"Negative" vs "positive" definitions
Jul 7, 2023
Defining something “negatively” basically means describing in in terms of/as the “absence” of something
Which then leads to a negative definition of a “positive definition” as “not that”
But ok what’s a positive definition of a “positive definition”? Sort of describing something in terms of eg the qualities that it possesses
I think “flow” vs holding the breath is relevant here
A negative definition seems very correlated to holding the breath
Whereas a positive definition seems to “sing out” from a place of “flow”
This also brings to mind the ridiculous head-issues of musicians. They often can’t help but negatively define in terms of trying to actually assert (eg while they’re playing) “what they’re doing”, I guess because they just don’t feel enough confidence that actual flow is an actual reliable thing, and they feel some pressure to “always have it”, so they come up with something negatively defined that they can “grab onto”?
Ya no “don’t do stuff that doesn’t make sense”. And then especially “don’t then try and sell that as cool/’being on top of your sh**’”
That is a massive violation of illness recognized as illness tends to resolve (ie you’re disguising illness as non-illness). Unless you’re into people being ill. You’re not right?
Also very similar to negative vs positive definitions is the fallacy of thinking that the good is the absence of the bad