The Tao of uncertainty

[IntuitiveWanderer]

How do you deal with uncertainty? And I mean epistemological uncertainty, as in when you just can't process something because it simply inaccesible due to uncertainty.

Like, for example, intelligent people avoid certain subjects because of this process, this subconscious Occam's razor, this mental Cerberus, guarding the gates of the inner world.

 

I can't process information when the context is not fully understood, I cannot jump into an epystemological abys, risking injury to my sanity. Usually things that I cannot process in the moment, but suspect of being true, end up stored in a corner somewhere in the back of the mind, and are summoned automatically when the epistemic uncertainty is reduced to moderate, or low-moderate.

 

Does this sound familiar, how do you go about uncertainty, does it even matter?

 

What does the Tao Te Ching say about this?

 

Can one be foolishly skeptical?

Edited November 23, 2014 by IntuitiveWanderer

[Chang]

Uncertainty is the natural state in which we live. Only the fanatic has no doubts.

[Michael Sternbach]

Yes, one can take anything too far, including scepticism. This can even result in mental illness.

 

Personally, I subscribe to an experimental way of life. I make clear assumptions, yet let further experience decide whether they hold true. So I look at my beliefs as working hypotheses, in principle. (Of course, some are pretty well established, meanwhile.)

 

My attitude was directly influenced by the TTC at a time when I still somehow believed that an answer regarding Life, the Universe and Everything could indeed be found. I then happened to read in the TTC (somewhere) that the Universe eludes full comprehension. This helped me to put my mind at rest and continue my search for answers in a more playful and joyful manner, open to surprising expansions of my perspective.

 

So, in short: Make uncertainty your friend!

Edited November 23, 2014 by Michael Sternbach

[Brian]

I very much like both of the replies above me here.

 

It is common and unfortunate for a belief system to start from an agnostic position and morph into a delusion of certitude. Seems to be an egoistic defense mechanism that is part of the human condition.