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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

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Logic as a coping strategy
    #8502957 -

What if logic is a coping strategy of the mind to try make sense of the world, and turns out to be just another interpretation of reality? What if logic only can take you so far?

Take sight for instance. Most light that exists, we can't even see. Or hearing? Most sounds we can't even hear. Touch? We cannot sense the world turning, or air atoms bouncing off our skin. Taste? Sweet, Salt, Sour, Bitter and Protein. Theres a billion tastes we will never know, anyone who tried to sneak another brand into his cat's bowl can verify this. Smell? There must be a billion different smells, but we are stuck with the receptors mother nature endowed us with. And science tells us that all input we do get, is but an interpretation of what might be out there. All our input may be completely subjective. Your green may be my blue.

What if logic is the same, that it can only give us an interpretation of one tiny drop in an ocean of reality?

Move over Sesame Street, lets talk about the number seven. Can we get 7 into our heads? You can put 7 nugs on the table and say "this is seven". And you may be right. What is on the table appears to be seven. But the thing that resonates in your brain, the "seven" in your mind, is only an abstraction of the seven thats on the table. In your head is not a reality of seven, just an interpretation thereof.

We are being had GOOD people, by logic. Don't get lost in it and don't rely on it as your sole source in your quest for higher understanding. I won't say "quest for truth" because if you realize the above, how everything is just an abstraction, how can we possibly ever assume to find but on e shred of truth beyond the shadow of a doubt. Thats like trying to find a planet beyond the shadow of the shadow of the universe.

Uncertainty is a cocoon that envelops our knowing like space envelops a planet. We can only get out of the cocoon by denying its existence.

Discuss!


--------------------
Omnicyclion.org
personal empowerment for the world

:nyan: LGBT - Love God Before Tradition :nyan:

Edited by Asante (06/09/08 09:25 AM)

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8502979 -

I have always maintained that...  Well, belief is necessary.  Or Faith, in the unknown.  Room for something.  Otherwise it seems people subjectively seal the deal.  Then they see everything in life through that particular filter.

If in fact there is something to the myths...  I feel people will have serious trouble as their world gets turned upside down.  Ego death, while sober, for the uninitiated.  That will be quite a trial, in my mind.  Easy to mistake for a number of terrifying things.

I feel the honest, and dare I say child-like, will be better able to make this transition.  I feel access to information and the ability to share it is affecting REALITY in a more profound way than I think most people are even aware of, or willing to admit.

Logic is good for cataloging the ineffable experiences that you are willing to proceed into through Faith, imo.

Both always all the time.:yinyang:


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8503243 -

What if logic is a coping strategy of the mind to try make sense of the world, and turns out to be just another interpretation of reality? What if logic only can take you so far?


Well true logic knows when to drop logic as a tool for describing reality. :wink:

Otherwise I agree with  you.:thumbup:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8503428 -

Good post.

I think logic is one tool, albeit a very important one, in our toolkit to understand the world.  However, sometimes we become a slave to logic and attempt to apply it in instances were it isn't the best tool.

The analytic mind seeks structure, and sometimes, in its own way, safety from an abrasive and hostile world.  It can pare down things or events into a single category in order to make the world--in its interpretation--a more managable place.

This tightening can result in a very small world and a very small worldview.  You can observe this best in persons who tend towards extremism.  Christians, Mystics, Skeptics and many other groups where common thought is shared can provide a safe harbor where the emphasis is not on learning, but being protected and safe.  It is their cocoon, so to speak.

Logic can be understood as a knife, sometimes it heals, sometimes it kills and sometimes there are better tools.

Never bring a knife to a gunfight.


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8503470 -

Being had indeed. Let's get lateral. :mushroom2:

"We reproduce catastrophe because we ourselves are traumatized – both as a species and individually, beginning at birth. Because we are wounded, we have put up psychic defenses against reality and have become so cut off from direct participation in the multidimensional wilderness in which we are embedded that all we can do is to navigate our way cautiously through a humanly designed day-to-day substitute world of symbols - a world of dollars, minutes, numbers, images and words that are constantly being manipulated to wring the most possible profit from every conceivable circumstance. The body and spirit both rebel."  David Watson (The Pathology of Civilization by John Zerzan)

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Mr. Mushrooms]
    #8503579 -

Quote:
I think logic is one tool, albeit a very important one, in our toolkit to understand the world.  However, sometimes we become a slave to logic and attempt to apply it in instances were it isn't the best tool.



Can you perhaps offer some examples with instances in which logic is not the best tool?


Quote:
The analytic mind seeks structure, and sometimes, in its own way, safety from an abrasive and hostile world.  It can pare down things or events into a single category in order to make the world--in its interpretation--a more managable place.



In cases like these logic has not been applied properly. :hehehe:
We need to label things in order to make reality more accessible, and we need to find common ground in settling those labels so we can make ourselves understood and improve the quality of communication. Exaggerating, over-reacting and irrationally fitting things into categories is what's non-constructive, but if you have some basic knowledge about what logic stands for, you'll realize that those non-constructive ways have nothing to do with logics anyways. :grin:

Quote:
This tightening can result in a very small world and a very small worldview.  You can observe this best in persons who tend towards extremism.  Christians, Mystics, Skeptics and many other groups where common thought is shared can provide a safe harbor where the emphasis is not on learning, but being protected and safe.  It is their cocoon, so to speak.



Now this is a perfect example of irrational labeling, a labeling based on emotionalism, poor thinking skills and inertia. Exactly what's being successfully avoided when we correctly apply logic into our lives. It's so funny how you fell in your own trap. :lol:

Quote:
Logic can be understood as a knife, sometimes it heals, sometimes it kills and sometimes there are better tools.

Never bring a knife to a gunfight.



This statement doesn't make any sense whatsoever. :nono:


--------------------
:bunny::bunnyhug:
All this time I've loved you
And never known your face
All this time I've missed you
And searched this human race
Here is true peace
Here my heart knows calm
Safe in your soul
Bathed in your sighs

:bunnyhug: :yinyang2:

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Middleman]
    #8503592 -

Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot.

If a thought were correct a priori, it would be a thought whose possibility ensured its truth.

A priori knowledge that a thought was true would be possible only if its truth were recognizable from the thought itself (without anything to compare it with).

In a proposition a thought finds an expression that can be perceived by the senses.

We use the perceptible sign of a proposition (spoken or written, etc.) as a projection of a possible situation.  The method of projection is to think of the sense of the proposition.

I call the sign with which we express a thought a propositional sign in its projective relation to the world.

A proposition includes all that the projection includes, but not what is projected.  Therefore, though what is projected is not itself included, its possibility is.  A proposition, therefore, does not actually contain its sense, but does contain the possibility of expressing it. 

A proposition contains the form, but not the content, of its sense.
-Wittgenstein


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8503609 -

I've also noticed the same subjectivity in many of the things we use daily and take for granted.  Like time, for instance, is completely reliant on the movement of earth.  Also distance relies ether on the shoe size of some long dead king or the length of some guys arm, probably, separated and expanded in equal ten unit intervals.

There are many things that we perceive as actually existing just so we can better understand and maintain ourselves.  If we had no concept of time or distance we would be, animals.  Although even animals have a weak understanding of time and distance, but the universe, existence itself, isn't as limited as finite life.  We have evolved to take advantage of as much as we can as long as we can, extince will get around to it, eventually.


--------------------

Customize your Shroomery experience!
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: backfromthedead]
    #8503631 -

backfromthedead said:
Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot.

If a thought were correct a priori, it would be a thought whose possibility ensured its truth.

A priori knowledge that a thought was true would be possible only if its truth were recognizable from the thought itself (without anything to compare it with).

In a proposition a thought finds an expression that can be perceived by the senses.

We use the perceptible sign of a proposition (spoken or written, etc.) as a projection of a possible situation.  The method of projection is to think of the sense of the proposition.

I call the sign with which we express a thought a propositional sign in its projective relation to the world.

A proposition includes all that the projection includes, but not what is projected.  Therefore, though what is projected is not itself included, its possibility is.  A proposition, therefore, does not actually contain its sense, but does contain the possibility of expressing it. 

A proposition contains the form, but not the content, of its sense.
-Wittgenstein



Nice one.

An expression of essence through a representation of function. A description is always an approximation.

This is why all geometry is Sacred, it conveys pure principle...

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Middleman]
    #8503675 -

A description is always an approximation...

With so many descriptions in the 'Literature'...  Kind of makes one think.  These all must point to SOMETHING, right??  NOW, what is it??  Where is it??


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: backfromthedead]
    #8503694 -

This is why all geometry is Sacred, it conveys pure principle...


Human form using reflected light off of pyramid-like arrangements of glass spheres (tree of life??)...  Kinda cool.
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~chenry/


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8503799 -

Wiccan_Seeker said:
What if logic is a coping strategy of the mind to try make sense of the world...



Of course logic is a strategy employed to face and deal with the nature of reality and of existence. This is a positive thing. 

Quote:
, and turns out to be just another interpretation of reality?



"Just another"? Clearly, logic is an interpretation of reality. The reduction being implied with this statement, though, is really confusing, as though the substantiveness that logic carries with it has been negated. Is this what was intended to be conveyed, that the difference between a substantiated line of reasoning and an interpretation that carries with it no basis has somehow been removed? I hope not, because I do not see how as much has been justified in this post. :shrug:

Quote:
What if logic only can take you so far?



The question begs the interpretation that it has somehow been implied that logic doesn't have limitations on its functions, because it would seem entirely evident to anyone that a system of reasoning carries with it its limitations.

Quote:
Taste? Sweet, Salt, Sour, Bitter and Protein



How does "protein" fit in that list? :confused:

Quote:
What if logic is the same, that it can only give us an interpretation of one tiny drop in an ocean of reality?



Obviously, our sensory devices have limited means with which to obtain information through their interaction with reality; our ability to process, interpret, and perceive this sensory information is limited as well. Thus, it logically follows (:smirk:) that any system of reasoning that we subsequently create would be a limited interpretation of the vast, unknown nature of a phenomenon we simply could not grasp. I am still waiting for what is implied with the "what if?" to be revealed. :lol:

Quote:
Move over Sesame Street, lets talk about the number seven. Can we get 7 into our heads? You can put 7 nugs on the table and say "this is seven". And you may be right. What is on the table appears to be seven. But the thing that resonates in your brain, the "seven" in your mind, is only an abstraction of the seven thats on the table. In your head is not a reality of seven, just an interpretation thereof.



Naturally, anything beyond our direct perception of the data our senses provides us is conceptual in nature and is only of abstract existence. Of course, this obviously doesn't diminish the usefulness conceptual thinking has in providing for our continued existence through providing for us a developed understanding of the small fraction of reality we are capable of experiencing and conceiving.

Quote:
We are being had GOOD people, by logic.



You, perhaps... :shrug:

Quote:
Don't get lost in it and don't rely on it as your sole source in your quest for higher understanding.



So, developing a system of reasoning and maintaining it through observation and analysis shouldn't be relied upon... what else do you suggest? :sherlock:

Quote:
how everything is just an abstraction



Everything? Experience isn't an abstraction. Experience is a real phenomenon. :wink:

Quote:
how can we possibly ever assume to find but on e shred of truth beyond the shadow of a doubt.



We can't. :grin:

Quote:
Uncertainty is a cocoon that envelops our knowing like space envelops a planet. We can only get out of the cocoon by denying its existence.




The unknown may envelope and permeate existence, but I don't understand how denying the existence of the unknown accomplishes anything, but perhaps you didn't phrase what you were intending to say as eloquently as possible. Denial of existence is never beneficial. :wink:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you

:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: backfromthedead]
    #8503853 -

Quote:
Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot.




?


--------------------
“Strengthened by contemplation and study,
I will not fear my passions like a coward.
My body I will give to pleasures,
to diversions that I’ve dreamed of,
to the most daring erotic desires,
to the lustful impulses of my blood, without
any fear at all, for whenever I will—
and I will have the will, strengthened
as I’ll be with contemplation and study—
at the crucial moments I’ll recover
my spirit as was before: ascetic.”

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Lion]
    #8503873 -

Lion said:
Quote:
Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot.




?



That is in fact a spatial representation, an image, an optical illusion if you will that in no way contradicts geometry...  Can you bring that shape into the world so that I can hold it in my hands...??:confused:


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: backfromthedead]
    #8503898 -

Right. No optical illusion breaks a law of geometry which is why it's called an illusion.

Illusions are based on perspective.

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Middleman]
    #8503907 -

Middleman said:
Right. No optical illusion breaks a law of geometry which is why it's called an illusion.



Its seems as though it relies on its geometry for its effect, no??:grin:


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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: backfromthedead]
    #8504140 -

holy!
yes logic can be abusively applied so as to fail all demands.
and faith can be abusively applied so as to satisfy all demands.

I fear faith more than logic, but I give logic no power beyond familiarity, unfamiliar logic is not acceptible,
but I may learn it and embrace it and let it ramble around and fail to describe
what I experience directly at a much higher bandwidth.

Faith on the other hand, I only let it take me where I already am confident i.e. Faith in my own ability to come up with something just as unexpected as life continues to be.

I guess I fear faith especially faith that uses bad logic, mostly because of
the spanish inquisition and the nazis and the faith empowered logic
of the WOMD rhetoric of gwb.


--------------------
:brainfart: _ :finger:

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: Asante]
    #8504147 -

Great post Wiccan.  Logic is a fantastic tool but it can only provide interpretations.  Devastating, isn't it...  Too often we mistake the pointer for the value itself.  I think this a function of the human instinct to accumulate things.  Conclusions are great fodder for the ego, because we then feel like we then possess something of value.  Knowledge!  I have some!  Uncertainty does not give the same gratification.  In fact it makes us quite anxious, and we want to get rid of it.  Beware the impulse to conclude.

Of course, we have to momentarily treat interpretations as if they are facts beyond reasonable doubt if we wish to explore the possible implications of a particular theory.  But we never need lose sight of the fact that we are only ever working with interpretations.


--------------------
Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man.  For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire.  Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

:heartpump:

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: WhiskeyClone]
    #8504265 -

WhiskeyClone said:
In fact it makes us quite anxious, and we want to get rid of it.



Speak for yourself.


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you

:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

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Re: Logic as a coping strategy [Re: fireworks_god]
    #8504281 -

fireworks_god said:
WhiskeyClone said:
In fact it makes us quite anxious, and we want to get rid of it.



Speak for yourself.



Yes, I like uncertainty...it means that there is still more fun to be had by discovering!  :smile:

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Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order


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