People lacking in introspection

[Brian63]

Over the nearly 40 years I have been here on this planet, one thing that is abundantly clear is how ubiquitous it is for people to lack introspection. They make choices without thinking about their long-term impacts, do not concern themselves with trying to improve their critical thinking skills, do not care if their philosophies and worldviews are coherent/contradictory or sensical/nonsensical, just behave in line with whatever the social norms are around them and never consider breaking them, do not observe what their own biases are, etc. For the most part, people seem to just go on living their life very loosely and casually, behaving without thinking to any significant depth. They may spend a lot of time thinking about their choices, but again it is shallow and superficial thinking. The momentum of their already-passed life is what steers and fuels them, and they do not consider stopping or changing directions.

As an approximately 10-year-old in church I would be quietly looking around at the adults around me and thinking “Do you seriously believe all this stuff about a talking snake?” Also starting to wonder how to verify that our beliefs are right, and how what the priest was saying was true. It is also amazing how quickly young adults jump into marriage, when really they do not understand the implications of that decision. There have been debates where I argued that I think it is a personal error for people to get married, and I am surprised by the rebuttals I often hear. It is not that they had considered my point of view at the moment they got married and disagreed with it. Instead, they admit that they had never considered it before. Soooooo…..you have been alive and married for several decades now to a particular individual, and these basic thoughts have ***never*** swirled inside your head at all? You have been a religious fundamentalist all your life and never realized what a pathetic asshole your Pascal’s Wager argument makes of your god? You do not care about your moral hypocrisies in your day-to-day activities or overall worldviews? You will just keep doing what you are doing, even after the moral flaws are explicitly pointed out. As a mere 10-year-old kid sitting in the pew I was already having thoughts that you never had in the decades you have been alive on this planet? That is not meant to toot my own horn, just pointing out how amazingly common it is that people do not think about their beliefs at even the most basic levels of self-criticism.

Sometimes I wish I could jump into minds of people who are so overwhelmingly lacking in introspection, or are apathetic about it. Sometimes that idea is too scary. How vacuous are those minds? I have long been interested in ensuring that the beliefs I hold are actually true, not just beliefs that get me through the day. None of us are perfectly introspective, but we can still see some strong contrasts. Even religious apologists who spend time and effort to study philosophical arguments for and against theism/atheism are preferable to the lay-believers who believe…just because they do. Does anyone admit to previously carrying this attitude firsthand, to a significant degree? What does it feel like to not be introspective, or does it simply not generate a feeling at all (because you were oblivious to it, or apathetic about it)? How can people be encouraged to care about their own worldview, and whether it is true or not? To think about the veracity of their own beliefs and importance of their own decisions?

 

[ideologyhunter]

Well, at least we have some paragons to even the score. John Stuart Mill, John Keats, Mark Twain, H L Mencken, Charles Darwin, Shakespeare.

 

[Angry Floof]

It's easy enough to teach young children to self reflect. It's just not really something we value enough as a culture. People want to do things that make their kids smart and successful and follow the rules they set forth for them. We don't widely value things like teaching your kids how to disagree with you or how to question at all, much less question themselves.

 

[Rhea]

I spent some years in my youth lacking introspection. It was not something I noticed the lack of until I started a deliberate path. Interestingly, I feel that my memories of that time lack durability - and that is probably related to the lack of depth at the time.

 

[Speakpigeon]

For the most part, people seem to just go on living their life very loosely and casually, behaving without thinking to any significant depth. They may spend a lot of time thinking about their choices, but again it is shallow and superficial thinking. The momentum of their already-passed life is what steers and fuels them, and they do not consider stopping or changing directions.

I'm not clear what you think is the problem. You could say what you say here of a cow and yet cows are very useful and harmless, mostly, and indeed we tend to like them. So, what's the beef? People are what they are and for my part I thank not only the whole universe for making sure I have all I need but I also thank all these people who may lack introspection but selflessly do all the work necessary to my well-being without even thinking about it! Do you blame bees for lacking introspection? Me, I just enjoy the honey and the business of their frantic lives. And for solace, I can read Descartes and Aristotle. What's to ask beyond that?
EB

 

[bilby]

I don't even want to think about what it would be like to lack introspection.

 

[just_me]

I try to take an internal inventory of who and where I am every 6 months, just to see if I'm making any progress on where I want to take myself and whose reflection I see in the mirror. I think people who lack introspection are either afraid of what they may find or so insecure that they manufacture a strong front that makes looking beneath that gruff exterior a liability.

I know that I am rather insecure, but I try to embrace that and show my vulnerabilities rather than try to hide them and end up flying off the handle when someone inadvertently touches a mental wound.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I sometimes think that I might lack introspection, but I've never really looked hard enough into my feelings and motivations to be able to say one way or the other.

 

[Rhea]

I try to take an internal inventory of who and where I am every 6 months, just to see if I'm making any progress on where I want to take myself and whose reflection I see in the mirror. I think people who lack introspection are either afraid of what they may find or so insecure that they manufacture a strong front that makes looking beneath that gruff exterior a liability.

I know that I am rather insecure, but I try to embrace that and show my vulnerabilities rather than try to hide them and end up flying off the handle when someone inadvertently touches a mental wound.

I am extremely secure. And was even mre so in my youth when I did not think deeply about who I was or how I lived. Blithely certain of my security. I would say the introspecion and the security are not likely to corrolate.

 

[rousseau]

I think people who lack introspection don't actually lack introspection, which basically amounts to thinking, they just aren't aware enough to do it well, and may also not be aware enough to realize their own lack of awareness. Basically, it's a problem of epistemology - you don't know what you don't know.

Consider how much meaningful introspection an eight year old should be able to do. Essentially none because there is little material (knowledge) to introspect with. This problem should fade with time, depending on how effectively a person learns from experience.

 

[Speakpigeon]

I would say the introspecion and the security are not likely to corrolate.

Well, it depends on people. I've always been much too introspective since always and yet I've never felt insecure, and this even though I spent most of my life rather close to the edge. So, maybe a sense of insecurity breeds a particular kind of introspection but introspection doesn't cause the feeling of insecurity.
EB

 

[just_me]

I try to take an internal inventory of who and where I am every 6 months, just to see if I'm making any progress on where I want to take myself and whose reflection I see in the mirror. I think people who lack introspection are either afraid of what they may find or so insecure that they manufacture a strong front that makes looking beneath that gruff exterior a liability.

I know that I am rather insecure, but I try to embrace that and show my vulnerabilities rather than try to hide them and end up flying off the handle when someone inadvertently touches a mental wound.

I am extremely secure. And was even mre so in my youth when I did not think deeply about who I was or how I lived. Blithely certain of my security. I would say the introspecion and the security are not likely to corrolate.

My insecurity only makes me worry more about my decisions and who would or wouldn't approve. Introspection is increased as what is found there is questioned more. All insecurity does is waste time and endangers relationships.

 

[Toni]

I would say the introspecion and the security are not likely to corrolate.

Well, it depends on people. I've always been much too introspective since always and yet I've never felt insecure, and this even though I spent most of my life rather close to the edge. So, maybe a sense of insecurity breeds a particular kind of introspection but introspection doesn't cause the feeling of insecurity.
EB

I've long been accused of and have acknowledged that I tend to live too much in my head. I've been like that as long as I can remember.

Of course I am insecure about some things but, oddly enough, I tend to mull over what makes me insecure much less than other things that I simply find more interesting....

And after some consideration, I realize that some things that I am insecure about, I simply refuse to think about (consciously, anyways....)

 

[Speakpigeon]

I've long been accused of and have acknowledged that I tend to live too much in my head. I've been like that as long as I can remember.

Of course I am insecure about some things but, oddly enough, I tend to mull over what makes me insecure much less than other things that I simply find more interesting....

And after some consideration, I realize that some things that I am insecure about, I simply refuse to think about (consciously, anyways....)

Maybe it's just the realisation you can't do much about your own insecurity or even about the possible reasons or causes of it.

Introspection may in some cases be a way not to face the real problems.

It could be a safeguard mechanism whereby the brain makes sure you think out of the box and find a way to get you out of an unsafe situation.

Still, it's true introspection doesn't contribute to Global Warming contrary to most other activities people do.
EB

 

[Brian63]

I've always been much too introspective...

How can you tell that you are *too* introspective? If your introspection does not result in you being insecure, does it manifest in some other way mentally? Or more of a suspicion that you needed to spend more time just having fun and less time reflectively focused?

I enjoy thinking about abstract topics, and challenging my own presumptions is (sometimes) fun, so would not consider myself *too* introspective by doing so. How else would you gauge that your level of introspection is too much though?

 

[southernhybrid]

Being introspective doesn't necessarily equate with being rational. One of my sisters is extremely introspective but she's also religious and suffers from an anxiety disorder. She's very educated, although not as smart as she claims to be. Plus one can always compartmentalize certain things and be very rational and thoughtful about other things. How else do we explain why so many American physicians are Christians? Think of all the science courses they take and then try to understand how they still believe in the supernatural, sometimes to the extreme. There was a doctor in my town that insisted on praying with her patients before she cared for them. Many years ago I had an atheist patient who complained about her to me, so I helped her find another doctor. That second one was Hindu, but she didn't mix her practice with her religion. For all I know she might have been a Hindu atheist. I think my own former doctor was an atheist. I asked her one day if she was and her answer was, "I would never admit that in public". I asked her because she was always claiming to be a skeptic.

 

[Angry Floof]

There's introspection and then there's neuroticism.

 

[Speakpigeon]

I've always been much too introspective...

How can you tell that you are *too* introspective? If your introspection does not result in you being insecure, does it manifest in some other way mentally? Or more of a suspicion that you needed to spend more time just having fun and less time reflectively focused?

I enjoy thinking about abstract topics, and challenging my own presumptions is (sometimes) fun, so would not consider myself *too* introspective by doing so. How else would you gauge that your level of introspection is too much though?

I suspect introspectiveness is one limited aspect of a particular way that a brain can work and it is my assessment that most people's brain doesn't work like that. People like me are still around so perhaps it's not much of a problem but it does put you somewhat on the outside of the pack. Most people do focus on financial and practical questions, or on things like watching sport workers work. Whoa. Me, I feel closer to shamans and to the Pope than to hard working brutes. I'm fine but I don't think society would work if I was in the majority. And I can think of a few useful things I could do that I don't because I prefer to pursue my interests in abstractions.

Still, I wouldn't want to generalise my case. Maybe you can live a socially responsible life and still enjoy an introspective life. Maybe it's a matter of finding a social role compatible with your introspective inclination. Maybe one could find synergies, like, well, shamans or the Pope have.
EB

 

[Speakpigeon]

There's introspection and then there's neuroticism.

Yeah. Seems to me there are more neurotic people than introspective ones. I don't think there's any connection. Maybe there is not one normal human being, only a lot of different ways of being abnormal. Many friends in my youth were weird each in his own way. Same during my military service, including officers. And the ones who looked normal maybe were smart enough to pretend they were. How many times do you learn that some public figure you thought normal was in fact enjoying all along doing weird things. And just look here. Seems we have a large motley collection of freaks. But that's how society works. Normal people on their own would probably sink the ship.
EB

 

[Angry Floof]

There's introspection and then there's neuroticism.

Yeah. Seems to me there are more neurotic people than introspective ones. I don't think there's any connection. Maybe there is not one normal human being, only a lot of different ways of being abnormal. Many friends in my youth were weird each in his own way. Same during my military service, including officers. And the ones who looked normal maybe were smart enough to pretend they were. How many times do you learn that some public figure you thought normal was in fact enjoying all along doing weird things. And just look here. Seems we have a large motley collection of freaks. But that's how society works. Normal people on their own would probably sink the ship.
EB

"Normal" is mainly just the ability to conform to social conditioning anyway.