Group Session Notes January 2026

 I got behind on my session notes, the last I can find is from 1/2/2026, and so let's go.

1/9:

Faith

What? Where? When? Who? Why? Experience - Reason - Fath- Skepticism.

1. Who gets me there?
2. Doubt leads to wisdom.

Plato = wisdom

Aristotle= experience

(No idea of history.)

 Hume to Descartes.

(I know that is backwards, just as I know Descartes was all rationality - “I think, therefore I am” - and Hume was more empirical. But I say nothing. Pulling him up is not really relevant to the day's dissertation. Pedantry will muddy things.)

Emotions: postmodern empiricism

Kant: pragmatic.

(I have no idea what was meant by “postmodern empiricism” since I was probably shocked by labeling Kant as pragmatic.) 

Kirkegard = existentialism, leap of faith.

scientism - confined to non-history and meaning impossible. 

(does he not mean presentism?)

Materialism - probabilism. What? Where?

1940s - measurement problems.

Framing problems.

Cognitive disorders -

• Harmful thinking error
• Without good purpose 

Therapy prioritizes long term. 

sch 5/25: scientism & presentism. Well, learning something new every day means you're not dead!

 Probabilism - can go for that; in fact, I am pretty sure it is how I live, and I think everyone else does - we have to go with what is likely because we cannot know the future with any certainty. Materialism is more attractive to me; I distrust idealism, it is the philosophy of too many mass murderers. I do not understand how they were supposed to be connected and I am even less certain now. 

1/16

Thought begins [with] Law of Comparison 

• Figure/ground - must have boundaries
• Schemas
• Emotional reasoning (I feel it is true.)
• Negative filtering

(Nothing is neutral.)

Complies all your experiences. 

1/23:

Emotional reasoning - negative filters

Tribalism

Language

Polarized thinking  

• Overgeneralization
• Global labelling 

1/30: no notes.

sch 5/25