Friday, July 1, 2011

Changing the categories

Being completely rational has its down side - Too much information and too many categories AND  too many categories that keep changing .The Greeks knew that , but somehow thousands of years later we are more than happy to wander around in a fog of changing word meanings -, unable at many levels to go back and find out ---what went  wrong ?   This confusion at coping level can't last and threatens our civilness via our ability to agree on consensus and settled logic stuff. 


A rock was once a rock - now its a bit of silica and a lot of oxygen  but if it were just those 2 , we still wouldn't know what it was . How it came about is critical to whatever it is - the story is important and critical .Something similiar seems to be helpful for corroborating categories 
The problem of changing names for things is not such a big issue for settled science which is very helpful because we can get on with our jobs eg . We know an neutron is not a neutron but who cares -  "we know where it is and where it fits"


BUT its a big problem with big picture stuff - values and the value we put into words ( or take away from them eg changing meaning of "wicked") . Good intentions abound , but any thinking person knows that "good intentions" create the greatest evil when the application does not cut it where it counts on the ground , when we don't look at the truth because we don't like it ( in ourselves for example) or when we deny things ( like evil when we in the West dispose of the word " wicked:") 


We don't need rulings ( the law ) as much as we need  something to measure things with - that's good science and good faith and good  relations (way back to some consensus about what to call things of importance). Otherwise the law and mere words may just be a very course imposition by those with the power or the loudest voices  .  

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