1. The first property of the mind that I have established is the extreme concentration of thought, the desire of thought to think relentlessly, to hold on to the issue that is scheduled for resolution, to hold on for days, weeks, months, years, and in other cases for a lifetime. How is the Russian mind in this respect? It seems to me that we are not inclined towards concentration, we do not like it, we even have a negative attitude towards it.
I will give a number of cases from life. Let’s take our arguments. They are characterized by extreme vagueness, we very soon depart from the main theme. This is our feature. Let’s take our meetings. We now have so many meetings, commissions. How lengthy, verbose, and in most cases fruitless and contradictory these meetings are! We spend many hours in fruitless, pointless conversations.
Farther. Address Russian people, for example, students. What is their attitude to this feature of the mind, to the concentration of thoughts? Lord! You all know that as soon as we see a person who has become attached to a case, sits over a book, ponders, does not get distracted, does not get involved in disputes, and we already have a suspicion: a narrow-minded, stupid person, a crammer. And perhaps this is a person whose thought captures the whole, who is addicted to his idea! Or in a society, in a conversation, if a person asks, asks again, inquires, answers the question directly — we already have an epithet ready: stupid, narrow-minded, hard-thinking!
Obviously, our recommended features are not concentration, but onslaught, speed, raid. This, obviously, is what we consider a sign of talent; painstaking and perseverance for us do not fit well with the idea of talent.
Meanwhile, for a real mind, this thoughtfulness, dwelling on one subject is a normal thing. Take brilliant people. After all, they themselves say that they see no difference between themselves and other people, except for one feature that they can focus on a certain thought like no one else. And then it is clear that this concentration is strength, and mobility, the running of thoughts is weakness.
2. The second method of the mind is the desire of thought to come into direct communication with reality, bypassing all the partitions and signals that stand between reality and the cognizing mind. In science, one cannot do without methodology, without intermediaries, and the mind always understands this methodology so that it does not distort reality. We know that the fate of all our work depends on the right methodology. The methodology is wrong, the signals convey the reality incorrectly — and you get incorrect, erroneous, false facts. Of course, the technique for the scientific mind is only the first intermediary. It is followed by another intermediary — this is the word.
The word is also a signal, it can be suitable and inappropriate, accurate and inaccurate. I can give you a very clear example.
Scientists-naturalists who have worked hard themselves, who have addressed reality directly on many points, such scientists find it extremely difficult to lecture on what they themselves have not done. So, what a huge difference between what you have done yourself, and between what you know from writing, from the transmission of others. The difference is so sharp that it is embarrassing to read about something that you yourself have not seen or done. Such a note comes, by the way, from Helmholtz. Let’s see how the Russian intellectual mind holds up in this respect.
I will begin with a case well known to me. I read physiology, a practical science. Now it has become a general requirement that such experimental sciences be read defiantly, presented in the form of experiments, facts. That’s how others do it, and that’s how I do it. All my lectures consist of demonstrations. And what do you think! I did not see any particular passion among students for the activities that I show them.
As much as I addressed my listeners, I told them so much that I don’t read physiology to you, I show you. If I read, you could not listen to me, you could read this from a book, why am I better than others! But I am showing you facts that you will not see in the book, and therefore, so that time is not wasted, take a little work. Take five minutes of your time and note for memory after the lecture what you saw. And I remained a voice crying in the wilderness. Hardly anyone has ever taken my advice. I was convinced of this a thousand times from conversations at exams, etc.
You see how the Russian mind is not attached to facts. He loves words more and operates with them.
3. Let’s move on to the next quality of the mind. This is freedom, absolute freedom of thought, freedom that goes straight to absurd things, to the point of daring to reject what is established in science as immutable. If I do not allow such courage, such freedom, I will never see anything new.
Do we have this freedom? I must say no. I remember my student years. It was impossible to say anything against the general mood. You were dragged from your place, called almost a spy. But it doesn’t just happen to us when we’re young. Aren’t our representatives in the State Duma enemies of each other? They are not political opponents, namely enemies. As soon as someone speaks differently than you think, some dirty motives, bribery, etc. are immediately assumed. What kind of freedom is this?
4. The next quality of the mind is the attachment of thought to the idea on which you stopped. If there is no attachment, there is no energy, no success. You must love your idea in order to try to justify it. But then comes the critical moment. You gave birth to an idea, it is yours, it is dear to you, but at the same time you must be impartial. And if anything turns out to be contrary to your idea, you must sacrifice it, you must abandon it.
Hence, attachment associated with absolute impartiality is the next feature of the mind. That is why one of the torments of a learned person is constant doubts when a new detail, a new circumstance arises. You look anxiously whether this new detail is for you or against you. And long experiments solve the question: is your idea dead or has it survived?
Let’s see what we have in this respect. We have an attachment. There are many who stand on a certain idea. But absolute impartiality does not exist. We are deaf to objections not only from those who think differently, but also from reality. At the present moment, which we are experiencing, I do not even know whether it is worth giving examples.
5. The next, fifth feature is the thoroughness, the detail of thought. What is reality? It is the embodiment of various conditions, degrees, measures, weights, numbers. Outside of this, there is no reality. Take astronomy, remember how the discovery of Neptune happened. When they calculated the movement of Uranus, they found that something was missing in the figures, they decided that there must be some other mass that affects the movement of Uranus. And that mass was Neptune. It was all about the detail of thought. And then they said that Le Verrier discovered Neptune with the tip of a pen.
It’s the same if you go down to the complexity of life. How many times a little phenomenon that barely caught your eye turns everything upside down and is the beginning of a new discovery. It’s all about a detailed assessment of the details, conditions. This is the basic feature of the mind.
What? How is this feature in the Russian mind? Very bad. We operate through general propositions, we do not want to know either the measure or the number. We all believe dignity in driving to the limit, regardless of any conditions. This is our main feature.
6. The next property of the mind is the desire of scientific thought for simplicity. Simplicity and clarity is the ideal of knowledge. You know that in technology the simplest solution to a problem is also the most valuable. A difficult achievement is worth nothing. In the same way, we know very well that the main sign of a brilliant mind is simplicity. How do we, Russians, relate to this property?
The Russian man, I don’t know why, does not seek to understand what he sees. He does not ask questions in order to master the subject, which a foreigner would never allow. A foreigner will never refrain from asking a question. I had both Russians and foreigners at the same time. And while the Russian agrees, not really understanding, the foreigner will certainly try to get to the root of the matter. And it runs like a red thread through everything.
7. The next property of the mind is the desire for truth. People often spend their whole lives in an office looking for the truth. But this striving breaks down into two acts. First, the desire to acquire new truths, curiosity, curiosity. And the other is the desire to constantly return to the acquired truth, to constantly be convinced and enjoy the fact that what you have acquired is really the truth, and not a mirage. One without the other is meaningless.
If you turn to a young scientist, a scientific embryo, then you can clearly see that there is a desire for truth in him, but he does not have a desire for an absolute guarantee that this is the truth. He is happy to collect results and does not ask the question, is this a mistake? While the scientist is captivated not so much by the fact that it is a novelty, but by the fact that it is really a solid truth. And what do we have?
And for us, first of all, the first thing is the desire for novelty, curiosity. It is enough for us to know something, and our interest ends there. (“Ah, it’s all already known”). As I said in the last lecture, true lovers of truth admire old truths, for them it is a process of enjoyment. But with us it is a commonplace, hackneyed truth, and it no longer interests us, we forget it, it no longer exists for us, it does not determine our position. Is this true?
8. Let’s move on to the last feature of the mind. Since the attainment of truth involves great labor and torment, it is understandable that in the end a person constantly lives in obedience to the truth, learns deep humility, for he knows that truth is worth it. Is it so with us? We do not have this, we have the opposite. I’m going straight to the big examples. Take our Slavophiles. What did Russia do for culture at that time? What examples did she show the world? But people believed that Russia would rub the eyes of the rotten West. Where does this pride and confidence come from? And you think that life has changed our views?
Not at all! Don’t we now read almost every day that we are the vanguard of humanity! And does this not testify to what extent we do not know reality, to what extent we live fantastically!
I went over all the traits that characterize a fruitful scientific mind. As you can see, the situation with us is that in almost every feature we are on the disadvantageous side. For example, we have curiosity, but we are indifferent to the absoluteness, immutability of thought. Or, instead of a specialty, we take general provisions from the line of detail of the mind. We are constantly taking a disadvantageous line, and we do not have the strength to go along the main line. It is clear that the result is a mass of inconsistencies with the surrounding reality.
It is important for us to clearly understand what we are. You understand that if I was born with a heart defect and do not know this, then I will begin to behave like a healthy person and this will soon make itself felt. I will end my life very early and tragically. If, however, I will be tested by a doctor who will say that you have a heart defect, but if you adapt to this, then you can live up to 50 years. So it’s always good to know who I am.
Then there is also a gratifying point of view. After all, the mind of animals and humans is a special organ of development. It is influenced most of all by the influences of life, and it is by it that the organism of the individual and of nations develops most perfectly. Therefore, even though we have defects, they can be changed. This is a scientific fact.