{"id":37565,"date":"2015-07-28T13:16:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T17:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=37565"},"modified":"2022-09-27T11:49:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T15:49:30","slug":"aha-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2015\/07\/28\/aha-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Aha moments"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"William<\/a>

Latest book by Wright State philosophy professor William Irvine examines moments of insight that shape the world. (Photos by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

Albert Einstein had one during a chat with a friend. Composer Gustav Mahler had one when the oars of his boat touched the water on a lake. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman had one when he was walking the beach.<\/p>\n

These history-making figures all had so-called \u201caha moments,\u201d sudden lightning bolts of insight that led to great ideas.<\/p>\n

Wright State University philosophy<\/a> professor William Irvine has chronicled and analyzed those aha moments in his new book, \u201cAha! The Moments of Insight that Shape Our World<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have these aha moments, it\u2019s like being at a magic show,\u201d said Irvine. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a front-row seat and you yourself are the magician, astonishing yourself by pulling rabbits out of a hat. We all have these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irvine says aha moments can take the form of religious insights (\u201cthe most dramatic of which is when God talks to you\u201d), moral insights or scientific and artistic insights.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to work consciously and very hard for an aha moment to come,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the only way you can get your unconscious mind involved. And when the aha moment comes, that\u2019s where it\u2019s coming from, your unconscious mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aha moments experienced by artists are usually less dramatic than those experienced by mathematicians and scientists. As a result of having these moments, painters will change their plan for a painting and writers will alter the structure of their work.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest aha moments occur when the person is doing or thinking about something else entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s when you quit working, that the real work begins,\u201d Irvine said. \u201cOne theory about how this happens is that your conscious mind is rule-bound, but your unconscious mind doesn\u2019t play by the rules, so it has no problem coming up with radical ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aha moments can\u2019t be forced. There isn\u2019t some trick you can do to trigger them. But devote enough conscious effort to solving a problem and you might, if you are lucky, be rewarded with an aha moment.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, you don\u2019t even realize you\u2019ve had an aha moment.<\/p>\n

Mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, who did some of the work that supported the existence of black holes in outer space, was walking across the street in London with a companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfway across the street Penrose suddenly felt happy,\u201d said Irvine. \u201cWhen he thought about that moment later in the day, it dawned on him that he had the insight that he needed to prove the theorem he was trying to prove \u2014 except that he wasn\u2019t quite sure what the insight was. It took a few hours of effort for him to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"William<\/a>

William Irvine considers himself a 21st century Stoic who tries to avoid needless anxiety, enjoy the world around him and remain optimistic in the face of setbacks.<\/p><\/div>\n

Irvine spent much of his boyhood in Montana and Nevada, the son of an engineer who oversaw the installation of equipment in mines. He became interested in philosophy as a high school senior in Yerington, Nevada, after reading Henry David Thoreau\u2019s \u201cWalden\u201d and the autobiography of British philosopher Bertrand Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went off to college convinced that I wanted to be a philosopher \u2014 that trying to reason my way through life would be an interesting way to live,\u201d said Irvine.<\/p>\n

He got his bachelor\u2019s degrees in philosophy and math from the University of Michigan and his master\u2019s and Ph.D. in philosophy from UCLA, where he wrote his dissertation on phenomenalism, the view that physical objects exist only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli.<\/p>\n

Irvine went on to teach philosophy as an adjunct at California State University, Los Angeles; Pacific Lutheran University; the University of Cincinnati; and in 1983 at Wright State, a job that led to a tenure-track position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State has been a good home for me,\u201d he said. \u201cIn particular, it has been very supportive of the turn my research has taken in the last decade, away from traditional philosophical questions and toward questions that arise on the border between philosophy and other disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irvine has written eight books, including \u201cOn Desire: Why We Want What We Want,\u201d \u201cA Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy\u201d and \u201cA Slap in the Face: Why Insults Hurt \u2014 And Why They Shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is proudest of his book on the Stoics, which is still selling strong and generating reader response seven years after publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I did was introduce the ancient Stoic philosophers to a modern audience,\u201d he said. \u201cStoicism tells us what in life is of greatest value and provides us with a strategy for achieving it. It also teaches us to appreciate what we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irvine considers himself a 21st century Stoic. As such, his goals are to avoid needless anxiety, to enjoy the world around him and to remain optimistic in the face of setbacks.<\/p>\n

That becomes evident in conversations with the white-bearded, 63-year-old professor, who has a twinkle in his eye and a sense of humor that often leads him to poke fun at himself. He is currently teaching courses on logic and on the philosophy of physical science.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no plans to retire because I\u2019m having too much fun,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Irvine\u2019s book on aha moments involved extensive research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book is about the role insights play in your life and more significantly the role they played in human history,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you take human history and erase the aha moments, we would all still be living primitive lives, with no technology, no art and no religion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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