What is Perfection?

[Iacchus]

So let's say we took perfection and considered it as a whole. And we began to break it up into little pieces. How long do you think it would take to realize that none of these pieces were perfect, in relation to the whole?

So, how do we know for a fact that the Universe, taken as a whole, does not also entail this notion of perfection? If so, then what might that suggest into how it came into being?

 

[Iacchus]

Ever stop to think that the moment which, is inclusive of all things, is perfection itself? It is ...

 

[Maledict]

I had a Hamster once - A snake bit it, and the snake died

 

[Ratman_tf]

So let's say we took perfection and considered it as a whole. And we began to break it up into little pieces. How long do you think it would take to realize that none of these pieces were perfect, in relation to the whole?

So, how do we know for a fact that the Universe, taken as a whole, does not also entail this notion of perfection? If so, then what might that suggest into how it came into being?

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Iacchus]

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder.

Perfection, like the moment, simply "is" ... while it's the basis for everything else.

 

[BillHoyt]

Perfection is a day without a brainlacchus post.
My day is now far less than perfect, and this demands a satanic hamster dance to set the universe right.

 

[Hardenbergh]

Snakes, Hamsters & Other Creatures

RabbiSatan,

Why you old snake in the grass! How you be?

 

[Piscivore]

So let's say we took perfection and considered it as a whole. And we began to break it up into little pieces. How long do you think it would take to realize that none of these pieces were perfect, in relation to the whole?

So, how do we know for a fact that the Universe, taken as a whole, does not also entail this notion of perfection? If so, then what might that suggest into how it came into being?

Originally posted by Aldous Huxley
Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.

 

[uruk]

Perfection, like truth and meaning, is relative.

 

[uruk]

So let's say we took perfection and considered it as a whole. And we began to break it up into little pieces. How long do you think it would take to realize that none of these pieces were perfect, in relation to the whole?

So, how do we know for a fact that the Universe, taken as a whole, does not also entail this notion of perfection? If so, then what might that suggest into how it came into being?

First you need to define what perfection is. Then you need to define what the totality of the universe is. Oh wait, but you can't. To define something means you need to "pin it down".

 

[Iacchus]

Perfection, like truth and meaning, is relative.

In case anyone needs to know, reality is absolute, it's only our perceptions that are relative.

 

[dmarker]

First you need to define what perfection is. Then you need to define what the totality of the universe is. Oh wait, but you can't. To define something means you need to "pin it down".

I wonder what it is like to live in a fuzzy world like Icchus'.

Well, perfection is something that is hard to pin down for what is perfect in one enviroment is deadly in another. For a giraffe, long legs are perfect, for a mole, long legs are imperfect. But parts of the whole can be perfect.

Having a light sensitive spot when everyone else is blind is "perfect". That spot can tell the organism if a predator is passing over or if an obstacle is in the way.

Having a depression in the eye spot when everybody else has flat eyespots is perfection. You have a better idea where that light is coming from and can swim in the appropriate direction.

I could keep going but as you can see (heh heh) each little step gives the organism a tiny advantage over others and sometimes that %1 is all you need.

 

[Iacchus]

Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.

Eh ... what do I know?

 

[dmarker]

In case anyone needs to know, reality is absolute, it's only our perceptions that are relative.

How do you know that reality is absolute since your perceptions are relative?

 

[Esther]

So let's say we took perfection and considered it as a whole. And we began to break it up into little pieces. How long do you think it would take to realize that none of these pieces were perfect, in relation to the whole?

Have you ever tried to check your hypothesis "experimentally"? In other words let us try to see how can we apply this philosophical idea of yours in our every day lives.

Could you help me in that please? Name a whole perfect thing and let's try to break it into pieces and observe how it behaves.

So, how do we know for a fact that the Universe, taken as a whole, does not also entail this notion of perfection? If so, then what might that suggest into how it came into being?

I am rather slow. Let's work on the hypothesis first and then we might proceed to the second question.

 

[Iacchus]

How do you know that reality is absolute since your perceptions are relative?

And what is it that you folks keep quoting? "Reality is that which remains once you stop believing." Doesn't this pretty much suggest the same thing? Or, what are you suggesting, that it's now okay to have it both ways?

 

[dmarker]

And what is it that you folks keep quoting? "Reality is that which remains once you stop believing." Doesn't this pretty much suggest the same thing? Or, what are you suggesting, that it's now okay to have it both ways?

However you are trying to say that it is useless to pursue the study of reality, aren't you?

 

[Iacchus]

Have you ever tried to check your hypothesis "experimentally"? In other words let us try to see how can we apply this philosophical idea of yours in our every day lives.

Could you help me in that please? Name a whole perfect thing and let's try to break it into pieces and observe how it behaves.

How about if you consider the functionality of anything as a whole. Doesn't it begin to stop functioning properly when you chop it up into little pieces? And, if it tends to work this way with everything in general, why shouldn't it also work with the Universe as a whole? ... which, due to all the immutable laws it adheres to, itself must be grounded in perfection. And isn't absolute (in the sense that reality is absolute) but another definition for perfection anyway?

 

[Mercutio]

Re: Re: What is Perfection?

Could you help me in that please? Name a whole perfect thing and let's try to break it into pieces and observe how it behaves.

I think we have a fatal flaw here. Unless I have consistently misunderstood Iacchus ( a very real possibility ), the only "whole perfect thing" is all of reality, and that any attempt to look at something less than that leaves us looking at something that is imperfect.

Myself, I can think of a few perfect things, but I am afraid Iacchus would probably disagree...

 

[Iacchus]

However you are trying to say that it is useless to pursue the study of reality, aren't you?

No, not at all. Am just trying to establish that there may be a real purpose for our being here.