Alan Watts
Different Contexts
We have tried, scientifically, to understand the world and explain its mysteries by analyzing the smallest, smallest particles of things that exist
Inquiring down, down, down: what is this thing we call flesh, or call steel, or stone
What is it made of?
Go down into the midst of it
And that’s given us a certain understanding
But only half of the understanding
Equally important is not what is the tiniest particle, but in what context is the tiniest particle?
You see? In relation to what is it?
Just as the word “bark,” as I showed you, has different meanings in different sentences, so cells, molecules, atoms have
Different properties in different contexts
Different properties in different contexts
So what the scientist equally needs to study is not, simply, what is anything when very, very minutely analyzed, but where is it?
When is it?
That makes all the difference
So, do you see that a lot of people who get anxious when they hear that everything is relative have no need to get that anxious?
Relativity isn’t some kind of slippery morass in which all standards and all directions get lost
Relativity is really the soundest situation that there is
Different properties in different contexts
Different properties in different contexts
Relativity is really the soundest situation that there is
Relativity is really the soundest situation that there is