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About this episode

Welcome to episode 13 of the series Philosophy Unveiled, by the author Lane Friesen. I’m Rachel and I’m doing the reading today.In the last episode, we gave a brief overview of some typical Contributor traits. In this episode, I’d like to illustrate further traits of this cognitive style, as we discovered them.Here’s the plan. I’ll give a trait. Then, I’ll read a series of quotes that illustrate that trait. Before reading a quote about some person, I’ll say his or her name. I’d like to emphasize that these quotes are all taken directly from historical biographies about those persons. We’ve attached a bibliography for the Contributor examples at the end of the transcript of this session.Alright, our first trait is the elimination of small expenses. It’s one of the most noticeable aspects of the Contributor, as a cognitive style. John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Company: “Slovenly methods of doing business were not for him, he decided. Careful auditing of all bills, big and small, became a cardinal tenet of the Standard Oil Company.” “He was methodical to an extreme, careful as to details and exacting to a fraction. If there was a cent due us he wanted it. If there was a cent due a customer he wanted him to have it.” “Very early he inaugurated his basic principle, which he called ‘attention to little details,’ or penny-pinching. The most expeditious route to economy was to ‘pay a profit to nobody,’ that is, unless it could not be helped. The result was that someone else’s profit became yours.” “The search for economies was carried to seemingly absurd lengths.” “Though he walked through the offices of Standard Oil at night turning down gas jets, he was never a miser.” Pierre Elliot Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada: “His parsimony, except to those to whom he is emotionally attached, is legendary. In Montreal, in mid-winter, he would run coatless to restaurants, to save the checkroom tip. He seldom pays for someone else’s meal, nor carries enough money to cover the bill. At the state funeral for Pierre Laporte, an aide had to slip him a $10 bill when the collection plate was passed: Trudeau looked at the amount, and frowned. In 1975, as Prime Minister, he disputed in public an $8 tax increase on his Laurentian estate imposed by the municipality.” “In Toronto, he took one $6 taxi ride and then offered the driver a quarter tip, asking, ‘Is this enough?’ Recognizing him, the driver said nothing.” Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist: “Someone had been stealing his chickens and he did not propose to put up with it. A matter of such gravity was obviously not a case for the local police: the honor of the province was at stake, so he took his complaint right up to the office of the Premier. The chicken thefts ceased, but there is no indication that the provincial cabinet took credit for it. His chickens were important to Leacock. He maintained a daybook record of the egg laying of his hens and of the price he got for eggs over and above those for his personal use. Perhaps it was the economist in him, or perhaps the farmer; but careful note was kept in a series of notebooks of the melons, strawberries, beets, peas, beans, tomatoes, and cabbages that the garden produced for his ‘home-grown’ table. Even the trout or bass that were caught were duly recorded. [At the same time, we notice, he thought nothing of stocking his stream with $15,000 worth of speckled trout—we notice therefore that pennies are pinched, not always large sums of dollars!]” Walt Disney, founder of Disneyland: “Like many men who have grown rich through their own efforts, he had little use for personal display. His suits were still bought off the peg.” “His economic style: frugality in day-to-day matters, willingness to plunge on his own ideas, distrust of the outsider who might somehow take it all away from him.” “He was furious when someone pinned pictures on the walls that he had just spent a good deal of money repainting.” “The incessant tinkering with Disneyland was, of course, costly. But he compensated for it by extraordinary stinginess in other matters [we notice again he was being cautious with pennies, not dollars]. In particular, he was notorious for the bargains he and his organization drove with outsiders—actors and, above all, the authors of material on which screenplays and television shows might be based. Yet he had a sentimental regard for those who had demonstrated their loyalty despite temptations from outside and could scarcely bear to retire them.” “It was his frugal habit to acquire low-cost literary properties in job lots, then put his staff of writers to work Disneyfying them.” Agatha Christie, writer of mystery novels: “It has been said that she was not interested in or cared about money. This is not correct. She cared greatly and she would painstakingly go through the statement and contracts from her publisher and point out any mistake however small and seemingly unimportant.” “She once wrote to a publisher pointing out she was entitled to another $10, another time another $1.50. Nothing was too small to escape her scrutiny, and thus it always was.” “She bought a Rolls-Royce, but sold it [losing dollars, we see, to save pennies] when they discovered how it ate up petrol.” Charlie Chaplin, the famous actor: “Though he had become one of the richest men in Hollywood he was, up until this time, still living in modest, nondescript apartments and rented houses. Then he was persuaded to build.” “Whenever he went out to eat he would tip the waiter only ten percent of the meal, no matter how good the service was—especially if he thought it was due to his having been recognized. He was particular about that ten percent. Because he didn’t trust his own arithmetic, he would hand the bill over to Paulette or Syd or me and have one of us figure out the right amount—to the last penny. Then he might go right down the block and tip an unsuspecting barber $5 for doing a good job without knowing who he was.” President Woodrow Wilson: “At Christmas, father and mother watched us open our presents before they touched their own. Father gathered his into a neat pile and took them into the study, where he untied and rolled up every bit of string and folded every scrap of paper. This was done partly to tease us and partly because of an inherent distaste for untidiness and confusion.” Wilson, back when he was a student: “His yearly expenditures would form one of the smallest items in the yearly allowances of the average young man in an expensive modern university.” Steven Jobs, founder of Apple computers (from Time magazine, January 3, 1983): “His Atari salary helped stake Jobs to a trip to India, where he met up with a Reed buddy, Dan Kottke. ‘It was kind of an ascetic pilgrimage,’ says Kottke, ‘except we didn’t know where we were going.’ Seeking spiritual solace and enlightenment with a shaved head and a backpack did not distract Jobs from stubbornly haggling over prices in the marketplace and dressing down a Hindu woman for apparently watering their milk.” Bill Durant, founder of General Motors: “Visiting Flint now that he was broke, he would stay in the cheapest room in the hotel.” Charles Lindbergh, the pioneer aviator: “In college he was frugal.” Yasir Arafat, founder of the PLO: “In those days Yasir was not the frugal man he is today.” Michelangelo, the artist: “He lived on little and most of what he earned was saved and put in the bank.” “Being shrewd, he had some of his marbles [that is, the material that he sculpted] taken to Rome and some to Florence, where he would be able to work with more ease and less expense.” Alfred Hitchcock, writer of horror stories: “In general he has always seemed practical to the point of frugality, sharing to the full the fears of his middle-class background about being in debt or not having something saved for a rainy day.” “He enlarged his home—and typically, noted that the cost of the new kitchen was more than the original cost of the whole house.” Bobby Hull, the hockey star: “During those (my early) years I worked hard earning spare money. Dad remembers that I was so tightfisted with money I wouldn’t pay a dime to see Niagara Falls run backwards.” Adam Smith, the economist: “He had a sedentary disposition and frugal habits.” “He speaks of the immense sums wasted on wars that ought to have been avoided.” “Though personally the most frugal, he was also the most hospitable, genial, and charitable of men.” Dwight L. Moody, an individual who popularized religion in America: “In sharp contrast to the luxuries to which Field and Farwell were accustoming themselves, Moody took to a life of rigorous austerity. His bed was a bench in the Y prayer room, his diet the cheapest food he could buy in the cheapest restaurants.” Napoleon, by his tailor: “He was so thrifty with his clothes that one day he wanted me to sew a patch on a pair of hunting breeches. I flatly refused.” “He made a very bad customer. He had his own embroiderer, his own gild merchant. He argued personally over his bills, and on top of that he was always wasting my time.” “On the remonstrances of M. de Remusat, Napoleon consented, in 1810, to increase his wardrobe. Till then he had been so niggardly that his wardrobe and linen, apart from embroidery, were not worth 2,000 francs.” Pablo Picasso, artist: “For him it was as difficult to buy something new as it was to throw away something old. He would wear his suits to the point of exhaustion.” The Contributor can be especially hesitant about spending money on himself—it seems so pointless. Michelangelo: “The frugal Michelangelo, parsimonious especially with himself, was lavish with young people who worked honestly and who, although poor, knew how to cover their poverty with dignity.” Brahms, the musician: “He was frugal with himself, but generous to others.” “In nearly everything that had to do with expenditure on himself he was as close-fisted as a countryman. On the railway he habitually traveled third class. And he viewed with apprehension the least sums spent on him by friends.” As we have said, small amounts are most painful. P. T. Barnum, promoter and entertainer: “He took big troubles calmly, but was very much upset over comparatively trivial annoyances. On the morning that his second museum burned a daughter was discussing the matter with her husband. ‘Your father,’ said the son-in-law, ‘won’t care half so much about it as he would if his pocket had been picked of fifty dollars. That would have vexed him, but he will take this heavier loss as simply the fortune of war.’ It was the same in regard to money matters. He had no hesitation in spending great sums of money for various purposes, but in small matters he was penurious. He would cheerfully contract to pay a Commodore Nutt thirty thousand dollars, and quibble over an extra quart of milk for the family.” Charlie Chaplin: “He would go to all lengths to save odds and ends of things, even stubs of pencils. He would worry inordinately over the misplacement of one: ‘Pencils cost money, you know.’ ” “At the same time he could drop big sums with a shrug. It was as though when they became large enough he lost all concept of their reality.” Norman Vincent Peale, positive thinker: “Generous with large sums of money, Norman could be niggardly with small ones. The analytical part of his mind recognized this. ‘I’m going to start giving bigger tips,’ he announced one day to a friend who was lunching in a restaurant with him. ‘This is a bad habit of mine and I’m going to change it.’ ” [He did not, however, succeed.]Alright, we can see that the Contributor really does cut down on small, personal expenses. Let’s move now to another area. The Contributor also hates small talk! Norman Vincent Peale: “At a dinner party, where I’m expected to make small talk, I’m tongue-tied. I don’t know any small talk! I’m likely to freeze up completely.” President Woodrow Wilson: “His mind was so quick that he was impatient of repetition or dullness. I have often heard him say, ‘I can’t understand why people tell me the same thing over and over—I’m really not a fool.’ Scrupulously considerate of other people’s feelings, he was generally able to conceal this impatience from all but those who knew him intimately.” Woodrow Wilson as a student: “He did not fit into the social life at Wilmington. He did not want to fit in. He was not unfriendly about it, but just calmly interested and absorbed in other things. He never argued about it. He just went his own way, content to be with his father and to be with his mother.” As President, he revealed something of the cause behind his reticence: “The truth is that Wilson had to conserve his strength. When urged to see more people, he would say: ‘I have just so much vitality. I see everyone who has a matter of importance to discuss. If I expend all my energy upon receiving people who call to pay their respects, there is too little energy left for the big task.’ ” Agatha Christie: “She did not suffer fools gladly and her precision-made mind became easily bored with trivia. At a party she invariably positioned herself away from anyone she suspected might be boring or too inquisitive. ‘She had very little small talk.’ ” William O. Douglas, American Supreme Court justice: “Douglas worked his clerks from morning until late at night, with no time out for small talk.” “Douglas would say very little at conference, but what he said always went to the critical issue in the case.” William Randolph Hearst, newspaper tycoon: “He possesses the singular ability to listen to several men at the same time discussing distinct and widely divergent problems. He senses the vital essence of what each speaker is pouring into his ears and catalogues the facts that interest him in the card index of his brain, and forever. But if you are talking business with him and for one moment permit nonessentials to creep into your conversation you lose contact instantly.” Henry Kissinger, foreign policy expert: “His clothes were in complete disarray. ‘Only problems concerned him—things that could satisfy his curiosity. He was aloof to superficial things. We’d have a group of six or seven guys in the large room and he’d come in and say hello—and go right to his books and be at a problem for an hour or two, without hearing what was going on in the next room.’ ” “He was very precise about words, about how ideas and thoughts are expressed.” “He was not known as a tremendous wit in 1956. He was not good at small-talk, saw no value in it, and what social grace he achieved I feel he learned during his stay at the Rockefeller Studies.” “Neighbors called him remote. He was a very gifted man who lacked the common touch. ‘He came to the parties but he wouldn’t be friendly just for the sake of being friendly. He always had to have a reason.’ ” “ ‘He makes jokes in a formal way, which is much different from having a sense of humor.’ ‘There is far too much chit-chat in academia and Henry did not partake. He was never a backslapper.’ ” Pierre Elliot Trudeau: “He has no talent for acquaintanceship, projecting around him a chilly, austere ambiance, yet he has a true gift for friendship.” “He does not go in for meaningless social niceties.” Charlie Chaplin: “Monotony in conversation is the torture my father can least endure.” Alfred Hitchcock: “He avoided boring school friends, following his interests alone.” “He particularly disliked big, mixed parties.” Mark Twain, American humorist and writer: “Mark Twain, for all his charm and humor, was a disturbing person, above all in his ignorance and disregard of the lesser social conventions.” “Pretentiousness, overwriting, inaccuracy of expression he detested in whatever literary form he encountered them.” The Contributor will generally find a way to escape boring persons. Agatha Christie: “She had a technique of shedding herself of bores. A kind of comatose descended on her as she moved on to pastures afresh.” John D. Rockefeller: “He was a listener…If he was nice and precise in his choice of words, he was nice and accurate in his choice of silences.” Henry Kissinger: “He did not maintain friendships if their usefulness had passed, perhaps it was just that he did not have time for them.” Alfred Hitchcock: “He had a strange habit of sleeping in public. No one was ever quite sure how far these naps were genuine and how far he staged them impishly to test other people’s reactions.” William Randolph Hearst: “When a conversation became boring, he would say, ‘Excuse me a minute,’ and leave. Shortly a servant would enter and report that ‘Mr. Hearst has received an important telephone call and will not be able to return.’ ” So, there it is. It seems to be quite clear that the Contributor eliminates small expenses and small talk. I’d like to talk now about the neurology that underlies this trait.We stated in the last episode that Contributor analysis works very strongly within two tight loops – one is Classification in the right hemisphere; the other is Contingency in the left. The traits that we have discussed in this episode result from the operation of right hemisphere Classification.You’ll recall that we said Facilitator strategy provides circles of reasonableness for Perceiver thought. Also, Perceiver strategy communicates with Contributor analysis by means of belief, and this generates Contributor faith. We’ll notice that Facilitator analysis can also communicate directly with Contributor strategy. It turns out that this interaction is what generates the Contributor’s caution with personal expenses.It needs to be emphasized. Philosophy indicates that Contributor miserliness results from a division of labor between Facilitator reason and Contributor planning. What is the precise role of Facilitator strategy? Facilitator philosopher John Rawls tells us that Facilitator analysis works out efficiency. In other words, it does the required mathematics. John Rawls uses his reflective equilibrium knowledge of this Facilitator efficiency calculation to develop a system of justice – he calls it Justice as Fairness.Contributor philosopher-economist Ludwig von Mises confirms to us that Contributor thought in the right hemisphere does not do any arithmetic. It simply notices which ordering of various possible elements results in the lowest costs, and the highest benefits.Putting it together, we conclude that Facilitator strategy in the right hemisphere – the region described by the Facilitator philosopher Descartes – works out the mathematics of optimization and efficiency, and then Contributor analysis, on the basis of this information, orders elements so as to generate a plan that has the lowest costs and the greatest benefits. I’ll repeat it. Contributor strategy does not do the mathematics itself; it is provided with this information by Facilitator analysis. Contributor thought simply orders pieces of the plan, based on the data provided to it by Facilitator strategy in its subconscious. Thus, this trait of minimizing personal expenses is not something that the Contributor as a cognitive style can easily alter. He can’t alter it because the mathematics upon which it is based is not under his conscious control. This trait of being careful with personal expenses will therefore remain part of his personality even when he becomes very, very mature. Moving further, we conclude that if a society is characterized by conspicuous consumption and wastefulness, then it is a sign that Contributor analysis is not fully cognitive in the individuals of the group. Their minds are operating at lower levels of thought, which we will soon begin to discuss more fully. This will be very frustrating to those individuals in the society who are Contributors by cognitive style. It will be frustrating because the region of the brain where they are conscious is not able to function, because the society around them is not allowing it to develop.We need to remember another important factor. Strong Perceiver belief can override the Facilitator efficiency calculation; it will drive Contributor action that is based in duty. For this reason, the Facilitator philosopher with his reason and his reasonableness is not generally a good friend of the Perceiver with his principles and his beliefs.In the next episode, I’d like to look at the Contributor’s desire for control, and the way in which this can cause him to interact with those around him. We’ll suggest that his controlling behavior is based in a circuit that centers now in the left hemisphere, rather than the right hemisphere and its Classification. We’ll discover that the operation of this new left hemisphere loop has been described by the Contributor philosopher Martin Heidegger, and we’ll discuss its operation.That concludes episode 13. Thank you for listening.---------Bibliography: ABELS, JULES The Rockefeller billions. New York, Macmillan. 1965.ALEXANDER, C. H. O’D. Fischer versus Spassky, Reykjavik. London, Wildwood House. 1972.BLUMENFELD, RALPH Henry Kissinger. New York, New American Library. 1974.BRINTON, CLARENCE CRANE Nietzsche. Cambridge [Mass.], Harvard University Press. 1941.BRODIE, FAWN No man knows my history; the life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. New York, Knopf. 1945.CANFIELD, CASS The incredible Pierpont Morgan. New York, Harper and Row. 1974.CHAPLIN, CHARLES, JR. My father, Charlie Chaplin. New York, Random House. 1960.CURTIS, RICHARD They called him Mr. Moody. Grand Rapids, Mich., W. B. Eerdmans. 1962.D’ARCY, M. C. Monument to Augustine. London, Sheed and Ward. 1930.DANIELS, JOSEPHUS The life of Woodrow Wilson. W. H. Johnston. 1924.DAVIS, KENNETH S. The Hero: Charles A. Lindbergh. London, Longmans. 1960.FERGUSON, DELANCEY Mark Twain. New York, Russell and Russell. 1965.GEIRINGER, KARL Johann Sebastian Bach. New York, Oxford University Press. 1966.GEORGE, ALEXANDER L. and GEORGE, JULIETTE L. Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House. New York, J. Day Co. 1956.GORDON, ARTHUR One man’s way; the story and message of Norman Vincent Peale. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall. 1972.GILOT, FRANCOISE Life with Picasso. New York, McGraw-Hill. 1964.GUSTIN, LAWRENCE R. Billy Durant. Grand Rapids, Mich., W. B. Eerdmans. 1973.GWYN, RICHARD The northern magus: Pierre Trudeau and Canadians. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart. 1980.HEINZ, HEINZ A. Germany’s Hitler. London, Hurst and Blarkett. 1938.HIRST, FRANCIS WRIGLEY Adam Smith. London, Macmillan. 1904.HULL, BOBBY Hockey is my game. Don Mills, Ontario, Longmans. 1967.KIERNAN, THOMAS Arafat, the man and the myth. New York, W. W. Norton. 1976.LEGATE, DAVID M. Stephen Leacock. Toronto, Doubleday. 1970.LOCKMAN FOUNDATION The New American Standard Bible. Moody Press, Chicago. 1960.MCADOO, ELEANOR RANDOLPH The Woodrow Wilsons. New York, Macmillan. 1937.MCCABE, JOSEPH Saint Augustine and his age. New York, G. P. Putnam’s. 1903.MACKENZIE, NORMAN Dickens, a life. London, Oxford University Press. 1979.MCKINNON, JAMES Calvin and the reformation. New York, Russell and Russell. 1962.MILES, RUSSELL HANCOCK Johann Sebastian Bach. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall. 1962.PAWLEY, DANIEL Ernest Hemingway. Christianity Today. November 23, 1984.PEARSON, HESKETH Gilbert and Sullivan. London, H. Hamilton. 1935.PEARSON, HESKETH Johnson and Boswell. London, Heinemann. 1958.ROBYNS, GWEN The mystery of Agatha Christie. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday. 1978.ROOT, HARVEY W. The unknown Barnum. New York, Harper. 1927.SAPONARO, MICHELE Michelangelo. London, P. Owen. 1951.SAVANT, JEAN Napoleon in his time. London, Putnam. 1958.SCHAUFFLER, ROBERT HAVEN The unknown Brahms. New York, Crown. 1933.SCHICKEL, RICHARD The Disney Version. New York, Simon and Schuster. 1968.SIMON, JAMES F. Independent journey: the life of William O. Douglas. New York, Harper and Row. 1980.STEER, ROGER George Mueller: delighted in God. Wheaton, Illinois, Harold Shaw Publishers. 1975.TAYLOR, JOHN RUSSELL Hitch: the life and work of Alfred Hitchcock. London, Faber and Faber. 1978.VIPOND, JIM Gordie Howe, number 9. Toronto, Ryerson Press. 1968.WALKER, WILLISTON John Calvin. New York, Schocken Books. 1906.WINKLER, JOHN K. W. R. Hearst. New York, Simon and Schuster. 1928.

• Release Date

  Jan 17, 2008

• Runtime

  23:21