Hypothetical Reasoning

One of my favorite Professors, Prof Laywine, once expressed that her favorite type of reasoning is hypothetical. Hypothetical reasoning are thought experiments, stories we create as models of reality in order to draw out some principle of nature. Her husband, Prof. Menn also enjoyed drawing truth by challenging and engaging with sophistries that uniquely abstract from the natural order of things by means of logical or linguistic gymnastics. We can learn alot about what the world mysteriously is by first stripping it of what it is not. Prof. Laywine warned however, of the dangers of hypothetical reasoning that deprats from the emotional matter of our real lives. When I’m washing the dishes and my mind is looking for something to do, if I use my imagination to give life to the emotional matter of my life, especially when life isn't happening at the beat of my imagination, I’ll end up suffering as much in my imagination as I do in my real life. If I begin hypothetically reasoning about the matters of my life, not only will I drown in ‘what ifs’ but I’ll create an active resistance against circumstances that have neither happened yet, nor will happen according to my expectations. Our anxieties are hypothesized threats, a ‘what if’ we creat around a pre-existing fear. What ifs can offer hopeful solace in harsh times, but when hope becomes a distraction from our acclimation to these times, hope can become a dangerous obstacle between us and our experiences of the world. Fear of our future’s uncertainty will have us cling to expected outcomes in our experience. We think this brings us closer to what we desire but in fact it drives us apart. Attachment to the outcome of a situation will limit our ability to engage with the novelty of the actual situation once it arrives.