The Empirical Manifesto

I am raising my children to be critical thinkers. This is actually more difficult than it sounds, because indoctrination is easier than education. Telling a child to look in the dictionary when they ask how to spell a word is easy. Telling a child to brainstorm pros and cons of a decision, then assign value and weight to them, less so. Especially when given a lack of world experience. And when you teach your children to think for themselves, you have to be prepared for them to side against you on a great many things. When I was released into the world I had the same political party as my parents, the same values as my parents, the same religion as my parents, and the same motivations as my parents - every mother and father's dream, right?

When we first discover our values do differ from how we were raised, or when our experiences differ, we tend to compensate - learn; grow. We find out often far too late that our parents were wrong about quite a few things. And for those of us who think, we understand our parents were simply regurgitating how they were raised - allowing for the caveats above - and passing it on to us. It is entirely possible not only were our parents wrong, but so were their parents! If this all stands to reason, then I have to assume I will be wrong about things, and that my children's experience will also differ from my own.

So its not enough to tell them what to think. They're going to need tools to survive and thrive in this world. So I want to teach them HOW to think. I want them to draw their own conclusions, whether they're radically different from my own or not. I teach through examples, and recounting my own experiences. An interesting by-product of this has been a surprising capacity for inclusiveness; compassion. When you explain race and politics and nations and religions are all invisible constructs, they tend to not matter. There is no, "us" and "them" mentality which so many adults seem to struggle with every single day on social media and the news.

When Colorado legalized marijuana, I was asked about drugs. Having never smoked it myself, I had to read up on it - educate myself outside my institutionalized upbringing, and without bias. I then simplistically explained to them in my experience, smart people seemed to be able to smoke marijuana without ill effect, but dumb people thought it made them smart, which caused them to do even dumber stuff than usual, and that was where the problem manifested itself. This places the responsibility upon them, and arms them with far more usable data than the unsustainable and unjustifiable, "Just say no." Ignorance is never an effective tool. Never.

Then the world changed.

There was a study released which proved duress as the problem with addiction - not the substance. Recreational uses do not "abuse" drugs. Marijuana is not a "gateway" drug. Its all pscyhophysiological! So I relayed this new information to my children, reminding them its never as black and white as it sounds. Using family members as examples, I told two near-identical stories of two brothers. In each story, the brothers received the same level of attention from their parents. The same rewards and the same punishments. They had the same opportunities. But in both cases, one brother responded to these experiences with aplomb while the other was absolutely tortured by them. Again, the responsibility falls solely upon them to decide what kind of person they are before embarking upon potentially risky behavior. To bring it all back home, I pointed out the difference between the two of them. Something as simple as diverse personality types gives rise to perceiving the same information differently from one another, gleaning dissimilar parts because of it, each analyzing and synthesizing something unique, and drawing vastly different conclusions.

And this is the easy stuff. Our values should never be fixed, immutable anchors. Experience gives birth to untold data, all of which should be captured by our filter and applied accordingly. If we cannot modify our worldview based on updated, new information, and have no process in which to examine and dismiss outdated information, we can never change. How are our children supposed to be the change we want to see in the world if we're telling them what to believe, rather than how to think?

I've been under the impression for many years that personal growth required a variety of experiences. I was able to easily explain away those who grew and matured without a plethora of experiences as unique to their cognitive ability, but have recently been stymied by those who have had many experiences without seemingly changing at all. An explanation for this has eluded me for many months, but I may have hit on something - more an extrapolation really of the sort of nonsense I've been spouting here for many years. So let me know what you think. Here we go!

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Experiences alone do not create individual growth, they are simply the gateways for the opportunity in which to do so. What experience affords us is a platform on which to challenge ourselves; a reason. It is more difficult challenging held beliefs without first facing them. Experience has the occasion to create scenarios in which to face new ideas. If we have new experiences and do not allow them to challenge us or our way of thinking, growth cannot occur. Its not enough to experience something new. We have to contrast and compare that new experience with our expectations and belief. We don't even have to change what we believe, so long as we consider it. Its not necessarily the change which causes growth - though it could very well go hand-in-hand - simply the possibility of change; entertaining it - the challenge to current worldview.

Ergo, experiences do not equal growth, challenging ourselves is what changes us - experience simply gives us the new information in which to process. Because even we don't change our minds, we have new information on which to fall back on - also a good thing - and are therefore "changed" by the experience (growth) whether or not we change our worldview.

I recently made the deductive statement that one's personal values surely changed as one ascended from one hierarchical need to the next, but when asked to back up my claim I found I wasn't immediately able to deduce why that may be the case. After all, aren't values inherent to who we are not only immovably individual, but also collectively cultural? This is what I have set out to prove or disprove.

In starting my search, I first had to define values - aren't they our guiding principles to differentiate between right and wrong and good and evil? Much easier to subjugate when I was younger, but now that I'm older and have my own thoughts about things, not so much. Perhaps maturity modifies ones values? After all, the passing of time allows intervals for experience; experience may yield lessons; lessons afford us the opportunity to learn; learning expands knowledge; knowledge which can be utilized grants us wisdom; wisdom changes us irrevocably. But is wisdom alone maturity?

"Maturity indicates how a person responds to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate manner. This response is generally learned and encompasses being aware of the correct time and place to behave and knowing when to act appropriately, according to the situation and the culture of the society one lives in."^* So a learned response! And what is this about behavior all of a sudden, I thought we were discussing values?

People act according to their values which come from beliefs that stem from their worldview.^*

So...values dictate to us how we act; behave. Interesting! I suppose one ought to start with their worldview in order to understand how that translates to behavior, because values seem to be affected by the beliefs which are spawned from it. So what is a worldview? James W. Sire, in Discipleship of the Mind, defines world view as, "... a set of presuppositions...which we hold...about the makeup of our world." Ah, presuppositions!

Presuppositions rest upon that which a person considers to be the truth of what exists. People's presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Their presuppositions also provide the basis for their values and therefore the basis for their decisions." ~Francis Schaeffer

Basically, your worldview is what you think the world ought to be. Where have we heard that word "ought" before? SHOULD STATEMENTS – Patterns of thought which imply the way things "should" or "ought" to be rather than the actual situation the person is faced with.

Basically worldviews are manifestations of cognitive distortion! Now we're getting somewhere.

If you deny that your worldview fundamentally affects what you think and do, then you must acknowledge that your behavior is impulsive, reflexive, or emotional at best; ignorant or irrational at worst. Assuming that a worldview can be incorrect or at least inappropriate, if your worldview is erroneous, then your behavior is misguided, even wrong. If you fail to examine, articulate, and refine your worldview, then your worldview may in fact be wrong, with the above consequences, and you will always be ill-prepared to substantiate your beliefs and justify your acts, for you will have only proximate opinions and direct sensory evidence as justification.^*

If we are supposed to, "examine, articulate, and refine" our worldview, then by default a change in our beliefs, values, and behavior will follow. Not only does it alter our values, but so does everything connected to it, every single time we reevaluate. And I aggressively reevaluate without provocation.







Like a stack of dominoes, once your worldview is modified, so then are the beliefs which are built atop it - "You want your beliefs to change. It's proof that you are keeping your eyes open, living fully, and welcoming everything that the world and people around you can teach you."^* This means that peoples' beliefs should evolve as they gain new experiences, and when a person changes one belief, a multitude of other beliefs seem also to change simultaneously and effortlessly. Dispositionalism suggests that by changing the surrounding beliefs and desires, very different behavior may result.^* As we have seen, the link between beliefs and behavior, are values.

If our worldview can and should change as we learn more, which can and rightly should then change our beliefs, then absolutely our values not only can change to match, but also should. This is covered in chapter 9 of the critical thinking textbook, Think where they discuss Lawrence Kohlberg's Development of Moral Reasoning. Development; growth, a process. Not only can values modify themselves, there is an identified, repeatable sequence - it is how we know what values are and measure them. A person's stage of moral development is correlated with his or her behavior.

1. PRECONVENTIONAL VALUES
   
   • Stage 1
     
     • Does only what needs to be done to take care of self and avoid punishment.
       


• Stage 2
  
  • Satisfy own needs first, consider other's needs only if it benefits you.
    




2. CONVENTIONAL VALUES
   
   • Stage 3
     
     • Put other's needs first, maintain good relationships, conform to peer norms and seek approval from others.
       


• Stage 4
  
  • Respect authority and societal norms; maintain existing social order.
    




3. POSTCONVENTIONAL VALUES
   
   • Stage 5
     
     • Balance your own needs along with the needs of others. Obey only the social rules which make sense to you - don't follow blindly.
       


• Stage 6
  
  • Question all societal norms. Autonomously comprehend universal rules which are rational and logical.
    

Unfortunately less than 10% of American adults ever reach the postconventional level or moral reasoning; values. People with lower levels of moral reasoning tend to come up with simplistic solutions and then are baffled when they do not work. People outgrow their old way of thinking *when* it becomes inadequate for resolving more complex problems. Movement to a higher stage is usually triggered by new ideas or experiences that conflict with their worldview.

Now comes the really interesting part. You don't have to continue living by the same values. You can consciously change them - even radically if desired. You can go from a person who values peace most highly to one whose top priority is success, or vice versa. You are not your values. You are the thinker of your thoughts, but you are not the thoughts themselves. Your values are your current compass, but they aren't the real you. Why would you ever want to change your values? You may want to change your values when you understand and accept where they are taking you, and you realize that what you appear to value right now will not enable you to enjoy the "best" possible life for you.^*

Which brings us to behavior. Behavior is the visible portion of our values - which we now understand to be a very fluid thing based on our ever-changing environment and our open-minded incorporation of new data. You cannot be open-minded and remain unchanged. Because of the trickle-up effect we've just outlined, if you find yourself behaving the same year after year, month after month or even day after day you know you are close-minded because your worldview has not changed.

So what are values? Here's a list of 418 of them. The author of that list says, "The next step is to prioritize your list. This is usually the most time consuming and difficult step because it requires some intense thinking." But don't forget our magnificent ability to think we are things we are not! From my Relationships post:

But being honest with yourself is is not so easy. There's a little thing called self-deception that gets in the way.^*

I run across this all the time - people who think their values embody something like benevolence and goodwill but who's visible actions denote fear or greed. So while your behavior may be inconsistent with your stated values, there is no such thing as a right or wrong list. Just be aware that someone else's value priority may be different than your own, and this will absolutely manifest itself through behavior.

Me and my values? They are changing all the time. Every time I have a new thought, or leap to a new conclusion, or reach some personal milestone. My values these days are meta-values, those which underpin the kind of peace which can only come from a successful familiarization with one's self. In attempting to compile my list from the 418 options I was shocked I couldn't find my highest priority on there:

Symmetry.