mtraven comments on Teaching Introspection - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Swimmer963 01 August 2011 01:10AM

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Comment author: mtraven 01 August 2011 05:46:55PM 0 points [-]

I exaggerated a bit. The points I was trying to make: we can only weakly introspect; the term "introspection" is misleading (I think "reflection", mentioned by another commenter, is better); we are in a strong sense strangers to ourselves, and our apparent ability to introspect is misleading.

I am only a dabbler in meditation and Buddhism, but I think an actual Buddhist would NOT characterize meditation as introspection. The point of it is not to have a self more aware of itself, but to reveal the illusory nature of the self (I'm sure that is a drastic oversimplification, at best).

Comment author: lessdazed 01 August 2011 07:59:10PM 1 point [-]

I agree that "reflection" is the best term for what people can do. It does make sense to associate the strongest term, "introspection", with the strongest belief, the naive one.

Comment author: mtraven 01 August 2011 05:59:44PM 0 points [-]

After posting that I felt even more unsure about my assertion about Buddhism and introspection than I had indicated, so did some Googling...here's some support from an actual Buddhist, though I'm guessing there is a wide variety of opinion on this question.