The Heart of Thinking

Language-ing

The heart of thinking (I claim) is

drawing distinctions.  Think about it:

automatically you are distinguishing

this from that, this and that., figure

from background (or if you’re savvy

and an artist,  you might reverse IT

and make background your figure,

figure your background: but it’s

still figure-background going on,

true?) 

And you: you are the determiner,

or as Bush liked to say: the “decider.”

Your deciding may be automatic,

un-conscious, cultural and conventional

or simply habitual—according to your

daily habits.  Turning it UP (the

dichotomizing, the binary dualities,

the this’s and that’s) is in a sense

an act of violence to the norm. Or an

act of awareness. Which?

Separating and polarizing as an act of
conscious thinking so as to wonder about
         RELATIONSHIP

which can’t be considered if we don’t have

 the dichotomies and  polarities, discrete

(and “hostile”) oppositions to RELATE, true?

Need we argue?  Of course. We

must. OR what’s a college for?

The heart of thinking = drawing distinctions.
The heart of academics:= separating and polarizing
and turning up the DIFFERENCE.

The heart of  liberal art =  showing the relationship

among these differences without doing injustice to

the opposition.

I like to say (regarding my courses) I aim  to build
an  ice-cream  parlor in hell without doing injustice to

either hot or cold.

Am I being descriptive here? Or judgmental? 

Which dominates? My description or my judgment?

My aesthetics or my ethics?

Regardless: I can’t do what I want to do just because
I want to. Damnit. It’s not a unilateral deal. Reciprocal
and lucky.

American Scholars

Intellect on the one hand

Affect on the other hand.

The distinction is LIKE digital process

on the one hand (logic, measurement of

 this  and that, ratios and relationships

all of us processing our observable world
in terms of discrete connections and

disconnections)

And analogical process on  the other hand:

the queasy, gut FEELING, the sense of

apprehension, anxiety, panic,delight,

joy…   affect:

The difference between  Intellect & Affect: 

think about it—separate, polarize, relate:

you are practicing intellect, yes? Being

intellectual.

What’s the difference between

FEELING and Emotions? 

Think about it. Separate

and polarize and then relate.

You are practicing intellect, true?

Being intellectual.

As soon as I am  thinking about

feeling (affect), I am intellectualizing

it: reducing and translating “analogue”

into digitalogic.

Annie Affect and Ike Intellect bump into

each other at the crossroads.  A mere

fender bender but they got to wait on

police & politically correct to sort out

responsibility. They retire to Dew Drop

Inn to have a beer and smoke

it over. 

Who do you guess will dominate the

converse-action?  Will the two Just Get

Along?   Maybe temporarily, say—but

imagine them married. Which will be

BOSS, which subordinate?. 

I’m just asking.