Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Thinking rationally is only half thinking.

The root of "rationally" means "to count."

Counting--rational thinking--means separating the parts from the whole. Rational thinking is essentially dissection. You cannot think rationally about a subject and keep your subject alive.

One must also think holistically.

2 comments:

J said...

One must also think holistically.


Sounds impressive, but how do you know when someone thinks holistically? Or thinks at all. Maybe you're surrounded by zombies.

As even St Wittgenstein admitted--we don't know things (except our self, perhaps) until they are in language. Then and only then can those thoughts-in-words be understood, analyzed, contemplated, mocked, tossed on a bonfire, what have you.

G. M. Palmer said...

We know things (mechanically) in language

but we know things (holistically) in our bodies.

More to come but I've got a pile of reading to do.