networks of thought

The following discussion is the first in a series of primers for upcoming essays, and, unfortunately, likely to be the most tedious text on this site so far. Hopefully, an indication that, if an axiom is not at least slightly difficult to pin down, the entire ensuing theory is probably trivial and of little use to write about, but also hopefully the most complicated part of the entire line of reasoning.

A thought pattern that has haunted me for a while now is a tendency to unconsciously anthropomorphize phenomena. The pervasiveness of this category of false premises came to my attention as I tried to understand the politics of the Great War in Europe. It is a tendency that has increasingly come to bother me, both when trying to think for myself, and when I speak with and listen to others. It is strange that such a poor way to analyze the behavior of complex systems, including but not exclusively the decision making processes of groups of people, can appear so convenient and satisfying.