I was talking to a friend (TV) yesterday. I read to him the following quote:
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." - by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I then read to him this quote :
"To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality... Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." - Ayn Rand.
I didn't tell him who authored either of the quotes. I asked him what his feedback was.
He said that if one had to survive, one had to be flexible and compromise and not insist on having no contradiction in one's actions.
He gave a few examples.
In all the examples above my friend a P (actually ENTP as in MBTI), was holding survival as a focus. An action or thought that violated survival was rejected in favor of one that ensured it so long as it was not illegal.
Of course I am not sure whether my friend believed in the examples he gave or he was just throwing theoretical stuff at me that he didn't seriously believe in.
I countered with the example of Harischandra, a mythical king who upheld his values at dire consequences to himself.
So what does this (conversation) mean?
Ayn Rand's belief was seen by my friend as being not conducive to survival - which is true in a way. All her heroes escaped to Galt's Gulch. A focus on fitting in to things around us implies allowing contradiction to exist and compromise to exist and that is the key to survival.
My friend also pointed out that in real life for every Harischandra who survived, a hundred would have perished.
And I did read somewhere that Ayn Rand committed suicide. This article (http://selfexistingbeing.blogspot.in/2010/04/on-ayn-rand-suicide.html) referring to Osho's opinion of Ayn Rand and rationality is mind boggling.
Additional reading
https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/02/intelligence-and-personality-disorder.html
I didn't tell him who authored either of the quotes. I asked him what his feedback was.
He said that if one had to survive, one had to be flexible and compromise and not insist on having no contradiction in one's actions.
He gave a few examples.
- A company could take an action in order to survive in the long term - an action that contradicts the company's values. This is justified in order to survive, he explained.
- A strict vegetarian stuck in a forest may resort to eating meat if he knew that help was just ten days away and he had to only manage somehow for those ten days. A more real life example is cannibalism under the same circumstances. Again a tradeoff or compromise is essential if one has to survive.
- A parent with two children may put in all the effort to ensure a good life for the elder child knowing fully well that this may cause harm (or be unfair) to the younger child. I am reminded of a desperately hungry crocodile, going with its small ones in search of water, may eat one of its small ones so as to reduce need for food as well as to partially quench its hunger. A survival strategy.
In all the examples above my friend a P (actually ENTP as in MBTI), was holding survival as a focus. An action or thought that violated survival was rejected in favor of one that ensured it so long as it was not illegal.
Of course I am not sure whether my friend believed in the examples he gave or he was just throwing theoretical stuff at me that he didn't seriously believe in.
I countered with the example of Harischandra, a mythical king who upheld his values at dire consequences to himself.
So what does this (conversation) mean?
Ayn Rand's belief was seen by my friend as being not conducive to survival - which is true in a way. All her heroes escaped to Galt's Gulch. A focus on fitting in to things around us implies allowing contradiction to exist and compromise to exist and that is the key to survival.
My friend also pointed out that in real life for every Harischandra who survived, a hundred would have perished.
And I did read somewhere that Ayn Rand committed suicide. This article (http://selfexistingbeing.blogspot.in/2010/04/on-ayn-rand-suicide.html) referring to Osho's opinion of Ayn Rand and rationality is mind boggling.
Additional reading
https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/02/intelligence-and-personality-disorder.html
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