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examples of how we can use such maps to encourage and deepen our
insight.
A thoroughgoing analogy can be constructed between the structure of many
simple geometrical figures and the most fundamental kinds of logical
distinctions, though this has rarely, if ever, been fully acknowledged in the
past. The starting point of this analogy is the analytic law of identity (A=A);
it posits that a thing "is what it is". To choose a diagram that can accurately
represent this simplest of all logical laws, all we need
todoisthinkofthesimplestofall geometrical figures: a point. Techni-
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opposition.
The circle and line segment can be used as maps of virtually any distinction
between two opposite terms. Such distinctions, as we learned from Chuang
Tzu last week, are a commonplace in our ordinary ways of thinking about
the world. We naturally divide things into pairs of opposites: male and
female, day and night, hot and cold, etc. In most cases I believe the line
segment offers the most appropriate way of representing such distinctions.
Since the circle marks out a boundary between "outside" and "inside", we
should employ this figure only when there is an imbalance between the two
terms in question-as, for example, when one acts as a limitation on the
other, but not vice versa.
Now if we were to stop here, the Geometry of Logic would not be a very
interesting subject. No one has any trouble seeing the logical relationship
between a pair of opposite terms, to say nothing of a single term in its
relation to itself. Using points, line segments, or circles in such a way is
helpful only when the terms in question do not define an obvious
opposition. This is especially true of the circle. For example, using a circle
to represent Kant's distinction between our necessary ignorance and our
possible knowledge, as we did in Lecture 7 (see Figures III.5 and III.10),
helped us fix in our minds the proper relationship between these two, with
the former limiting the extent of the latter.
In any case, one of the most interesting and useful tools in the Geometry of
Logic arises out of the simple application of the law of noncontradiction to
itself. By this I am referring to cases involving each side of a pair of opposed
concepts being itself broken down into a further pair of two opposing
concepts. As an example, let's consider the familiar concept "one day". We
all know how to perform the simple analytic process whereby we divide
"one day" into two more or less equal and opposite halves, called "daytime"
and "nighttime" (i.e., "not daytime"). This is a good example of a typical
1LAR. However, as with most 1LARs, if we try to apply this strict division to
every moment in a day, we find there are certain times during the day when
we hesitate to say whether it is "daytime" or "nighttime"; and as a result, we
make a further analytic division, between "dusk" and "dawn".
In order to translate this into the form of our logical apparatus, using "+"
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and "-" combinations to replace the actual content of our distinctions, all
we need to do is add another "+" and "-" term, in turn, to each of the original
terms from the simple 1LAR. This gives rise to the following four
"components" (i.e., combinations of one or more +/- terms) of a
"second-level analytic relation" (or "2LAR"):
--+--+++
I call the first and last components (i.e., "--" and "++") pure, because both
terms are the same, whereas I call the middle two components (i.e., "+-" and
"-+") mixed, because they both combine one "+" and one "-".
If one pair of opposites is represented by a single line segment, then two can
best be represented by a combination of two line segments. As we have seen
on numerous occasions already, the four end points of a cross can serve as a
simple and balanced way of representing such a four-fold relation. But the
same 2LAR can also be represented by the four corners of a square (cf.
Figure II.3). I map the four components onto the cross and the square in the
following ways:
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cross to represent the logical form of a 2LAR. In that case the cross will only
be, at best, a nice picture, and at worst, a misleading over-simplification.
For only sets of concepts that can be shown to exhibit the set of
interrelationships defined above, and representable by the four +/components of a 2LAR, ought to be mapped onto the cross.
Having given this warning, I can now add that there is actually quite a
simple method of testing any set of four concepts that we think might be
related according to the form of a 2LAR. All we need to do is find two
yes-or-no questions whose answers, when put together, give rise to simple
descriptions of the four concepts we have before us. Thus, for example, in
order to prove that the four concepts mentioned above, "daytime",
"nighttime", "dusk", and "dawn", compose a 2LAR, all we need to do is posit
the two questions: (1) Is it obviously either daytime or nighttime (as
opposed to being a transition period)? and (2) Is it lighter now than at the
opposite time of day? This gives rise to four possible situations,
corresponding to the four components of a 2LAR as follows:
++Yes, it is obvious, and yes, it is lighter (= "daytime")
+- Yes, it is obvious, but no, it is not lighter (= "nighttime")
-+ No, it is not obvious, but yes, it is lighter (= "dawn")
-- No, it is not obvious, and no, it is not lighter (= "dusk")
This demonstrates that the four terms in question can be mapped properly
onto the 2LAR cross, as shown in Figure V.4a.
Perhaps I should also mention that we cannot produce a proper 2LAR by
combining any randomly chosen pair of two questions. Or at least, we must
be prepared for the possibility that in attempting to construct a 2LAR, one
or more of the possible combinations of answers might end up describing a
self-contradictory concept, or an impossible situation. For this reason, I use
the term "perfect" to refer to a 2LAR(or any other logical relation) in which
all the logically possible components also represent real possibilities. For
example, consider the two questions:
(1)Isitraining?and(2)Isthesunshining?Atfirst,onlythreeofthe
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order to continue burning; water can mix with air (as in soda) and with
earth (as in mud). So even though the ancient Greeks had not developed the
Geometry of Logic, they were intuitively able to choose, as their four basic
elements, materials that correspond in real life to the form of a perfect
2LAR.
Of course, there are actually more than four physical "elements" in the
universe; likewise, a day can be divided into more than just four parts, and
the weather has far more than just four variations! In the same way, the
process of analytic division can and does go on and on, forming increasingly
complex patterns of relations between groups of concepts. In this course we
have no time to examine the complex relations created by these "higher
levels" of analytic division. However, I would like to mention one final
example. But first I should point out that, no matter how far we go in
making analytic divisions, the patterns will always follow this very simple
formula:
C = 2t
where "C" refers to the total number of different components possible and
"t" refers to the number of +/- terms in each component. The latter,
incidentally, is always identical to the number of the level. Thus, as we have
seen, the number of divisions required to construct a 2LAR is two, the
number of terms in each resulting component is also two, and the total
number of components is four (22 = 4). Likewise, the number of divisions
required to construct a 3LAR is three, the number of terms in each resulting
component is three, and the total number of components is eight (23 = 8).
The higher the level of analytic relation, the more complex is the map that
has to be constructed to give an accurate picture of all the logical relations
involved. One good example of such a complex system can be found in the
ancient Chinese book of wisdom, the I Ching. This book describes a set of 64
"hexagrams" (i.e., six-part pictures), each representing some kind of life
situation. The book was originally used primarily for predicting future
events: in some arbitrary way, such as throwing dice, a person selects two of
the 64 hexagrams, and the transformation from one to the other is then
used as the basis for answering a question, usually about how some present
situation will change in the future. (Thus it is also called The Book of
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Changes.) For our purposes, of course, the predictive power of the I Ching is
not its main attraction; rather, its logical form is what interests us. For the
64 hexagrams actually function as six-term components of a 6LAR. The
traditional way of representing this system of logical possibilities is to use
sets of six solid or broken lines to define each hexagram. By simply
replacing the solid lines with a "+" and the broken lines with a "-", we can
translate this system directly into the one developed above. If we arrange
the components according to their contradictory opposites (as is normally
done in using the I Ching), then the intricate relationships between these
hexagrams can be mapped onto a sphere, which, when projected onto a
plane surface so that the opposite poles of the sphere are represented as the
center and the circumference of a circle, looks like this:
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Logic is one kind of a priori perspective (see Figure IV.4), so we should not
be surprised to find such numerical patterns playing an important role in
this branch of philosophy. However, logical patterns do not relate only to
our a priori ways of thinking. As Pythagoras recognized, they also relate
very closely to the way we live our lives. That is one reason I ended the
previous lecture with an example from Chinese philosophy. In ancient
China, the I Ching was never regarded merely as a logical table of a priori
thought-forms. Most-perhaps even all-who used it were not even aware of
its neat, logical structure, as a perfect 6LAR. Rather, they used it intuitively,
as a reflection of the ever-present changes in their daily life situations. In
the real world, things do not remain eternally opposed to each other, as our
concepts might lead us to believe. Instead, opposites gradually fade into
each other by passing through an infinite series of degrees. Once we
recognize this fact, we might wish to view the line in Figure V.2b no longer
as representing an absolute separation, requiring a choice between two
discrete kinds, but as representing a continuum, containing infinitely many
degrees.
There is, in fact, another symbol from the Chinese tradition that performs
this same, synthetic function, even though it can also serve as a map of an
analytic relation. I am thinking here of the famous "Tai Chi" symbol,
depicting the opposition between the forces of yin (dark) and yang (light).
As shown in Figure V.6, this symbol can be regarded as simply another way
of mapping a 2LAR. However, in the Chinese traditionitsprimarysymbolicvaluewasquitedifferent, foritwasregarded
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Figure
V.6: The
2LAR
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a "star of David". The six components (2x3 = 6) Figure V.8: The Star
of the resulting "sixfold compound relation" (or of David as a 6CR
"6CR") can be placed on such a map in the
manner shown in Figure V.8, with the first term
in each component representing the analytic
opposition between the two triangles. This
figure can be constructed by sliding together
the two triangles in Figure V.7, then rotating the
entire figure counter-clockwise by 30? The 0
and 1 vertices become the -x and +x,
respectively.
This map can be used to explore the logical relationships between any two
sets of three concepts we believe might be related in this way. For example,
one of my students once came up with the idea of comparing the famous
philosophical triad, "truth, goodness, and beauty" with the famous religious
triad, "faith, hope, and love". The way to test whether or not these six
concepts make up a legitimate 6CR is to find a way of mapping them onto
the diagram in Figure V.8, such that the concepts placed in opposition to
each other really do have characteristics that make them complementary
opposites. We could begin this task by associating the "-" triangle with the
philosophical concepts and the "+" triangle with the religious concepts, thus
defining the basic 1LAR. But once again, I prefer to let you experiment for
yourself with the other details, or with other examples of your own making.
Another way of integrating analytic and synthetic relations is to combine
the simple 1LSR with a 2LAR. The twelve components (3x4 = 12) of the
resulting "twelvefold compound relation" (or "12CR") can,of course,be
mapped onto a twelve-pointed star;but I think a better way is
simplytomapthemontoacircle,especiallysincethemapthenresembles the
familiar figure of the face of a clock. In addition, by using a circle, we can
leave the center open, to be filled in with whatever figure represents the
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specific set of logical relations we wish to highlight among the many that
exist between the twelve components. For example, in Figure
V.9,Ihaveplacedacrossinsidethecircle,thusdividingit into its four
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Syntheticlogichas,infact,alreadybeenusedbysomephilosophers to show
how new insights come about. For instance, the perplexing contradictions
of Chuang Tzu and the string of negations proposed by Pseudo-Dionysius
(see Lecture 12) can be regarded as a way of prodding the reader to discover
new insights about "the Way" or about "God", respectively. Likewise, this is
the most fruitful way of interpreting Hegel's famous "dialectical" logic (see
Figure IV.7): his idea that changes occur in human history whenever two
opposite forces clash and give rise to a new reality, called the "synthesis", is
best regarded as a description of the process whereby human perspectives
change. And whenever our perspective changes, a new insight normally
accompanies the change. But unfortunately, Hegel's language is so complex,
and his arguments so difficult to follow, that many people end up with more
confusion than insight after reading one of his books. So a better approach
for our purposes will be to look at a contemporary scholar who has
developed some ways of applying synthetic logic on a very down-to-earth
level.
EdwarddeBono(1933-)isnotsomuchaprofessionalphilosopherasaneducator
par excellence. Nevertheless, some of the principles he discusses in his
many books are closely related to various philosophical concerns,
especially in the area of logic. For his main concern is to teach people how
to think creatively. In the process of doing so, he demonstrates that the laws
of synthetic logic are not just abstract principles that are difficult or
impossible to apply, but are effective tools that can be used to help us solve
many different sorts of real-life problems. In his book, The Use of Lateral
Thinking, for example, de Bono uses geometrical terms to distinguish
between our ordinary, "horizontal" way of thinking and the "lateral"
thinking that always seeks to look at old situations from new perspectives.
(Obviously, the former corresponds to analytic logic and the latter to
synthetic logic, though de Bono does not use these terms.) He suggests that
whenever we have the feeling we are "stuck" with a problem we cannot
solve, the reason is not that there is no solution in sight, but that our
perspective is too narrow. That is why it often helps in such situations to
take a short break from our efforts: when we return, we are more likely to
feel free to change the way we are looking at the problem; and often we
discover that the solution was right under our nose all along!
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Let me illustrate lateral thinking with a personal story. When I was a boy I
used to have a great deal of trouble eating chicken with a fork and knife. I
always preferred to use my fingers. When I noticed one day how easily my
grandfather ate chicken with a fork and knife, I asked him how he
performed this difficult task with such ease. His answer was simple: "You
are trying to remove the chicken from the bone; what you need to do is to
remove the bone from the chicken." This is lateral thinking! And it worked:
all along the bones had been disturbing my enjoyment of one of my favorite
foods; but when I changed the way I thought about my task, the disturbance
virtually vanished! It is also an example of using synthetic logic, because my
grandfather's suggestion enabled me to pass beyond what seemed before
like an absolute opposition between "It is easy to get the chicken off the
bone when I use my fingers" and "It is difficult to get the chicken off the
bone when I use a fork and knife". The new perspective, "remove the bone
from the chicken" enabled me to synthesize the "It is easy" of the first
proposition with the "use a fork and knife" of the second proposition.
Lateral thinking always cuts across our former way of thinking in just this
way, much as the vertical axis of a cross cuts across the horizontal axis.
In another book, called Po: Beyond Yes and No, de Bono suggests another
tool for making new discoveries. As the very title reveals, this new tool is
rooted in synthetic logic even more obviously than lateral thinking. In this
book de Bono coins a new word, "po", as a way of responding to questions
whose proper answer is neither "yes" nor "no" (or both "yes" and "no"). The
letters "P-O", he POints out, are found together in many words that play an
imPOrtant role in creative thinking, such as "hyPOthesis", "POetry",
"POssibility", "POtential", "POsitive thinking", and "supPOse". "PO" can also
be regarded as an acronym, an abbreviation of the phrase "Presuppose the
Opposite". In order to show how this new word can actually help us develop
our ability to gain new insights-i.e., to see new POssibilities, new
opPOrtunities, just over the horizon of our present perspective-de Bono
suggests we experiment with various "po situations". To perform such an
experiment, we must use "po" as an adjective, modifying a word we wish to
think about creatively; but our description of the characteristics of that
word must then presuppose the opposite of whatever we normally think
about the objects, activities, or situations related to the word. If we think
about how things would be different if this po situation were really the case,
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de Bono assures us that gaining new insights will become much easier.
Let's give this kind of experiment a try. Imagine I am dissatisfied with my
teachingmethod,andIwanttothinkofsomenew,creativewayofteaching my
classes. In order to treat this as a po situation, I must say to myself "Po
teachers are...", and complete the sentence with something that is usually
not true about real life teachers. What shall we say? How about: "Po
teachers know less than their students." This is just a random choice of one
among many of the characteristics of the student-teacher relationship. But
we do normally assume that teachers know more than their students, so the
above statement, by intentionally contradicting this common assumption,
can serve as a good example of a po situation. What would happen if
students really did know more than their students? Well, for one thing, if I
were assigned the task of teaching in such a situation, I would approach my
task with humility (if not with fear and trembling!), knowing that I would
probably be learning much more than my students. As a result I would
certainly need to respect my students, and the common expectation that
students ought to look up to me as their teacher would not be so obviously
justified. Moreover, I would try to encourage students themselves to talk
more, either by asking them questions in class, by having them ask me
questions, or by dividing them into groups and having them talk with each
other. For, since po students know best what the subject is all about, a po
teacher would be very foolish not to give them ample opportunity to share
what they know.
If I now step back from this po situation, and re-enter the "real world", I
find I have stumbled upon several new ideas about how I can improve my
teaching: I should be humble enough to learn from my students, respect
them as equals in the adventure of learning, not be upset if they show some
disrespect toward me, encourage them to ask and answer questions, and
give them opportunities to discuss issues among themselves. The first time
I gave this lecture, I had not prepared these insights beforehand: they just
came to me as I was experimenting with de Bono's method in front of the
class. Yet I think these are really very good insights, don't you? If so, it is
important to remember that they did
notcometomebecauseIamespeciallyclever;theycamebecauseIused po to
think laterally, thus leading me to adopt a surprising new perspective on a
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familiar subject. You can prove this for yourself simply by using the same
method to reflect on any area you wish to improve or any topic
youneedtoviewwithfreshinsight.Justremember:pothinkingstimulates
insights because it causes us intentionally to adopt a perspective we know
is contradictory to the real situation-a practical application of synthetic
logic if ever there was one!
I hope the foregoing examples have helped you see the great value -indeed,
the necessity-of using synthetic logic. I'm confident that they have, because
over the years I've noticed that beginning philosophy students often find it
easier to grasp synthetic logic than do professional philosophers! This, no
doubt, is partly because western philosophers are often taught to have a
prejudice in favor of the exclusive validity of analytic logic. In some
traditions logic is defined as "analysis"; so of course, anyone who tries to
propose a nonanalytic logic is regarded as speaking nonsense!
Nevertheless, as we have seen, synthetic logic exhibits patterns just as
much as analytic logic; so if we define logic as "patterns of words", then
synthetic and analytic logic clearly ought to have an equal right to be called
"logic". (Philosophers trained in eastern ways of thinking, incidentally,
sometimes develop a prejudice in favor of synthetic logic; in the end this is
no better than the western prejudice. A "good" philosopher will be able to
appreciate the value of using both.) Perhaps another reason beginners can
accept synthetic logic so easily is that it actually requires less formal
training to use synthetic logic than
analyticlogic:whereasanalyticlogicisthelogicofknowledge(especially
thinking), synthetic logic is the logic of experience (especially intuiting). In
this sense, we can call synthetic logic the logic of life.
Ifyouarereadingthisasastudent,yourlifeislikelytobefocused largely on
studying, writing papers, and taking tests. With this in mind, I shall devote
the rest of this lecture to suggesting how an awareness of perspectives can
be an aid to improving your writing skills-a topic that should interest all
readers, especially those writing insight papers. We have already seen that
insights tend to arise when we learn to shift our perspective (as in lateral
and po thinking) and that synthetic logic is the logic that governs such
changes; we shall now proceed to examine how an ability to map our
perspectives according to the principles of the Geometry of Logic can
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thiscourse(anditssequel,DW,aswellasKSPandKCR).Thealternative
approach, adopted by most writers even of highly abstract philosophical
essays, is simply to divide the essay into a haphazard number of sections
without following any rule. Yet this leaves the reader totally clueless as to
why the essay is divided up in just this way, and not some other.
By far the greatest benefit that comes from using the Geometry of Logic to
pre-plan a piece of writing is that doing so calls attention to gaps and
previously undetected connections between the various themes being
considered. In the first two lectures this week, I gave several examples of
how geometrical maps can be used to help promote insights. (Remember
the rainbow?) The potential for giving other such examples is so great that I
could easily fill a whole book with them! But for our purposes it will be
enough to provide one more example to illustrate how a map can assist us in
deepening our insight by discovering a new perspective on an old, familiar
topic.
When I was preparing the present edition of this book, I had taught
Introduction to Philosophy more than thirty times, always using something
like Figures I.1 and I.3 on the first day as a preview of what students could
expect. Then one day after a Philosophy Cafe meeting here in Hong Kong, I
was discussing the nature of silence with one of the participants. Suddenly
as I spoke I realized that Parts Two and Four of this course can be described
as the two ways human beings experience meaning. The word "meaning"
can therefore label the vertical pole on Figure I.3. As I went home that night,
this image of the labeled vertical pole caused me to wonder: How, then,
should the horizontal pole be labeled? Had I not organized this course using
the Geometry of Logic, this question would surely never have arisen. But it
now became so obvious that I was amazed I had never in 13 years thought of
this issue! For several weeks I reflected on this matter without coming up
with an answer. Then, in a conversation with a former student, I finally sat
down and drew the diagram. Seeing the horizontal pole with "ignorance" on
one end and "knowledge" on the other stimulated me all in a flash to think of
two good answers: Parts One and Three both deal with reality, but from two
different perspectives (ultimate and non-ultimate); but a more natural way
of contrasting this with "meaning" is to refer to it as "existence". My new
insight was now complete: the overall aim of this course is to share a vision
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Original URL:
http://staffweb.hkbu.edu.hk/ppp/tp4/top05.html
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