You raise a really good question, and I had trouble answering it to my own satisfaction. I may have made a logical leap or two in doing so; let me know if you need me to explain what I am leaping from. Like you and the younger version of Eric, I have been deeply, dogmatically rational much of my life. Like Eric now, I've also experienced too much of the power (and danger) of mystical thinking to dismiss it as a totally useless artifact of the mind.
Where emotional responses are unimportant, such as in any good science experiement, mysticism is useless and should be ignored. However, emotion is important in almost any social setting. Social interaction follows rules, but not mathematical ones; the rules are instead based in terms of the emotions of the participants. Causality is often turned apon its head; instead of one event causing another, anticipation of one event will cause an earlier reaction.
Mysticism might be a good blanket term for an innate understanding of those rules. This understanding is inheritly illogical, and the danger is that it can be applied in places it shouldn't be. Wishing won't cure cancer or fix a vehicle. But it might get you the birthday present your wish for, or the girl you're hoping to catch the eye of. It changes your emotional stance, and that of those around you, whic may influence things toward the desired outcome.
Its possible to reason through social interaction; which is typical of a lot of geeks (myself included). Too many of the basic rules are different; logical structures can emulate them, but only with a loss of performance. Confidence, which also plays a large part, can't be evoked logically. Our interaction is therefore stilted and slow, lagging behind the optimised structures of more mystical people.
I think mysticism and logic are ultimately tools, with proper and improper areas of application. When you apply the wrong tool, the results can be anywhere from stilted to dangerously wrong. Using both gives you a wider and more correct range of solutions to any problem.
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Fhew. Hope this makes sense.
Date: 2004-10-04 06:56 pm (UTC)Like you and the younger version of Eric, I have been deeply, dogmatically rational much of my life. Like Eric now, I've also experienced too much of the power (and danger) of mystical thinking to dismiss it as a totally useless artifact of the mind.
Where emotional responses are unimportant, such as in any good science experiement, mysticism is useless and should be ignored. However, emotion is important in almost any social setting. Social interaction follows rules, but not mathematical ones; the rules are instead based in terms of the emotions of the participants. Causality is often turned apon its head; instead of one event causing another, anticipation of one event will cause an earlier reaction.
Mysticism might be a good blanket term for an innate understanding of those rules. This understanding is inheritly illogical, and the danger is that it can be applied in places it shouldn't be. Wishing won't cure cancer or fix a vehicle. But it might get you the birthday present your wish for, or the girl you're hoping to catch the eye of. It changes your emotional stance, and that of those around you, whic may influence things toward the desired outcome.
Its possible to reason through social interaction; which is typical of a lot of geeks (myself included). Too many of the basic rules are different; logical structures can emulate them, but only with a loss of performance. Confidence, which also plays a large part, can't be evoked logically. Our interaction is therefore stilted and slow, lagging behind the optimised structures of more mystical people.
I think mysticism and logic are ultimately tools, with proper and improper areas of application. When you apply the wrong tool, the results can be anywhere from stilted to dangerously wrong. Using both gives you a wider and more correct range of solutions to any problem.