Making Sense of Paradoxical Thought
Paradoxical thinking is the practice or the ability to suspend automatic judgment, to tolerate seemingly opposed ideas — like a mental warrior holding together two repelling ideas without being torn apart — and through this, to awaken a transcendental understanding.
Paradoxical thought is a notion that can be found among philosophical and mystical literature of the east and west as generally a method of bringing together opposing views in order to arrive at a higher level concept — in the way of a new state of thinking, or a new state of being.[1] In the manner of Hegelian and Janusian[2] thinking, it is a dialectical process — the moving from one position to its opposite in order to arrive at a third, conciliatory path. This is the thesis > antithesis > synthesis dialectic.[3]
To the mystics though (who as well employed paradox as a dialectical process)[4], it is seen more as a state of being — the holding together in one’s mind of two opposing ideas in order to arrive at a noetic understanding, described as both a state of feeling and a state of knowledge.[5] The difference here is rather than a dialectical progression from thesis > antithesis > synthesis, it is an integrating within oneself of both the thesis and antithesis simultaneously, in order to experience a transcendental synthesis. But these are not mutually exclusive — non duality is arrived at both through the practice and theory, both through the external passing through the opposite as well as the internal merging together of opposites.
But rather than applying paradoxical thought as a method of seeking a higher level thinking or a higher level experiencing, it can be applied more generally as a way of communicating such higher level concepts. There is an inherent paradox in trying to translate the non-duality of experience into the duality of language and rational thought. But by holding together the experiential and the rational, we arrive at the noetic — an experiential and cognitive state that extends beyond [para] the intellectual [dox] process. In order to communicate holistically (to communicate the multidimensional nature of existence and experience using lower level, or binary, language), it is necessary to make use of paradoxical thinking — both in the writing and the reading of a text.
The experiential is always non-rational, which is why many mystics turned to poetic writing to convey their metaphysics.
[1] Besides philosophy and mysticism, paradoxical thinking has made formal inroads into the academic and business world given its relationship with creativity and thinking outside the box, particularly with the science of ‘creative integration’. [See “The Power of Paradox: Dr. Wendy Smith at TEDxUD”]
[2] Rothenberg, Albert. “The Process of Janusian Thinking in Creativity.” Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 24, #3. 1971.
[3] [Often referred to as the triadic thesis>antithesis>synthesis, Hegel instead used the terms abstract>concrete>absolute.] The Encyclopedia Logic: Part 1 of the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences. Trans by T.F. Geraets, W.A. Suchting, and H.S. Harris. 1991. Indianapolis: Hackett
[4] Mysticism is described by Mathew Bagger in his book The Uses of Paradox as “an alleged extraordinary cognition that ineffably comprehends paradox”. [Bagger, Mathew. The Uses of Paradox: Religion, Self-Transformation, and the Absurd. 2007]
[5] James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. 1902
