brilliant AND apropos, Marsha. A two-fer! I miss Platt.
On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 12:19 AM, MarshaV <[email protected]> wrote: > > Greetings, > > I had this email saved in my MoQ folder under the title of 'Paradox'. I > hope Arlo does not mind me reposting it; I only save posts I think are the > most brilliant. ;-) > > --- > > > Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 11:43 AM > Subject: Re: [MD] The Word is Not the Thing > > > [Arlo asked] > Can anyone name ANY static pattern that is NOT in some manner of flux? > > [Platt] > The static meaning of your contention never fluxes. > > [Arlo] > Sure it does. It did not exist a million years ago. I will not exist > in a million years. Along the way, we contend as best we can with the > paradox inherent in any self-reflexive symbolic system, and as our > understand improves, so to can we craft better pointers. In fact, my > own personal "meaning" in how I see this has changed a great deal over my > life. > > In the meantime we are left with language that creates "essentially a > contradiction in terms, a logical absurdity... almost like a > mathematical definition of randomness" (ZMM) > > To quote/paraphrase Pirsig again, "What this means logically is that > as you try to move toward unchanging truth through the application of > [logic], you actually do not move toward it at all. You move away from it!" > > Pirsig, that Great Postmodernist, is fully aware of the inherent > incompleteness of language. > > "Since the One is the source of all things and includes all things in > it, it cannot be defined in terms of those things, since no matter > what thing you use to define it, the thing will always describe > something less than the One itself." (ZMM) > > Yes, the Great Postmodernist Pirsig knew that because of the inherent > incompleteness of language, "The One can only be described > allegorically, through the use of analogy, of figures of imagination > and speech." (ZMM) > > While you continue to think that "It's a fact there are no facts" > represents some sort of intellectual "gotcha", for Pirsig and Zen > Masters and other postmodern thinkers such a thing simply points to > what they already know, language is incomplete, paradoxically > recursive, and logically inconsistent when used self-reflexively. > > It ain't rocket science. Nice try, though. > > [Platt] > ... from the mouth of the great enlightened Zen Master, Arlo. . > > [Arlo] > Are you off your meds? Is that what's going on? Your desire to attack > me is becoming relentless. At least offer up SOME substantive point > along the way. Sheeesh... > > --- > > > > > ___ > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
