In a previous article I mentioned the laws of thinking. Here I would like to give a first introduction into this area. For many this is a mostly unknown or new topic, me included. The laws of nature are more familiar to us, because they are at least briefly included into our modern education system. Nature, more specific the cosmos and matter have become much attention in the past centuries. The primary law above all others in inanimate matter is the law of causality. How cause and effect play out and what forces are at work is studied in various areas of natural sciences.
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
Werner Heisenberg
When we give most of our attention to matter, as we have done in natural sciences for a long time now, it becomes a trend that we want to trace everything back to matter. That is why they initially turn us into an atheist, as Heisenberg said. Atheism is often rooted in the belief that there is only matter. Then we can conclude: Matter is the cause of everything. When we understand matter better, we can explain how matter thinks. We will be able to explain how matter forms organisms from within itself. We will be able to build living creatures, as we build a bicycle today. All those beliefs are conclusions from the one believe that there is only matter. Life is turned into an illusion created by matter. Why illusion? Because matter is subject to the law of causality, and reducing a living thing to matter turns it into something that only reacts, and from within itself cannot be active. Just like a machine. This worldview is called materialism.
When we dive down deep enough into matter in search of a first cause for everything, then we get to the bottom of the glass. We will discover that we do not find explanations for all our questions when we reduce our attention to material things. We become aware that we have lost access to an essential part of reality. At the bottom God is waiting, and we realize that reality includes more than what is given by our immediate perception.
To discover this we need nothing more than ourselves. A human being includes all aspects of reality. When we observe ourselves, we find all mysteries of reality represented in us. Introspection gives us access to a part of reality that we cannot find in the outside world with our sensory organs. We find the laws of thinking when observing our thinking using the thinking itself. That is the primary task of epistemology. We start with what is there and what we can observe. From here we build a worldview and expand our understanding. That works the same way for natural sciences and spiritual sciences. First we observe how the apple falls. Then we proceed to find the underlying laws. We can do the same with our thinking.
Our thinking uses concepts. A concept is for example the idea of a spoon. The concept is general and includes the essential features of the idea. When we hear the concept we can create a mental image of a specific spoon. It will rarely happen that two of us imagine the exact same spoon when the concept is mentioned. But the concept is the same for all of us: a spoon is a tool to scoop a liquid into our mouth. It can be made of wood, plastic or metal, simple or richly ornamented, for the concept it does not matter. We do not recognize a spoon based on such details, but based on its relevant features. All concepts that our thinking uses are connected. Concepts are in relation to one another, for example as a base concept. The concept of a liquid is a base concept for the concept of a spoon. It is not a long way from a spoon to a liquid for our thinking, there is a direct connection. To other concepts the path can be longer, but all concepts within our worldview are integrated into one single network.
Within above basic observation and description of thinking we can already find some laws:
- Thinking defines concepts (Intellect)
- Thinking connects concepts (Reason)
- The connected concepts form a network (Worldview)
- Thinking connects perceived shapes with concepts (Erkenntnis)
When we look closer at our thinking we will also find logic. Our thinking is able to conclude the result of a number of given conditions. That works for situations in relation to sensual perception as well as for abstract concepts. The laws of logic are also laws of thinking, and at the same time a representation of the law of causality. This conformity enables our thinking to navigate the world.
For some of the topics touched here there already are more articles on this blog, with a different focus or perspective. Other topics, like logic, will be looked into in future articles. Every topic mentioned here will be more closely investigated in the articles to come.