Ego's need to be decoupled from ideas and beliefs before they can undergo dialectic synthesis

[[ 2021-07-21 ]] #ego #psychology #epistemics

Dialectic synthesis is a deeply important process for maintaining civic coherence (especially in the 21st century): a healthy epistemic commons is the foundational feature of a functioning democracy.

Because of the wall of ego ( [[ hitting the wall of ego - barriers to productive discourse ]]), one must decouple their own ego from ideas and beliefs they hold if they ever want to move to some higher-order truth (otherwise ego defence mechanisms will inhibit such a pursuit).

It is a process of dissociating ones dignity and identity from any particular belief or idea, and to evaluate the merits of ideas on their own, not associated with a specific person - otherwise this taps into the complex structure of ego mechanisms. Just like how arguments need to be written down to properly undergo a dialectic process, so too do our egos need to be decoupled from ideas and beliefs for them to be observed and scrutinised from a comfortable psychological/cognitive distance.

This is why self-awareness is super important as a tool for fostering dialectic synthesis, because we need the ability to recognise the biases and automatic ego defence mechanisms that kick in: [[ being aware of our cognitive biases and flaws is the first step to overcome them ]]. It also stressed the importance of humility: an ethos of learning and epistemic humility are necessary cultural features for public sense-making to effectively navigate the complexity of hyperobjects.