Logics Instead of Logic： A Poem About Six Logics (2/6)

水 

We think water, Cold and Pure.

We think analog.

We see. We hear. We touch.

We taste. And we smell.

And listen.

We can see good and bad

in anything or anybody.

Why? Because water logic

becomes one with others.

We see things grow

case by case like water that flows.

But water can’t feel as fire can.

出典：”Logics Instead of Logic”, Michihiro Matsumoto

名古屋外国語大学　外国語学部　紀要　第13号（1996/1/1）

Logics Instead of Logic： A Poem About Six Logics (1/6)

現在連載中のスパイラルロジックにつながる重要資料が紘道館で見つかったので掲載します。

単一ロジックではなく、様々なロジックを活用することで、見えてくるものがあります。

まずは6回に分けて「石」、「水」、「火」、「風」、「天」、「地」の詩をお届けします。

A Poem About Six Logics

We have six logics:

rock, water, fire, wind, heaven and earth.

They tell us how to think and act.

石

 

We think rock. Hard and Cold.

We think digital. We think clear.

We think why, we think because.

And we think higher.

And listen.

We can help our mind think.

Why? Because rock logic works

with a chain.

We think straight, one, two, three

And don’t like change.

But rock can’t sense as water can.

出典：”Logics Instead of Logic”, Michihiro Matsumoto　　　　　　　　　　　

名古屋外国語大学　外国語学部　紀要　第13号,p.14（1996/1/1）

Spiral Logic IV The Seven Life Forces of Energy (4/7)

石

           The Rock Persons

            The rock persons make perfect philosophers or religion leaders, because they, while sitting still rock-like, like zen monks sitting in lotus position, musing.

            The rock persons don’t flare up like fire, fly or flirts like wind, or float or flow like water; they are firm like sedentary rocks, while building and organizing thoughts and beliefs like marble temples.

            Ancient civilization was power-based. Where does the power come from? Mathematics, logic, and organized passion and creative inspiration.

            Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,……Alexander the Great. The case can be made that the power came from those philosophers’ stones. The rocks. Mind over matter. Amen. But matter also matters. Because passionate mind wins the first round. Wind makes it go public on the second round. Water makes it flow, watering the Roman Catholics, the third round.

            The public needs to make the Christian doctrine of salvation stick by rationalizing their teachings based on their holy mission. The holy scripture, the Bible. Anything written goes. The birth of Rock logic ―― justifying Biblical Truth ―― the divine principle of certainty is against the scientific cogency adopted by debaters: probably (more than eighty percent), plausibly(more than fifty percent), possibly (more than 10-20 percent, possibly) Biblical truth: 100% of newly-borns are originally sinners). The rock persons are not allowed to compromise on their dogmatic principle but are able to punish doubters, who deviate or fifer from debate ―― the bed-rock rules of ethics. Socrates, Hitler, Jesus, Sadam Hussein, all started as red-hot rebels in the eyes of the rules. The rock persons doubt doubters. Why? Because the rulers have a morbid fear that they might incessant doubt triggers a sudden volcanic action.

Spiral Logic IV The Seven Life Forces of Energy (3/7)

水

The Water Person feels, thinks and behaves like water. Water, unlike its fire opposite, is cool and goes down. Water is colorless, tasteless, odorless, and shapeless and therefore qualifies as the quintessential force of life ―― Queen of life. It’s solid, liquid and gaseous.

            Its amorphous power makes martial artists and negotiators formidable and invincible.

            If fire is passion, water is compassion. Fire goes up and water comes down. Fire persons tend to be condescending (takai-mesen) and sympathetic toward, or pitying the underdogs.

            Water persons neither look up to nor look down upon anybody; they just display empathic feelings toward those nearby ―― underdogs or top dogs. Water persons go by the flow, following the Lao Tsu’s instructions of “Water Course”. The gospel of Christianity could have spread around the world without Fire, Wind and Water. The redeemer’s blood must be cleansed, purified to heal the lonely hearts in misery or agony. The missionaries’ job is to provide those hungry and thirsty with the food and water. The water missionaries identify with Jesus and chant along with Negro spiritual singers.

♬♬Jesus met the woman … At the well… ♬♬ Well, readers, the well symbolizes water, that springs. The well, wisdom, woman ―― w-words. WATER. Well, the wave of the future.

Spiral Logic IV The Seven Life Forces of Energy (2/7)

風

　　　The Wind Person understands the psychology of the situation as of now. The wind persons know how, when, why they have. The wind logic, for instance, forces me to ask myself: Am I writing about the right topic at the right time (when Japan is in identity crisis) and at the right place (A valuable space on YouTube)?

            Or am I discussing the wrong topic (not the issue yet), at the wrong time (when everyone still believes the Western straight logic is the logic), at the wrong place (online instead of off-line or in print)? Right or wrong, as well as good or bad, is determined by time, (time talks), space (space speaks), the currents, the context and last but not least by you, readers, your eyes and ears.

I’m playing the wind person now, like Peter, a wind evangelist, hoping that this little piece of writing on my newly-arisen non-religious faith (emerging rock logic) will cause a ripple effect to the rest of the world.

My red-hot “honne” (emotional honesty construed in Japan as politically-incorrect, thus wreckless) cannot “communicate”, if unaided by the “wind” force.

Christians’ self-sacrificial love could not have spread like a wild fire without the missionary zeal of passionate but “windy” missionaries.

The wind is spontaneously generated as long as the earth is rotating on its own axis. The wind causes water to move in waves. More specifically, water in a fluid stage ripples, waves, swells, tides(tsunami), influenced by the sun and the moon. The wind despite being influenced by other natural forces remains on its own ―― on nature’s own.

Spiral Logic IV The Seven Life Forces of Energy (1/7)

The Seven Life Forces of Energy

火         Let’s see how life comes full circle. Let’ begin with fire.

                The Fire Person is energized by fire ――primary engine of emotional outburst.  Their passion cuts both ways. Their innate red, hot molten rock breaks through ancient regime and turns the system around. Socrates, Jesus Christ, Adolf Hitler were all fire persons. Passion rise and fall. Those heroes, despite or because of their willingness to fight for their passionate goal, died in agony. Passion on fire (情熱) turns out to be passion in futility (受難). They are so emotionally honest, that the occasions arise when they inadvertently get carried away and self-destruct under their own big egos.

                Socrates’ passion caused him to self-destruct ――drinking hemlock. Jesus’ passion cost him a death on the cross.

                Adolf’s passion backfired on himself, inflated first by the passionate crowd and deflated second. What goes up in flames, comes down in ashes. Back to the earth. Life goes on. I’ll discuss “rock” later.

                Back to fire. Fire is necessary to be a creative leader or possibly a visionary. But fire is not sufficient to make a creative genius. Genius comes at a price. You cannot afford to be overly creative, or overly imaginative to be a political leader, at the risk of violating the principle of political correctness. (wind logic) Fire is Janis-faced: life-wish vs death-wish. Let’s suffice it here to say in conclusion: fire IS necessary, but NOT sufficient to secure a constructively destructive leadership. Let’s move on to the wind person.

Coffee break: The spiral look at money

            If everything has two sides, like a coin with heads and tails, debate has two sides of argument: pro (yes) and con (no). It’s either light or shadow, right or wrong. Debate as a skill has a loyal supporter, logic. The conventional straight logic has had a large following among monotheists, while it has left polytheists and atheists totally cold.

            Imagine there’s no heaven or hell, there will be no eternal salvation or eternal damnation. Following this monotheistic logic, light is God and good, while darkness is Satan and evil. If this logic is good, shinto’s pre-logic is evil. Because in value-free shinto thoughts (light and darkness reverse each other as night and day. They are not mutually exclusive – apologies to Greek (formal) logic.

The either-or logic is as solid as the brittle rock since ancient Greece. Any alternative logic? A water logic instead of rock logic? Supposing there is no such thing as the logic, there must be “logics”, syllogistic logic, for one, being a logic. Edward de Bono, philosopher-consultant, on his enlightening theory of Lateral Think opened my eye, with his serendipitous discovery of “water” logic found in Japanese poetry. A water logic of Japan, as western rock logic practiced by Socratis and developed into a science of dialectism by Aristotle, is uniquely valid. Why? Because it doesn’t build like rock, doesn’t dichotonise like rock, doesn’t erode or get weather-beaten like the marble steps on Acropolice in Greece.

            The water logic, responsible for Japanese empathic arts, evidenced in “Hyakunin-isshu” (A hundred poems by hundred famed poets), and rock logic go separate ways: emotional development or cognitive advancement.

            Water logic fuzzifies things and thoughts. Black or white can be fused into a fuzzy being. A fuzzy (water) logic. Ao(literally blue) is a fuzzy color connected to water. Ao can be blue or green depending on the context. Millions of shades of a color. A light blue (green), a deep blue (green). Blue can be strong or weak. Midnight blue or deep-ocean blue takes your breath away as it nears death. Makes you feel blue, doesn’t it?

            Do rock logic and water logic collide? Yes, says the believer in fission (as in nuclear fission). No, says the believer in fusion or “wa” (fused harmony).

            Encouraged by the water logic by Edward de Bono, I fancied a famous poem by Matsuo Basho: 静かさや岩にしみいる蝉の声

            Tranquility. Penetrating the rock. Cicada’s cascading chirps

            What do you make of this haiku? What does this prove?

            The proof of silent music (iwanishimiiru)? Wrong.

            The proof of noise (semishigure)? Wrong.

            Which of the two? Wrong.

            The answer? Both. Never think either music or noise. Think both. Both music and noise merge into each other, like water. Water logic is a logic, never the logic.