Free Thoughts

A place for experts and non-experts alike to think, feel, and perceive carefully and voice concise ideas on a range of topics.

[ideaxchanger-blog]

Put simply

The tldr is this: I am training to be an expert in medicine, and in particular in the medicine of the brain and mental states, aka psychiatry. But I’m interested in many things. I like to think for myself and apply my own experience even on topics in which I’m not an expert. And that’s exactly what I hope to do with this blog. I invite you to do the same. Because I’ll never become an expert in everything--but I have an imperative to become an expert in my own experience. 

[ideaxchanger-blog]

What’s this all about?

This page is my self-liberation. I am not an expert on political science, but I will think and write about public policy. I am not an expert on philosophy, but I will think and write about concepts of mind and reality. I am no religious leader, but I will ask and probe answers to spiritual questions. And I will listen to your responses. This space is about me and you, writing plainly, naively, and concisely about both simple and complex topics. My motivation is to cultivate independent, careful thinking and the public exchange of ideas, without hiding behind experts. This is a protected space for thoughts and ideas derived from insight, logic, and introspection. Reference to great thinkers and authorities is discouraged. 

Experts are important! With a medical degree soon to come (May 2019), I know the importance of experts and institutional authorities. But to understand the role of experts we need to break down the way that science knows things. In science there are two tools that we use to learn about the world. The first relies on sensory experience, meaning what we see, hear, touch, taste, or smell. The second relies on concepts, things with no physical form, mental structures existing in the minds of thinkers, scientists, and ordinary people, stories we tell ourselves about what we experience. These stories can draw from internal stuff as well, including emotions, logic, and mental imagery. The greatest scientific discoveries harness both tools--seeing out and seeing in one might say. Great ideas were born when creations of the non-physical thought world were tested against the physical world--aka experimentation.  Experts are important because you and I can't conduct every experiment on our own. At some point we need to rely on the authority of others who did do the experiment--or at least who is aware of and understands the experiment and its practical import. Yet there is a danger in reliance on authority. Society is forgetting that science rejects argument from authority. Individuals are forgetting the great value of their own careful thinking and introspection. "The Scientist" has become a clergyman to some, one who makes pronouncements that are to be accepted with little question.  Non-experts may not want to act on their ideas against the advice of the expert. Practical deference to authority is usually wise. But mental deference-- failing to probe concepts careful, unwillingness to generate independent ideas or consider internal experience as valid data--is a great handicap indeed And so this blog is a declaration: Let the non-experts think!