Chapter 29 intuition and reason

intuition and reason Thinking can be divided into two types, one is thinking using language and writing, which I have briefly mentioned in the two articles on matter and spirit, experience and thinking.There is another kind of thinking that does not rely on words, and this kind of thinking is best explained by using animals that cannot use words.In fact, this kind of thinking, in words, is not thinking. The most obvious, such as spiders weaving webs.It spits out a long thread, which ripples from one side of the eaves to the other side of the eaves, and then echoes from the other side to this side, and hangs on the other side. After repeated waves, the thread forms a large frame between the two eaves. Then, inside the large frame, weaving and weaving back and forth, weaving into a very fine and dense net.Then the spider ducked away, waiting for some flying insects to stick to the web and feed it.For the spider, the passage of this passage is really a great deal, but he doesn't seem to have thought about it.But if you and I try to do it, from one side of the eaves to the other side of the eaves, like a spider, using a thin thread to form a web out of thin air, then you and I must use some ideas. .Why spiders can do without thinking, modern psychologists call it instinct.

Another example is that the naked worm catches the borer, hides it in the shade, and then shoots a poisonous juice from the tip of its own tail to anesthetize the borer.The eggs are then radiated on the anesthetized bollworm.When the eggs gradually hatch into larvae, the bollworm is still under anesthesia and has not yet decayed, and then the naked larvae can use the bollworm as food.After the bollworms have finished eating, the larvae have grown into naked larvae, which can fly and look for food by themselves.This is another big plan, a big economy, but that scorpion doesn't seem to have thought about it like this, it just knows how to do it for no reason.Psychologists also call this instinct.

There are too many examples of this in other animal kingdoms.Can we use human behavior to explain these, and think that they also have thoughts?But this kind of thinking is obviously different from human thinking. At most we can only say that they are a kind of meditation, or deep thinking.Why is it called meditation?Because it does not use language, does not speak, or even does not use silent language, that kind of thinking is meditation.As for us human beings meditating in our hearts with silent language, that is not true silence.Because it is only silent in the mouth, not in the heart.The raised spider is naked, but it is silent, so we human beings say it has no thought.But it has the same function as human thinking.So I try to call it true meditation.Why is it called deep thinking?Because human beings use their thoughts, they mostly rely on language and writing.Relying on the thought of language and writing, just spread the thought out.That is to say, take the two examples of spiders and naked spiders above. If their meditation process is recorded and expressed in our human language as mentioned above, it will be flattened.In the spiders themselves, there is no language used by us humans to spread their thoughts.Therefore, their contemplation is only tightly concentrated on one point, or tightly rolled into a ball, which makes us wonder at their mystery.So I try to call it deep thinking because of its unfathomable depth.But in psychology, it is only called instinct, also known as intuition.

Bergson likes to contrast intuition with reason.If I still use what I said above, it can still be said that reason is flat and loose, while intuition is cohesive and tight.In other words, reason is analytical and intuition is synthetic.To use another analogy, the intellect is like doing rough calculations to get the results, but the intuitive results can not be performed by acting, and you don't need to do the calculations, but you can get the results by mental calculations at once.Let me ask now, why human mentality can be analyzed through Huncheng's performance is mainly due to the ability of human beings to use language.All rational analysis must be based on the analysis of time and space.To put it in detail, like a spider weaving a web, first from one side of the eaves to the other side of the eaves, if you say this side or the other side, a concept of space has been added.You say that you go from one side to the other, that is to say, another concept of time has been added.If you do not have the analysis of the concept of space and time, you will not be able to speak, nor will you be able to think.But it can also be said that if you do not have the use of language, you cannot develop clear ideas of time and space.For example, in the spider's intuition, there should be no difference between this side and that side, and there should be no difference between going from one side to the other.If so, in the spider's intuition, there should be no space, no time, and everything should be integrated without analysis.To put it in human language, it was just a flash of inspiration, a sudden inspiration.To put it in more detail, in the spider's intuition, there is no idea that I have woven this web, which can be used to catch dragonflies or mosquitoes and flies to satisfy my hunger.Therefore, in the web-weaving work of spiders, there is no addition of many moral concepts or utilitarian concepts that humans call benevolence or cruelty, selfishness or ecumenism.If you judge spiders with these concepts, you can see that it is not true in reality.

Human language was created gradually over a long period of time.Therefore, the concept of time and space in human reason will gradually become clear after a long period of evolution.But today, we recognize those concepts as an innate category.To be honest, we might as well think that the human mind is only intuitive at first, and it must be gradually used after the invention of language, and then gradually transform from intuition to reason. If we go deeper here, there will be two extremely mysterious and profound problems in human philosophy.The first is the question of All-That-Is, and the second is the question of prophets or foreknowledge.Because the spider does not have the idea that I am weaving a web to catch flying insects, so if we look at it from the rational thinking conventions of human beings, the spider's intuition can be said to hold the view of All-That-Is.It can also be said that in the spider's intuition, there seems to be a concept that predicts that there must be flying insects mistakenly thrown into my web and will stick to me for food. Therefore, it can also be said that there is a predictive part in the intuition.In other words, the intuition of the spider can be intuited from the body to the outside of the body, and can be intuited from the present to the future.Isn't that amazing!In fact, this is also common.May I ask the intuitive instinct of spiders and all animals, if they cannot intuit from the inside to the outside, from the present to the future, how can they survive in this world?

In fact, these mysterious and surprising things do not exist in insects and animals, but also in human beings.Especially in the childhood of human beings, when he has not learned all the languages ​​and characters to use his thoughts to develop his reason, this kind of mental ability is particularly remarkable.Even if a baby sucks milk, it is just an intuition or instinct for him. In fact, it can be said that the baby is meditating and thinking deeply. He seems to predict that he will be hungry if he does not suck at this moment, and he will die if he is hungry, so he must suck. .He also seemed to predict that as soon as he cried, someone would hand him milk.He also seems to know how to put his mouth on the milk and how to suck it hard, so that the milk will flow into his stomach and relieve his hunger.Naturally, this set cannot be said to be his knowledge, because knowledge only knows what is present, what has been experienced and what is being experienced.And his way, from crying to sucking, is to see through the future of things, and he is always a kind of prophet.In fact, in his mind, he didn't even know about his mother, grandma, and himself, and he didn't distinguish between them.So also in his mind is All-That-Is.If you regard a baby crying for milk as the first mobilization of human selfishness, then it is a big mistake.How can a baby feel this way?

The growth of human reason is only following this set of intuitions at first, and analyzing the words invented by human beings, saying that this is mother, this is milk, this is that you are hungry, and now you are full.This is you, you are hungry, as long as you suck your mother's milk, you will not be hungry and you will be full.In fact, these words did not add to the baby's intuition, but just spread out his intuition and translated it into a long speech.It gradually becomes the reason of human beings to draw what is condensed into a point and rolled into a ball into a line, or put it on a plane.This is what Chuang Tzu said about chasing chaos.However, when the chaos is broken, the rationality is revealed, the sense of unity of all things, and the ability to foresight the nature of the universe are gradually lost.

As for how a baby exerts force on his lips and tongue, how he sucks his mother's milk into his belly, and how he digests it in his belly, although babies can do these actions without learning, adults have not yet been able to understand language. To analyze and narrate in detail, so it is still a mystery.This is the difference between man and nature under the Chinese ideological tradition. Now let's extend this kind of thing and transfer it to adults.In fact, in the daily life of adults, this kind of situation is also found from time to time.For example, when you have a very sincere feeling, which suddenly emerges from the depths of your heart, and you have already felt it deeply, it is not enough to analyze and explain it with words, isn't there a lot?Another example is that your daily actions are not under the command of your reason, but you continue to pursue silently, deeply, yearning, even you yourself don't know why, isn't it common?Another example is when you have an idea, a flash of inspiration, and suddenly you seem to have seen something. If you use language and words to explain it in detail, you can let it go to form a big theory and write a long article. Isn’t it intuitive? First of all, do you gradually extract the language and characters like a thread, like digging a well, and then gradually come out?In short, intellect is shallower and more obvious, while intuition is deeper and more hidden.Reason is humanistic and acquired, while intuition is natural and innate.I don't mean to underestimate reason here, but the root of reason is intuition, so I don't bother to give evidence, it can be seen everywhere!In short, human beings cannot be separated from the commonality between animals and insects, and human beings cannot be separated from the natural world. They can only add some rationality to this, which is really not worth making a fuss about.

And human reason, even though it is advancing day by day and running farther and farther, but the realm of the unity of all things and the function of foresight, how much human beings love and envy it!In fact, these two things are also very common.Just return to nature, just like a baby loves its mother or an old man loves his hometown.Orientals love tacit knowledge and deep thinking, and pay less attention to the analysis of language and characters.From the perspective of the Western philosophical tradition that advocates reason, it seems mysterious, but also general and unscientific.But in the eyes of the Orientals, this is nature, the unity of man and nature, and sincerity.This is a difference between Eastern and Western cultures, and the difference in language between the two is still the main source of this difference.It's a pity that I am here, so I can't elaborate on it.