Essence as I proposed it be use here was comparative rather than definitive - It was those minimal characterisitcs that allowed one to differentiate one thing from another - as you might note my question and my proposed answer do not extend to the metaphysics you imply - nor the degree of abstraction - instead i attempted to extract what might be a useful differentiation that seemed implicit in the tautology that the essence of the human form lies in one's ability to recognize it as such: as a human form as is - all else - whose form its deformities , its personality lies outside the equation - and may be said to be essentially irrelevant (though it may subjectively play a role in a particular but not necessarily a general understanding of the question at hand) - this was an attempt to escape the most base notions and practices of subjectivism re; my understanding rather than what one may do with the mechanics of language - though as you know it is more fun not to try to be specific or limiting - because specificity does not allow for confusion and the apriori dismissiveness that comes with the vagaries of the anecdotal - On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 2:09 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
> In a message dated 7/29/12 8:20:58 AM, [email protected] writes: > > > > And what is the essence of the human form? > > > All questions of the form "What is X?" are suspect because they in effect > make existential assumptions. Words use the user. > > "What is genius? What is art?" "What IS a miracle? What IS a ghost?" "Who > ARE you?" Think of so-called "words" as like bacteria. They are countless > -- > some helpful, some harmful. If you don't have - in your head -- an immune > system for your "words", to detect and dismiss the bad ones, you're in for > trouble. Make the users describe the notions behind their noises. Get them > to > see how psychoactive, how hallucinatory, words are, especially that > deluding > figment "IS". Do that, and you're halfway home. > > -- S a u l O s t r o w *Critical Voices* 21STREETPROJECTS 162 West 21 Street NYC, NY 10011
