John Dewy

[Kai]

"The conviction persists, though history shows it to be a hallucination, that all the questions that the human mind has asked are questions that can be answered in terms of the alternatives that the questions themselves present. But in fact, intellectual progress usually occurs through sheer abandonment of questions together with both of the alternatives they assume, an abandonment that results from the decreasing vitalism and a change of urgent interest. We do not solve them, we get over them."

What does this mean to you? I'm having a little trouble comprehending. What does he mean exactly by "alternatives" and how is intellectual progress solved by abandonment?

 

[ophiuchus]

"alternatives"

well, ultimately, nothing can be defined as it really is. or rather, when a thing is "defined" it is simply stated as what it is not. in other words, every word we use is defined by another set of words that are defined by another set of words ad nauseum. none of these words have intrinsic value in and of themselves, and none of them truely define the original object. it is like, in order to "get" the color white, one will understand it only in relation to the color black, and vice versa. to understand matter, one must understand it in relation to space. for, without space, there would be no way to view where the matter ends and something else begins.

to realize this is to understand that, ultimately, nothing can be known. and so once this is fully realized, after one runs out of things to question and sees that it's all the same, its all interconnected, then the questions begin to cease and "true" intelligence begins to come forth.

this is all relative to zen if you still wish to know more