Doubt and Frustration
Today a friend of mine paid me a compliment. Yes, it happens seldom enough that I have to chronicle it here for posterity. Actually, I’m not sure he knew it was a compliment. We were discussing some basics of epistemology and he stated that he is always frustrated after talking with me. In particular he is frustrated because after our conversations, or perhaps during, certain inconsistencies in his world view are shoved to the foreground. I know, you (someone is reading this, right?) may be wondering why I consider frustrating a friend of mine something of a compliment. First, a bit of clarity. When my friend says he is frustrated I take him to mean that he is dismayed that his seemingly neat and organized view of the world is not so neat after all. This dismay turns to frustration when he realizes that it is going to take some mental exertion to discover the truth.
Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to tie in Plato to this situation. In the Meno, Socrates has a similar experience.
80A – “Socrates, I used to be told, before I began to meet you, that yours was just a case of being in doubt yourself and making other doubt also; and so now I find you are merely bewitching me with your spells and incantations, which have reduced me to utter perplexity.” – Meno
Meno, I think, experiences something quite similar. His experience with some of the poets led him to uncritically accept certain “opinions” as fact. During the course of their dialogue Meno realizes that his ideas are, in fact, false. This causes Meno some momentary distress as he grapples with the consequences with this realization.
No, I’m not equating myself to Socrates or my friend to Meno. This is a situation than many of us get into when we move from casual conversation to serious inquiry. When we move to this sort of dialogue we can be sure we will discover flaws in our perceptions and ideas. Socrates intention was not too “win” (whatever that means) the argument, but to come to valid conclusions, and hopefully, a clearer understanding of the topic being discussed. The challenge, and one I think Socrates met successfully, is what we do when we are confronted with a reasonable proposition that contradicts what we would like the world to be. Unfortunately, Meno chose to continue living in a dream. Meno chose to bend reality to his liking rather than bend his thoughts toward reality.
So, whenever I receive a comment such as this I know we are doing some heavy lifting and are well on our way to discovering truth. Are we really ready to follow it where it leads? Thanks for the compliment.