The method defined here acknowledges the feeling that all true knowledge is impossible. Solely appearances can be enumerated and the climate make itself felt.
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
I would love to offer the reader of this blog ideas that are bulletproof; ideas that are absolutely and unequivocally true. If I knew that I was in possession of some absolute truth, or if I knew of some sure method to separate fact from mere appearances, I would certainly employ it here.
But unfortunately this is not something I can do. All I have is an collection of appearances, and at times, a strange unjustified feeling that some conclusion might be right. When presented with a set of facts, my feeble human mind does not have the power to see through the dense fog of its own biases.
If you were to ask me if a triangle that is a square could exist, my brain just says "NO". Beyond that point I cannot think any deeper. Now, you could argue that it is not even clear what is meant by a square triangle, or that it is an inherent contradiction. However, there have been many things that at first received a similar negative reaction from my intuition and yet turned out to have valid interpretations. For instance, the famous fact that two simultaneous events are actually not simultaneous from a moving reference frame did not strike me as intuitive, and I received it with the same skepticism as with the triangle that is a square. Despite my intuition's insistence, I would feel arrogant saying that there isn't some reasonable interpretation of such statements. Intuition is like a cryptic oracle that claims to know the answer authoritatively but when asked the source of its insight, refuses to answer.
The fallibility of our intuitions is further evidenced by the fact that the intuitions of various humans come to contradictory conclusions, such that obviously someone is wrong. To take just one example off the endless pile of controversial issues, take a look at the issue of free will (considering only Libertarianism and Hard Determinism and not Compatibilism for the moment, because it appears to me somewhat of a word game). My observation upon putting the various arguments for both sides to different people is that some intuitions are just more comfortable with a naturalistic / physicalist / deterministic picture of things, while others are more comfortable postulating the existence of something like a soul that we just don't understand yet (or maybe we can't understand it) to fill in the mystery of consciousness. Obviously someone's intuitions must be failing here.
Seeing intelligent people come to opposite conclusions after considering the same evidence makes intuition suspect. And yet, if we are to get anywhere, we must rely upon it, for it's all we have.
I cannot guarantee that everything or even most of what exists on this blog will even remotely align with the truth of things. All I can say is that I will do my best to describe the current verdict of the black box which is my subconscious, after having considered matters as closely and as objectively as I can.
About the blog title
The Climate part of the blog title is a metaphor that I find compelling for the subconscious, which informs the conscious mind of the truth values of propositions in a way that feels similar to feeling of uncontrollable warmth that overwhelms you on a hot day. If I were to tell you to convince yourself that insert a belief that you hold strongly here is false, you would likely be unable to do so, in the same way that no amount of intellectual trickery can destroy the feeling of being hot on a hot day.
The Evolving part of the blog title describes the fact that while this sort of gut feeling with regards to the various questions of life cannot be controlled or influenced by one's free will, over time as new facts are absorbed and the ocean of experience washes over you, your intuition can evolve over time. The climate of your subconscious changes over time, sometimes drastically, and in ways that you cannot predict.
Your thoughts are valued
On this blog I plan to write down things I'm thinking about (usually related to math, science, or philosophy). Everything that I say is nothing more than my mutable opinions at the time of writing so take it with a grain of salt.
If you ever think that something that I have written is false, do write me an email and tell me why. Thanks!