We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things — metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities.
Every concept arises from the equation of unequal things. Just as it is certain that one leaf is never totally the same as another, so it is certain that the concept “leaf” is formed by arbitrarily discarding these individual differences and by forgetting the distinguishing aspects.
We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what is individual and actual; whereas nature is acquainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an X which remains inaccessible and undefinable for us.
One may certainly admire man as a mighty genius of construction, who succeeds in piling an infinitely complicated dome of concepts upon an unstable foundation, and, as it were, on running water. Of course, in order to be supported by such a foundation, his construction must be like one constructed of spiders’ webs: delicate enough to be carried along by the waves, strong enough not to be blown apart by every wind.
When someone hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding. Yet this is how matters stand regarding seeking and finding “truth” within the realm of reason. If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare “look, a mammal’ I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value.
I love this text and come back to it often. Isn’t it true for everything? Reality is infinitely complex—the only way we can talk about it is by making abstractions that are very distant from reality as it ‘really’ is. Everything can be “zoomed in” upon and labeled with an infinite, expanding dictionary.
I just call something a “plank”, but a carpenter will know exactly from what tree it has come, how old it is, and what varnishes it has received.
I talk about my “fingers”, but a doctor knows the Latin names for all bones and tendons there.
I notice “electral wires”, an electrician says all kinds of complicated stuff about volts and amperes and types of wirings and grounding etcetera.
When you delve into any subject, you will notice new distinctions, and gain new vocabulary to describe these distinctions. That’s very helpful in many subjects!
But do you want that with humans? Do you like it when somebody starts dividing up humans in “alphas” and “betas”? Should Facebook display your BMI? Do you want to make the near infinite depth of a human—of a mind, of a personality, of a complex genome, the unique set of things they’ve learned from their culture, their family and their friends—something that is easily legible to everyone? Something that ought to be legible?
How we ought to behave, how we want to behave, studying humans and cultures, finding new norms for relationships and sex appropriate to the 21st century—these are fascinating subjects! They are worthy of attention, and I could understand the necessity to develop a deeper vocabulary to study them in detail.
But I don’t think creating some new boxes to fit people into, and demanding that special physical spaces are created for them, and making teens very confused about what box they ought to be in, is very helpful...
From a completely different angle: Nietzsche.
I love this text and come back to it often. Isn’t it true for everything? Reality is infinitely complex—the only way we can talk about it is by making abstractions that are very distant from reality as it ‘really’ is. Everything can be “zoomed in” upon and labeled with an infinite, expanding dictionary.
I just call something a “plank”, but a carpenter will know exactly from what tree it has come, how old it is, and what varnishes it has received.
I talk about my “fingers”, but a doctor knows the Latin names for all bones and tendons there.
I notice “electral wires”, an electrician says all kinds of complicated stuff about volts and amperes and types of wirings and grounding etcetera.
When you delve into any subject, you will notice new distinctions, and gain new vocabulary to describe these distinctions. That’s very helpful in many subjects!
But do you want that with humans? Do you like it when somebody starts dividing up humans in “alphas” and “betas”? Should Facebook display your BMI? Do you want to make the near infinite depth of a human—of a mind, of a personality, of a complex genome, the unique set of things they’ve learned from their culture, their family and their friends—something that is easily legible to everyone? Something that ought to be legible?
How we ought to behave, how we want to behave, studying humans and cultures, finding new norms for relationships and sex appropriate to the 21st century—these are fascinating subjects! They are worthy of attention, and I could understand the necessity to develop a deeper vocabulary to study them in detail.
But I don’t think creating some new boxes to fit people into, and demanding that special physical spaces are created for them, and making teens very confused about what box they ought to be in, is very helpful...