Properties of White Logic and Their Genesis
Hereinafter the following notations will be used:
Ti – white logic ("structural logic")
Te – black logic ("business logic"
Fi – white ethics ("ethics of relationships")
Fe – black ethics ("ethics of emotions")
Si – white sensorics ("sensorics of sensations")
Se – black sensorics ("volitional sensorics")
Ni – white intuition ("intuition of time")
Ne – black intuition ("intuition of possibilities")
TIM – “type of information metabolism” (one of 16 possible in socionics), also known as “sociotype” or simply “type”.
By “specialists in a given function” or “subjects of a function” in the context of the articles of this series we mean representatives of those types in which the corresponding function, according to socionic models, occupies the base or creative position.
Instead of a preface (beginners may skip this) 2
Some assumptions about the genesis of white logic 6
On the properties that most strongly distinguish white and black logicians 19
1. Properties characteristic ONLY of Ti (but not of Te): 19
2. Properties characteristic ONLY of Te (but not of Ti): 20
Comparison of experimentally identified and theoretically declared properties of “white logic” 22
Notes on the role of Ti and Te in scientific work 28
Instead of a preface (beginners may skip this) {#instead-of-a-preface-(beginners-may-skip-this)}
All specific facts and statements about the properties of functions contained in this article are not the result of either theoretical speculations of the author, or his life observations, or a compilation of descriptions of function properties by other socionic authors. In this series of articles we set ourselves the goal of describing the manifestations of the eight socionic functions absolutely objectively, relying solely and only on the results of experiments with diagnostic questionnaires.
By properties characteristic of a socionic function we understood those primary properties corresponding to individual questions of the questionnaires (later generalized by similarity of content into clusters), which took maximum values for this function among all eight socionic functions. We emphasize: not just positive values (i.e., exceeding the average population level), but precisely maximum.
If some property is noted by us as empirically characteristic primarily of white logic (according to the results of processing diagnostic questionnaires), this does not mean, of course, that this property is equally strongly expressed in any of the four socion types of the white-logical group. For example, it may be especially strongly expressed in LSI, slightly less so in LII and SLE, while in ILE (for example) it may be only at the average population level, or even slightly below it. This sequence is given only as an example and may, of course, be different. However, the characteristic nature of a property for Ti is determined by its average expression across the four TIMs, and the property is considered characteristic for Ti if for other functions the results of averaging across their corresponding quartets of TIMs turn out to be even lower in value. Due to the mentioned unevenness of distribution across the four socion types of the white-logical group, a very rare characteristic property is an exclusive marker of only white logic – it may be linked (though to a much weaker degree) also with other functions, as well as with socionic traits: extraversion/introversion, rationality/irrationality, emotivism, positivism, etc. It should be noted that properties ideally evenly distributed across the four TIMs of a functional group practically do not exist. For any property, no matter how characteristic of Ti, even considered in the literature “canonical” and “determinant” for this function, uneven distribution across the four white-logical TIMs is still noted. Of course, the same is true for properties characterizing any other socionic function – in relation to its own specific TIM “quartet.” For example, the statement “When I start reasoning logically out loud, I always already know in advance where these reasonings will converge in the end” has maximum loading on Ti, then on Te, then on both sensing functions, and among traits – most strongly on logic, and then on rationality. By TIMs the loadings of this statement are also uneven: the largest loading is in LSI, and the smallest (though still positive) – in type ILE.
It would probably be more illustrative to characterize each “empirical” property of white logic noted below in the article with a histogram of its distribution across TIMs, traits, and other functions. However, the format of the article, and also the limited tasks we set for this publication, do not allow us to do this. In any case – to illustrate the article with more than a hundred histograms, unfortunately, is not quite realistic. Mainly for this same reason (i.e., due to the limitation on material volume) we did not illustrate the highlighted empirical clusters of properties with examples of specific numerous questionnaire statements included in each cluster, but limited ourselves only to more general substantive descriptions of these clusters. These descriptions fully reflect the content of the specific questionnaire items forming these clusters, and, we assure, are maximally devoid of the author’s “speculation.” We admit that we refrained from examples of questionnaire statements for another reason. To illustrate a hundred described clusters with several hundred questionnaire statements would mean to some extent disclose the diagnostic coefficients of the corresponding questionnaire items. However, experimental scientific research work with their use is still ongoing, including with the participation of anonymous internet respondents. Disclosure of specific diagnostic coefficients of several hundred questionnaire questions could make it easier (for not entirely conscientious respondents) to fill out diagnostic questionnaires “for a desired type,” and thereby, even “purely hypothetically,” cast doubt on the reliability of future scientific results yet to be obtained.
With any empirical definition of function values (and then also of averaged function properties in groups of subjects), one theoretical problem arises. The matter is that the concept of a function (any of the eight socionic functions) is in socionics to a large extent undefined. If we consider, for example, that white logic is all those psychic properties that to one degree or another belong to the types ILE, LII, SLE, and LSI, distinguishing this group of types from the other types of the socion – this is one approach. If we consider that when defining these group properties the program and creative position of the function should be taken into account with different weight, and therefore the contribution of LII and LSI to the properties of Ti should be considered with somewhat greater weight compared to ILE and SLE (for example, by 20% greater than for ILE and SLE) – this is another approach. If when defining group properties we average directly the correlation coefficients obtained for a given property with each of the TIMs that are members of this group – this is again one approach. If, however, we average not the correlation coefficients, but their squares with signs, i.e. the common variances linking the type with the property – this is again another, alternative approach. One can in fact do it this way or that, because the concept of a psychic function, suitable for unambiguous measurement, is not defined in socionics. The only way out of the dead end is a volitional decision: to axiomatically clarify, and in essence – for the first time in the history of socionics to postulate, what exactly in the quantitative sense a function is in relation to quantitatively measured properties of types. But, in order to deliberately satisfy the tastes and appetites of any formal critics, we went by a more labor-intensive and less ambitious path: we simply calculated the socionic functions of respondents (based on the results of diagnostic questionnaires) by all eight theoretically possible methods at once. Eight, not four, because another degree of freedom in the measurements is associated with the choice of the procedure of normalization of functions – whether before averaging to preliminarily bring the individual profiles of TIMs and functions of respondents to a form with equal profile contrast, i.e. with equal spread of the values of “peaks,” or whether it is sufficient for all calculations to limit oneself to the “raw” values of peaks directly obtained in the experiment from the subjects. Fortunately, the results of all eight approaches diverged extremely little both in the final mutual correlations of functions and in the resulting averaged “portraits” of their typical manifestations. Therefore, those qualitative conclusions about the properties of functions that we present further in the article are equally valid for any possible procedures of function calculation.
In all cases, first the characteristic properties for each socionic type individually were averaged, and all further procedures aimed at determining the properties of specific functions were already carried out not with individual, but with average-type values. Thus, the heterogeneity of the experimental sample (in simple terms, the different number of LII and ILE participating in the experiments, etc.) was completely leveled and did not affect the results.
For analysis and calculations, diagnostic questionnaires of more than three thousand respondents were used (among them about 1000 white logicians). The questionnaires contained from 300 to 600 questions (more precisely, not questions, but statements evaluated by the respondent on a multi-point scale, concerning his psychological, physiological, and behavioral features). Several types of questionnaires with different question-statements were used. Therefore, in the course of substantive analysis of specific psychological properties, semantic clusters were formed from items of several different questionnaires, in which differently worded question-statements with similar psychological meaning were gathered.
The type diagnosis was made to the respondent directly from his questionnaire, and the type declared by the respondent was not taken into account (it was considered at earlier stages of work, when the questionnaires “learned” by their questions to correctly determine the type of respondents). To check the resulting “portraits” of typical properties of socionic functions, a parallel procedure was carried out with calculations only by declared types – and this time without considering the results of questionnaire type diagnostics. The properties of functions obtained in the end turned out to be completely similar and quite analogous to those obtained in the main work when diagnosing TIMs by questionnaires – but only much more “blurred” and less contrast-expressed (such a result is predictable – declared types correspond to true ones in about 50% of cases, while the questionnaires used by us diagnosed the correct TIM no less than in 95% of cases).
To increase the reliability of analysis results, one third of the questionnaires with the lowest control indicators of reliability and truthfulness of answers were excluded from the main processing procedure. Just in case, they were not completely excluded, but analyzed separately. The control calculation of properties for the group of precisely these rejected questionnaires showed, however, again the very same qualitative properties of functions, but strongly “blurred” and expressed significantly less contrastively (about the same as in the case of “declared” TIMs).
The TIMs of respondents were diagnosed in the questionnaires directly, by correlations of respondents’ answers with “masks” of typical average answers that were previously, as a result of many years of preliminary research, obtained for all 16 TIMs (and, of course, separately for each questionnaire). Thus, the diagnosis of a TIM was made by the highest correlation of answers with one of the 16 vectors of diagnostic coefficients. The number of coefficients in the vector was equal to the number of questionnaire questions, and in magnitude each coefficient was the average of the answers of “guaranteed” representatives of a given TIM, who answered the corresponding question. Thus, no socionic traits were used in the diagnosis at all. The diagnosis was made relying on the holistic TIM – and precisely this diagnostic procedure, judging by the results of our many years of preliminary research, proved itself the most sensitive, accurate, reliable, and valid.
Vectors of diagnostic coefficients (16 vectors for each questionnaire, i.e. one for each TIM) were previously obtained and refined with the help of training samples, in which respondents with reliably declared TIMs were collected (at the same time, respondents with unreliably declared TIMs according to one or another criterion, as well as declared TIMs sharply diverging from the results of subsequent primary diagnostics by coefficients of the first and second approximation, were excluded from the training samples). At the initial stage of research, the primary diagnostic coefficients obtained for the questions were also controlled with the help of substantive analysis, based on “canonical” socionic descriptions of type and trait properties. However, this was control, not selection, and it showed the validity of the approach. Later, to refine the diagnostic vectors, along with expanding the qualitative training sample, only mathematical methods were used, namely: the effective statistical method of successive refining approximations, the statistical method of optimal separation of TIMs and trait poles (minimization of distribution kurtosis), as well as the uniquely suitable for socionic analysis method of data symmetrization (based on the idea of mathematical equality, symmetry of all socion types). The diagnostic vectors obtained in final form are therefore devoid of any author’s subjectivity and reflect the averaged representations of types in various socionic schools of the CIS, gravitating toward the same “classical” socionic standard in their understanding of the semantics of types, traits, and functions. “Averaging across schools” in such a situation is only an additional plus. Thus, we for the first time (and reliably) managed to translate the averaged socionic public opinion about the most characteristic and indicative markers of types, which previously existed only in the informal individual experience of professional and most experienced socionists, into the language of quantitative diagnostic coefficients generalizing this experience and strict mathematical formulas. With the help of purely mathematical procedures, as a result of the subsequent analysis of responses to questionnaires of several thousand respondents, TIM diagnostic coefficients were obtained also for such properties that previously had not been studied or analyzed at all by socionics with respect to types (for example, some TIM markers related to their psychophysiological characteristics).
The study of the reproducibility of the socionic diagnosis in repeated parallel testing by independent questionnaire forms, as well as the comparison of questionnaire diagnoses with reliably declared types, showed that as a result of many years of research and refinement of diagnostic coefficient vectors, the level of reliability of questionnaire socionic type diagnosis has been reached, in any case exceeding 95%. Let us note that for a reliable experimental analysis of the properties of socionic functions (their semantics), to which the review of results in this series of articles is devoted, even a much lower level of reliability in TIM diagnosis would have sufficed.
MAIN PART {#main-part}
Some assumptions about the genesis of white logic {#some-assumptions-about-the-genesis-of-white-logic}
The main mechanisms and manifestations of white ethics (ethics of relations) are universal for all primates, from macaques to humans. What is the subject of ethics of relations? - Emotional relationships between people or members of the pack. Nuances of facial expressions, voice, and behavior that decode the nature of these relationships. Attention to public opinion. Who sits closer, who sits farther away. Who sits higher, who sits lower. Who gets more grooming and stroking. Who has more friends and allies, who has fewer friends and allies. Whom one can turn to with a request, whom and how one can influence in order to get something. Where, as a result of deformation of the established structure of relations, a weak link has appeared - due to someone offending someone, committing an act unacceptable from the point of view of social roles, betraying someone’s expectations, or losing friends. Also - the desire not to spoil relations with other members of the pack or collective, to accumulate friends oneself and to commit socially approved actions in order to raise one’s status. The ability to effectively please situationally high-status individuals and to grovel before them in case of their anger. Readiness and even love for accepting strokes and grooming from others. Increased social suggestibility. A fairly high degree of expressive mimicry and vocal emotionality in order to convey approval to high-status individuals and to threaten low-status or offending individuals. Developed social instincts - in particular, when some threat arises, one such social instinct encourages approaching one’s pack, rather than running in the opposite direction. This also includes the prohibition against killing “one’s own” and those similar to oneself. The development of specifically social emotions - for example, feelings of humiliation and shame, as well as the feeling of gratitude. Everything listed here is a generalization of purely empirical research into the semantics of white ethics (that is, it is not postulated or invented; the details of the research can be found in our article of the current series on white ethics).
What was said in the previous paragraph is quite enough to make the main generalizing conclusion: the main subjects of white ethics are the tracking, use, and maintenance of the complex structure of social relations in a primate pack. The main species-specific task of white ethics is maintaining the complex structure of social relations in the pack, which helps the species survive as a whole. In order to successfully cope with these tasks, the brains of primates (and some other social species of animals) have, in the course of evolution, learned to create a model of the structure of complex hierarchical relations among individuals in the social pack. This model is static, that is, stable, but flexible - current changes in it are possible. Moreover, each individual is interested in and continuously tracking, and even deliberately creating, such changes in order to use them to raise their own social status.
Presumably, the areas of the cerebral cortex associated with carrying out the structure-reflecting mechanisms of white ethics are located in the left hemisphere, adjacent to the semantic zones of the visual and speech centers.
Now imagine that, due to mutations, male individuals appeared in a group whose mimicry and ability to read others' emotions were impaired, thereby severely disrupting a critical component of white ethical mechanisms. These defects alone, under otherwise equal conditions, would suffice to make such males outsiders in the group. In most primate species (and likely among our ancestors), only high-status males pass on their genes. Therefore, as a rule, such mutations would be quickly eliminated, erased from the species' genome—except for one caveat: if these impairments were accompanied by simultaneous changes in abilities and behaviors that allowed such males to raise their social status outside the usual social norms of relationship ethics.
What kinds of useful additional abilities could arise from the "defective" mechanisms of relationship ethics in the brain?
The deterioration of sensitivity in the central parts of the olfactory analyzer, which are closely related to emotions, can be compensated by enhancing the peripheral parts of this analyzer, making the nose longer (and this is confirmed by survey results – logical and intuitive types, by definition, having a weakened central apparatus of the olfactory analyzer, tend to have statistically longer noses).
The mechanisms of white ethics, which were previously responsible for forming the structure of emotional relationships, can now be repurposed due to the lack of emotional recognition: these mechanisms can be used to reflect not the structure of emotional relationships between individuals, but the structure of objective properties of the individuals in the group, as well as the distinction between "primary" and "secondary," important and unimportant within the same social group. For example, this male is strong, and that one is weak; this one always loses; this one runs fast, and that one runs slowly. I do not sense the leader's emotions very well, but I see that he always tolerates this female near him while driving away the others. In fact, it turns out that one can manage without analyzing emotions, merely by analyzing the distances of interaction and the habitual spatial positioning of individuals in the area! Notice that in this type of social relationship analysis, instead of emotional evaluations (black ethics), comparative quantitative assessments are used with respect to certain objective criteria, provided by black logic. Just as black ethics cannot do without emotional evaluations made by central ethics, so too black logic needs black logical assessments. This explains the connection between the two halves of logic, as well as the two halves of ethics in evolution. Hence, there is a positive correlation between black logic and central logic in socionics.
Thus, initially dominant emotional markers in the model structure are gradually replaced by markers of spatial positioning of elements, distances between them, and also, at the same time, such objective (and unrelated to emotions) properties of the modeled structure elements as strength, speed, size, etc.
It turns out that low emotional sensitivity is also associated with certain advantages. Becoming less sensitive, "I" became more stubborn and aggressive, and now I get concessions more often. I now feel pain and fear much less, and even other males, those larger than me, have started to fear me.
I used to be loud, easily suggestible, and always followed public opinion. Now I am silent and much more independent. I observe more, compare events, and remember their connections. I would say I now analyze and evaluate the connection of facts, if I knew those words. I no longer participate in others' panics over trifles, like a rustling leaf. My sense of smell is poor. But I am more attentive than others to the connections between events. Other members of the group rely only on scent and what they currently see. They cannot link the tracks of other animals with their owners, but I can. Recently, I saw a scentless fresh trail of a boa on damp ground after the rain, imagined how it slithered here, and raised the alarm earlier than the others, chasing the young ones away from the area. Soon the boa was found, driven away with sticks, and two females were grateful to me, coming to search through my fur.
Not only am I weak at reading others' emotions, and have been caught in a bind because of that, but I am also absent-minded in the forest. This is because I remember, during that time, things I encountered on the path earlier, today or yesterday (instead of recalling who had quarreled with whom today). Today, due to my absent-mindedness, I bumped into a branch twice. The first time it was thick and blunt, and it didn't hurt much. But the second time, the branch was thin and had a sharp white end because it was broken diagonally. It jabbed me painfully. I got angry, yanked the painful branch out, and took it with me. Now, I encountered a family of wild pigs on the trail. A boar with his white tusks rushed at me, and instead of running or throwing my stick at him as I would have done yesterday, I somehow waited and stabbed him right in the neck with the sharp end of my stick – for now I had a sharp, stinging tusk. The boar gasped and fell. Now I have a lot of meat, and I will bring it to the group. No one has killed a boar before. I will take my stick with me. I will show them how sharp it is, how it hurt me, and how it then killed the boar in my hands. I am still the same absent-minded one, but now I am a great hunter. I will bring meat, and the females will beg me for it. I will be honored and respected.
Although I am weak in emotions, I have sharp eyes, a steady hand, a good memory, and I do not forgive. Even the leader forgives everyone if they crawl before him, looking for fleas. The leader is strong and foolish. I crawled before him, and he forgave me, stopped paying attention to me. But I did not forgive him, and from that moment I never took my eyes off him. The leader does everything like everyone else. Before striking or biting, he growls threateningly. I never growl, and no one can guess what I am planning just by looking at my face. Males often fight, young and old, but no one has ever killed anyone. They mostly growl and try to scare each other. Perhaps this is an eternal rule, inherited from our ancestors. But I do not feel any restrictions – I have no such rules. I approached him silently when no one else was nearby. I had an unreadable face. He just looked at me and was surprised, didn’t even growl, and I struck him on the head with a club. Then again, and again, until he stopped moving. I tasted his blood and smeared it on my face. I threw the leader over my shoulders and carried him to the gathering place, where I dropped him in front of the group. Everyone was confused, and it seemed no one understood anything. I grabbed the dominant female, growled loudly, and quickly mated with her. I climbed onto a stump and growled again. Then the one who used to calm the leader’s anger and crawl on his belly came running and began crawling before me. I let him catch fleas from me. I became the leader. Now all the females will be mine. But I will be a wise leader. I immediately noted the one who is stronger than me. I began chasing him, using the support of the group. But he began to back off reluctantly, and with each time, more unwillingly. He is stronger than me when standing and running. But he is weaker when lying down and sleeping. That is fair. I overthrew the old order and heralded a new era. I am stronger because I am smarter. I approached him at night when I was strong and he was not, and killed him with my club. Now I will always be the leader, and all the young will be mine – as long as I don’t lose my attentiveness and intelligence, and with them, my suspicion and quickness. Otherwise, one of my grown-up children might kill me in my sleep.
I am one of the descendants of the previous leader. I took control of the tribe by relying on my cold calculation and cynical cunning. In order to rule the tribe without needing the support of friends, I began endless wars with neighboring tribes, who always yielded to us because I was careful and inventive with the sharpest stakes and traps. We now captured females, and ate the men – that was my initiative. For they are animals, not humans, and the nation is above all. Furthermore, the enemy’s liver transmits their strength to you (this was also my idea). I divided the spoils myself. Now the smartest warriors gained the greatest advantages, not just those who huddled together in the group and observed its laws. The smartest warriors now had food reserves and especially valuable things for trade. Those who recognized their value won. I now accused any tribe members who looked at me sideways of assisting our enemies, and the tribe killed them in anger. Personally, insensitive to fear and other emotions, I always believed that excess fear would never be unnecessary, and I behaved in a way that made my fellow tribesmen constantly tremble. To make the tribe’s hierarchy more obedient to my will and always dependent on me, I invented a rewarding tattoo system, which I distributed myself. Now warriors could only eat according to their rank. The actual hierarchy by strength and number of friends no longer determined tattoos; now tattoos determined the hierarchy. To make it even easier to rule, I invented a system of fears, a system of prohibitive taboos. Violating a taboo meant bringing misfortune and hardship upon the tribe. Those guilty were punished by the large club of the person I pointed to. Most often, it was a relative or close friend. I ruled for a long time and happily, loved by the tribe, and left many children behind.
Why have we recounted all these hypothetical dramas of ancient times? To use fictional, game-like examples to illustrate how evolution might have forged its path, transforming ethics-related genes in part of the population into the genes of a new, more advanced mental function—logic—and how logic itself could then evolve further along this path. This also explains why "logic" is more closely tied to selection based on the Y chromosome, making it more common among men even today.
It is worth noting that, as the author reflected on the above examples of evolutionary selection, they found that the practical advantages of black logic’s unemotional evaluations of the usefulness of properties and actions (based on representations of consequences, hence its connection to time) are very difficult to separate from the practical advantages of structural logic. In practice, these two mechanisms are closely intertwined and cannot function independently. This is likely why these two mechanisms remained genetically linked, as evidenced today by the strong mutual positive correlation between these functions in socionics. A "logician" may be predominantly focused on black logic or white logic, but in any case, both “halves” will be more developed than average. The same applies to the connection between black ethics and white ethics.
Black ethics (ЧЭ) represents the intensity of emotional evaluations that arise. White ethics (БЭ) is comparatively less dependent on this intensity, as it can function without strong emotions, but it also requires attention to the structure of social relationships. Nevertheless, without black ethics, white ethics is still non-functional. Similarly, black ethics cannot operate without white ethics, as it alone does not create the complex advantages needed for better survival in a socially organized group of peers.
Semantics of the manifestations of white logic based on the results of processing 3000 questionnaires: {#semantics-of-the-manifestations-of-white-logic-based-on-the-results-of-processing-3000-questionnaires:}
EMPIRICALLY IDENTIFIED FEATURES OF THE ETHICAL-EMOTIONAL SPHERE OF THE “AVERAGE” WHITE LOGIC SPECIALIST, UNIQUE SPECIFICALLY TO WHITE LOGIC {#empirically-identified-features-of-the-ethical-emotional-sphere-of-the-“average”-white-logic-specialist,-unique-specifically-to-white-logic}
Voice of the heart, feelings and emotions, sensitivity to the moods of others, including the perception of their facial expressions and intonations – none of this is his.
He has a “cold” gaze, scant facial expressions. People around him sometimes consider him a “dry stick” and a proud man.
The weak emotions of the Ti specialist are also linked to his often-noted inability to cry in public, and the dullness of his taste and olfactory sensations.
His emotional weakness, connected with Ti, manifests in calm imperturbability and a lack of inclination toward unrestrained joy, rage, or particular torment. Emotional memories and suppositions do not disturb him either. This same “emotional weakness” leads to a certain prickliness and cold rigidity of his character (especially in sensing types), and at times – also to his cold indifference toward close people. Against the backdrop of Ni, Ti’s emotional weakness may lead the subject to indifferent detachment from the concerns of loved ones, and against the backdrop of Se it can even lead to cynical cruelty. The most general emotional symptom for all Ti specialists is their emotional “thick-skinnedness.”
Principles are always more important to him than emotions – whether fear or compassion, it makes no difference (both are rare for him). He is harsh and unyielding in his judgments, since he relies on a structured and meticulously interconnected system of his views as a primary and main self-value, not as an intermediate means for achieving other values.
He senses changes in his interlocutor’s mood very poorly, is inattentive to signals of sympathy and antipathy, struggles to sense relationships between people, poorly distinguishes true feelings from feigned ones, is less aware of gossip and rumors than anyone else, and is completely incapable of regulating and building emotional relations in a group. In short – he is especially weak in all aspects of Fi. In Fe, too, he is rather weak, though not as much. Some Ti types may read poetry with feeling and expression, and they can also play with intonation and volume in their public speeches. But controlling the face is harder – their habitually serious expression with weakened facial expressiveness (especially in introverts) usually betrays their low emotionality. In any case, their mood is poorly reflected on the face – unlike carriers of other functions, even Te. Also, compared to carriers of other functions, the Ti specialist very rarely immerses in past emotional experiences (here his relative weakness in Fe is further emphasized by his static nature, i.e., relative weakness in Si and Ni as well).
Being weak in both Fe and Fi, the Ti specialist nonetheless relates to them differently. If Fi manifestations he shuns (at best, simply finds them boring and tiring), Fe manifestations do not frighten or repel him, sometimes even attract him – he likes being drawn into them. Ti usually substitutes Fi with certain general logical principles, lacking individual approach, but regarding Fe he always has some degree of understanding and attraction deep inside. As already noted, many Ti types (unlike Te types) can read poetry expressively and also play with intonations in speeches noticeably better than the latter. They are also drawn to the “romance” of strong emotions and passions in art. For this same reason, in solitude, immersing themselves in some work of art (for example, a melodramatic film like the Cinderella fairy tale), they are quite capable of shedding a sentimental tear – again, unlike Te types.
In the thoughts of a Ti type, fears very rarely arise. Enthusiasms may still arise, but fears – no, fears are not typical for him. Fear usually appears only in direct contact with some truly dangerous situation, but not from thoughts about possible or imagined ones.
He very rarely thinks about his close ones, much more often – about some structural-systemic problems and abstractions. For example, “The General Theory of Everything,” “I and Society,” “My Nation and the World” – such thoughts are typical for him. “My daughter and her shortcomings, stemming from her type” – such thoughts, easily linking with general “global” conclusions, are also characteristic. But thoughts of another kind, for example: “Me and my daughter (son, sister, etc.),” or “My daughter and her friends” – such thoughts are uncharacteristic for him.
Compared to specialists of other functions, he less often experiences an inner emotional response to someone else’s misfortune, if it does not directly concern him. But even to events that directly affect him, he reacts emotionally very restrained. To elicit his emotional reaction, the emotional stimulus must “hammer” long enough at one point, must be exaggerated and thoroughly “chewed over” beforehand. Perhaps for this reason tragic realistic melodramas, which he is often fond of (temporarily “switching off” his logic), more easily evoke an emotional sentimental reaction in him than any real-life situation. Possibly this is also because in real emotionally charged situations there is always a strong element of personal involvement in relationships, and hence Fi, which the Ti specialist “pushes away.” In works of art, however, the logical subject, acting as an invisible external observer, can perceive the “Fe side” of emotions in a purer form, while easily ignoring Fi, Se, etc.
He remembers people’s facial expressions very poorly. For example, mentally picturing someone’s face with a range of alternating emotions expressed in mimicry is usually an impossible task for him, unlike carriers of other functions.
Overall, he is especially weak in all predominantly Fi-related manifestations and abilities – that is, in those qualities that are particularly important for reading signs of emotional relations in a group and for personal flexible emotional interaction in a social environment. Incidentally, the heightened interest of many Ti types in socionics is to a significant extent, apparently, due to this very “disability” in Fi – socionics helps to “prostheticize” the deficient ethics of relations.
EMPIRICALLY IDENTIFIED LOGICAL FEATURES OF THE “AVERAGE” WHITE LOGIC SPECIALIST, UNIQUE SPECIFICALLY TO WHITE LOGIC {#empirically-identified-logical-features-of-the-“average”-white-logic-specialist,-unique-specifically-to-white-logic}
Structures, classifications, algorithms – all of this is his native element.
A Ti specialist has a clear "legal" type of thinking, which analytically structures phenomena, events, and the entire surrounding world. His thinking is characterized by a high level of argumentation with flawless separation of the essential (or general) from the secondary (or particular), with a special focus on all interconnections and causal relationships of events and phenomena. Thus, the mechanisms of thinking most developed in him are those related to the sphere of formal logical laws.
Order and the structure of subordination among a multitude of phenomena is his primary sphere of interest. To discover and formalize such order, then maintain and safeguard it – that is his pleasure. Just as a good librarian monitors the order of books on the shelves and constantly strives to improve the catalog that describes them.
He is also attracted to tasks requiring an analytically thought-out sequence of actions, each of which may trigger its own logically organized chain of consequences ("a tree of actions"). Here, however, Te involvement is also required.
He enjoys pondering paradoxes and resolving them by uncovering and explaining the roots of logical contradictions.
His speech contains many clarifying function words: prepositions, conjunctions, particles, introductory phrases.
In information, a Ti specialist is excellent at highlighting the essential. He perceives information by passing it through mechanisms of hierarchical sorting (general–particular, important–secondary, cause–effect) and branched causal analysis.
He is always devoted in spirit to those theoretical models and structures that, in his opinion, correctly and stably, in the most optimal way, describe the picture of the world. When expressing his viewpoint, he will always defend the best model structures, as he sees them. For this, he will even go into conflict with the opinion of the majority. He is conservative, militant, and stubborn in defending the model and worldview that are habitual to him.
The white logician likes to classify events and objects, comparing them with one another by some attribute. He copes excellently with tasks of holistic hierarchical and causal classification. He also pays attention to minor logical links and facts, though to a lesser extent than black logicians. After all, unlike black logicians, he does not deal with evaluating the consequences of individual logical "steps," but with constructing structures from subordinated elements, and here the demands for precision in reproducing individual "elementary bricks" are much lower.
His favorite occupation is fitting puzzle pieces into incomplete and unfinished structures. Have the puzzles already been arranged correctly? Does the new puzzle piece fit into the existing system or fall out of it? – these are his favorite questions and problems.
He is interested in discoveries and inventions – for these are, on the one hand, breakthroughs in new methods of arranging puzzle pieces, and on the other hand, yet another fresh task requiring large and engaging new work of arranging puzzles. He is interested in politics and state structure – here too lies an endless field of work in puzzle arrangement. But children’s board games with puzzles themselves quickly bore him; he leaves those to the ethical types. Why? Because these games lack the most essential procedural component needed for his thinking – namely, highlighting the essential. Structural causal analysis within Ti uses not only puzzle selection and arrangement, but requires building a hierarchically organized causal system, where there is always a central, essential core at the center of the web, and only around it exist subordinate and secondary elements. Puzzle games lack this. However, this "most delicious" component of the Ti task is always present in the algorithms of science, politics, and statecraft, which, you’ll agree, are in themselves far more important in their consequences than any puzzle game. And a Ti specialist is accustomed to being primarily interested in the essential – therefore his interest in structuring and model-building in the spheres of science, technology, and politics is genuine. Even in the background, i.e. purely automatically, his attention seeks the central and most important (from the standpoint of causal connections) elements of any structure, and even in his sleep he searches for root causes and driving forces of events.
A Ti specialist has above-average developed research instinct – since an important part of the research instinct is the analysis of hierarchically organized causal connections and the construction of generalizing and universal structural models of reality. In sensors this research instinct of Ti often manifests as interest in technical innovations, in abstract-thinking intuitives – as interest in generalizing scientific theories. In both – as interest in politics and statecraft.
The Ti specialist is interested in revolutions – for revolutions always change the structure and hierarchy of subordination ties that organize society. A Ti specialist may become a fervent revolutionary if the new social structure appears to him (including from the standpoint of his personal interests and values) better and more optimal than the old. However, he may become equally fervent a guardian and counterrevolutionary if the old structure seems more useful and perfect to him. But in any case, he will not be indifferent to coups and revolutions. Against a Ni background, Ti most often behaves as a function striving to create an open society and to construct a stable liberal "horizontal" order instead of the former feudal or slave-owning one. Conversely, against an Se background, Ti gravitates toward closed-society models and tends to construct "power verticals" of a feudal type for governance.
White logicians, possessing the most developed structure-forming thinking in socionics, are ideologists by vocation. Sensory white logicians most often formulate and defend clerical-conservative vertical and dictatorial models of social order; intuitive white logicians are just as persistent and almost as militant in formulating and defending liberally tinged social-democratic and cooperative models of social life. A compromise between these models is impossible, and even less so between white logicians themselves. For intuitive Ti types, anyone who does not understand that "what distinguishes man from beasts is curiosity and horizontally organized brotherhood of people, born in their shared democratic and spiritual striving for knowledge," is a monkey. For sensory Ti types, anyone who, due to his "beastly individualism," does not understand the higher values of a vertically organized nation-state and therefore dislikes marching in formation, is a monkey.
Ti produces in its bearer independence with a tendency toward intellectual leadership – moreover, these tendencies manifest both in intuitives and in sensors. For example, the white logician is less inclined than anyone else to doubt and to seek advice – for almost any matter, he already has his own personal and ready interpretive opinion. Other people’s logical arguments have very little effect on him – especially if they concern a familiar topic on which he already has his own formed judgment. In addition, he often considers himself the smartest (and this is partly true, and partly an ordinary consequence of the uncompromising nature of Ti in defending its views on the optimal world order). For the same reason, white logic in disputes rarely and with difficulty acknowledges the correctness of others.
The white logician is always meticulous when confronted with something unclear, trying to "put it on the shelves," to structure and systematize it. One of his main occupations is to sort phenomena into compartments in order to better understand and formulate the structural essence of the object. Such an object may be technology, science, political science, or philosophy of world order.
Thanks to developed structural logic, which analyzes the relations between objects, he is well oriented "at the conscious level" in blueprints (and the combination of developed Ti with developed Si, responsible for internal maps of space, is the most successful combination for reading blueprints).
When beginning to reason logically out loud, Ti specialists always already know in advance where these arguments will converge in the end.
If a Ti specialist is intuitive, then he is interested in refuting the existing system of views in order to build in its place a more perfect new system. With an intuitive background, white logic always gives its bearer pleasure from discovering deep laws and uncovering objective first causes.
White logic is the primary mental function for programmers. Writing computer programs first of all requires well-developed Ti. Writing resource-efficient programs also requires strong Te.
White logic divides a system into levels and strata. In each stratum, the elements must be united by some common feature, some shared belonging. For the work of white logic two procedures are especially characteristic. First, the search for features common to some fixed circle of phenomena (search for a common attribute). Second, the selection of such phenomena from an open set that possess a pre-specified attribute (selection and sorting by feature).
When discussing work issues with colleagues, it is precisely the Ti specialist who will be more persistent than others in drawing attention to existing ambiguities – in order to clarify as much as possible all internal structural interconnections in the model under consideration (whether it be a scientific theory, or an election campaign plan, or a corporate development concept in conquering new markets, and so on).
A Ti bearer, once his views have settled, is especially stubborn in defending his positions. The explanation for this is that a Ti-structure is holistic, in it everything is interconnected, and even minor compromises are problematic for it. Therefore, the Ti bearer must either stubbornly defend his positions in full, or completely abandon them.
For Ti specialists, it is characteristic that their "stubbornness" of principles and life plans increases under the pressure of external troubles and threats. A possible explanation for this is quite analogous to the previous one. External pressure prompts him to "work even better." For Ti, to "work even better" means not to revise an already long-formed, complexly interlinked structural model of phenomena and events on the fly, but rather to follow in his actions the prescriptions of this model in even more detail, allowing even fewer deviations from it.
The Ti bearer is little suggestible. For this reason, in particular, he is skeptical toward psychotherapy as a method of solving personal problems.
It is precisely Ti that is the consistent "enemy" of belief in telepathy. Why? The matter, obviously, is again in structural models. For Ti, to believe means to allow the existence of such an explanatory logical structure into which telepathy would fit. Even a secondary education suggests to the Ti bearer that such a structural model is impossible. Specialists of functions competing with Ti do not have such a criterion of evaluation – that is the entire difference.
Ti specialists are especially aggressive toward alien views that do not accord with their established system of opinions. They are ready to assert their own structural models in the world not only by persuasion, but also by the sword. The reason here is the same as for their stubbornness in defending their structural models, namely: the wholeness of the system of views, which does not allow compromises. A holistic interlinked structural model can only be realized fully. Therefore, it must either completely win, or completely lose, and negotiated compromises along with other pluralism are not possible here. It is notable that militant stubbornness and aggressiveness in the sphere of ideas is characteristic not only of sensory white logicians, but to a considerable degree also of intuitive white logicians.
The dialectic of motion, that is, the conflicts and contradictions lying at its base, is a favorite object of study for Ti specialists. The fact is that studying the dialectic of motion and studying the general static features and manifestations of any varieties of motion are one and the same.
At a more elementary level, Ti is engaged in searching for similarities between people or between inanimate objects. It also strives to link everything with stable vertically organized causal (hierarchical) connections, and to make their structure as orderly, as unambiguous, and as all-encompassing as possible.
A Ti specialist sees any situation not in its uniqueness, but through the prism of its commonality with some typical case. More than anyone else, he orients his life by certain general principles or recipes of his own, which suggest to him the solution to almost any case.
In a dispute (if it does not concern his basic values) the Ti specialist does not seek truth, nor victory, nor the most effective solution, but rather sees it as a game of constructing a non-contradictory and well-linked system of arguments and proofs. Therefore, quite often with equal success and pleasure he is ready to play in a dispute both for the "black" and for the "white" side. For him, a dispute is first of all a game with formal structures, and their coloring is secondary. Therefore, he often argues passionately, but – with a "cold nose," i.e. without identifying his personal values with the subject of the dispute.
Long-term forecasts are based on modeling with stable structures, while short-term forecasts are based to a greater extent on modeling with situational dynamic scenarios, in which subjective and current political factors play a significant role, and for predicting a chain of decisions one must weigh the benefit of these decisions for their virtual subjects. Ti is poorly adapted to accounting for the second; here Te is required, whereas in the first – it is a unique specialist. Therefore, it is easier for a Ti bearer to make a general forecast of the development of events for 100 years than for a month or a year.
Among Ti specialists there are often supporters of radical changes in the world order. Firstly, this again lies in holistic structural thinking. Structural models are difficult to change piecemeal. It is easier to change them all at once, i.e. in a revolutionary way. Secondly, the emotional upheavals that accompany revolution concern the Ti bearer very little, and even attract him – because of the weakness of his emotional sphere, which, however, unlike Te, does not cause antagonistic competition of Ti with Fe.
Ti specialists are characterized by straightforwardness in expressing opinions. Programmatic white logicians can be not only stubborn, but also dogmatic, even fanatical. Other people’s arguments rarely and with noticeable difficulty change their already established views on the interconnection of events or on the optimal models of phenomena (it is especially difficult to "shift" the views of sensory white logicians). But if their views do change under the pressure of external arguments, then it happens as if all at once and entirely, not in separate details. The reason for this, again, is the interconnectedness of their system of views, where individual elements are tightly cemented to others by hierarchical logical connections (general–particular, essential–subordinate, cause–effect, etc.).
White logicians are people of honest word to a greater extent than specialists in other functions. As a rule, they keep their word if they give it sincerely – since at that moment they include the promise into the stable SYSTEM of their views and intentions. Subsequent changes in the situation and circumstances cannot change what has already entered into the SYSTEM, or was even initially a part of it.
For Ti it is characteristic to systematize his everyday life. Things lying, even if behind a dusty wardrobe, but in a permanent, fixed place, labels and stickers indicating contents on folders and desk drawers (at the same time, in an intuitive’s drawer there may also be cigarette butts) – all these are signs of the dwelling of a white logician.
Mathematics is of more interest to Ti than to other functions (the next strongest interest in mathematics is experienced by black logic, while the most indifferent to it is white ethics – because of the antagonistic competition of its mechanisms with Ti).
OTHER FEATURES {#other-features}
In a state of agitation and reflection, Ti specialists often increase their motor activity – they begin pacing around the room. This feature manifests in them more often than in the bearers of other functions.
The handwriting of Ti specialists tends to be large and sweeping.
Left-handers among white logicians are rare (rarer than average).
White logicians more often than others (as a statistical trend) love calm and neutral gray color – the color of absent emotionality, imperturbability, and constancy.
White logicians pay very little attention to individual differences among objects that, according to their classification, belong to one and the same type, below which further subdivision into subtypes is for some reason not provided. For this reason, apparently, for Ti specialists all cats usually look the same, all homeless people the same, and all trees the same. Of course, it is quite a different matter if a white logician is a specialist in cats or trees. Then among cats or trees he will distinguish and notice many different breeds, but Arabs or Blacks will still remain "all the same" to him. Let us note that for "black ethics" and "white sensing" this is not the case. Regardless of the classifications habitual to them, they usually notice many individual differences even among similar objects that are indifferent to them.
A Ti specialist is rather tense and angular in his movements and posture, rather than flexible and smooth.
On the radio he prefers speech, not music (which once again points to the predominant left-hemisphere nature of Ti mechanisms).
For white logicians, statistically speaking, rather slow chewing movements are characteristic.
Physical discomfort touches and embarrasses them very little. It seems that white logic is less "friendly" with white sensing than Fi or any other rational function. If the empirical correlation of Fi with Si in the internet sampling of the socion is weakly positive (+0.15), then the correlation of Ti with Si is noticeably negative (–0.27). We cannot yet state this categorically, but it is quite possible that these are not artifacts of "skewed" samples or the system of diagnostic coefficients, but a reflection of genuinely not fully symmetrical interrelationships of functions in the socion.
The white logician neither likes nor knows how to pretend in feelings, portraying agreement with an interlocutor; – he easily gives himself away.
He is not a peaceful person with whom "it is always easy to communicate," and he does not even consider himself such.
Being quick to forgive and let go is not his thing. All white logicians differ by above-average vindictiveness, but in sensors this trait is expressed especially sharply.
Being diplomatic, making concessions, avoiding disputes and criticism – these traits are least of all characteristic of Ti among all functions. It is the most stubborn and undiplomatic function of all.
The more developed white logic is, the more difficult becomes the imagination (mental representation) of any smells. If Si and Fe contribute most positively to this ability, then Ti and after it Ne contribute most negatively. The contribution of these functions is absolutely analogous in the case of simple sensitivity of smell to real odors. Thus, white logicians have the weakest sense of smell (amusing and curious that, as we have already noted above, the noses of logicians statistically tend to be the longest in the socion – perhaps one partly compensates for the other, i.e. the weakness of the central sections of the olfactory analyzer is partly compensated by the additional development of peripheral sections).
To act impulsively, under the influence of a momentary mood, is very uncharacteristic for Ti – except, perhaps, to some degree for ILE. But already for SLE this is completely untypical, and even more so impulsiveness is not characteristic of the rational types LSI and LII (the least impulsive types in the socion).
The white logician does not know how to praise. He knows how to scold and find faults in the environment and in others, but he does not know how to praise.
Ti specialists usually categorically deny that they like the majority of people they know. Ti is the most critical socionic function toward other people, their views, morality, and mind. Unlike Ti, black-logical criticality (for example, in Balzac) manifests as skeptical evaluation of real or possible actions; it does not evaluate people as elements of structure, as creators of structures and carriers of this or that system of views. This is the specificity of Ti.
On the properties that most strongly distinguish white and black logicians {#on-the-properties-that-most-strongly-distinguish-white-and-black-logicians}
Properties characteristic ONLY of Ti (but not of Te): {#properties-characteristic-only-of-ti-(but-not-of-te):}
White logicians, unlike black ones, often demonstrate elements of dogmatism and fanaticism in their views and behavior.
They are characterized by an attraction to the strength and intensity of emotions (including emotional tragedy in art, revolutionary romanticism, etc.). In general, they feel quite comfortable in an atmosphere of conflict tension and mass passions. Unlike black logic, white logic does not show antagonism with Fe.
They characteristically prefer speech radio rather than musical radio.
They are characterized by stubbornness and uncompromisingness in defending their moral principles (what is good and what is bad; what is decent and what is vile).
Their emphasis is rather on putting forward conceptual ideas and proposals, not on personally implementing them in practice.
They watch fights with pleasure. Conversely, they avoid situations of complete absence of conflict.
They know how to despise and hate.
They are characterized by intolerance toward hidden secrets and lies. Sensory Ti types are intolerant of secrets and lies directed at themselves, sometimes to the point of spying and paranoia, while intuitive types, in their similar intolerance, care about informational openness in the interests of society as a whole – this is the only difference between them. But unlike both, black logicians are equally "indifferent" both to other people’s secrets and to the withholding of information from the public. That is why they are black logicians – they are interested only in information that directly concerns their cares.
"Thick-skinnedness" – white logicians are hard to throw off balance or seriously offend. Neighboring black ethics also excites them little and does not knock them off their line of thought, since it is realized in other zones of the brain cortex.
Regarding the population frequency of right-handedness and left-handedness, right-handedness predominates among them (both in hand and in foot). Left-handedness is very untypical.
Their movements seem tense, sharp, angular.
They can be intrusive in imposing their views, ways of solving problems, etc.
They love all-encompassing theories (ranging from the General Theory of the Field to the General Theory of Everything).
They consider themselves competent in a wide range of issues and especially in everything they are engaged in.
When striving to achieve something, they can undertake a simultaneous offensive not in one, but immediately in many directions (not successiveness, but simultaneity of many actions), thereby dissipating forces, but sometimes also winning thanks to complex structural tactics.
Among rules and orders, laws and regularities, they prefer universal and "eternal" ones, not dependent on time.
They will not be the first to reconcile or propose a compromise.
They have a good memory for complex musical melodies (here, apparently, the same mechanism operates as the one responsible for the holistic structure of speech expression).
It is easier for them to make a forecast of events for 100 years than for 1 year.
They always act with a certain excessive "swing," usually "overworking" in terms of invested effort in all matters that seem important to them.
Properties characteristic ONLY of Te (but not of Ti): {#properties-characteristic-only-of-te-(but-not-of-ti):}
Black logicians, unlike white ones, quickly adapt, give up mistakes without stubbornness, and easily agree to a business compromise.
They pay attention mainly to large goals.
They know how to concentrate their forces at the decisive moment.
They easily agree to a replacement if some need cannot be satisfied immediately.
They do not like generalizations; they see more differences than similarities between objects.
They are quite diplomatic and flexible (far more so than white logicians), usually saying and doing what is convenient for the given audience and for the given moment.
They have a more excitable and sensitive imagination and easily perceive even those "wild" ideas that contradict generally accepted canons, but if correct, may nevertheless be used in practice. At the same time, they reject fantasy play of the type "What if?" (what if gravity disappeared, or if America had not been discovered, etc.) – such fantasies irritate them, they treat them as empty nonsense. With white logicians everything is the opposite – they are prickly toward the first type of fantasy, but accept the second type easily.
Among black logicians, left-handedness is often found – reliably more often than the average population level.
For them it is no problem to pretend, to show agreement with the interlocutor.
They are skeptical of propaganda of enthusiasm and romanticism; they believe only in material incentives.
They are sensitive to their own discomfort, get irritated when woken up, or disturbed from sleep – whereas white logicians usually are not irritated by such things (Ti has weaker connection with Si, and secondly, Ti is less sensitive to a violation of sequence of actions).
Black logicians do not like overly "smart" and serious conversations on impractical topics of the "Big Everything" – i.e., about ideology, the fate of humanity, asteroid danger, string theory and the explanation of "dark" matter, why the human tail disappeared in evolution, etc.
They are emotionally forgiving and quite quickly pardon.
When faced with active resistance, they do not intensify their pressure, but stop to reflect: is the game worth the candle? Such a deliberate behavior is in no way characteristic of Ti.
They do not like tasks set "in general terms," formulated vaguely (whereas a white logician, even a sensory one, usually perceives such a situation as creative, a black logician first of all asks: how will my work be evaluated? And will they even pay at all – since was the one who set the task not a fool?).
Emotional scandals knock them off balance (whereas white logicians, more often than not, are not disturbed by them, and sometimes even stimulated).
Black logicians do not like references to general principles, concepts, and typical patterns; they prefer the particular and concrete, not the general and typical, and even in production they gravitate more toward small-scale and experimental products, and even better – unique ones. Therefore, Te specialists are often found in experimental design bureaus with pilot productions.
Black logicians have a tendency to improve themselves, perfect, test, evaluate, constantly train and control their current efficiency, striving for maximum and perfection in quality. The irrational logical introvert ILI takes more careful care of his clothes and appearance than his rational (!) and Ti-based counterpart LII. The professional household of SLI often produces the impression of better organization and thought-outness than that of LSI. SLI perfects the technologies of his work, LSE engages in bodybuilding, LIE – in extreme sports. Probably for the same reason, among black logicians is found an unexpected tendency for this function – to brush their teeth frequently (more often than the average population level) – daily, or even a couple of times a day, almost regardless of their sensing. White logicians, on the other hand, tend to brush their teeth less often than the average population level (!).
Comparison of experimentally identified and theoretically declared properties of “white logic” {#comparison-of-experimentally-identified-and-theoretically-declared-properties-of-“white-logic”}
The most detailed “theoretical portrait” of white (structural) logic was proposed in the works of the founder of the Kyiv School of Humanitarian Socionics, V.V. Gulenko. In the reference article “Psychic Functions” on the SHS website (http://socionics.kiev.ua/info_functions/), the following four are indicated as key concepts for Ti:
- Creation of schemes, construction, analysis
- Following laws, instructions, plans, schedules
- Cool-headedness, self-control
- Skeleton, bones
More detailed content of Ti in the interpretation of SHS is revealed in the article by V.V. Gulenko “Expressive Possibilities of Mental States. Man and the World in the Language of Universals.” The article (http://socionics.kiev.ua/articles/feature-and-group/func-state/) is dated 1995, but, as far as is known, no innovations in the positions of SHS regarding the semantics of functions have appeared since then. V.V. Gulenko notes the following features and manifestations of white logic (the numbering of shortened substantive “summaries” from this article is provided further for the convenience of discussion as our own):
- At the intellectual level, the characteristic way of thinking of white logic is the construction of schemes and classifications.
- At the social level, the informal role in a group for the bearer of Ti is the role of an objective judge.
- At the psychological level, the state of soul of the bearer of Ti is characterized by cool-headedness, a sense of being in control, detachment, inexorability.
- At the physical level, the bodily signs of the bearer of Ti are the absence of emotional reactions, firm statics of the body.
- Key objects and goals for Ti are the following: Stable proportions of magnitudes. Correct placement of objects relative to each other. Formal logical laws. Rigid structures that do not allow any changes within their framework. Hierarchy (subordination). Recognition of all objectively existing variants as equivalent. Classifications that discard unstable transitional forms. Completed technologies or algorithms that have arisen as the result of a repeatedly tested process of performing useful actions.
- White logic in its activity answers the following questions, having first posed them: Is this arranged correctly? Does it fit into the existing system or fall out of it? Following rules. Obedience to the law. Regulated behavior that excludes personal initiative. Algorithm, program, dry analysis of facts. Verification and control, reduction of data into a table or scheme.
- At the intellectual level, the aspect of Ti means building schemes, structures, classifications. This type of logic pursues the goal not of efficiency and profitability, but of correctness and proportionality. Thinking in Ti categories, a person compares one object with another according to one or another criterion and places it into the corresponding cell of a classification table. Ti-thinking represents brief, maximally concise formulations and definitions. The law of structural-logical thinking is minimum of vocabulary (meaningful words) and maximum of grammar (function words – prepositions, conjunctions, particles, introductory phrases).
- A long-held Ti state leads to an informal role in the team – systematizer or expert. This is expressed in passing objective, impartial judgments on any issues of life activity. A person in a Ti state is inclined to isolation within a group, to action according to the written and unwritten norms and rules existing within it. The second side of the Ti role is judge. Such a person is approached, knowing his maximum non-involvement, in order that he may soberly judge one or another controversial case.
- Psychologically, a person in a Ti state is distinguished by cool-headedness and indifference. In this state, there are no feelings or subjective preferences. Figuratively, this state can be compared to a block of ice or the geometric correctness of the crystal of some mineral. This is the least psychological state, since in it there is absolutely no soul, no human warmth. But on the other hand, it is the most balanced and stable. It is a state of obedience, dutifulness, and discipline.
- At the physical level, for a person in a Ti state it is characteristic that there is practically a complete absence of manifestations of “life.” Facial expressions by their immobility resemble a statue, the body is straight and fixed, the eyes are dull and express nothing. Body movements are reduced to a minimum. The rule “one organ – one function” is observed, that is, the hand only takes, the legs walk, and the mouth eats. Operations are performed pointedly discretely, with a noticeable fixation of beginning and end.
- The opposite of the Ti state of the psyche is its Fi state. These states can alternate, but apparently cannot coexist simultaneously. In the real psyche, according to the law of the pendulum, there occurs a transition of Ti states into Fi states and back, although the time proportion of being in these states may vary significantly. “If a person is in good mental form, is not fixated, develops, he constantly alternates pairs of equivalent states. One aspect, following its individual rhythm, flows into another, and this gives the psyche stability without rigidity.” “Overdevelopment of one side of the psyche automatically turns into underdevelopment of the other, and when a compensatory switch nonetheless occurs, the bitter fruits of artificial ‘clamping’ are regrettable. The opposite, finally breaking free, takes on wild, strange, archaic forms.”
- In the transition from dominant Fi to Ti, sympathies and antipathies are compensated (through the inclusion of Ti) by logical rigor and objectivity. Strong sympathies toward someone are leveled by emphasized disinterest in him up to cool-headed ignoring. Warm or hostile relations among close ones sometimes change into waves of indifference.
- In the transition from dominant Ti to Fi, the former dominant objectivity and comprehensiveness are compensated by subjective attachments and one-sided decisions, far from logical justification. Long residence of a person in the imperturbable Ti state ends with falling into a strange dependence on the very first person who manages to shorten the psychological distance with him.
- V. Gulenko also provides recommendations for training individually weakened white (structural) logic, which are obviously a description of the behavioral portrait of a typical Ti specialist:
“Engage in those sports that require special endurance and precision – shooting, gorodki, orienteering. Develop a balanced diet in its main components and strictly adhere to it. Lead an orderly lifestyle. Always plan your actions in advance. Arrive at events on time. Dress neatly and strictly.
Communicate with people only on business. Avoid humor, pranks, ambiguous statements. Keep the same distance with everyone. Breathe evenly, do not gesticulate and do not change your facial expression, no matter what happens.
Develop for yourself one system of values and strictly adhere to it. Scrupulously fulfill your official duties and reject any assignments that contradict them. Systematize the material that comes to you in the area where you work. Constantly refer to reference books, diagrams, drawings, guides, etc.
Learn to formulate your thoughts clearly and concisely. Speak in a measured monotone voice. When analyzing information in your mind, compare it according to all criteria known to you: ‘on the one hand…, on the other hand…’. Fill your speech with a variety of structural-forming links (prepositions and conjunctions): ‘or,’ ‘but,’ ‘however,’ ‘if–then,’ ‘the more–the more,’ and others.”
Comparison of almost all 18 points with the experimental results of our study of the properties of white logic presented above shows almost complete and impressive coincidence of the properties of the white-logical function described by Gulenko and experimentally found by us. Except that in V. Gulenko’s work the following empirically revealed specific features of white logic specialists were not specially noted: blunted taste and olfactory sensations, low suggestibility, persistence in emphasizing remaining ambiguities, an initially “ready” holistic semantic structure of the upcoming statement, good memory for “holistic” musical melodies (also memory for structures), seeing the world through the prism of standards, emphasized-dominant right-handedness (left-hemisphericity), vindictiveness, uncompromisingness, initially critical attitude toward “alien” structures, ability to perform parallel simultaneous actions in several directions; preference for gray color (the color of absent emotionality, and not at all green, as Gulenko suggested in his article – green, according to our experimental data, turns out to be the color of Fe and Si).
Only point 4 in the SHS version (the declared “special” connection of Ti with the bone system of a person) turns out to be true only partially. For example, the absence in the anamnesis of bone fractures, any pain in them, and diseases of the bone apparatus is positively correlated with Ti, according to our data, at the level of a very weak statistical trend. A more significant connection of this property is with a high level of both sensing functions (Si and Se), and the most negative connection is noted with Ne.
We especially note that already in 1995 V. Gulenko quite rightly and keenly noted the special (in terms of their emphasized antagonism alongside visible kinship) relations between functions in the pairs Ti–Fi, Te–Fe, etc. (see above points 15–17). Our experimental study confirms that both in the socion and within various accentuations of a selected group of people with the same TIM, correlations precisely between functions in such pairs have the deepest negative values. In the present article we have already explained above this pattern by the fact that the functions in these pairs rely on the same or very close in location neural substrate, because of which competition between them “for resource” acquires an antagonistic character with mutual suppression – for this reason the functions cannot work simultaneously, which leads to their uneven training and further polar contrasting. Such are the relations between Ti and Fi. But they are not the same, for example, between Ti and Fe, whose substrate resources are different and apparently even belong to different hemispheres of the brain.
In turn, the “resource” commonality of Ti and Fi can be explained on the basis of our hypothesis about the gradual evolutionary origin of white logic from the initial (and earlier formed) neural mechanisms of white ethics.
The observant insight of V. Gulenko on this subject, demonstrated in 1995, is especially worthy of mention and respect, since in the theoretical socionic models that existed at that time there were no indications of the inevitability of the “pendulum antagonism” in the pair of same-colored functions of the same polarity.
Alas, in more recent works V. Gulenko seems to have completely forgotten about these very perspicacious remarks and observations of his own from the mid-1990s. Thus, in the article “Theory of Subtypes: The DCNH System” (2006, http://socionics.kiev.ua/articles/types/sysdcnh/), V. Gulenko asserts that the functions Ti and Fi, Te and Fe, Se and Ne, Ni and Si are strengthened within the subtypes of people precisely in pairs and simultaneously, because they have similar energetics. To a large extent, this hypothetical assertion (and, unfortunately, erroneous) underlies the entire subsequent theory of DCNH subtypes.
The energetics in the pairs of these functions are indeed similar, but this is rather a likely reason for their competition and mutual negative correlation (both within the group of representatives of one type, and in the socion), not for their mutual strengthening. Perhaps Gulenko was misled by a superficial analogy with the same pendulum – supposedly, if the amplitude of deviation to one side is greater, then one should expect also a greater compensatory “swing” toward the paired related function of the same polarity and orientation.
A hypothesis is not yet a fact. Of course, a hypothesis can be built on analogy. But under the hypothesis about the sign of the connection between functions, different analogies could have been suggested. If one looks at the situation, for example, from an evolutionary angle or from the point of view of the struggle of Ti with Fi for the neural substrate common to them, then the theorists of SHS would have come to a completely opposite (and more correct) assumption about the sign of correlation between these functions.
Be that as it may, hypotheses are verified only by experiment. The analysis of diagnostic questionnaires of more than 3000 respondents carried out, on the basis of which we quantitatively calculated by all possible methods the 8 socionic functions, showed completely unambiguously that Fi with Ti, Fe with Te, etc. are connected by deep negative correlational links. Moreover, the corresponding paired correlations are THE MOST NEGATIVE among the correlations in all possible pairs of socionic functions. This is observed both in the entire socion and in a separately selected subsample of people of only one type (any) – see Table 1.
Table 1. Intercorrelations of algebraic excesses of function values over their normative values (for the specific socion type of respondents). N = 1050 people, calculation based on high-precision diagnostic questionnaires.
| Ni | Ne | Si | Se | Ti | Te | Fi | Fe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ni | 1 | 0,05 | -0,63 | -0,26 | -0,13 | 0,05 | -0,22 | 0,24 |
| Ne | 0,05 | 1 | -0,23 | -0,71 | 0,04 | -0,12 | 0,21 | -0,13 |
| Si | -0,63 | -0,23 | 1 | -0,15 | -0,32 | 0,16 | 0,00 | 0,16 |
| Se | -0,26 | -0,71 | -0,15 | 1 | 0,30 | -0,16 | -0,03 | -0,19 |
| Ti | -0,13 | 0,04 | -0,32 | 0,30 | 1 | 0,10 | -0,58 | -0,51 |
| Te | 0,05 | -0,12 | 0,16 | -0,16 | 0,10 | 1 | -0,39 | -0,59 |
| Fi | -0,22 | 0,21 | 0,00 | -0,03 | -0,58 | -0,39 | 1 | 0,06 |
| Fe | 0,24 | -0,13 | 0,16 | -0,19 | -0,51 | -0,59 | 0,06 | 1 |
Judging by the depth of negative correlations in the pairs Si–Ni, Se–Ne, Fi–Ti, and Fe–Te, one can suggest that Ne “broke away” from Se in the course of hominid evolution a very long time ago, while Ti from Fi – comparatively recently.
Table 2. Intercorrelations of function values in an artificially selected subsample of the socion with approximately equal representation of TIMs. N = 1050.
| Ni | Ne | Si | Se | Ti | Te | Fi | Fe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ni | 1 | 0,76 | -0,91 | -0,74 | 0,01 | -0,11 | -0,02 | 0,08 |
| Ne | 0,76 | 1 | -0,74 | -0,93 | 0,00 | -0,13 | 0,06 | 0,06 |
| Si | -0,91 | -0,74 | 1 | 0,56 | -0,31 | -0,08 | 0,22 | 0,19 |
| Se | -0,74 | -0,93 | 0,56 | 1 | 0,26 | 0,28 | -0,24 | -0,30 |
| Ti | 0,01 | 0,00 | -0,31 | 0,26 | 1 | 0,90 | -0,96 | -0,94 |
| Te | -0,11 | -0,13 | -0,08 | 0,28 | 0,90 | 1 | -0,95 | -0,97 |
| Fi | -0,02 | 0,06 | 0,22 | -0,24 | -0,96 | -0,95 | 1 | 0,93 |
| Fe | 0,08 | 0,06 | 0,19 | -0,30 | -0,94 | -0,97 | 0,93 | 1 |
Thus, subtypes DO NOT FORM through the simultaneous strengthening of Fi and Ti, Fe and Te, etc. This is absolutely impossible due to the deep negative correlations in the pairs of these psychic functions. Consequently, the entire DCNH subtype system proposed by V. Gulenko also turns out to be incorrect. Apparently, for this reason, in SHS later appeared attempts to modify the DCNH system originally proposed by Gulenko – for this, for example, the dominant subtype began to be calculated not on the basis of the total strengthening of only Te and Fe, but also by adding Se as a third function. It is not difficult to understand that in this case – because of the deep mutual negative feedback between Te and Fe – fluctuations of these functions largely cancel each other out, so from the role of Te and Fe in the dominant subtype only “horns and legs” remain, and the “dominant subtype” is in fact formed due to nothing more than the strengthening of Se above the normative level for the corresponding TIM. Similarly, the harmonizing subtype (Si+Ni+Fi) in this case actually reflects only an accentuated Fi, the normalizing (Ti+Fi+Ni) – only the accentuation of Ni (which is strange at all from the point of view of the name of the subtype), and the modernized creative subtype (Ne+Se+Fe) – almost in pure form should be identified with the “bare” accentuation of Fe (which is even stranger from the point of view of the subtype’s name). Agree that such a “backstory” of DCNH subtypes is already quite another matter; in essence it refutes all the constructions of the DCNH system, from which, obviously, also only “horns and legs” remain.
Notes on the role of Ti and Te in scientific work {#notes-on-the-role-of-ti-and-te-in-scientific-work}
Let us note that the conclusions contained in this section are, unlike the previous sections of the article, not the result of analysis of experimental data obtained with the help of diagnostic questionnaires, but are only a generalization of the author’s life experience and personal observations.
“Pure” white logic perceives causal relationships not as the sequence of two events on the time axis (unlike Te), but rather as vertical hierarchical relations, where the cause stands higher in the hierarchy than the effect. If, however, it is not possible to establish strong hierarchical differences between two related events, then in the consciousness of the white logician there seems to arise a tendency to substitute A-->B with A<-->B, that is, there appears the temptation to assume the presence of equal reciprocal connections alongside direct ones, in fact making no horizontal distinction between them. Often this can lead to the construction of theoretical models detached from life. The detachment of white-logical models from life and practice can be aggravated by the fact that it is not Ti, but only Te that deals with evaluating individual actions and steps in reasoning, assigning them a “grade.” Continuous comparison of individual stages of logical conclusions with practice and experiment is the role property of black logic. In the absence of black logic, purely “white-logical” models often quickly lose their connection with reality, beginning to live a life of their own. From there it is only one step to pseudoscience and “crankery.” Incidentally, for socionics this remark is especially relevant, since from the very beginning socionics appeared as an exclusively “white-logical” discipline. At the moment of its birth it still firmly stood on the ground of reflecting reality, but once it had mapped this reality in its white-logical models, it subsequently began to attract into its sphere mainly “extreme” white logicians, followed by intuitive black ethicists. Since in such a scholarly environment the need for experiment is usually underestimated, considering a beautiful and complex structural model as truth of the first instance (if only because it is their own and beautiful, consisting of many rhombuses, octahedrons, and cubes), in the following years scientific development in socionics slowed down, hypotheses began to be passed off as theory, and the inevitable in such conditions slide of certain schools toward “crankery” also emerged.
On the other hand, “pure” black logic is also quite far from solving scientific problems (and even further, because they simply do not interest it). Science, after all, cannot do without structural models, but they are alien to Te, therefore it gravitates toward the spheres of business, supply, politics, and management, where the relative role of simple comparative evaluations on the time axis, in which Te specializes, is much higher.
The author has repeatedly noticed that the greatest potential in scientific work is shown by those scientists whose development of Ti and Te is fairly close to each other in level. Perhaps the optimal variant is a small (but precisely not very large) advantage of white logic. In such a case, white logic not only performs the work of constructing models, but also sets the tone (along with strong black intuition) in defining interest in the scientific sphere of activity. Sufficiently strong black logic, meanwhile, performs the function of criticizing white-logical models, evaluates their correspondence both to reality and to practice and to the constantly moving and developing surrounding scientific life, and also, being especially keen to small inconsistencies and mismatches of facts, helps white-logical models not to stand still, but to develop – yet to develop in close feedback with reality, not detached from it.
We hope that the empirically obtained properties of the white-logical function presented here, as detailed and reliable as possible (thanks to their carefully verified experimental sources), will help, first, “practical socionists” in correctly identifying this function in human behavior, help them distinguish its manifestations from those of Te, as well as from Se, Si, and Fi. Second, we hope that the presented properties and some of our analytical comments about them will help theorists to look somewhat anew at the nature, genesis, and interaction of socionic functions. Finally, the semantic and evolutionary analysis of socionic functions carried out in the articles of this series (both of Ti and of the other seven) shows, as we believe, that socionics is not built on empty ground, that its traits and functions were chosen from the psychological diversity of properties by no means randomly, and that behind socionic functions stands a particularly important physiological and genetic reality.
© V.L.Talanov, February 2010.