I am always hesitant to write about anything. I’m not afraid to put myself out there, I’m afraid of not conveying my thoughts in an effective and nuanced way. I try as much as possible to show humility when discussing things. I use a lot of ‘seems’, or ‘I think.’ to show that. I hope to show that these are loosely held, somewhat strong opinions. I’m still very young in exploring philosophy.
There’s a paradox of this dialectic of humility and strong beliefs. It’s hard to follow a leader if it looks like they are unsure of themselves. Our minds are drawn to reductionist bombastic titles. That’s why headlines are always polarizing best/worst hacks. It’s why Trump is popular, he’s so sure of himself. There’s a fine line of expert to be walked. I think it was Peter Attia (longevity dr./podcaster) that said the best sign of a good guru is if he/she says “I don’t know”
Philosophy is a verb. To do it isn’t to find a right answer, but to explore ideas. When I read a pro meat eating essay this past semester, I knew I wanted to write my research paper about it. I wanted to tear a part each point the author made. But my ethics professor gave me great advice. To be as charitable as possible when reading. It’s really difficult to explain nuance in the written word and it can be very easy to point at any single line being very ‘wrong.’ But if you can be the most generous possible in explaining their view, you benefit from their perspective.
So all of my writings aren’t to be held as gospel, or that I’ve figured out anything. It’s part a therapy to offload ideas that float around in my head, and part to share these ideas to others and hopefully to start a discussion.