On Nov 23, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Arlo Bensinger wrote: > [Marsha] > When you wrote 'historical philosophical conversation', weren't you limiting > the statement to Western-centric historical philosophical conversation? I am > interested in exploring the relationship between Buddhism and the MoQ. > > [Arlo] > I do not speak any Eastern languages, nor am I fluent enough to understand > the specific cultural and historical meanings of what gets translated into > the English term "relativism" when the word is pulled out of that context and > put in a paragraph in front of me. > > It may very well be that whatever term the Buddhists use that we translate as > "relativism" matches the MOQ's stance precisely. But the problem is (1) we > are not in that context, in the Eastern world with a fluent understanding of > their thoughts and language and cultural history, and (2) the term when used > in translation is someone's best approximation of whatever original term was > used within that language, and so I don't think demanding the term be used is > wrong-sighted. > > In essence, even making this argument, you are saying that the there is no > real term in English that coincides with the original idea taken out of that > context, and "relativism" may be close but you're off then in redefining > 'relativism' to capture what meaning was lost in translation. This may be > good for you, but when that argument extends outside of people knowing how > you have personally redefined the word, it becomes entirely problematic. > > Maybe "relativism" isn't the best lexical selection in translation. Maybe > "contextualism" or "relationalism" or whatever is better, I don't know. But > why reforce meaning to keep a particular 'word' rather than improve your > understanding of meaning and offer words in English that may, or do, map onto > the original cultural-historical idea better?
Marsha: And that opinion is relative to your pattern life history. I will continue to follow my interest in the relationship between the MoQ and Buddhism based on my pattern life history and immediate experience. ___ 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
