A few minutes of key ideas!
The research & wisdom reminders.
These are the six key ideas that guided the high-level topics of this week’s column.
This week:
Models.
Models explain reality without being reality.
1.
Alfred Korzybski
Born 1879.
Lived from 1879 to 1950, aged 70
Humans do not respond directly to reality. We respond to our representations of it.
2.
“We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- 1858
Animal brains learn by impressions. You are born into a family, into a culture at a particular time. Your spacetime literally forges who you start out as.
3.
Why do scientific models work if they aren’t literally true?
Scientific models work because they structure aspects of reality like key relationships, variables, and components. Over time, models are refined, expanded, or superseded, not because science fails, but because science progresses models by improving maps, not by claiming direct access to reality.
4.
Why do people confuse explanations with reality?
We confuse explanations with reality because they reduce uncertainty and satisfy our need for coherence.
5.
Is the Split in the Idea of Ideas the Same as Kant’s?
Kant showed that human experience filters reality; the Idea of Ideas extends that insight by classifying our explanations into empirical, rational, and irrational.
6.
How did Copernicus show both the power and limits of models?
Better models can radically improve understanding without being ultimate truth.
That’s it. The end.