Hey Squonk,
You wrote:
"Language itself is both these things.
It may be used today and have evolved tomorrow."
-rick: I'm unconvinced, but like I said, I haven't read the book.
"When you say, 'That's like saying....new/improved' the analogy is
silly."
-rick: Sorry. I'll try to keep my tongue away from my cheek from now on.
"When you contemplate the emergence and dissipation of species, the
analogy is
profound."
-rick: Thanks. To be entirely truthful, I actually think it's all just a
word game that shifts around the scale on which you choose to examine the
thing. One might be tempted to say that man has walked the earth and been
evolving for millions of years; ('man' is evolving). However, another might
say that homosapiens have only been around for a few hundred thousand years
and that the 'man' of millions of years ago (cro-mags, Neanderthals, etc.)
has died-out and been replaced several times over (each type of 'man' was
transient'). Neither perspective is any more 'correct' than the other, they
are simply alternative ways of expressing the same phenomena. And either
way, I still don't see how 'a shift to a verb based language' aids in
understanding this relatively simple concept or 'reinforces its importance'.
"And why must anything be one or another?"
-rick: Sometimes things must be one or another because their respective
definitions are mutually exclusive. Or logically speaking, any given thing
cannot be both A and not-A simultaneously. So let's say 'transient' is
defined as 'temporary' (temporary =A). And let's say that for a thing to
undergo an 'evolutionary process' requires it to have a long continuous
existence (which is the opposite of 'temporary' and thus = not-A).
"Surely this insistence is an example of SOM like classification?"
-rick: Huh? What in heaven's name does SOM have to do with this???
"Classification is precisely that which Bohm is trying to avoid."
-Like I said, I wouldn't know.
thanks for the gab, it's always fun
rick
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