Guest guest Posted July 31, 2000 Report Share Posted July 31, 2000 I guess it all boils down to what your definition of " is " is........... Gary Cordova - " Phosphor " <phosphor Monday, July 31, 2000 2:22 PM Re: Re: 'easy terminology' > greetings all, > > I've been following the discussion on terminology with great interest, > though as a beginner in TCM with not much understanding. but if i may be > allowed to comment... > > western thinking since Socrates has spent a lot of energy in the issue of > knowledge and meanings, and socratic tenet was basically they amounted to > the same thing, in order to understand something you must know exactly what > it means. > > As philosopher of science karl popper pointed out, in reality this is not > really accurate. Scientists don't know exactly what light, or matter, or > electrons are, but this hasn't stopped them making valuable progress in > knowledge in physics making daily use of these terms. > > The other kind of meaning is a purely arbitary assignation of terms, eg, a > table is a four footed piece of furniture you eat off etc. > > Mistaking one kind of definiton for the other causes problems. for example, > if two physicists were talking they could come to some agreement on exactly > what they mean by " table " , but they won't ever do that when it comes to > " light. " > > Chinese medicine terms such as Liver, Deficiency etc, are creatures > belonging to the ' " Light " > category. This I suppose causes nightmares for beginnign students who wrack > their brains thinking what the hell exacly is the Liver if its not the liver > etc. But, in contrast to the morass that socrates has led western thinking, > its a stroke of pure genius. > > What it does is set OUTER limits of what the term means, so " Liver " is the > organ phase left over after you've eliminated Sp, Ki, Lu, He; 'Xu' is > what's left over after you've eliminated repletion, exces, stagnation etc. > > One you look INSIDE the term 'Liver,' what awaits is a probably endless > process of discovery of its aspects, nuances, that you can dig out over a > lifetime of investigaton. > > In a way its like saying, this marks the spot, dig here. > > when these two diffrent aspects are made clear, you can use a middle of the > road term such as 'deficiency' in the herbal texts, knowing that it is the > opening gambit for a whole family of related terms, which you can pursue in > commentaries and other ancilliary works. > > Andrew > > > > > Chinese Herbal Medicine, a voluntary organization of licensed healthcare practitioners, matriculated students and postgraduate academics specializing in Chinese Herbal Medicine, provides a variety of professional services, including board approved online continuing education. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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