Peter Ping Li November 19, 2014

1. Toward the geocentric framework of intuition: the Yin-Yang balancing between the eastern and Western perspectives on intuition Peter Ping Li November 19, 2014

2. Content • Introduction • The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • Conclusion

3. It is increasingly recognized that the geocentric integration of the West and the east (the West-East balance) is not only economically but also culturally imperative for the whole world in the future. • The Eastern philosophies share the theme of wisdom, so I categorize them as one group and refer to as the ‘philosophy of wisdom,’ • The Western philosophies shared the theme of knowledge, which I categorize as another group and refer to as the ‘philosophy of knowledge’ • The geocentric integration can help develop a geocentric meta- paradigm of cognition from complexity (rooted in the eastern ontology of ‘tao’) to ambiguity (rooted in the eastern epistemology of Yin- Yang balancing), and finally to metaphor (rooted in the eastern methodology of ‘Wu’).

4. Finally, cognition in the domains of creativity and entrepreneurship is my focus because it appears to be the biggest puzzle in cognitive research, having the best potential to integrate the Western philosophy of knowledge and the eastern philosophy of wisdom toward a geocentric meta-paradigm of cognition with a framework of intuition at its core. • The central theme is that the eastern philosophy of wisdom is primarily about the creation(invention) of insight as exploration, in contrast to the Western philosophy of knowledge for the evaluation (application) of insight as exploitation. • I make it explicit that the ‘East’ here refers to the geographical areas traditionally influenced by the ancient Chinese civilization, while the ‘West’ refers to those geographical areas traditionally influenced by the ancient Greek civilization, with India and the Middle east as the bridges

5. It is interesting to note that the peripheral and emerging philosophies on either side of the East-West divide (e.g., the Western views on intuition and wisdom and the Chinese views on logic and rationality) are compatible with the orthodox and traditional philosophies on the other side (e.g., the Western views on logic and rationality and the Chinese views on intuition and wisdom), thus the potential for an East-West integration. • Eastern philosophical has the potential to help facilitate the paradigm shift in the West toward the post-modern philosophy and avoid the Western tendency toward polarized extremes • In this sense, the East-West integration will be asymmetrical for the East to absorb the West into a geocentric meta-paradigm.

6. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • The core features of the Western philosophy of knowledge/science: share three conspicuous interrelated ideas: the pre-existence of purpose, the necessity of consistency, the primacy of rationality. (James March) • The Western philosophy of knowledge in the form of logical positivism could not avoid playing the role of an epistemological policeman forbidding us to look precisely where we must look today, toward the uncertain, the ambiguous, and the contradictory. In particular, this kind of philosophy largely neglects the value of intuition. • We have to go beyond the Western philosophy of science rooted in the old “mind-as-computer” metaphor toward a new metaphor of “mind- as organism”, with the latter being complex, dynamic, ambiguous, open-ended, self-organized, heuristic, intuitive, imaginative, insightful and metaphorical

7. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • This new metaphor can be readily found in the East; to be more precise, in the ancient Chinese philosophy of wisdom. • The traditional Chinese philosophy of wisdom contains its unique ontology, epistemology and methodology. • First, the ancient Chinese embraced Tao in terms of Heaven-Human Harmony as the shared ontology for all Chinese philosophies. Tao refers to a complex world that is both objective and subjective in balance rather than being separated, and the macro-level context is integrated with the micro-level object rather than being separated, especially focusing on the dynamic process of self-becoming in the context of chaos.

8. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • Second, the ancient Chinese embraced the frame of Yin- Yang Balancing as the shared epistemology for all philosophies in China. This Chinese epistemology as either/and differs categorically from rational reductionism as the epistemology in the West both in the form of Aristotle’s either/or logic and Hegel’s both/or dialectics In particular, the frame of Yin- Yang balancing takes ambiguity as inevitable and desirable for cognition in complex and dynamic contexts. • Third, the ancient Chinese embraced Wu as the shared methodology for all philosophies in china. Wu with intuition (heuristic) as the process, imagination (via metaphor) as the mechanism and insight as the outcome. Wu-based intuition contains gradual and sudden subprocesses as well as conscious and subconscious subprocesses

9. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • The Chinese notions of intuition and insight differ from the Western notions of the two as either outcomes or processes and either separated or mixed. • Specifically, Wu encompasses the content and process of intuitive imagination with metaphor as the primary mechanism for creative cognition. I refer to metaphor as an inference via the similarities and differences in certain properties between entities not causally linked • The Chinese methodology of Wu is contrary yet complementary to the Western methodology of logical analysis (via deduction as well as induction).This nature of Wu is vividly illustrated by the allegory from Chuang Tzu

10. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition Allegory (chuang, 1962: 266–267) • The Ruler of the northern ocean was Shu(倏) (Heedless), the Ruler of the southern ocean was Hu（忽） (sudden), and the Ruler of the center was Chaos（混沌）. • Shu and Hu were continually meeting in the land of chaos, who treated them very well. they consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, ‘Men all have seven orifices for the purpose of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him.’ • Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of the seven days chaos died.

11. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • The above Chinese ontology, epistemology and methodology constitute the Eastern philosophy of wisdom. • To understand the unique value of the eastern philosophy of wisdom, it is imperative to highlight the inherent link between Zen and the trilogy of the Eastern philosophy of wisdom. The trilogy is vividly reflected in the practice of Zen, especially Wu as enlightenment. • The practice of Zen illustrates the distinctions between the Western philosophy of knowledge and the Eastern philosophy of wisdom. • While logic is the most characteristic feature of Western thought, the East is synthetic in its method of reasoning; it does not care so much for the elaboration of particulars as for a comprehensive grasp of the whole, and this intuitively. so the Eastern mind is necessarily vague and indefinite

12. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • Further, I distinguish between the Eastern notion of intuition as exploratory in nature as the core of the Eastern paradigm of cognition and the Western notion of intuition as exploitative in nature as the peripheral of the Western paradigm of cognition • Western notion of intuition is primarily concerned with fast and frugal decision making based on a heuristic routine as system 1 in contrast to the slow and deliberate decision making based on a logical model as system 2 • The Eastern notion of intuition is not confined to system 1, but emerges from both system 1 and system 2 as a balance beyond the dual-processing model

13. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition • To explicitly recognize the unique value of ‘Wu’, I distinguish ‘Wu’ as intuitive imagination from the Western notion of intuition as experience- or expertise-based automatic judgment with no need for imagination • The notion of ‘Wu’ is distinctive from the Western notion of intuition in many aspects First, Wu is concerned primarily with creative cognition in terms of insight beyond the Western notion of intuition as confined to the past experience and/or learned expertise for instinctive judgment. Second, Wu not only distinguishes between but also integrates the process and outcome of creation, rather than confounding or splitting the two variables in the Western notion of intuition.

14. The Eastern and the Western Perspectives on Intuition Third, Wu not only distinguishes between but also integrates both the stages of gradual and sudden creation, rather than confounding or splitting the stages in the Western notion of insight. Fourth, Wu embraces both complexity and ambiguity as the given antecedents as well as non-logical components as the inherent contents of intuitive imagination with metaphor being the central mechanism to create novel and tacit knowledge, all via the balance between subconscious and conscious Fifth, Wu is tacit and implicit in nature so that it defies the explicit constructs and logic system. • In sum, Wu as exploration and analysis as exploitation are necessary for the geocentric framework of intuition, with the former as the first stage and the latter as the second stage of cognitive process in general.

15. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • With metaphor at the core of Wu, the Chinese mode of cognition is often taken as correlative thinking • The most striking distinction between the Eastern and Western notions of metaphor is parallel to the distinction between their notions of intuition: the eastern notion of exploratory metaphor in contrast to the Western notion of exploitative metaphor • The West focuses on the structural mapping between two existing and known entities, the East stresses the open imagination from one existing and known entity to a non-existent or unknown one. • Exploratory metaphor is central to major scientific and technological inventions as compared to exploitative metaphor

16. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • Although metaphor can occur in both subconscious and conscious processes, it is more effective in generating insight in the subconscious process for the freest and richest associations that are unlikely in the conscious process. • This subconscious process can be facilitated by the practice of Zen meditation , which is related to the interaction between mindfulness and mindlessness • Upon the premise of conscious-subconscious balance, it can be argued that the subconscious process may be more central to creative cognition, while the conscious process may be more central to critical cognition.

17. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • Based upon the above discussion, it is critical to explore the role of imagination in the process of creation and entrepreneurship • First, imagination can be defined as a mental process to generate novel images or other things beyond what is already known • Second, imagination should be treated as a balance between conscious and subconscious processes since the subject is never perfectly aware of his or her imagination • Third, imagination can link art with science. By balancing the subconscious with the conscious, metaphor is the core mechanism for Wu to connect art with science.

18. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • Perhaps the most salient implication of Wu is for the potential overhaul of the dual-processing model of cognition consisting of an automatic process (system 1) and a controlled process (system 2) • Deeply rooted in the historical accounts of human mind, the dual- processing model attempts to offer a unifying framework. However, it suffers from two biases: First, the model is effective in distinguishing two core cognitive processes, but fails to integrate them into a holistic and dynamic unity. Second, the model implicitly assumes the automatic process as inferior because it is evolutionarily older and perhaps shared with animals, so the model fails to account for the value of intuitive imagination as unique to unconventional human creativity

19. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • The eastern philosophy of wisdom and paradigm of creative cognition can help here. • System 1 can be reframed as intuitive with two subtypes: ‘exploitative type 1a’ and ‘exploratory type 1b,’ with the latter being part of Wu. • Similarly, system 2 can be reframed as rationality with two subtypes: ‘exploitative type 2a’ and ‘exploratory type 2b,’ with the latter being part of Wu. • Further, the frame of Yin-Yang balancing can achieve the balance between system 1 (i.e., the exploratory type 1b) and system 2 (i.e., the exploratory type 2b) toward System 3 as a duality.

20. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • First, we can embrace the inherent conflict between the subsystems within each system (i.e., system 1 or system 2). For example, Evans identified three conflict types: (1) pre-emptive conflict resolution (similar to the either/or logic); (2) parallel-competing (similar to the both/or dialectics); and (3) default- interventionist types (similar to the either/and frame of Yin-Yang balancing). • Second, we can balance the subsystems as a partial trade-off in certain places (e.g. exploratory type versus exploitative type) and/or times as well as partial synergy at other places and/or times (e.g. exploratory intuition and exploratory analysis); We can also integrate the two systems as a partial trade- off in certain places and/or times (e.g., intuition versus analysis for exploitation) as well as partial synergy at other places and/or times (e.g. intuition and analysis for exploration).

21. The Implications of Wu for Future Research and Practice of Intuition • Hence, Wu has the potential to reframe the dual-processing model into a triple-processing model by treating Wu as a unique mode of exploration (system 3) to complement the two primary Western cognitive modes of exploitation (i.e., experiential routine in an automatic process as system 1 and a rational model in an arithmetic process as system 2). • It is worth noting that the stages of incubation and illumination are related to Wu as system 3, while the stages of preparation and verification are related to experiential routine as system 1 and rational model as system 2. The three cognitive modes help build a geocentric model of entrepreneurial cognition.

22. CONCLUSION • Despite the fundamental distinction between the West and the east, there emerges a paradigm shift from the Western philosophy of knowledge toward the eastern philosophy of wisdom, and further toward their geocentric integration. • This shift is consistent with the central theme that the eastern philosophy of wisdom, especially the methodology of Wu as system 3 as an open-minded cognitive mode for open-ended (complex, dynamic and ambiguous) issues, is primarily concerned with exploration, while the Western philosophy of knowledge is primarily concerned with exploitation via system 1 and system 2 as two close-ended cognitive modes for close-ended issues.

23. CONCLUSION • For future research on the distinction and integration between the eastern and Western views on intuition, the notion of ‘unlearning’ is interesting and significant, especially its possible link with Wu. • the founding father of taoism, pointed out that in pursuit of knowledge, something is gained each day; in pursuit of wisdom, something is lost each day; when nothing is left to lose anymore, everything is gained altogether. • In particular, according to Wu, unlearning is the necessary antecedent to exploratory learning as the path-breaking type of learning (related to system 3), but it is not needed for exploitative learning because the latter is the path-dependent type of learning (related to system 1 and 2)

24. CONCLUSION • In general, Wu-related issues can shed light on the necessary paradigm shift in the field of management, such as from realism or critical realism to constructivism .