JOURNEY IN BEING

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CONTENTS

PREFACE: INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAY

A Very Short Introduction to the Journey

The Audience

Outline and Structure

Why I Wrote the Essay

Reading the book

INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNEY IN BEING

THE FORM OF THE ESSAY

THE NATURE OF THE JOURNEY IN BEING

THE CENTRAL IDEAS ON BEING: CONCEPTS, AMBITIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

KNOWLEDGE AND CERTAINTY

ORIGINS AND PATHS OF THE ‘JOURNEY IN BEING’

SUMMARY AND PROSPECT…

1 FOUNDATION – THE THEORY OF BEING

KEY TERMS

INTRODUCTION

1.1 THE THEORY OF BEING

1.2 METAPHYSICS

1.3 HUMAN BEING: MIND, SYMBOL AND VALUE

1.4 FAITH

1.5 CONCLUSIONS. PROSPECTS FOR ‘JOURNEY IN BEING’

2 JOURNEY IN BEING

INTRODUCTION… PURPOSE AND FUNCTION OF THIS SECTION

WHAT IS THE ‘JOURNEY IN BEING’?

BACKGROUND: HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPLORATION

2.1 UNDERSTANDING

2.2 JOURNEY TO THE ULTIMATE: TRANSFORMATION OF BEING

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES…

AFTER THE JOURNEY

THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS

PROBLEMS OF BEING AND KNOWLEDGE RESOLVED OR ILLUMINATED

PROGRAM OF STUDY, CONCEPTUAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

LEXICON

SOURCES AND INFLUENCES

Bibliographic Information

INDEX

THE AUTHOR

PREFACE: INTRODUCTION TO THE ESSAY

A Very Short Introduction to the Journey

The Audience

Outline and Structure

Why I Wrote the Essay

Reading the book

INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNEY IN BEING

THE FORM OF THE ESSAY

THE NATURE OF THE JOURNEY IN BEING

‘Journey’

Journey in Being

Ambitions and Goals of the Journey

Central Ambition and Goal

Secondary Goals

Origins of the Ambitions and Goals

The Subject

On ‘Whole Systems’

THE CENTRAL IDEAS ON BEING: CONCEPTS, AMBITIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Being

The Nature of Being

On the Meaning of Being

Significance of the concept of Being

What exists: Intension; Appearance and Reality

What exists: the Theory of Being (link) and the Void (link)

What exists: discussion of Intension and Extension

What exists: Extension

What is the nature of existing things?

Further significance of the concept of Being

Comments on the uses of the word, ‘Being’

The Idea of Being

The Significance of (the Concept of) Being

The Significance of the Journey

Significance of the personal story

Significance of ‘Being’

Choice of the word, ‘Being’

On Seeking

Core Concepts, Arguments and Conclusions

Preliminary Concepts (Keywords)

Arguments and Conclusions

The Concept of Importance

Achievements

KNOWLEDGE AND CERTAINTY

Attitudes toward Knowledge and Certainty

Certainty and Hypothesis

The Disvalue of Certainty

Knowledge and Action

On Criticism

Some thoughts on the nature of criticism

Aspects of criticism

The Conceptual Problem of Knowledge

ORIGINS AND PATHS OF THE ‘JOURNEY IN BEING’

Significance of the Individual Story

Origins

Criticism of my Life and Thought

Two Paths

Journey: Ideas and Transformation

Life

Origins and Development of the Theory of Being

A Personal Account of Knowledge and Faith

SUMMARY AND PROSPECT…

The Central Conceptual Issues

The Journey…

Ideas

Transformation

1 FOUNDATION – THE THEORY OF BEING

KEY TERMS

INTRODUCTION

Principles of Thought

First Principles

Principles of criticism

Principles of Construction, Synthesis or Hypothesis

Conceptual Thought: the Concept

How Should the Principles of Thought be Developed?

Sources

1.1 THE THEORY OF BEING

On Being

What is –the Meaning of– Being?

Comments on the Word ‘Being’

The Concept of Being

Focus on Being

Power: The Measure of Being

The Elimination of Substance

Expectations of a Theory of Being

What is expected of a Theory of Being?

General requirements for a Theory of Being: Motives for a Theory

Motives for a Theory of Being

Rational requirements for a Theory of Being

Acceptance of a Theory of Being

General requirements for a Theory of Being: The Lineaments of a Theory

System for Knowing and Realizing All Actual and Possible Being

Elements of a Theory of Being

Primitives

Methods or Approaches

Results

System of Understanding

System of Explanatory Principles

System of Actual and Possible Being

The Theory of Being Reveals its Own Motivation

Some Issues and Problems that any ‘Complete’ Theory of Being Must Address

Absolute Completeness

Relative Completeness

Outline of The Theory of Being: Metaphysics, Logic, Cosmology and Theory of Knowledge

Metaphysics

Outline of the Metaphysics and its Logic

Logic

Cosmology

Theory of Knowledge

Truth

1.2 METAPHYSICS

Introduction: the Ideas, Meanings, and Relations

Being

Essential topics in the Analysis of Being

The Void

Mind

Universe

World

Metaphysics

Ontology

Substance, process and relationship

Form

Form, Logos and Logic

Form and Symbol

Universals

Knowledge, Object and Symbol

Symbol, Ideal and External Object

The Infinitely Many Attributes Theory

Ideal and External Object

Belief

The Concept

Knowledge

Epistemology as Part of Metaphysics

The Status and Applicability of Ideas

Truth

On Beauty

Logic

Logic as (the Study of Necessary) Form

Logics and Their Contexts

Conditions for Primal Logic to Obtain

Laws of Logic

Induction and the ‘Scientific Method’

Science and Reality

Law

The Fundamental Problem of Metaphysics

[Why is there Something Rather Than Nothing?]

Possibility, Necessity and Actuality

Logic and Argument. Deductive Logics

Logics and Their Contexts

Classical Logics

Propositional Calculus

The Predicate Calculi

Modal logic

Indexicals

Variant Logics

Other Contexts

Probability Calculus as a Logic; Quantum Logics

Other logics

Logic and The Possibility of Metaphysics

Certainty

Logic and Nothingness (the Void)

The Void

Identity of Possibility, Actuality and Necessity

Critique of the Development of the Logic

Criticisms…

Reference is necessary for a sentence to be a proposition

Relevance for language

Cosmology

General Cosmology

Cosmology and Logic

The Void

The Void Exists

Identity of Possibility, Actuality and Necessity

Determinism and Indeterminism. Universal indeterminism and local determinism-like or causal-like behavior are not inconsistent; the latter necessarily follows from the former

Further Properties of the Void

World, universe, law, God

Fundamental Ontology

Space, Time and Space-Time

Two Divides in the Evolution of Being: Cosmos and Symbol

Origins of a Coherent Cosmological System

Origin of the Free Symbolic Capability

Evolution as a Mechanism

Further Cosmological Consequences

Cosmological System; or phase-epoch or coherent domain of the universe

Creation, recurrence, karma, annihilation

Being that is the Span of All Being

Normal Cosmology. Local and Physical Cosmologies

The Concept of the Normal

The Normal; Normality and Necessity; Normal Cosmology; Evolution as a Mechanism

Limits, Miracles, Magic

Some Normal Categories and Considerations

Mind and Causation

Action and Choice

Knowledge

Physical Cosmology

Local origins of Quasi-Causation and Quantum Theory

Space and Time or Space-Time, and Causation

Causation

Dynamics

Space-time-matter and Gravitation

Quantum Dynamics

Life…

Order and Chaos in Cosmology

Summary and Critical Review of the Core Foundation

Some Criticisms

The Status of the Logic of the Theory of Being

Two approaches to foundation

Summary of the foundation: primary implications

Being

LOGIC is at the core of being; there is always LOGIC

Paradox and Reference

Logics

Relevance of Logic

The UNIVERSE is all being

The VOID is the absence of all being – of all things

What is not a contradiction is possible

Actuality, possibility and necessity are identical (with regard to the one universe)

Ontology

The concept of normality

There is BEING that spans all being

All being is interactive

Metaphysics

Summary of the foundation continued: Mind, matter and substance

Mind

Substance

Matter

On Pan-Psychism and Materialism

Knowledge

The Journey

Action

Ethics

Human Being

Faith

Consequences and Development of the Theory of Being

1.3 HUMAN BEING: MIND, SYMBOL AND VALUE

Human Being: the Organism and its Origins

Mind

The Nature of Mind: Comments

Aspects of Mind: Feeling, Awareness, and Consciousness

Normal Psychology

The Normal

Psychology: Introduction to The Elements of Mind

Function

Dimensions or Modalities* of (subjective) Feeling

Direction of feeling: attraction / repulsion or, in more the specific case, pleasure / pain

Tenor (mood): uni-directional or fluctuating

Afferent-Efferent

State-Disposition

Memory

Focus-Background*

Part-Whole

Center-Periphery

Integration-Independence

Modularity-Integration (Holism;)

Layering

Bound-Free and Internal-External

Perception, Concepts and Meaning

Wittgenstein’s Contribution Including Use of the Analysis of Solipsism

Feeling-Motivation-Cognition: an Integrated System

Categories (structure and process)

Aspects of Mind. The Categories of Intuition; Axes for Mental Phenomena; Growth and Development

The Categories of Intuition

Axes for Mental Phenomena

The Elements of Intuition

Existential: being, (becoming, being-in, …) humor…

Physical: space, time, causation, indeterminism (humor)

Biological: life forms

Psychological or psychosocial: image-concept, icon-symbol, emotion, humor, communication, value, identity…

Growth, Development and Meaning

Growth – Development, Learning, Accomplishment, Personality and Meaning; Meaning, Commitments and Purpose

Development, Learning, Accomplishment

Exceptional Achievement and Disorder

Personality and Personality Factors; an Approach to the Study (Psychology) of the Person as a Whole

The Whole Individual: a Rationalized Study of Personality

Personality and Identity

Factors for the Psychology of the Person as a Whole

Personality and Meaning

Ontological Psychology

Language, Logic, Culture

Cognition and Communication

Language, Icon and Thought; Expression of Concepts

Uses of Language

Concepts

Attitudes

Metaphor and Other Non-Literal Uses

Comment on Errors Encouraged By Language

Bewitchment of Intelligence

Bewitchment of Critical Thought

It is as if Language Creates a Universe of its Own

Discussion of Mind and Symbol as a Proximate account of Being

Order and Chaos in Human Life and Society

Theory of Value and Group Action

Ethics, Value and Political theory

Law and Legal theory

1.4 FAITH

Outline

Faith

Common faith

Science and faith

Faith and action

Faith is not logically absurd

Faith and need

Further reasons to have faith

Criticisms of faith

Counter-criticism

Psychology of faith

Justification of Faith; Faith and Action (again)

Faith and reason

States of Faith

Systematic truth of a scripture

Given faith’s hold, bridging the gaps between the faiths and between faith and secular truth may have value

A purpose of the discussion has been to introduce doubt regarding common attitudes to faith

A generalized doubt. Is it the function of the instruments of knowledge to produce knowledge?

An approach to doubt

Bridging the ‘gaps’ between faiths and between faith and secular truth

Faith and Chaos

Religion, Myth and Charisma

Cosmology, faith and religion

Faith and religion; common and esoteric faith; articles of faith

Some conceptions of religion

Cognition and feeling (emotion) in religion

Function. Essential message(s)

Designated vs. Actual Function

Comment on definition; on naming

What is religion?

What is religion; inner and outer truth (= non-literal and literal meanings)

Inner truth does not justify outer truth

But without outer truth there can be no inner significance; conflict between faith and reason

If the scientific picture is experienced as alienating, the alienation is not from science but the emotional response of the individual

The scientific picture is not inherently alienating

There are alienating ways of practicing and teaching science

Although science is not intrinsically limiting the picture from science at any one time may be so

Significance of the Theory of Being

The Infinities ‘revealed’ by the Theory of Being

The Theory of Being is Not Essential to this revelation

These conclusions from the Theory of Being provide no absolute comfort; Suffering and Evil are Essential Parts of the Universe

If Good and Evil and Pleasure and Pain are Necessary, is there any real meaning to ‘Good,’ ‘Evil’ ‘Pleasure,’ and ‘Pain?’

Abuses in the name of Religion

Additional Criticisms of Religions (but not of religion itself)

Articles of faith

Literal or Material Interpretations

Cosmological System; or phase-epoch or coherent domain of the universe

Normality and Necessity

Creation, recurrence, karma, annihilation

Karma

Being that is the Span of All Being… or of some inclusive range of being

Chain of Being: God, …, Individual Soul, Element of Being

God

Articles of Faith

Limits; Miracles; Magic

Heaven and Hell

Non-Literal Interpretations

Classifications or Typologies of Myth, Faith and Religion

Fundamentalist attitudes

Problems of Religion

1.5 CONCLUSIONS. PROSPECTS FOR ‘JOURNEY IN BEING’

What has been learned on The Nature of Being

The Journey as a Whole… the Character Common to Every Being

Being as a Whole

Human or Animal Being… as Central to Our Journey… and as an Example

Any Being

The Ultimate

2 JOURNEY IN BEING

INTRODUCTION… PURPOSE AND FUNCTION OF THIS SECTION

Purposes of the Journey in Being that are narrated in the section

Intrinsic Purposes

Illustration of Being as Becoming or Journey

Three Journeys; Narrative

…and Development of the Journey

The Understanding of All Being

An Essential Account of the Cumulative Understanding From Human Culture and Animal Being with an Evaluation Based in the Theory of Being –inclusive of metaphysics, logic, cosmology and theory of knowledge– and its support in the disciplines and history of action