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Feringer Notes - CIRCULATION OF THOUGHT - 1954 4 of 65
For instance, the idea that all people are, or should be, born free and equal is an idea that should
be acted on, that should become true - where the "word should be made flesh."At first maybe one
person believed it, then a few more, and eventually it must become commonplace in all people's
behavior.
13.To get an idea to come true may require wars, certainly sacrifice, frustration, or debate, and
certainly the path will have many barriers; some progress, then retrogression. Prejudices must be
set aside, minds changed.It takes time, perhaps a thousand years.The path from idea to reality
may be mysterious, but the channels of thought must be kept open in order for it to happen.Only
then can progress occur.
No idea is worth anything if it cannot become true.
14.Logic is only one form, one system of thought.But our most important, meaningful decisions
are not based on logic:whom we choose for friends, whomwe marry, what profession we enter,
etc.
Lecture 2
1/2Three aspects of thought: 1) what an individual thinks, 2) what the world thinks of that
thought at that moment, and3) what the world may think about it at some time in the future. All
people who speak, participate one way or another in this process of circulation.
2/2There are two ways in which people speak of others - what is said in one's presence, and what
is said in one's absence. Some are praised more in their absence than in their presence, and more
commonly praised in their presence, and criticized in their absence. Our thoughts are judged to
be wise or foolish, flippant or serious, reliable or imaginative..THE BIBLE says, "Judge not..."
because this type of judgment is dangerous; we are very likely to misunderstand.To judge tends
to mean we don't think about the other's speech any more.
Another dimension of circulation is not to reveal our true thoughts to others, so we either refrain
from speaking or mislead.
3.Still another dimension of communication is when people value politeness over truth, which of
course becomes a barrier to communication. To speak the truth in spite of consequences should
not be interpreted as giving a person license to be nasty, but simply that one way or another,
communication is enhanced by truth.
4.The conclusion here is that what we think about ourselves andothers and what they think of us,
is always interdependent.That is, we gain self-knowledge by listening to what others say about
us;we can never be indifferent because their behavior toward us affects us.Here ERH quotes
Goethe, "If you want to have joy in yourself, you must attribute value to the world outside."
(p.8/2)What we think of the world "recoils in us."