"Logical outgrowth."

by
Dean Gotcher

A "fusion word." A word which appears to mean one thing but can mean something else. A word which allows opinion to be treated as equal as an established truth.  An evolutionary outcome to any prior agreement, making all positions relative, negating a "ye-nay" didactic, facts based, static, patriarchal praxis.  Using etymology for the secularization of religious terminology

"'fusion-words' [double speak] . . . to solve the 'is' and 'ought' problem."  [A] "'heuristic' . . . part of the new humanistic Weltanschauung."  "Seem to be" [words.  "The words ‘seem to' are significant; it is the perception which functions in guiding behavior." (Carl Rogers)  Words of double speak, ambiguity.  Examples:] "mature, evolved, developed, stunted, crippled, fully functioning, graceful, awkward, clumsy." "Acceptance," [not basing decisions on specifics but on generality, for the purpose of achieving consensus.] "Here the fusion comes not so much from an improvement of actuality, the is, but from a scaling down of the ought, from a redefining of expectations so that they come closer and closer to actuality and therefore to attainability."  "The process of acceptance.... Move toward resignation.... Move toward thinking.... "After all that's not so bad. It's really quite human . . ."  Abraham Maslow The Further Reaches of Human Nature.  [brackets] added

By redefining terms, Tillich cultivates a "double-speak" designed to convey opposing messages to different groups. He refuses to define terms to which he obviously attaches definite meanings. Tillich's elusiveness reflects a calculated effort to remain esoteric. He keeps his deepest meanings hidden from all but a few who are prepared to receive it.  [Comment regarding Nels F. S. Ferre who attended one of Tillich's classes at Union Theological Seminary.] Tillich at first treated Ferre as one of the innocent whose abiding faith should not be disturbed. "But by the time I had phrased my questions with depth and seriousness long enough and often enough, I knew he actually did not believe in the Christian God who raises the dead and who works personally in human history." (Ferre) One reason Tillich is unwilling to openly disavow religion is that he must be accepted as a theologian in order to formulate and gain acceptance of an imaginative Grand Synthesis of theology and philosophy. He is telling those Christians who can hear that they can accept humanism without relinquishing Christianity if they will accept man as the true meaning of God. Demonism concerns man's attitude toward others. Estrangement describes the condition of man which results from the Demonism of his fellow man. The answer to man's predicament lies in the realization by individual man, that all men are essentially one and that the one is God. This self-realization is a "return" to union: potential becomes actual. "Sin" is the estrangement of man from man. Tillichian salvation is a symbol, a symbol for becoming ultimately concerned about humanity--salvation in an "eternal" present.  Leonard Wheat  Paul Tillich's Dialectical Humanism

". . . to identify with more and more of the world, moving toward the ultimate of mysticism, a fusion with the world, or peak experience, cosmic consciousness, etc." Abraham Maslow  Maslow on Management

The process of moving the conscience (facts—"Is" and "Not") into a state of confusion (fusing facts "Is" and "Not" with opinions "Ought" producing *cognitive dissonance, which, if properly facilitated, leads to the negation of "Not") for the purpose of achieving consensus (the acceptance of opinion— feelings,  "felt" needs—as facts, producing a state of "seems to," where a fact is treated as an individuals opinion, and a group's collective opinion can be acted upon as if it was each individuals fact) so all can participate in a sensuous, humanist, agreement.  This effectively switches the conscience—subjecting individuals to a voice outside the here and now, non-sensuous voice—into a superego,  where individuals are guided by the voices of the present—evaluating the voice of establishment of the past by the voices of change in the present—resulting in a "paradigm shift."

*Cognitive dissonance. "The lack of harmony between what one does and what one believes." " The pressure to change either one's behavior or ones belief."  Ernest R. Hilgard, Richard C. Atkinson,  Introduction to Psychology