Really, why is that? Is it just
superstition, or is it not after all? Let's try to figure it out.
What is dialogical thinking
There is a law in ecology: "
It takes two to live". There are no
ecosystems consisting of organisms of only one species.
No organism can exist only in the environment of its own kind. Only in interaction with organisms of another species. OTHER organisms, of course! It turns out that thinking also obeys this law!
In order for a thought process to occur, there must be a dialog going on in the mind.
Let's see how it happens. It's winter, it's late morning. You're asleep. No thoughts. And suddenly.
1st VOICE: "Ah? What, is it morning already?". 2nd VOICE: "No, not again! It's still night, it's still night!
VOICE 1: "Morning... Someone is rattling the kettle in the kitchen...". 2nd VOICE: "Oh, no-o-o-o-o-o... Maybe we shouldn't get up... ".
And so on. All of this happens much faster than in this example, of course, but it happens - our consciousness is constantly "in dialog" with itself. That's why our thinking is "dialogical".
A third voice appears
Now imagine that in a situation when you wake up and don't realize whether it's night or morning, no one is rattling the kettle. Should you get up or not - how do you know?
The internal dialog "hangs": the first voice says "morning", the second voice says "night", the first voice says "morning", the second voice says "night"... What should be done in such a case?
Look at the clock! Or ask someone if it's night or morning. It's a joke, but it is also possible. The main thing is that in a difficult situation, a person turns to someone else for help. To another person or to the clock - it doesn't matter.
The same thing happens when an insoluble dispute arises between two people: they turn to a third person - a judge. There is even such an expression - "
the court of arbitration". That is, the judgment of a third person. This third person can be anyone or anything. Society ("
What people will say"),
advice, law,
rules of conduct... And for a religious person - God.
It is said that the thinking of Russians, unlike the inhabitants of Western Europe, is based not on a binary but on a ternary code. Binary code: yes - no; can - cannot; reliance on rationality, on logical reasoning, on "good sense". Trinitarian code: yes - no - maybe ("avoid"); can - can't - can't - can't, but really want to ("nothing..."). This is a completely different picture of the world!
We don't even have a dialog consisting of two voices, but three, where the third one is God, conscience, social norms, traditions...
Why you can't have more than three
Usually, to solve a problem, "third" is enough, and "fourth" is not necessary, it will only get in the way. Well, it is clear: the third will say "yes", and the fourth will say "no", and then what to do? No, we don't need a fourth.
I see now why "God loves the Trinity"? Because we have such a "mentality".