A ll i s h euristic. I have now said it twice. The first objective of this part of our discussion is to compel belief in this paradoxical phrase. Only from a general philosophical position can a specific philosophical position that depends upon it emerge. Therefore, a careful understanding of this koan will prove essential to a later justification of the universal method. To this end, we will examine the general difficulties that lay in the way of our understanding it and the specific difficulty of any language in trying to explain it.

Generalizing from All engineering is heuristic to A ll i s h euristic is difficult for two reasons: The first, often thought to be serious, turns out to be minor; the second, often thought to be minor, turns out to be more serious. First, if this generalization is accepted, heuristics will have to be used to explain themselves. This problem is similar to trying to demonstrate the color white in a world in which everything is white. In fact, some philosophers argue that universal doubt and universal certainty (and I am sure they would include the notion that everything is heuristic) are untenable because of the principle of predicate contrast or sense-in-contrast. This principle holds that a predicate such as doubt and its contradictory must both apply to an understood class of statements to give sense to either. If no contrast exists between figure...