Can People Be Honestly Wrong About Their Own Experiences?

[searcher]

Can People Be Honestly Wrong About Their Own Experiences?​

Nov 9

A tangent of the jhana discussion: I asserted that people can’t be wrong about their own experience.

That is, if someone says they don’t feel hungry, maybe they’re telling the truth, and they don’t feel hungry. Or maybe they’re lying: saying they don’t feel hungry even though they know they really do (eg they’re fasting, and they want to impress their friends with how easy it is for them). But there isn’t some third option, where they honestly think they’re not experiencing hunger, but really they are.

Commenters brought up some objections: aren’t there people who honestly say they don’t feel hungry, but then if you give them food, they’ll wolf it down and say “Man, that really hit the spot, I guess I didn’t realize how hungry I was”?

Read the rest here:

Can People Be Honestly Wrong About Their Own Experiences?

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open.substack.com

 

[CiscoKid]

Well, I can only speak from my own experience, but I believe that people can be wrong about their own experiences. I remember a while back when my wife made me get dressed up and go to downtown DC to the Kennedy Center to see "My Fair Lady". I distinctly recall not enjoying it very much, but I must have been mistaken because my wife insists that I not only enjoyed it very much but that I had a good time as well.

 

[Joe King]

But there isn’t some third option, where they honestly think they’re not experiencing hunger, but really they are.

The bigger problem (both literally and figuratively) in society today is people honestly thinking they are experiencing hunger, when in reality they are not.

 

[CiscoKid]

The bigger problem (both literally and figuratively) in society today is people honestly thinking they are experiencing hunger, when in reality they are not.

That is actually quite true. Most people cannot differentiate between thirst and hunger. it is also true that a vast majority of people are chronically dehydrated.

 

[<SLV>]

That is actually quite true. Most people cannot differentiate between thirst and hunger. it is also true that a vast majority of people are chronically dehydrated.

Furthermore, I have discovered that IBS can feel like - and be mistaken for - hunger. Not exactly the same, but often I find myself trying to eat something to address the gnawing feeling in my gut which isn't hunger.

I suspect that pharmaceuticals and industrial processed foods have left most Americans with intestinal maladies. It could be that stomach discomfort is actually a contributing factor to the obesity epidemic due to a psychological misassociation of irritation with hunger.

 

[Goldhedge]

If you are addicted to nicotine... you eat to remove the 'pangs of hunger' which in reality is the body craving nicotine.

Steve Martin - Smokers​

 

[nickndfl]

I still honestly believe that stripper really liked me and cared about me as a person.

 

[Goldhedge]

It just occurred to me that people really CAN be honestly wrong about their experiences...

Just look at how many today are deceived by the mainstream media, yet they believe with all their heart that Trump is evil incarnate.

 

[searcher]

yet they believe with all their heart that Trump is evil incarnate.

Made me smile.