John said to Dan:
I agree that there is nothing about absolute staticity. So we must mean
"relatively static" whenever we use the term, for we understand that there is
no such thing as any static thing. ... So I guess I'm glad the subject came up,
as I'm sincerely confused about the definition of 'Static". You wouldn't think
that would be such a problem,..
dmb says:
I'm just amazed that the definition of "static" should be a problem. And I'm
even more amazed that people who have supposedly read Pirsig's books would
define "static" to mean "permanently fixed and eternal". We all know that
describes Plato's notion of the Good and that notion is Pirsig's central target
in ZAMM. Those terms are more than just available to him and if he meant to say
quality patterns were so rigid he would have called them "eternal patterns of
quality" or "fixed patterns" or "permanent configurations" or something else
like that. But he didn't. They're called static patterns and he describes them
as a stabilizing force existing in relation to a larger an evolutionary
framework.
Just the other day I posted James and Pirsig describing the relations between
"static" and "dynamic". I posted those quotes along with the dictionary
definitions of those same terms. I don't honestly don't understand how or why
anyone could fail to comprehend the basic meaning of these terms. It's almost
impossible not to take a condescending attitude toward this or loose patience
completely. It's hard to believe that anyone could be so incapable of learning
the simplest things. Talking to people who don't know how to use words is very
frustrating in any situation and such people have no business hanging out in
philosophical discussion group.
Mary, for example, thinks I need to explain how the phrase "everything gets
known by something" could possibly be related to the word "noetic". Really? If
we put that phrase next to the standard dictionary definition, then I would
have thought the meaning would be obvious to anyone.
noetic - adjective: of or relating to mental activity or the intellect. ORIGIN
mid 17th cent.: from Greek noētikos, from noētos 'intellectual,' from noein
'perceive.'
The word just refers to "perception" to "knowing" to "knowledge" and the phrase
in question was "everything gets KNOWN by something". How could anyone fail to
see the connection? Even if you have to look up the word and learn it for the
first time. How long could that take? Less than a minute, for sure. I have no
patience for that sort of thing. Who can't think their way through that little
problem? Be serious!
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