Gonzalo asked:

I would like to know if you find the following question interesting enough, or deserving enough of an
answer. To what extent are human beings analytical in nature? Can we reduce, or explain, all aspects
of human and non-human life through analytical explorations or analysis? What are or could be the
limits (of what they can explain) of such analysis? Also, why is it so difficult for some of us to accept
analysis final or absolute?

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There are several questions her, but I get the impression that it would be appropriate to talk about
how analysis might lead to 'Truth', or perhaps knowledge, or at least certainty.

You might first ask, 'What is analysis?'

I might set out with a definition of 'analysis' but I suppose this would be begging the question! There is
no agreement about exactly what 'analysis' is, but there a few things you might consider, not least: is
analysis about the clarification of complex terms or concepts? You might say that 'analysis' amounts
to the rational and systematic approach to the contents of ones mind and one's experiences, and that
this includes the reduction of complex ideas to simpler constituent parts. It might also involve an
examination of the relation between parts and whole, or how ideas fit together, including assumptions
or inferences that lie behind certain claims or inconsistencies in people's arguments.

Once you have some sense of what analysis is, you could ask what use is it and why do people do it?
Of course, each of these are potentially huge topics, but you might want to think whether analysis as
you understand it brings you closer to what you might regard as truth, or helps you recognise truth
when confronted with it. Alternatively, assuming the absence of such a weighty standard, you might
think of analysis as simply helping to achieve contingent and changeable goals and desires, however
incomplete or incoherent such projects might be.

What is the value of analysis?

Some would say that analysis reveals to us some underlying order or structure to the world,
something that is perhaps not obvious in our everyday existence or unexamined experiences.
Scientific analysis is an example of this.

Or analysis could be presented as an activity with pragmatic value, even if not revealing truth as such

One thing that I think might be of interest to you, is the relationship between introspective analysis
and certainty- a claim that knowledge is partly based on careful introspection of our internal states.
This would be in contrast to, say, organised religion, where private introspection is considered feeble
when measured against orthodox teachings. A lot of liberal ideas, influential in ethics and political
philosophy, flow from this idea that an individual's careful consideration of his own states leads to a
certainty that is almost foundational. If you're interested in this aspect of analysis you might want to
read some of Charles Taylor's work. The Ethics of Authenticityis an easy start. Or try his
Philosophical Arguments.

If analysis is this kind of thinking, is it inherent to human beings? What of a life without such analysis?
If reading all this and reflecting on it is just wearing you out, you could look at how other traditions
have addressed these issues, looking for the 'pure contemplation of truth, independent of written
signs', as someone put it. This includes, for example, Indian accounts of the direct experience of
reality.

The East Asian perspective, as presented by Zhuangzi in the 'Inner Chapters', suggests that rational
analysis cannot be used to find truth. Zhuangzi makes some comical attacks on the idea of thinking
and discussing one's way to solutions; he portrays the brain as just another organ of the body, and
highlights conventions of language that limit such exchanges. His brand of Daoism is illustrated by a
Butcher who carves up cows; the butcher develops from a thinking individual who takes much time to
carve up the cow, to one whose work is unthinking, faster and more fluent. This intuitive doing,
without the intermediate step of thinking, could be called 'following the Dao'.

Andy Lambert