Cause and Effect
The more I think about it, the more I realize that playing mental chess of cause and effect can potentially be very destructive. We're hard-wired to do it, that much is for sure. Our minds silently chug away, attributing causes to the events that ripple through our lives. The process is instinctive, but it can be very irrational also - sometimes, it might be outright idiotic if you sit down to think about it.
A form of the irrationality of cause and effect is superstition. I walk under a ladder and I think I'm going to have bad luck. Then something bad does wind up happening - even if it's a week later, I immediately attribute it to the damn ladder. In my mind, that connection works, it's perfect, it fits. Except that it's completely irrational and makes no sense whatsoever.
Superstition is just one example - in our everyday lives, there are much more mundane examples of the cause and effect illusion in play. Everyone is under their own unique spell under this illusion. I think there's nothing 'wrong' with this - it's as normal as anything else. The only point at which one should force rationalization to take over is when the effect gives one either an extreme high or an extreme low. If a hot girl winks at me, I could attribute this to a cause: that she's madly in love with me. I could be in ecstacy for days on end, planning our future together. Before things get this out of hand, I have to enforce the rationality that a) I've never even met the girl before and b) it was mighty windy that day and she probably had something in her eye.
If I weren't feeling lazy right now, I could make a similar example for the low. But hopefully, you get my drift. The example I gave is pretty silly, but I think if you look closely, you might see examples in your life where the cause and effect reflex is not so silly. Hell, it might even be a bit dire. Maybe you'll decide it's time you've gotten tired of playing by it's irrational rules, and that it's time for some plain, clean rationality.
Good for you if you do.
posted by Hasnain at 8:18 AM
14 Comments:
but how can it be shown that we are being rational? In the midst of countless possible causes, we can never know the exact cause unless alternative causes are falsified so that we can zero down on the main reason. Is that practical? The best way would be to ask the girl "why the heck did you wink?" instead of conjuring up plethora of causes and effects in one's mind's eye.
8:50 PM
FINALLY u r back with blogging man- gud to c that- very nice selection of topic although i feel u cud've written much more on it as its too interesting
"You dont see things as they are but as you are"-Talmud
although it seems just another sentence but if u apply it universally, its an extremely deep thought and a fact of life whether science, philosophy, psychology, daily life experiences and so on.
let me give u example
a person was pathetic at studies in university A (bachelors) but then topped in university B (masters). there cud b 2 reasons:
1. university B is inferior to A
2. person starting working hard in university B
a reasonable person as Wahabi very rightly pointed out wud evaluate both the change in uni and change in person but now referring to the saying above- someone who dislikes the person wud instantly jump to conclusion 1. similarly someone who likes the person wud stick to conclusion 2.
lets take it to a more serious level
A calamity strucks a momin, he instantly starts repentance because he sees something wrong with his deeds. The same event strucks a non-momin, he starts saying things like "haye yeh Allah nay hamaray saath he karna tha" because he sees faults not in him
Charles Darwin saw his small daughter dying in suffering and turned against God. Saaed Anwar saw the same happen to his daughter and found God
but the problem the more the intense impact of an event on our emotions, the higher the prob of we losing our rationales and attributing to a false cause
12:10 AM
"You dont see things as they are but as you are"-Talmud -> Aadil, that's just simply beautiful. I think that perfectly encapsulates the idea I was trying to convey.
Wahabi, I agree that it's impossible to be perfectly rational. However, one tendency we always have is to try and rationalize everything down to the last detail. This is a cliche, but instead of looking at the forest, it's very much natural to try and figure out the atoms in a leaf of a tree in the forest. However, the latter will not tell one whether the forest is located in North America.
I'm going off on a tangent here from my original post, but in the same way, I think rationalization should always be done at a high-level, back-of-envelope kind of way. Instead of looking at the leaves (what was the kind of wink she gave me? Did she smile when she winked? Was there someone behind me at the time?), look at the forest (a wink doesn't mean anything). Or something to that effect.
That said, I'm guilty of not walking the walk myself. It's just quite hard to do.
6:53 PM
Btw, Aadil, I forgot to comment on this but your examples illustrate the cause and effect tendency very well. I love the contrast you present betweeen Charles Darwin and Saaed Anwar.
6:55 PM
@ Hasnain: some find beauty after superficially looking at the mist-filled forest (mystics, sages, ascetics) while others will find beauty in the intricate details of mechanisms of chloroplasts within those leaves (scientists). What matters is that we acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of beauty's Creator.
7:19 PM
@Wahabi: Can't argue with that! Peace :)
1:43 PM
my blog updated
11:42 AM
I've always noticed that no matter what people believe, the things they see always seem to confirm their beliefs. I'm glad somebody else has noticed.
It's very difficult to look at the world dispassionately. I would probably have a good amount of respect for anybody who can be "rational," as you say.
But I think nothing need be added after Aadil's quote from the Talmud.
3:08 PM
@ Greg: Thanks for your comments. Actually, I wasn't suggesting being completely rational all the time - I think that's really difficult, if not outrightly impossible.
But maybe it's easier to be rational in cases where this cause/effect behavior is too extreme. Maybe the absurdity of the cause one attributes to an effect can be used as a clue that there's something not all together right in one's thinking.
That'd be irrationality breeding rationality...hmmm...
6:50 AM
Hey Hasnain, the other day I walked across a goat and it came up to me and kicked me in the nuts, do you think thats irrational or what ?
10:43 PM
@ Weekends of fun - LOL!! I think irrational or not, you and that goat must have gotten a room shortly afterwards :).
5:07 AM
u r the one who inspired me to start blog, full update maar yara
6:58 AM
I GUESS ITS TIME TO UPDATE UR BLOG :)
1:11 AM
good
9:43 AM
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