Intended Meaning
The known is what people come to recognize as customary, so it becomes socially acceptable; the unconventional is what they find objectionable, so it becomes repugnant. Therefore, neither is fixed; rather, they change with shifts in custom and social context from one society to another, across time and place.
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: historical
- Argument movement: it makes the known and the unconventional dependent on custom and social context.
- Central terms: the known, the unconventional, custom, social context.
- Degree of centrality: central.
It affirms that the value judgment here is not rigid, but is formed within social circulation, which explains the change in their meaning from one society to another.
Links Helpful for Reading
Basis
- Supporting text: «The known: what people have come to recognize and has become socially acceptable. The unconventional: what they have rejected socially and has become repugnant».
The Basis’s Location in the Book
- Book: The Mother of the Book and Its Elaboration.
- Location: in the final section of the book
- Type of basis: close witness.
- Mark useful for verification: familiar to social taste
- Reading note: this location is suitable as evidence because it defines the known and the unconventional through social recognition and rejection.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: structurally documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom is based on more than one witness or on a clear synthesis of closely related expressions.
- Reason for classification: the text explicitly states that the known and the unconventional change with society.
- Limits of the reading: the wording above is an analytical summary and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is transmitted word for word.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it establishes a meaning or conceptual distinction that Shahrur relies on in building the idea.
Editorial Note
The change should be read as social, not merely verbal.