Is diving undived a dive?
Yes?
Here it becomes a question of whether the past is
real, and the tense we use for "dive." Usually when
we say "undived" we mean that the diver surfaced
from the dive, so that the conditions of being in the
water, and therefore potentially being in danger, are
undone. But then we may ask, was it a dive at all if
it could be undone? For example in someone's
memory, or in that it could ultimately have been for
no purpose? Perhaps the only real action is an
action with permanent consequences.
It seems to me that it is a matter of the balance
between how extreme a case of undiving it is, with
how strong a memory or sense of purpose is
associated with the dive. In our experience usually a
memory is more likely to have value than the
undoing of an action, so we are likely to say that it is
still a dive. But what about the case of
disillusionment? What if it was a great dive in our
minds, but then we learn that there was other water
that was somehow more real? Wouldn't we quickly
forget the value of that dive? And furthermore,
mightn't this process of disillusionment be a sort of
"undiving"?
It seems to me that the practical answer is yes, while
the actual equation of values is somewhat more
complex. It isn't ambiguous in the same way as our last
question; there are several definite standpoints to take,
and there is no definite solution, mostly because we
aren't accustomed to taking "undiving" seriously. Partly
because two things that don't cohere in our minds are
perceived as being parts of two seperate realities.
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