Outline of a purpose and the road ahead

I read.  I read a lot. I have for years, and the accumulated information, diverse and disjointed as it is, has tended to produce a global view of the world which I hope is informed by facts and not just beliefs. Hence the title of this blog, Justified True Beliefs. The times being what they are, I find myself looking for an avenue to articulate the connections which I see in the world around us. The ideas and fancies which I've accumulated over the years have resulted in a pressure in my head which seeks relief. The late Richard Thompson expressed it best in his comic strip Cul de Sac.

Hmm, perhaps I should have named this blog Drivelalia Factosis.  What a missed opportunity.

I have a tendency when faced with a new topic or issue to purchase a number of books on that topic and read them until I'm satisfied. I do this because I have a particular prejudice against the singular view. Anyone who reads a single book on a subject is as likely to be less informed afterwards as more informed since she has no way to reliably evaluate the quality and veracity of the information it contained. With no external point of reference, it's difficult to establish facts from rationalizations, truth from belief, dialectic from propaganda. In searching for the road ahead you're just as likely to end up in the weeds of confusion.

Thesis → Antithesis → Synthesis

It is still the only way to arrive at any sort of philosophical or political conclusion which has any hope of being true. But there is no guarantee. A number of 20th century charlatans have given dialectics a bad name by confusing their proclivities with logic. To quote the great pragmatist philosopher, William James, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." I'm no exception to that rule. I'm no source of wisdom, no oracle of knowledge. "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be."

What you will find on this blog are my clumsy efforts to arrive at my own justified true beliefs. And this is a search, not a guidebook. I remain as lost in the complexity of the world as the next person. The search for the road ahead will likely wander into the weeds at times, but I hope to avoid becoming another Aguirre—losing my sanity along with my way.  We'll see.

A word of warning: there will be math ahead. I was trained as a physicist, and I find the logical and mechanical precision of mathematics to be an excellent purgative against bullshit thinking. Since I don't expect to ever have an audience, I don't feel the need to avoid the use of math. It is simply how I think.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
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