The Formulating of ...ismsIt is the natural propensity of man to attempt to get
everything figured out with finite reasoning. This is
particularly true of man in Western civilization, following
in the footsteps of Aristotelian reasoning, and seeking to
explain all phenomena in the linear logic of direct cause
and effect. Man wants to turn his observations into
syllogisms and rational laws based on deductive inferences
and inductive persuasion.
The philosophers and the theologians, in particular,
have served as thought-mechanics to ratchet and wrench
human thought into ideological constructs. They are not
content to allow the conceptual artists of poetry and drama
and music to express ideas in abstraction. The logicians can
allow for no paradoxes or antinomies that are against the
law of reason. Their minds short-circuit whenever there are
loose-ends of thought that cannot be tied-down into an
outline of reasonable categories. Contrary to Eastern
thinkers who are more prone to accept a both-and
explanation rather than a polarized either-or explanation,
the Western thinkers have a difficult time accepting the
balance of a dialectic tension. Western philosophy and
theology has thus tended to analyze, categorize,