The 8 Philosophical Hacks For Improved Thinking & Mood

Here are the 8 philosophical hacks to improve thinking and mood. Even if you are pretty solid in your understanding of life, we can always get great reminders from the older, wiser people who have come before us. I do enjoy the fact that they are all grouped together. A couple of rules of thumb to help navigate through life. Occam's razor; Hanlon's razor; Hitchens's razor; Hume's guillotine; Alder's razor; Sagan standard; Popper's falsifiability principle; Grice's razor. May they serve you well.

Transcript

Hello,

Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Thought Architecture.

I'm your host,

Justin.

And as always,

Here to take you on a ride through a few ideas,

A few mental frameworks to help everyone just deal with overwhelm and information a little bit better.

I think the core belief that I'm trying to go for here in these episodes is the idea that life is complex.

And as humans,

We tend to run towards simplicity.

And I mean,

You know,

There is some merit in doing that.

But by being able to develop our skills,

Exercise our muscles in dealing with complexity,

We actually then become a little bit more resilient,

A little bit more adaptable,

And ultimately we can transcend a lot of complexity.

So it's just about harmonizing all the different parts of the human experience.

And so complexity is one of them.

This episode is inspired by my good friend,

Thiebaud.

Now Thiebaud has a particular belief which I admire,

And at the same time I argue,

Which is this belief that don't trust the young bucks to give you advice on things.

Go back to the people who are 100 years old and have been doing this for ages.

Now,

While I do see the merits of this type of thing,

A good example is there is a celebrity,

His name is Steve,

What is it,

Steve someone.

He's a 60-year-old guy,

He's a trainer,

And he,

You know,

He works with people,

He works with body weight,

He does some pretty cool stuff.

I'm sure the name will come to me a little bit later.

But you know,

This guy talks about being able to just live well.

And the simple point is that Steve Maxwell,

That's right,

Steve Maxwell.

So if you look up Steve Maxwell,

He's been in the game for a very long period of time.

And now that he's in his 60s,

You know,

What he does is comes back and talks about,

You know,

The 30-year-olds who are like training and getting all this attention.

And he's like,

Yeah,

When those 30-year-olds turn 60,

Let's have a conversation together with them.

So there is some merit to this,

But in the same sense,

Like,

You know,

If you're constantly doing what everyone else is doing or only doing these methods,

You never learn or explore.

You know,

There is some merit to doing something that's dumb and learning from it as well in order to see the beauty in what's,

You know,

What's good as well.

But again,

We don't have to make our own mistakes,

We can learn from others' mistakes.

So the very simple point is that I was inspired to think about systems thinking,

To think about,

You know,

All of these mental models and things like that.

Instead of going for all the stuff that's out there now that's coming out,

That's all fresh and new,

I thought that I would go back in time with these,

With what are called the philosophical razors.

And that's what this episode is all about.

The philosophical razors.

So thank you very much to Thibaut,

I appreciate you,

Brother.

And yeah,

Let me know what you think of this one.

So basically,

A philosophical razor is a principle or a rule of thumb,

Right?

Just a general idea that allows you to eliminate,

To shave off,

To cut away the unlikely explanations to a phenomenon,

Or avoid like unnecessary kind of thought patterns.

Okay.

So a good one for this,

Which most people have heard of is Occam's razor.

Okay,

So Occam's razor,

And then I quote,

Simpler explanations are more likely to be correct.

Avoid unnecessary,

Unnecessary or improbable assumptions.

So it's quite easy,

You know,

The simplest solution is more often the likely solution.

So that's Occam's razor.

It's just this idea of,

You know,

Things don't have to have a complex reason.

Sometimes it's just a very simple reason.

You did it.

Why did you do it?

Well,

You were hungry.

Okay.

All right.

That makes sense.

It's just very simple.

So Occam's razor is that one,

The simple idea.

Okay.

And I think that applying this type of thinking as well to people,

Oh,

People are complex.

No,

People are pretty simple.

You know,

Like,

Yeah,

If we take something and we break it down,

We can always make it more complex because everything is infinitely complex.

But we can also just see simple big things make a difference.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who's a CEO and,

You know,

Very,

Very dear friend and like all clients as well.

And you know,

I was talking about,

Well,

What happens when your company goes into crisis?

So he's a CEO of a biotech pharmaceutical company and he it's a publicly traded company.

So it's a big company.

It's a big deal.

He's a,

He's a,

You know,

Legit big time dude.

And having a conversation with him about crises and like,

What do you,

What do you do in crises?

And he's like,

It's a lot simpler than you think.

You get into a war room and you do simple solutions and you make sure that everyone is clear on these solutions and you make sure that everyone's got their jobs to do.

So Occam's razor can also help simplify our lives,

You know,

Go for the simple solutions.

Very often we're trying to say,

Oh yeah,

I can't do the splits because blah,

Blah,

Blah,

This that you know,

Complexity,

But well,

The simple solution is go down more into that position if you want to do the splits,

Spend more time there.

So you know,

You speak to people about,

Oh,

How do you,

How do I get more push pull ups?

Let's say more pull ups and more effective pull ups.

Well,

Go and spend time doing pull ups.

As a language teacher,

I can also tell you the simple solution is that if you want to learn a language,

Nothing will stop you.

It doesn't matter if you have the right materials or anything.

I know people who've learned from YouTube,

From watching the Godfather in English,

Learning learning English from Italian,

You know,

All kinds of stuff like this where,

I mean,

There was a guy on,

On YouTube the other day who learned native level like Japanese from watching anime for five years and pretty much just living in Japanese.

Ooh,

The wife is calling.

Let me pause this quick.

And we're back.

So as I was saying,

Native level Japanese just by doing the simplest thing.

So usually what we do is,

You know,

Understand fine,

If you do the simplest thing,

That's great.

You're going to get there.

You can always make things more complicated,

Make it more effective,

More efficient,

But usually you need a lot of time and energy and expertise to do this type of thing.

So that's,

That's basically like a nice extrapolation we can take from Occam's Razor.

Okay.

So razor number two is called Hanlon's Razor,

Hanlon's Razor.

And by the way,

Like all of these razors are named after people.

So for example Occam's Razor comes from the Latin Occami,

Which is the principle of parsimony,

The problem solving principle.

So that's quite interesting.

And the idea is attributed to English Franchescan friar,

William of Occam.

There we go.

Whereas Hanlon's Razor is Robert J.

Hanlon who submitted,

Oh,

This puppy is starving,

Submitted the statement to a joke book,

Which is quite interesting and it's just been recorded.

So Hanlon's Razor is actually quite interesting.

It is the concept that instead of thinking that people are evil,

It's better to attribute,

You know,

Their actions not to malice,

But to stupidity.

So quote,

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

And that's exactly the point.

People are,

Are less,

You know,

These evil geniuses with schemes and plans and they're more just doing stupid shit.

That's simple.

Take it.

Sorry.

Yeah.

So Hanlon's Razor is this idea of people are dumb,

Not evil geniuses,

Dumb.

They're not planning and scheming anything.

They're very simple creatures.

So Occam's Razor and Hanlon's Razor together,

Very powerful combination.

Okay.

So number three,

Hitchens Razor.

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence as well.

That's again,

Super important.

You know,

If I want to say I went to the moon,

You're like,

Cool,

Show me the evidence.

No,

I don't have evidence.

Okay,

Well,

Bye.

You know,

And I find that Hitchens Razor goes with the Sagan standard as well,

Which is extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

So if you claim something,

Back it up,

You know,

And then Hitchens Razor as well is like,

Well,

If you're saying that something is,

Is that without evidence,

Then I'm going to dismiss it without evidence.

So those two work together pretty well.

All right.

After that,

We talk about Grice's Razor,

A principle of parsimony.

Again,

The simplest solution,

Conversational implications are to be preferred over semantic context for linguistic explanations.

And so that's a long way to just say basically that.

Take it.

Good boy.

Grice's Razor is just basically this idea of,

Instead of saying that,

Well,

He said,

You know,

He was over the moon,

Therefore he should have jumped over the moon.

You know,

It's not literal.

The suggestion of being over the moon is to be happy.

So when people argue semantics and they say,

Well,

This word means this and this matters,

And there are some people who don't have the vocabulary to be able to have those kinds of conversations.

And so it's rather what is conversationally implied.

It should be taken rather than the actual linguistic exact semantic meaning of something.

And a lot of you out there,

I'm sure,

Will say,

Oh,

No,

No,

No,

I disagree with you.

You know,

Words matter,

You need to choose your words carefully.

Yes,

Words matter,

But words also shift in meaning and shift in situational context based on region that a person uses those words.

You know,

So certain words have heavier meanings,

Softer meaning,

Depending on where you go.

They have more frequency,

Less frequency,

All kinds of things.

So understand that the notion comes out of someone with a master's degree in linguistics that words don't really matter as much as the implications do.

Okay.

So that's a big deal.

And I like Grice's razor a lot because I have these arguments all the time that words don't matter.

What matters is the feeling,

Like,

What are you trying to communicate?

So you know,

When I say,

Oh,

Come on,

I never do that.

They're like,

Never,

Really,

Never.

And people always say,

Oh,

Always a never or never a thing because you never,

You know,

That's not true or always,

I always do this.

The always isn't to show frequency,

You know,

Complete frequency.

It's rather to show that there's a strong emotion there.

Like I feel like I'm the one who does this majority of the time,

You know,

And the emotional strength comes with the word always,

Not with the accuracy of the words.

So emotional strength.

Why?

Because humans are emotional.

All right.

So the next one that we'll do is Alder's razor.

If something cannot be settled by experiment or observation,

Then it's not worthy of debate.

And that is quite interesting.

So you know,

If it's just opinion,

Oh,

Your opinion says this and my opinion says that,

Well,

That's great.

Cool.

Let's not debate it any further.

Take it.

You know,

That's simple.

But if you're like,

Well,

The sky is blue and you assert that and I'm like,

Well,

No,

It's not and I can prove it by measuring the light waves that refract,

You know,

In the atmosphere,

I can show you that blue is according to the spectrum and that 99.

999% of people actually perceive blue to be at this wavelength.

Therefore,

This guy is blue.

You know,

This isn't something that you can debate.

There is,

There is a factual understanding here that we can assert.

And so the simple point is like,

If you can't prove it,

If you can't actually run an experiment to see what it's like,

Then there's no point.

Okay.

So Alder's razor is if something cannot be settled by experimentation or observation,

It's not worthy of debate.

Now a nice implication that I take from Alder's razor is the idea of how quickly am I to actually experiment when I'm in a debate or,

You know,

Am I going to observe something?

So someone says to me,

Do you know how much flights are?

Oh my gosh,

They're like $40,

000 a flight.

I'm like,

Well,

I'm not going to argue you about how stupid that sounds like.

It sounds like it's a ton of money.

I'm just going to go and experiment or observe.

I'm going to search for it.

I'm going to look for it and be like,

Huh,

I guess you're right.

It is 40,

000.

Wow.

So there's a settled debate there versus,

You know,

Fighting and be like,

Don't be stupid.

It's not going to be that.

It's going to be this.

Be open to the possibility that you are wrong.

And so that's a double edged razor right there.

Okay,

Cool.

Moving on from that,

I think that Alder's razor also goes together with Popper's falsifiability principle,

Which is not quite named after a razor,

But it's,

You know,

It's still a rule of thumb.

It's considered to be one of the razors,

Which is for a theory to be considered scientific,

It must be falsifiable.

And so when we say,

When we use this word falsifiable,

What we're talking about is we can prove,

You know,

We can fake it.

You know,

We can,

We can test it.

That's the best way to say falsifiable.

It's something that,

You know,

If I run experiments again,

I can see.

So Alder's razor and Popper's falsifiability principle is pretty much the same thing,

You know,

If it's scientific,

It's something that we can test and we can assert and we can prove it time and time and time again.

And so this is a good example of why I don't like,

You know,

Carl Jungian psychology,

Freudian psychology because they were all theories.

They were all just ideas about how the mind works and what the relationships are.

None of them were things that you could actually prove and you could say,

You know,

Well,

This is true because of this.

You know,

It largely became the interpretation of people,

You know,

And you know,

These,

These people became brands,

Personality brands rather than anything else.

You know,

Sigmund Freud,

Carl Jung,

They became,

You know,

Figureheads in a type of cult that worships them and some idiot can come along and claim that they know and they'll see this and they'll see that.

But unless you can prove it,

There's no point.

So Papa's falsifiability principle.

So yes.

And I think,

Um,

What's quite interesting as well is the,

All of these things are basically a good way to see and cut through nonsense that people have.

I mean,

I was watching a YouTube video from part of the woo woo community,

Which,

Yeah,

I guess some of you might actually be in that community as well where someone,

I won't name who it was or anything like that because that's not the point.

The point is,

Is that this person claimed to be able to read by touch.

They touched a book and as a result of touching this book,

They got the knowledge.

I'm like,

Wow,

That is an extraordinary claim.

And a friend of mine was arguing and he's like,

Yeah,

Well,

I mean it could,

It could very well happen,

You know,

Like you,

You don't know what the possibilities and the limits of humans are.

I'm like,

Yes,

But this is not an ordinary claim.

If this person had claimed to have run a five kilometer race in 20 minutes,

I'm like,

Well,

That's achievable.

You know,

That's achievable.

I've,

I've seen people run it in like 16 minutes,

Which is incredible.

So sure,

That's,

That's an extraordinary claim,

Not an ordinary claim.

And so I require extraordinary evidence.

I'm not going to be like,

Oh,

Okay,

I better believe because blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So yes,

Needless to say that was quite fun.

Now,

The one that I've saved the best for last is a little bit tough to explain and it's Hume's guillotine or Hume's guillotine,

If you will.

And if you know,

The,

The very simple point is it came from Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume and it's called the is-ought problem,

You know,

And the is-ought problem is to define a relationship between two things.

So Hume's guillotine reads,

If I may,

What ought to be cannot be deduced from what is.

It's that simple.

If the cause assigned to for any effect be not sufficient to produce it,

We must either reject that cause or add to it such quantities as would give it a just proportional proportion to the effect.

Okay.

What this all means is the very simple concept that if you assert that something is or is not,

Then you say ought to.

Now he was debating this and there's a lot of criticism around this,

But I still like it with regard to morals.

So every time you think that,

But you should do this,

You should be kind to your neighbors.

Well,

Why,

Why should you be kind?

Remember ought and should similar are synonyms.

So the idea is that anytime you use the word should,

There,

There is a statement in your mind to say,

This is how the world works and therefore this is how you should behave.

And the relationship between those two is often seen as something that's unquestionable.

And I find that examining these pieces is very,

Very important for people.

People should examine these pieces.

Why,

Why should you examine something?

Well,

There are the relationship between what is and what isn't,

You know,

So for no other reason as examination is a good skill to have,

You know,

So there are a couple of examples that we can use for whom's law you know,

Just to get,

Just to get the feelings of it.

So here's one for you.

Humans are clearly omnivores.

So we ought to eat meat.

We should eat meat.

Humans should eat meat because we're clearly omnivores.

And of course there's a fallacy behind that.

Like yes,

We are omnivores,

But we should eat meats.

Like well,

Not necessarily like we can,

We can thrive when we eat meat,

But that doesn't mean we have to eat meat.

Okay.

Killing animals is cruel.

And so we shouldn't eat meats.

Like what's the relationship between these two and what is cruelty and relativism and things like that.

So again,

We're talking about morals.

Most people cheat a little on their taxes.

So you,

You should as well.

I think that's a good one.

You know,

This is ought problem is this idea of well,

If these people do it,

Then you should do it too.

You know,

If,

If everybody does it,

Then you should do it too.

And I don't agree with that.

I don't think that that is a good way to do things because you're basically going along with group think.

And so if,

You know,

Depending on what side of the is or problem you land on is irrelevant,

It's more this idea of asking yourself questions of what are your morals?

What are your,

What are your guiding principles?

What are your values?

And choosing your actions based on that,

You know,

And the is or problem,

Whether you agree or disagree,

It just raises that issue and asks you to think about who you are and what you're doing.

And that's it.

So these are the philosophical razor.

So once again,

Let me just go through them all.

So we had Occam's razor,

Which is the idea of like simple explanations.

Okay.

We had Hanlon's razor,

Which said people are stupid,

Not evil.

We had Hitchens razor of,

Okay,

If you can say it without evidence,

I can dismiss it without evidence.

And that goes along with,

You know,

The Sagan standard,

Which is,

Well,

You know,

A big claim like that requires a lot of evidence as well.

You know,

You saw aliens,

Cool,

Where's the pictures?

Then we have Alder's razor.

If something cannot be settled by an experiment or observation,

It's not worthwhile.

And that's the same as Popper's falsifiability principle.

You know,

Like if something is to be considered scientific,

It must be falsifiable.

And then we've got Grice's razor,

Which is the idea of,

You know,

For,

As a principle of,

You know,

The simplicity of problem solving,

You know,

What is implied in a conversation is to be preferred over the exact words that are used.

So that's pretty cool as well.

And then coming back to it,

We have the final one,

The Hume's guillotine,

The is-ought problem.

Just because you assert something,

It doesn't mean that there is a knock-on result that should be adhered to.

Okay.

So there's,

It's basically examining the relationships between beliefs and actions.

And I like,

I like Hume's guillotine quite a lot actually.

So there's a,

There's a lot in these philosophical razors to do,

But it's a good idea to just stop,

Think,

Reflect.

And that's what they're asking us for,

You know,

Like don't give away your sanity.

Don't give away your belief structures just based on what people say,

What people claim.

I mean,

Some of the famous stuff is obviously on YouTube,

On Instagram,

Where people are claiming these incredible things.

I think the worst one are the claims that are in the industry of men's fitness and men's health,

For example,

With regard to like protein powders,

We'll do this for you.

And like,

Well,

There's,

That's great.

That's a lot of evidence.

Where's,

Where's your evidence that that actually happens?

Where's your control groups?

Like where are your,

Your proofs of these types of things?

Where's the experiment,

The data,

The research that all of these things exist and it's not there.

It's not there.

So yes,

Anyway,

Moving on,

Moving on.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

I think that these philosophical raises are pretty cool.

Let me know what you think of them and if you disagree or agree with all,

Some or none of them,

I would love to hear from you and I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Please remember that my greatest intention behind this is to put my thoughts down into a format that I can leave as a legacy.

And so the greatest thing that you can do for me is to share this with a partner,

Share this with a friend,

Share this with a colleague and have a good conversation about it all.

And with that,

I will leave you alone.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Ciao,

Ciao.

Reviews

Very interesting! Thank you!