The world isn’t binary; our thinking shouldn’t be either | Opinion
Andreas Angelidakis' 2006 work "Philosophy Pattern Table and Chairs" is on display at the "Nearly Natural" exhibition, which runs through Dec. 12 at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park. Contributor Thomas S. Hibbs writes that Americans too easily slip into binary thinking when complex, nuanced thought it required.I spent the early part of the summer teaching an online symbolic logic class at Baylor. One of the refreshing things about teaching logic is how tidy so much of it is.
, “a defense mechanism by which people unconsciously frame ideas, individuals or groups of people in all-or-nothing terms — for example, all good or all bad,” as explained by Andrew Hartz in. So choices between “A” and “not A” become battles between righteous and evil. The poet John Keats once praised what he called “negative capability,” the capacity to stand in “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts” without immediately demanding resolution or certainty. Careful study of great texts or works of art — from Plato to James Baldwin or Bach to Billie Holiday — involves coming to know certain facts about composition or argument.