The difference between rational thinking and perceptual thinking
China paid attention to literature, history and culture in ancient times, while western modern times paid attention to science and engineering culture. Comparatively speaking, China people have strong perceptual thinking, while westerners have strong rational thinking, which is also the fundamental reason for the backwardness of modern science in China.
1. China people's thinking lacks logic and verification, and lacks the use of thinking tools. Scholars point out that the mainstream thinking of China people is still thinking in images, which is characterized by fuzziness; The concept is vague, the thinking is vague and the understanding of things is also vague.
The most prominent of the so-called "fuzziness" mentioned above is the fuzziness of the concept. It is difficult to clearly understand the unknown world with vague concepts, which is our fatal thinking weakness in China. If a person's concept is vague, you can't discuss anything clearly with him. Therefore, the vague concept also leaves a gap for changing the subject and sophistry. It is impossible to be interested in categories and rise to abstract logical thinking by belittling concepts. Therefore, we in China attach importance to intuition and experience, and are content to get an overall superficial impression through intuition, rather than making detailed analysis. Therefore, China's traditional thinking especially relies on feeling and attaches importance to concrete perception. This kind of thinking is difficult to analyze the nature of things and lacks enthusiasm for exploring the unknown. In this way, for thousands of years, we China people have been vaguely here, and until now, China people still can't think in the right way.
2. The lack of research on thinking science has slowed down people in China. Although there are many philosophers and thinkers in the history of China, it seems that none of them have entered the field of thinking itself. How to think correctly has never been the object of China literati's vision. The science of thinking is almost blank in the cultural history of China, but the west began to study this field as early as 2000 years ago. This protracted research makes the thinking tools sharper and sharper, and gradually becomes the mainstream way of thinking in the West. On the other hand, China, in the pre-Qin period, due to the lack of conscious understanding of the instrumental nature of thinking, the spark of China's logical thinking was extinguished instantly. The thinkers in ancient Greece are stronger from generation to generation, and Aristotle's teacher is Plato; Plato's teacher was Socrates, and these students and teachers surpassed each other from generation to generation.
Aristotle's famous saying is' I love my teacher, but I love truth more'. Therefore, the students of these great thinkers not only inherited, criticized and developed their teachers' knowledge, but also pushed the research results in the ideological field from one step to another, which is also the academic tradition of Greece. Because the students are "standing on the shoulders of giants", they naturally see further. But China's inheritance is just the opposite: none of the 72 best students of Confucius surpassed the teacher, and none stood on the shoulders of giants to see the world, but stood on the legs of predecessors to see the world. Naturally, the weasel kills the mouse-a nest is not as good as a nest. The West is advancing in doubt and criticism, while China is wandering and declining in interpretation and compliance. Others pointed out: "Compared with Europeans, China people have developed perceptual thinking ability, but their rational thinking ability is quite lacking. The Chinese nation has a history of 5,000 years, but there has never been a thinker.
Some people may point out that a hundred schools of thought contended in the pre-Qin era were thinkers, but according to European standards, thinkers refer to people with the highest level of rational thinking, and the theories of a hundred schools of thought contended are basically perceptual thinking such as ethics and morality, which is very rough and superficial compared with rigorous western philosophy. For example, Confucianism, as the representative of China Thought, whose core ideas, such as "benevolence" and "propriety", are all theories that teach people how to make a living, not people. Hegel commented on the theory of Confucius, the greatest philosopher in China:' A common-sense morality can be found anywhere and in any nation, perhaps better, which is nothing.
Confucius is only a practical wise man in the world. There is no speculative philosophy in him, only some kind, worldly and moral lessons, from which we can get nothing special. Cicero left us a book of moral lessons, which is richer and more wonderful than all the books of Confucius. The four great inventions that China people have always been proud of are all empirical inventions or discoveries.
Several Chinese in China won the Nobel Prize in the United States, but their achievements also belong to inventions or discoveries, instead of putting forward new theories and doctrines like Darwin and Einstein. Facing many western thinkers, although western rational science had spread to China as early as the Ming Dynasty, China people were not interested in these rational things at all, and western science books translated by China people were rarely thrown into the trash can. China people have the same attitude towards science as primary school students. It is impossible to actively study rational science without being slapped by Mr. Wang. It was not until westerners armed with rational science hit China with guns beyond China's imagination that they thought of learning rational science from the west.
What are the characteristics of people with strong rational thinking?
General thinking, habits and contents are mainly based on the description of phenomena, because dealing with phenomena is the easiest and simplest way of thinking, and its thinking process is only the arrangement of a series of phenomena. And "arrangement" reflects the most direct and simple relationship in the world, which can be seen almost with the eyes. So the description of the phenomenon, without special training of thinking, is everyone's thinking.
However, we naively believe that we can know all the truth by staying in the description stage of this kind of thinking. Worldwide, the different ideas expressed by this kind of thinking are only different in the order of phenomena, and this "arrangement" is based on our mood or morality in most cases, especially in the cultural atmosphere of China.
Therefore, it is a passion hidden in our hearts to distinguish the true and false standards of an "arrangement". Therefore, a slogan language that we support or oppose is enough to make us stop thinking about a certain problem, such as who is more important, individuals or society, and we can confidently and arbitrarily draw any conclusion that we are willing to accept.
It can be seen that our way of thinking allows us to face any problem and argue endlessly without any result. What truth expresses should be the deep law of things that is more permanent than the external "arrangement" of phenomena or machinery. Therefore, for human understanding, the truth of the world is not a description of the complex phenomenon world, nor is it a simple external arrangement of this description. Moral thinking, in the process of the development of human wisdom, only stays in the external arrangement stage of the complex world, and has no ability to go deep into the essence of the world. It just uses "should" and "shouldn't" to plan the world externally. This kind of thinking interest is the "noble" of the world, not the "truth" of the world. Moral thinking is always based on his habits and his familiar ways. Therefore, the knowledge he accepts is always based on his psychological willingness or acceptability. This closed way of thinking can make a person turn a blind eye to things that are "inconsistent" with his own psychology all his life.
Moral thinking puts its passion into a noble passion, so a transcendental will has to be the direction of thinking. Therefore, this kind of thinking has become a kind of self-enclosed thinking and has no cognitive function to the world. In other words, this kind of thinking only produces a nominal thought, only expresses one's feelings facing the world, and restores human wisdom to the most primitive state-just like totem belief and worship.
The interest of rational thinking is not the intention of self-psychology, but the inherent law of objective objects. Even if it is the understanding of "human", this kind of thinking will put "human" in an objective position and explain people's various desires, which is in line with objective laws. Rational thinking, interested in objective truth, it is difficult to close your thinking in your own subjective will. Therefore, the cognitive trend of the objectivity of the world is the most basic direction that distinguishes rational thinking from moral thinking.
Therefore, the elaboration of rational thinking should start with "truth". The essence of wisdom is seeking truth, which is really the rule of this world.
The reason why people's understanding is difficult is that for people, the world exists in a direct and indirect way, and its directness is first displayed in front of people. Direct existence is the representation of feelings presented to people, so it is completely limited to the uncertainty of specific environment. The projection of these perceptual things on people's minds is chaotic and random, and they have their own fixed attributes or essence, which cannot be directly highlighted in the information accepted by people's senses. Therefore, understanding the essence of existence requires a process of thinking. Thinking is to seek more solid and lasting objective attributes for those seemingly isolated perceptual things. This search is difficult and requires a repeated process, so some philosophers call it "reflection" figuratively.
The process of reflection is to look for the unchanging attributes behind the ever-changing appearances of things. The attribute of all existence can only be presented in the association with other existence, so the attribute of things is essentially a relationship and therefore a law. The initial crystallization of reflection is the formation of new concepts, that is to say, the process of thinking is the process of conceiving concepts, and concepts are essentially the definition of things' attributes with a word, so concepts contain a "relationship" feature of things themselves. The comprehensive thinking of a series of feelings is bound to be a conceptual connection that conforms to its own "relationship." This kind of connection network expressed by the attributes of things is what we often call "logic of existence", so concept is the basis of logical thinking, and logical thinking is the inevitable result of rational conceptual thinking. It can be seen that the real "logic" is not a subjective skill, but a fundamental attribute of objective existence. All the secrets of rational thinking are contained in this thinking based on objective logic. Including the love of facts or truth and the deepening and revision of the relationship between concepts and logic.
Moral thinking is afraid of "reflection", so it uses "sacredness" to imprison people's thoughts, which makes people's thoughts stop in front of a powerful emotion 7A68696416FE78988E698331333637136. Therefore, if China people dare to have any ideas on some issues, they will feel "rebellious" in their hearts. Therefore, in the minds of China people, it is difficult to form the concept of facing reality, and our thinking is also difficult to express objective logic. Our thinking can be satisfied with the slogan-style way (for example, our thinking and papers always lack a process of reasoning, just a bunch of tied conclusions, and what connects these conclusions is just a desire or passion. So our minds can always listen to all kinds of "calls" at will, just because we lack logical thinking. So until today, our brains are surprisingly tolerant of logical confusion in all kinds of "thoughts".
Rational thinking has two characteristics, one is its enthusiasm for truth (the truth of the world), and the other is its way of using logic.
Of course, in rational thinking, there is no guarantee that "concept" and "logic" will always be healthy. The history of western philosophy tells us that logical rational thinking can also be illusory.
We already know that a concept is a reflection of a series of representations formed by feeling things, so its content is not a direct statement of representations, but the rules behind representations, that is, things that are more lasting or even "eternal" in ever-changing representations. Therefore, each concept essentially reflects a certain stage or degree of people's understanding of existence. Therefore, every concept is not final and fixed for people's understanding, but open and developing. People think logically about things according to concepts, so it needs to be constantly adjusted and developed with people's continuous understanding of things. No matter how perfect a closed logical reasoning is, its result may be wrong, because the concept on which this logical thinking is based, because of its own closeness, cannot accurately express the reality of development, and its conclusion will lose the authenticity of reality. For example, based on his concept of "surplus value", Marx inferred that capitalist economy and politics would inevitably collapse, because he closed "surplus value" into a concept that was not affected by other factors, and according to the single logic of this concept, he inferred an extinction trend of capitalist capital operation. The logical trend expressed by "surplus value" is also influenced by social development and human nature, so his purpose and trend can no longer be expressed as a simple and crazy accumulation and increase of "capital" for a few people. Therefore, in modern capitalist countries, "surplus value" and "capital accumulation" increasingly have the characteristics of the whole society and are enjoyed by the whole people. Therefore, the inherent contradiction of "surplus value" expressed by Marx's theory has been greatly alleviated or even disappeared. Therefore, in understanding the world, the openness of concepts to reality is more important than the perfection of logic. Therefore, once the "concept" in rational thinking is closed and no longer draws nutrition from real history, it will become an illusory vocabulary, and the logical relationship between these "concepts" will no longer be restricted by objective reality (such as Hegel's "absolute spirit"), and its randomness can also reach the level of moral thinking (Hegel used his "absolute spirit", which is very easy and very ".
In addition, when a moral thinking accepts rational thinking, it will first instinctively close the rational concept into a "noun" vocabulary, shield the objective logic in rational thinking, turn those concepts that originally contained the information of world determination into an emotional symbol, and then weave them into sacred slogans at will. Then the logical information of the objective world carried by rational thinking is erased by moral thinking. In the collision between China culture and western culture, whether it is "acceptance" or "rejection", this method is adopted, that is, the other party is ossified into the same model as itself, and then it begins to be "natural" but expresses "praise" or "opposition" to it. It can be seen that the open concept of objectivity is the basis of the existence of healthy and rational thinking.
Therefore, although rational thinking takes logic as the fundamental means, we must never forget that the openness of ideas to reality is the biggest secret of rational thinking. So far, the most powerful criticism of rational thinking may come from this kind of "forgetting" that rational thinking is easy to produce, such as accusing logicism and determinism (in fact, accusing an unhealthy rational thinking). Rational thinking should also be a modest thinking, because it should understand that no concept can be fixed without development, and logical thinking based on these concepts will never reach the ultimate truth. In addition, if truth is an accurate reflection of actual rules, we should also note that in this universe, existing rules are constantly being created and developed. The evolution of the universe is a process of constantly creating new existence and new rules, just because "new" and "old" can't escape the nature of the whole universe, and then any limited existence will inevitably be branded with this universe. Therefore, in the limited truth of human beings, there are also eternal truths. Rational thinking should not only be modest, but also be confident. Even limited logical thinking contains the most solid components in this universe. For example, Newtonian mechanics has more limitations than Einstein's theory of relativity, but on earth, Newtonian mechanics still expresses a solid realistic logic and still deserves the title of truth. Therefore, rational thinking holds that every step of human cognition can be called truth, but it is by no means the ultimate truth. For example, Marx's theory of surplus value will not completely give up the basic logic of "surplus value" in capital operation revealed by Marx because we can explain it more comprehensively and richly today. On the contrary, the reason why we have a richer understanding than Marx is based on Marx's initial practical exploration on this issue. In rational thinking, the development of truth is not to overthrow the former, but to adjust and enrich the former by constantly bringing it into the fresh blood of reality.
Therefore, truth is a ladder that keeps moving forward. Even the lower ladder is built on the realistic soil, but the higher ladder has a broader vision and clearer and more accurate foresight when looking forward to the realistic land, which is the significance of our continuous exploration and development of truth. Those who are obsessed with tradition and old ideas are tantamount to tying their own survival in a field of vision that is no longer perfect in the face of the world, and the reality they face is only a narrow space. Sometimes, backwardness can be tolerated, because it will not make people live in illusion, but it will also give people a sense of reality, but this sense of reality is to show the truth in a narrow time and space. People living in this backward situation can only accept the information in this narrow space-time, so they can't feel the limitations of this environment. Therefore, a backward society can also live a "full" life, and there is no lack of excitement. Rational thinking completely liberates human wisdom, making human never satisfied with and stay in a limited reality, and its openness makes human never ignore the immediate limitations. Therefore, "transcendence" is the most basic impulse of rational people, which is in sharp contrast with the "guardian" instinct in China culture. From this, we also feel the irrational features in China's thinking. Because China people's moral thinking doesn't understand that real human thought is based on an objective, open, rational and logical concept. If China's moral "concept" originated from a little objectivity, what it always lacks is "openness" and "logic". Therefore, the moral concept of China culture soon fell into the night of stubbornness and ignorance from the brilliant light flashing with human wisdom. The reason is that China people's thoughts can't develop with the development of reality.
Rational thinking is thinking with content and must be carried out according to the inherent laws of things. So it is a series of logical deduction process, and the unit of this deduction process is the concept formed according to reality. In contrast, morality can be arbitrary, because it has no internal logical relationship, just like the surging waves, it is enough for a passion to launch a passion. Therefore, the moral defender always unconsciously deals with his "opponent" in a louder and louder way, because his interest is not to convince the other side, but to overwhelm the other side in passion.
However, any existence has contents, and rational thinking is the consciousness of these contents, and we should know the object according to our own laws. The content of reality is further represented by the concepts in rational thinking. Further thinking on the concept is to explore the relationships between feelings, and the expression of these relationships is what we usually call a kind of "logic". Therefore, no matter how subjective on the surface, logic is essentially an objective law. Without rational logical thinking, it means thinking without content. Any existence that doesn't think about its content is an existence that we don't understand. The existence without understanding, for us, is a kind of existence outside our "sight", so we can't predict what the result will be for us. Our relationship with this being will also be passive. For example, if we can't think objectively and logically about "country" and "morality", then they will become a huge external force that we can't resist, just like facing something that can't be stopped and intrudes into our hearts, we can only tremble and habitually accept their control. The reason why we don't have much fear of these "controllers" in reality is that "intruders" became the "overlords" in our hearts when we were very young, and changed the natural structure of our hearts. Just like an insect forcibly and skillfully lays its eggs on another insect, an insect carrying other people's eggs will only work harder to collect food, because other people's children are also absorbing nutrients from its body, and it will continue to live so enthusiastically until other people's children who are parasitic on it grow up to kill it, suck in its last body fluid and let it drift like a piece of paper. It gives people the feeling that life is the "natural" end. Therefore, we will also run for the "value" that we don't understand at all. Therefore, if we can't think about the meaning in our hearts, just like that kind of insect, and can't tell which is our own body and which is someone else's egg, then we may just be someone else's machine running around all our lives. Therefore, we have the right to reject anything without our consideration. And those "sacred" things can control us unscrupulously because we can't think about them rationally.
Of course, we need to find a way of thinking that can see the truth. Therefore, we should study various ways of thinking of human beings and what kind of world they lead our people to, for example, an imaginary world or a verifiable world. Facing the world, a thinking that can be verified will be a thinking that tends to the truth of the world. Verification thinking is based on two points, one is the realistic result, and the other is the logical deduction. Although this kind of thinking still has its limitations, it is by far the best way for human beings to explore the world, at least to make human wisdom no longer stay or be satisfied with a subjective imagination. The characteristics of logical thinking are embodied in two "verifications", one is self-certification and the other is reality. Both of these "verifications" come from the objectification process of thinking rules, that is, thinking rules must reflect the principles of the objective world. Therefore, in the history of western philosophy, even an idealist philosopher, if he is used to or respects logical thinking, will instinctively objectify idealism, thus producing a large number of so-called objective idealist philosophers. On the contrary, in China, even those thinkers who respect "reality" can't get rid of their subjective view of life and the world because they don't respect rational logic. This is a strange phenomenon in the history of human thought. Western idealism always pays more attention to the objective laws of the world than China's materialism. For example, their "god" has actually stated the most fundamental rule of human life: everyone is equal, while our Confucius, who seems to respect reality more, subjectively imprisons people in inequality that violates human nature. China's moral thinking is actually a kind of perceptual thinking, and it faces a world that exists directly, so its thinking structure is intuitive and illogical, and its expression must be perceptual. Therefore, a nation characterized by perceptual thinking often takes the sanctity of emotion as the final basis of thinking judgment. Therefore, what can make this nation stand up is often not the truth of the world, but a few sensational slogans. Therefore, ethics has become the highest interest of perceptual thinking. The truth of the world is the rule of the world, so only by attaching importance to the logical thinking of the rule of the world can we understand the truth of the world.
It is this characteristic of logical and rational thinking that makes western culture and China culture have diametrically opposite fates. Rational thinking, whether in content (the concept open to reality) or in form (the connection between concepts, that is, logic), contains concern for world rules (truth). Therefore, although rational thinking has experienced great twists and turns, it always has great adjustment ability when facing the world, so that human wisdom has been maintained from one stage to a new stage. Because the logical thinking inclined to the world order can only rely on it in reality, the developing reality and human wisdom are increasingly moving towards a virtuous circle of * * * together in western history. China's moral thinking is based on "sacredness", and its fundamental characteristics are unchanged. Therefore, China people's thinking is based on "respecting the past" and "persisting". China people's wisdom in facing the world has not made any progress for thousands of years, and China's social structure cannot make any progress by virtue of its own cultural strength.
Therefore, the greatest significance of rational thinking is that it makes human wisdom open to the world. It can be seen that in the history of human wisdom, the greatest stupidity is to impose various restrictions on human thinking. If we can put forward what can't be discussed and what can't be discussed without shame in today's highly developed human society, it is simply a shame on human wisdom. In the world civilization, because of China's contempt for open wisdom, he is extremely stupid, and his national mind is still out of the world order or law (truth).
How to cultivate rational thinking
Rational thinking is logical thinking, and the method of logical thinking is to deduce an unknown conclusion according to one or several known judgments (premises). Logical thinking is a kind of thinking with clear thinking direction, sufficient thinking foundation and the ability to observe, compare, analyze, synthesize, abstract and summarize things or problems. To put it bluntly, logical thinking is a way of thinking based on evidence and logical reasoning.
The basic method of logical thinking is generally:
First of all, on the basis of obtaining sufficient information, the essential attribute of the object is formed in the mind, and the concept is formed by abstracting and summarizing the essential characteristics of the perceived things. By comparing the obtained concept with the existing samples, we can find the problem and find the breakthrough point to solve the problem.
Secondly, according to the standpoint of solving problems, unknown conclusions are drawn from one or several known judgments (premises), that is, unknown knowledge is drawn from known knowledge. Specifically, reasoning mainly includes deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is based on the general law, using logical proof or mathematical operation, to get the law that special facts should follow, that is, from general to special. Inductive reasoning is to generalize general concepts, principles or conclusions from many individual things, that is, from special to general. Find the missing part of the problem (evidence); Finally, find the missing part (evidence) to prove the original hypothesis. This is the ability of people to grasp the essence of objective things and their internal relations through logical thinking;
Finally, judgment is a thinking process of affirming E799Be5Bae6E58685E5AEB93133636231or denying the existence of something, or indicating whether it has certain attributes. Judgment can only play a decision-making role on the premise of detailed evidence. Judgment without evidence will only be a blind adventure.
At the same time, logical thinking also has an indispensable premise, that is, the knowledge reserve related to the major. Without the professional knowledge reserve, logical thinking will become passive water, and thinking will lose its knowledge background and cannot be carried out.
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