Z Buck McFate
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2009
- Messages
- 6,048
- Enneagram
- 5w4
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
imo:
Te uses an external, consistent ruler. its units are based upon elements outside the self, and the distances between units don't change.
Ti uses an internal, consistent ruler. the units are based upon measurements decided upon within the self, but the distances between units do not change.
Fe uses an inconsistent ruler agreed upon externally - the distances between units can change based on people, and the units are based on external elements.
Fi uses an internal, inconsistent ruler - it also changes to meet people, but the units are adjusted internally.
they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Te is completely objective; Ti is the master of formulation of systems. Fe is good at handling people externally; Fi can adapt to meet people internally.
What's amusing is, this description is very close to one that I wrote once about them. Fi is completely subjective, Te is completely objective, and Fe and Ti are somewhere in between.
This problem with this description is that it makes it sound like Te is probably the "best" way of making decisions, while Fi is the worst. Who would want to use a subjectively defined and inconsistent ruler? That sounds like the worst kind. I think it would be better if we could define them in a way that doesn't make Fi come across so badly. It makes Fi seem completely unaccountable to anything except itself. But surely it has to be held to SOME kind of standard... or else, there would be no way of correcting corruption or error in an Fi user's values.
But the thing is, to some extent, Te is subjectively defined, inasmuch as thinking is- in itself- a purely subjective event. The term ‘objective thinking’ is something of an oxymoron: it isn’t possible to think objectively, it’s only possible to think subjectively about objective possibilities. T inherently has more objective criteria in mind, the information is more consistent and predictable- but at the core, all thinking/judging is still a subjective event. Te has the least amount of accounting for one’s own praxis of thought, while Fi probably has the most. Te is most apt to lose sight of its own subjectivity, its own praxis of thought- which it necessarily has- so it’s blind to how values and norms can corrupt its expression of ‘objective criteria’. With this in mind, it’s not the ‘best’ way of making decisions.