The Tyrant Philosophers/Pragmatic Flexibility
Pragmatic Flexibility is a term from Pal philosophy used to describe the habit of believing and disavowing things in the moment, of holding a conviction only as long as the immediate situation demands it and then releasing it without sustained allegiance. In Days of Shattered Faith, the term is applied to Drathel to characterise a pattern of situational conviction followed by swift abandonment, rather than any fixed principle or enduring loyalty. The scholars of Pal philosophy had not reached consensus on whether the quality constituted a virtue or a vice, leaving the term morally unsettled within its own tradition even as it was pressed into service as a descriptor of a specific individual's conduct.
The term matters to the series as a lens through which a character's moral texture is diagnosed by reference to a foreign philosophical vocabulary. Its single recorded deployment is diagnostic rather than evaluative: it names what Drathel does without pronouncing on whether the doing is good. That hesitation on the part of the Pal philosophical community mirrors the broader difficulty the series presents when Pal intellectual categories are turned upon the actions of people in the theatre of war, where the gap between situational adaptability and the absence of principle is not easily adjudicated.
The Term
Meaning
Pragmatic Flexibility denotes the practice of believing and disavowing things in the moment - adopting a conviction as the immediate situation requires and discarding it when it no longer serves. It describes a pattern of rapid, situational attachment to a belief followed by its equally rapid abandonment, standing in contrast to sustained principle or fixed allegiance. The term is explicitly a term from Pal philosophy, and the scholars of that tradition had not resolved whether the quality it names is a good thing or not; it is therefore not a settled virtue or a settled vice within the intellectual community that coined it. Where an outside reader might assume the phrase is a euphemism for dishonesty or, conversely, a compliment for open-mindedness, the Pal usage is genuinely undecided, treating the behaviour as something to be observed and labelled before any moral verdict is issued. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
Usage
The term is spoken of in the register of philosophical commentary: it is a label that "scholars of Pal philosophy" apply, and the narrator reports their ongoing disagreement about its value. In the one recorded instance, it is used to characterise Drathel's characteristic quality, framing the behaviour as a recognisable philosophical type rather than a personal failing. The choice to invoke a Pal academic category to describe an individual's conduct reveals a habit of mind - the impulse to classify moral texture through foreign scholarly vocabulary, even in the middle of conflict. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
Origin
The books identify Pragmatic Flexibility simply as "The term from Pal philosophy," placing its coinage within the Pal philosophical tradition. No further origin story, founder, or foundational text is given. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
History
Days of Shattered Faith
Pragmatic Flexibility is identified in the book as "The term from Pal philosophy" - a Pal term applied to describe Drathel's characteristic quality of believing and disavowing things in the moment - ch 7. The scholars of Pal philosophy "were still out on whether it was a good thing or not," indicating that the concept carried an unresolved moral valuation within its own tradition and was not treated as a settled virtue or vice - ch 7. In the context of Drathel's behaviour, the term functions as a label for a pattern of immediate, situational conviction followed by its swift abandonment, rather than for sustained principle or fixed allegiance.
Relationships
- Drathel - the individual whose characteristic quality of believing and disavowing things in the moment the term is used to name. The term diagnoses a pattern in Drathel's conduct without the narrator or the Pal scholars endorsing or condemning it. - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
Notable Quotes
- "The term from Pal philosophy" - narrator, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
- "were still out on whether it was a good thing or not" - narrator on the scholars of Pal philosophy, Days of Shattered Faith, ch 7
Tags
- pal-philosophy · #doctrine · #rational-philosophy