metonymy4u

Trying to figure out the logic of a disagreeable emotion is like trying to figure out the logic of catching the flu. It can be more effective to figure out how to recover from the illness, rather than figuring out all the whences and wherefores. Our obsession with causes is a feature of our Judeo-Christian-Freudian-Quest-Messianic cultural habits of the past 2500 years. Modern science has become quite comfortable with the fact that we know that we don’t know. For example, we now know that we can’t know everything there is to know about the electron: we can know its position but not its velocity or we can know its velocity but not its position (the Heisenberg uncertainty principle). These days, science uses probabilistic models as readily as deterministic models. I believe we would be well served by learning to apply this approach to our thoughts and emotions as well.