Not Perfect is Good
"The Problem with Perfection..."
Well, I was totally kidding about coming back and embarking on another philosophical quest…
However, I have some time (I have class tonight which I find out the fate of my Elizabeth paper!) and I thought, hey, why not? I might as well get it all out of me so I don’t drive my friends crazy with stuff they could care less about.
Now before I even get started, I want to make it very clear that I;ve never taken a philosophy class in my entire life. These unprofessional musings that find themselves on my LJ are simply that, musings of an amateur. I by no means claim to be a leading expert on philosophical thought or any other brilliant line of reasoning. I am simply discussing what I have read and my thoughts on it.
Now, because this is an informal paper you shall find neither hide nor hair of a thesis or proper outline. This is a journal entry, so I am absolved from that (though I am sure a lot of people do not accept that excuse, and that is ok with me).
First off I would like to look at perfection from a Biblical point of view. As Christians we are lead to believe that God is perfect and man is not. I, by no means will dispute that fact. Of course, if you are reading this and don’t believe in God then you might find this bit wholly argumentative, but that is your right. Man was prefect in the Garden before woman ruined it for everyone right? So we can agree that there was once a time when man was on equal status with God, until Eve went after the forbidden fruit. Of course this is the beginning of woman’s problems as well; I won’t get into that here because I could write a book about it. After the fall of man, God remains to this day the only prefect being. However, the Bible encourages to Christians to strive for perfection, to be more God-like. We as humans can only hope to achieve as close to perfection as we can, whilst living in an imperfect world. The idea of perfection from a Biblical point of view is living without sin. Jesus, God’s son, came to an imperfect world, born from an imperfect mother, had imperfect followers, and died at the hands of imperfect beings at the end of his 33 years on this earth. My first thought is simple, how can imperfection give birth to perfection? If you are truly prefect are you protected from the tainting of imperfection? Then does that mean Adam and Eve never fell from perfection? For if they were truly perfect, are not their actions perfect as well? If imperfection can give birth to perfection, then perfection must be able to give birth to imperfection as well. If perfection can cease to be perfect, is that true perfection? Or is the act of perfection so pure than any actions is creates is also deemed prefect? Then if perfection can only create perfection, we must be forced to follow the same logical about imperfection. It is simple, it is impossible for an imperfect being to give birth to perfection. (Unless you are Catholic, then it’s possible). So we must come to either of two conclusions, one of which is where Adam and Eve were still perfect after eating the fruit. And the second is that Jesus was never perfect. Hey now, I’d better be careful. I was raised a Christian, and without a doubt in my mind I wholly believe that Jesus is the Son of the most perfect God, and therefore is indeed perfect. What I am saying is considered blasphemy and if we were in 15th century Europe I’d be branded a heretic and burnt at that stake. However as I claim to be a pursuer of intellectual ideas I have to look at things from all sides.
Aristotle looked at perfection in three ways, “Which is complete-which contains all the requisite parts, which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better, and which has attained its purpose.”
That sounds reasonable to me, however, Aristotle was also the man who claimed that (which I loosely quote) “Woman is an imperfect version of man.” It is my humble opinion, that those interested in philosophy should never make a statement. Now, I am not out to criticize Aristotle. I man he is Aristotle for God’s sake; I’d went myself if I ever found myself in his presence. Yet I believe that instead of saying, “Woman is an imperfect version of man” the correct thing to say should have been, “What is perfection?”
Of course I already answered what is perfection according to Aristotle. And he says that woman does not have all the correct parts, something of its kind is much better, and finally, woman has not attained her purpose. So to spell it out for you, man is complete, nothing is better than man, and man has achieved its purpose.
I suggest we stop all progress, dismantle our government, and focus on making less perfect beings more perfect. After all, man according to Aristotle, has achieved his purpose. Therefore, we’ve no more need for advancements, and now progress for progress sake is wasteful. (Ha, Umbridge anyone? The Potter nerd in me never rests, ever.) I know that those who have taken philosophy classes could argue with me, and that is fine. I know I have a lot to learn, and I would welcome a chance to discuss my ideas with anyone who would listen. After all, I will be the first to admit I know nothing about everything. Yet, for someone who has no knowledge I am working with the tools that have been given to me.
If you are looking for definite answers in this post, I am sorry to say you will be sorely disappointed. After all, I have more questions than answers, and I hope I stay that way all my life.
Each religion had its own ideas about the merits of perfection and Aristotle has kindly pointed out why man is perfect and woman is not. I would now like to take a look on another view on perfection.
And that is, the problem with perfection. Now I have a problem. I will tell you right now, I am against perfection, I enjoy the flawed. Yet, my beliefs tell me I am supposed to strive for perfection, to be more Christ like. However, allow me to go all nerdy on you again.
One of my favorite chapters in Bleach (yes, Bleach is going to find its way in here, right alongside Aristotle and Jesus. Fangirl for life.) Is the chapter entitled, “Not Perfect is Good.” Those of you who are Bleach manga fans will know what I am talking about. For those of you who don’t, sucks to be you. Actually, to sum it up quickly, it is a fight between two scientists. And one claims that he is a perfect immaculate being (he had the power of producing a-sexually, or Immaculate Conception.) And Captain Kurotshuchi states, in what is probably my favorite Bleach quote as of yet, “In this secular existence, perfection is an illusion. Regardless of all who utter the contrary…this is the reality…common man seeks it out, they aspire to achieve it, as if it were some tangible thing. But…the fact of the matter is, perfection is a hollow shell. It is devoid of any substance. I spit on perfection. Perfection after all, implies you’ve reached the summit. No trial and error…no ability to conceptualize. An omniscient being would have no need for such superfluous things…for people who drabble in the sciences such as ourselves perfection would render us obsolete.”
So there you have it, the case against perfection. Despite my dislike for the 12th company captain I couldn’t agree with him more. So for the statement that man is perfect and woman is not, according to the Kurotshuchi philosophy, man is obsolete and woman is not.
But I do not want to turn this into a feminist argument; I couldn’t help myself and had to put that in there.
Perfection is tricky. It is something that can be born form imperfection and prefect beings can bring to a level of imperfection. Is perfection something we should strive for? Is perfection something that is good and just and in all sense, right? Is man a more perfect being than woman? Or is perfection bad, and something that would render us all useless and do away with all science? I tend to lean towards the perfection is bad category. Well, maybe not bad, but not altogether good. After all, it is human nature to be imperfect and the nature of God to be perfect. We have lost our chance of perfection in the garden, and to strive for total perfection here on earth is folly. Despite all that I have said about perfection and all that the fictional and non-fictional have stated, I still simply have two questions I would like to pose…
What is perfection? And is it good?
It is not my job to answer that, but I am curious to see what other people think. I know I said I wouldn’t bother my friends about this, but I think I will ask them that.
Ah, this is long. And I didn’t even say everything I wanted to say. I still have loads more I could say about the subject of perfection, but my fingers are tired and my brain is reeling with philosophical questions. So, goodbye my invisible audience, until next time…
Signed,
The archaic InkMask aka ginxkira
Having questions that no one can answer since I could talk…
Well, I was totally kidding about coming back and embarking on another philosophical quest…
However, I have some time (I have class tonight which I find out the fate of my Elizabeth paper!) and I thought, hey, why not? I might as well get it all out of me so I don’t drive my friends crazy with stuff they could care less about.
Now before I even get started, I want to make it very clear that I;ve never taken a philosophy class in my entire life. These unprofessional musings that find themselves on my LJ are simply that, musings of an amateur. I by no means claim to be a leading expert on philosophical thought or any other brilliant line of reasoning. I am simply discussing what I have read and my thoughts on it.
Now, because this is an informal paper you shall find neither hide nor hair of a thesis or proper outline. This is a journal entry, so I am absolved from that (though I am sure a lot of people do not accept that excuse, and that is ok with me).
First off I would like to look at perfection from a Biblical point of view. As Christians we are lead to believe that God is perfect and man is not. I, by no means will dispute that fact. Of course, if you are reading this and don’t believe in God then you might find this bit wholly argumentative, but that is your right. Man was prefect in the Garden before woman ruined it for everyone right? So we can agree that there was once a time when man was on equal status with God, until Eve went after the forbidden fruit. Of course this is the beginning of woman’s problems as well; I won’t get into that here because I could write a book about it. After the fall of man, God remains to this day the only prefect being. However, the Bible encourages to Christians to strive for perfection, to be more God-like. We as humans can only hope to achieve as close to perfection as we can, whilst living in an imperfect world. The idea of perfection from a Biblical point of view is living without sin. Jesus, God’s son, came to an imperfect world, born from an imperfect mother, had imperfect followers, and died at the hands of imperfect beings at the end of his 33 years on this earth. My first thought is simple, how can imperfection give birth to perfection? If you are truly prefect are you protected from the tainting of imperfection? Then does that mean Adam and Eve never fell from perfection? For if they were truly perfect, are not their actions perfect as well? If imperfection can give birth to perfection, then perfection must be able to give birth to imperfection as well. If perfection can cease to be perfect, is that true perfection? Or is the act of perfection so pure than any actions is creates is also deemed prefect? Then if perfection can only create perfection, we must be forced to follow the same logical about imperfection. It is simple, it is impossible for an imperfect being to give birth to perfection. (Unless you are Catholic, then it’s possible). So we must come to either of two conclusions, one of which is where Adam and Eve were still perfect after eating the fruit. And the second is that Jesus was never perfect. Hey now, I’d better be careful. I was raised a Christian, and without a doubt in my mind I wholly believe that Jesus is the Son of the most perfect God, and therefore is indeed perfect. What I am saying is considered blasphemy and if we were in 15th century Europe I’d be branded a heretic and burnt at that stake. However as I claim to be a pursuer of intellectual ideas I have to look at things from all sides.
Aristotle looked at perfection in three ways, “Which is complete-which contains all the requisite parts, which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better, and which has attained its purpose.”
That sounds reasonable to me, however, Aristotle was also the man who claimed that (which I loosely quote) “Woman is an imperfect version of man.” It is my humble opinion, that those interested in philosophy should never make a statement. Now, I am not out to criticize Aristotle. I man he is Aristotle for God’s sake; I’d went myself if I ever found myself in his presence. Yet I believe that instead of saying, “Woman is an imperfect version of man” the correct thing to say should have been, “What is perfection?”
Of course I already answered what is perfection according to Aristotle. And he says that woman does not have all the correct parts, something of its kind is much better, and finally, woman has not attained her purpose. So to spell it out for you, man is complete, nothing is better than man, and man has achieved its purpose.
I suggest we stop all progress, dismantle our government, and focus on making less perfect beings more perfect. After all, man according to Aristotle, has achieved his purpose. Therefore, we’ve no more need for advancements, and now progress for progress sake is wasteful. (Ha, Umbridge anyone? The Potter nerd in me never rests, ever.) I know that those who have taken philosophy classes could argue with me, and that is fine. I know I have a lot to learn, and I would welcome a chance to discuss my ideas with anyone who would listen. After all, I will be the first to admit I know nothing about everything. Yet, for someone who has no knowledge I am working with the tools that have been given to me.
If you are looking for definite answers in this post, I am sorry to say you will be sorely disappointed. After all, I have more questions than answers, and I hope I stay that way all my life.
Each religion had its own ideas about the merits of perfection and Aristotle has kindly pointed out why man is perfect and woman is not. I would now like to take a look on another view on perfection.
And that is, the problem with perfection. Now I have a problem. I will tell you right now, I am against perfection, I enjoy the flawed. Yet, my beliefs tell me I am supposed to strive for perfection, to be more Christ like. However, allow me to go all nerdy on you again.
One of my favorite chapters in Bleach (yes, Bleach is going to find its way in here, right alongside Aristotle and Jesus. Fangirl for life.) Is the chapter entitled, “Not Perfect is Good.” Those of you who are Bleach manga fans will know what I am talking about. For those of you who don’t, sucks to be you. Actually, to sum it up quickly, it is a fight between two scientists. And one claims that he is a perfect immaculate being (he had the power of producing a-sexually, or Immaculate Conception.) And Captain Kurotshuchi states, in what is probably my favorite Bleach quote as of yet, “In this secular existence, perfection is an illusion. Regardless of all who utter the contrary…this is the reality…common man seeks it out, they aspire to achieve it, as if it were some tangible thing. But…the fact of the matter is, perfection is a hollow shell. It is devoid of any substance. I spit on perfection. Perfection after all, implies you’ve reached the summit. No trial and error…no ability to conceptualize. An omniscient being would have no need for such superfluous things…for people who drabble in the sciences such as ourselves perfection would render us obsolete.”
So there you have it, the case against perfection. Despite my dislike for the 12th company captain I couldn’t agree with him more. So for the statement that man is perfect and woman is not, according to the Kurotshuchi philosophy, man is obsolete and woman is not.
But I do not want to turn this into a feminist argument; I couldn’t help myself and had to put that in there.
Perfection is tricky. It is something that can be born form imperfection and prefect beings can bring to a level of imperfection. Is perfection something we should strive for? Is perfection something that is good and just and in all sense, right? Is man a more perfect being than woman? Or is perfection bad, and something that would render us all useless and do away with all science? I tend to lean towards the perfection is bad category. Well, maybe not bad, but not altogether good. After all, it is human nature to be imperfect and the nature of God to be perfect. We have lost our chance of perfection in the garden, and to strive for total perfection here on earth is folly. Despite all that I have said about perfection and all that the fictional and non-fictional have stated, I still simply have two questions I would like to pose…
What is perfection? And is it good?
It is not my job to answer that, but I am curious to see what other people think. I know I said I wouldn’t bother my friends about this, but I think I will ask them that.
Ah, this is long. And I didn’t even say everything I wanted to say. I still have loads more I could say about the subject of perfection, but my fingers are tired and my brain is reeling with philosophical questions. So, goodbye my invisible audience, until next time…
Signed,
The archaic InkMask aka ginxkira
Having questions that no one can answer since I could talk…