But if we're developing our environment into one that would push us to become who we want to be, then we are still the initiator of the chain of events that would eventually lead to our self-improvement ie the thing that triggered the cascade of change still came from within us
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Change only truly comes from within if libertarian free will exists, which I see no evidence for. But even if it does come from within, this fact, on its own, would be a poor philosophy to live by.
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I didn't make an appeal to intelligent causes. I merely suggested that a system of self-improvement would be far more effective if it exploited rather than ignored the adaptive capacity that evolution selected for.
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I think I get what you mean -- when we change our way of thinking (and consequently our behaviour) it's the result of a certain experience coming from our environment. But doesn't the thought -- the conviction -- precede the act of actually shaping our own environment?
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It's a good question, and one that I answer in other replies here.
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It is a poor heuristic for self-improvement because it's not intended as a heuristic for self-improvement. It's an aphorism indicating that if the individual does not, themselves, desire to change, they will not change.
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Any amount of external controls or reinforcements are nugatory if the individual's own desires are contrary to them. A good illustration of this is the addiction cycle.
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The popular narrative of the contemplative monk won't exist in our rapidly evolving world. The human experience is about to change in ways we won't recognize in ten years
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Introspection could be considered a form of change from within. The need to look within is considered a type of improvement. Generally this happens separately from any external changes one makes, but either could likely lead to the other.
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