appreciation as high perception |
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The realism implied by promising activity (i.e., activity with good promise of fulfilled purpose) would be at least literal realism (well-informed about its site), but greater potential belongs to appreciating what there is—a “realism” toward the best sense of others and things, such that the other (situation, person, thing) may be best engaged in one’s activity—activity which may be “merely” an act of appreciation—like sitting on a high cliff engaging an expansive valley; or engaging a work of art; or listening to you, just because it’s you. Beyond being receptive, beyond pleasant noticing of the quality of experience, the mind alive to some appeal, attuned to the quality of experience, wholly experiencing, is acting to be open, to stay open, granting all one can of others’ bearing, “forgetting” oneself in another’s presencing: the other in her/his/its ownmost potential in-and-for itself or the thing itself truly. The perceiver may delicately be a toned complex of feelings in light of another’s appeal, oriented by the other itself or by the thing itself, in their unwitting aspiration to affect action—or to facilitate action’s fruitfulness. In light of appreciation, what’s appropriate for me in “our” engagement—in my desire to act irt our engagement, for my purposes, with all due appreciation of the other in-and-for itself—may then be clear. I prospect appropriation of an other, of some thing, in light of appreciating; and so, act with a confidence of appreciation. Next: valuing as appreciability for living fruitfully.
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