Unconscious inference:
I’m constantly reflecting on my cognitive processes that are contributing or hindering my intentions and desires and continually strive to have this awareness serve my aims. Regarding unconscious inference, I have a unique affinity for recognizing the role perception plays on successfully interacting with an environment pertaining to understanding and communicating. Although arguable, while truth remains wholly objective, our understanding of it is wholly subjective. This is where it becomes important to be aware of how perceptions behave. Our minds strive to order the world around us by categorizing and arranging information in ways easiest for us to navigate and make decisions. This tendency creates subconscious habits that interfere with objectively encountering the changing world outside us. As creatures of habit, we must develop the tendency to remind ourselves to challenge our preexisting experiences and explore the object (or truth) in its current context. This opposes the habit to look at every thing at face value. While I would have said that this kind of thought requires more effort, I would suggest that as creatures of habit, we have the ability to learn to challenge original or accepted perceptions in order to develop a more objective understanding.
I often catch myself ‘presuming’ or ‘assuming’ based on previous experiences. Human’s ability to generalize is the cause of man to end his search. The paradox lies in that while the content may be reliable, the meaning that we imbue it with is directly dependent on the context and its relation with other objects (or truths). This is in constant flux however. When we decide that a single or group of experiences suffices a proper understand, we essentially decide to view the world in a suspended state where a generic approach to understanding satisfies are shallow curiosity.
This idea of subconscious inference is a benefit in certain areas of life, allowing us to navigate through stimulation unimpeded by the barrage of changes in our environment, but must be challenged in order to grow as a person.
William Dare 