Tuesday, October 7, 2008

华人的联想思维 The Chinese Correlative Thinking

郝大维与安乐哲解释联想思维的意思
华人思考时,惯用一种类比形式,我们可称之为联想思维。联想思维在中国古典宇宙学(易经,道家,阴阳家)和古典希腊都可找到;在希腊,这种思维是次要的,用在联系图像或者一组概念时,宁做有意义处置而不考虑实体因果。
联想思维是一种自发思维,基于非正式和特定类比程序,并以联系和区别为前提。这个思维模式的调整元素是文化与传统的共构,而不是因果必然性中的一般假设。
联想思维相对的不注重逻辑分析,就意味着能够把影像及隐喻关联的含糊性,暧昧性和不连贯性带进正式思维的成分中。事实上,这些混乱因素对正在决定中的联想秩序有正面价值,那就是提供拟人化和自我复现的机会。
理性思维注重用字明确,不含二意。与此相比,联想思维则把重点联系到那些已被认为不能再分成更小的元素有意义合成的影像组合。…..
….. 老师老子比他年轻的学生聪明,所以在这方面把学生比下去了。老子是阳,学生是阴。可是学生的体格比老师强壮,所以体力健壮的学生是阳,而老子是阴。当这些用来界定关系的各种强点和弱点可以平衡到适当点时,人际关系达到最有效,最和谐的状态。
从这个说明可以看出,阴和阳不能被理解为宇宙原理或者是根源于事物本质的本体对照物。反之,它们是启发性的,可以帮我们理解和记述世界的特征,并以不同方式来具体的体验它。
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Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall explain the meaning of correlative thinking:
Chinese thinking depends upon a species of analogy which may be called ‘correlative thinking’. Correlative thinking, as it is found both in classical Chinese ‘cosmologies’ (the Yijing - Book of Changes, Daoism, the Yin–Yang school) and, less importantly, among the classical Greeks involves the association of image or concept-clusters related by meaningful disposition rather than physical causation. Correlative thinking is a species of spontaneous thinking grounded in informal and ad hoc analogical procedures presupposing both association and differentiation. The regulative element in this modality of thinking is shared patterns of culture and tradition rather than common assumptions about causal necessity.
The relative indifference of correlative thinking to logical analysis means that the ambiguity, vagueness and incoherence associable with images and metaphors are carried over into the more formal elements of thought. In fact, the chaotic factor in the underdetermined correlative order has a positive value as an opportunity for personalization and self-construal.
In contradistinction to the rational mode of thinking which privileges univocity, correlative thinking involves the association of significances into clustered images which are treated as meaning complexes ultimately unanalyzable into any more basic components …..
….. The old teacher, Laozi, is wiser than his young student and hence ‘overshadows’ him in this respect. Laozi is yang and the student is yin. The student, however, is stronger physically than the old master, and hence in physical prowess the student is yang to Laozi’s yin. When these various strengths and weaknesses defining the relationship can be balanced to maximum effect, the relationship is most productive and harmonious.
It is clear from this illustration that yang and yin are by no means to be understood as ‘cosmic principles’ or ontological contrasts rooted in the very nature of things. Rather, they are heuristics helpful in reading and characterizing the world as concretely experienced in a variety of ways.

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