On Relativism
THINKING Understanding the world: Spacetime, beginnings and endings—is and must be based on perceptions and, more fundamentally, upon preconceptions—ranging from what we call primitive superstition through to artistic and poetic... and into modern science in all its varieties and mathematics.
NOTICING He passed a butcher's window. Hanging meat. Red. White fat. The smell of blood and sawdust. Kidney. That would be nice. Grilled. With butter.
THINKING. I'm bundling them all together somewhat artificially—and in their different ways all these understandings are valid. Perhaps only in their own terms: that is, their accordance with their preconceptions: method/normality/assumptions from where they come.
NOTICING A woman with a net bag full of onions. She looked tired. He looked away. Onions. Layers. (Like mind. Like presuppositions.) Peel one, find another. No end.
THINKING So, and this observation—which may or may not follow logically, for this argument it doesn't matter—suggests/implies/necessitates that the underlying necessary presupposition is that there is an irreducible mystery; we will never understand, but mysteriously we must try.
NOTICING He stopped at a corner. A man selling chestnuts from a cart. Steam rose. The smell sweet, earthy. He bought a small bag. The warmth spread through his fingers.
THINKING Must try. Why? But why must try?
NOTICING Chestnuts. Hot. Good.
THINKING A purposefully unresolvable Koan. The secret in the irresolution. The question’s the thing. Right or wrong. Zero. One. No matter.
NOTICING The man at the cart nodded. He nodded back. A bicycle swerved. The rider shouted. He did not hear. He crossed the street.
What would it be like to have no preconceptions whatsoever?
