Chapter 28 <Strong stand and rigid mind>

A, B, and C are discussing their views on Ding together. A: Ding is a person with a firm stand. No matter how things change, he will not be moved. He still insists on his original views and practices, and will never follow others' advice and follow the trend.For this, I admire. B: I disagree with you.I think Ding is too stubborn. Although the objective situation has undergone great changes, he remains the same. He refuses to give up the old ways of the past and insists on the so-called principle of responding to all changes with the same.In my opinion, this is not a firm stand, but a pure rigidity of mind and conservative thinking.

C: I think what you both say makes sense, but I don't know what is the fundamental difference between the two concepts of a firm stand and a rigid mind, and how to specifically confirm this difference.Therefore, I still have no clear opinion on Ding. How to determine whether insisting on a certain point of view or practice is a firm stand or a rigid mind?This is a very complicated issue, which involves people's standpoint, point of view and method of looking at the issue, as well as the interest relationship between the object of discussion and the commentator.People with different viewpoints and interests may make completely opposite conclusions about the same thing.

Here, we only make some preliminary discussions from the perspective of the relationship between words and concepts.In addition to expressing concepts, many words also have a strong emotional color. Some words contain praise and are called commendatory words; some words contain derogatory feelings and are called derogatory words.For example, leader, achievement, tenacity, encouragement, praise, decisiveness, cleverness, good person, etc. are commendatory terms, and correspondingly, leader, consequence, stubborn, incitement, flattery, assertiveness, cunning, and villain are derogatory terms.

This different emotional color of words is often exploited by sophists.Sophists use words to refer to a certain thing, not according to the actual situation of the thing, but according to their own subjective wishes as the standard.When they want to affirm a certain thing, they choose a lot of beautiful words to add to that thing; when they want to deny a certain thing, they choose some strongly derogatory words to add to that thing. For example, for a certain behavior, they can say that they are firm or unyielding, or that they are rigid or stubborn; for a person who does his own way, he can say that this person has his own ideas, personality, and strong self-confidence. , It can also be said that this person is arrogant and arbitrary; for a person who lacks some common sense in life and cannot deal with daily affairs, he can be said to be a fool, a fool, or he can be said to be wise and stupid, etc.

In short, what to say depends entirely on their current subjective needs. As for the real situation of things, they don't care.The sophists, who have in their pantheon of words a variety of words and concepts, which they can select and add to things whenever they need them, are masters of what they are.