James L. Patterson

You’ll find I periodically state, “Don’t deny reality.”  What does that mean and why is it important? What is Reality?   (basic definition) As it relates to the way I use it when I say, “Don’t deny reality,” I mean it from the simple perspective of Knowledge Adventuring: If you have facts and/or a preponderance of evidence staring you in the face, don’t delude yourself by denying its existence. Don’t ignore it.  Don’t default to Cognitive […]

Another critical barrier to “Proper Thinking” and intellectual integrity is the theory of Cognitive Dissonance. It’s important to understand that this cognitive weakness can be the reason for us to default to other barriers to accurate thinking such as Confirmation Bias and Rationalization. As part of our Knowledge Adventuring it will always serve us well to be aware of these thinking biases and adapt our attitude and approach to the pursuit of enlightenment and truth.

Another personal impediment to “Proper Thinking” is Rationalization.  If we want to improve our intellectual integrity and thinking prowess we need to be on guard from making rationalizations. What is it? I like Neel Burton’s definition: The use of feeble but seemingly plausible arguments either to justify something that is difficult to accept (sour grapes) or to make it seem ‘not so bad after all’ (sweet lemons). We do something not so smart (a bad

This post, my inaugural entry to deal with one of the many specifics of “Proper Thinking,” will be devoted to Confirmation Bias. With regards to the How, Why and What of thinking, this falls into  How – honestly acknowledging a barrier to proper thinking in order to adapt and refine our adventuring path towards the pursuit of Truth. The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or

Poor Thinking Most people cruise through life with nary a thought about thought. And, really, why bother thinking about how well, or poorly, you think? What difference does it make?  That depends, really. Do you care if others think you’re stupid? Do YOU care if you look stupid? More importantly, do you care if you ARE stupid? Or the converse . . . do you worry people might think you’re too smart?  Will they treat