty is absurd. - Voltaire