I'd like to respond to a comment on my last post.  Tom said,

What about examining the metaphysical implications of INTP status? As an INTP myself, I sometimes feel that I'm nearing the reincarnational finish line, soldiering on through as an observer. Perhaps I'm just stuck in the same existential soup as everyone else but stoking my own ego (Descartes "I think, therefore I am"). Given our significant minority status however, perhaps we are at the top of Maslow's pyramid, awaiting something better?

Tom,

It would be very fun to experience the world for a lifetime as each of the 16 types, but perhaps INTP would be earlier in line rather than later.  I may be reaching, but hear me out.  Self-actualization rightfully lies at the top of Maslow’s pyramid and is a very difficult thing to achieve.  Aristotle’s version of God or a higher being was the Prime Mover.  It was described as being purely ‘actual,’ sitting on the far right side of a continuum from potential to actual - or maybe he sits atop Maslow's pyramid, drawing us up. Simply put, this entity represented pure existence – a description I have heard applied to many other gods.  The Prime Mover did not act, It simply drew potential towards actual.  This makes me think of connectedness with the world, in the Buddhist sense, where enlightenment is achieved upon the realization that we are not beings separate from the world around us but instead one with it.   We are simply part of pure existence.  As Carl Sagan would say, we are all the universe knowing itself.

In my experience, INTP’s have the most desire to achieve enlightenment, but are also among the least likely to ever do so. This is because, as observers, we have a particularly strong sense of separation from the world and a very strong sense of identity as different from our surroundings. We want desperately to understand those surroundings, yes, but have a very hard time believing that we are simply part of the whole.  If enlightenment comes only when we make this sort of resignation, then perhaps we have to get the INTP life out of the way early before moving on to the more compassionate, exist in the moment types like ESFJ. 

I would wager that you were, like I was, initially in love with Descartes’ logic.  But with that line he axiomatically separated ‘I’ from the whole, which is the root of the problem.  Most philosophers are INTPs, but so many have lead troubled, dark lives – chasing but never catching enlightenment.  We may think we are different, but we are all in the same existential soup as everyone else.  And as for reincaranational finish lines, they belong with jumbo shrimp and deafening silence.  

Jung, Myers-Briggs and personality types

In 1921, Carl Jung published Personality Types in which he sought to reconcile differing theories of Siggy Freud and Alfred Adler. As Jung said, "I came across the problem of types; for it is one's psychological type which from the outset determines and limits a person's judgment."  How people perceive the world and make decisions is determined largely by their psychological makeup. During World War II, in an effort to help women find work most suited to their personalities, Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  They used Jung's theory to create 16 distinct types from 4 key variables: 


Introversion vs. Extroversion
Sensing vs. Intuition
Feeling vs. Thinking
Perceiving vs. Judging


Each person is not absolutely one or the other in these 4 categories, but rather lies somewhere along a continuum. You can find your type here: http://similarminds.com/jung.html.  Here are my results.


Introverted (I) 55.56% Extroverted (E) 44.44%
Intuitive (N) 82.14% Sensing (S) 17.86%
Thinking (T) 79.41% Feeling (F) 20.59%
Perceiving (P) 78.13% Judging (J) 21.88%


I was blown away by how accurate the various profiles of INTPs are. So much for being unique! For those that know me, INTP characteristics are spot on:

loner, more interested in intellectual pursuits than relationships or family, wrestles with the meaninglessness of existence, likes esoteric things, disorganized, messy, likes science fiction, can be lonely, observer, private, can't describe feelings easily, detached, likes solitude, not revealing, unemotional, rule breaker, avoidant, familiar with the darkside, skeptical, acts without consulting others, does not think they are weird but others do, socially uncomfortable, abrupt, fantasy prone, does not like happy people, appreciates strangeness, frequently loses things, acts without planning, guarded, more likely to support marijuana legalization, not prone to compromise, hard to persuade, relies on mind more than on others, calm

As Phil Connors says in Groundhog Day, "me, me, me...me."  


INTP is probably the rarest type, represented by only 1-2% of people.  I have always had trouble meeting people with interests similar to my own, but apparently there are at least 68 million of them out there.  Well, 68 million assuming that these personality classifications work in all cultures.  I suspect they would, but cannot be sure.  Genghis Khan sure sounds like an ENTJ to me. I hope that someday soon someones writes a doctoral dissertation on the brain scans (via fMRI) of various different types. Try the test and enjoy reading about your profile.

Introduction

The phrase "Intellectual Itinerant" was a product of a stream of consciousness session in my journal and I thought, that sounds like a good blog title - so here I am. The name might be a little bit pompous, but I am sticking with it.  Some of my nearest and dearest might say I am a bit intellectually pompous anyways, so it works just fine.

Keeping a journal for the past year has been very fulfilling and therapeutic, so now I'd like to put most of what I write onto this blog.  Late last year, I had a phenomenal, 30,000 word conversation with my grandmother (Gammy). We talked about all the things you aren't supposed to, mainly religion and politics (as she said late in the conversation, "Really, there are times when one wonders if anything else is really worth talking about."). This conversation invigorated the both of us, and I want more. My goal here is to find common areas of interest with friends, family and strangers. I hope that this blog helps facilitate those connections.  

I like the idea of being an itinerant, moving from place to place.  While I do love to travel,  what really appeals to me is being a cerebral nomad rather than a physical one.  I am generally fascinated by just about anything there is to be fascinated by in this world, but I tend to jump between topics too quickly to become an expert in any one.  This blog will be largely random, but off the top of my head, here is a list of topics I will likely write about, in no particular order: 

Philosophy, literature, libertarian politics, evolution, music, patterns, investing (which pays my bills), history, religion, Buddhism (NOT a religion, in my book), travel, health, economics. 

Here's to some sparked curiosity.