Integrative Cognition and Dualities
Ilya Shambat
The natures of cultures, societies, religions, lifestyles,
communities, families and individual people can only be fully assayed
through combination of external examination and subjective experience.
The first shows the entity's effects on the world; the second, the
experience of the people who are a part of it. To do the first, is to
know the nature of the entity in its external effects. To do the
second, is to know its nature as felt and experienced by its
participants.
The merely external examination fails to understand the exerience and
is felt by the participants as being out of touch, cold, and lacking
in understanding. The merely experiential fails to compute the
entity's external effects and also fails to see and correct its wrongs
and itse errors, allowing these errors and wrongs to continue
unchecked. As these errors and wrongs continue unchecked, they
continue to grow.
The scientific method being one of empirical analysis and observation,
many of those who are drawn to it become hostile to anything that
involves such things as empathy, feeling, or subjective experience. In
understanding people at individual or collective level, this attitude
is wrong. Understanding people means also understanding their
experience and thus being able to relate to them. The journalist, the
sociologist, the psychologist, need to be able to do this ino rder to
have a complete enough knowledge to do their work with wisdom. The
humanistic psychology not only recognizes the need for empathy; it
demands it. And empathy training is an essential part of the training
of anyone ivolved in psychology or social science.
But empathy itself is likewise not sufficient. As the purely empathic
feels the experience of a person or a group of people, she gets lost
in their world and forgets the rest of the world and their effects on
it. She identifies with their experience and, as part of it,
identifies also with their errors and their wrongs - frequently to her
own grave wrong. Someone who empathizes with a Talibanist, a Jehovah's
Witness, or a Bush-Reagan Republican gets used for a wrongful agenda -
at grave expense to herself, her children, and the rest of the world.
Empathy, and caring, can easily be exploited for goals that are in no
way caring or empathic, and the tragic experiences of those who have
made such a choice is evidence of that fact.
Empathy must be balanced with discernment if one is to avoid such a
fate. At the same time, the rational mind must be balanced with
empathy in order to avoid greater errors of cruelty, coldness, and out-
of-touch ineffectuality. The full examination of any human phenomenon
demands to know both its effects on the world and its effects on
participants. And this requires intelligence and empathy working
together to create not only an integrative assessment of what is under
examination, but also more integrated and complete people themselves.
Approaching Dualities
The Western thinking and Eastern thinking is both dualistic; however
the dualities are treated in West and East in completely different
ways. Whereas the Western thinking posits valued dualities, in which
one side is good and the other is bad, the Eastern thinking posits
value-neutral dualities that interact with and interpenetrate one
another. And whereas the thinking of Eastern philosophy concerns with
achieving balance among the dualities - and the thinking of Taoism is
concerned with seeing past the dualities to the nondual reality - a
thinking more pertinent to the world would be concerned instead with
maximizing the positive outcomes for each side of the duality and for
their interaction, while minimizing the negative effects of both.
The value-neutral dualities - such as male and female, nature and
civilization, business and labor, private sector and public sector,
thinking and feeling, self-interest and altruism - are made value-
neutral by the fact that they both exist, not by moral choice based on
values, but simply as parts of reality. Not existing by moral choice,
they have zero correlation with moral judgment. Zero correlation with
moral judgment means: Tendency toward good; tendency toward bad; and
tendency toward indifferent; will be found in each side of the
duality. And the process of maximizing the positive outcomes and
minimizing the negative outcomes will consist of - each side checking
the other's harmful tendencies; leaving each other alone where the
direction is positive; and collaborating with each other when such is
beneficial.
The non-valued dualities can interact in these ways:
- One can impact the other positively;
- One can impact the other negatively;
- One can operate independently of the other toward either positive,
negative or value-neutral
outcomes;
- The two can collaborate in a constructive manner;
- The two can collaborate in a destructive manner.
A viable approach toward maximizing the beneficial outcomes and
minimizing the negative outcomes will see all these potentials and
work to enhance the positive ones and minimize the negative ones.
In addition to value-neutral dualities such as the preceding, there is
also such a thing as valued dualities. Dualities such as health and
disease, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, are neither equal nor
are they of equal value. In valued dualities, one is good and the
other is bad; and the benefit comes from maximizing the good side and
minimizing the bad side. One of the greatest errors one can commit is
to confuse value-neutral dualities with valued dualities and to claim
value-neutral duality like "man and woman" to be comparable to a
valued duality such as "good and evil." There is no room for this
error, as it results in horrible wrong - either that error be of
claiming men good and women bad, or of claiming good and evil to be
equal in value. In both cases a terrible wrong is done. The non-valued
dualities are only similar to valued dualities in their dualism.
Beyond that, similarity between them ends.
This error has been taken to variously disastrous ends by various
forces in society. Whether misogynists claiming men to be good and
women to be evil, socialists claiming workers to be good and business
to be evil, Republicans claiming private sector to be good and public
sector to be evil, rationalists claiming reason to be good and
feelings to be evil, or representatives of some religions claiming
civilization to be good and nature to be evil and spirit to be good
and physicality to be evil, in all cases a horrible wrong has been
done.
All of the above-mentioned forces are value-neutral. They are all
capable of action good, bad and indifferent. Claiming one to be good
and the other to be evil results in wrongs condoned and
institutionalized on the part of the first side of the duality, and a
brutal and hideous oppression against the second side. And while we
see many movements on the part of the second side in either of these
(and many other) dualities claiming their to be good and the first
side to be evil, the truth of the matter is that neither side is
either good or evil. Both are value-neutral; both are capable of
right, wrong, and indifferent.
The valued-duality approach, when applied to value-neutral dualities,
is therefore disastrous. This is the kind of thinking that leads to
creation of ever-growing hostilities and ever-growing oppression. The
correct approach to dealing with value-neutral dualities is to see
their capacities - to destructive outcomes; to neutral outcomes; and
to beneficial outcomes. And then to - reduce the first; leave free the
second; and encourage the third where possible. All are there; all are
legitimate; all are capable of both positive and negative effects. The
goal in all cases is to maximize the value for each and of benefits of
both while minimizing the negative effects.
The public sector and private sector are both there because they serve
demand - the first at the poll booth, the second in the marketplace.
Business and labor are two components of the production process.
Nature and civilization are both parts of the world - the first of the
world as not created by human being; the second of the world created
by human beings. As for self-interest and humanity-interest, a being
that exists both as individual self and as part of its species will
have natural inclinations toward benefit of both, with different
levels, in different people, and at different times in their lives. In
all cases, we see value-neutral dualities that can either injure each
other, leave each other alone, or work together. And in all cases, the
interaction must be aimed at reducing the negative effects and
maximizing the positive ones.
This is achievable in a three-tier model. At the bottom level, each
side in the duality has right to protect itself from the negative
effects of the other side. Civilization has right to protect itself
from viruses and harmful bacteria; people concerned for well-being of
the world and the future generations have right to protect rich and
essential environments from destruction. Business has right to protect
itself from Luddites and robbers; labor has right to protect itself
from brutal and corrupt business practices. Private sector has right
to protect itself from excessive regulation; public sector has right
to protect itself from those who want it gone. Finally, individual
interest has right to protect itself from oppression, tyranny, and
similitude, as does humanity-interest from those whose self-interest
demands planetary destruction and lasting damage to humanity.
In the middle level, each side in the duality should accomplish the
most of itself while leaving the other alone to accomplish the most of
itself. Civilization should blossom, and so should nature, as human
intelligence makes it possible to fulfil the needs of humanity in a
manner that less impinges upon the natural world. Business and labor
should both leave each other to do their sides of the work. Private
sector should leave the private sector to do its work of producing
prosperity, and private sector should leave the public sector to do
its work of defense, law enforcement, education, infrastructure, and
reducing ills. Likewise, the humanity-interest should leave people to
define who they are, become who they want to be, and express to
fulfilment their life and liberty - just as individual interest should
leave humanity-interest to do its work of protecting human rights and
creating a livable future.
At the top level, the value-neutral dualities should engage in
positive collaboration that makes possible what either cannot do
alone. Greening the cities and suburbs, creating synthetic lifeforms
to clean out landfills, producing nanotechnological devices to clean
out arteries, and planting forests and farmland in places such as
Sahara, Gobi, and deserts of Australia, Arabia and American Southwest,
will see nature and civilization working together to create a better
future for both. Business and labor work together to create the
product. Private sector and public sector have worked together on
projects such as the Interstate and the Internet and should work
together now on putting in place sustainable and effective clean-
energy and clean-water solutions for the world. As for self-interest
and humanity-interest, the benefit is maximized when people are given
the freedom to choose their lives and to contribute to humanity as
they can. In this situation, both the self-directed aspect of human
being and the humanity-directed aspect are served and work for mutual
benefit, resulting in the complete solution - as opposed to either
pure individualism or pure collectivism, both of which only see a
half. In the integrative solution, the negative effects of collective-
minded beliefs (oppression, tyranny, and similitude) are checked by
affirmation of individual life and freedom; the negative effects of
individualist beliefs (isolation, cruelty, short-sighted destructive
rapacity) are checked by affirmation of the needs of humanity; both
individual interest and humanity interest are acknowledged and are
served; and, at the top level, the two work together on matters of
interest to both individual people and humanity itself - matters such
as, for example, creating a livable and sustainable long-term future.
This approach to dualities recognizes, once again, their value-neutral
nature and as such their capacity - for harming the other (which is
checked by each protecting its prerogatives); for doing their own
thing (which is made possible by leaving each other to do their part
without negative interference); and for working together with one
another (which is made possible by collaboration where such is
beneficial). In this model, the negative effects are minimized, and
the positive effects are maximized - both for each side of the duality
and for what it requires them both to create. Checks and balances,
freedom, and collaboration, all exist in this model - and are applied
where they are applicable.
Further, care must be taken by entities external to each duality to
reduce the negative-collaboration potential. If, say, public sector
and private sector decide to join forces to create a fascist state
such as Franco's Spain or Pinochet's Chile, to wage unjust wars for
corporate interest, or to oppress and tyrannize people, the result is
negative collaboration: The dualities working together toward a
negative outcome. The negative-collaboration potential cannot be
corrected for from within the duality, but can be corrected for
externally to the duality - by voice of those who come at the
receiving end of the negative collaboration.
Whereas positive collaboration should be encouraged wherever possible.
The public sector and private sector working together on projects such
as the Interstate and the Internet have been the source of huge
economic boom and prosperity for the country. When thinking and
feeling work together, the result is insight and understanding
attained faster and deeper than by either of the preceding acting
alone, as well as intelligence informed by human experience that has
the possibility of actually being beneficial toward human existence.
When the needs of both nature and civilization are taken into
consideration in creation of economic benefit, the result is a
sustainable development that fulfils the needs of the man-made world
of civilization while leaving intact and wholesome the world of nature
that man has not created and cannot at this time recreate.
When women and men collaborate on creating and raising new life - when
business and labor work together harmoniously to produce international
economic prosperity - when both the spirit and physicality are tended
to and work together - the results are such that neither part would be
able to accomplish alone. Similarly there is potential for
collaboration between altruism and self-interest - to make better
world for the people, and better people for the world.
Integrative Approach
Integrative approach to dualities makes it possible to make the best
of both worlds. It makes possible coexistence with mutual
understanding, allowing real peace. The man and the woman who make a
real effort to understand and work with each other create far more
wholesome, productive, and lastingly loving relaitonships than those
who make no such effort. And if the interest of creating wholesome
family life is to come to any kind of a real fruition, this must be
the fact of the relationships and their norm.
Similarly, integrative approach can and should be applied to such
entities as nature and civilization. The needs of humanity must be
provided in such a way that does not destroy what man has not created
and cannot rebuild. Human intellect and human effort must be put to
work toward affectuating this outcome. Techonology that uses only the
energy of the sun and the ocean water to deliver both water and
energy, conveniently and economically, round-the-clock, while
producing as outcome only fresh water to be recycled into the
environment, stands to fulfil both energy and water requirements of
humanity indefinitely while greatly reducing the burden of the same on
the planet. The thinking that values, respects, and quantifies both
aspects of the duality, selects for and incentivizes solutions that
work for the benefit of both. In this is set forth the intellectual
infrastrucutre for creating and putting into place such mutually
beneficial solutions on the part of both sides of the dualities.
With business and labor, private sector and public sector, self-
interest and humanity- interest, similar benefit can be achieved.
By application of objective and subjective methods of investigation
working together, can be understood human phenomena quicker and to a
fuller extent.
And by application of integrative approach, can be made the best of
the inputs and the best of the outcome, while each part protects
itself from the negative effects of the other, the negative
interaction is checked, and the positive interaction is maximized for
the benefit of each side, their outcome, and all that it stands to
affect.
slunky
"jordy"
>
> read more »
Hi
Mr. Ed
313473...@f18g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
Ilya Shambat <betterm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Methods of Investigation
>
> The natures of cultures, societies, religions, lifestyles,
> communities, families and individual people can only be fully assayed
> through combination of external examination
and yanking your wanker in public libraries.