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July 29, 2005 James Andrews in his article "Thinkers Vs Feelers" considers it "tedious bickering" for thinkers and feelers to converse on Useless Knowledge Magazine. Mr. Andrews seems to want the theist-atheist conversation to end. Even so, in speaking candidly, James adds more food for thought and feeds more fuel into the U-K fire. The issue James raises is serious because more creative persons use dreams, intuition, and other cognitive aids to help them solve problems. Logical thinking is only one cognitive aid. Trying to force an issue between the thinking cognitive mode and the feeling cognitive mode is going at this wrong. It's better to coordinate reasoning with intuition or feeling rather than deny one or the other. Many logical thinkers dismiss those who are more intuitive than logical, and many intuitive persons dismiss those who are more logical than intuitive. The more intuitive persons may not follow the logical arguments and the more logical persons may not follow the intuitive moves. On both sides of the table more growth is needed. Integrating these faculties is desirable. Such brain integration facilitates creativity. Creative people make the world more complex by adding novel ideas and new things to the world. Less creative persons dismantle and deconstruct reality so that existing works become rubble. Analytical thinking and synthetic thinking can work together. Logical thinking and non-rational cognitition need not be mutually exclusive. Even if some people strive to split one faculty off from the rest and elevating it to top status, the truth is each cognitive style has a lot to contribute to the great round table of human creative enterprise. There is evidence to show historical characters using non-rational cognitive to create new technology or new science. For example, once again on U-K I mention Elias Howe, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and August Kekule, all of whom used dream images as well as words and figures to make discoveries and promote them. These were three brilliant creative men! They show us what is possible when the many cognitive styles are combined in one person. Furthermore, as Keklule is reported to have said to his fellow research chemists: "We must learn to dream, gentlemen." Dreams and intuition complement rational-verbal thinking. James Andrews seems to favor logic, yet he makes statements he doesn't back up. For example, he writes "The feeler quotes an old book." The fact is, many intuitive persons (such as preliterate boys and girls) have strong feelings and active intuitions yet they do not ever quote from a book. James also says that feelers "obviously hate" thinkers. Again, no evidence is given. Saying it is "obvious" isn't any evidence. I'm not flattened by his steamroller. This issue of thinkers and feelers is important because there are plenty of writers and speakers who combine reasoned arguments with intuitive arguments and imagery that helps sway the reader or listener. If speakers and writers should be 100% logical, well, following that directive is going to silence a lot of persons who sometimes have strong feelings, like James Andrews, for example. After all, many poems and songs persuade without needing to prove their points by logic. Please note. I'm not as Mr. Andrews writes, "yelling and shouting myself blue" in writing this. I'm feeling quite a calm and peaceful. I don't think James had me in mind as he wrote his article, though, because I'm not a Bible thumper, and I don't thump Aristotle, either. You know Aristotle was one of the greatest champions of logical argument ever known to exist, and Aristotle's highly revered books influenced the brightest scholars for many centuries. So why does Mr. Andrews associate feelings with book quoters? I don't follow his logic. Logic has a serious flaw. Even if you are 100% logical, one error in fact or in assumption can invalidate all your conclusions. If you are going to trust in logic, you need to be 100% certain all your facts are correct and all your assumptions are totally justified. Intuition is often wrong as well. Intuitive people need to check their work often, as do logical thinkers. Both for thinkers and feelers, experience (both personal and collective) is the best teacher. We've got to stay humble, folks, no matter how bright we are. ------------ About the author: John L. Waters is an amateur psychologist and independent researcher on self-healing, integration, and problem-solving. John has created art, music and songs, prose and poetry, and helped people solve a difficult problem. For more information, read: John's letters of recommendation: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/recommendations about John's self-healing and integration: http://members.tripod.com/johnlwaters/index.html about John's independent research: http://www.humboldt.edu/~jlw47/index.html about John's seeking an agent or a publisher: http://www.writers.net/writers/39295 Email: blueguntwo@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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