Algernon - April 15 - Regurgitation of Thought

After Charlie Gordon had been given his operation, he was given a few post-operative ground rules. In particular, there were topics which Charlie was barred from learning initially, which on the surface seems counter-intuitive. Let's take a look.

April 15 - "[Dr. Strauss] made me promise that I won't read any books on psychology - that is, until he gives me permission. He says it will confuse me and make me think about psychological theories instead of about my own ideas and feelings." - Charlie

 Now, before I go into the discussion of this passage, I would like to bring up a passage from an article by Jeremy Clarkson.

"I conceded, realising that after six months on a fact-finding tour of the [European] Continent, absorbing knowledge like a sponge, I'd come home with a half formed thought." - From "The More We're Told the Less We Know"

The most common fallacy humans commit is to regurgitate information without questioning it. Worse yet, regurgitation of information often has a lingering after-effect of altering our behavior to suit what we have taken in. Humans are very quick to emulate the behaviors of others, thanks to an over-reliance on empathy.

Algernon - April 14 - Introduction to Critical Thinking

When talking about intellectually-challenging literature, Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon is often the most popular piece, despite being rather low-tier. It is the thought experiment which comes from trying to turn all men into geniuses, starting with the lowest IQ members of society. Charlie Gordon, a thirty-two year-old male, becomes the first human test subject after numerous successes with a rodent test subject (Algernon, perhaps the real star of this piece).

The story is a compilation of progress reports written by Charlie, and his progress can be observed by the changes in how well he articulates himself. But as he comes to learn more from an intellectual standpoint, he discovers that emotionally the experiment has done nothing to improve him. We'll be picking out a few pieces from the work and discussing the greater shadow cast by the little musings of Charlie and those around him.

April 14 - "The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you'll find that as you progress, there will be many things you'll want to talk to me about." - Dr. Strauss, Psychiatrist

Yes, it's a bit obvious, but there is no better place to start when discussing this novel. Charlie does often go on to find that there are questions of a social nature which he has no idea how to solve. He begins to use other people as a soundboard for his mental processes, simply because he lacks the worldview and perspective with which to do those questions justice.

You see, as humans we can absorb a large volume of factual information - mathematical rules, historical trivia, mechanical processes. Understanding why something exists as it does, highlighting an implicit value of an action, or finding tertiary applications to an idea, are all things which appear to be rather daunting for the bulk of society to attempt. Perhaps the reason this book is so provocative to people is because they simply cannot comprehend anything at a level higher than it. This is a problem.

My hope in covering this book is that I can help others understand the art of thinking critically. That said, I don't intend to spend too much time on it.