In the previous article (this article), I introduced the origin of empathy, which is one of our mental functions. Today, I will introduce the origin of logical sense.
How to use our unique individualities
Sometimes, we want to know how to use our unique individualities. Our uniquenesses often hinder our happiness if we don’t know how to use them.
Individuality is a double-edged sword. It gives us abundance if we deal with it appropriately. However, if we treat it wrongly, it hurts us.
Examples are empathy and logical sense. We have to use them correctly, or we lose our mental balance. A typical example is a mental complex. It often afflicts us.
However, we sometimes don’t know how to use them efficiently.
Since I already explained the meaning of empathy in the previous article, I will introduce the origin of logical sense this time. Then, I will explain why independence suits empathic and logical people.
This logic might allow you to solve your mental problems and improve your life.
The origin of logical sense
The origin of logical sense is simple. It is not as complicated as empathy.
It has developed in a way that is entirely different from empathy.
Around 7,000,000 years ago, apes began bipedalism before evolving into humans, which is standing with two legs and walking. That allowed them to increase the weight of the brain.
They already had enough brain function for five senses, which are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, so they added a new feature: a thinking ability—a primitive form of logical sense.
It worked well, especially for learning. Learning allowed passing on information and experiences to descendants, in addition to genes. Knowledge allowed them to live better. After humans separated from apes about 5,000,000 years ago, people gradually began to cooperate socially more.
Logic enabled them to guess solutions to things they have not yet experienced. A typical example was hunting. Primitive logical thinking led to efficient hunting for them. Perhaps that is why males tend to be logical, while females tend to be empathic.
The characteristics that logical sense required
Logical sense required several characteristics, as follows:
- A new motivation for new things: curiosity
- Freedom for trials and errors
- An ability to concentrate on one thing
- A nature that is less susceptible to influence from the surroundings’ beliefs
That is why people with logical sense have strong curiosity, love freedom, focus on one thing, and are indifferent to short-term social trends.
In other words, those natures prove your logical sense.
The variance in the strength of logical sense
There is a variance in the strength of logical sense, like empathy.
Society didn’t need many logical people. This is because logical sense makes it hard to cooperate socially. Logical people prefer freedom, tend to act freely, and don’t follow social conventions.
In addition, logical sense requires time to think. The more logical sense someone has, the more time it takes to conclude and start action.
They are ineffective for social cooperation and hunting.
That would be why there are fewer people with logical sense than those with empathy.
Why logic suppresses empathy
Our logical strength suppresses the empathic activity.
To think logically, we have to focus on facts. It eliminates others’ beliefs and values that could change.
In other words, we create the boundaries of the self. It prevents us from unconsciously imitating others. It is the opposite mental work of empathy.
That is why the more logical strength we have, the more we can limit empathy. By increasing the judgments of logic, we can build our boundaries of the self.
The four types of personalities
That tells us why empathic, creative people are not good at living socially. In other words, independence suits them.
To make it easier to understand, let’s look at the four types of personalities. The next figure shows it:
Do you remember this? We see this classification for the first time in a while. This is the logic I created years ago.
By the way, I have intentionally avoided using this concept recently because I wanted another approach. However, the time has finally come to return to this logic and summarize my theory.
Explanation of each personality
We classify people’s personalities by two axes: empathy and logical sense.
Each personality is as follows:
- Extroverts are people with less empathic and less logical sense. They depend on society and cooperate with others. They are the majority.
- Traditional empaths are people with high empathy and less logical sense. They help weak people, prevent social decline, actively learn and imitate discoveries that innovators found, and prepare for the future socially.
- Innovative empaths are people with high empathy and high logical sense. They are the minority. Although they have difficulty living socially because of their characteristics, they can live independently effortlessly.
- Innovators are people with less empathy and high logical sense. They find new, efficient ways for society.
In this article, assume we are innovative empaths who are empathetic and logical.
Why we are not good at living socially
Those four personalities show us why we are not good at living socially.
This is because we have two contradictory mental features: empathy and logical sense.
These individualities have different purposes for society. Empathy is for effectiveness by imitating others. Its goal is to be actively influenced by others while avoiding unnecessary interference to others. On the other hand, logical sense is for the efficiency in finding new ways. Its objective is to affect others while preventing being influenced by others.
That is why we struggle with our duality. Contradictory functions created for different purposes exist within a single body.
If we try to satisfy empathy, we cannot satisfy logical sense, and vice versa. This is difficult to handle.
No social roles
To make matters worse, society doesn’t need innovative empaths.
This is because society is satisfied with just three types: extroverts, traditional empaths, and innovators. Innovators find new efficiency, traditional empaths imitate actively, and extroverts follow them. There is no social place for innovative empaths.
In other words, these three types can live consistently. They don’t have duality. To be precise, they have duality, but their duality is not as painful as ours. They can live without worrying about mental contradictions. (I will explain how traditional empaths limit their intense empathy in a later article.)
That is why we are not good at living socially. We are a contradictory existence brought about by the process of human evolution.
A hope: independence
However, there is a hope. It is independence.
Society doesn’t always exist. It can collapse. History proves it.
In such a confused era, innovative empaths are strongest because they have all the features the society needs.
In other words, we are equivalent to one society per person. The other personalities have to rely on others. On the other hand, we can live independently.
That tells us how to live well: we live as one society. Each is a leader of one society—the society called ‘oneself.’ We have two capable subordinates inside us: empathy and logical sense. We assign tasks suitable for each of them. Although contradictory, they will obey us if we try to be their masters.
However, if we try to be a part of society, that lifestyle will exhaust us. One of our subordinates inside us will be dissatisfied and rebel against us.
Balance between empathy and logical sense
Both subordinates need balance. Empathy maintains moderation by having the logical sense equal power to it. Logical sense is as well. They are partners and also rivals.
If we lose balance, one side goes out of control.
If we have grown up in an unreasonable environment, we tend to have overly strong empathy and too poor logical sense. In this case, we cannot stop emotional reactions.
A solution is training our logical sense, which limits empathy. That will give us mental stability.
We don’t have to seek the meaning of our lives. It is an area that logical sense is good at. Our logical sense will answer it when we have developed our logical sense enough.
Conclusion
That is the origin of logical sense and why independence suits empathic and logical people.
We live as one society. We have two capable subordinates inside us: empathy and logical sense. They will obey us if we try to be their masters.
However, if we try to be a part of society, they will lose balance.
This logic might allow you to solve your mental problems and improve your life.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
