The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 16th August at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the third of the series looking successively at five principles of the Middle Way (scepticism, provisionality, incrementality, agnosticism and integration), followed by three levels of practice (desire, meaning and belief).

There’ll be a short talk on incrementality, followed by questions and discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on scepticism, please see this post.

There is already a short introductory video (8 minutes) on incrementality as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session.

Here’s the video of the actual stimulus talk and Q&A:

Incrementality

Incrementality is seeing things as a matter of degree rather than as an on/off switch. It is an important aspect of Middle Way practice, because it is one of the ways we can challenge absolute assumptions on either side. Absolute assumptions are framed as discontinuous alternatives between one thing and another, seen as necessarily the only way we can understand the situation. However, in human practical experience there is always another way of framing these absolute binary choices, which are imposed by our conceptual assumptions. We do not have to depose conceptual assumptions themselves (or the logic we use to relate them to each other) to do this, but merely use them more carefully, thinking carefully about the meaning of what we are talking about in experience rather than in terms of the concepts traditionally imposed on it.

Some of the most damaging and immediate examples of the negative impact of binary distinctions can be seen in arguments about race, nationality, or any other human group assumed to have a fixed boundary. Not only these, but even some of the most seemingly intractable binary assumptions that have become entrenched into our language and thinking can be reframed. God or his absence is one widespread example of this. Freewill and determinism, and mind and body are others.

The tendency to think in terms of necessary and absolute binaries is also often described as dualism or as false dichotomy. We also have many phrases in everyday thinking that show ways of avoiding them. We often talk about ‘black and white’ thinking versus ‘shades of gray’, or of things as being ‘a matter of degree’. ‘Incrementality’ can also be thought of as ‘continuity’, or ‘gradualism’. It also has much in common with ‘non-dualism’ if this is interpreted practically rather than metaphysically.

Some suggested reflection questions:

1. Think of an example of an opposed pair of terms that you frequently absolutise. Can you work out how they could be incrementalised?
2. How do you think incrementalisation might help you in a practical situation: for example, resolving a dispute?
3. Do you still find yourself assuming there are some opposed terms that can’t be incrementalised? (This may require further philosophical exploration and discussion to be resolved)

Suggested further reading:

Middle Way Philosophy 1:1.d

Middle Way Philosophy 4: Section 4 discusses a whole set of different pairs of opposed metaphysical beliefs and how they may be integrated (see pdf of Omnibus edition on Researchgate).

The Buddha’s Middle Way 3.e: ‘Incrementality: The Ocean’ has more about the concept of incrementality in the Pali Canon and in Buddhism