Book Review: The Will to Doubt

‘The Will to Doubt’, by Alfred H. Lloyd is an essay addressed to the general reader, or rather to the general thinker. Like the declaration by a great philosopher, Schopenhauer that man walks only by saving himself at every step from a fall, this book places doubt, as an essential element of ones belief. How, we continue reasserting our beliefs by constantly getting our doubts answered.

In introduction, author mentions the present times as the age of doubt.  The next chapter, The Confession of Doubt, examines the confession of doubt, of our doubt, and other aspects like how doubt is necessary to life, while explaining how, humans came to be dependent on one another as they are ‘universal doubters’. Difficulty in the ordinary view of things is explored next, as a variation between the physical or of the substance of matter, and, the ideal or of the substance of mind or spirit. When we come to next chapter, The View of Science: its Rise and Consequent, the author states of the challenge: “To understand and appraise the view of science we must trace its rise as clearly as we can, and then critically examine its peculiar conceits, its own ideal methods and attitudes”. Which is the theme of the coming chapter, Character V, the author, comparing how, tracks which limit the locomotive to a certain course are essential to its successful movement, mentions of the need for something of the same kind, in respect of science. Hence, he continues, we have attributed certain characteristics or limitations for science, giving rise to, The Objective nature of Science, How Science is Specialized, and Why not Science would not be Agnostic. Nature of experience it self is analyzed next. It is truly and essentially social, the book proclaims, no individual was meant to dwell alone, which is the trigger of an unperturbed brotherly love, and of a quiet life. An essential defect of experience, a doubt, must be for something good, the author exclaims, and goes on to examine the possible worth of the original defects of experience. The author concludes with projecting Descartes as the finest doubter in history, whose famous words Dubito, cogito; ergo sum. I doubt, I think; I as doubter and thinker am, places doubt in its prime position.

This book, though is a tough one to read, is a scholarly discourse on many aspects of common logic. The author has found the unmistakable presence of doubt as an integral part of our social history. “To come down to more recent times, for open belief in what they doubted, for doubt well controlled in its expenditure, for doubt as raising questions of meaning rather than the more radical questions of reality and existence, perhaps no people of Christendom has been so conspicuous as the English.” Is nothing but an acknowledgement that the questioning nature of the British was greatly relevant in forming the British Empire. Throughout the book, he presents a strong case for doubt as the initiator of every good thing the world went through, every sage the world has listened to reach in the end, five demonstrated facts: (1) We are all universal doubters. (2) Doubt is essential to all consciousness. (3) Even habit, though confidence be the horse, has doubt sitting up behind. (4) Like pain or ignorance, doubt is a condition of real life. (5) And the sense of dependence, so general to human nature, gives rise to doubt, although also, like misery, it always seeks company--the company of nature, of man, of God. By proclaiming that we believe through our doubts; we believe, not in something apart, but in the very things we doubt, the author places this as an essential feature of our existence. 

Book Review: ‘GOVERNMENT FOR A NEW TOMORROW’

‘GOVERNMENT FOR A NEW TOMORROW’ by Anthony Horn begins with a thought provoking remark, 'that political parties always represent the extremes of opinion, always is the view, of only a negligible few'. The book tries to identify the problems of tomorrow, and examines sustainability, complexity, shortage of resources, and a few others.  Author notes, as estimated by scientists, while the world is busy adapting to Western levels of consumption (as they are rapidly doing), the resources of 'four planet Earths' will be required to support the population. At the same time, people can and want to throw off oppressive regimes. The present balance of international trade also is under threat, even though China is the largest lender of USA, it continues to get foreign aid from US. In search of a root cause, the book identifies that the various symptoms that we presently mistake as the cause for world problems, like overpopulation, needs to be examined further.

While examining human history from the very beginning, author finds that humans, abandoning their groups and communities, joined in favor of subservience and bondage to a larger body (powerful rulers, government). That was by believing a lie, that all our questions will be taken care of, and we will have nothing to worry about. We have been living in an artificial existence since then, and time is coming now to group ourselves according to our natural propensity. The author proposes concrete steps for achieving this, both for the United States and for rest of the world.

A set of questions and answers is provided in the book to further elaborate the proposal clearly, while answering many of the questions of its implementation.

I find, as the author has pointed out at many places in this book, the most significant problem facing modern communities, whether in governance, distribution of resources, meeting the needs of people, or of survival, is the alarming rise of world population. The author attributes this to our ‘unsuccessful’ living. He has a point I think. The increase in population is giving us a false sense of success, effectively barring us from realizing our failures. While reading the book, mainly owing to the nonconformist ideas encountered at each flip, I could find myself saddled with a lot of questions. The author foresaw this I think; an extensive set of questions and answers found at the end of the book was greatly helpful in clearing many of those. This book left me with a lot to think, especially after I closed the back cover.

Book Review: Stumbling on Happiness

‘Stumbling on Happiness’ by DANIEL GILBERT has the author wondering at the remarkable achievements of human brain. In Part I, the author identifies ‘making future’ as one of its main business and, along with the other feature of anticipating future, how, the impacts from unpleasant events are minimized. In Part II and part III of this book is found, an exploration into the science of happiness. How we beautifully steer ourselves toward the futures that we think will make us happy. Sometimes our journey takes us to unseen horizons, using our imaginations to look into time. Just as our eyes sometimes lead us to see things as they are not, our imaginations sometimes lead us to foresee things as they will not be. The shortcomings of imagination that give rise to the illusion of foresight are dealt in this book. When we come to Part IV, one of the principal causes of dismay, the wide difference between the products of imagination and the results of reality is analyzed, and how we adjust to our shortcoming in imagination. Thereafter in Part V, another major difficulty for we humans, how to reconcile with actual present, while maintaining that we are highly imaginative, is put to test. If we have trouble foreseeing future events, then we have even more trouble foreseeing how we will see them when they happen. Finally, in Part VI illusions of foresight are examined. Like why we remember our previous mistakes more often than our appropriate responses, just because mistakes were unusual. As our ability to simulate future selves and future circumstances is by no means perfect, and as we imagine future feelings, we find it impossible to ignore what we are feeling now and impossible to recognize how we will think about the things that happen later, we end up stumbling on happiness.

This is an interesting book, a page turner. Witty observations, interesting narratives and sharp, incisive comments make this an engaging one.  For example, about futuristic literature, the author says, “If you leaf through a few of them, you quickly notice that each of these books says more about the times in which it was written than about the times it was meant to foretell”. A rich collection of anecdotes and real life stories enliven the ambience. I could notice one thing protruding, though the author mentions in the book that certain corrective measures are suggested to improve our ability to predict correctly, the relevant discussion could have touched these issues a little more deeply.

Thoroughly enjoyable and informative.

Book Review:‘SELECTIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY’ by DESCARTES

‘SELECTIONS FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY’ by DESCARTES begins by according philosophy, high status, as the science of wisdom. The book also says, “in order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, all things.” The author divides the whole work into four parts, the first of which contains the principles of human knowledge, and which may be called the First Philosophy, or Metaphysics. The other three parts contain all that is most general in Physics, namely, the explication of the first laws or principles of nature, and the way in which the heavens, the fixed stars, the planets, comets, and generally the whole universe, were composed; in the next place, the explication, in particular, of the nature of this earth, the air, water, fire, the magnet, which are the bodies we most commonly find everywhere around it, and of all the qualities we observe in these bodies, as light, heat, gravity, and the like.

The complete book is in fact made up of about 207 independent paragraphs, each dealing with one specific question. Like “Why we may also doubt of mathematical demonstrations?”, What thought (COGITATIO) is, and why, I think, is superior to other expressions like, I see, or, I walk. Who can fail to notice the beauty in his reasoning? For example, see his treatment of errors, “The chief cause of our errors is to be found in the prejudices of our childhood. The second cause of our errors is that we cannot forget these prejudices. The third cause is, that we become fatigued by attending to those objects which are not present to the senses; and that we are thus accustomed to judge of these not from present perception but from pre-conceived opinion. The fourth source of our errors is, that we attach our thoughts to words which do not express them with accuracy”, or his assessment of the material world, where he says, “the perceptions of the senses do not teach us what is in reality in things, but what is beneficial or hurtful to the composite whole of mind and body”. I found the ideas quite illuminating, and the book as a whole, an excellent read. The book ended with another declaration that the author “desires no one to believe anything that may have been said, unless he is constrained to admit it by the force of evidence and reason”.

A Thorough Review of The Unsure Male

A exhaustive review of my work 'The Unsure Male' is published by Author Ingrid Hall.
https://ingridhall.wordpress.com/tag/the-unsure-male/
"...While I didn’t completely agree with all the topics presented in the book, there were several areas that made complete sense. The Unsure Male presents topics that should be further discussed. In other ways, it also helps to explain how people act in different ways."
http://www.amazon.com/Unsure-Male-male-always-Hurry-ebook/dp/B00UYDTWZM
Short link:  getBook.at/theunsuremale

Man can't find what is good for him, but as men, they however do

I Published another Hub!

All that is unpleasant with our world can also be traced to the agitation we continuously cause to the world, either due to  the efforts each one of us take to show their intelligence or, the struggle we as groups take to counter that. Is it that our idea about intelligense is wrong? Published a hub on this topic
http://hubpages.com/education/manmaynotbeintelligent