230714 What I learned in my studies this morning 3

Confetti vict'ry

Celebratory messes

For teeming masses.

Thoughts:

What is up to us and what is not up to us. 

Fifteen years ago, William Irvine wrote a book called A Guide to the Good Life and used the term Dichotomy of Control. Holy crap the arguments Stoics get into because of this. 

 

"IT'S WROOONNNNNGGGGG!" they whine. Yes. You are right. It is wrong.  Now what?

Unfortunately, my fellow travelers have either not heard of, or not understood, the idea of Lies to Children.

A lie-to-children is a simplified, but false, explanation of technical or complex subjects as a teaching method for children and laypeople.

... 

Stewart and Cohen wrote in Figments of Reality (1997) that the lie-to-children concept reflected the difficulty inherent in reducing complex concepts during the education process.

Sometimes, we oversimplify concepts until they are no longer correct, BUT they get the person thinking in the right direction and, later, when they have more knowledge and understanding, we can explain to them that what we told them before was close, but not quite right....

For instance, we first tell kids that they have hands. Later, we explain that actually, the hands are made of things called atoms and molecules which, while we can't see them, nevertheless are what hands are really made of. If they keep studying, we'll teach them that atoms aren't actually little things like we said. They're made of subatomic particles like electrons, protons, and neutrons. And those are made of even smaller bits called quarks. And those are made of.... You see? The first formulations are so incomplete, they're wrong even though they're right for a person at that stage. And they help us prepare the student for the deeper reality.

We give them as much more of the truth as they can comprehend at that point. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

There's something wrong with Irvine's Dichotomy of Control. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with the DOC.  It's a perfectly acceptable introduction to the topic. It's not technically correct, but it's close enough for jazz or gov't work.

Later, if they care enough to learn, they will find that they have an acceptable starting place from which to build their Stoic citadel.

Today's Meditation:

Today's Meditation II:

Today's Meditation III: