From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 13 2002 - 23:19:52 GMT
Kevin,
I share a lot of your questions about Dynamic Quality. I've come to the
opinion that we can't tell what is Dynamic and what is degenerate until, as
Platt recognizes, enough time has past. But I think this then means that
Dynamic Quality is a label we put on things after they've happened to
denote moral superiority. I don't think this means our labeling is
arbitrary, it is simply descriptive from our present context.
To save Dynamic Quality as a term to describe present human behavior, I
think we can use it in our own lives to describe the feelings and
impressions we have about things that "just seem to be better." But what
"just seems better" to us now, may end up being extremely degenerate. I'm
sure Hitler might have employed Dynamic Quality to describe his feelings
about Jews, but it has been shown pretty conclusively (even from the
world-context Hitler was in) that he was pretty degenerate. The point is
that I think history will be the judge and jury of Dynamic Quality and I
don't think any case will ever solved and closed with any sense of
absolute, ahistorical certainty.
So, I think of Dynamic Quality as a descritive label, rather than as a
prescriptive term that has any force. For if we use DQ to describe our
actions in the present, and provide an argument for why we predict that
history will judge in favor of us, I think all the persuasive force is from
the argument, not from the use of the label DQ.
Matt
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