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Five Thinking Positions
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"Let reason go before every enterprize, and counsel before every action."--Ecclesiasticus 38:33
"There are 5 sides to every story."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
There are always at least five choices, opinions, and versions regarding anything.
Understanding that there are at least five options regarding all things helps you to be more open, flexible, tolerant, and honest in your thinking.
If you realize that there are always at least five choices, then your decisions will be more likely to meet reality and be productive.
If you comprehend that there are always at least five opinions on any topic, then you will be more open to, tolerant of, and accepting of other people's views.
If you are aware that there are always at least five versions of any happening, then you are more likely to question authority, the news, propaganda, TV, and to think for yourself.
Since the five positions exist on a continuum, there are actually an infinite number of positions.
The five main thinking positions are: (1) thesis, (2) thesis-incorporating-antithesis, (3) synthesis, (4) antithesis-incorporating-thesis, (5) antithesis.
All five of these positions contain some truth, some data that the others leave out. However, often only one of these five positions accurately fits most of the available data.
For instance, most of the day-to-day reality on planet Earth falls into two of the five positions: thesis-incorporating-antithesis and antithesis-incorporating-thesis.
Another way to say this is that when we are not examining fine details or talking about overarching principles, then thesis-incorporating-antithesis and antithesis-incorporating-thesis usually fit the data best.
But on both the largest and smallest views of life, we find that dichotomies (thesis and antithesis) are the most accurate and relevant.
The logic of this is perfect: at the extremes we find the extreme positions working best, and in the middle-ground we find the middle or general principles working best.
Finally, it is important to understand that synthesis is the rarest position of all. Why is synthesis so rare? Because the true normal, the perfect average rarely exists by itself. Usually what people refer to as a synthesis is not a true synthesis but the experience of either thesis-incorporating-antithesis or antithesis-incorporating-thesis.
Persistently practice looking for all five positions.
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name: |
name: |
name: |
name: |
name: |
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incorporating antithesis |
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incorporating thesis |
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black |
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white |
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yes |
maybe not |
no |
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25% Y |
50% Y |
25% X |
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Those of you familiar with statistics can easily relate the paradigm of the five-thinking positions to the "normal curve" or what some call the bell-shaped distribution curve. For example, synthesis can be considered to be the mean or median. Dichotomies (thesis and antithesis) can be considered to be found in the space occurring two or three standard deviations from the mean. That is, thesis can be considered to be found in the space occurring two or three standard deviations from the left of the mean, and antithesis can be considered to be found in the space occurring two or three standard deviations from the right of the mean. The thesis-incorporating-antithesis can be considered to be found in the space one or two standard deviations from the mean to the left (negative standard deviation). The antithesis-incorporating-thesis can be considered to be found in the space one or two standard deviations from the mean to the right (positive standard deviation).
Examples of 5 Thinking Positions
QUOTATIONS VARIOUS SOURCES
"Can a man cling to the positive without any negative in contrast to which it is seen to be positive? If he claims to do so he is a rouge or a madman."--Chung Tzu
"To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything, or nothing, about it."--Olin Miller
"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand."--Eric Hoffer
"Nothing is more certain than uncertainties: / Fortune is full of fresh variety; / Constant in nothing but inconstancy."--Richard Barnfield
"There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purpose of human life."--John Stuart Mill
"There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it."--George Bernard Shaw
"To say dualism is bad or wrong is the worst kind of dualism."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
"There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking."--Alfred Korzybski
"Let reason go before every enterprize, and counsel before every action."--Ecclesiasticus 38:33
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."-- Confucius
"If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."--Anatole France
"I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side--I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts."--Bethania McKenstry
"The worst extreme view is the extreme view that extremes never exist."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
"A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things."--Eleanor Roosevelt
"If we could learn how to balance rest against effort, calmness against strain, quiet against turmoil, we would assure ourselves of joy in living and psychological health for life."--Josephine Rathbone
"Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has not heart; and any man who is over 30 and is not a conservative has no brains."--Sir Winston Churchill, 1874-1965
"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."--Blaise Pascal
"Goodness is not born of badness."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 22
"All language is dualistic."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 22
"All opposites are born of their own opposites."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 23
"I am saying anything born out of its opposite contains its opposite."--J. Krishnamurti, Can Humanity Change, page 24
"Duality is necessary for things but deadly for self."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
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