Certainty addiction
Postby Nah » Sat Oct 01, 2011 5:16 pm
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176782
I was talking about multiple personality disorder with Ierrellus in his "Mental illness" thread about how the sense of certainty and moreover the desire for the certainty plays very important role in our thoughts and actions (and emotions, too).
I think many things we do can be understood from the perspective of "certainty addiction".
For example, many of religions can be seen as the symptom of certainty addiction, as people are using God for eliminating any mystery/uncertainty.
If there is something they don't know, they can say it's the will of god and they now have the certainty.
Science is another form of this addiction. One of its main focus is the certainty about future.
And philosophy is possibly the basic and pervasive form of certainty addiction.
Although some of us start to understand, from the surface mind, that absolute certainty is impossible in many (if not most/all) cases, it's usually not enough to stop the certainty addiction from pushing us into another quest for the knowledge/truth/reality/meaning/value/virtue/etc.
And I think this certainty addiction can be traced back to the foundation of our thought and consciousness, the awareness.
I think the awareness, the sense that we are aware (of being aware), is the most basic form of the sense of certainty.
It's the sense, that there is positive match of awareness state being persistent/continuing for certain length of time, I would say.
And this seems to have implication that the subsequent sense of certainty that arises with awareness would be inheriting the presumption of persistence.
Also, at the basic stage, the sense of certainty seems to be simple ON/OFF state.
And this binary nature (and/or its traces) seems to continue in the form of black and white absolutist thinking pattern all the way to our superficial emotion and thought.
These basic presumptions, that of persistence which is often magnified/transformed into the presumption of permanence, and that of absoluteness, cause SO MUCH confusion and problem in our thinking process.
For example, when people discuss about "existence" of something, it's rare to see someone bringing up the scope and/or degree of such existence. Usually, the said "existence" is treated with presumption of permanence and absoluteness.
And this type of presumptions and additional side effects of certainty addiction is omnipresent in our thought, emotion, etc.
I don't think it's an exaggeration if I say we are damn silly and insane to presume permanence and absoluteness in so many thing and so many occasion.
(And of course, I'm 100% certain about it, at emotional level).
Now, unfortunately, we don't have AA or other organization, people, offering support/help to us, certainty junkies.
So, we go from one form of certainty addiction to another one, even if we happen to be disillusioned and manage to get out from one.
I do think that understanding the relative nature of our thought, and even our awareness and its focuses, would be helpful in reducing the adverse effects of this addiction.
However, for many people raised in the monotheistic culture, this seems to be too difficult to understand probably because the presumption of absoluteness is amplified so much with the religion and culture from the very young age.
It's too deeply imprinted in the brain somewhere that, I don't think really think that it's possible to understand and live with the implication of such understanding.
It may mean, the certainty addiction would be even more intense for these unfortunate people (of monotheistic culture).
So, most people may simply feel comfortable in the addictive state, rather than feeling something strange, and protect the from of certainty they are addicted.
Now, I'm not sure at all what these people can do, even if they felt a bit strange and wanted to do something about it...
http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=176782