To what degree should we trust our own judgement?

In deciding something, I've heard that one should consider advice from others but not too much advice as that advice can very soon become your advice. So take advice but not too much. You may make a wrong decision but since you are the decision making factor, the decision must be yours.

As for how much to believe in the theistic and the atheistic view, I'd say that believe what your intuition says and listen to your brain but do what your heart is saying always. This way you will always make the right decision.

bm

Welcome to A2K!

I consider myself an agnostic. There is not a bit of proof that there is a God, but I am not ruling it out. I really don't know.

I live my life based on my own convictions, but those convictions are based on concepts that I have learned in life through interacting with others in society. I then chose as to whether or not to accept this or that precept.

If I could boil my convictions down to its essence, I think that the most important conviction is never faking reality. That means always being honest, and relating with other people with fairness and integrity. If I screw up, I acknowledge it, take my lumps, and discover methods that whatever happened does not repeat itself. I take full responsibility for my actions, and don't blame them on my parents, society, or anything outside of myself.

I am a big believer in the "Golden Rule", and its corollary, "The right to swing your arm ends at the other fellow's nose".

One cannot absorb the entire world's knowledge in every area. Therefore, in certain instances, where my knowledge is spotty, I will go to an expert in that field. For instance, I have made it a practice to become very familiar with issues of a medical nature. I will research diseases, medications and medical procedures when they involve either myself or people who are close to me.

Often, I will make a decision as to what is to be done about a particular medical problem. I will then discuss it with my doctor, who has more training and experience in the field than I do. What I don't do, as so many do, is go to my doctor, hat in hand, and have him make the medical decisions for me. As far as I am concerned, we are partners in my health care.

I mention this particular, because I think it is a good illustration about how I conduct my life, in general.

In a classic experiment in psychology a group of actors consistently managed to make a subject changed his judgement of object properties from "correct" to "incorrect". Given one other compatriot the subject managed to hold out against the general consensus.

The implication is that we are often swayed by consensus perhaps because we do not have consistent "selves".

fresco- That is probably true, to a certain extent. I would expect that the degree to which a person can be swayed is a function of whether or not, and to what degree, a person has a "consistent self".

Early on, when I was quite young, a very good friend of mine illustrated something to me that has stood me in good stead all of my life. He threw out some question about history, and asked me about it. I gave my opinion, and he went on a whole rap about how I was wrong. He was very persuasive, and appeared to be very knowledgable about the subject. After hearing his arguments, I gave in, and said that he was right.

He then looked at me, and said, that I had been right all along, and that I should never allow someone to sway me without checking out the new information with what I knew already. I think that this was one of the most important lessons that I have learned in my entire life.

Start with doubt and go from there. The old middle ages credo was "understanding comes from belief." Later it changed into "belief comes from understanding." Question everything!

Or maybe because we are unduly deferential to the authority of groups.

Live by your own convictions. If you don't, what's the point? If everyone lived by the societal views of safety and commonality, think of all the great ideas that would have fallen by the wayside, all the brilliant minds that would have never been allowed to express themselves because that kind of thinking would have been considered radical and unsafe.

Why should I? :wink:

I say you must trust your own judgement always, when the decision is up to you. Where would we be if no one trusted their own ability to decide what is the best decision for the outcome they want?

Trust yourself, but know that nobody's perfect.

I think you have to trust yourself because having confidence in your actions is half of what makes you successful. The other half comes from making intelligent, knowledgeable, and smart decisions. You have to have confidence that you are doing this or else you shouldn't go through with the action.

Has anyone known some with a mental illness or dementia?

How do you know when not to trust your own judgement?

Part of the way you know to trust yourself is from other people. People aren't always going to let you do something that is completely stupid. If you are continually being stopped from doing things by others than I think it's pretty obvious that you can't trust your own judgement. You have to trust yourself until there is a reason not to.

Overall, I think if the issue is minor, like say something philosophical, then I would take advice but not too much so the decision remains mine. But where the issue is serious or major and my decision making might affect others in a major way then of course a knowledgeable view or one with insight should be upheld. "Little knowledge is a dangerous thing," everyone knows. But here, when Adeist started this thread, I think he was wanting to know our views on how we would judge or make a decision regarding minor things.

Re: To what degree should we trust our own judgement?


Trust your judgement, but challenge it regularly.

hingehead,

I used to work with the mentally ill. Is there something I can help with?