“Some
Words Are Only Possible Because of Their Opposite”
If one will take time to
reflect, I suspect most people would agree that there are memorable moments
throughout one’s life. One of mine was
to visit Oxford University in the Shires of Great Britain and to eat dinner in
one of the Pubs where C. S. Lewis told his stories.
Deviation
from the Normal
In one of his writings C. S.
Lewis postulates something quite interesting.
He writes, “…you can see which is the perversion, because you can
explain the perverted from the normal, and cannot explain the normal from the
perverted.”
Of course the principle of
perversion applies variously as there are numbers of words that have that same
quality. These are words such as, malfunction,
distorted, failure, tainted, misrepresented, misused, altered, and the
like. Such words are at the mercy of
their predecessor for they cannot be understood nor explained except that there
is some understanding of the antecedent word.
Normal
Base Words
Take the word “misused.” In order for something to be “misused,” there
has to be a “proper use” of that something.
Thus there are proper words or we might say base words in that they form the basis for their being the opposite words. However at that point we arrive at a problem. One then has to ask, how does one arrived at
the notion of a “proper use” for to do so is to attach a value and values
suggest standards.
Words
are Valued
Mr. Lewis goes on to point out
that the normal of these words is valued as “good” while the deviated words are
not so. Returning to the notion of
“misuse,” one finds its synonyms are all as equally objectionable and some more
so. In fact, in terms of values, these deviated words are valued in the
negative.
Set aside for the moment the
item or person involved and focus upon the word, “misuse.” Whichever culture or sub-culture one chooses
to view, such is viewed in the negative.
What is the basis for there being that value?
Basis
for Valuing
There are many suggested truth
paradigms from which one might develop his reality. Included would be Spiritual or New Age Truth Paradigms, Postmodern Truth Paradigms,
Evolutionary Truth Paradigms, Secular or Modernism Truth Paradigms, Materialistic
Truth Paradigms, and Divine Truth
Paradigms to mention a few.
Still in all whichever truth
paradigm from which to develop one’s reality, would not the notion of “misuse”
be viewed in the same way? So it is that
there is at least one universal notion that transcends all truth paradigms. One might apply the same argument to other
words and ideas.
Back
to Normal
If then we can assume that there
is a universal understanding of “misuse” then would it not follow that the
antecedent word or concept would have universal understanding. In this case would not all of the truth
paradigms above agree that there is some idea of a “proper use?” They may not agree as to what it is but none
the less agree that there is such a thing.
The
Questions
If there are concepts that
transcend any and perhaps all truth paradigms, how is it that they have come to
be valued as they are? Why is it that none
of the truth paradigms listed above view “misuse” in the positive? Could it be that there is a universal truth
paradigm that transcends all lesser truth paradigms?
No comments:
Post a Comment