Jonathan, i couldn’t thank enough your words. On how you cope with something i kind of called the “unbearable complexity of reality” in a project that finally did not happen.

(…) I was trying to write about that project but suddenly realised that I better copy-paste what I wrote at that point:

“I am very much interested in capturing the complexity of reality and the fact that nothing is entirely true or false.

My view is very much influenced by my mathematical background. The beauty of mathematics lies precisely in the fact that anything one states is never totally true. It is simply as true as the initial assumed hypothesis. Mathematics is just a system of coherent reasoning that allows reaching conclusions from a set of assumptions. This allows knowing specifically the weaknesses of any statement. These weaknesses can only be overcome through the relaxation of the initial assumptions. Therefore, the only possible debate is a constructive one based on relaxing the assumptions and strengthening or weakening the earlier results. And this is exactly my understanding about research in social sciences and, in particular, about my PhD in Economics –a constructive and innovative debate around some standard assumptions.

The above reasoning contrasts sharply with what we observe in politics or in any real world situation. The lack of a balanced view of reality is precisely what drives the political debate to a meaningless discourse where some individuals believe to hold the (absolute) truth. This positioning inevitably leads to an intolerant stand towards any divergent view.

The Reality Project tries to offer three distinct and complementary views on the impossibility of apprehending the reality in all its entirety.”

That project belongs to a period where I was feeling kind of anxious because I was not able to discern between the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, the red and the blue… That indecisiveness seemed to imply some lack of personality… In the process of doing a PhD in social sciences (i.e. full time questioning my surroundings for five years) I think I have arrived at that trivial point where I realize that “I can always see the many sides to every story”.

I can only say that I admire the way you shape these ideas into pieces that not only talk to people but also capture their views.