{"id":3263,"date":"2020-03-22T15:36:07","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T15:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/03\/22\/are-you-an-introvert-take-this-test\/"},"modified":"2020-03-22T15:36:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T15:36:07","slug":"are-you-an-introvert-take-this-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/03\/22\/are-you-an-introvert-take-this-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You an Introvert? Take this Test!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a re-post from April 2012 with minor edits and additions.<\/span><\/p>\n

…………………………<\/span><\/p>\n

The bolded material<\/strong> below is taken verbatim from Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking<\/em> (Crown 2012), p. 13.  I then give my responses.  The more affirmative responses, the more of an introvert you are.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. I prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities.<\/strong> Absolutely!  Especially in philosophical discussions.  As Roderick Chisholm once said, "In philosophy, three's a crowd<\/a>."<\/span><\/p>\n

2. I often prefer to express myself in writing.<\/strong>  Yes. <\/span><\/p>\n

3. I enjoy solitude.<\/strong>  Is the Pope Catholic?  Beata solitudo, sola beatitudo<\/em>.  Happy solitude, the sole beatitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. I seem to care less than my peers about wealth, fame, and status.<\/strong>  Seem?  Do! <\/span><\/p>\n

Money is a mere means.  To pursue it as an end in itself is perverse.  And once you have enough, you stop acquiring more and turn to higher pursuits.  <\/span><\/p>\n

As for fame, it is a fool's cynosure. Obscurity is delicious.  To be able to walk down the street and pass as an ordinary schmuck is wonderful.  The value of fame and celebrity is directly proportional to the value of the fools and know-nothings who confer it.  And doesn't Aristotle say that to  be famous you need other people, which fact renders you dependent on them? He does indeed, in his Nicomachean Ethics<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly with social status.  Who confers it? And what is their judgment worth?<\/span><\/p>\n

5. I dislike small talk, but I enjoy talking in depth about topics that matter to me.<\/strong>  More than once in these pages have I ranted about the endless yap, yap, yap, about noth, noth, nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. People tell me I'm a good listener.<\/strong>  Yes.  My mind drifts back to a girl I knew when I was fifteen.  She called me her 'analyst' when she wasn't calling me 'Dr. Freud.'<\/span><\/p>\n

7. I'm not a big risk-taker.<\/strong>  That's right.  I recently took a three-day motorcycle course, passed it, and got my license.  I  had been eyeing  the Harley-Davidson 883 Iron.  But then I asked myself how riding a motorcycle would further my life tasks and whether it makes sense, having come this far, to risk my life and physical integrity in pursuit of cheap thrills.<\/span><\/p>\n

8. I enjoy work that allows me to "dive in" with few interruptions.<\/strong>  Right.  No instant messaging.  Only recently acquired a cell phone.  I keep it turned off.  Call me the uncalled caller.  Still don't have a smart phone.  My wife is presently in a faraway land on a Fulbright.  That allows me to unplug the land-line.  I love e-mail; fast but unintrusive.  I'll answer when I feel like it and get around to it.  I don't allow myself to be rushed or interrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n

9. I like to celebrate birthdays on a small scale, with only one or two close friends or family members<\/strong>.  I don't see the point of celebrating birthdays at all. What's to celebrate?  First, birth is not unequivocally good.  Second, it is not something you brought about.  It befell you.  Better to celebrate some good thing that you made happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

10. People describe me as "soft-spoken" or "mellow."<\/strong>  I'm too intense to be called 'mellow,' but sotto voce <\/em>applies.<\/span><\/p>\n

11. I prefer not to show or discuss my work with others until it is finished.<\/strong>  Pretty much, with the exception of these blog scribblings. <\/span><\/p>\n

12. I dislike conflict.<\/strong>  Can't stand it.  I hate onesidedness.  I look at a problem from all angles and try to mediate oppositions  when possible.  I thoroughly hate, reject, and abjure the blood sport <\/a>approach to philosophy.  Polemic has no place in philosophy.  This is not to say that it does not have a place elsewhere, in politics for example.  Don't confuse politics with political philosophy. <\/span><\/p>\n

13. I do my best work on my own.<\/strong>  Yes.  A former colleague, a superficial extrovert, once described me as 'lone wolf.'  'Superficial extrovert' smacks of pleonasm. An extrovert is like a mirror: nothing in himself, he is only what reflects.  Is that fair? Fair enough for a blog post. Or an extrovert is like an onion: peel away the last skin and arrive at — precisely nothing.  The extrovert manages to be surface all the way down.  Or you could say that he is merely a node in a social network. He is constituted<\/em> by his social relations, and nothing apart from them; hence no substance that enters into social relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

14. I tend to think before I speak.<\/strong>  Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

15. I feel drained after being out and about, even if I've enjoyed myself.<\/strong>  Yes.  This is a common complaint of introverts.  They can take only so much social interaction.  It depletes their energy and they need to go off by themselves to 'recharge their batteries.'  In my case, it is not just an energy depletion but a draining away of my  'spiritual substance.'  It is as if one's interiority has been compromised and one has entered into inauthenticity, Heidegger's Uneigentlichkeit<\/em>.  The best expression of this sense of spiritual depletion is probably Kierkegaard's remark in one of his early journal entries about a party he attended:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I have just returned from a party of which I was the life and soul; witty banter flowed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me — but I came away, indeed that dash should be as along as the radii of the earth's orbit ———————————————————- wanting to shoot myself. (1836)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

16. I often let calls go through to e-mail.<\/strong>  Yes. See comment to #8 above.<\/span><\/p>\n

17. If I had to choose, I'd prefer a weekend with absolutely nothing to do to one with too many things scheduled.<\/strong>  I love huge blocks of time, days at a stretch, with no commitments whatsoever. Dolce far niente. <\/em> Sweet to do nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

18. I don't enjoy multitasking.<\/strong>  Right. One thing at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

19. I can concentrate easily.<\/strong>  Obviously, and for long stretches of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

20. In classroom situations, I prefer lecture to seminars.<\/strong>  Especially if I'm doing the lecturing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here<\/a> is a description of the Myers-Briggs INTP.  And here <\/a>is another.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a re-post from April 2012 with minor edits and additions. ………………………… The bolded material below is taken verbatim from Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking (Crown 2012), p. 13.  I then give my responses.  The more affirmative responses, the more of an introvert you are. 1. I prefer one-on-one … Continue reading “Are You an Introvert? Take this Test!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,278,221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-introversion","category-psychology-and-personality-typology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}