[Being Wrong]
"Wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world" (5). --Kathryn Schulz
In the first chapter of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, Schulz begins making a case for why we might benefit by thinking more seriously about ho integral wrongness is to who we are. She unpacks multiple facets of error and charts out the way forward for her book.
Of the many concepts she references in the first chapter,which one drew your interest most and why?
16 comments:
I really liked how the author explained that we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. She explains that being wrong is a major part of how we learn and we can use error to revise our understanding and ultimately help us to learn more.
It was interesting to see the statement "As a culture, we haven't even mastered the basic skill of saying"I was wrong". That really hits somewhere because we as Americans or as people can be very suborn and not admit anything we feel will make us less of a man or woman.
The concept that was interesting to me was the fact that our attitude towards being wrong can hinder our relationships, which is true because both people in a relationship want to be right about what the other person did wrong instead of them both admitting their faults.
I like on page 8 when the author states that "Of all the strife in the world-strife of every imaginable variety, from conflict over crumb cake to conflict in the Middle East- a staggering amount of it arises from the clash of mutually incompatible, entirely unshakable feelings of rightness." When I reflect on this statement, every word is so true. The great majority of the conflicts I have in my life revolve around being right. This will help me to look at my relationships in a different light when I am having an issue.
I really liked how when the author said "For one thing it leaves us idiotic and ashamed,"(pg 5). This shows how people are afraid to admit when they're wrong because they worry too much about how they will be viewed by others as less intelligent because they made an error.
The statement I thought was interesting said, "our default attitude toward wrongness, then - our relationship for error and our appetite for being right- tends to be rough on relationships. I found this interesting because I've had experience with this. There have been many times that someone else's wrongness or my wrongness has gotten in tge way of our relationship.
Deborrah B.
I like when she said "Paradoxically, we live in a culture that simultaneously despises error and insists that it is central to our lives." (pg. 6) because I find this to be true. In our society, we cannot make mistakes. We must always be perfect and if we mess up once then either we or other people never let us forget it.
Aliyah B.
I like when she talked about how our inability to acknowledge our wrongness can hinder our relationships. I think this is extremely true because we all want to have our point be made and everyone to see where we are coming from even if we are wrong. But, that can be detrimental to a relationship and stunt the growth of it.
I like how she points out the fact that if we cannot recognize when we are wrong, it will put our relationships in jeopardy. This concept interests me the most because its the one that I can most relate to.
I liked when she talked about how 'wrongness' or how our attitude about being wrong can negatively affect our relationships with other people. No one really likes being wrong and its difficult in a relationship when two people both want to be right. We as people have problems acknowledging and recognizing when we are wrong and it can ruin a relationship
On page 18, Schulz states "the sentence "I am wrong" describes a logical impossibility. As soon as we know that we are wrong, we aren't wrong anymore, since to recognize a belief as false is to stop believing it. Thus we can only say "I was wrong." I found this particular statement to be quite intriguing because, if one were to truly take into consideration the notion of the state of being wrong, it is quite evident that subsequent to becoming aware of our error, we are essentially becoming freed from the actual state of being wrong.
"Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world."
This quote sticks out to me. Being wrong is a positive thing at times. It is why we can accept people for who they are after our pre-cognitive disposition has made us feel like we couldn't. Or us finding out that the world is round and we are not the center of the universe; knowing that we got those assumptions wrong, we were able to make hundreds of theories that were right.
While most look at error as a flaw in their abilities, it is indeed "crucial to human cognition (Schulz 5). error is looked at from psychological view and it proves that human error is needed and in fact a good quality to have. It help develops emotions, such as empathy. The very emotions that make us human we are ashamed of in a sense because of our shameful attitude towards error. Error in fact is a way to show that the human is developing. The problem many is that error is looked at as dishonorable.
I liked how she explained that we don't even know how to identify that we're wrong or acknowledge it because I my self have struggled with that.
I enjoyed the part about how we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. She explains wrong as a natural thing that is required for us as human beings to grow and learn.
Kahli C.
I love how the author pointed out what it means to be wrong and how we as humans take it. It's usually frowned upon if we are "wrong" but if we are wrong it's because "we are human" even though we would still want to explain ourselves. The author also said that it is our mistake that we are wrong about being wrong.
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