WEBVTT NOTE Emotion and Motivation 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.800 What is truth? 2 00:00:02.800 --> 00:00:08.240 This is perhaps the most important question that could be asked right now. 3 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:14.800 In times like these, truth is really the only thing we can count on. 4 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:23.800 Our prejudices, our biases, our hopes, our illusions don't mean a thing. 5 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:30.200 What is important is that we find out what the truth really is because the truth is the 6 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:32.920 only thing we can count on. 7 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:35.840 Very well, what is truth? 8 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:43.720 Obviously, that's a question that has baffled some of the best minds that have ever existed 9 00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:46.080 from time immemorial. 10 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:51.000 And yet really it isn't too difficult to come close to an understanding here. 11 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.840 Truth would be a part of what we call the objective order. 12 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.240 It would relate to fact, to reality. 13 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.060 That which is, is. 14 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:06.520 Those things that exist, exist. 15 00:01:06.520 --> 00:01:11.200 Our opinions of what things are don't alter the things themselves. 16 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:15.400 That which is, is, irrespective of our opinion. 17 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:16.480 Very well. 18 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:18.880 Then how do we know the truth? 19 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:24.080 How is it possible to come to grips with reality? 20 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:30.480 Well now this is a very interesting area of inquiry because in our efforts to come to 21 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:39.760 grips with reality, we discover, of course, that all truth, all fact is discoverable only 22 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:41.960 in context. 23 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:44.920 Nothing exists in itself alone. 24 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:50.320 Everything exists in relationships to other things which also exist. 25 00:01:50.320 --> 00:01:54.880 Incidentally, this is where we've heard so much about relativity. 26 00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:00.000 Many people, in fact, have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a principle, 27 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:05.000 in fact, that there is no such thing as a fact, because they will tell you, well, everything 28 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.440 is relative. 29 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:16.120 In a sense, that's true, but often the way they take that expression, they make it appear 30 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:24.680 that nothing is really so, that everything is unknown or untrue and we are in a great 31 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:31.000 quagmire of misinformation or no information at all, and that isn't quite accurate. 32 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:37.060 What we actually have is a great many facts that do exist. 33 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:38.060 is. 34 00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:47.340 Now, in order to learn about reality, we have to learn about reality from a point of view, 35 00:02:47.340 --> 00:02:53.500 from a place where we are, and we learn about reality as it relates to certain specific 36 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:54.500 things. 37 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:58.820 For example, we're all familiar with what we call the law of gravity. 38 00:02:58.820 --> 00:03:05.980 If I were to hold up a piece of chalk and then let go of it, we can predict that it 39 00:03:05.980 --> 00:03:11.820 would drop toward the center of the earth. We call this the law of gravity. Is that an absolute law? 40 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:21.180 Well, yes, it is. But then it will be shown, and accurately, that there could be other factors that 41 00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:27.980 could be brought into play that might cause that chalk to behave differently if I let go of it. 42 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:35.580 For instance, if another interplanetary body of tremendous magnetism came into our solar 43 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:43.060 System, it could so distort the law of gravity as we presently experience it, so that if 44 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:46.940 I let go of the chalk, it would fly off in some other direction. 45 00:03:46.940 --> 00:03:49.580 Now that doesn't disprove the law of gravity. 46 00:03:49.580 --> 00:03:55.840 That merely indicates that at the present time, in the present context of fact, if I 47 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:01.360 let go of chalk, it will drop toward the center of the earth where the center of the earth 48 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:02.740 now is. 49 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:07.940 Now you change the context and we don't quite know how that chalk would behave. 50 00:04:07.940 --> 00:04:09.840 That doesn't disprove the law. 51 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:14.580 That merely specifies that the working of the law, the evidences that we get of the 52 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:22.220 working of the law, is dependent upon the context in which these facts appear. 53 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:31.860 So we can know truth, but we always know truth within a context in which other truths also 54 00:04:31.860 --> 00:04:33.720 appear. 55 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:37.300 We don't know any one truth absolutely. 56 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:44.280 We know many truths as they relate to each other and as we relate to them. 57 00:04:44.280 --> 00:04:46.540 How do we discover truth? 58 00:04:46.540 --> 00:04:55.080 Well, what we try to do is we try to find the principles that tell us what a given thing 59 00:04:55.080 --> 00:04:58.600 is and how it behaves. 60 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:06.040 And we seek these principles by trying to ascertain whatever evidence we can extract 61 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:10.960 from their behavior and from what happens to them. 62 00:05:10.960 --> 00:05:14.080 Let me give you an example of what I mean here. 63 00:05:14.080 --> 00:05:18.520 Let's take the substance wood. 64 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:21.680 Now what are the characteristics of wood? 65 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:30.300 Basically wood is relatively durable, that is to say, it's relatively hard. 66 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:37.560 You can't compress it in your hand and cause it to change its shape simply by applying 67 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:38.780 your muscles. 68 00:05:38.780 --> 00:05:40.820 You could bring tools to bear. 69 00:05:40.820 --> 00:05:44.280 It's malleable under certain conditions. 70 00:05:44.280 --> 00:05:50.280 You can form it various ways, but it would tend to resist that merely by the application 71 00:05:50.280 --> 00:05:51.280 of your own muscles. 72 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:57.740 you couldn't just mold it like you perhaps could straw or something that is much softer. 73 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:02.320 In addition to its being therefore relatively durable, we know that another characteristic 74 00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:08.540 is that it's flammable, that is to say it would burn, again, under certain conditions 75 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:14.980 it will burn more readily than other conditions and also certain types of wood would burn 76 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:17.200 more readily than other types. 77 00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:22.160 But it is a general characteristic of wood, of all types, that it is flammable. 78 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:24.240 In fact, we use it as a fuel. 79 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:27.640 Additionally, it is not atorable. 80 00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:30.280 That is to say, it floats. 81 00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:37.440 Wood is lighter than water and it will float on water ordinarily. 82 00:06:37.440 --> 00:06:42.160 Now you can take a piece of wood and waterlog it until it would behave like a stone and 83 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.680 sink but normally wood floats. 84 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:46.360 So these are characteristics. 85 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:52.720 Now what do we mean by characteristics? We mean here principles. We now know that when 86 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:59.460 we are dealing with a piece of wood, there are certain characteristics that always appear. 87 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:05.220 This is how we know that it's wood. Now, what does that mean? That means that if we manufacture 88 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:12.300 something made of wood, that we can predict that the thing that we have made out of wood 89 00:07:12.300 --> 00:07:17.300 will take on the characteristics of the substance we have used in the manufacturer. 90 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:21.420 For example, let's take a desk that is made of wood. 91 00:07:21.420 --> 00:07:27.780 Well, we then can predict that the desk will be durable, at least as durable as the wood 92 00:07:27.780 --> 00:07:29.660 that we used in it. 93 00:07:29.660 --> 00:07:35.500 The desk will also be flammable because the wood is flammable, and the desk would also 94 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:39.740 float because wood floats and therefore the desk would float. 95 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:47.660 In other words, what we seek in trying to understand truth, we seek predictability. 96 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:53.580 We seek to learn the characteristics of things and how things relate to other things so that 97 00:07:53.580 --> 00:08:01.420 we can predict the consequences that will ensue if we employ these various things. 98 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:04.020 And that's how we stay alive in this world. 99 00:08:04.020 --> 00:08:09.940 We figure out what the characteristics are, that is to say, the principles are respecting 100 00:08:09.940 --> 00:08:18.140 various substances, various natural resources, whatever they are, and having ascertained 101 00:08:18.140 --> 00:08:23.540 their natures, their real natures, what they are actually composed of, not as a matter 102 00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:29.660 of opinion, but as a matter of fact, then we know how to deal with these things. 103 00:08:29.660 --> 00:08:33.900 Of course, one of the biggest problems is to try to learn how to do this with each other. 104 00:08:33.900 --> 00:08:38.060 We've been trying to predict human action for years and we haven't done too well with it. 105 00:08:38.060 --> 00:08:44.360 It may be that we can predict certain things here, but it's very difficult to predict things 106 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:45.580 about people. 107 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:47.040 More on that later. 108 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:51.780 But let's go back to this question of predictability. 109 00:08:51.780 --> 00:08:58.220 We stay alive in this world only because of predictability. 110 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:00.460 That's all we have. 111 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:10.180 We have to be able to know that if we do certain precise things that a specified and desirable 112 00:09:10.180 --> 00:09:13.460 result will obtain. 113 00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:18.300 If we didn't know that, there wouldn't be any point in doing these things that would 114 00:09:18.300 --> 00:09:21.500 hopefully lead toward the result that we want. 115 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:28.380 For instance, if we decide that we want to raise wheat, we know that we have to prepare 116 00:09:28.380 --> 00:09:35.260 Consider a field and then sow that field with wheat seed. Does that mean that we will get 117 00:09:35.260 --> 00:09:40.660 a wheat crop? No, we might not get a crop at all. Other factors might intrude so that 118 00:09:40.660 --> 00:09:46.320 we didn't get a harvest. But I'll tell you one thing we can predict. If we get a harvest, 119 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:54.360 it will be of wheat. We won't harvest a crop of pumpkins or watermelons or moth organs. 120 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.240 They don't come that way. 121 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:02.600 If we want a wheat crop, we might not get a crop at all, but if we get a crop, it will 122 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:07.000 be one of wheat, providing we have sown wheat in the first place. 123 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:12.640 In other words, there is an area of predictability and that's how we live. 124 00:10:12.640 --> 00:10:15.300 Now most of us aren't aware of this. 125 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:21.860 We think of predictability as having something to do perhaps with witchcraft or with necromancy 126 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:23.800 or something of this sort. 127 00:10:23.800 --> 00:10:30.200 Predictability is a scientific approach to life. 128 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:31.780 That's what it's about. 129 00:10:31.780 --> 00:10:38.400 The scientist has to understand the nature of things as they are well enough so that 130 00:10:38.400 --> 00:10:45.940 he can accurately predict what those things will do under specified circumstances. 131 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:47.960 That's what science is all about. 132 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:52.820 And that's what we try to do in order to understand how to put the pieces together, 133 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:58.100 To come up with the kind of things that we want, we have to understand their natures. 134 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:02.200 In other words, we have to know the truth about them. 135 00:11:02.200 --> 00:11:04.420 That's what we're trying to find out. 136 00:11:04.420 --> 00:11:09.460 Now there are only two ways in which we can learn this. 137 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:16.540 One is we try to locate predictability, and when we discover that if we put A and B together, 138 00:11:16.540 --> 00:11:24.800 We always get C, then we know that C is predictable on the basis of A and B coming together in 139 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:27.980 a certain prescribed way under controlled conditions. 140 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:29.380 This is what we try to do. 141 00:11:29.380 --> 00:11:32.120 But there's another factor here, too. 142 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.420 It isn't sufficient that I am able to do this. 143 00:11:35.420 --> 00:11:39.740 In other words, I might come before you and say, look, I have discovered that by putting 144 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:50.140 A and B together, and then adding a pinch of W, I get X, and you say to me, well, that's 145 00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:51.140 wonderful. 146 00:11:51.140 --> 00:11:52.140 Let me do it. 147 00:11:52.140 --> 00:11:53.140 And I say, oh, I'm sorry. 148 00:11:53.140 --> 00:11:54.140 It doesn't work for you. 149 00:11:54.140 --> 00:11:55.140 It only works for me. 150 00:11:55.140 --> 00:11:59.140 Now, when I say that, you know I'm not talking about truth. 151 00:11:59.140 --> 00:12:00.940 I'm talking about magic. 152 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:04.820 If I'm the only one that can do it, well, there's something here that doesn't quite 153 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:05.820 meet the eye. 154 00:12:05.820 --> 00:12:09.980 If it really is truth, anyone can do it. 155 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:13.260 The truth is not a respecter of persons. 156 00:12:13.260 --> 00:12:15.760 It exists by itself. 157 00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:18.300 It is independent of human judgment. 158 00:12:18.300 --> 00:12:19.300 It just works. 159 00:12:19.300 --> 00:12:20.300 It is. 160 00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:21.900 It is a part of reality. 161 00:12:21.900 --> 00:12:24.180 And this is the nature of all principles. 162 00:12:24.180 --> 00:12:27.700 Men do not devise principles. 163 00:12:27.700 --> 00:12:29.180 They don't invent them. 164 00:12:29.180 --> 00:12:30.780 They discover them. 165 00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:37.500 And these principles work for everybody, irrespective of race, creed, color, belief, opinion, or 166 00:12:37.500 --> 00:12:38.500 value system. 167 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:40.140 It doesn't make any difference. 168 00:12:40.140 --> 00:12:44.940 That's the nature of principle, and that's the nature of fact. 169 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:48.320 So when we come into this world, that's what we try to do. 170 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:53.900 We try to figure out what the nature of the world is, and we do it by trying to discover 171 00:12:53.900 --> 00:13:01.420 The principles, that is to say, the characteristics that relate to various things and to various 172 00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:07.580 actions that we take with things, and then once we think we've found a principle, well 173 00:13:07.580 --> 00:13:12.220 then we bring other people in and we say, hey, we did it this way, now you do it and 174 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:15.180 see if it comes out for you the same as it did for us. 175 00:13:15.180 --> 00:13:18.220 And if it does, then we know we've got something. 176 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:25.100 Now if it keeps changing, then we have non-predictability, and then we don't have a principle, and then 177 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:26.740 we don't know quite what to do. 178 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:34.300 For instance, imagine what kind of a world this would be if you couldn't predict. 179 00:13:34.300 --> 00:13:39.700 Suppose you walked into a room, and there was a little light switch there, and when 180 00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:43.500 you flicked it, you naturally assumed that the lights would come on. 181 00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:47.920 But on Wednesday when you flick it, bananas dropped from the ceiling. 182 00:13:47.920 --> 00:13:52.040 And then on Thursday, when you flick it, the symphony music comes out of it. 183 00:13:52.040 --> 00:13:55.760 And then on Friday, when you flick it, the lights come on. 184 00:13:55.760 --> 00:13:57.400 How often would you flick it? 185 00:13:57.400 --> 00:14:00.240 Well, you wouldn't know what you'd get. 186 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.320 And so it would make you uneasy. 187 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:07.500 We would call that an unstable situation, you know, you don't know what you're getting. 188 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:11.960 And so you wouldn't tend to rely on that. 189 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.860 Now, the same would apply to your automobile. 190 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:22.020 Say that you have an automobile and you have various levers and devices on it to make it 191 00:14:22.020 --> 00:14:24.660 go, stop, turn, etc. 192 00:14:24.660 --> 00:14:29.620 Supposing now there's a foot pedal down there that we call the brake. 193 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:33.900 Supposing that on Monday when you press it, the car stops. 194 00:14:33.900 --> 00:14:37.660 But on Tuesday when you press it, the car turns right. 195 00:14:37.660 --> 00:14:43.700 On Wednesday when you press it, the car backs up. 196 00:14:43.700 --> 00:14:48.920 And then on Thursday when you press it, the engine is killed and on Friday, the motor 197 00:14:48.920 --> 00:14:53.780 blows up, all from activating the same mechanism. 198 00:14:53.780 --> 00:14:57.400 Well how long would you drive that car? 199 00:14:57.400 --> 00:15:01.820 After you discovered that you couldn't predict what it was going to do and every time you 200 00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:06.700 applied a particular action, you got a different result. 201 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:11.180 That car would frighten you and rightly so, you couldn't depend on it. 202 00:15:11.180 --> 00:15:15.800 This is exactly what we run into with the things of this world. 203 00:15:15.800 --> 00:15:24.460 We try to find out what they will do so we can rely on them, so we know, we know unerringly 204 00:15:24.460 --> 00:15:29.460 that if we do certain things in certain ways, we get a predictable result. 205 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:31.000 We have to. 206 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:38.100 How would you like to, for example, buy an automobile that had been put together by men 207 00:15:38.100 --> 00:15:43.460 who went to work when they felt like it and did whatever they wanted to do in connection 208 00:15:43.460 --> 00:15:46.100 with building the automobile. 209 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:49.900 How would you feel about such a vehicle? 210 00:15:49.900 --> 00:15:51.500 I imagine it would make you nervous. 211 00:15:51.500 --> 00:15:52.980 It would make me nervous. 212 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:54.460 I don't mind telling you. 213 00:15:54.460 --> 00:16:00.180 If I'm going to buy an automobile, I want it to have been very carefully engineered 214 00:16:00.180 --> 00:16:07.180 so that when the engineers say to me, this is the way this works, that when I do it that 215 00:16:07.180 --> 00:16:17.620 This is what we try to do. 216 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:25.740 Our ability to survive in this world is predicated upon predictability, upon our ability to detect 217 00:16:25.740 --> 00:16:32.260 the characteristics, the principles of those things that exist, and the more we know about 218 00:16:32.260 --> 00:16:39.260 The more we accurately understand them, the better we can put them together to get the kind of things that we want. 219 00:16:39.260 --> 00:16:51.260 Life is dependent upon orderly process, and orderly process is dependent upon our ability to predict consequence. 220 00:16:51.260 --> 00:16:54.260 Now, here's about the way it works. 221 00:16:54.260 --> 00:17:00.740 When a human being is born, he's a little helpless infant born, as I think I've already 222 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:07.620 expressed it, tabula rasa, this is the expression that John Locke used indicating that man is 223 00:17:07.620 --> 00:17:11.200 born a blank slate, he doesn't know anything. 224 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:17.820 And the infant begins by using his perceptive abilities with these sense organs that he 225 00:17:17.820 --> 00:17:22.900 has, he reaches out into the world and he comes in contact with reality this way. 226 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:28.940 He identifies and classifies the various phenomena that he's in contact with, then he selects 227 00:17:28.940 --> 00:17:32.220 these things that are meaningful to him. 228 00:17:32.220 --> 00:17:38.000 And here is one interesting thing that we ought to keep in mind about our own species. 229 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.260 We have a fascinating thing here that we do. 230 00:17:41.260 --> 00:17:48.140 We reach out with our minds through our sense organs, and we identify and classify the various 231 00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:55.820 Phenomena that we're in touch with, and then we associate every one of those things to us. 232 00:17:55.820 --> 00:17:58.580 That is, we associate things to each other. 233 00:17:58.580 --> 00:18:07.300 The infant perhaps in his crib will have several toys, and he will begin associating those 234 00:18:07.300 --> 00:18:08.940 toys together. 235 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:14.940 He will realize finally that they are part of the same genre, they belong to the same 236 00:18:14.940 --> 00:18:20.580 Order of Things, the little devices for him to play with, and so he'll tend to classify 237 00:18:20.580 --> 00:18:23.100 them together, but that's not what I mean. 238 00:18:23.100 --> 00:18:32.220 When he makes an association, he associates everything that he is aware with, with himself, 239 00:18:32.220 --> 00:18:40.540 because he infers a significance in that thing as so far as it relates to him. 240 00:18:40.540 --> 00:18:46.280 If he cannot detect a significance, then he will stop selecting it. 241 00:18:46.280 --> 00:18:51.820 If it has no meaning to him, he puts it aside and presently dismisses it and has nothing 242 00:18:51.820 --> 00:18:53.700 further to do with it. 243 00:18:53.700 --> 00:19:01.380 Everything that he is aware of and continues to be aware of is somehow associated to him 244 00:19:01.380 --> 00:19:03.540 personally. 245 00:19:03.540 --> 00:19:08.160 You and I are egocentric. 246 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:15.780 We operate within ourselves with a gigantic I. In fact, we can't even think a thought 247 00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:23.500 without beginning by thinking I. We are individuals. This is one of the prime characteristics of 248 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:31.700 man. And as an individual, everything that exists in my world is something that is associated 249 00:19:31.700 --> 00:19:39.700 to me in some way. I am aware of it. It has meaning. I infer significance to it. If I 250 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:46.300 can't find any such significance, I dismiss it. It is no longer of importance. So I live 251 00:19:46.300 --> 00:19:53.380 in a world that is comprised of those things that I have selected because I am able to 252 00:19:53.380 --> 00:20:00.140 infer a meaning to me. The meaning could be pleasant. It could be unpleasant. But I am 253 00:20:00.140 --> 00:20:07.900 I am aware of it because it impinges upon my life, upon my sense of satisfaction, or 254 00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:10.940 upon something that has to do with me personally. 255 00:20:10.940 --> 00:20:13.320 My world is a very personal place. 256 00:20:13.320 --> 00:20:15.720 It all rotates about me. 257 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:18.360 Everything that I know about is in orbit about me. 258 00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:23.720 I am the center of my world, and that's the way we all work. 259 00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:24.980 We are egocentric. 260 00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:26.500 We operate that way. 261 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:33.220 So now after we have made this association and I'm still going back now to the infant. 262 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:38.500 The infant has begun by perceiving, identifying, classifying and selecting various things. 263 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:46.220 Now he associates these things with himself and once he forms this association, then he 264 00:20:46.220 --> 00:20:50.040 begins to make a decision. 265 00:20:50.040 --> 00:20:53.060 He begins to form an opinion. 266 00:20:53.060 --> 00:21:01.260 In other words, he adds up the total of all of these various things that he's now aware of, 267 00:21:01.260 --> 00:21:06.460 and it is as though he said to himself, well, I'll be darned. 268 00:21:06.460 --> 00:21:12.980 That means that the world I'm in adds up to this, this, this, and this, and that's what 269 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:14.820 it's about. 270 00:21:14.820 --> 00:21:23.040 Even as a tiny infant, that's what he's beginning to do, because he is trying to find security 271 00:21:23.040 --> 00:21:29.760 Predictability, he's trying to understand the nature of the world that he's in. 272 00:21:29.760 --> 00:21:36.420 If you've ever watched a tiny infant, you perhaps have sometime seen such an infant, 273 00:21:36.420 --> 00:21:43.000 take his thumb or maybe a toe and pop it into his mouth. 274 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:49.680 And usually when you see that happen, you'll see a calm, beatific smile spread over the 275 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:55.560 The Infant's Face and you say, what in the world does he find that's so satisfying in 276 00:21:55.560 --> 00:21:59.160 the taste of his thumb or the taste of his toe? 277 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:02.020 It can't possibly taste that good. 278 00:22:02.020 --> 00:22:05.740 It isn't the taste that satisfies the child here. 279 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:08.340 It's the sense of predictability. 280 00:22:08.340 --> 00:22:12.240 You see, to begin with, the child doesn't even know the legs and the arms are his. 281 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:15.900 They're just there in the crib with him like so many other toys. 282 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:19.120 But he finds that he can control these. 283 00:22:19.120 --> 00:22:23.180 Absolutely, they work with precision. 284 00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:27.480 When he uses certain muscles, he gets a specific result. 285 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:33.080 So he begins practicing with this and finally he gets his thumb in his mouth and he tries 286 00:22:33.080 --> 00:22:35.800 it again and it works and it works again. 287 00:22:35.800 --> 00:22:41.720 He keeps doing it and pretty soon he has a big smile on his face because now the world 288 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:43.000 makes sense. 289 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:44.440 He's got it figured out. 290 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:47.540 He can predict and he feels comfortable. 291 00:22:47.540 --> 00:22:50.800 He feels safe, secure. 292 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:52.500 That's why he smiles. 293 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:55.500 In other words, now he forms an opinion. 294 00:22:55.500 --> 00:23:02.520 The opinion is, ah, I now know how this part of the world works. 295 00:23:02.520 --> 00:23:03.860 That's an opinion. 296 00:23:03.860 --> 00:23:06.980 Now here's another area where he might form an opinion. 297 00:23:06.980 --> 00:23:12.820 There's a woman that keeps coming in and doing things to him or for him. 298 00:23:12.820 --> 00:23:19.420 And usually he discovers that whenever he vocalizes, she comes in. 299 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:20.860 Marvelous! 300 00:23:20.860 --> 00:23:25.120 This is a cause-effect relationship, and he's looking for these because he's got to know 301 00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:26.660 how the world works. 302 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:30.560 So he vocalizes, and in she comes. 303 00:23:30.560 --> 00:23:35.860 It is a very simple thing, then, for him to conclude and formulate an opinion here that 304 00:23:35.860 --> 00:23:38.300 his voice controls her. 305 00:23:38.300 --> 00:23:42.700 So any time he wants something, he vocalizes, and she comes obediently. 306 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:43.900 Marvelous. 307 00:23:43.900 --> 00:23:48.480 The world is now, he's got a fence around it and he's got a corner on it. 308 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:50.140 He knows how to run things. 309 00:23:50.140 --> 00:23:51.300 And then what happens? 310 00:23:51.300 --> 00:23:54.660 He vocalizes one day and she doesn't come in. 311 00:23:54.660 --> 00:23:59.020 His whole sense of predictability is smashed. 312 00:23:59.020 --> 00:24:00.420 His world is coming apart. 313 00:24:00.420 --> 00:24:03.220 He probably now screams in order to bring her in. 314 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:08.200 But if she's not within earshot, she doesn't come. 315 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:16.860 This is a fantastic emotional trauma for the child face, because he has been building his 316 00:24:16.860 --> 00:24:23.160 world on predictability, and now all of a sudden what he was sure he had figured out 317 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:25.000 doesn't work that way at all. 318 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.540 What he didn't know, you see, was that he thought he had a principle, but all he had 319 00:24:29.540 --> 00:24:31.400 was a probability. 320 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:35.380 If it was a principle, then she would have to come when he called. 321 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:39.460 But actually, his voice doesn't control her. 322 00:24:39.460 --> 00:24:41.960 He learns this to his sorrow. 323 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:47.980 His voice influences her, but it doesn't control, and that's the difference between a principle 324 00:24:47.980 --> 00:24:48.980 and a probability. 325 00:24:48.980 --> 00:24:55.260 As a matter of fact, as he continues to grow, what begins as a probability becomes increasingly 326 00:24:55.260 --> 00:25:01.140 improbable, and if he keeps on exercising his voice, it becomes predictable that she 327 00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:06.400 She will positively go the other way when she hears it and so what becomes what he thinks 328 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:14.560 at first as a principle that his voice controls her in a favorable way, it will end up perhaps 329 00:25:14.560 --> 00:25:20.340 that his voice will impel her in an unfavorable way and he's lost the whole thing. 330 00:25:20.340 --> 00:25:25.920 But these are the processes of learning and this is how we begin by using our minds in 331 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:31.960 in an effort to arrive at truth so we know what to do in the world we live in. 332 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:39.200 Now, after we have formulated an opinion, then we begin testing that opinion, just as 333 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:45.440 I've described here with the infant, until we finally find something that really works 334 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:52.160 all the time, or at least we think it does, within the context where we understand it. 335 00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:54.620 It seems to be predictable. 336 00:25:54.620 --> 00:25:58.580 Now we have another interesting thing that happens with our minds when we reach that 337 00:25:58.580 --> 00:26:06.500 point. The minute we are certain, or relatively certain, that a particular phenomena results 338 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:11.760 from a particular set of circumstances, and that that is predictable, then we begin to 339 00:26:11.760 --> 00:26:19.980 develop an attitude. And an attitude differs from an opinion primarily because of this. 340 00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:23.460 An opinion is something that you think is so. 341 00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:28.060 But an attitude has the element of emotional conviction. 342 00:26:28.060 --> 00:26:33.520 You are now certain that it is so because it has proved out. 343 00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:43.860 In other words, we move from a general assumption of predictability to an emotional conviction 344 00:26:43.860 --> 00:26:48.020 of predictability, and we call that a belief. 345 00:26:48.020 --> 00:26:55.140 We move from a supposition to conviction, and that means simply that now you know you 346 00:26:55.140 --> 00:26:56.660 are right. 347 00:26:56.660 --> 00:27:01.240 You thought you were right before, but now you know you are right. 348 00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:10.700 Now from that attitude, or the beginning of belief, we now have confidence to plan, to 349 00:27:10.700 --> 00:27:16.780 anticipate what we want to accomplish in the future, and knowing certain things to be true, 350 00:27:16.780 --> 00:27:20.420 And here we have the emotional assurance that they are true. 351 00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:26.660 We now have enough confidence so that we can say, well now this being the case and this 352 00:27:26.660 --> 00:27:32.540 other being the case, I now know that I can project into the future here and put things 353 00:27:32.540 --> 00:27:36.820 together in such a way that I will get what I want. 354 00:27:36.820 --> 00:27:42.380 And so we move from belief to cognitive action. 355 00:27:42.380 --> 00:27:43.880 That's the idea. 356 00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:51.780 The whole process of using the mind is a process of trying to discover the truth so that knowing 357 00:27:51.780 --> 00:27:59.200 truth we can take cognitive action in order to fulfill and get the things that we want 358 00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:04.560 as a result of the truth that we know and the actions that we take. 359 00:28:04.560 --> 00:28:06.380 Man is an actor. 360 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:08.360 He is not passive. 361 00:28:08.360 --> 00:28:13.340 We do not survive in this world by simply planting our feet in the soil, raising our 362 00:28:13.340 --> 00:28:30.900 For you and I to survive, we have to take intelligent, rational action. 363 00:28:30.900 --> 00:28:37.180 We have to learn a great many things, and learning them then, we apply this knowledge 364 00:28:37.180 --> 00:28:41.140 in order to make these things come into focus with us. 365 00:28:41.140 --> 00:28:43.700 That's what this is all about. 366 00:28:43.700 --> 00:28:51.380 Now it follows that when we live at a time such as we do right now, where many of the 367 00:28:51.380 --> 00:28:57.740 things that we have believed were so, we have thought that the world was organized in a 368 00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:03.320 certain way, that our country, for example, was organized in a certain way, we thought 369 00:29:03.320 --> 00:29:09.520 we had predictability all the way around, and now things are coming apart. 370 00:29:09.520 --> 00:29:15.180 These aren't working quite the way we thought they were or we thought they would. 371 00:29:15.180 --> 00:29:21.760 Where we thought we were sure, we find ourselves increasingly uncertain. 372 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:30.560 We thought, for example, that the government would solve the question of poverty. 373 00:29:30.560 --> 00:29:36.240 But the more we get into it, the more we discover that there's still more poverty and the government 374 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:37.700 hasn't solved the problem. 375 00:29:37.700 --> 00:29:46.700 But these are subjects we want to take up subsequently. We think there's enough here that we can talk about, so we'll see you again and thanks very much.