Witchcraft and the existence of science

In the modern era of scientific rationality, people still have the witchcraft thinking prevailing in primitive barbarism and indulge in irrational and illogical fantasies. One of the important reasons may be the parallel thinking rooted in their own hearts. Levi-Strauss, a French sociologist, inspected the modern indigenous groups living in primitive tribes, personally went deep into the indigenous tribes to collect ethnographic materials, and wrote a book "Wild Thinking" to study uncivilized primitive humans. He believes that the concrete thinking of primitive aborigines and the abstract thinking of modern human beings are not two different levels of thinking, but two parallel thinking that have always existed in human history.

In the minds of modern people, there used to be primitive wild thinking and scientific empirical thinking coexisting, which was a relationship of mutual compensation and mutual penetration. The outstanding performance of primitive thinking is witchcraft thinking, a kind of thinking speculation determined by mysterious forces. The beliefs it cares about are rarely at the same level as the facts that modern science cares about. Witchcraft thinking has a complete meaning, independent of the scientific thinking system. They should not be confused or opposed, but should be regarded as two parallel ways of thinking to acquire knowledge. It is not so much different in nature as it is suitable for different times. Don't mistake witchcraft thinking and scientific thinking for products of two stages or periods. In our modern thinking, there are two forms of thinking to varying degrees. Fantasy is only limited to experience, showing hidden twists and turns and metaphors. An important reason why human beings can make progress is to cultivate a scientific and experienced way of thinking. When we are in danger of fear, this witchcraft thinking will still appear. Although we have entered the era of scientific rationality, there are still traces of primitive thinking in people, and wild thinking is still active.

Some researchers have found that the witchcraft thinking of primitive tribes is incompatible with that of modern civilization. Investigating some primitive tribes that are still in the barbaric stage, we find that primitive thinking is completely different from our civilized thinking. The first is to set up a mysterious and absolutely decisive central force, that is, the devil, mage or other ghosts who control everything, and sometimes turn it into personification. Then sum up the experience of this mysterious force. In primitive tribes, regarding the matter that wild animals eat people, primitive people thought that demons or wizards ordered wild animals to eat people, and thought that wild animals did not eat people. They think that it is the mage, the devil or the forest ghost who rules the tribe, and everything belongs to the ghost devil. Primitive tribes understand the world in a different way from modern civilization. In their eyes, the world is ruled by ghosts, demons and witches, and everything is centered on ghosts, demons and witches, forming the starting point of all related problems. If it rains, someone gets caught in the rain and has a fever. In the view of primitive thinkers, both these things were done by demons or wizards. Besides, they will not admit that there is a causal link between events, and attribute everything to the arbitrary power of demons and wizards. These two things have nothing to do except what the devil and the mage did, that is, rain has nothing to do with fever. This is contrary to the scientific thinking understood by modern civilization. Scientific thinking does not need to communicate with the demon mage, nor is it the center of what the demon mage decides. Instead, it removes the decision of the mysterious power devil, uses the direct causal relationship between things, and obtains the result of testing the relationship through scientific argumentation. Witchcraft thinking interprets what happens in the mind as the work of the devil or the mage, and takes false speculation as the real reality. Civilized people think that an idea comes from the mind, but this idea may not be transformed into real existence. Scientific thinking is the decisive force to eliminate mysterious magic. It holds that we can't deduce the real existence from rationality, but should examine the relationship of things themselves, which must be based on the empirical facts of actual things. In this way, it is concluded that reality is one thing, and grasping the concept of reality is another. People can imagine an apple or an object, but they can't make this real apple or object. From any thinking, it is impossible to deduce some kind of real existence. It is ridiculous for modern thinking to attribute all associative and speculative ideas to mysterious forces and turn them into real things from this mysterious force!

The French anthropologist Levi Brewer wrote Primitive Thinking. Primitive people lived in a special barbaric environment, which made primitive people's thinking follow special laws. This kind of unconstrained thinking does not care about the law of logical contradiction, it is a falsification that ignores empirical facts and will not be regarded as a mistake in the face of obvious contradictions. Ignoring the logical identity and the confirmation of empirical facts means that modern people show themselves and many other things in an incredible way. This incredible view is that modern people can't get rid of it and gather in the collective representation in a subconscious way. First of all, everything comes down to mysterious magic, from which we can get the explanation of natural environment, historical process and human activities. It is only when the interpretation is centered on magic that history and reality are fabricated in the form of myths and legends and exist in people's hearts in the form of collective representation, regardless of whether it violates logic or not. We modern people have not completely got rid of this primitive wild witchcraft thinking, and we are still developing our own process in parallel with scientific thinking. This is a collective representation, which has left a deep impression on every member. It does not depend on the individual itself, but it lasts longer than the individual. Any individual lives under its influence and imposes it on every member, which also causes every member of the collective to have feelings, fears and worship for mysterious forces. The primitive witchcraft thinking is still the same today, but it contradicts the empirical scientific thinking and has to be transformed into the subconscious and hidden in us.

Modern people have primitive traces of escaping from self-anxiety. In order to escape loneliness, no matter how absurd, they will seek refuge. Fromm's Escape from Freedom reveals that the individualized process of awakening from nature is an increasingly anxious and lonely state. In the face of a dangerous world, if you want to surrender to authority to gain a sense of security, the price is to give up your freedom and worship external authority, so as to get rid of insecurity. This may be the reason why primitive witchcraft thinking still has vitality. Avoid insecurity and anxiety, or use the pain of others to pass on disasters. The famous British anthropologist Fraser's book "Golden Branches" explained that primitive barbarians transmitted disasters. They explain the theory of life and think that the soul lives in the body, which obviously confuses the relationship between matter and immateriality. Explore the national customs of hunting, animal husbandry, agriculture and other social development stages. Another aspect of these customs is that they sometimes pile misfortunes and sins on the dying God, believing that he can take away all misfortunes forever and make people innocent. Transferring one's sins to others, letting others suffer instead of oneself, and taking the blame and pain are all ways to alleviate anxiety and fear.

Witchcraft thinking in primitive barbarian times is a kind of self-evident knowledge that is illogical, irrational and inexperienced. It despises contradictions, worships mysterious forces to eliminate fears and place emotions, and regards self-illusion as real absurdity. Looking at primitive times, ignorant human beings all showed a kind of * * *, that is, they all had an external mysterious force to decide themselves outside themselves. Is to concentrate all your knowledge on mysterious power. Starting from the understanding that mysterious power determines everything, mysterious power becomes the intermediary connection point between man and the outside world, which constitutes the whole process and result of cognition.

Adoption oh, O(∩_∩)O Thank you.