Thought requires deliberate self-distancing because reality resists being understood directly

Evidence

This essential fluidity of our boundaries further implies that we also know our boundaries as such—first the individual and then in general. For only whoever stands outside his boundary in some sense knows that he stands within it, that is, knows it as a boundary. Kaspar Hauser did not know that he was in prison until he came into the open and could see the walls from without. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Most significantly, information overload must deteriorate independent thought itself. That’s because of the factor I came to grips with in reference to making stories, or music, and also in the context of SNOLAB researchers, for this factor has a hand in crafting scientific theories. Man makes stories and thinks creatively via a three-part process, the first element of which is a strong silence, similar to the silence before the curtain lifts on a stage, which for a shard of a second eliminates prejudices and preceding notions and allows the coming together of concepts that prior to this instant did not exist, in the mind of the thinker at least. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 453 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort; Theory is needed to break through deceptive appearances but cannot dictate action; Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787 (+14 more)

Related

• Comprehension requires conscious confrontation with reality rather than interpretive comfort (similarity 0.92)
• Creative thought requires an initial silence that clears prior mental assumptions (similarity 0.83)
• Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions (similarity 0.83)
• Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them (similarity 0.83)
• Perfect silence as an unattainable absolute still functions as real and necessary (similarity 0.81)
• The self discovers itself only in situation and must alone sustain all values (similarity 0.79)
• People fear true silence because it threatens rather than merely rests their worldview (similarity 0.79)
• The idea of an absolute silence functions as a necessary reset point for thought (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Self-knowledge of one’s limits requires a vantage point outside them #qualifies (0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 787
• Creative thought requires an initial silence that clears prior mental assumptions #exemplifies (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 453
• Consciousness must lose itself in the absolute to attain self-consciousness #expands (0.80) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 508
• A thinker’s own thought must be separated from earlier material that only stimulated it #corroborates (0.80)
• Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions #corroborates (0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 693
• The idea of an absolute silence functions as a necessary reset point for thought #qualifies (0.75) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 531