Character & Cognition
An Introduction
To introduce this Substack, I will first introduce myself to you. This is best done with a short story:
I grew up with a younger brother and a single mother.
Me and my brother grew up pretty weak, not just physically but also mentally.
Not being able to defend oneself, growing resentment, not just for others, but especially for oneself and low confidence are outcomes of it.
It sucks to be weak, I can tell you that.
How have we dealt with it?
My brother started to grow physically stronger, gaining more confidence through physical strength.
I aimed to get intellectually and with that mentally stronger.
Started by reading many books. Learned to write bitter, which enabled me to think and speak better.
The outcome was, and still is, that I’m able to form my own opinions and standpoints on many topics instead of just following the media or the opinions of the masses.
But I noticed that something was missing. Intellectual power can make one stronger but it has to be combined with something else.
“Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.”- Peter Thiel
Good thinking is nearly nothing without character (courage), which enables us to enact our thinking.
Both together? Character & Cognition.
At its core, this Substack deals with two main questions: “How to Live?” and “How to Think?”.
To only deal with one question without considering the other, doesn’t bring us far. I experienced that by myself.
Just to be brave, running stupidly into unnecessary danger isn’t the way. On the other side, being brilliant but don’t dare to stand up for one’s ideas and what one thinks is the truth, is also not the way.
Character & Cognition aims to explore both questions together. Practically. Applicable. Growing from weak to strong.
What does that concretely mean? It means that the articles will be about exploring how to develop internally as a human, what it means to be a good human, and how to bring ethics and virtues back. On the other side, explore skills like reading and writing for better thinking to become an independent thinker.
I’m by myself rather at the beginning of the journey and any knowledge I have resides in the fact, that I most likely started from a lower, in my case weaker, point than you.
In the end, it’s up to you. Does anything resonate with you? If you want to grow your Character & Cognition, you are very welcome to join!
Denis
Some more quotes which show the importance of good character and good thinking combined:
“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.” — René Descartes
“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” — Bruce Lee
“To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” — Theodore Roosevelt
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” — Martin Luther King Jr.