Dostoevsky Aristotle
Living at our best, we go forth upon the field of experience, and in various kinds of interaction we cope in a way that is grounded, poised, and intuitive. Aristotle saw that we need a kind of courage to establish intuition (or is there a kind of intuition at the root of courage?): “It is like a rout in battle stopped by first one man making a stand and then another, until the original formation has been restored.” Aristotle’s reference to the rout in battle hints at the terror of a cognitive free-fall which threatens to carry off all of our knowledge by a ceaseless demand for reasons to justify our reasons.
The need for courage comes from the persistent possibility of doubt, illustrated by a complaint by the main character in Notes from Underground by Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevsky, a writer who portrayed tough challenges to basic convictions.
All straightforward persons and men of action are active just because they are stupid and limited. How can that be explained? This way: as a result of their limitation they take immediate and secondary causes for primary ones, and in that way persuade themselves more quickly and easily than other people do that they have found an infallible basis for their activity, and their minds are at ease and that, you know, is the most important thing. To begin to act, you know, you must first have your mind completely at ease and without a trace of doubt left in it. Well, how am I, for example, to set my mind at rest? Where are the primary causes on which I am to build? Where are my bases? Where am I to get them from? I exercise myself in the process of thinking, and consequently with me every primary cause at once draws after itself another still more primary, and so on to infinity. That is precisely the essence of every sort of consciousness and thinking.
The problem of the underground man comes from his unreasonable demand for an impossible absolute knowledge, a static ease of mind, and an exaggerated sense of his ability to keep discovering deeper reasons (“causes”). We do experience moments when cognitive slippage reveals an abyss, but we also find sufficient bases for thinking and acting.
Regarding basic assumptions, we are not suspended between two equally attractive piles of evidence and argument. Rather, we have living experience on one side and the bottomless abyss of doubt on the other. The abyss has its own deep message for us. The abyss is the measure of our freedom regarding our powers of mind. The abyss is the death of intuition, reason, and wisdom. We walk onto solid ground simply by embracing the spontaneous and normal affirmations embedded in our basic intuitions. The body and our material surroundings are for real. The mind’s intuition about the importance of right and wrong is for real. Spirit is for real.
Any comments on the quotations from Aristotle and Dostoevski? Any experiences to share of clarifying intuition until it becomes strong and powerful? Any thoughts on the relations between intuition and courage?
This is a difficult area of inquiry for me, because the object of the inquiry itself, its very existence can be questioned by the material mind, but I shall try. I believe that intuition like faith serve as a substitute for the inability of the mind to know more than it can know at a given instance. And this is so because mind can inherently believe more than it can know. It is in recognition of the limitation of the mind as well as this extraordinary property of mind that we are given intuition and faith and points to a higher level of being in the universe. There must exists realities beyond the finite, even a reality of an uncaused cause.
Experience has shown us that even though we are finite, reason and logic are valid when operating within the finite experience. It is only when we try to apply finite reasoning to the arena beyond the finite that we encounter skepticism which overwhelms our intuition. There are certain primary assumptions or postulates that we make in order to function in the finite world, even though these assumption or postulates may not be valid beyond the finite arena of experience.
While it may be intellectual stimulating to try to track secondary causes back to a primary cause, we should realize that we can not escape from the finiteness of our existence. It like counting the numbers, as soon as we recognize one, we recognize another and another. And even though the secondary causes must be derived from a primary cause, you can not reach that primary cause by intellectual operations. Only by faith and intuition can you transcend the finite.
When I am confronted with a situation that requires that I make a moral or spiritual choice, I can not use the knowledge of the mind to make this choice since I have never made it before. It is true that there is an accumulated body of knowledge that I have acquired from making these choices, but when I am charting new territory I have to rely upon something else, and that something else is intuition or faith. And while it is true that after making that decision it appears altogether reasonable and logically, no such reason and logic appears to help me when I am trying to make it. Even though I use past experience to propel me to the edge of the decision in question, it can not accompany me at the moment I make the decision. Here I must travel alone in the company of intuition and faith, and perhaps Truth.
Now when making a decision based upon intuition or faith, it requires courage to make this decision, because it is beyond my present level of experience and therefore the specter of doubt raises its head to challenge my proposed decision. What if you are wrong, it asks.
Without the exercise of courage, we will not get very far in expanding the boundaries of knowledge. We have come this far because men and women have taken the risk to act on their intuition and faith sometimes to their detriment, even to the loss of their lives. As we continue to use intuition and faith, experience with these qualities tend to add to the weight of their reliability and validation. But I have to admit sometimes in my experience when I have used these tools that compensate for the limits of the material mind, it has been scary, but then courage and the tools themselves tend to reinforce the will to act.
Dr James Perry
Dr. Perry, it is good to experience this record of your thoughts during the closing chapter in your life. You are leaving a legacy. Today’s comment speaks of doubt and the willingness to risk, among other things; and your opening paragraph conveys a certain sense of risk that you experience in trying out your thoughts on this topic in this forum where friendship and understanding evolve.
The word “intuition” has many meanings in our culture. According to my interpretation of this theme, I could associate faith with the mind’s capacity for insight regarding the spiritual realm. In the moral realm, I believe that we can find clarity as well; when things become simple and very clear, I want to speak of intuition.
Thank you for dedicating precious energy to this conversation. You are giving us a special gift.
This is a difficult area of inquiry for me, because the object of the inquiry itself, its very existence can be questioned by the material mind, but I shall try. I believe that intuition like faith serve as a substitute for the inability of the mind to know more than it can know at a given instance. And this is so because mind can inherently believe more than it can know. It is in recognition of the limitation of the mind as well as this extraordinary property of mind that we are given intuition and faith and points to a higher level of being in the universe. There must exists realities beyond the finite, even a reality of an uncaused cause.
Experience has shown us that even though we are finite, reason and logic are valid when operating within the finite experience. It is only when we try to apply finite reasoning to the arena beyond the finite that we encounter skepticism which overwhelms our intuition. There are certain primary assumptions or postulates that we make in order to function in the finite world, even though these assumption or postulates may not be valid beyond the finite arena of experience.
While it may be intellectual stimulating to try to track secondary causes back to a primary cause, we should realize that we can not escape from the finiteness of our existence. It like counting the numbers, as soon as we recognize one, we recognize another and another. And even though the secondary causes must be derived from a primary cause, you can not reach that primary cause by intellectual operations. Only by faith and intuition can you transcend the finite.
When I am confronted with a situation that requires that I make a moral or spiritual choice, I can not use the knowledge of the mind to make this choice since I have never made it before. It is true that there is an accumulated body of knowledge that I have acquired from making these choices, but when I am charting new territory I have to rely upon something else, and that something else is intuition or faith. And while it is true that after making that decision it appears altogether reasonable and logically, no such reason and logic appears to help me when I am trying to make it. Even though I use past experience to propel me to the edge of the decision in question, it can not accompany me at the moment I make the decision. Here I must travel alone in the company of intuition and faith, and perhaps Truth.
Now when making a decision based upon intuition or faith, it requires courage to make this decision, because it is beyond my present level of experience and therefore the specter of doubt raises its head to challenge my proposed decision. What if you are wrong, it asks.
Without the exercise of courage, we will not get very far in expanding the boundaries of knowledge. We have come this far because men and women have taken the risk to act on their intuition and faith sometimes to their detriment, even to the loss of their lives. As we continue to use intuition and faith, experience with these qualities tend to add to the weight of their reliability and validation. But I have to admit sometimes in my experience when I have used these tools that compensate for the limits of the material mind, it has been scary, but then courage and the tools themselves tend to reinforce the will to act.
Dr James Perry
Dr. Perry, it is good to experience this record of your thoughts during the closing chapter in your life. You are leaving a legacy. Today’s comment speaks of doubt and the willingness to risk, among other things; and your opening paragraph conveys a certain sense of risk that you experience in trying out your thoughts on this topic in this forum where friendship and understanding evolve.
The word “intuition” has many meanings in our culture. According to my interpretation of this theme, I could associate faith with the mind’s capacity for insight regarding the spiritual realm. In the moral realm, I believe that we can find clarity as well; when things become simple and very clear, I want to speak of intuition.
Thank you for dedicating precious energy to this conversation. You are giving us a special gift.