what the rest of the (English-speaking) world calls initiative/motivation/perseverance?
I don’t think it’s quite the same thing; nor do I think your three choices are synonymous or mean the same things.
EY used to use a term ‘anti-sphexishness’, based on Hofstadter’s description of a sphex wasp in GEB who executes its nesting program endlessly if someone messes with it, which seems to be synonymous with ‘PC’ or ‘heroic responsibility’, but which one would certainly not describe as ‘motivation’ or ‘perseverance’ - after all, the sphex wasp endlessly executing its program displays motivation and perseverance beyond any mere human! (Motivation and perseverance beyond that, in fact, of the biologists who was messing with it in Hofstadter’s description.)
Or take this example: an Asian kid is told by his parents to become a doctor, and after endless studying gets into med school, graduates, does his internship etc and becomes a full-fledged doctor. As expected, such things correlate with Conscientiousness, the doctor could fairly be described as having ‘motivation’ and ‘perseverance’ - but did he display ‘initiative’?
Similarly we can think of examples of people who display ‘initiative’ and ‘motivation’ but not perseverance (think ADHD) while also not especially being ‘PC’ - they follow their whim in choosing topics of interest (initiative, because certainly no one told them to pick said topics), and they prosecute said topic with great energy and intensity (motivation), but this leads to no lasting change and represents no deep thought about their goals, preferences, and the state of the world.
I’m not sure. The meaning of PC/anti-sphexishness/heroic-responsibility seems to be a sort of stepping outside of routine and comparing the status quo with the original intrinsicly desirable goals the status quo was supposed to achieve, and taking action to remedy the discrepancies.
You could call this ‘visionary’ or ‘philosophical’ or ‘righteous’ or ‘wise’ but none of them seem right to me—probably why those 3 terms were invented. ‘Enlightened’ comes close but only if you were living 2 centuries ago, because these days ‘enlightened’ is sarcastic or religious in undertones. (That is, figures like Voltaire were ‘enlightened’ but also definitely reminiscent of the 3 terms.)
I don’t think it’s quite the same thing; nor do I think your three choices are synonymous or mean the same things.
EY used to use a term ‘anti-sphexishness’, based on Hofstadter’s description of a sphex wasp in GEB who executes its nesting program endlessly if someone messes with it, which seems to be synonymous with ‘PC’ or ‘heroic responsibility’, but which one would certainly not describe as ‘motivation’ or ‘perseverance’ - after all, the sphex wasp endlessly executing its program displays motivation and perseverance beyond any mere human! (Motivation and perseverance beyond that, in fact, of the biologists who was messing with it in Hofstadter’s description.)
Or take this example: an Asian kid is told by his parents to become a doctor, and after endless studying gets into med school, graduates, does his internship etc and becomes a full-fledged doctor. As expected, such things correlate with Conscientiousness, the doctor could fairly be described as having ‘motivation’ and ‘perseverance’ - but did he display ‘initiative’?
Similarly we can think of examples of people who display ‘initiative’ and ‘motivation’ but not perseverance (think ADHD) while also not especially being ‘PC’ - they follow their whim in choosing topics of interest (initiative, because certainly no one told them to pick said topics), and they prosecute said topic with great energy and intensity (motivation), but this leads to no lasting change and represents no deep thought about their goals, preferences, and the state of the world.
I agree, I meant / as +. Since when is division not the same thing as addition… What else would one add to the mix to get the meaning right?
I’m not sure. The meaning of PC/anti-sphexishness/heroic-responsibility seems to be a sort of stepping outside of routine and comparing the status quo with the original intrinsicly desirable goals the status quo was supposed to achieve, and taking action to remedy the discrepancies.
You could call this ‘visionary’ or ‘philosophical’ or ‘righteous’ or ‘wise’ but none of them seem right to me—probably why those 3 terms were invented. ‘Enlightened’ comes close but only if you were living 2 centuries ago, because these days ‘enlightened’ is sarcastic or religious in undertones. (That is, figures like Voltaire were ‘enlightened’ but also definitely reminiscent of the 3 terms.)