Joe, while the syllogism you state (A is A, etc.) is indeed the foundation of
all western logic, I think it is important to point out that it is also, as
such, the foundation of dualistic thinking. We indeed live in a dualistic
world, and thus logic is a great tool for understanding the working of things,
as you point out. But we know from Heisenberg's Principle that it doesn't
ALWAYS apply (as once was thought), so its not invalid to question dualism.
In my view, dualism is the underlying paradigm of patriarchy and patriarchal
religion, i.e. take everything that doesn't fit the model, and project it
outwards, thereby forcing it into a dualistic relationship with us, fall down
and worship it as greater than us because we don't understand it. I'm sure
that as a wiccan you have experienced moments when the "ALL" (for lack of a
better term) seemed to permeate you and everyone in the circle in a very
dualism-erasing way, and provide a "truth" beyond logic. I feel that we need,
in a sense, to liberate dualism, to not make it stand for more than it is, to
let it be a system we use for the tasks for which it is helpful, but not be
our entire definition of reality. I think this is what Heather was getting
at. I think, as humans, we are unavoidably drawn into dualistic thinking
beyond all other modes because human language is inherently dualistic. On the
morphemic level, we change/add/delete meaning to words by changing one phoneme
(bat/cat/that), which dualism provides a dualistic structure on which to hang
all thinking. (It's even deeper in language, actually, but I use this as an
example). So I don't deny the necessity of dualism, but do feel it limits us,
and that reality is much "larger." And I don't think someone saying that
logic is a basis for patriarchy is an attack on you at all, but an attempt to
understand how we have trapped ourselves in these seemingly unassailable
categories that dualism so readily supplies, and we can be free. I don't have
enough philosophy or science to debate these issues very worthily, but I do
have vision, so am struggling to make a point I know you are more well versed
in than me.
Jane
