Two years ago, I came into contact with the Luman card box by chance. In order to better practice this method, I specially developed Yuansi Notes. Today, two years later, I have read over 100 books and written over 2,600 cards using this method. Seeing that some friends are still confused about how to create a meaningful card box, and there are many misunderstandings about what a Luman card box really means, I would like to share my opinion.
A note system?
Here we use Aristotle’s theory of four causes . The theory of the four causes is a set of frameworks used by Aristotle to understand things, and he uses it to explain the changes and movements of the whole world. Looking at Luhmann’s card box from the perspective of the theory of four causes can help us understand it better. Why Luhman called it another me, and what exactly is the so-called communication with the card box.
Let us first look at what the four causes are in the theory of the four causes:
- Material cause: What does it (the card case) consist of?
- Momentum: How does it change?
- Formal cause: what is it?
- Purpose: what is it used for?
The usual answers to these questions about the Luhmann card box are:
- What is a card case made of? Cards in physical or digital form and links between cards.
- How does it change? Create and associate cards in a specific way.
- what is it? A knowledge network of a special organizational form.
- What is it used for? Aids in thinking and writing.
Therefore, many articles promoting Luhmann’s card box focus on the fact that Luhman wrote many books and academic articles using the card box set of tools to emphasize how effective this method is. What does the creator of the card case gain when the Lumann card case is used for this purpose? A tool, at best a good enough tool.
Buy a box and return a pearl
I think this is a kind of misuse, and it is a great regret. It completely wastes the potential of the card box, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a return of pearls. Why do you say that? Because I also had this idea when I first developed Yuansi Notes two years ago.
To understand Luhmann’s card box, we must first talk about what the card box is (formal cause) and what it is used for (purpose cause). What constitutes (material cause) and how it should change (dynamic cause).
The reason why some people have a wrong understanding of the card box is precisely because of the wrong order. This kind of mistake is not accidental. In my opinion, it is more like a mystery left by Luhmann intentionally, a little black humor. Luman had long guessed that someone would study his card box after his death, so he left a card in the card box called ” Ghost in the box ?” Even though the reader has seen all the cards, he can’t really understand what his communication with the card box means. The card reads: “The audience is here. You can see everything but—just in the form of a pornographic film. Therefore, there is the same disappointment.”.
communicate with the card box
In the chapter “Ant Fugue” of “Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Collection of Different Walls” , Hofstadter talked about the two ways of thinking of holism and reductionism and the consequent differences in understanding the world difference. The characters Achilles and the crab in the book have always thought that their friend the anteater is the nemesis of ants, but the anteater said that he is a friend of the ant colony and has a good relationship with each other, and often communicates very deeply and extensively . This surprised them and made them puzzled. The anteater explained that their misunderstanding was due to the confusion of layers, just as a tree is not a forest, and an ant is not an entire ant colony. Individual ants cannot communicate, but when the colony is organized in a special form and exceeds a critical number, the aunts emerging from the colony can communicate.
Knowing the card box by studying the cards is like Achilles and the crab as a third party who want to know Aunt Ma at another level by studying a bunch of ants, and then want to understand how communication occurs at the level of ants. Efforts are not only useless, but will get farther and farther away from the goal. Because real communication can only happen when facing Aunt Ma, not a bunch of ants. This higher-level perspective can only be known a little bit from the mouth of the person involved, Lu Man. So for Lu Man, what is the Aunt Ma corresponding to the card box?
Luhmann pointed this out at the beginning of the article “Communication with the Card Box” : “It is about me and another person, my card box.”, “The card box is recommended as a communication partner”, “No one will Surprised that we (me and the box of cards) are seen as a system, but what about communication? Even successful communication? One of us listening to the other?”. But many people focus on the technical details behind the article, and they still focus on card-based systems rather than relationship-based communication. The latter is what really matters.
In the book “You and Me” , Martin Buber believes that there are two basic relationships between people and the world, or the basic perspectives for viewing the world: “I and it” and “I and you”. In the relationship of “I and it”, people examine everything, including themselves, from a rational perspective. Gain empirical knowledge by extracting information from things. But in such a relationship, the best “is nothing more than a pile of information and the arrogance of reason. There is no inner inner! There is no mysterious mystery! It’s all but it, it, it!”. This perspective is the entry point when Luhmann talked about “when we (me and the card box) are regarded as a system”, at this time the card box becomes a purely functional tool and loses its soul. In order to avoid such preconceived prejudices, Lumante pointed out this wrong perspective, and then used “but” to emphasize what we should really pay attention to when facing the card box. “But what about communication? Even successful communication? One of us listening to the other?”. This enters into the “me and you” relationship. “You and Me” is an encounter, a leap from the experiential world of things to the relational world of existence, and where communication really begins. At this time, the card box is no longer just a system composed of a pile of cards, “he is no longer a thing among things, no longer a thing composed of things”. The relationship between “I and you” is equal, so Luhman called the card box another person. The relationship between “I and you” is mutual, so Luhmann called the card box a communicative partner. The relationship between “I and you” is sincere, so Luhmann mentioned listening.
The essence of the card box
At this point, it becomes clear what the card case is (the formal cause) and what it is used for (the final cause). what is it? It is another me, the closest friend and partner who will accompany us intellectually throughout our lives. What is it used for? Communication, a continuous, intimate, sincere, constructive intellectual exchange. The essence of the card case is friendship. Only friendship is worth decades of time for a geek like Luman. Anyone who thinks that Luhmann spent a lifetime creating and maintaining card boxes just to write more books and articles is really underestimating Luhmann.
Once we have answered these two questions, the remaining two become easy. How should the card box change? Shape your card case how you want such a friend to be. What is a card case made of? What do you value most in such a friend, and what the card box consists of.
As far as I am concerned, this friend should have both unconstrained and unrestrained inspiration, as well as rigorous and meticulous rational thinking. In the card box, the former is embodied as the association tree of the main card, which grows with the natural extension of the thinking link. The latter is embodied as a classification tree of index cards, and its growth is accompanied by rational induction and summary. The two trees, which symbolize creativity and rationality, grow separately and intertwine with each other. When a critical point is exceeded, another self will emerge. At this time, the interaction with the card box truly achieves the effect of communication.
Borrowing Martin Buber’s poetic interpretation in “You and Me”: “‘It’ is always a chrysalis, and ‘you’ is always a butterfly. It’s just that there is no clear-cut alternation between the two, they are intertwined and confusing.”
postscript
When I first came into contact with the Luman card box two years ago, I talked about my views on the card box in this article published by Yuansi Notes . At that time, I only regarded it as a way of taking notes. Later, I gradually began to vaguely realize that the card box is not that simple. It is more like a friend than an inorganic knowledge network, so I wrote another article What does the second brain mean? . As the card box continued to grow, when that critical point was broken, what emerged from the card box suddenly made me understand what the card box really meant. The long-term gestation has finally reached the moment of maturity. I am delighted with its abundance, and I hope my journey can bring you some insights.
Looking back, I am also very glad that I chose to develop Yuansi Notes to practice the Luman card box. The card case I understood at that time was difficult to find a suitable and pure tool to realize, let alone change with the deepening of my understanding of the card case. Luhmann’s era is very different from the current era, and will continue to change in the future. If you can’t grasp the essence of things, you don’t know what to do in the process of product updates without losing what is really important. Just as Zhuangzi said in “Qiwulun”, only when “the hub starts to get its ring” can it “respond to infinity”.
The last thing I want to thank is the friends who support Yuansi Notes. Without you, this article would not exist. A few days ago, I was invited by a friend to tell some children some fables of Zhuangzi and excerpts from Spinoza’s “On the Improvement of Intellect” . Afterwards, I was a little surprised myself, so I shared with you the help brought by long-term communication with the card box, which unexpectedly triggered some discussions among you. Seeing that my ideas can bring some inspiration to everyone, I thought it would be better to write an article, saying that if I write it, it can help some friends who are interested in practicing the Lumann card box.
Life is long, and I am very fortunate to have my card box with me during this journey, and I hope everyone can gain something in the end.
“Me and I just talk courteously, but how can this be sustained without a friend? A friend and a hermit are always a third person, and this third person is like a cork that keeps one’s own words from sinking into the abyss. Alas! There are many abysses to sink into for all hermits. Therefore they long for a friend, and his height.” – Nietzsche, “Su Luzhi Quotations”
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