You may have heard of Financial Peace University — they’ve helped thousands of people get out of debt and plan their financial lives, and my wife and I learned a lot from them early in our marriage.
I might disagree with this. Money is a finite resource, especially for those in debt, whereas truth is abundant. Many of the people who've gotten out of epistemic debt did so through a sort of epistemic bankruptcy.
In bankruptcy, all debts were forgiven at once, with one painful acknowledgement. Epistemic bankruptcy could take the form of a dark night of the soul, admitting powerlessness to an addiction, or a sudden conversion.
Perhaps the most famous epistemic bankruptcy would be the Apostle Paul literally having the scales fall from his eyes and switching from persecuting Christians to writing half the New Testament. Seems to me sudden reversals are actually *easier* and more common than paying off small debts.
For me, the analogy is "money is a finite resource, and so is our capacity to suffer." The abundance of truth does not by itself pay our epistemic debts. It's our ability to recognize these abundant truths for what they are, that must be paid for by someone.
I like the idea of "epistemic bankruptcy" — agreed that this seems to happen a fair amount. However, it seems to only happen in truly desperate situations, and only occasionally — it would be dangerous to bet that "once I deliberately make myself desperate enough, things will completely reverse all of a sudden without any effort on my part." Paying off small debts, though maybe slower, is at least up to us — in a sense, guaranteeable.
Thanks for your comment, it pushed me to think about this a level deeper.
I might disagree with this. Money is a finite resource, especially for those in debt, whereas truth is abundant. Many of the people who've gotten out of epistemic debt did so through a sort of epistemic bankruptcy.
In bankruptcy, all debts were forgiven at once, with one painful acknowledgement. Epistemic bankruptcy could take the form of a dark night of the soul, admitting powerlessness to an addiction, or a sudden conversion.
Perhaps the most famous epistemic bankruptcy would be the Apostle Paul literally having the scales fall from his eyes and switching from persecuting Christians to writing half the New Testament. Seems to me sudden reversals are actually *easier* and more common than paying off small debts.
Good points!
For me, the analogy is "money is a finite resource, and so is our capacity to suffer." The abundance of truth does not by itself pay our epistemic debts. It's our ability to recognize these abundant truths for what they are, that must be paid for by someone.
I like the idea of "epistemic bankruptcy" — agreed that this seems to happen a fair amount. However, it seems to only happen in truly desperate situations, and only occasionally — it would be dangerous to bet that "once I deliberately make myself desperate enough, things will completely reverse all of a sudden without any effort on my part." Paying off small debts, though maybe slower, is at least up to us — in a sense, guaranteeable.
Thanks for your comment, it pushed me to think about this a level deeper.