Everyone likes to believe they’re thinking independently. That they’ve arrived at their beliefs through logic, self-honesty, and some kind of epistemic discipline. But here’s the problem - that belief itself is suspiciously comforting. So how can you tell it’s true?
What if your worldview just happens to align neatly with your temperament, your social environment, or whatever gives you emotional relief? What if your reasoning is just post-hoc justification for instincts you already wanted to follow? That’s what scares me - not being wrong, but being convinced I’m right for reasons that are more about mood than method.
It reminds me of how people think they’d intervene in a violent situation - noble in theory, but until it happens, it’s all just talk. So I’m asking: what’s your actual evidence that you think the way you think you do? Not in terms of the content of your beliefs, but the process behind them. What makes you confident you’re reasoning - not just rationalizing?
I feel like you’re putting the cart before the horse. I chose this worldview because of my temperament, not the other way around. I’ve also revised many of my views because of who I am, and that’s why I’m thankful for being queer, for example, which has opened my eyes to many other experiences.
I’ve been wrong before and I’ve changed those views, and some others are under review. My views aren’t static. I also do many things that go against my instinct all the time. And also, who’s to say that your instincts are static anyway? Your whole genetics changes based on your environment, and by extension, so does your behavior.
I think you’re putting way too much of an existential dread on something dynamic and malleable, and it doesn’t need to be that way.