Wednesday, April 8, 2015

On Being Wrong, Chapter 10: How Wrong?

[Being Wrong]

"Figuring out where we went wrong can be genuinely puzzling--the conceptual equivalent of trying to retrace your steps in a dark woods" (207). -- Kathryn Schulz

“Our beliefs come in bundles.” (209 )-- Kathryn Schulz

Kathryn Schulz's book Being Wrong is about wrongess and error, but it's also about, we've come to understand, the nature of our beliefs. In multiple chapters, she discusses how our belief systems affect our thinking and actions and contributing to our mistakes. Beliefs are important, as Schulz shows, when we people are trying to discover "how wrong" they were. Their belief can determine how they pursue the answer to that query.

What idea did you come across that you found most fascinating or notable in this chapter? How so?  Please note a page number.

13 comments:

Brianna Reed said...

In this chapter Schulz presents the idea that once we realize we are wrong we naturally ask ourselves "Where, precisely did we go astray? Which wrong road did we take? And exactly how far down did we travel?". This made me think that even when we are wrong, we battle with ourselves to determine an exact degree of how wrong we are. One of the most difficult things to do is determine where everything began to fall apart and why we failed to notice when it begun to happen.
- Reed B.

Anonymous said...

The most notable idea in this chapter is when Schulz says that "few of us change the course of history when we make excuses for being wrong,"(213). I found this interesting because it is true. If we do not learn from our mistakes, we cannot move forward.
-Aja J

Unknown said...

"...if we can't do the emotional work of fully accepting our mistakes, we can't do the conceptual work of figuring out where, how, and why we made them. (That's one reason why defensiveness is so bad for problem solving and progress of all kinds: in relationships, in business, in creative and intellectual pursuits.)" p.207-208. Schulz said very simply what most people do not realize and that is why I appreciated this so much. It is true that if we cannot get passed things emotionally then we cannot move on and her mention of defensiveness really hit me because that is my biggest problem. In order to fully get over a mistake made there are steps that we do not realize we have to take and our defensiveness or stubbornness do tend to get in the way when dealing with big issues such as our god not coming when we think.

Unknown said...

On page 217, they talk about how people are really bad at admitting we are wrong. I found this to ring true. People usually just find out they're wrong and continue on with their lives.

Sydney J said...

On page 207 Kathryn Schulz talks about how accepting our mistakes correlates directly with figuring out where, how, and why we made these mistakes. I found this to be very interesting because it is extremely true. If we aren't willing to accept the mistakes we made we can never really figure out what went wrong.
-Sydney J.

Unknown said...

 be  creative  and  to  create”  (217). Without mistakes we would have some of the amazing inventions we use today! Mistakes help us grow as people and as a world.
-Taylor M.

Alicia S said...

The idea I found the most interesting was about how we dont usually change history just because we are wrong. I think people take being wrong too serious and it is not as big of a issue as they make it seem.

Anonymous said...

The idea that I found most interesting was the notion of us not being able to change history if we make excuses for our mistakes. what she was saying here is that if we dont take responsibility for our mistakes, then we dont learn from them and cant grown/ transend beyond it. Also what this is saying is that once we learn to accept our roles in our mistakes then we are able to know what to do the next time we encounter it ir see others doing the same.
***Brittany P

Unknown said...

On page 207, Schulz says, "In the aftermath of our errors, our first task is always to establish their scope and nature. Where, precisely, did we go astray?" I think that is so true because whether we are joking about it or very serious, we always ourselves and each other "where did i go wrong?" I think it's helpful for people to ask that question so that they may learn from their mistakes.

Unknown said...

The most interesting aspect of the chapter is when the author evaluated religion in relations to homosexuality. While religion does not agree with it, a lot of times homosexuals are thrown out of the church. But in the case of the men mentioned in the book, he chose "embrace its other teaching" (Schulz 209). He was able to decipher what is wrong about Catholicism and what is right in order to still be a religious man.

Anonymous said...

The aspect I found most interesting was when the author evaluated religion in relations to homosexuality. I find that the author was able to find the faults in what Catholicism was stating.
**** Anita Jackson

Anonymous said...

Schulz idea on page 213 States "few of us change the course of history when we make excuses for being wrong" I found this most notable because it made me think of the saying you wont know where you are going till you know where you have been. Both these saying are true because if we don't learn from out mistakes we will continue to make them and never make any improvements or steps forward.
Sierra L.

Tashawna N. said...

I think that the most notable idea in this chapter was about how accepting our mistakes means understanding why we were wrong. Not simply admitting that we were wrong.
~Tashawna Nash