Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Category Exchanges
(4)
Alas Poor Eric! I knew him Well! I write this out of guilt, of course, paraphrasing The Bard. Will Eric actually read my blog? And if he does, how will that affect that young man's life, if at all? He offered me 'kindness' and I offered him 'truth' in exchange. Was that appropriate? Are the concepts equivalent? The problem is that 'kindness' is obvious to all concerned, whereas 'truth' is not so obvious. We recognize 'kindness' when we see it. 'Truth,' on the other hand, often revulses us when we are first confronted with it. The reason is that 'kindness' is a 'right brain' thing, whereas 'truth' is a 'left brain' thing. (The right brain is such a pussy!) And furthermore, those ideas fall into different categories: Comparing 'kindness' with 'truth' is what we call a 'category mistake.'
(Kootch just walked by, heading to the bathroom to pee. I love that woman for her pleasant Japanese personality. She has been the light of my life. (She also cooks very healthy food).)
My justification for the exchange was that I was rewarding 'kindness' with 'kindness in the form of Truth.'
Alas Poor Eric! I knew him Well! I write this out of guilt, of course, paraphrasing The Bard. Will Eric actually read my blog? And if he does, how will that affect that young man's life, if at all? He offered me 'kindness' and I offered him 'truth' in exchange. Was that appropriate? Are the concepts equivalent? The problem is that 'kindness' is obvious to all concerned, whereas 'truth' is not so obvious. We recognize 'kindness' when we see it. 'Truth,' on the other hand, often revulses us when we are first confronted with it. The reason is that 'kindness' is a 'right brain' thing, whereas 'truth' is a 'left brain' thing. (The right brain is such a pussy!) And furthermore, those ideas fall into different categories: Comparing 'kindness' with 'truth' is what we call a 'category mistake.'
(Kootch just walked by, heading to the bathroom to pee. I love that woman for her pleasant Japanese personality. She has been the light of my life. (She also cooks very healthy food).)
My justification for the exchange was that I was rewarding 'kindness' with 'kindness in the form of Truth.'
