THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 22

How can thinking of an elephant better help us understand the way humans think?

  

Subject: System 1 and 2 - Jonathan Haidt’s Rider and Elephant

Event:  National Elephant Appreciation Day

  

September 22 is National Elephant Appreciation Day. The day was created in 1996 by Wayne Hepburn, owner of Mission Media.  Hepburn’s fascination with our largest land mammal began when his daughter gave him an elephant paperweight (1).

There’s an old story about an elephant, a parable about how we can be bound by our beliefs or our limited imaginations.  One day, a man was walking the grounds of a circus.  Just outside a tent, he saw a huge, fully grown adult male elephant tied to a stake.  All that was holding the great beast from breaking free was a small, thin rope tied to his front leg.  The man spied a trainer nearby and inquired about the elephant, asking why the elephant made no attempt to break free since he could clearly snap the rope with ease.  The trainer responded saying, “It’s all about conditioning.  When this elephant was an infant, the rope was strong enough to hold him in place, so he grew up believing the rope could hold him.  Now that he’s fully grown, he’s conditioned, so he never tries to break free.”

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

While the above elephant-related story tells us a bit about thinking, there’s an elephant-related metaphor that gives us prodigious insight into the nature of human thinking.  The metaphor was created by psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book The Happiness Hypothesis where he was trying to illustrate the two independent thinking systems at work in the human brain.  The first system is the emotional, automatic system. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for his research on behavioral economics, calls this the brain’s System 1.  Haidt, however, gives it a bit more life by calling it the elephant brain.  This is the brain’s autopilot system that developed early in evolution.  The elephant brain works on instinct and intuition, allowing us to think without conscious thinking to make quick decisions.  Haidt calls the second system (Kahneman’s System 2) the rider.  It’s the rational, more evolved, and much newer part of the brain.    The rider controls the intentional systems of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex where the executive functions are housed.  Perched atop the elephant, but nevertheless, largely outweighed, the rational rider attempts to steer and control the movements of the elephant.  The elephant brain functions with much less effort, while the rider’s conscious, deliberate thinking takes more effort.  

Haidt’s metaphor of the rider and the elephant reminds us that although we like to think that we are evolved, rational beings guided by logic instead of emotion, the reality is that the elephant may really be in charge.  As the Scottish philosopher David Hume said, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them” (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are the contrasting thinking systems represented by the elephant and the rider?

Challenge - The Elephant in the Room:  Another opportunity for human insight via the elephant comes from John Godfrey Saxe’s classic poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant.”  Read the poem carefully, and then write your interpretation of it.  What insight does the poem give us about perception?

The Blind Men and the Elephant

It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined,

who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),

that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,

against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!"

The second feeling of the tusk, cried: "Ho! what have we here,

so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,

this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!"

The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,

the squirming trunk within his hands, "I see," quoth he,

the elephant is very like a snake!"

The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:

"What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain," quoth he;

"Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree."

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; "E'en the blindest man

can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!"

The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,

than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,

"I see," quoth he, "the elephant is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,

each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,

tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,

and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!

Also on This Day:

September 22, 1692:  On this day the last eight people were hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.  In total, twenty people were executed. 

September 22, 1862:  Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which warned the Confederate states that if they did not rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in those states would be freed.  The Civil War was still raging, but the Union had just claimed a victory at the Battle of Antietam on September 17th, the single bloodiest single-day battle in American history.  Prior to the Proclamation, Lincoln had not issued any anti-slavery proclamations, maintaining that the war was more about preserving the Union than about ending slavery.  Issuing the Proclamation changed this.  Now support for the Confederacy translated to support for the institution of slavery.  This discouraged anti-slavery countries like England and France from intervening in support of the South. When the Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, no slaves were actually freed because it applied only to the Confederate states that were still at war with the Union.  It did, however, change the moral tone of the war, making it not just a struggle to save the Union, but also a battle to support human freedom.  It also set the stage for the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, which put a permanent end to slavery in the United States (4).

Sources:

1-Daysoftheyear.com.  Elephant Appreciation Day.

2-Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2006.

3.  Saxe, John Godfrey.  “The Blind Men and the Elephant.”  1872 Public Domain.

4-http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/emancipation-150/10-facts.html

5-”The Founding Moment.”  peacecorps.gov.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 21

What is the connection between the actor Bill Murray and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche? 

  

Subject: Amor Fati - Groundhog Day, The Movie

Event:  Birthday of Bill Murray, 1950

Cease to fume at destiny by ever grumbling at today or lamenting over tomorrow. -Marcus Aurelius

What if there were no tomorrow?  What if, instead, each day were the same day -- day after day ad infinitum.  This is the premise of the 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, who was born on this day in 1950.  In the film, Murray plays a self-consumed Pittsburgh weatherman who travels to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities.  When he wakes the next morning, Connors discovers that it is not, in fact, the day after Groundhog Day; instead, it is once again February Second, Groundhog Day.

Image by Karen Burke from Pixabay

For the rest of the film, Phil struggles to cope and adapt to his fate, living the same day over and over.  At first, he faces disbelief, then desperation, then decadence, and then depression.  Finally, near the film’s end, he begins to embrace his fate and look beyond his own selfish desires.  Rather than seeing each day as a living nightmare, Phil now sees each day as an opportunity to serve others.

When the film Groundhog Day first came out in 1993, most saw it as merely another entertaining romantic comedy; however, as it has aged, the film has become more and more a philosophical film.  Could it be that the name of the main character Phil is meant to prime viewers to think about the classic ‘phil’osophical questions of life:  What is the meaning of my life?  How should I spend my time each day? What am I learning from my experiences each day?

As mentioned earlier, Phil Connors finally learns to embrace his fate rather than to curse his existence. Like Sisyphus, Phil cannot die and is stuck in the hell of repeating the same day over and over.  Change comes for him, however, when he stops struggling against his fate and instead begins to focus on the things that he can control.  As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, a slave who faced much adversity himself, said, “Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happens the way it happens: then you will be happy” (1).

The Stoics called this mindset amor fati, the love of fate.  It’s an acknowledgment that much of life consists of good and bad circumstances that are out of our control.  What is in our control, however, is our thoughts, attitudes, and reactions to those life events.  These thoughts are what allow us to make the best out of anything that happens.

One anecdote that illustrates the amor fati mindset comes from the life of the great American inventor Thomas Edison.  On the evening of December 10, 1914, a chemical-fueled inferno engulfed his New Jersey invention factory.  As Edison stood watching the conflagration, he calmly turned to his young son and said, “Go get your mother and all her friends.  They’ll never see a fire like this again.”

Another philosopher who advocated amor fati was Friedrich Nietzsche: “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.” 

Philosophy means “the love of wisdom.”  In this sense, Groundhog Day is a true love story.  Phil finds love through a relationship with a romantic partner; more importantly, however, he finds love through examining his own life, gaining wisdom, and embracing his fate.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is amor fati?  Contrast what Phil’s life looked like before and after he embraced the amor fati philosophy?

Challenge - Thinking “Filmosophically”: Brainstorm a list of films that you would classify as philosophical, that is, films that help you reflect on the meaning of life or on the nature of reality (metaphysics) or truth (epistemology).  Which one film on your list would you recommend most highly for its ability to get the audience to contemplate philosophical questions?

Also on This Day:  

September 21, 1756:  The Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdams was born on this day.  McAdams’ revolutionary idea was to solve the problem of muddy and impassable roads by using layers of rock and gravel to raise the level of the road, making it more stable and less muddy.  In his 2014 book Brain Rules, neuroscientist John Medina employs McAdams’ road innovation as an analogy for exercise.  Just as the macadamization of roads gave people better access to goods and services, so too does exercise provide your body better access to the oxygen and food it needs to survive and thrive (3).

September 21, 1897:  One of the most famous editorials ever written was published on this day.  After 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York Sun asking to know the truth about Santa Claus, Francis Pharcellus Church wrote her editorial reply saying:   

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy. . . . Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. (5)

September 21, 1937:  J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published.  Tolkien began the book in a rather unexpected way.  As a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, Tolkien would augment his salary in the summers by marking School Certificate exams, a test taken by 16-year-olds in the United Kingdom.  In a 1955 letter to the poet W.H. Auden, Tolkien recounted the moment that launched what was to become a classic in fantasy and children’s literature:

 

All I remember about the start of The Hobbit is sitting correcting School Certificate papers in the everlasting weariness of that annual task forced on impecunious academics with children. On the blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why (4).

 

September 21, 1947:  Today is the birthday of the writer Stephen King, known best for his horror stories.  He once said, “People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” 

Sources:

1-Williams, Mary Elizabeth. “Lessons from ‘Groundhog Day’: More resonant than ever today.”  Salon.com  2 Feb. 2018.

2-Muyskens, K.L. -

“What if There is No Tomorrow? There Wasn’t One Today.” Elephantjournal.com 2 Feb. 2015.

3-Medina, John. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0979777707: 30.

4-http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/12/jrr-tolkien-teaching-exhausting-depressing-unseen-letter-lord-rings

5-”Text of ‘Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.’"  www.cs.cmu.edu.  

 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - September 20

What is a major cause of the decline of literacy in the United States?

Subject: Literacy - The Out-Loud Culture

Event:  Birthday of American poet Donald Hall, 1928

We have become a nation of passive readers, and passive reading makes for diminished literacy. -Donald Hall

 

Today is the birthday of Donald Hall, American poet and the 14th U.S. Poet Laureate. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928, and when he was only sixteen, he attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Prior to his death in 2018, Hall published poems, essays, letters, children’s books, and literary criticism (1).

Image by Hannibal Height from Pixabay

In 1985 Hall wrote a short essay for Newsweek‘s “My Turn” column entitled “Bring Back the Out-Loud Culture.” In the essay, Hall reflects nostalgically on a time before television and mass media when print was frequently recited from memory or read aloud, and everyone learned something by reciting or listening to recitations.

According to Hall, the decline in reading and reciting aloud was a huge loss:

“...when we stopped memorizing and reciting literature, our ability to read started its famous decline.  It was the loss of recitation -- not its replacements (radio, film, television) -- that diminished our literacy.”

Hall’s purpose is not to blame television or technology; instead, his target is the loss of out-loud recitation.  Silent readers are more likely to be passive readers; reading out loud, however, requires active reading, resulting in enhanced literacy.  Hall’s position is supported by the writer Verlyn Klinkenborg:

...one of the basic tests of comprehension is to ask someone to read aloud from a book.  It reveals far more than whether the reader understands the words.  It reveals how far into the words and pattern of the words the reader really sees. (2)

Donald Hall ends his essay with a plea to his readers, imploring them to read aloud to their children and to revive the lost art of recitation:

We must encourage our children to memorize and recite. As children speak poems and stories aloud by the pitch and muscle of their voices they will discover drama, humor, passion, and intelligence in print.  In order to become a nation of readers, we need to again become a nation of reciters. (3)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:   What are strategies that readers can use to be active rather than passive readers?

Challenge - Out-Loud Renaissance:  What is a passage of prose or a poem that you feel is worth reading out loud and is worth committing to memory?  What makes it so exemplary and so worth remembering? Challenge yourself this week to commit a favorite poem or passage to memory. See if it helps you pay more attention to the written word.  Sponsor a “Recitation Day” in your class, school, or community, challenging people to share their poems or passages out loud. 

Also on This Day:  

September 20, 1977:  In an episode of the television sitcom Happy Days, Fonzie completes a jump on water-skis over a shark.  This leads to a new idiom “jumping the shark,” which refers to a moment when a television show, artist, or celebrity has begun its inevitable decline.

Sources:

1 – Poets.org. Donald Hall. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/264.

2-Klinkenborg, Verlyn. “Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud.”  The New York Times 16 May 2009.

3-Hall, Donald. “Bring Back the Out-Loud Culture.” Newsweek 15 April 1985: 12.