Reference: Data Series
Reference: Data Series 1R—THE ANATOMY OF THOUGHT
THE ANATOMY OF THOUGHT
SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILAR ITIES AND IDENTITIES. This is also intelligence.
DIFFERENT = Two or more facts or things that are totally unlike. They are not the same fact or same object.
SIMILAR = Two or more facts or things that have something in common with one another.
IDENTICAL = Two or more facts or things that have all their characteristics in common with one another.
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SEMANTICS
Just because two identical objects exist in different locations, does not mean that they are different. In human communication, words mean the things they denote. In that sense the words and their meanings are the same. Of course, a word brings about a mental picture of what it means, and it depends on the context.
Therefore, a word should mean the same thing to everybody who uses it in the same context. But the subject of General Semantics makes the idea of communicating quite difficult, and it injures a person’s ability to communicate logically.
In school, one is told, “You must study geometry because that is the way you think.” The subject of Geometry contains proofs of certain relationships in space. But you are not told about the assumptions that underlie those proofs. Without those assumption those proofs are not valid.
Not knowing this, a student gets a very straitjacketed idea of thinking. He does not get a complete picture of how the mind thinks. This kind of limited logic then leads to irrational conclusions in life. This leads to trouble in the society.
Hubbard’s gives examples of how people have been taught carefully to reach irrational conclusions.
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PROPER DEFINITIONS
Thoughts are infinitely divisible into classes of thought.
BASIC LAW = something to which one aligns other junior facts and actions.
FACT = something that can be proven to exist by visible evidence.
OPINION = something which may or may not be based on any facts.
A sloppy mind sees no difference between a FACT and somebody’s opinion. The basic law is so far senior to the fact that one could throw the fact away and be no poorer. When basics are conceived to be merely similar to incidental remarks, the person cannot understand a situation, or USE a subject he studies.
Individuals to whom differences are identities and identities are differences can muddle up an operation to a point where disaster is inevitable.
The need for all discipline can be traced back to the ability to think.
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