#Farrago rerum theologian how to#

Science conceives of time as simply one coordinate in a deterministic space-time block ruled by eternal laws mathematics conceives of time as consisting of equal segments on a graph and philosophers since Plato have conceptualized the world as consisting of the passing shadows of eternal forms. Unfortunately, as philosophy created larger and larger conceptual categories, philosophy tended to become dominated by empty abstractions such as “substance,” “numbers,” and “ideas.” Bergson proposed that only an intuitive approach that enlarged perceptual knowledge through feeling and imagination could advance philosophy out of the dead end of static abstractions.īergson argued that we miss the flow of time when we use the traditional tools of science, mathematics, and philosophy. This flow could best be understood through perception rather than conception. Reality always flowed and was impossible to fully capture in any static conceptual form. (See Beyond the “Mechanism” Metaphor in Physics.) In Bergson’s view, traditional reason, science, and philosophy created static, eternal forms and posited these forms as the foundation of reality - but in fact these forms were tools for understanding reality and not reality itself. However the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) provided a way to think about dynamic quality, by positing change as the fundamental nature of reality. If it did have a stable form or structure, it would not be dynamic. It is difficult to conceive of dynamic quality - by its very nature, it is resistant to conceptualization and definition, because it has no stable form or structure.

#Farrago rerum theologian how to#

Dynamic quality exists everywhere, but it has no specific goals or plans - it always consists of spur-of-the-moment actions, decisions, and guesses about how to overcome obstacles to “betterness.”

Many creative people, from writers to mathematicians, have noted that they came up with their best ideas while resting, engaging in everyday activities, or dreaming.ĭynamic quality is not just responsible for human creation - it is fundamental to all evolution, from the physical level of atoms and molecules, to the biological level of life forms, to the social level of human civilization, to the intellectual level of human thought.

For example, invention and discovery is often not an outcome of calculation or logical deduction, but of a “free association of ideas” that tends to occur when one is not mentally concentrating at all. Pirsig describes dynamic quality as the “pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality.” By this, he means that before concepts, logic, laws, and mathematical formulas are discovered, there is process of searching and grasping that has not yet settled into a pattern or solution. Religious traditions, laws, and science textbooks are examples of static goods. Creativity, mysticism, dreams, and even good guesses or luck are examples of dynamic good in action. Once a dynamic good solidifies into a concept, practice, or tradition in a culture, it becomes a static good. This dynamic good consists of a search for “betterness” that is unplanned and has no specific destination, but is nevertheless responsible for all progress. Robert Pirsig writes in Lilathat Quality contains a dynamic good in addition to a static good.