Word of the Day – Akrasia
I was just watching a YouTube video overview of philosophy, created by what was likely a student who just read a few text books. But, interesting none the less.
The creator said her understanding of philosophy is that is leads thinkers to knowledge and develops critical thinking vs. religion that is more about aligning with a set way of thinking. It makes sense. Some people might think that rethinking everything and keeping an open mind is best, rather than sticking to one idea or way of thinking even when significant changes occur.
Society changes and we as a group change. Circumstances change. People change and we should all be free to rethink how we think about anything, as we gather new details, learn more about ourselves and each other and discover new facts.
Thinking of religion as a restrictive tenant of thinking is, IMO, not the best way of thinking about it. While there are certainly some parts of our lives that should be reviewed regularly, religion does help to provide an answer when an answer may be impossibly complicated or just impossible.
Akrasia, the word of the day, is a state of lack of control. It sounds like ‘crazy’ because crazy is likely the root of Akrasia. I would define a crazy person as someone who makes decisions with either a gross lack of information or an unwillingness to explore details or review facts, in many cases because they just want to believe what they want to believe.
Is it crazy to just accept things and not think about them. Maybe. The lack of a decision in some situations can be equally unsettling. The abortion debate, for example, really has no right answer. Read my article on the abortion debate. When does life begin?
In college, I found philosophy very frustrating. At the time, I was struggling to create some foundational thoughts to guide me through some challenging times and I needed some answers, not pondering. I was led to pull back from thinking, to a degree, and stick to what I knew at the time. Anytime I tried to go outside of that basic thinking, people would call me weird and I would withdraw again.
I am currently opening back up and exploring new parts of my life, including the people in it. Some people might call me crazy or weird, but I have to do it in order to give myself some kind of purpose. I need to continue to learn because, as one philosopher said once, I heard, an unexamined life is not worth living.
