Sixth post in the ongoing series on important innovations in logic theory to be found in my works. The present post is intended as a continuation of the preceding one regarding ‘de re’ conditioning. Although it presents no major innovation, it is needed here to put some novel order in the concept of conditioning, and thus to highlight certain failures of understanding displayed by many logicians since the late 19^th Century.

Of course, implication in various guises was used in human discourse long before it was discussed by philosophers. But so far as we know, according to logic historians, the notion of implication was first elucidated by Diodorus (Cronus of Megara, d. circa 307 BCE), who defined it as a sequence of events (or concepts or propositions) such that the first (the antecedent) is always followed by the second (the consequent). Soon after, his disciple Philo (known as the Megarian, though his origin is not sure) advocated a simpler definition of implication, which eschewed the specification ‘always’. For the former, implication (the hypothetical form ‘If P, then Q’) was a modal relation, meaning that the conjunction ‘P and not-Q’ never occurs; whereas for the latter, it sufficed to simply deny that conjunction (effectively, at a given point in time). As closer scrutiny makes clear, Philo was a bad student who should have listened more carefully to his teacher, Diodorus.

Nevertheless, modern logicians (at least those mathematically inclined) considered implication as referring to Philo’s form of implication (later called material implication). This was the situation at least until Clarence I. Lewis revived Diodorus’ form of implication (now called strict implication), in 1918 and more forcefully in 1932. Even after this, many logicians have continued to formulate logic theories or teachings with reference to implication as mere negation of conjunction instead of as impossibility of conjunction (of P and not-Q, given ‘If P, then Q’). They do not yet realize that without appeal to strict implication, we would be hard put to express the difference between disproof (‘proving the contradictory’) and non-sequitur (‘showing the conclusion does not follow from the premises’). Such refinement of discourse is impossible using material implication.

If we compare the ‘truth-tables’ for strict and material implication, they would seem superficially the same as regards the positive aspect ‘if P, then Q’. The truth of P implies that of Q and the falsehood of Q implies that of P. But when we look at the negative aspect, their difference becomes glaring. In strict implication, the negation of ‘if P, then Q’ is ‘if P, not-then Q’, which leaves the respective truths and falsehoods of P and Q open and does not allow us to infer from P the truth or falsehood of Q or from Q the truth or falsehood of P. Whereas in material implication, the negation of ‘if P, then Q’ is simply ‘P and nonQ’, i.e. it tells us categorically that P is true and Q is false!

However, this is only half the story. Already in antiquity to some extent (if only implicitly), and especially since the Scholastics (who seem to have coined the terms), a distinction was made between ‘de dicta’ (or de dicto) and ‘de re’ modalities. The former related to the states of our knowledge (including speculations and hypotheses) about things, whereas the latter concerned the things themselves. That is, more specifically in the present context, the former concerned the logical mode of modality (epistemology), while the latter was about natural, temporal, extensional or similar ontological modes (notably that related to volition, the personal mode).

Many modern logicians after Lewis, whether out of ignorance or naivety, or a stubborn desire to simplify complex issues, have tended to conflate de dicta conditioning with strict implication and de re conditioning with material implication. That is evident in the terminology used – strict means formal, in accordance with logical discourse (i.e. de dicta), and material means contentual, relating to things (i.e. de re); and in the kind of examples they give to illustrate material implication (e.g. ‘if it rains, the match will be called off’). But of course this is quite wrong. Both strict and material implication are (stronger and weaker) forms of logical conditioning. Material implication cannot adequately do the job of ‘de re’ forms of conditioning. This is made evident in Future Logic, part IV, where the latter are examined in detail.

The poverty of modern assumptions in this respect is evident as soon as we try using them to interpret or explain commonly used expressions like ‘when and if’, for example. If ‘when’ and ‘if’ both belong to the logical mode of modality, their conjunction is incomprehensible. Whereas, when we understand the difference between modes of conditioning and between connection and basis of conditioning, such conjunction becomes clear. The ‘when’ tells us that a natural or temporal modality of connection between the theses applies, while the ‘if’ tells us that the base of the antecedent is uncertain, i.e. is merely a logical possibility (and not a de re one). The formal possibilities of material implication cannot be compared to the precision and complexity of discourse made possible by ‘de re’ conditioning. That our practice is more in accord with the latter is easily demonstrated by examples.

Much of this confusion has remained hidden from public view, and to the logicians themselves, due to excessive reliance on symbolic logic.

For more details on this topic, see FUTURE LOGIC, PART III (CHAPTERS 20-32), on logical conditioning. Note in particular chapter 24.3, regarding the strict-material implication distinction.

http://www.thelogician.net/2_future_logic/2_fl_part_3.htm

See also: RUMINATIONS, chapter 4.8, on the strict-material implication distinction; and VOLITION AND ALLIED CAUSAL CONCEPTS, chapter 6.5, regarding ‘personal conditioning’.

Fifth post in the ongoing series on important innovations in logic theory to be found in my works.

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One of the most striking demonstrations of the importance of distinguishing between the different types (or modes) of modality is the way this makes possible more accurate reasoning using conditional propositions. For each type of modality gives rise to a different type of conditioning; and though these various types are analogous in many respects, if we treat them in an undifferentiated manner in our reasoning processes we are bound to make very serious errors.

We must first distinguish between ‘de dicta’, i.e. logical, conditioning – and various forms of ‘de re’ conditioning, notably the natural, the temporal and the extensional. The ‘de dicta’ versus ‘de re’ distinction between modalities, signifying a difference between epistemological and ontological modes of thought, was (as the Latin names we use suggest) known since antiquity, and to a lesser extent so were the varieties of ‘de re’ modality.

However, while logical conditioning has been extensively studied (especially in modern times), the natural, temporal and extensional forms of conditioning have received little attention. Logicians have tended to look upon the logical ‘if--then—’ form as one applicable to all conditioning. But this is far from true or wise, though in practice we often do use this as an undifferentiated form. Logical conditioning in truth relates primarily to states of knowledge.

In Future Logic, I develop a detailed analysis of ‘de re’ types of conditioning, how they are produced and the arguments we can form with them. It soon becomes obvious that, despite the analogies or parallelisms between them, their distinction cannot be ignored. Natural or temporal conditioning concerns states of being of individual things, whereas extensional conditioning concerns instances of a kind of thing. This is evident to us in everyday discourse, and we are quite able to express the differences in meaning linguistically when we feel the need to be precise.

Thus, when we mean natural or temporal conditioning we tend to say “When any X is Y, it is Z”, whereas we mean extensional conditioning we tend to say “In such cases as an X is Y, it is Z”. What do we mean here? In the former statement, we mean that all X are potentially or sometimes Y, and for each X the Y predicate is by natural necessity or always accompanied by the Z predicate. In the latter statement, we mean that some X are Y, and all those instances of X that are Y are also Z. These are just two examples, of course; there are many other forms of each type.

We notice that ‘de re’ conditioning involves a ‘base’ and a ‘connection’. In natural or temporal conditioning, the base is the implied modal statement that “All X can be or sometimes are Y” and the connection is the necessity that ties the actualization of this potentiality or temporal possibility with the consequent predicate Z. In extensional conditioning, the base is the particular proposition that “Some X are Y” and the connection is the universality that ties the instantiation of this particularity with the consequent Z.

In logical conditioning, too, we have a base as well as a connection, but we avoid the restriction implied by a base because it would straitjacket our discourse excessively, because it would make dealing with logical paradoxes a very complicated matter. More precisely put, a peculiarity of logical modality is that logical possibility may always be assumed to be true until and unless it is found, through some implied breach of the laws of thought, to be false. For this reason, logical conditioning may always be assumed to have an appropriate base, except when it is proven to lack one.

Such assumption of possibility until impossibility is proved is not applicable to the 'de re' types of modality, which are subject to more stringent inductive rules. This implies, for instance, that 'de re' necessary conditional propositions cannot automatically be contraposed. This is all said in passing – what I want to stress here is the importance of distinguishing the various ‘de re’ forms of conditioning, of understanding their implicit base and connection. For, once we do this, we realize how different reasoning in each of these modes really is.

One important effect of the study of conditioning in its various ‘de re’ modes is the realization of the logical continuity between categorical and conditional propositions; they are not two opposed forms of expression but greater or lesser degrees of relation. This insight becomes essential when we get into the formal logic of induction. Another important result of the study of the modes of conditioning is the deeper understanding of causation that it makes possible.

For more details on this topic, see FUTURE LOGIC, PART IV (CHAPTERS 33-40).

http://www.thelogician.net/2_future_logic/2_fl_part_4.htm

Fourth post in the ongoing series on important innovations in logic theory to be found in my works.                                                                

On the back cover of the 1996 edition of Future Logic, I wrote the following (among other things) concerning modality:

“What do we mean when we say that something is 'necessarily', 'actually' or 'possibly' so and so? These so-called 'modalities' are attributes of relations, and they vary in meaning. For each category of modality (like necessity or possibility), there are several types of modality (the natural, the temporal, the extensional, the logical, and others), and each of these modalities serves a distinct purpose, expressing some aspect of reality or the state of our knowledge about it. Each category and type of modality has its own peculiar logical properties, and a host of relations to the various others.

“Future Logic demonstrates the centrality of modal concepts in human knowledge and in the processes leading to it. Starting with precise definitions of the various categories and types of modality, it develops a systematic study of reasoning processes involving them, which not only retraces past achievements in the field but also enables a great many new discoveries.

“Modality is significant not only in the study of categorical propositions, but also in that of conditional propositions. There are as many forms of conditioning as there are categories and types of modality; and while some of their logical properties are similar, many are quite different. What this means in practice, is that we cannot reason properly without awareness of these differences. The study of conditioning is of fundamental importance to an understanding of causal relations.

“Future Logic is the first work ever to develop a thorough formal study of the natural, temporal and extensional types of conditioning (as well as logical conditioning), including their production from modal categorical premises.”

While the categories of modality are well known since antiquity and to a lesser extent so is the notion that there are different types (or modes) of modality, Future Logic breaks new ground in its systematic treatment of this field.

Most modern logicians have often left the categories undefined, arguing between them only as to whether to use necessity or possibility as the starting notion. Some have begun with the Liebniz-like definition of necessity as “true in all possible worlds” – ignoring the circularity of such definition (using the yet-undefined term possible) and its pretentiousness (we have a hard time enough to know this world, let alone “all possible worlds”!) And moreover, most modern logicians have concentrated all their efforts on extensional and logical modality, although the natural and temporal modes have been debated by philosophers since antiquity.

One of the important novelties in Future Logic is the analogous definition of categories of modality in the different modes – for instance, the category of ‘necessity’ is defined as occurrence in all instances in the ‘extensional’ mode, in all circumstances in the ‘natural’ mode, at all times in the ‘temporal’ mode and in all contexts of knowledge in the ‘logical’ mode (similarly, for ‘possibility’, saying ‘some’ instead of all, and for actuality saying ‘this one’). This uniformity of structure of the modalities does not however imply that they can be treated collectively, without regard to their basic differences.

Each mode has a specific utility for us. The extensional mode (concerning instances of a kind) is basic to class logic. The natural mode (circumstances surrounding the existence of something) is basic to causal logic. The temporal mode (times in the existence of something) is somewhere in between those two ‘de re’ (or ontal) modes. The logical mode (contexts) concerns our knowledge as such – it is ‘de dicta’ (or epistemic). The ‘de re’ modes are also ‘de dicta’ in a way, but only indirectly.

Future Logic is unprecedented in the history of logic in its transparent and thoroughgoing development of the logics of these various categories and types of modality. Within deductive logic, as already pointed out, its complete and reasoned listing of all modal syllogisms is quite novel. This in itself shows the need for the distinctions made. But their importance becomes crucial and ineluctable when we consider their impact on conditional statements and inferences relating to them. This will be dealt with in my next post.

For more details on this topic, see FUTURE LOGIC, PART II (CHAPTERS 11-13).

http://www.thelogician.net/2_future_logic/2_fl_part_2.htm

Third post in the ongoing series on important innovations in logic theory to be found in my works.

There is so much to say, I hardly know where to start. Perhaps I had best go back a little and draw your attention to the extensive work done in Future Logic in listing syllogisms.

Following Aristotle and his successors (notably his disciple Theophrastus on the 4^th figure), with respect to actual categorical propositions (those of the form “S is P”), I have there listed and validated 19 primary moods and 25 secondary moods in the four figures. I point out incidentally that these 44 valid moods out of a conceivable number of 864 (i.e. a mere 5% validity rate) clearly demonstrate the need to study logic if we want to make sure we reason correctly.

Thereafter, after discussing the various types and categories of modality, I did a similar treatment with respect to modal categorical propositions – meaning primarily for natural modality. Aristotle (and others) had indeed done considerable work in this field, but as I have pointed out in a previous blog, his understanding of modality there (though not in his philosophical discussions, note well) seems to have been limited to the logical mode of modality (or perhaps, I sometimes speculate, some sort of generic mode, underlying all the others) – and this led him to make some serious errors in his list of modal syllogisms.

Moreover, Aristotle’s listing of modal syllogisms was not as thorough and systematic as his listing of actual syllogisms; and so far as I know no one after him has managed an exhaustive and reasoned listing. In Future Logic, I do just that. I begin, as already said, by analyzing and explaining the main varieties of modality. Then, focusing on the crucial “de re” modes (as against the “de dicta” or logical mode, which is the usual object of study of modern logicians), I develop a full list of propositions, examine their oppositions and eductions (i.e. immediate inferences) and then their deductions (i.e. syllogisms, mediate inferences).

One novelty that greatly facilitated my inventory of the various possibilities was the introduction of the symbols n, a, and p for natural necessity, actuality and potentiality, respectively – which notation could be used either independently or as suffices to the traditional A, E, I, O symbols (for plural propositions – to which I added R and G for singulars). Another novelty in this context was to formulate general principles for quantification and modalization of oppositions as well as for intermodal oppositions – expressed in rectangular and three-dimensional ‘figures of opposition’ derived from the traditional ‘square of opposition’.

Finally, I systematically develop a list of valid modal syllogisms, including tables with the valid modes of quantity (all, some, this one), polarity (i.e. positive or negative – what is traditionally but misleadingly called ‘quality’), and modality (mainly of the natural type, and by analogy of the temporal type). The results obtained are sobering. Out of a total 108,000 theoretical combinations of modal and non-modal premises and conclusions, including mixtures of natural and temporal modalities, and including the earlier mentioned wholly actual syllogisms, only 1486 (1.4%) were found valid – and of these, only 93 (6.3%) were primary and the rest (93.7%) were secondary (i.e. implied in the main 93, and relatively less used though not never used).

Validations were of course done using the traditional methods of exposition, direct reduction and reduction ad absurdum (indirect reduction), as appropriate to each figure and mood. The results obtained for modal syllogism demonstrate again that reasoning cannot be left to “instinct” but requires serious investigation – not only to avoid invalid forms of reasoning, but to be made aware of valid forms that are not immediately obvious. The practical value of such knowledge is incalculable. Many more discoveries and insights are to be found in these chapters.

For more details on this topic, see FUTURE LOGIC, PART II (CHAPTERS 11-16).

http://www.thelogician.net/2_future_logic/2_fl_part_2.htm

Second post in the series on important innovations in logic theory to be found in my works.                                               

In my previous post I highlighted two important innovations in formal deductive logic, presented in Future Logic, chapters 15 and 17, namely: a) a first figure syllogism consisting of attributive propositions (of the form “S is P”) that draws a possible conclusion from a possible major premise is invalid, but (b) we can however from such premises (and others like them) draw a disjunctive conclusion of the form “S can get to be or become P” (i.e. a disjunction of alterative and mutative propositions). In the present post, I wish to explain the larger significance of these two related findings.

The first finding is of course significant in itself in that wrong reasoning has wide repercussions on all knowledge, and past logicians of the highest caliber have till now (so far as I know) failed to notice the error made by Aristotle and his successors. Aristotle may be excused somewhat because in his mind “possibility” here meant uncertainty one way or the other; thus, he reasoned: if the major and minor premises are both uncertain, so must the conclusion be. But of course, even this intuitive argument is upon reflection untenable, for the two premises may well be uncertain while the conclusion is quite certain for other reasons – so one cannot infer uncertainty for it from the premises, i.e. the syllogism adds nothing to the status of the conclusion.

The second finding is of course significant in itself in that it opens the door to a formal logic concerning change, which here again (to my knowledge) has received no systematic treatment till now.  Aristotle’s deductive logic dealt with attributive propositions, but virtually ignored transitive (alterative or mutative) ones, even though in his general discussions concerning nature and knowledge he was very conscious of the fact of change and had many important insights concerning it. This second finding is also significant in that it was not made independently of the first, but from the beginning was closely tied with it, constituting a solution to the problem it raised.

This brings us to the combined significance of these findings. It is this: whereas till now formal deductive logic has seemed to be a description of essentially static interrelations between individual objects and concepts about them and between concepts, it can henceforth be viewed in a much more dynamic light. This concerns specifically the logic of classification, or class logic. Till now, based on Aristotle’s syllogistic theory, which encompassed only attributive propositions, we could only tell us how things are classified in our minds at a specific time. This expansion of syllogistic theory to include propositions about change allows us at last to see our knowledge in motion, with things changing classes over time. Till now, such changes in classification were intuitively obvious enough, but they were not formally taken into account.

More broadly still, this expanded view of the possibilities of syllogistic reasoning was made possible through the full integration of natural modality in the Aristotelian scheme. Whereas Aristotle had developed modal syllogism rather intuitively in relation to what seems to be an epistemic type of modality, in Future Logic I have managed to systematically insert natural modality and show that its behavior is similar to Aristotle’s quantity (i.e. to extensional modality). Natural modality being inherently a reflection of natural change, this study was bound to lead to a consideration of transitive propositions and of their relations to attributive ones.

Furthermore, the discovery of dynamic formal deductive logic opened the door to my later treatment of the dynamics of induction, i.e. to formal inductive logic, including factorial analysis, factor selection and formula revision. More will be said on this and other consequences in later posts.

All these developments hugely enlarge the scope of formal logic. And of course they reflect more precisely the actual ways human thought is formed and progresses. They are not artificial contraptions externally imposed on people by narrow-minded logicians.

For more details on this topic, see PHENOMENOLOGY, CHAPTER 7, SECTION 5.

http://www.thelogician.net/2b_phenome_nology/2b_chapter_07.htm

In my first ten blog posts, I have endeavored to give readers a quick cross-section of my philosophy, ranging over a variety of subjects. In the present posting, and the next few ones, I aim to showcase some of the important discoveries in logic theory to be found in my works.

In chapter 63, section 2 of Future Logic, discussing modal syllogism, I point out that Aristotle apparently allowed 'drawing a possible conclusion from a possible major premise in the first figure'. This is suggested, for instance, in his Prior Analytics, book I, chapter 14, where he says: "Whenever A may possibly belong to all B, and B to all C, there will be a perfect syllogism to prove that A may possibly belong to all C". (Actually, he has previously defined "possibility" as what we would call contingency, i.e. as including possibility-not, but the result is the same.) Likewise, Theophrastus of Eresus, Aristotle’s successor as head of the Lyceum, is reported to have taught that “the conclusion follows the modality of the weakest premise” as a general principle. This was a serious error of logic on their part (that to my knowledge no one has since corrected).

In chapter 15 of Future Logic, I on the contrary class as logically invalid to first figure syllogisms of the form:

I expose this invalidity in section 3 of that chapter, saying that we cannot be sure that the circumstances referred to by the major premise include those referred to by the minor premise. The rule for modality here is similar to the rule for quantity that the middle term must be distributive. (This is said by me with regard to the ‘circumstances’ underlying natural modality, but the same applies equally well to the ‘contexts of knowledge’ underlying logical modality, which is seemingly more the intent of Aristotle’s discourse.)

I further explain this in chapter 17 of the same book, where I deal with “transitive categorical propositions”, which concern change either in the sense of alteration, e.g. “This egg has hardened (gotten to be hard)” or in the sense of mutation, e.g. “This soft egg has become hard (or a hard egg)”, as against attributive propositions such as “This egg is soft (or is hard)”. The following is an extract from section 4 of that chapter.

a. When both premises are attributive, an attributive conclusion can only be drawn (if at all) from a necessary major premise; if the major is potential, we cannot draw an attributive conclusion. However, a transitive conclusion can be drawn, showing that the modality may have an impact on the copula. The following moods are valid:

We know from the premises that what started as S, will in some circumstances be S and M; and that whatever is M, will in some further circumstances be M and P (or nonP); but be cannot predict whether the end result of this process includes or excludes S. It is conceivable that S stays on with P (or nonP), but it is also conceivable that S disappears prior to the arrival at P (or nonP). For this reason, our conclusion cannot be merely 'S can be P (or nonP), but must be open to the 'S can become P (or nonP)' outcome.

b. The same can be argued with a mutative major premise, whatever the modalities involved. Thus, the following are valid:

If one or both premises are potential, so is the conclusion, as above; but if both premises are necessary, a necessary conclusion can be drawn, as below:

c. In cases where the minor premise is mutative, whether the major is attributive or mutative, similarly disjunctive conclusions may be drawn. We know from the minor premise that S will disappear to become M, but we cannot be sure whether, in the circumstances when M is or becomes P, S reappears or stays away.

Note that in all the cases so far considered, we could view the conclusion as a logical disjunction as we did, or we could say that a more specific conclusion can be drawn if we know one or the other alternative to be excluded. This would be equivalent to having a third premise, viz. 'S cannot get to be P' or 'S cannot become P'. But formally speaking, this constitutes an additional argument (apodosis) after the syllogism as such.

d. All the above only concerns cases with both premises affirmative (whether the predicate be P or nonP). Now, the minor cannot be negative in the first figure, but what if the major premise is negative (in the sense of negating the copula, not merely the predicate)? In such case, we cannot draw a likewise negative conclusion, because we can construct a syllogism with compatible affirmative premises yielding a conflicting affirmative conclusion. Thus, for example, the following mood is invalid:

This is invalid, because it is conceivable that, though no M can become P, all M can nonetheless be P, in which case the following syllogism could be constructed, as earlier established:

We could interpret this to mean that, a (compound) negative conclusion is possible, if the negative major is compound, as in the following mood. Note that major premise and conclusion are conjunctions, not disjunctions, of negatives. The result is due to the attachment of S to M.

If either or both of these premises were potential instead of necessary, a potential conclusion would be drawn.

For more details on this topic, see FUTURE LOGIC, CHAPTER 17.

http://www.thelogician.net/2_future_logic/2_chapter_17.htm

http://www.thelogician.net/6_reflect/6_Book_4/6d_chapter_02.htm

To meditate is to make a sustained effort to increase one’s awareness, or at least to prevent it from decreasing from a certain level; this defines what constitutes meditation. This is to be distinguished from contemplation, which is steady, effortless, stable awareness (or increased awareness, in comparison with some previous state). Contemplation is a goal of meditation. At some stage, meditation (an effort of awareness) becomes contemplation (effortless awareness).

There are many ways and means of meditation, of which two may be mentioned here.

In breath awareness meditation, we make an effort to watch the breath entering and leaving the body, patiently, without interfering in its speed or trajectory. Calmly and single-mindedly, fix your attention on the sensory receptors inside your nostrils (which are static relative to the movements of breath); and persevere in this attentiveness for a long time. At the same time, be mindful (from the inside, if only peripherally) of the rise and fall of your belly with every incoming and outgoing breath.

Experience one breath at a time. You cannot achieve mindfulness of breath in a mechanical manner, merely by initially deciding to watch your breath and then doing so for a couple of breaths. You cannot just launch breath awareness – or any other sort of meditation, for that matter – and expect it to carry on by itself. Your attention will in such case naturally float away at the first opportunity. Awareness is not something inertial – it demands effort.

Thus, to sustain your interest in the breath, engage one breath at a time. At the end of the first in and out breath, remember to make a new decision and effort to attentively follow the trajectory of next breath, and so on – one step at a time. This principle is applicable to all sorts of meditation (e.g. to walking meditation or to calligraphy). Even when one reaches the level of free-wheeling contemplation of one’s breathing, feeling the emptiness within, one has to remain focused and not take things for granted.

In the words of Zen master Dogen: “the breath that comes in does not anticipate the breath that goes out”. You remain mindful of things as they are, at their own pace. This mental will (or more precisely, spiritual will) must be distinguished from the effort of breath control, which involves physical will (on the muscles of the nostrils, the diaphragm or whatever). It is more akin to the “presence of mind” (or again, more precisely put: presence of spirit, or spiritual presence) used in Tai Chi or Yoga.

If your breath is irregular in some way (whether ragged, uneven or however uncomfortable), the simplest way to calm it is to wait for it patiently to do so by itself (as it is bound to do eventually). If such waiting results in your forgetting to watch the breath, no matter – when you become aware of your loss of attention, just return to breath awareness. If you lack the patience to wait but want to do something about it, then count the breaths as they occur (whatever their speed and shape). But abandon words again as soon as possible, for they are ultimately a hindrance to progress.

In thought awareness meditation, we make an effort to watch our thoughts come, play out and go. This is again essentially a spiritual act, a willing of attention – to be distinguished from the effort of thought control, which involves willing one’s thoughts to take shape, to go in a certain direction, or to stop. It takes a lot of practice to get to the point where one can sit back and watch one’s thoughts flow without getting caught up in them and carried away by them; but, although the brain seems programmed to hinder it, such detachment is indeed possible.

Thought awareness is facilitated by body awareness, breath awareness and awareness of one’s surroundings. When thoughts run wild, you can rein them in more readily if you increase awareness of the here and now. The thinker is suspended in a cloud, unaware of his physical existence or his surrounds: return him to earth. If the thoughts are overwhelming, ask them only for a little room in a corner of your mind – a place for monitoring thought. Then slowly expand this observatory’s portion of the mind.

It would not be quite correct to say that one should just sit back and watch one’s thoughts, as one watches one’s breath. Breathing is not expected to stop (but only to calm down), whereas thoughts ought to eventually stop. Therefore, one has to use a certain amount of thought control, even while avoiding crude force. Paradoxically, true thought control is not possible without thought awareness; you cannot precisely influence what you are not sufficiently conscious of. That is to say, to succeed at fine-tuned control, one needs proportionate attentiveness. Therefore, meditation on thought is a cunning mélange of awareness and control, in measured succession, until awareness and control both reach their peak level.

At that stage, it is possible, not only to instantly stop thought by an act of will, but to sustain this interdiction for a long time. Eventually, even this act of will becomes unnecessary or unconscious, because we come to reside comfortably in inner stillness and silence. This is not the final goal of meditation, but merely an intermediate stage. Until now, thoughts were a distraction from deeper meditation; now, it becomes possible to contemplate the non-phenomenal self and its relation to phenomenal experience more precisely.

http://www.thelogician.net/6_reflect/6_Book_4/6d_chapter_06.htm

Just as our physical health is defined with reference to the human body, and its various members, organs and systems, as the optimum condition and function of that body – so in the case of mental health. Mental health is the optimum condition and functioning of the psyche.

The psyche, the subject-matter of psychology, is of course a very large concept. It includes to some extent the body, since our mental life is largely psychosomatic, and since the body is the substratum of the so-called mind; especially, our mental health depends on the healthy condition and functioning of our nervous system, including the brain and the sense organs. On a less physical level, the psyche has two main domains, the spiritual and the mental (in a narrow sense of the term).

By the spiritual domain, I mean the soul, and by the (narrow) mind I mean the mental phenomena that occur (as it were) around the soul. With regard to those mental phenomena, they are perceptible (to various degrees) things or events, like thoughts, dreams and emotions. They are, strictly speaking, outside the soul. They can be experienced and manipulated by the soul, but their existence depends on the nervous system too; and indeed, sometimes they are entirely products of the nervous system.

The soul is the true self, that which constitutes a person within us. The soul may be active or passive relative to mental phenomena and relative the physical aspects of the psyche (i.e. the nervous system). The soul itself has three obvious faculties or powers, namely cognition (intuitive, perceptual, logical and conceptual), volition (our will) and valuation (our values). (The term ‘faculties’ should not be taken to imply that the soul contains entities or departments – it merely refers to capabilities to cognize, to will and to value.) The core issue in mental health is the health of the soul, although the issue is wider than that.

Mental health refers mainly to the correct functioning of the three faculties of the soul. It has three components, corresponding to these three faculties. These are of course closely interrelated, each requiring both the others to function. Mental health has degrees. The degree of overall mental health is proportional to the degrees and combinations of degrees of health in these three areas of human endeavor.

Ø  The faculty of cognition is at its best when it is well prepared and trained to know the surrounding world and how to deal with it. That is certainly true and important, but the main cognitive health issue is self-knowledge. This is achieved by introspection and self-observation in action. Without a lucid, profound and extensive knowledge of one’s own inner workings (motives, desires, fears, emotions, capabilities, etc.) and outer behavior, one is bound to feel imprisoned or lost in strange territory.

Ø  The faculty of volition, likewise, has to be maintained for maximum efficiency in dealing with mental and physical phenomena. But the essence of health in relation to it is self-control (in the best sense of the term, not implying oppression), i.e. getting into the habit of doing what needs to be done (energy) or not-doing what needs to be avoided (restraint). This is essential to self-trust and self-confidence. For it is clear that if one allows oneself to be at the mercy of every passing fancy, impulse, urge, obsession, compulsion, bad habit, one will soon experience great anxiety, for anything might happen anytime. Without discipline one becomes one’s own worst enemy.

Ø  The faculty of valuation is properly used when or insofar as one’s values are conducive to life, to self-knowledge and to self-control. This may be called self-value (in the best sense of the term, not implying egoism or egotism, selfishness or vanity). Clearly, if one has twisted values, contradictory values, an inclination to perversion of some sort, and so forth, one will soon become confused and ultimately bring about one’s own self-destruction.

Thus, briefly put, the three most spiritual aspects of mental health are self-knowledge, self-control and self-value. These are spiritual, because they concern the soul (or spirit or self), the core of our psyche or mental existence. When the Subject of cognitions, the Author of volitions and the Valuer of valuations is appropriately looked after, he or she is healthy and the rest follows. If the self’s faculties are on the contrary neglected, the opposite occurs. We may thus speak of spiritual health – or in the opposite case, of a sick soul.

This is one aspect of mental health, its most intimate aspect. Of course, mental health does not only refer to how we take care of our soul, but to the full range of survival conditions and tasks. We need to improve our general cognitive abilities, e.g. by studying inductive and deductive logic, by being attentive, by remaining sober, and so on. Our capabilities of action will be improved by controlling our diet and our sex life, by staying physically fit, and so forth.

In short, without going into details, mental health relates to a wide range of inner and outer behavior patterns. It is therefore closely related to what we call ethics, the study of what is conducive to life. A person who cultivates mental health gets inner equilibrium and self-respect as reward, and achieves happiness, or at least basic contentment. Whereas the opposite person, sentences himself or herself to much inner conflict and self-contempt, and ends up suffering considerably.

Moreover, although the primary task of mental hygiene relates to oneself, this has a strong impact one one’s social relations. That is to say, a mentally healthy person will naturally treat other people with respect and consideration, since that is the way he or she is used to dealing with himself or herself. On the contrary, a mentally unhealthy person will have many inter-personal conflicts, and suffer fear, anger, hatred, and similar negative emotions as a consequence.

Thus, mental health begets both dignity and decency. And inversely, mental sickness spoils life for self and others. Mental health is ennobling; mental sickness is debasing.

When one has mental health, the ongoing task is to maintain it and increase it. When one lacks it, the first task is to obtain it, i.e. to cure oneself of mental sickness. A very powerful way to obtain, maintain and improve mental health is meditation. Through meditation, one gets to really know oneself, gets to really take charge of oneself, and gets to really see for oneself what is good and what is bad in life, right and wrong in behavior.

Extract from VOLITION AND ALLIED CAUSAL CONCEPTS, CHAPTER 17.

The term ‘deontology’ may be taken to refer to the theoretical study and foundation of ethics, without initial preference for any particular ethical system; another term for this is ‘meta-ethics’. This philosophical discipline is concerned with the form, rather than the content of ethics – how ethical systems are structured, the logical forms and arguments used in them, how standards or norms might be first established (‘axiology’), and indeed all ontological and epistemological issues relative to ethical judgment.

Deontology will, for instance, emphasize that the concepts of life, consciousness and volition are central to any ethical claim or system.

• Ethical discourse can only concern living beings. Inanimate entities (e.g. a table or a molecule) have nothing to lose – for their defining boundaries are fluid and arbitrarily set. We may break a diamond or disintegrate it – but ‘it’ has lost nothing. Living beings, on the other hand, have things to lose – their limb and life, which may be harmed or destroyed. A microbe is not just a mix of matter; kill it, and the matter remains but it no longer behaves as a living cell.
• Ethical discourse is of no use to unconscious organisms, since they have no way to gain knowledge of it. We do consider that some things are conducive and others are detrimental to plants or microbes – but knowledge of such things concerns us, not the plants or microbes. Such knowledge tells us humans how to cultivate them, presumably so as to eat them or otherwise use them – so it is really a subset of human ethics. Animals can acquire knowledge of sorts, and so may conceivably learn facts or behavior (e.g. from their parents) that protects and furthers their life.
• Ethical discourse presupposes volition. If the conscious organism has no volition, no ethical proposition concerning it is meaningful – since it can do nothing other than whatever it happens to be doing in the circumstances concerned anyway! Ethics is for organisms with freewill, meaning humans and higher animals.

Ultimately, of course, ethics is the prerogative of humans – who are not only alive and conscious and volitional, but moreover able to reason about ethics in general, to formulate and understand particular ethical propositions, and to monitor and manage their own behavior systematically. There is no point researching and writing an ethics, if the subject of it is unable to read it or follow it.

Imperatives, prohibitions, permissions and exemptions – all such statements, whatever their specific contents, logically presuppose an acceptance that the subject has some rationality and free will . It is absurd (self-contradictory) to make or imply statements like: “don’t refer to the concepts of consciousness or volition in your discourse” – since to say “do not” implies one has awareness and choice.

Of course, volition is something very hard to fully define and prove, because it is – like consciousness and like feelings – a primary object of experience. It is not like something else, to which it might be compared and reduced; it is something sui generis, a basic building block of experience. There is no logical basis for excluding volition from the realm of existence, just because it cannot be entirely described in terms of material or mental phenomena. It suffices to point out that it is something we experience distinctively (through ‘self-knowledge’, ‘introspective intuition’ or ‘apperception’ – however we choose to call it). We do not, note well, merely conceive it as a generality – but distinctly experience particular acts of volition within us.

Extract from VOLITION AND ALLIED CAUSAL CONCEPTS, CHAPTER 5.

http://www.thelogician.net/4b_volition/4b_chapter_05.htm

An important and complex concept in causal logic, and specifically in the logic of volition, is that of influence. This refers to the impact on one’s volitional act, before or while it occurs, of some cognized natural event(s) and/or other volition(s) by oneself or other agent(s). Note well, the agent of volition concerned must have cognized the natural event(s) and/or other volition(s) in question, for the latter to count as ‘influences’. The distinguishing characteristic of influence, compared to other ‘conditions’ surrounding volition, is the intermediary of consciousness.

The philosophical importance of this concept is due to the confusion of most people relative to the concept of freedom of the will. On the one hand, most people in practice believe the will is free somehow; on the other hand, they realize it is varyingly affected by surrounding natural events and persons. These givens seem theoretically irreconcilable because the latter is mistaken for conditioning or partial causation, whereas it is influence, a different, subtler sort of causality.

For example: a man’s muscles are conditions affecting his volitions, in that he can in fact lift a certain weight with them and also in that he cannot lift more weight than they physically make possible; these same muscles however become influences on his volitions, only when thinking of their supposed limited strength he chooses another course than he would if they seemed stronger or weaker. Note well the subtle difference. Conditions and influences both affect actions, but not in comparable ways.

Influence is a special kind of conditioning, differing from an ordinary condition in that it operates specifically through the medium of consciousness, i.e. of any kind of cognitive process. The influencing object is one that has been sensed or imagined, perceived or conceived, remembered or projected, found evident or inferred, induced or deduced, or in any way thought about. What it influences, strictly speaking, is the Subject of such cognitions or thoughts, i.e. the eventual Agent of volition. When the agent finally ‘makes up his mind’ and wills something, he does so either in the direction of or against the tendency implied by the influence at hand.

Thus, influences imply positive or negative tendencies, temptations or spurs to voluntary action. If such tendency was in the direction of the eventual will, the will was facilitated by it; if such tendency was against the eventual will, the will had to overcome it.  The agent is always free to accept or refuse to ‘follow’ a given influence, i.e. to ‘yield’ to its weight or ‘resist’ it.

The concept of effort refers to a degree of will. Volition is not an either-or proposition, something one switches on or off; it has degrees. Powerful will is required to overcome strong opposing influences; a weak agent is easily influenced to go against his will. Thus, we may speak of amount of effort involved in an act of will. If influences are favorable, the effort required to complete them is comparatively minimal. If influences are counteractive, the agent must pump proportionately more effort to get his way.

We may also view effort as a measure of the agent’s responsibility, his causal contribution or ownership of the action and its outcomes. The more effort he requires, the more wholly ‘his own’ they are. The less effort he requires, the greater the part played in them by surrounding influences.

The postulate of freedom of the will is that an influence is never alone sufficient to produce some effect, irrespective of the will of the agent concerned. Granting surrounding conditions allow the power of will in a given case, the agent always has ‘final say’ to resist the tendency implied by the influence, though such resistance might require a maximum of effort. As of when conditioning occurs via consciousness, i.e. in the way of influence, necessity does not apply, though the effort required to overcome influence may be daunting. Wherever necessity does apply, one cannot say that there was possibility of will, nor therefore speak of influence. The subject was simply overwhelmed, proving in this case to be not an agent but a mere patient. He may have been an observer of the events, but he was in this case a passive recipient of natural forces.

If this postulate is correct, it means that consciousness of an object cannot by itself move a spiritual entity (soul, subject) to action, by way of complete causation. Though such consciousness may play a major causative part in the action, approaching one hundred percent, still the action cannot effectively occur without the final approval and participation of the spiritual entity concerned. If necessity is indeed observed occurring, then the conditioning involved was not via consciousness of the object but directly due to the object.

Note that not only an influence cannot by itself ever move an agent into action, but also – granting the possibility of pure whim – the agent can well move himself in the absence of any influences. Therefore, influence is neither sufficient nor necessary for volition.

Thus, note well, we are not here involved in verbal manipulations. Freedom of the will is a thesis, a hypothesis, concerning the causal relations possible in the domain of the spirit. Consciousness may well occur in cases where there is no volition, i.e. where causation (necessity) takes over; but when this happens, consciousness has played no part in the effect. Consciousness becomes a condition only as of when causation recedes, and a space is leftover for volition to intervene; in that event, consciousness (or its objects, through it) becomes influential, and the will remains free (to at least some extent).