FluidMind.org is the personal website of Dan Delaney, a computer programmer, singer, and artist in Louisville Kentucky. It exists simply for topics of my personal interest, and will expand to include talk about computer programming, AJAX application development, database design, singing, juggling, ancient mythology, philosophy, sociology, and who knows what else. I'm still in the process of filling out the content.
The concept of a "fluid mind" expresses my own epistemological views. We all hold a set of beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. These beliefs determine who we are and how we behave. When we're young, our belief system is extremely fluid and maliable. New ideas come in easily, and old beliefs fall away with little fuss. We accept the existence of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy without question, and just as easily drop those beliefs once we realize their implausibility. Until our brains develop the capacity to reason, we have a hard time distinguishing between fantasy and reality.
As we grow and learn, and become more rational, those beliefs we feel most certain of begin to form a firm core in the center of our minds from which we base our decisions, and against which we evaluate new ideas. On the periphery lie those ideas we're not quite convinced of, forming a fluid boundary where we consider new ideas, accepting some and rejecting others. A fluid mind will use critical analysis to evaluate new ideas in order to determine whether to reject them or the synthesize them into the core.
As we become more convinced of an idea it moves closer to the central core of our belief system. The deeper it gets, the harder it is to dislodge. But even those beliefs in the core should never be beyong rational scrutiny. A new idea floating around the boundary might very well call into question some of our deepest, most cherished beliefs. If those beliefs in the center become so solid that we never allow ourselves to question them, our development gets bogged down in the muck of those beliefs, and they eventually solidify into a hard mass from which it is almost impossible to escape. The only way we can be free to learn with open minds is to maintain a belief system that is fluid rather than solid—one that flows with the ebbs and tides of our intellectual explorations.
Copyright © 2010 Daniel G. Delaney