So one day you’re lying in bed reading Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. You reach a part where he discusses the character and mind of the bourgeois and WHAM, you realize that you are not the Steppenwolf or the genius outsider that you thought you were, but rather the bourgeois average Joe Schmo. Having been attracted to the idea of everything that the outsider stands for and resenting the mediocrity of normal existence you choose not to remain average but instead to try and better your mind and harden your character. Is this possible?
Now I’m not talking about educating oneself further, we are assuming that this particular bourgeois is well educated, we are talking about a sharpening of the mind to the point where this person can rise above the mediocrity of normal existence.
Is your mind restricted like the 100m Sprinter who trains and trains and uses all sorts of drugs but cannot crack that 10 second barrier because of the limitations of his body?
Basically what I’m trying to ask is, is the potential of your mind finite? Is there a point that a particular individual will hit that he or she cannot develop past, no matter how much mental training they do? What is character and can it be molded once it has taken shape?
Originally posted by Black LungI'd say yes, if only because our lives are finite: everyone from a professor to a prostitute has 24 hours in their day, and is unlikely to live much past their first century, if at all. So while you can certainly be better than average at something, there are limits to how much you 'mental training' you can do.
So one day you’re lying in bed reading Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. You reach a part where he discusses the character and mind of the bourgeois and WHAM, you realize that you are not the Steppenwolf or the genius outsider that you thought ...[text shortened]... What is character and can it be molded once it has taken shape?
However, I do think it's the case that in the bulk of the population (maybe not at the extremes), if you're strong in some mental discipline like chess or mathematics it's because you have a little talent and a lot of practice. What happens with maths at school, for example, is that people who are inherently maybe slightly worse or just poorly taught fall behind, become disillusioned with the subject and pay less attention to it in future, while those who have an aptitude for it and are encouraged by their teachers grow in enthusiasm and devote more of their attention to it, thus learning more quickly and thoroughly than their peers. In this way, people's 'genetic' aptitudes are greatly amplified by the choices they are led to make in life, with plenty of random noise thrown in from outside influences.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'sharpening of the mind' in general - intelligence is a much trickier concept than physical strength. What you can do is encourage your mind to think in certain ways, but who's to say whch are the 'good' and 'bad' ways of thinking? For example, a taxi driver may be inclined to think spatially and in terms of pathways, whereas an agony aunt would tend towards an emotional analysis (not necessarily her own emotions, but using emotions as a mode of understanding others). It may be that Hesse holds logical reasoning in high regard, for example - you can train yourself in that, but your 'intuition' (mystical word for subconscious reasoning) might suffer.
By a sharpening of the mind I am refering to a focussing of awareness, a genaral increasing of ones' depth of perception of the world around you. An evolution of the mind, so to speak.
Coming from an entirely non-theistic point of view I don't believe that this evolution of the mind would come from a higher power but rather from the efforts of the individual. Ultimately one would hope to develop a more analytic mind, a mind that not only notices more in the world around him or her but is better able to understand the relationships of elements within this environment. By better understanding how your world acts and is interacted upon, one is better equiped to deal with the challenges life throughs at you. Well at least that's my motivation for why I would want to 'Sharpen the Mind'
I think that this relates back to the theme of quality, is the quality of you mind finite? Can you only develop to a certain point and then stop?
"To be human and mortal. Then to recognize the futility of being. This is the first step to becoming human."
Another famous old saying I just made up.
As I grow older, the futility of "being" labors against the optimistic youth that I was.
You can "improve" if you succeed in your mind. You and I will never impress others. Sorry. That is the rule. And we must abide by the rules.
Originally posted by Black LungAs far as I know there is no way of altering your senses by force of will alone. However, most of our perception of the world is mental inference - our sight, hearing, taste etc are much more limited than we realise, because we subconsciously do such a good job of filling in the gaps.
By a sharpening of the mind I am refering to a focussing of awareness, a genaral increasing of ones' depth of perception of the world around you. An evolution of the mind, so to speak.
Coming from an entirely non-theistic point of view I don't believe that this evolution of the mind would come from a higher power but rather from the efforts of the in ...[text shortened]... ality, is the quality of you mind finite? Can you only develop to a certain point and then stop?
A more analytic mind is not necessarily a better one. Humans can show a range of responses to a stimulus from reflex (doesn't even reach the brain) to careful contemplation. The trade-off is between the amount and sophistication of the analysis, and the amount of neuron-hours spent on the task. If you want to be able to make quicker decisions, you'll find that either you have to concentrate harder on making them or you'll have to imprint some 'rules of thumb' or shortcuts into your reasoning, usually both (and both happen by themselves, concentration after a short while and shortcuts after repeated practice). Concentration comes at the cost of being less receptive to other matters which may affect the validity of your decision; shortcuts come at the cost of reduced flexibility of reasoning, to the point where you must unlearn them when the situation changes.
I don't like the word 'quality' when it comes to minds, as it implies that there is some standard to measure them against. 'Power' is better, but in overall terms this may vary in the population by no more than height. Where minds diverge enormously is in specialisation. Different people have different priorities - mental training is all about channelling the power your brain already has in the directions you want it to go.