Getting things right requires triangulating with other people. Psychologists therefore would do well to ask whether "metacognition" (thinking about your own thinking) is at bottom a social phenomenon. It typically happens in conversation—not idle chitchat, but the kind that aims to get to the bottom of things. I call this an "art" because it requires both tact and doggedness. And I call it a moral accomplishment because to be good at this kind of conversation you have to love truth more than you love your own current state of understanding. That is, of course, an unusual priority to have, which may help to account for the rarity of real mastery in any pursuit.
-Matthew B. Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment