Dostoevsky - Never Lie to Yourself

ABOUT
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In this video, I talk about Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, self-deception, knowledge, truth, and not lying to yourself.

If truth is the actual way to our destination, knowledge is the map that we have. And when the map gets us to our destination, we say that knowledge is true.

But knowledge is never truth, and to confuse the two is to confuse the map for the territory, the directions for the actual way, what was for what is, and to close oneself off to all learning. Mistaking knowledge for truth is the root of all self-deception. But a mind that separates these two things, that realizes that knowledge is never truth, that the map is never the territory, always remains open to change, to testing, to learning, to updating its map in accordance with the territory, and because of that, it will never deceive itself.

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NOTES
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(1) Videos are just my opinion, for entertainment and informational purposes. Just some things to think about—not advice.

(2) Some of the links in the description are affiliate links which I get a kickback from—at no extra cost to you. Eg - any Amazon links.

[Jimraynor]

_"Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it."_
-André Gide

[IsaacJoshi]

Lying to yourself makes life easier in the short term but impossible in the long term

[Mystical_King]

Socrates said it best: "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."

[SocPro]

Things have became so clear now. I was disappointed with how I was living my own life for a long time, and I now I see why. This was extraordinarily eye openin. I have a better perspective now. Thank you

[GrowthMindsetChannel]

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky 💪🏻🚀

[thanhtamngo]

People constantly lie to themselves simply because they seem to have lost the ability to actually see themselves, their thoughts, their actions, instead they are too busy looking at others, judging others as it’s an easier thing to do. It takes lots of courage to be honest to oneself.

[TheDhammaHub]

"Being upright and true to yourself" is among the qualities the Buddha praised a lot when you want any kind of personal progress

[IsaacJoshi]

Too many people treat their opinions and thoughts as the truth

[HuongNguyen-bknv]

I think what Dostoevsky meant was that we know facts, see events, feel emotions, but we deny that they exist or don't matter. We can see details or errors but choose to ignore them thinking some things are ignorable when they may be not. This happens all the time when we take shortcuts or refuse to own up to mistakes. I don't think it is about mistaking knowledge for truth. I think it is about pretending to be ignorant of the truth to not be seen as culpable. Once a person knows something and it's associated consequences, one is immediately responsible for the consequences, particularly if there is no one else looking. By pretending, for example, you are not aware of your own emotions and faults, you can claim ignorance, be absolved, and even blame others for your own emotions and faults. That's an observable and common human behavior, just like people trying to pretend they know or don't know or people claiming the truth. While I can agree that knowledge is a human perception and truth exists irrespective to human perception or understanding, I don't think that is the takeaway from Dostoevsky. Because to even be cognizant that we lie requires us to know the truth, otherwise we could not even perceive of the self-deception. And, non-cognizance is not the same as self-deception. Self-deception requires knowing the truth. How can one otherwise know one is deceiving one's self on purpose or accidentally?

[نورالهدىفاضل-حك]

When I watched your video, I felt a great desire to learn English. Thank you very much..from an Arab follower

[rawdhakhadraoui]

Lie to oneself is a daily practice we endure it when we are obliged to suppress our feelings to fit in . We keep our true emotions away to the point we end up not knowing what we want and how we are at this point. Dostoevsky wants us to reveal our feelings and thoughts no matter how difficult the situation is. To cease love is a result of not recognizing our real feelings and ending up with losing our self-respect. The beauty of Literature is in its openness to all kinds of interpretation and my understanding and yours of the quote are part of a whole picture.

[faizkurniawan]

This is one of the advice that my dad always tells me, never lie to yourself. As it seems like the problem that I face is solved, but actually it was just saved for another day to blow up

[TEAforMIND]

Nice video 👍 “A map is not the territory it represents" - Alfred Korzybski, father of general semantics.
Map shows river, forest but it does not contain any water or tree as the Territory. Our perceived knowledge ("map") of the reality ("territory") is an abstraction of the reality, not the reality itself.
The problem is we forget that we made our map.
Knowledge both liberating but also a trap.

[Isaax]

There was a time where I was young and in my first relationship. That quote at the beginning of the video about losing respect for not only yourself but everyone else while also losing the ability to love hits home like crazy. And I bet I wouldn't have understood the quote, especially the part about losing respect for others, if I hadn't experienced it so vividly myself

[craigcarlock]

This is especially relevant in our current age of relativism!
(Relevatism: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.)
Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm glad I found your channel!

[koi]

The example on how believing you know the truth prevents you from seeing it was... what I needed

[sandradias]

Thank you so much! It was the perfect timing for me :)

[connorbooth]

I finished The Brothers Karamazov a few months ago, and it instantly became one of my favorite books ever. And I don’t have many favorites haha. It felt enlightening and therapeutic

[lizafranceschi]

WOW, I can't stop watching this video....Fully of advises!!! Priceless

[chocolatechick]

I sent this to my friends . This was so good. I didnt understand at the beginning but once you explained I actually understood. I needed to see something like this . Makes my challenges a bit clear to tackle now .
Thank you!