Theme—A Universe of the greatest variety—meaning of ‘greatest variety’—consequences—Logic, bubble universes by any name, a sample of variety from the laws of physics, to literature and imagination, to scripture and myth, to the take off and entering the journey, to death and universal identity… with notes on local and global description

Theme—Demonstration and Seeing

Journey

Themes—journey, realization, ideas and transformation, commitment and adventure, linguistic meaning, being

Narrative

Characteristics of the journey which are in chapter Journey may be relevant here but are presently omitted

Theme—Form and content

Theme—Audience and meaning

Intuition

Concepts

Grounding

Experience_[1], (External) World_[1], Naming_[new], The Given_[1][new], Empirical, Reason, Inference, Postulate free knowledge_[new]

Also see Non-relative Metaphysics

Concept_[1], Sense, Percept, Thought, Imagination, Word_[1], Symbol_[1], Icon_[1], Sign_[1], Mark_[1], Complete Concept_[new], Object_[1], Reference, Dual character of the Object_{[new phrasing]}, Meaning, Use_[1], Intention, Flexible characters of the Object and sufficiency_{[new phrasing]}, System meaning_[new?]

‘Flexible characters’ is plural because there is flex on Object and complete concept sides

Knowledge_[1], Higher concept, Kinds, Understanding, Verstehen, Explanation, Importance_[new], Tradition(s)

Know that, Know how, Replica, Correspondence, Adaptation, Adaptability, Bound, Free

Hypothesis, Theory, Reason_[1], Inference, Induction_[1], Deduction_[1]

Intuition_[1], Non-esoteric_[new], Mystic_[1][new], Abstraction_[1]

Validity, Justification, Faithfulness, Non-uniform notions of faithfulness_[new][1], Necessary Object, Possibility of metaphysics_[1], Foundation_[1], Practical Object

Science_[1], Necessity, Cosmos to Logos_[new]

Themes and objections

Pivotal idea—Experience—Experience is the subject side of the Object that may be seen as relation; experience is the binding and grounding—and as will be seen the freedom—in and to being

Intuition, concept and Object

Theme—Meaning—Concept and Object—The immense significance of the understanding of concept, reference and object. (1) Generally, the object is function of world and mind; generally faithfulness of representation has no meaning even though from adaptation there must be partial and perhaps only implicit faithfulness; however, this allows for cases of necessary, Logical and practical faithfulness. (2) Practically it is useful in a stable environment to conflate concept and object; in changing contexts, e.g. discovery, it is necessary in analysis to distinguish word and concept—mental content including feeling—and Object to avoid the confusion of variant meaning, family meaning, novel meaning and use, and system meaning; words also contribute to this confusion—therefore distinguish word and symbol, e.g. allow for one word, many symbols. The conflation leads to many a fundamental error whose treatment often involves an unnecessarily complex ‘work around.’ More fundamentally, the analysis of the basic ideas of metaphysics is enormously simplified and broadened—often to their ultimate potential—by distinguishing word, concept and object. (3) Use is the reference side of meaning, in parallel with but in no way replacing sense—the experience side; use stabilizes meaning in stable contexts but also requires changing meaning in changing or varying contexts. (4) In the discovery of metaphysics there are occasions for substance and non-substance metaphysics, fixity and fluidity of meaning; however there can be no final a priori commitment to substance or meaning and the final case, if one emerges, shall be what emerges—and we shall then be able to evaluate the foundation regardless of whether there is a substance in which to have foundation. It is commonly thought that substance is necessary but then what founds substance? This is analogous to the concern that design requires creation—what created the creator? The simplest and most complete explanation, should we be able to find one, is metaphysics without substance and Universe without—external—creation. (5) It is crucial in this narrative to attend to the defined meanings but, until the system is final, to not be too attached to these meanings

Theme—Abstraction—Abstraction is the process of conceptually stripping away certain elements of perception or intuitive knowing so that what remains is necessary; we do not know a priori that there is any necessary knowledge; it turns out however that there are necessary Objects that include experience and Logic defined as the one law of—the conception of—the Universe…; this abstraction is polar to token abstraction—that replaces things by ‘stick figure’ concepts—and results in knowing that is simultaneously perfect, empirical and necessary; thus, from the immediately following, even Logic is empirical

Theme—The truth is already known, e.g. metaphysics is already contained in intuition… even if difficult to see—In a sense, as we will see, metaphysics is already contained in—is a net within—intuition whose Object is the Universe though not all of its detail; and this is brought out by abstraction; precisely, there is a net within intuition that is precisely and explicitly faithful to the necessary objects and will be extended to the Universal metaphysics

Introducing knowledge, intuition, and experience

Theme—Idea and intuition—The meaning of intuition in this narrative begins with that of Kant—the ability, itself outside immediate knowing, to perceive the world in categorial terms, e.g. those of space, time and cause. Intuition is extended to all mental content and may therefore be called conception in its wider sense, i.e. to include cognition—perception and thought, both iconic and symbolic—and emotion; the role of intuition in the narrative includes the removing of all knowledge including the assignment of the a priori from the a priori—and therefore the granular possibility of necessary, i.e. necessarily perfect, knowledge alongside imperfect and contingent knowledge. I.e. some objects are allowed whose concept is necessarily and precisely faithful and empirical; in hindsight these will be the ones for which as much particular detail is abstracted out so as to permit the remaining concept to be perfectly and empirically faithful—necessary and synthetic but not a priori. The necessary include experience, being, all being, absence of being, and domain; from which follows Logic. This intuition frames the disciplines. Therefore, while all paradigms are patchwork, the resulting paradigm here has, at least, a precise frame whose filling may have degrees of patchwork… still, the system enables the raising of the patches or disciplines to their inherent limit of faithfulness

Theme—Knowledge and Intuition—concept, Object, word, meaning, sense, reference, variation due to context and decomposition—form and problem of knowledge: the concept is not the Object—faithfulness, adaptation, practical Object… the concept may be taken to be the practical Object—abstraction, rational and empirical elements as necessary but not a prior—necessary Global and local Objects… the concept is faithful to the necessary Object—the necessary as framing and raising the practical to its intrinsic and limit of faithfulness and rationality (non ad hoc)

Theme—The forms of understanding (his theme functions as reference for the future.) Kant, as is noted elsewhere in this narrative, showed a foundation of knowledge via reasoning upon the data of the senses. The senses provided data via intuition-in-Kant’s-meaning; knowledge was the result of reasoning or understanding applied to the data. For the modes of reason Kant appealed to Aristotle’s twelve forms of judgment and wrought them into a system of twelve categories of understanding—it is not presently necessary to detail the categories in this essay. Subsequently, Schopenhauer reduced the categories to three—space, time and cause. The categories are justified by Kant as prerequisite for the intelligibility of experience which is taken as given. Kant found his categories of nature and categories of judgment to be necessary. We see in the present narrative that to achieve necessity in both perception and judgment—which roughly correspond to the bound and the free—may be brought under intuition which then permits what is necessary and what is local or contingent or probable or Normal to fall out of investigation

Theme— Seeing—the truth is already known. Seeing the necessary Objects

Objection. But Kant’s original categories included ‘unity’ ‘plurality’ and ‘totality’ corresponding to the judgments ‘universal’ ‘particular’ and ‘singular’… In its totality the Universe is incompletely and ‘approximately’ known—i.e., the Objects are, generally, of world and mind; it is in its unity that the Universe is a necessary Object; therefore Kant anticipated what has been done here. Counterargument. Kant did not do what has been done here; he did not conceive the necessary Objects and, in particular, he did not conceive experience, being, Universe or the Void as necessary; and he did conceive the Void that exists and contains no Law or even glimpse the immense metaphysical use of that idea in the present development—as noted elsewhere in this narrative Leibniz, Hume, and Wittgenstein did glimpse the significance of the idea if obliquely

Theme—Experience—Experience is the subject side of the Object that may be seen as relation; experience is the binding and grounding—and as will be seen the freedom—in and to being

The nature and existence of the necessary objects

Pivotal idea—The necessary and Logical Objects

Theme. Seeing the necessary Objects

Theme—Being

Observation. The phrase ‘in its entirety’ is not necessary

Objection. The verb ‘to be,’ e.g. ‘is,’ has not been analyzed

Objection. Various special uses of ‘being’

Objection. The classical distinction between existence as being-in-relation and being as being-in-itself

Objection—the allegation that existence is trivial, that it is not a concept… or that it applies to ‘everything’

Objection— Quantum disturbance of the Object negates the possibility of necessary Objects!

The problem of the non-existent object. … If there are no unicorns, to what does ‘unicorn’ refer in ‘there are no unicorns’

The first existential problem of being—whether anything exists. The ‘problem’ of philosophical solipsism

The second existential problem of being—what exists? The global and local necessary Objects… from experience to Logos

Theme—The necessary Objects, especially: Experience—which is roughly the sense of being but neither has nor needs any further fundamental reduction; Being—what is there… without reference to any specific Object; Universe—The Universe which is all being exists and contains all Laws; Difference and domain; The Void—The Void which is the absence of being exists and contains no Law; and Logos—which is the Object of Logic and is the Universe at any level of detail in description subject to logic

Objection regarding Law—Law as immanent is but one interpretation of the idea, even in the sense of ‘what is read;’ other interpretations are Law as imposed, Law as mere description, and Law as convention

Objection to the proof of existence of the Void. The proof of existence of the Void may be criticized (1) on the account that it is a purely logical proof and (2) that in case the Universe is the domain in question there is doubt that its complement exists. Note: the notion that the proof is merely logical is an early one and is by now old; it is replaced by the recognition of the necessary empirical elements that, by the way, are unseen by the critical element in its race to judge before understanding

The nature of being

Observation. The phrase ‘in its entirety’ is not necessary. Its function lies in the fact that concept and Object are often conflated and it is then a reminder that the every part of the concept should have reference. These words may seem to contradict the earlier assertion that all experience has an object; however, the present concern is practical and includes the case that discourse may be limited to a context

Objection. The verb ‘to be,’ e.g. ‘is,’ has not been analyzed. Response. There is more than one meaning of ‘is.’ However, use as the verb ‘to be’ is standard and has received implicit analysis in the analysis of experience

Objection. Various special uses of ‘being.’ Response. The special uses are not part of the sense of the present basic, fundamental use of ‘being’ but may lie in its range of reference. It would be a mistake, however, to think that these contingent references specify its sense. Audiences are reminded that understanding of the present development and appreciation of its power requires focus on its meanings even though related meanings and uses may be suggestive

Objection. The classical distinction between existence as being-in-relation and being as being-in-itself. Response. The fundamental principle of the Universal metaphysics, below, dissolves this distinction

Paradoxes and problems regarding existence and its concept

Objection—Quantum disturbance of the Object negates the possibility of necessary Objects! Response. Quantum theory is not universal; the Universal metaphysics and the necessary Objects go below the quantum level

Objection—the allegation that existence is trivial, that it is not a concept… or that it applies to ‘everything.’ Counterargument. Existence is trivial—this is the source of the fundamental character and power of the idea, e.g. foundation of the Universal metaphysics, displacement of substance; similarly it is a concept that is trivial and powerful in its generic character

The problem of the non-existent object. Consider the mythic unicorn. There are, of course, no unicorns. Of course, someone may choose to debate the existence of unicorns but that is not the present concern—we intend to use the idea of the unicorn to discuss the concept of existence. For the purpose of this discussion we take it that there are no unicorns… If there are no unicorns and I say ‘there are no unicorns,’ i.e. ‘unicorns do not exist’ what can I possibly mean? Am I not referring to unicorns in order to say that there are none? This has been regarded as a paradox of the concept of existence. Response to the paradox of the non-existent object. The paradox is already resolved in the notion of concept and object. I will say that the unicorn does not exist if I have a concept or mental picture that does not correspond to some actual thing or being or object. It is common to conflate concept and object and say, simply, ‘there are no unicorns.’ Elaboration. This shows that the paradox is already harbored in the positive use of the term to exist. For, if when I say ‘elephants exist’ what could I possibly mean if the only token of the kind elephant is some existing elephant or collection of elephants? For ‘elephants exist’ to have meaning, I must have a concept of the elephant. Further elaboration. The unicorn may be regarded as an abstract object (see the later discussion of objects;) Jesus Christ may be regarded as an actual and as a—naturally different—abstract object

The first existential problem of being—whether anything exists. Resolution. Experience and its generic object—the external world. The existence of experience has been shown above. The Existence of the external world is taken up in the immediately following section

The second existential problem of being—what exists? Response. The problem of what exists—which of our concepts define objects and for what objects we have concepts is immensely important and is the subject of the theory of variety is mentioned in the Introduction, and addressed in chapters Metaphysics, Objects, Cosmology, and Worlds. It is seen that the theory of variety is perhaps the most important problem of discovery—that it takes precedence in the thinking of this narrative over the problems of depth or foundation and the problems of knowledge or epistemology

Essence

Metaphysics is the central chapter of the system of ideas: it is there that the foundation is laid (1) for the Universal metaphysics which includes knowledge of the Universe as having the greatest Logically possible variety and (2) for the journey through Identity with the Universe

Metaphysics requires foundation on two accounts. First, in this narrative it will claim to be knowledge of things as they are (this is a rough statement and there will be refinement) claim requires justification because knowledge and known are distinct. Additionally, because the thing-as-known is in part a product of the knower (an insight of the philosopher Kant) the very possibility of metaphysics has been in doubt since the time of Kant. Second, even if metaphysics is possible, the Universal metaphysics requires its own foundation

The Universal metaphysics has foundation in the given: there is being. This primitive foundation allows development of the metaphysics but it is abstract and remote and does not reveal a ground in human knowing

This chapter provides a richer foundation for the metaphysics by bringing all knowing under the umbrella of adaptive intuition that has no a priori guarantee of faithful knowledge

Within intuition are found certain universal Objects so simple that they are known with perfect faithfulness. These Objects provide a foundation of the Universal metaphysics and, derivatively, of Objects and Cosmology. The Universal metaphysics is a vast system of knowledge which leaves open the problem of locating its less than Universal Objects. The metaphysics also makes possible the development in Worlds in which the framing within the metaphysics allows the traditional and modern academic divisions of knowledge to approach their intrinsic limit. The latter knowledge is labeled Applied metaphysics even though it is not strictly metaphysics at all (except when perfect faithfulness can be shown)

The foundation of Intuition is an elaboration of the of that foundation that ties the development of the metaphysics into modern thought and grounds the metaphysics in—human—experience, thought, and ambition

Introduction

Place of Intuition the narrative

Need for development of the idea of Intuition

The Universal metaphysics of Metaphysics is capable of foundation in the two statements, first, the given that There is being and There is no assertion that is simultaneously true and false. The second statement is an axiom of logic—‘law of thought’—called the law or principle of non-contradiction. Later doubts regarding this apparently rock-like principle will occasion re-conception of logic and the reconceived version will be labeled Logic

Intuition is an elaboration of that brief foundation. It brings out clearly that the metaphysics is empirical and necessary. It grounds the metaphysics in the individual knower—it shows the intimate relation between the individual and all being. It shows that the apparently abstract developments of Metaphysics through Cosmology are not at all abstract in any sense of impoverishment or remoteness or irrelevance to the immediate

The Universal metaphysics will have foundation in the given—there is being. This foundation is abstract in the rough sense of remote. It does not anchor the individual in the Universe

Use of intuition in the development of the metaphysics

Intuition remedies the problem of remoteness and anchoring

It anchors the metaphysics in—human—knowing and thus shows the anchoring of the individual and community in the Universe

Implications for the journey

The view of knowledge as standing independently has practical utility but also strikes a divide between Identity and Universe; the focus on intuition is part of a restoration that requires and involves a journey

Wide-angle view of the development

Intuition provides a foundation for Metaphysics in intuition

From adaptation we know that our common knowledge must have some degree of faithfulness. In science much of the nature of the world is revealed and in some cases the precision is astonishing. The discipline of logic is often seen as certain in its conclusions but not one of its central axioms is without criticism; and modern logic recognizes a frankly empirical aspect to logic

Since we never get outside knowing there is some initial doubt regarding all knowing. However, this doubt arises in referring items of knowledge to something else—perhaps more fundamental—e.g., experiment or evidence or another concept… but it does not follow that there can be no removal of doubt (a) in all cases (b) from the ‘inside’

Therefore all knowing is reigned in—at outset—with regard to assignment of certainty. This allows knowledge of certainty to emerge—Object by Object or perhaps kind (of Object) by kind

And other ways of founding knowledge may be sought

The concept and use of intuition in this essay derives from that of Kant. For Kant, our ability to perceive the world in terms of its—apparently—natural categories such as space, time and cause lies in intuition. Because the geometry of Euclid and the dynamics of Newton were so immensely successful, Kant thought that our intuition precisely captured nature (the natural categories.) Given mechanics and geometry, conclusions about the world can be derived from logic; and in Kant’s time Aristotelian logic was regarded as the exemplar of derivation

We now know that the schemes of Newton and Euclid—insofar as it applies to the world—are local approximations. And Aristotle’s logic is far from complete; and, further, logic is not a priori to knowing but has empirical aspects

Kant’s foundation does not stand because both science and logic are incomplete and subject to correction; however his insights into the nature and foundation of knowing are immensely valuable

Therefore we reign all knowledge into the intuitive sphere and tentatively label it ‘perhaps at most approximate.’ That will allow investigation of whether there is any faithful knowledge of things as the result of investigation, i.e. as empirical rather than as a priori to the empirical

We extend Kant’s use of intuition to also include inference—including logic. I.e. all knowledge and knowing is reigned in under intuition and labeled nature and degree of faithfulness incompletely determined at outset of investigation

A way to approach this situation has emerged from trial and error. We introduce a notion of abstraction that is not one in which an object is replaced by a token concept. Instead, it is recognized that amid the networked details of knowing there are conceptually abstracted out Objects that are so simple that knowledge of them is simultaneously precise and necessary. Among the most important of these necessary Objects are—as will be shown: Experience, Being—including external world which is complement to experience, the Universe or all being in the sense of all-being-without-the-details, Duration and space-like Extension, Domain or part, and absence of being or the Void, and Logos

Of these Objects, all except Logos are first rooted in perception; however, discernment of properties of the Objects may be the result of—higher—conception. Logos, on the other hand, is derived from the properties of the other necessary Objects

This is the basis of an ultimate and Universal metaphysics that, as applied metaphysics frames and potentially pushes all knowledge to its intrinsic limit

The necessary Objects are primitive in relation to Kant’s categories; and the analysis is of the primitives as primitive. Thus the foundation of the metaphysics is taken to a deeper level than Kant’s foundation in the Kantian categories. Then, as shown in Metaphysics, the depth will be ultimate in the following sense: it shows how the variety of being flows from the simplest elements of being and requires no foundation in any unfounded substance or axiom except the principle of non-contradiction that is the least controversial and most obvious of all the fundamental axioms of logic. Further, the breadth of the metaphysics will be ultimate in that it shows that the Universe is and must be one of the greatest (Logically) possible variety. Finally, the pure metaphysics of the necessary Objects will frame an Applied metaphysics in which the framing permits local disciplines to approach their intrinsic limit

Thus in going below Kant’s analysis, it has been able also to go beyond to the Universal metaphysics of ultimate depth and breadth without reference to any contingent science. Additionally, in the case of the contingent—local, detailed-empirical—disciplines no absolute knowledge is claimed for absolute faithfulness in these cases typically has no meaning. However, the actual faithfulness is enabled to its intrinsic limit and that too is an advance for it is good to know that there is an intrinsic limit beyond which search is without significance. Perhaps there is a way in which the local sciences, e.g. quantum theory or one of its future forms, will reveal precise knowledge of the local (although there is uncertainty of simultaneous measurements, e.g. of simultaneous it is not altogether clear that that uncertainty is not due to lack of definiteness in the object itself.) However, from the Universal metaphysics any local absolute faithfulness cannot be universal

Some specific results

This may be omitted since it has been outlined earlier and will be detailed later

The intrinsic limit will be reached for some important disciplines…

It will emerge that individuals will achieve ultimate identity. Thus, it is given that I will be—in some sense already am—the Universe looking out on myself (the I here is the universal or generic I and not particularly the I of an author)

It will also emerge that while I will look out on myself as all being, the way there is immensely far from being given and that I will not remain in that state as if it were static. I can choose to let it happen or I can undertake a path directed by intelligence and correction of error. It is reasonable that the self-correcting intelligent path is immensely more probable to succeed and that the significance of that way is immensely greater than that of the let-it-happen-way

Still, as it will emerge, the way is far from given. That is the adventure of the journey in being… and in that adventure it is given that I will encounter many and immensely various worlds

Upon that path, I expect to find that the separation—so valued in our world—of knowing and acting and cannot be absolute; they will merge in degrees of ebb and flow; thus while the summit is given, that there is a way is given, the way is not and it is a way of incomplete knowing and acting

If not necessary to this acting-knowing, there is a kind of faith that will be conducive to greater process and greater appreciation of the process. It is not a faith in external knowing of how the Universe is and what there is in it. It is a moment-to-moment faith that encounters doubt-and-confidence-as-natural-partners-in-being-and-becoming. Religion that may start out as faith often becomes a perversion of it; and what sometimes passes for spirituality a infinitely limited substitute (there is one world and stuff and spirit are aspects of it)

The developments of the ideas, we follow the theme of independently standing knowledge. We see how far this endeavor may go. The themes of action and faith stand above this endeavor; we occasionally return to these themes; and action and faith become essential foci in the chapters Journey and Method

Informal view of Intuition and its role

Intuition is the way in which we know the common things and patterns of the world. A characteristic of intuition is that though we know, we do not know how we know and we cannot invariably show the validity of intuitive knowledge based on formal ways such as science and logic. However, since we have some success in living, there must be some validity to intuition

Knowledge of the esoteric and the ultimate are already in intuition—this can be shown. Stated in another way, the ultimate and the esoteric are not remote. This is seen as an invitation to an ultimate journey

Relation to the tradition

The previous sections have comments on general sources and implications

From the traditions

Intuition absorbs from the traditions the ideas of independently standing human knowing, intuition, knowing as perception and inference… and develops these notions while beginning to show their place within human action, i.e. their limits as independently standing institutions

The thinker to whom the greatest debt is owed regarding knowledge and intuition is Kant. Perhaps the most influential idea of Kant is that that we have intuition of the world and that the intuition lies outside reason even if it may be understood via reason. The present development differs from and goes beyond Kant in a number of ways. First, Kant uses intuition to refer to the ability to perceive the world in terms of its natural categories such as space, time and cause. We now know that the categories of space, time, and cause are proximate but not ultimate categories of the world. Additionally, here all knowing is reigned in under intuition so that no a priori commitment to absolute knowledge is made. Here, instead of space, time, and cause, the necessary Objects are Universe, Domain, Void, Logos and others. Whereas Kant held metaphysics to be impossible since it is beyond experience, here, in the necessary Objects, experience is seen to extend to the ultimate: metaphysics falls within experience provided restriction is made to the necessary Objects (and the implied limitation is less severe than may be supposed because these Objects form a framework that has the potential to raise all knowledge to its intrinsic limit)

It should be finally noted that the metaphysics that is developed is ultimate and that while the present theory of intuition provides foundation as well as grounding in cognition-feeling, the metaphysics is capable of a foundation that is independent of the theory of intuition

Contribution

A potent development of the idea of Intuition to allow the inclusion of all knowing

The metaphysics is shown to be synthetic and necessary and is thus an improvement of the idea and completion of development of the Kantian program

A positive epistemology that is of course not positive over all knowledge—science retains its tentative character when it claims universal knowledge—but is positive over the metaphysical core, will be seen to be positive over science on an alternate interpretation of the nature of science, and will be seen to be positive in that every concept that lies within Logic has reference in the Universe though not positive in the sense that it is currently possible to empirically locate the corresponding Objects. And even though the epistemology is not positive over the sciences and academic disciplines—i.e., over detailed and local knowledge—it will be seen that the universal knowledge frames specialized knowledge in a way that the latter may approach their intrinsic limit

Metaphysics

Concepts

Metaphysics_[1], Metaphysics as such_[new], Metaphysic of experience, Speculation, Real_[new], Uniqueness of metaphysics, Systematic metaphysics, Abstract System_[new]

Experience_[2], Illusion, (External) World_[2], Reflexivity of experience_{[new phrasing]}, Existence, Being_[2], Local description, Global description

Universe, distinction from Cosmos, Law_[1], law, Creator

Distinction of Law and law; law is what is read or projected and is fully real only as an idea; Law is what is read (there are patterns even if we do not discern them perfectly)

Possibility, Necessity, Actuality

Domain, Complement

Void_[1]

Fundamental principle_[1], Forms of the fundamental principle

Limit, Logic_[1], Demonstration, Proof, Logos

Universal metaphysics, Possibility of metaphysics_[2]

Variety_[1], Breadth_[1], Depth_[1], Ultimate_[1], Non-relative Metaphysics, Foundation_[2]

Some essence and results of the metaphysics

Objection, Absurd, Normal_[1], Probability, Practical certainty_[new], Logical, Doubt_[1], Faith_[1]

Substance, Determinism, Impossibility of metaphysical substance_[new], Practical substance_[new], Form

Applied metaphysics_[1]

Themes and objections

Theme—Metaphysics—the study of things as they are. That there is at most one metaphysics and therefore, from Intuition, exactly one metaphysics. Therefore metaphysics is actual and possible; and there is no need to review 1001 conceptions of metaphysics

Objection—Such review may be useful. Response: granted

The development of the Universal metaphysics

Pivotal idea—Universe—From the concept of all being or Universe it follows that the Universe has and can have no creator or cause—there can be no God that created and sustains the whole Universe; and that the possible and the actual are identical—for the actual is of course possible but the idea of the possible that is not actual depends on another universe could exist but given that the Universe is all being there is no other such universe; the idea of a Universal space-time-causation is so far logically admissible—from the necessary idea and modes of difference—though not necessary and it is necessary that such space-time would be immanent in being and derivative of its elements and extensions; we read laws in being—we conceive laws, in the Universe, but law corresponds to something immanent in being, in the Universe and that is Law; all Laws—and, as seen later in a different sense, all laws—lie in the Universe

Pivotal idea—The Universe—The Universe which is all being exists and contains all Laws

Objection—Law as immanent is but one interpretation of the idea, even in the sense of ‘what is read;’ other interpretations are Law as imposed, Law as mere description, and Law as convention. Response. Consider, first, Law as convention. The sources of this include the following. (1) Free speculation enters the formulation of laws. However, it may be responded that such speculation is subject to the requirement of applicability; not just any free speculation becomes law. (2) That a number of theoretical developments have alternative formulations. The response is that there are often such alternatives but that they are usually equivalent or, when not, in so much as they apply, there is superfluous conceptual elaboration and still an irreducible element of application for the system to be lawful. Now consider the idea of ‘Law as mere description.’ The phrase ‘mere description’ does not mean ‘arbitrary’ but, rather, ‘not capable of generalization to a larger domain.’ An appropriate response, then, is that some laws do turn out to be capable of generalization. However, since they are not arbitrary, even those that do not refer to some pattern that is immanent—or perhaps imposed—on the domain in question. Finally, the idea of law as imposed may be eliminated because the Universe is all being. Therefore, for any Law that is imposed there is another Law that contains the first and is immanent

Theme—Being and, below, Substance. The significance of the idea of being includes (a) that ‘what is’ is not referred for its understanding to something a priori and in fact is not referred at all—or not referred but the fact and Object of reference is allowed to emerge and, so, ultimately, (b) explanation is not required to go beyond and therefore there is no commitment—explicit or implicit—to either substance or infinite chains of reference which allows for the possibility of foundation without substance, i.e. non-relativist metaphysics and philosophy

Theme—Metaphysics as Mereology—consider whether to pursue Mereology at present. Universe as all being—implications: contains all Objects and Law; there is exactly one Universe; the Universe has no creator; identity of possibility and actuality and beginnings of Logic. Domain and difference—cause, creation and infusion; limited and local gods; extension and duration… space, time and coordinations of part-whole relations. The Void—the fundamental principle regarding the identity of metaphysics and Logic; objections; the Normal; the principle of reference; depth of being—second aspect of the ultimate character of the metaphysics; substance, determinism and form; the variety of being—second aspect of the ultimate character of the metaphysics; possibility of metaphysics; Logic and the equivalent forms of the metaphysics; beginnings of method. Applied metaphysics—from intuition to framing of contextual studies by the Universal

Theme—Seeing the metaphysics… continued from Intuition

Pivotal idea—Difference and Domain—The idea of difference leads to that of Domain and Complement. Although the Universe is neither created nor caused it is possible for one domain to create or affect—have cause—or participate in creating andor affecting another domain—the idea of local gods that at least partially create, sustain, destroy and rule local cosmological systems is not logically inadmissible; patches of space-time-cause are logically admissible so far; it is logically admissible that there are Laws and laws of domains or local cosmological systems that do not lie in those systems

Pivotal idea—The Void—The void is the absence of being and contains no law; that the Void is there is tautological; however the existence of the Void also follows from the limit case of the ‘zero’ domain; the existence of the Void is still however subject to doubt on grounds of intuitive and logical doubt that is enhanced by the immensity of the conclusions that will follow from its existence; therefore, the existence of the Void is the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism and counterargument; in the end a principle of most effective action over multiple modes of action may be invoked; the Void contains and can contain no law

Objection. The proof of existence of the Void may be criticized (1) on the account that it is purely logical and (2) that in case the Universe is the domain in question there is doubt that its complement exists. Responses. The first objection is dealt with adequately in the discussions of method. The second objection may be dealt with by providing alternate proofs. A number of rational as well as heuristic (plausible) proofs have been given in the detailed accounts. Perhaps the best alternate proof is as follows—There is no distinction between existence and non-existence of the Void. Therefore the Void may be taken to exist. The fundamental principle now follows. This implies the existence of the Void. A new alternate proof that will not be found in older versions of the narrative but only in the recent, talk-preliminary.doc, starts with examination of the meaning of the term ‘existence.’ There is also a doubt from the nature of the quantum vacuum that is the ‘zero’ state of quantum mechanics but is far from absence. The counterargument is that the fundamental principle shows that quantum theory cannot be the fundamental theory of the Universe. The metaphysics developed here harbors the theories of science within it as local andor approximate

The void and the fundamental principle of metaphysics

Theme—The fundamental principle and some consequences—If there is a consistent concept of a state is inaccessible from the Void, that is a Law of the Void; therefore there is no such inaccessible state; which is labeled the fundamental principle of the Universal metaphysics; therefore there is no fiction except logical fiction—the entire literature subject to logic is a concept of the actual; this however is a somewhat unstable conception that is rendered stable by labeling Logic as the only law of conception of the Universe; which is a second formulation of the fundamental principle; which is far from empty because of the realizations of the logical systems as, at least, empirical approximations to Logic; therefore the Universe could not have greater variety than it does; which appears to violate reasonable common sense and science; which is the occasion for the concept of the Normal—systems or which an example is our local cosmos in which there is the appearance of the necessity of its stability, its laws, its space-time-cause that are however Normal, perhaps immensely though only locally probable and not at all of necessary and Universal reach but which however from the fundamental principle are necessary; experience must go to the root although its elaborate, human, animal, focal and conscious modes do not and cannot—experience, therefore is what is referred to by the label ‘mind’ which is not something else for which a search needs to be undertaken; attitude and action are correlates of experience and not other dimensions of mind and there is a thing ‘pure experience’ that is experience in idle that is not actual but may be potential attitude-action

Theme—Relation between triviality or simplicity… and depth and breadth and empirical-logical character of the metaphysics—this is found retrospectively and is not turned into a prescription

Theme—Equivalent forms of the metaphysics. (1) The Object Universe that is all being contains all Objects. (2) The Object Universe has no universal Law; the one law of the concept Universe is Logic. (3) The void that is the absence of being exists and contains no Objects—specifically no Law. (4) The Universe is absolutely indeterministic. (5) The Universe is one of maximum freedom; it could not have greater variety. (6) The Universal metaphysics is the one metaphysics. (7) The metaphysics achieves absolute non-cosmomorphism

Objection. Adjusting the fundamental principle and its consequences to realism. The fundamental principle is at odds with realism. This objection has already been encountered and addressed. However, it is useful to address it in inclusive terms. Response. This adjustment is formally accomplished by the fundamental principle itself which requires ‘realism’ and therefore places realism on stronger footing than common sense ‘realism’ and even science. The problem of living in a ‘world’ that is simultaneously limited and unlimited (except for Logic) is resolved by the concept of the Normal

Essential objection. The fundamental principle derives from the following—The Void exists and contains no Law. The essential objection to the fundamental principle, then, is the objection to the claim regarding the existence and nature of the Void. Counterargument or response. The question of the existence and the nature of the Void—the Void exists and contains no law—has been addressed in the objections concerning the necessary Objects including the Void

Objection. There is also the fundamental intuitive concern that so much is derived from so little. Response. One response to this concern is that ‘so much’ is the sweeping away of preconception e.g. substance and what is perhaps false humility

Residual doubt. Metaphysics, doubt and animal faith. Residual doubt will remain. I have this doubt. The components of the doubt, as just noted, are not merely logical—although there is a logical component to it: doubts regarding the logic of the necessary Objects—but is also ‘existential,’ i.e. that so much comes from so little and this doubt is not entirely removed by the sweeping away of preconception or the acknowledgement of false humility that is perhaps the twin of false pride and confidence. Response to doubt. There is no final argument against this but to act and enter the journey. This is essential in any case because ideas are not complete realization. It is important to enter ‘animal faith’ in which it is recognized—in the human realization of animal faith—that if there is no final foundation for ideas then there need be no such final foundation, that we may and perhaps must act in their absence but also in light of ideas that are reasonable even if they lack foundation… and that may be supported by any intuition that we possess. It may be reflected that animal faith will be essential even if there is no doubt—a condition of being, and of the adventure in variety; that animal faith is implicit but suppressed along with doubt even in the most rational of human endeavor. The ‘earthly’ counterpart to this human form of animal faith is living on earth as if it were both ‘heaven and hell’ in this lifetime and not in anticipation of some future paradise or future hell regardless of whether those states of being remain to be experienced in some manifestation of our being

Metaphysics: themes

Theme—Metaphysics. There is exactly one metaphysics; this metaphysics may have many forms and be developed in greater or lesser detail. The following metaphysics is, by demonstration, the true metaphysics that is simultaneously empirical and rational in Method (the distinction between the empirical and the rational is dissolved)… Pure and general metaphysics are a net within intuition… Metaphysics is identical to Logic… The only fictions are Logical fictions… The Universe has the greatest (Logically) possible variety… The system of concepts lying under Logic has reference… The Object is the ultimate concept of the metaphysics… Abstract and particular objects are identical in nature… Mind is implicit in the discussion of intuition, concept and experience; understanding of mind begins as animal including human mind but expands via metaphysics and reason to encompass all being, i.e. mind and being are coeval and colocal

Theme—The possibility of metaphysics. The metaphysics is empirical and Logical and therefore necessary and not merely possible; the error of prior thought in thinking metaphysics to be impossible is that it placed all objects on the same level and therefore assigned the same epistemic status to the necessary objects as to the merely practical; the error of prior thought in thinking that metaphysics should be a metaphysic of experience is the error of thinking that experience—intuition—can never have precise faithfulness or that faithfulness never has meaning and again the error here is in not allowing sufficient granularity in knowing

Theme—Relation between triviality or simplicity… and depth and breadth and empirical-logical character of the metaphysics—this is found retrospectively and is not turned into a prescription

Theme—Requirements for any new paradigm of understanding—It should (a) contain the old in their valid domains; (b) extend—the old so as to be testable and applicable; (c) unify older paradigms which are shown to be partial—e.g. particular and abstract and, generally, the kinds are unified under Object

Theme—An ultimate system of understanding—E.g. the Universal metaphysics is explicitly ultimate with regard to depth and implicitly ultimate with regard to breadth

Theme—Objections, doubts, and responses

Theme—Being and substance: against substance… Absolute Indeterminism and Determinism. Practical substances. Form—for form; form does not reside in another world; form is subsumed under Object

Theme—Requirements for any new paradigm of understanding

Theme—An ultimate system of understanding

Theme—The fundamental principle and some consequences

Theme—Relation between triviality or simplicity and depth…

Theme—Equivalent forms of the metaphysics

Theme—The a priori—there is no a priori… but there is necessary empirical knowledge

Theme—Literalism

Objection. The fundamental principle is at odds with realism

Objection. There is also the fundamental intuitive concern that so much is derived from so little

Residual doubt. Residual doubt will remain. I have this doubt… Response. After all the named doubts and responses, the response to unnamed doubt—characteristic of human being—must be core animal faith

Theme. Metaphysics and animal faith

Theme—Seeing the metaphysics. Through abstraction we ‘see’ the necessary objects—experience, being, all being, difference, domain and void are primary. Can we see Logic as necessary? That requires simply that we see the Void as necessary rather than derive it from domain and complement. This is how the Void can be seen: when we see an Object we see the Void as well since the Void makes no difference to the Object (the Void can make a contingent difference but the point is that it makes no necessary difference)

Theme—The a priori. In the development of the metaphysics there is no a priori, not even logic. All knowing is brought into the realm of the contingent—or, better, the possibly contingent. I.e., not only are we not committed to any a priori, we are not committed to the absence of it, i.e., we allow that some knowledge may be found that may be regarded as perfect and a priori

Theme—Literalism. Whatever can be expressed—especially what is worth expressing—can be expressed literally

Theme—Being continued. Substance—Absolute Indeterminism and Determinism—Every state of being is accessible from every other state, in particular the Void; this is true though not Normally true; the Universe is absolutely indeterministic in that no state is inaccessible from any given state but is absolutely deterministic in that every state is accessible from every given state—this use of determinism is of course different than the usual one; thus there is no substance nor is there explanatory need for such; the Void could be regarded as substance as could any other state; this would fall short, however, of the twin requirements of ultimate simplicity and determinism for substance; therefore the Void is not a proper substance; this is, however, not an injunction against elements that behave as if local substances—which are necessary from the fundamental principle; therefore there will be as if cases of ‘zeroism,’ monism, and dualism even though there is no Universal substance (‘zeroism’)

Theme—Against substance. The impossibility of substance as foundation of the one metaphysics. Against substance of ethics—i.e., ethics as standing apart or above; against substance as a habit of thought and the habit of substance in thought… This is not an injunction against the practical uses of substance or substance thinking

Applied metaphysics

Pivotal idea—Applied metaphysics—Framing intimate and practical knowledge by the pure metaphysics: What has gone before is pure metaphysics and (general) cosmology; applied metaphysics lies at the intersection of the pure metaphysics and the particular applied and approximate disciplines; this has the potential to raise the local and applied disciplines to their intrinsic limit; the applied disciplines include the study of local and physical cosmology, the human world and its institutions—the individual and society and the particular institutions

Theme—Applied metaphysics—Framing intimate and practical knowledge by the pure metaphysics

Essence

I

As shown in Intuition, intuition provides a foundation for the Universal metaphysics of the present chapter Metaphysics. However, the foundation is preliminary to the development of the metaphysics. Given the foundation, certain aspects of the development are crucial:

In the pre-formal and tentative stage the following are important: experiment with ideas, conceptions, syntheses, developments, criticisms, interpretations, elaborations, suggestions from the history of ideas, boldness but willingness to reformulate, multiple avenues, treading and retreading, foundation and re-foundation and willingness to rework entire systems at each re-foundation

Criticism is especially important: while it is the point of metaphysics to be as comprehensive as possible—due to its concern with being and all being—it should be internally consistent; its methods clear and their preservation of truth manifest; and its results should not violate experience, reasonable common sense or science… The metaphysics and its development has been subject to doubt and criticism from as many perspectives as possible and these doubts have been given responses: see The Void, below. Additionally, see The concept of metaphysics, Foundation, The normal, Logic, Logos and form, Articulation and method, and Applied metaphysics

The following formal aspects are crucial:

Care in selecting and specifying nature of the primitive concepts, i.e. of the fundamental Objects: they should be necessary or perfectly faithful and universal or significant rather than essentially trivial. Clarity of definition is essential; reflective and revisable boldness of definition is often preferable to tentativeness and temerity; however, boldness should not typically be a pretense and should not be confused with demonstration

Inclusion of Logos—the one fundamental Object that is not primarily—among the necessary Objects; i.e. inclusion of demonstration and inference among the fundamental Objects. This amounts to bringing inference down from the relative a priori to a level on roughly equal basis with content or Object… for, after all, demonstration is in the world and is therefore a kind of Object; and further, demonstration and other content co-evolve even though often at differing rates

Choice and articulation of the system of concepts; systematic development of the metaphysics from the universal Objects and their properties

The sequence of development has flexibility but is not without significance for efficiency and understanding

The main choice regarding this sequence is the order of the main necessary Objects Universe, Domain, Void, and Logos. It will become clear that Logos must follow Void. Void could come first and this would have the advantage of placing the greatest development first. However, that might obscure the developments regarding Universe and Domain. Additionally, the doubts regarding development from the Void do not affect conclusions regarding Universe and Domain which are therefore placed first among the four main Objects; and since Universe frames Domain, Universe is placed first

The preliminary ideas Metaphysics and Foundation and the preliminary Objects Experience, External world, and Being are placed before the four main metaphysical Objects. It is natural for Law to immediately follow Universe; and, finally, for Extension and Duration to follow Domain (and Complement.)

The sequence of development may be as follows—see metaphysics.html details:

1. The concept of metaphysics

2. Foundation

3. Experience. Conclusion: there is experience

4. External world. Conclusion: there is an external world

5. Being. Conclusion. With the resolution of the meaning of being, it may be said from the facts of experience and external world that there is being, i.e. ‘being exists’

6. The Universe is all being

7. The ideas of law and Law. Conclusion: The Universe is all being, exists, and contains all Law

8. Domain and Complement

9. Extension and Duration

Add: global and local modes of description

Add: dimension if it isn’t already there

10. The Void is the absence of being

11. Substance

12. The question of determinism

13. The normal

14. Logic

15. Logos and form

16. Articulation and method

17. The Universal metaphysics

18. Applied metaphysics

19. Cosmological consequences

Variety of being

Systematic working out of consequences

II

Metaphysics is the study of being as it is. The possibility of this study has been raised in modern thought; however, it is here shown to be possible and brought to an ultimate level of knowledge of the Universe that is all being

The metaphysics is the focal point of the ideas. This chapter demonstrates and develops a the idea of metaphysics as well as a metaphysics—the Universal metaphysics—the metaphysics that the Universe has the greatest (Logically) possible variety

The metaphysics indicates the infinite boundary of any Journey in being but merely suggests at the way. Objects, Cosmology, and Worlds develop a picture of the terrain in greater relief but to a degree that remains infinitesimal

Introduction

This section replaces ‘Wide-angle view.’ It’s present outline is tentative and it’s modifications may include absorption of Wide-angle view

Place of Metaphysics in the narrative

Formal

As noted earlier, the metaphysics is the focal point of the system of ideas. It is founded in the preliminary analysis of Intuition and makes possible and is continued by Objects and Cosmology which are also part of metaphysics. While developing the system of ideas it became apparent that that development naturally involved and required reflection on and development of ‘method.’ The developments are collected in Method

The development of the ideas, especially that of the Universal metaphysics, is part of the journey

The metaphysics is at the foundation of the vision and the transformations of the Journey. In showing the identity of the individual and all being, it shows the necessity that the individual journey is the greatest possible. However, it is also shown that the variety of being is without end and therefore regardless of what has come to pass, infinite adventure remains. The metaphysics does not show the path; additionally it does not rule out pain and suffering—it is not said that suffering is essential to achievement but that it is not avoidable; therefore the term adventure is appropriate

Informal

The metaphysics shows that, excepting paradox, all things occur; that this is violation of neither science nor common sense; and this illuminates the greatest adventure through many worlds on the way to and from and in Identity with All Being

Wide-angle view

The Universal metaphysics is contained in intuition, i.e. it follows from the necessary Objects of intuition. Its fundamental or essential principle is implicit in the nature and properties of the Void: The Void exists and contains no Law. Equivalent forms are (1) The Universe has the greatest Logically possible variety of being, and (2a) The Universe has no universal and immanent Law or, equivalently (2b) The only conceptual law of the Universe is that except Logic there are no restrictions on its states, and, again (2c) Metaphysics and Logic are identical (partial reconceptualization of Logic will be required.) The immense consequences have been previewed and will be developed in this chapter and subsequent chapters especially Objects, Cosmology, Worlds, and Method

Unlike the ‘great’ metaphysical systems of the past, the present Universal metaphysics is nowhere merely the product of imagination. Naturally, there has been imagination; there has been much exposure to and reflection on the history of thought—and attempt to incorporate from that history what has survived criticism and is relevant; and there has been much treading and retreading of the requirements of synthesis, covering of adequate ground, and of consistency. In the end, however, it became possible to demonstrate the metaphysics—i.e. it is a metaphysics with a foundation that, in a sense explained below, refers to no unfounded fact or principle of method; that is the foundation is absolute. Additionally, the present system shows that it is (Logically) impossible for the Universe to have greater variety than is the case. Thoughts regarding such features—depth or foundation and breadth or variety—are not new but they have not been hitherto been demonstrated. And the demonstration is connected with the power of the system in two ways: first, in making it secure, and second in the variety of being covered. Later it is shown that except for degree of development and detail all valid metaphysics must be equivalent. In this sense there is no greater or lesser metaphysics. A proposed metaphysics is or is not a—valid—metaphysics

That is, the Universal metaphysics is the metaphysics

In the history of modern thought, especially since the critiques of Hume and Kant Critique, the possibility of metaphysics has been suspect and the source of the doubt is the fundamental gap between knower and known: what I know is not the thing but some reconstruction or result of the thing in interaction with a knower. Consequently, even if it is possible that at least some knowledge may be perfectly faithful how can that be known? How then may the claim be made that metaphysics is possible and, more, it is the one metaphysics that has been demonstrated?

Demonstration follows from the existence and properties of the necessary Objects established in Intuition: experience, being, Universe, space-like Extension, Duration, Domain, and the Void. Metaphysics establishes the existence and essential properties of a further necessary object: Logos which arises from the—demonstrated—identity of metaphysics and Logic. As seen in the development, the Logos has a maximal infinite variety of sub-Objects of which all are necessary

The demonstration from the objects of Intuition grounds the metaphysics—shows that it is immediate and empirical. This development provides some grounding for the metaphysics. However a roughly equivalent skeletal foundation is possible: the foundation from intuition may be reduced to demonstration from one given that requires no foundation: there is being and a single logical axiom: the principle of non-contradiction. If the principle of non-contradiction—the least controversial of the logical axioms—is regarded as given, the metaphysics is then founded without reference to something more fundamental. In traditional logic if one contradiction is allowed, then there is an explosion of truth: every statement is true and not true: this is strong reason to accept the principle; however some logicians reject it anyway. A possible reason to allow exception to the principle is that there may be mathematical systems of immense power that already harbor contradiction that is somehow quarantined from the development so far; another perhaps related reason is that there are potentially powerful non-standard systems of logic and mathematics in which contradiction is not explosive. Surely, however, it is not the case that ‘anything goes’ for if that were the case you would be me but you would also be my girlfriend (that’s a thought regardless of our gender.) Therefore, partly in order to bypass this concern, the narrative introduces Logic as whatever it is that is disallowed (in this case even from the Universe of greatest variety.) And due to the developments of logic since Aristotle, especially modern and recent developments, this Logic will not be empty; even though we may be unable to specify it completely and precisely the extant systems of logic are approximations to it

The implications of this metaphysics—and its demonstration—for the history of thought are immense. Implications are developed in all chapters but especially in Intuition, Metaphysics, Objects, Cosmology, and Method

What Metaphysics derives from the traditions

Here, metaphysics comes under the broad umbrella of metaphysics as studied in philosophy: it is the study of being-as-such; it is not one of the special sciences, e.g. the science of physics; and it is not taken in another sense in which metaphysics is the study of the occult

This idea derives from the various traditions especially the western tradition from Thales, through Plato and Aristotle, and scholastic and modern and recent thought

What has been learned from the traditions—from Aristotle and Plato, from Hume and Kant, from Heidegger and Wittgenstein; and from Indian philosophy—has been immense and it would impossible to recount everything that has been derived from the traditions even if the time and space were available. Since much reading and reflection has been out of interest and for other projects, it is impossible for me to recall all my debts of understanding and insight. Subject, then, to limits of memory, the following are some highlights of what has been derived

The idea of metaphysics. It seems as though the idea is simple. However the gaps between pre-philosophy, Thales—perhaps the first Western philosopher-metaphysician, Plato-Aristotle, and Hume-Wittgenstein-Heidegger constitute an immense development of the idea

The ideas of being, form and substance. Although the narrative rejects substance and relegates form to a case of Object—and therefore finds form to be fully in this world—much has been learned in the attempt to understand and wrest something useful from the ideas. I have learned to regard being as a name for what is there but which I may or may not know. This admission of a priori ignorance has been a powerful guide to the development of the ideas in the narrative. There is a dual to a priori ignorance in knowledge. It is a tendency in critical thought to overstate and over-commit to critical ideas. While such commitment may be beguiling I have learned to not be absolutely committed to thinking that I can never know. An example: the thought in modern and recent philosophy regarding the impossibility of metaphysics rests on the gap between knower and known and the impossibility of straddling the gap by foundation in something else (the something else is subject to the same problem.) The resolution, here, is to seek intrinsic foundation (via abstraction of the simplest elements of, e.g., representation.) The example shows that a critical theory may apply to a standard model of foundation but fail to apply to another model… The idea of a priori ignorance applies to what I know as well as criticism of what I know

Hume’s critique of the logical nature of scientific generalization has been instructive. It is a common sense criticism: it may be reasonable to generalize from partial knowledge of a pattern but it is not logical. As the reader may tell in reading this essay, I have learned more from Kant’s response to Hume than from Hume. The historical sway from metaphysics to criticism (epistemology) and now perhaps back again to metaphysics has been instructive and a spur to seen whether true metaphysical knowledge is possible. Having demonstrated its possibility I should say that I know and believe it to be possible. However, my intuition of the metaphysics in this narrative preceded its proof and I was tempted to act upon the metaphysics (then in primitive form) out of faith; I cannot tell what I would have done if proof had not been found. I still have doubts—cataloged and responded to in the narrative—about the Universal metaphysics. Therefore faith—also discussed—may be appropriate. It is clear that I am walking a tradition

Wittgenstein talks of the identity of logic and metaphysics. However, the present work shows that the Universe has the greatest Logically possible variety and it is therefore infinitely larger than may be shown regarding Wittgenstein’s specification in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Here, furthermore, the identities among Logic and metaphysics are demonstrated

The identity of self and all being in the writing of the Indian philosopher Sankara, i.e. in the Advaita Vedanta—where the said identity was thought via intense insight though still not demonstrated. His thought finds an important place in this narrative; further this narrative provides demonstration. While the Void is significant in many traditions including Western philosophy I have not learned metaphysics from those treatments of the Void except perhaps that the question of the ‘number of Voids’ is a concern (resolved in this essay—the number, provided it is at least one, is without consequence;) existence of the Void is a major concern but it is so important that I was required to conceive and resolve the concern independently; my use of the Void as a centerpiece of Logical Metaphysics is something I have not seen in other writers. The word ‘nothingness’ is important in existential philosophy. I find Sartre’s philosophy repugnant and therefore I decided to use ‘Void’ rather than ‘nothingness.’ I have learned of the importance of being from Heidegger whose thought is often wonderfully clear (one has to look through the complex and often obscure language.) Heidegger called the problem of ‘why there is something rather than nothing’ the most fundamental issue of philosophy; I proved that the Void must via Logic lead to states of manifest being—that there will be occasions of manifest being; which is a resolution of Heidegger’s fundamental problem. Sartre and Lacan equated the Void to Being and this equation implied the possible creation of the Universe without God and so provided some foundation for their atheism. In this narrative the equivalence of the Void and the Universe is demonstrated. Any God must be part of the Universe (all being;) and causal creation is then without meaning; it could be said that the manifest Universe self-creates from and self-annihilates to the Void but the creation would not be caused or guided or even accidental; but there may be limited gods within the Universal metaphysics: one part of being may be causal in the creation of another part; and the Void may erupt into something God-like which may then create a cosmos such as ours; subject to Logic it is demonstrated that what is Logical was-is-will be actual; which does not at all demonstrate actuality in our cosmos or probability in any given cosmos (the metaphysics implies an infinity of cosmological systems, infinitely many identical to ours, infinitely many similar, infinitely many altogether unlike ours, micro-cosmological systems—i.e. a cosmos within a particle, and micro-micro- and macro-cosmological systems)

Contribution to thought

The following may be mentioned: the demonstration of the possibility of metaphysics; demonstration of the Universal metaphysics that is founded with no or minimal reference to unfounded facts and principles and that shows the Universe to have the greatest (Logically) possible variety; the demonstrated fact that this metaphysics is necessary and empirical; the development of the idea of Intuition suggested by the requirement of grounding of the metaphysics; and the consequent developments of Objects, Cosmology, Journey in all being, Method; the Applied metaphysics in which every major academic discipline and every major division of philosophy are enabled in moving away from their ad hoc elements and toward their inherent limits—with the limit approached in the study of mind and rich suggestiveness for modern physics and biology—and many human issues touched

Elaboration

A modern consensus regarding metaphysics is perhaps that metaphysics should be a metaphysic of experience. The metaphysics of Objects in Kant and modern developments is a metaphysic of experience. It is commonly thought that further metaphysics is not possible and that for any further metaphysics there must be foundation in substance which behaves deterministically and is posited

The Universal metaphysics transcends the consensus limits on metaphysics. However, it does not do so by showing that there is a metaphysics of what is beyond experience. Instead, it does so by showing that experience does not have its traditional limits

The Universal metaphysics that results is ultimate in depth in showing a finite foundation without substance and without infinite regress. It is thus a non relative metaphysics with foundation and this stands against nearly all modern expectation

The metaphysics is ultimate in breadth. I.e., it reveals that the Universe is one of maximum (Logically) possible variety

The metaphysics founds a revaluation of metaphysics and philosophy. Metaphysics is the discipline whose concern is the outer limits of being; philosophy as the discipline whose limits are the outer limits of being

There are various conceptions of metaphysics from the history of thought. These lines of thought may be illuminating; however it is now revealed that metaphysics is the study of the Universe itself (and how far that study goes… and that one of its extents is to reveal a universe of ultimate variety.) There is only one metaphysics that may of course have different formulations and may be developed in greater or lesser degree. The various metaphysical systems from the traditions must be either equivalent to the Universal metaphysics or at most on the way to it. However, there appear to be no ancient, traditional or modern systems that equal the present in its ultimate in extension and its ultimate in demonstration… and it is clear that no system of metaphysics can exceed the present system in extension or in the broad strokes of its demonstration (refinement is of course likely)

The metaphysics resolves what amounts to a systematic catalog of problems of metaphysics form ancient to recent times

It founds—is capable of founding—the study of the core disciplines of philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics… from the point of view of elimination of the habit of substance thinking, ethics is shown to be inseparable from the study of fact and, more specifically, from other elements of context—especially economics and politics (what is shown is not just an interaction but a fundamental error in regarding the idealization of morals as a distinct realm as absolute)

The metaphysics founds the studies of Logic, Objects, Cosmology, Physical Cosmology, Life, Human being and institutions and the human endeavor, transformations of Being and Identity and Pure being. Intuition and Metaphysics found a revaluation of Method. There is also provided a revaluation of the extent of Human knowledge

Applied metaphysics—described earlier

Additional details are scattered throughout the text and collected together in Contribution

Systematic approach

The Universal metaphysics is developed by deriving consequences from the necessary Objects and their properties. The Objects are considered in the following sequence: Universe, Extension, Duration, Domain, and Void. The Void and its properties are pivotal in demonstrating the existence and properties of the Logos, also a necessary Object

When the metaphysics is used to frame practical knowledge the result is labeled Applied metaphysics. Subject to Logic, the results of Applied metaphysics must apply ‘somewhere.’ It does not follow that the enhancement of the practical knowledge applies perfectly to its original Object. Perfect faithfulness or even improved faithfulness and understanding—or otherwise—will require case by case analysis. However, it is reasonable that the enhancements may result in improvement subject to practical method. Still the potential appears to be immense and is significantly realized for mind; potential for modern physics, biology, and social science is sketched in varying degree. The section Applied metaphysics is rather skeletal and is elaborated in chapters Cosmology and Worlds

Objects (theory of)

Concepts

Object_[2] (nature of—necessary and practical Objects,) Non-uniform notions of faithfulness_[new][2]

Concrete, Particular, Abstract, Putative non-sensible and non-spatial character_{[new as
identified concept]}, Dual_[1][new], Crossover_[new], Conceptual irrelevance of fundamental kind_[new]

Types. Particular—Identity_[1]…, Concrete, Process, Interaction, Idea_{[new
as particular]}, Concept_{[new
as particular]}, Trope_{[interpretation
of universal as particular]}, Value_[1][?]

Types. Abstract—Mathematical, Logical, Metaphysical—Universal, Value_[2]

Mental Object (the idea of)

Material world, World of mental Objects, Platonic Objects

These are notions that may have meaning but not as truly separate worlds

Principle of reference, Metaphysical irrelevance of fundamental kind_[new], Unified theory, Variety_[2], Practical kinds, Universe as one

Habitation of abstract Objects_[new]

Mode of study_[new], Symbolic-Conceptual_[new], Against psychologism_[new], Empirical, Dual_[2][new]

Themes and objections

Objects

Theme—Subsumption of kinds under the Object. E.g., particular and abstract, process (in this Normal world, entities are revealed as process-state-interaction,) relation (as defined by more than the related entities e.g. space as ‘relative’)

Pivotal idea—A unified theory of Objects, especially of the ‘concrete’ and the non-concrete and the particular and the abstract—The fundamental principle shows the unity of all kinds of objects—the particular objects both concrete (entity) and non-concrete (process, relation, quality—intensive and extensive) and the abstract objects both actual and potential in a temporal framework; the distinction of abstract and particular is based in human psychology and is not Universal and is, practically one of mode of study—empirical for the particular and symbolic-iconic for the abstract; some objects straddle the abstract-particular ‘divide’ while others change camps according to phase of history and the corresponding emphasis according to fashion or to what is presently found most expedient; the Object is the fundamental concept of the metaphysics-cosmology; the distinction between the particular, therefore, has arbitrariness but is not entirely arbitrary… it has a conventional character but is not entirely conventional; the general Object is simultaneously abstract and particular; and the Object is the fundamental concept of the metaphysics

Theme—Object as fundamental

Theme—Essential unity of Object kinds. A Unified theory of Objects—subsumption of kinds under the object

Theme—Practical kinds; basis in categories of concept

Particular and abstract objects

Theme—particular and abstract Objects are not fundamentally different: the distinction between particular and abstract is according to empirical versus conceptual-symbolic mode of study. Although the distinction is not fundamental there is a practical and proximate distinction

Objection. Standard objections to a unified theory of the abstract and the particular would be that, in contrast to the particular, abstract objects lack causal efficiency—and therefore tangibility—and location in space and time. Counterargument. The present argument will show that the abstract objects do not, for example, lack location in time but that, as a result of abstraction, they are temporal constants. In other words their temporality is abstracted out rather than inherent in a way that is very roughly analogous to the way in which molecular fluctuations average out to result in constant macroscopic properties of matter. Can abstract objects have causal efficacy? This depends on the meaning of cause and whatever that meaning we shall see that whether an object—abstract or particular—has causality is to be determined separately for the specific object or class of object

Theory of variety

Theme—Theory of variety… and its basis in the fundamental principle, the principle of reference, and the variety of Object kinds

Pivotal idea—Theory of variety—The study of Objects enables the most complete theory of variety; since processes and relations are Objects, obviously origins, evolution, ends, laws… lie under particular object but, since the divide between particular and abstract is not definite, not exclusively so; the most complete theory of variety is achieved via the study of the categories of knowing, i.e. of particular or perceptual and abstract or symbolic-iconic concept—which are elaborated via the modalities, dimensions of modality, and integrations of these kinds and which include, in particular, the direct knowing of states of the organism that include primitive feeling, aspects of emotion, kinesthetic perception, and reflexive perception of mental states; it is pertinent that in the study of the elements of mind it is seen that direct—e.g. not through facial expression or other external manifestation—perception of the mental states of others, i.e. ‘mind-reading,’ though difficult, is not logically impossible as it is conventionally thought to be

Essence

I

The purposes of Objects include (1) Clarify the nature of the known ‘thing;’ this starts with a look at common Objects, e.g. bricks and trees, and asks: What is the nature of those things? Since cognition plays a role in the apparent Object and since we never quite get outside cognition, an approach to this analysis will be via concept and Object. (2) Clarify what less concrete like ‘things’ such as relationship, property, and process may be brought into the realm of Object. (3) To further enquire about the status of abstract ideas such as number and value, whether they define Objects. Subject to Logic, it follows from the principle of reference that they must define Objects that may be labeled abstract, i.e. the ‘abstract’ concepts define abstract Objects. The non-abstract Objects of items 1 and 2 are labeled ‘particular’ (for reasons that will be given.) The particular Objects are primarily perceptual and rather tangible; they have location in space and time—may come into being and may return to non-being, i.e. to a non-existent state; are thought to be in the actual world—i.e. the material world on the materialist account. The abstract Objects are rather conceptual, intangible, appear to have no location in space, appear to be eternal, and they are thought by realists or, at least, those of a realistic bent to reside in a ‘mental’ world or perhaps in an ideal or Platonic world: and the reason for this is often questions such as ‘Where are they?’ rather than any intrinsic subscription to other worlds—i.e. the other worlds appear to be forced upon the realist although not on the nominalist who thinks that the abstract Objects are not Objects at all but that the corresponding ‘concepts’ are mere names; those are the standard views; and it may be noted that nominalism first arose in the case of a special type of abstract Object, the Universal, that is discussed in what follows. Here, however, the approach to abstract Objects is via the principle of reference; this suggests a similar basis to the particular and the abstract except that the particular are primarily known via perception—they are primarily empirical, while the abstract are primarily known via higher conception and are therefore primarily rational. The question remains, therefore, ‘Where are the abstract Objects?’ The answer is not that they do not reside in space but that the spatiality has been abstracted out in greater or lesser degree and that in the extreme case, all spatiality has been abstracted out; therefore they are not constitutionally non-spatial: it is simply that their spatiality is irrelevant. This unification of the particular and the abstract goes against mainstream thought and is both surprising and contributory to the recent tradition of thought. (4) To enquire about and unify as far as possible further distinctions among kinds of Objects. (5) Therefore to further found the theory of variety first taken up in Metaphysics, considered in some detail in Cosmology and further elaborated in terms of the categories of human thought elaborated in Worlds. (6) From the principle of reference and the developed theory of Objects, to see—as suggested by Wittgenstein—grammar as an Object on par with Logic and so to further clarify the nature of linguistic meaning

II

Objects clarifies the nature of the known ‘thing.’ So far the study of the kinds of thing has been naïve. A brick seems to be a thing but what of a relationship or process or property? A brick or electron is the prototype for what are called particular Objects. Bricks and electrons seem concrete while relationship and process do not; still, relationship and process will be brought under the particular Object. An example of a property is ‘greenness.’ Greenness is what green Objects have in common; therefore greenness is an example of what has been called a Universal—as distinct to the particular. However, in another—perhaps better—perspective, properties may be seen as relationships (between knowers and knowns) and therefore may also be brought under the particular Objects

What of things like value and number? Values and numbers do not have locations. If they are Objects they are not particulars. It has been suggested that they are abstract; it is sometimes suggested that they are ‘mental Objects.’ A concept is held in a mind and could be thought of as a mental Object but the idea is subject to confusion for then a number as a mental Object is not an Object at all. Still, a concept—mental content—could be regarded as a mental Object; but there is no gain to this; a concept may be regarded from the subject side or the object side; on the object side it is just a not very important special case of particular Object; on the subject side it is the experiential aspect of the particular Object—again, there is no gain but there is potential for confusion in invoking the mental Object (a further source of confusion is that there is a tendency to think of mental things as having a lesser grade of reality than actual things; it is implicit in the foregoing that the two grades of reality are identical; this is laid out and demonstrated in Cosmology; however, that elimination of confusion is still no occasion to invoke mental Objects)

Still, the question remains: what is an abstract Object? In having no spatial location it seems to be distinct from a particular Object. Various stabs at the nature of the abstract Object have been made in the tradition of thought: an abstract Object is what particular Objects have in common—like a Universal; or an abstract Object is the form of a particular Object; these thoughts are not without sense but their sense will be subsumed in the following

It will be shown that the distinction between particular and abstract Objects is practical rather than essential. Particular Objects are primarily known via perception; abstract Objects via—higher—conception; naturally there will be mixed cases, e.g. the Objects of science; and cross-over cases: number begins as particular, later when a theory of numbers is developed number ‘becomes’ abstract, and still later, with the advent of computer proof, number becomes mixed; abstract Objects are not essentially non-spatial but have had spatiality abstracted out to greater or lesser degree; finally it may be remarked that the case of value and morals will require special analysis

Proof—the essential ingredient is the principle of reference that subject to Logic every concept has reference in the Universe—and further elaboration and example is provided in the body text.

Thus, in clarifying the nature of the ‘thing,’ Objects shows that the distinction between kinds of Object—e.g., particular and abstract—are practical but not essential. I.e., the kinds are formalized and unity is brought to the world of Objects. This is a significant contribution to thought which has labored from the time of the Greeks to the present with the kinds of things in the Universe

Some thinkers speak of different worlds, e.g. the world of physical or actual or particular things, the world of mental things, the world of Ideal or Platonic things (with an often vague relation to the physical and the mental.)

While showing unity, Objects admits many more practical kinds and therefore many more Objects to being-hood.

This is a further development of the foundation of the metaphysics. It is also further foundation for the study of the variety of objects in the Universe

Introduction

Place of Objects in the narrative

Formal

Intuition provides a foundation for necessary Objects in—human—intuition. Metaphysics develops the properties of the necessary Objects as a Universal metaphysics and shows how the necessary frames the practical and raises the practical to its intrinsic limits

Objects clarifies the nature of the Object: it answers the question What has being? The Object is the fundamental concept of the metaphysics—all existents fall under the Object and are fundamentally of one kind even though there are of course practical distinctions. In clarifying, e.g. the abstract Object as having fundamental unity with the particular, Objects shows with greater explicitness and quantity the variety implied by the fundamental principle of metaphysics

In summary Objects clarifies and makes explicit the variety of being while showing that there is exactly one fundamental kind

Objects helps provide foundation for the theory of variety and so set up Cosmology and Journey

The theory of variety will be developed in Cosmology and further enhanced in Worlds

Informal

In the Journey we are interested in the variety of things in the Universe and our relation to them including what may be realized

This chapter completes the study of the nature and our knowledge of things, the nature and our knowledge of their variety

Wide-angle view

Intuition sets up the study of things, relations, patterns, laws… Metaphysics extends the study to its limit. However, in metaphysics some possible kinds of thing such value and number and concept or mental content were left unanalyzed

The present chapter completes the study by setting all such notions on a common basis

The basis of this accomplishment is the theory of reference which says that all concepts that are not a violation of Logic have reference

The concept-object relation is used to elucidate the general nature of the Object. The concept is not generally known to be perfectly faithful but immense precision is possible and in many cases there is sufficient faithfulness. The general Object is called practical

A necessary Object is one that is known perfectly: the concept corresponds perfectly to the Object. The simplicity of experience, being, Universe, duration-extension, and the Void make them necessary. The demonstrated properties of the Void make the Logos necessary (the concept is Logic.) The Logos is immense but we do not have experience of all its Objects. The necessary Objects are also practical. Not all practical—e.g. scientific—objects are necessary

Various kinds of Objects are identified—particular, abstract, and other abstract-like objects such as values are identified. The particular are tangible or thing-like and intangible or less tangible e.g. process and relation. In recent thought these are distinct kinds (abstract objects are not thought to reside in space.) While there are practical distinctions, there is no essential distinction of kind (it is not that the abstract objects are not spatial at all but the spatiality is abstracted out)

The place of the Object in thought

The western tradition has had a concern with the nature of Objects and this has taken on greater importance since Kant emphasized the problem of the nature of the Object in acute terms. The tradition identifies kinds of Objects—e.g., particular objects such as bricks and a range of other objects such as number and value that are labeled abstract

What Objects derives from the traditions

The chapter derives some ideas from the theory of Objects that originated roughly with Kant and includes the recent distinction of particular and abstract Objects. However, as noted below, the developments show that there is metaphysical identity between the abstract and the particular and that the distinction (1) is according to mode of knowing—empirical versus symbolic, and (2) has conventional aspects

The present study of Objects derives from the interaction of the history of thought on Objects in interaction with the Universal metaphysics. It is natural that common views of what exists should depend on our psychology and on what is commonly believed in the general cultural milieu, in religion and in science. It is also natural that philosophy should, in its attempt at clarification, retain some biases from the common view. In the present study the Universal metaphysics has enabled an ultimate distance from the human perspective without of course suggesting any common irrelevance to our perspective. In this distancing it has been possible to simultaneously provide clarification in some ways ultimate regarding what exists, the nature of existence, and the variety and kinds of existing things

Contribution to thought

A unified theory of Objects. This is surprising and deep—but not so surprising after all given the principle of reference Of course, practical distinctions remain and is important from the perspective of embodied observers. Psychological objections are typically based in that perspective. Formal objections are referred to the development

All Objects lie in the one Universe: there is one world. It is not the case that there are multiple worlds, e.g. physical or actual, mental or conceptual, and Platonic or ideal

An immense variety of Objects. The number of Objects is seen as enormously expanded. The number of essential kinds is reduced to one

These claims are demonstrated

Objects helps clarify the nature of the kinds studied in Cosmology

Cosmology

Concepts

Variety

Variety_[3], Extension, Duration

Extension as logically necessary

Principle of variety, Theory of variety, Variety of kind, Recurrence, Recurrence with variety, Principle of fiction_[new]

I.e. the only fiction is that which violates Logic

Ghost cosmological system_[new], No non-interaction_[new][1], No non-interaction and quantum entanglement_[new]

Quantum theory

Non-local interaction, Bell’s theorem, Impossibility of local and realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, Alain Aspect, Experiments showing EPR type action at a distance, David Bohm’s interpretation, Probabilistic mechanics, Principle of occupation of states

Also called the quantum non-local connection, is a property of a quantum mechanical state of a system of two or more objects in which the quantum states of the constituting objects are linked together so that one object can no longer be adequately described without full mention of its counterpart—even if the individual objects are spatially separated in a spacelike manner. An aspect of non-local interaction

Process

Process_[2]

The labeling of process as repeated does not discriminate the uses as material versus being-in process

Metaphysical necessity of process (and therefore of duration?)

Absolute indeterminism

Species of process_{[new
phrasing]}, Necessity of_{[new
phrasing]}, Non universality of_{[new phrasing]}

Mechanism_[1], Determinism, Evolution_[1], Causation, Dynamics

Space, time, being

‘Matter’ (primitive being,) First order being_[new], Local or particular matter as non-fundamental_[new], Substance and the root of being_[new][1]

Local, Patch, Global

Relative, Absolute

Space, Time, Space-Time manifold / its meaning, Incompletely resolved problem of_{[very
new]}, Establishment in dual origin_[new]

Patchy immanence, Relative character of space-time, Local continuum, Local as-if-absoluteness, Dimensionality of space, Unlimited dimensionality_{[absolutely new]}, Locally dominant dimensionality_{[absolutely
new]}, Multiple times, Locally dominant times(s,) Multiple signal speeds, Locally dominant speed(s)

Island cosmos of dominant interaction, No non-interaction_[2] among islands, No complete loss of information across birth-death-singularity

The Void_[2], Quantum_[1] Vacuum_[1]

Mind

‘Mind,’ Second order being_[new]

It is important that ‘second order’ means, simply, effect of and response to other and is therefore not another substance

Nature of mind_[1], Relation, Signature, Experience_[3], Unified theory of mind_[new]

Attribute, Non-attributive theory_[new]

Feeling_[1], Signature_[1], Pure_[1], Afferent_[1], Efferent_[1], Awareness, Bright-dim, Focal-peripheral, Acuity, Contrast, Transient, Stable, The Unconscious, Consciousness_[1], On-off, Identity_[2], Bound_[1], Memory_[1], Free_[1], Icon_[2], Symbol_[2], Language, Free will, Choice, Creation

Problems of mind, Nature of mind_[2], Nature of experience, Mind-body, Consciousness, Mental causation, Free will, Local or particular mind as non-fundamental_[new], Substance and the root of being_[new][2], Potential for absolute depth

Attitude_{[as
derivative]}, Action_{[as
derivative]}

Also see Identity, next, for some other aspects of mind. See Human organism in Worlds for details of animal and human mind

Identity

Identity of Objects, Object constancy, Binding, Gestalt

Death, Personal Identity_[3], identity, Enduring, Merging, Higher, Limitless_[new], Universal identity, Continuity, No perfect isolation, Preservation across death and cosmological singularity_[new]

Personal identity as a case of Object identity

Personal identity, Personality (as binding and constancy)

Religion_{[possible new location]}

Religion_[1], Spiritual_[new], Mystic_[new][2]

Faith_[2]

Alternate word for spiritual?

World, Community, Identity

Ritual-behavior, Text, Place

Spiritual-metaphysical function, Moral function, Communal function, Revolutionary function, Reactionary character of establishment

Literal truth, Symbolic truth, Dual function, Necessity and absurdity of the possible_{[In
light of the Universal metaphysics]}, Religion-as-adventure-in-all-being-via-all-dimensions of being and its abortion in the establishment, All search as journey

No ultimate split of secular and spirit worlds, Split and re-integration of dimensions of psyche in the reintegration of art and spirit

Themes and objections

Cosmology

Pivotal idea—Cosmology—Cosmology is the study of variety which we have seen to include process; and the method of study is based in the fundamental principle and the theory of variety established in Objects. This chapter develops the a variety based on the theory of variety developed in the chapter Objects in combination with knowledge of this—our—cosmos

Theme—Cosmology and variety—the intersection of depth and Object kinds and categories (breadth) including fiction

Variety and origins

Pivotal idea—A cosmological variety—A study of variety reveals the following elements (a) a variety of Objects revealed by the fundamental principle in the form that any entire system of consistent fiction has an Object—the formal difficulties of the assertion are eliminate by replace explicit assertions by the implicit notion of Logic—and revealing the truth but not Normal truth of all art, science, literature, music, and scripture… (b) process and its varieties including origins, sustaining, ends; evolution—saltation versus the Normal variation and selection; that the Universe is simultaneously absolutely indeterministic and absolutely deterministic; mechanism, cause and their non-pervasion in their Normal senses but universal pervasion in enhanced senses… (c) the nature and extension of mind to the root and the continuity of bright focal consciousness with relations among the elements of being… (d) the nature of space-time as derivative of extension; possibility of other dimensions of extension—and plausible arguments for completeness of space-time but not of the (3,1) dimensionality; relative and patchy but occasionally as-if absolute and universal character of all space-time; possibility of relative and absolute character of local space-times; nature and non-universal character of signal speeds but possibility and therefore occasional necessity of locally ‘universal’ signal speeds; non-universal character of physical-local laws though occasionally of occasional as-if universal manifestation…

Theme—A cosmological variety

Objection. It should be equally true that there is a limit. Counterargument. The presence of a limit is a law; the absence of this limit is not—in the absence of the limit there may be times of finiteness and of infiniteness

Identity and death

Pivotal idea—Identity—analysis of identity by the fundamental principle reveals the individual identity with all being

Theme—Identity and Trans-identity

Mind

Theme—Mind and its initial nature and, via the metaphysics, its root nature and being: mind is at and goes to the root and core of being. The aspects and elements of mind as reflecting the organism in (adaptation to) the Universe… the subject or experience and creative side or will and experience of will of mind as essential. Absence of final distinction between material and mental modes of understanding and description

Theme—method of study in mind: a case study in applied metaphysics. From local study the immense difficulty of the ‘how does mind arise’ on physicalism—is so reasonably the result of assuming that the physical excludes the mental; we have no problem with the world as physical but the assumption comes from a substance prejudice: if the description of the physical excludes the mental then the physical excludes the mental. It is an absurd conclusion and just as absurd as is panpsychism on the absurd meaning of panpsychism as little human minds in electrons. It is immensely reasonable, from local studies, that the idea of matter is the idea of element-of-being-in-itself and the idea of mind is being-in-relation or, more precisely, the signature of one element of being in the element-of-being-in-itself. It is this reasonable conclusion that is justified from the Universal metaphysics. And from this point the philosophical study is as crystal clear water flowing down in a mountain stream (of course the scientific study is important and difficult)

Objection—the problem of Mind and mind as experience

Objection—the problem of Free Will. However, the logical arguments against freedom of will in thought and action are (1) the universe is deterministic and, in any case, structure cannot come from indeterminism and (2) even if the universe is or were to be indeterministic, our actions are bound and, obviously, we cannot choose to do whatever we want to do or be whatever we want to be

Space, time and being

Pivotal idea—Space-time—Therefore space-time and other dimensions of extension must be patchy in the global description even though they may be ‘universal’ in some phases of manifestation; the ‘universal’ manifestations of space-time-cause may be as if absolute and necessary but this is only contingent; in general space-time is necessarily relative and cause contingent

Pivotal idea—Normal worlds: method of study—The method of local study includes the approaches from the history of ideas: the ‘methods’ of the sciences—physics, biology, psychology, sociology, and the approaches of other disciplines including the arts and literature. This method is enhanced by reflexivity. In physics I plan to continue along lines that emphasize both intuition, e.g. the approach of Einstein in the early phase of his career, and the formal, e.g. the approach of the later Einstein and the approaches Heisenberg and Dirac in the development of quantum theory. In biology we seek the elements of organism in the relation between the microscopic and the macroscopic and in evolutionary theory we seek an abstract conception of evolutionary process as conceived in Cosmology and perhaps as formalized by the Santa Fe school to give conceptual context to the fabric of actual biological—and other—evolution. In psychology we derive from the metaphysical considerations regarding mind the element of mind—the feeling—and seek to build up a picture of ‘higher’ mind by the reflexive interaction of the feeling, its varieties, and the phenomena—which has two aspects worthy of mention: first, it takes the study of mind out of the realm of the ad hoc without bringing in the a priori and, second, it is not merely a study of given phenomena known intuitively but of discoveries in phenomena and correction of the input intuitive knowledge. Use of reflexivity—The approach of reflex is used at a higher level in the interactive study of the general theory—Intuition through Cosmology—and the particular disciplines of which examples are given in the previous paragraph. The establishment of the Logical and the Practical Objects of chapter Objects frames this study whose intrinsic limits are the limits of the disciplines

Theme—Space-time

Theme—Normal worlds: method of study

Essence

General cosmology or, simply, cosmology is the study of the variety of being—which includes process and therefore dynamics and origins. The physical cosmology of our cosmos is taken up in chapter Worlds

The essential new principles of the present study are those of the Universal metaphysics, especially the principle of Variety, i.e. that the Universe has the greatest Logically possible variety of being. Thus the principle generating the cosmology is that subject to Logic, all literature is cosmology: there is no distinction between fact and fiction. If music, art, and values have Objects, they too generate the cosmology. The variety is further expanded by the inclusion of abstract Objects; and later, in Worlds, made more explicit in terms of the categories of being

At its purest core metaphysics is concerned with being. Cosmology studies aspects or kinds. However, Worlds is also concerned with kinds: the kinds of being that populate our world—and that includes the cosmological system as well as living being. What is the difference, then, between the kinds studied under the two topics? An obvious differenced is that Worlds is concerned with the local

The essential difference, however, is that the phases or aspects considered under cosmology are considered at a level of abstraction that permits study to be faithful: in Cosmology we learn from the Normal but remain free of its bounds; in Worlds the interest is significantly what lies within those bounds. Still, the topics of Cosmology include Variety and origins. 62; Process. 63; Identity and death. 63; Mind. 63; and Space, time and being; and the corresponding ideas come from experience that is more specialized than that of being. Therefore, there is some reason to separate these topics from metaphysics even though there is arbitrariness to the separation and it is natural to have some discussion of cosmological topics in Metaphysics. Additionally, these topics fit with uses of ‘cosmology’

Although origins are process, the study in Process is general

It is typical of the level of detail of study of the Objects in Worlds that the study is not faithful; however, some disciplines that fall under Worlds are useful andor achieve high precision

The cosmology of this chapter is general cosmology. The natural place to study the physical cosmology of our cosmos is Worlds

Introduction

Place of Cosmology in the narrative

Sources for Cosmology in the Metaphysics and theory of Objects

The cosmology derives, first, from the fundamental principle of metaphysics which implies that the Universe has the greatest Logically possible variety

This variety is further enhanced by the theory of variety developed in chapters Objects and Worlds (especially in the study of the categories of intuition)

Implications for Variety, Adventure, and the Journey

The cosmology shows the infinity of variety and the potential for variety. It is perhaps too vast to be anything more than a call to adventure and a reminder that contingent limits are a call to overcoming, a reminder to not stand in excessive awe or blindness regarding such limits

The path to adventure begins in this world… and that is the topic of chapter Worlds

The cosmology is a reminder that the particular study is as much about possibility and direction as it is about limits. And it is a reminder that limits have a dual function—caution, of course, and overcoming and adventure

Wide-angle view

General cosmology is the study of variety which includes process and therefore dynamics and origins

The fundamental principle of metaphysics is the basis of the study of variety. This is enhanced with regard to category of Object by the theory of variety developed in chapters Objects and Worlds (especially in the study of the categories of intuition)

These general principles are combined with aspects or elements of being to illuminate those aspects as in the sections below from Variety and origins to Space, time and being

The approach to study and kind of conclusion varies among the sections. For example in Process, it is shown that while the evolutionary mechanism of life is a necessary ‘mechanism’ it cannot be the universal mechanism even if it is the most probable one—this is a case of the more general observation that what is contingent (not Logical) cannot be universal. In Identity and death it is shown that death is contingent—it is absolute to our proximate identity but simultaneously gateway to Identity. Mind provides an occasion to see the essence of mind, i.e. experience, as reaching to the root of being and, adequately understood, as providing a basis for foundation and significantly improved understanding of the essential phenomena of mind and study of mind

What Cosmology derives from the traditions

Since any system of concepts that does not violate Logic has an Object, the following are sources of cosmology

Experience, experiment, and imagination—which includes criticism; and the entire oral and written traditions which include myth, science—physical cosmology is included here but emphasized in Worlds, and all art and music are the sources for the classification and ‘enumeration’ of any system of Objects

Naturally, philosophical and physical cosmology are in the background any reflection on cosmology; modern physical cosmology, certainly, has provided a model, not to take literally but upon which to build. Philosophical and physical cosmology are not distinct topics but their approaches differ. Physical cosmology is experimental and conceptual but the concepts emphasize modern theoretical physics; kinds of thing not encountered in experiment and theoretical physics generally do not find a place in physical cosmology. In philosophical cosmology the method is rational and therefore may be imaginative but subject to logic; physical cosmology enters as suggestive; the limits of physical cosmology are under review and therefore philosophical cosmology is not limited to models from physical cosmology but of course, philosophical cosmology will not violate what is definite in physical cosmology. In this essay, it is seen that there must be an infinite world starting at the edge of the known cosmos; however, modern philosophical cosmology typically though not invariably focuses on the big-bang family of cosmologies

Contribution to thought

While the metaphysics reveals the Universe to be finite in conceptual depth the cosmology reveals a conceptual and factual variety without limit. It is revealed that the greatest and unending adventure is that of variety

It is revealed that, as long as the confines of Logic are not exceeded, all literature, art, myth and science so far reveal mere and minute fragments of being. Even when I become the Universe looking in-out upon myself, there will still be occasion for adventure and awe. Every realization is limited relative to what is possible and actual

The narrative describes a number of practical foundations to the disciplines. Some of these are in Worlds, others are summarized in Journey—section Investigation in the modes and means of transformation

Worlds

Concepts

Local world, Local discipline

Method

Method_[1], Discipline_[1], Disciplinary method, Practice, Intrinsic limit, True limit, Element, Ad hoc element, Unit entity, Unit process, Unit interaction, Imagination_[1], Explanation, Description, Conceptual experiment, Previous thought, Study of the traditions_[new], Study of the disciplines_[new], Validity, Relationship

Metaphysics, Illumination, Placement in the Universal context, Freedom of conceptual interpretation (meaning,) Revision of elements, Ad hoc

Local cosmology

Science, Cosmos, World_[1], Logos

Local cosmos, Normal_[2]

Space-Time-Matter (theories of,) Physics, Physical cosmology

Small-_scale[new] (quantum_[2],) Vacuum_[2], Realism and non-locality, Entanglement, Indeterminism, Large-scale_[new] (e.g. Einstein’s theory of theory of first order being—i.e., of space-time-gravitation)

Human organism

Organism

Organism, Life, Biology, Bio-Molecule_[1], Microstructure, Cell, Cellular Organism_[1], Prokaryote, Eukaryote, Variety, Multicellular Organism, Organ, System, Integration, Physiology, Integrity, Anatomy, Homeostasis, Homeostatic Boundary, Disequilibrium, Disturbance, Disorder, Life-Cycle, Life-Span

Evolution_[2], Mechanism_[2], Variation, Incremental, Saltation, Selection, Adaptation, Co-adaptation, Bio-Molecule_[2], Dual Functional-Coding_{[new,
hypothetical]}, Differentiation, Genetic Code, Cellular Organism_[2], (to multicellular, to layered, articulated) Plant, Animal, Internalization, High Level Coding of Organism-Environment_[new], Animal mind_[1], Sense and category (environment-organism,) Bound_[2], Memory_[2], Free, Unit Image, Unit Memory, Object Constancy, Binding, Phenomena, Freedom, (Creative) Intelligence, Icon_[3], Symbol_[3], Language, Human Mind_[1]

Mind

Also see Mind in Cosmology

Animal mind_[2], Human mind_[2]

Signature_[2], Pure_[2], Afferent_[2], Efferent_[2], Feeling_[2], Experience_[4], Reflexivity of experience, Consciousness_[2], Memory_[3], Bound_[2], Free_[2], Pure experience, Physical and Chemical modality, World and body, Inner, Outer, Senses, Intensity, Pleasure, Pain, Variety, Quality, Elaboration, Integration, Intuition, Category, Natural, Psychosocial, Existential, Percept, Attitude (as derivative,) Action (as derivative,) Emotion, Cognition, Concept-Emotion-Cognition, Volition

Modes of organization and integration, Elaboration, Modality, Quality, Lateral, Vertical (layering), Integration—sources, Object, Unit Gestalt (binding, constancy), Holism, Rearrangement Gestalt, Independence, Holism of emotion and cognition, Cognition and feeling tone, Emotion and motivation, Cognition and emotion, Modulation of emotion, Non-volitional over time and experience, Cultivation of volition

Categories of intuition, Category, Natural, Physical, Space, Time, Physical object, Causation, Indeterminism, Biological, Life form, Ecosystem, Species, Heredity, Psychosocial, Conception, Intuition, Higher conception, Emotion, Free icon, Free symbol, Language, Recollection, Dissociation, Origination, Existential, Being, Becoming, Being-in, Experience, Object, Humor

Personality and identity

Personality, Dimensions, Identity, Innate, Learned, Enduring, Plasticity, Pattern, Interpretation, Thought, Emotion, Affective Expression, Drive, Self, Other, World_[2], Commitment, Meaning_{[1, as
significance]} (significance)

Explanation and meta-theory

Explanation

Meta-theory

Health and disorder

Health, Disorder, Dual theory

Society and civilization

Greater detail in Journey in being-concepts.doc. The document has a greater detail in concepts; it names classical and modern methods; and it reviews one approach to an applied experimental method that may apply to all disciplines that fall under the of the ‘social’

General

Society, Institution, Individual, Group, Network, Civilization

Method, Formal, Science, Informal, Participant-Analysis_[new]

Method—Science and Participant-Analysis

Science, Concepts, Remoteness , Impartiality, Quantitative analysis, Objective, Neutral

If the key or first term is [new] remaining terms may be unmarked even if new

Complexity_[new], Complexity of system and modeling, Complexity of intervention, Compounding of intervention, Micro-variables, Theoretical non-computability, Practical non-computability, Non-predictability

Participation_[new], Essential interest, Unremovable interest, Special interest, Indigenous communities, Participant-observer_[new]

Journey, Discovery of being by being_[new]

Participant-observation_[new], Reciprocality of participation and contribution, Parameters of discussion

Politics, Electorate, Populace_[new], Corporation, Multinational, Transnational, Globalization

Method_[2] for large scale intervention_[new], Historical study, Large scale social intervention_[new], Large scale experiment, Conceptual framework, Quantitative, Qualitative, Depth of solution, Depth of problem, Measurability of success

Generalized participant-observer_[new], Participant-analysis_[new], Formalization, Mutual intervention, Locus of action_[new]

Search, Faith, Doubt, Anxiety

Society and Sociology

Institution, Institutional form, Institutional purity, Person, Group, Real, Virtual

Social Philosophy, Positivism, Structural Functionalism, Auguste Comte, Émile Durkheim, Historical Materialism, Conflict Theory, Karl Marx, Sociological Antipositivism, Verstehen Analysis, Max Weber and Georg Simmel, American Sociology, Scientific Method, Pragmatism, Social Psychology, Chicago School, Symbolic Interactionism, Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, Birmingham School, Cultural Studies

Method_[3], Case Studies, Historical Research, Interviewing, Participant-Observation, Generalized-Participant-Observation, Participatory-Analysis, Social Network Analysis, Survey Research, Statistical Analysis, Model Building

Dynamics, Influence_[1][new], Study Goal, Field Dependence, Context Dependence, Modeling, Prediction, Qualitative, Quantitative, Empathy, Understanding, Learning, Import of Culture and Practice, Conservation of Groups, Conservation of Resources

Social Psychology, Individual Behavior, Group Behavior

Culture and Human Being

Culture, Language, Discovery, Play_[new?], Performance, Creation_[1], Cultural Entrepreneurialism_{[absolutely
new... perhaps with unintended connotations]}, Method_[4], Knowledge_[2], Practice_[new], Archival_[1], Enculturation_[new], Transmission_[1], Education, Discipline_[new][2], Science_[2], Humanities, Symbolic Discipline, Art, Moral_[1], Ethics_[1], Justice_[new], Religion_[2]

Church, School, University, Academy, Theatre, Library

Anthropology, Geography, Physical Geography, Human Geography, History, Linguistics

Language—detail

Pre-language, World_[3], State, Process, Relation, Gesture, Expression, Sound, Sign_[2], Mark_[2] (permanent or semi-permanent sign,) Representation, Communication, Oral, Visual, Signal, Optic, Radio, System, Form, Use_[2]

Meaning-function, Semantic, Syntactic, Literal, Non-literal, Non-formal, Pitch, Alliteration, Meter, Non-meaning, Social bonding

Speech, Word_[2], Sentence, Assertion, Direction, Commission, Expression, Declaration, Para-verbal language, Oral form, Drama-form, Dramatics, Music

Recorded form, Permanent record, Dissemination, Transmission_[2], Archival_[2], Permanent sign, Medium, Natural, Paper, Electronic, Writing, Icon_[4], Abstract sign, Letter, Alphabet, Word_[3], Punctuation, Sentence, Literary form, Presentational form, Special purpose language, Formal language, Procedural language (computer), Para-linguistic expression, Graphic form, Art, Sculpted form, Architectural form

Organization, Action, Transaction

Political economy

Politics, Economics, Value, Interactionism_[new]

Politics

Politics, Organization of social endeavor—Value_[3], Political Science, Political Philosophy, Decision, Enaction, Code (Law,) Enforcement, Police_[new], Military_[new]

Performance

Economics

Also see Method—Science and Participant-Analysis in this document and the longer document Journey in being-concepts.doc

Economics, Feasibility, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Allocation and Deployment of Material and Social resources (services)

Because of the difficulties of economics, including my own understanding, I merely list some elements

Schools, Classical political economy, Marxism, Neoclassical economics, Keynesian economics, Chicago School (freshwater), Saltwater approach (East and West coast US)

European academic schools, Austrian School, Freiburg School, School of Lausanne, post-Keynesian economics, Stockholm school

Macroeconomic schools, Classical economics, Keynesian economics, Neoclassical synthesis, post-Keynesian economics, Monetarism, New classical economics, Supply-side economics

Alternative macroeconomic schools, Ecological economics, Institutional economics, Evolutionary economics, Dependency theory, Structuralist economics, World systems theory, Econophysics, Biophysical economics

Microeconomic units, Markets, Specialization, Supply and demand, Market failure, Firms, Public sector

Macroeconomic units, Growth, Business Cycle, Inflation and monetary policy, Fiscal policy and regulation

International economics, Trade, Policy, Tariff, International Finance, Flow of capital, Gain, Exchange rate, Globalization, Political Economy, Economic system, Capitalist, Socialist, Mixed

Civilization

Civilization, Society, Global Society and Culture, Indigenous Group, Industrialist-Agriculturalist, Hunter-Gatherer, Animal, Theory of Civilizations, Matrix, Islands of Being, Theory of Islands—Strong local interaction / no non-interaction, Identity, History, Myth, State of Civilization, Design

Human endeavor

Common and experimental endeavor, Traditions, Modes of being and knowing, Normal limits, Self-defined limits_[new]

Animal, Primal holism, Legend, Myth, Ritual creation, Ritual enactment, Religion, Art, Music, Literature, Science, Secular humanism, Unnamed ideational form

Themes

Worlds

Theme—Normal worlds—Under Normal worlds we study localized worlds with normal stability, space-time, causation, sentience and so on; the limit of faithfulness is that of the specific discipline as enhanced by interaction with the metaphysics; the specific studies are local cosmology—evolution; physics and physical cosmology—general cosmology as partial foundation for / analogy to the branches of theoretical physics; biology, and human being; under Human being we study human being; mind; society; society; human endeavor, modes, and proximate-contingent limits; ideational form—usually labeled paradigm and including science, myth, religion—and its future; these studies are selected for application in the journey of discovery and transformation—over and above their intrinsic interest. The interest in chapter Worlds—The general interest in the study of Normal worlds is, of course, our interest in this world. The interest of understanding the world is enhanced by the side by side and interactive study of metaphysics, the study of the Universe—as far as possible as it is and the study of this world; entailed in both studies is the study of understanding itself—of the nature of the study of metaphysics, the study of the local world—see a system of human knowledge, and the nature of the interactive study—see method. My immediate specific interest is immersion in this world. From the point of view of the journey, the interest is in the various paths from ‘this world’ to the Universe…

Theme—Normal worlds… Normal worlds and necessity…

Theme—Method for Normal worlds—see Framing, earlier

Theme—Variety—This world—the intersection of depth and Object kinds and categories

Theme—Ground—This world as ground for Human being, Individual and Identity, Society… the Journey…

Human world

Theme—study of the forms of experience—via mind—as an approach to human experience and local categories of being

Theme—complementary approaches to the understanding of the metaphysics and the place of the individual in it—Plato, Nietzsche, Kant, Heidegger…

Theme—Civilization as a matrix of interconnections, as Islands connected under the surface of the Ocean, mountains in a sea of mist

Theme—complementary approaches to the understanding of the metaphysics and the place of the individual in it—Plato, Nietzsche, Kant, Heidegger…

Human endeavor and its normal limits

Theme—Relation of Journey | being to the—common—human endeavor

Theme—The contingently-scientifically-practically impossible re-interpreted as the infeasible, i.e. as infeasible relative to the state of knowledge

Theme—The common human endeavor and its limits: rationalism… nature of the physical world… nature of the living world including mind and behavior… human being… secular humanism… myth and religion… science and belief

Theme—Relation of Journey | in being to the—common—human endeavor

Theme—The common human endeavor and its limits. Paradigms of being and knowing, institutions including the individual, significance—esoteric, common

Kant and Heidegger

Theme—Kant and Heidegger. We go below Kant’s categories of perception and judgment to perception of the necessary Objects and the at least partially implicitly defined Logic. That system provides a framework for a variety of contingent or Normal contexts of knowing. An example is this world where we see in categories of space, time and cause; and reason in categories of deductive (Aristotelian and modern logics) and inductive (e.g. the vaguely defined methods of scientific reasoning from data to law and theory) reason. What remains as necessary is the pure-general metaphysics of chapter Metaphysics and its extension in Objects. Affect is implicit in the framework and one of its dimensions is binding; but binding to the world must include a freeing element on account of actual and effective indeterminism; and of course the higher affect has particularly animal and human forms. Art moves within that framework showing us, not invariably in the representing terms of external cognition, something of our nature—binding—and something of desire and possibility—freedom mixed with binding. Science moves within that framework itself but more along the lines of the representing terms of external cognition; but science is not restricted to any rigid system of categories of perception—e.g. Universal space and Universal time and strict or even patterned probabilistic causation—or rigid Aristotelian or modern deductive or patterned inductive categories of judgment or reason. Categories of perception and judgment are opened up; judgment through the exploration of symbolic systems and abstract forms of modern science and perception via instrument and intervention that is guided by the symbolic systems or theories. Simultaneously, perception may open up into binding external and inner realms; this in turn affects cognition; the system is touched by affect but not entirely bound by it. This expresses in abstract terms the path and motives of the journey. The entire system is framed by the ultimate necessity—the result of abstractive elimination of the local and the contingent—and of the Universal metaphysics

…Where does Heidegger fit into the above scheme? Heidegger’s Dasein is ‘thrown into the world.’ It is capable of asking the question of the meaning of its own being. In Heidegger’s terms we may say that the abstract analysis of Dasein yields the Universal metaphysics. Heidegger’s further analysis of Dasein is contingent or Normal; which is not to say it is ‘useless;’ it has of course an in principle utility regardless of the actual analysis—the reckoning of the place of the individual and his or her inner world in this world; which of course frames not only Heidegger but also Freud and perhaps Jung as well… and, no doubt, others. The Universal metaphysics proves however the infinite character of individual being, its identity with all being, within which framework Heidegger’s Dasein has its day-to-day and its adventures. The day-to-day and the adventure are not the limits of Heidegger’s Dasein—they are Normal limits; they are of course deeply important in the enjoyment of this life; but the true limits are the limits of ultimate Identity which is also the boundary of Heidegger’s Dasein freed from the limits of Heidegger’s implicit categories, e.g. including certain contours of a European paradigm of what it is to be an authentic human

Introduction

Place of Worlds in the narrative

‘Worlds’ derives from

The Universal metaphysics—Intuition through Cosmology. These include the emerging thoughts on method—that there is an ultimate understanding of all being of finite depth that reveals an ultimate variety; that this understanding is simultaneously empirical and necessary; that the understanding therefore includes method; that the finite depth and empirical-necessary understanding coincide in recognizing or seeing through the details by abstraction to what is invariant in seeing and knowing; that this is done by bringing all knowing under intuition and without a priori foundation so that what foundation there may be may be seen; that therefore method and content emerge together and it is not as if method and logic are received while knowledge alone is discovered for in the end method is seen as an element of content for the object of method is knowing which is also in the world

The study of local worlds begins with what is received as knowledge. This includes the tradition. However, along the way there has been occasion to reflect on the elements of received knowledge to reflect upon them in light of experience and criticism and to play with those elements especially in the recognition that they are somewhat ad hoc and therefore playful even if we want to be serious about them as though they bore the stamp of the given (the psycho-social institution of the serious and its positive and detrimental value might make an interesting study.) You will encounter this play-that-takes-us-below-and-beyond-the-merely-serious in the sections that follow, especially those starting with Human being

Use of ‘Worlds’ in the journey

If we conceive the Journey as now a diving into the deep pool of being that is both light and dark, the knowing that is developed in this chapter is a spring-board

Wide-angle view

Worlds is the study and understanding of our world—more generally of local worlds and contexts

It is a study of our world and what is held as knowledge of it within the framework of Universal understanding so far

The further basis of study is the emerging method in which the framework of the Universal shows the essentially local and limited character of what is received—the various traditions including the academic—and so encourages the revaluation of local understanding to its intrinsic limit

What Worlds derives from the traditions

The development derives much—of course—from the traditions

That the Universal theory of the previous chapters derives inspiration from the inspired thought-fragments of the past is already manifest

Here, it is the traditions of study of and experience in this world—the local cosmology and the studies of organism and of human being and society—that are essential to the development

Contribution to thought

The result is extension and clarification of the local disciplines—extension that approaches the root of being and clarification that continues the shedding of the mere ad hoc and the superficial so that understanding converges on its object

The main contribution of Worlds, is the understanding and way of explanation of human being, especially mind which is at the core of human being. There is some contribution to the way of understanding and explanation for society—and perhaps some contribution to the concept of the institution and the nature of language. There is an evaluation of the limits of the human endeavor—especially in its common and paradigmatic modes; and of course, there is the significant revelation that, important as they are, these modes are not merely limited but infinitesimal and therefore capable of infinite transcendence: it is remarkable that the Universal metaphysics permits and requires a coherent and consistent union of the secular-scientific view and a view that is not that of the religious cosmologies but that does employ language that is similar to that of the religious cosmologies (the Advaita Vedanta is regarded as philosophical rather than religious.) There is potential contribution to a number of topics, especially modern physics and physical cosmology; these are mentioned here and outlined in Journey—section Investigation in the modes and means of transformation

Journey

Concepts

Journey, Personal, Individual, Local, Process_[3], Increment_[new], Leap_[new], Identity_[4], Ambition, Adventure, Enjoyment, Greatness_[new], Universal, Unending_[new], No highest_[new]

The labeling of process as repeated does not discriminate the uses as material versus being-in process

Moral_[2], Ethics_[2], Feasibility, Expected outcome, Value, Optimal, Good

Idea, Transformation of being, Essential transformation, Sheer transformation_[new], Ideas and the normal, Experiment, Minimal set, Journey quest in world and psyche, World as culture and civilized and wilderness, Inspiration, Tantric practice (Chöd)

Means (Method_[5],) Catalyst, Tradition, Dynamics of being, Integration

Dimension, Psyche, World_[4], Travel

Kinds, Culture, Nature, Service, Shared

Secondary phase, Social_[2], Value_[4], Charisma, Influence_[2], Artifact, Technological, Psychological, Social_[2], Design, Simulation, Construction

Themes

Journey

Theme—Journey—bases—Universal, i.e. Intuition through Cosmology—Local, i.e. Worlds—Bridge, i.e. Mesh via Ideas or theory, experiment and process

Theme—An individual journey

Theme—An individual journey. It’s nature; it’s elements including directed and undirected search; search and being; ideas, living, nature, people, society, the universal; multiple paths, some abandoned of which some picked up later; adventure; ends, goals, ambitions always in question and subject to change according to learning and experience. Particulars of an individual journey. Exploration of intellect, feeling, ambition, body, and nature merge in ideas; ideas merge with individual being; merges with action; merges with transformation; merges with being… Note that this hints at ‘spirit’ and related ideas; however, we do not use the term at this point; this is not because we reject ‘spirit’ or inner being of self-world but because the distinction of ‘body’ and ‘world’ on one side and ‘spirit’ on another is one of the way in which we see rather than a distinction in the world

Theme—Methods of the Journey—the traditions from the primal to the recent… experiment and the Dynamics of being

Pivotal idea—Methods of the Journey—The methods of the Journey arise from the interactions of ideas with experiments; the methodological and knowledge base sources include (a) the Dynamics of being that is a dynamic derived from the fundamental principle and its consequences, (b) experiment with Normal limits based on the Dynamics, (c) the traditional methods and approaches enhanced by further experiment and reflection, (d) catalysts of transformation, (e) categories of transformation, and (f) cataloging and analyzing actual transformations for pathways from the present to the ultimate—including but emphatically not limited to seeing the infinite in the present

Essence

Material placed in outline from scratch.html

Introduction

Place of Journey in the narrative

Ideas and transformation of being are the two—incompletely distinct—modes of realization

Although ideas are essential as a mode of realization and as instrument and appreciation of transformation, transformation of the individual to Universal Identity is the ultimate realization. Since transformation includes ideas, transformation is the complete mode of realization

This chapter describes the means and modes of full transformation, their foundation in ideas and the nature of human being and the world, what is achieved so far and what lies ahead

Sources in the narrative

The ideas—Intuition through Worlds and Method

Implications for the subsequent narrative

Since realization is on the way, the chapter Being includes focus on what realization there may be in the present

Journey also contributes to Method

Wide-angle view

The central focus of the chapter is transformation. The ‘method’ derives from the Ideas, the traditions and experience. Transformations so far are described and assessed. A path for the future is laid out. The chapter then refers forward to chapter Being for a focus on what realization there may be in the present

What Journey derives from the traditions

Knowledge that contributes to and founds transformation. Contributory knowledge has been taken up in earlier chapters, especially Worlds. Special foundational knowledge includes such traditions as Samkhya, the western mystic reflections, the myths of the hero

Traditions of transformation include such traditions as Yoga, Mysticism, and Shamanism

Contribution to the tradition

The process described is a contribution to and merging with the human and universal journeys

Themes

Being

Concepts

History, Myth, Meaning_{[2, as significance]}, Functional continuum, Weightless interpretation of history

Pure being, Realization, Eros, Chöd, Attraction, Repulsion, Death, Opposites, World-as-it-is as pure, No need for crystal purity

Themes

Being

Theme—Being and Process

History

Pivotal idea—Nature and use of History—History and ‘cultural heritage’ are distinguished by the claim or attempt of history to objectivity; the common pre-objective significance of these endeavors connects them to the legend and myth of the ancient and ‘pre-historical’ cultures; the question—what is that significance? One significance is that it has use as a guide for being in the search for and transformation to Being! Objective history has as one of its uses this same significance; in so far as objectivity is obtained and in so far as cause and effect and pattern are objectively discerned, i.e. insofar as historical study may be predictive, objective history has the use of transformation of value, perhaps interactively and iteratively, into material and cultural transformation of our world. The Journey will use as one of its instruments these intuitive and objective guides to possibility and exploration; and this will or may occur in interactive parallel with attention to the nature, possibility, and value of the two sides to history

Pure being

Theme—Being in the present as Identity with all being… as a mode of eternity (Wittgenstein)

Essence

Journey’s focus is realization as process. Being aims at realization in the present

The focus is the realization of the ultimate in the immediate. As far as possible, without abandoning realism, the realization would be explicit; secondarily, it will be cognitive-emotive (purely emotional realization may also be sought)

There is, therefore, a focus on the meaning of being—in the sense of significance in being

A finite—limited—being may find significance in what is beyond the immediate and in the immediate

What is beyond the immediate is labeled History. Being-in-the-immediate is labeled Pure being

That is, a meaning—significance—of history is its suggestive power, the way in which it influences views of ourselves and others: individually and collectively, i.e. as persons, cultures, nations, civilizations… The traditions of history influence the way in which we view our potency in the world

An instrumental thought regarding ‘entry into pure being’ is the acceptance of opposites including what is attractive and what is repulsive. How is this instrumental? In not avoiding either—and there is avoidance of the positive—life, i.e. our lives and the world, energy is not lost in avoidance and this opens up to experience of the real; naturally there are practical limits to acceptance of destructive things

I continue to seek transcendence of process

Introduction

Place of Being in the narrative

The ultimate includes the immediate. Although there is concern with the ultimate in realization, there is no suppression of the immediate. Any bridge to the ultimate is grounded in the immediate. It has been emphasized that the ultimate is implicit in the immediate

In this chapter the focus is the explicit realization of the ultimate in the immediate without abandoning realism (of course)

Wide-angle view

A focus of this chapter is the meaning of being

Here meaning is meaning-in-the-sense-of-significance of being; therefore the focus is being-that-is-capable-of-the-experience-of-significance

Perhaps whatever-meaning-may-be-found-in-being is more appropriate than the-meaning-of-being

The chapter continues the search and transformations of Journey

The idea of significance is implicitly present earlier even though the explicit focus may have emphasized being-as-being where reference to the meaning of terms such as ‘being’ and ‘experience’ was, roughly, that of word or linguistic meaning

The transformations recorded in Journey are incomplete. There is however a sense in which a certain attitude of the individual to his or her own being is already full—even while realization is in process. The present chapter may be seen as beginning with an exploration of the possibilities for that attitude

Significance is not found outside being. Ultimately, there is no external support for meaning-as-significance

In a sense, therefore, being itself is the meaning of being—or being has and generates its own meaning from bound and free elements that constitute meaning and involve ideas, identity and their transformations

A finite—limited—being may find significance in what is beyond the immediate and in the immediate

Since the meaning of here-now is indefinite, ‘beyond the immediate’ does not mean ultimate and ‘in the immediate’ does not mean ‘limited’

What is beyond the immediate is labeled History. Being-in-the-immediate is labeled Pure being

What Being derives from the traditions

The ideas in this chapter have some overlap with the study of history and existentialist philosophy

It is primarily the importance and the importance of the criticism of these traditions that influences present thought

While the traditions of criticism and writing of history are not minimized, the present narrative takes history in a non-critical direction

In having a view of the individual as looking out upon universal possibility, the present narrative has sympathy with existentialism. However, the narrative does not share the gloom of existentialism—especially that of Kierkegaardian existentialism. Kierkegaard’s existentialism is based in a kind of realism that regards metaphysics as irrelevant to the human existence. Is metaphysics irrelevant? The present development shows that metaphysics intimately ties into the organism. Kierkegaard’s rejection of metaphysics was however a rejection of Hegel’s Absolute Idealistic fantasy. It is quite likely, then, that any such existentialism also has roots in the background scientific empiricism of and, perhaps, in a naturally gloomy orientation. Similarly, the self-created man who creates his own meaning against the backdrop of an absurd world is likely a reaction against the absurd. In the present narrative the world is not seen as absurd. How can the world be absurd? It can only be absurd when compared to expectation; replace the idealistic or unrealistic expectation by openness—even in the absence of metaphysics—and there is no occasion for absurdity or gloom. Absurdity and gloom are probably the result of an unstated nihilist metaphysics combined with depressive personality

The present narrative derives from existentialism a focus on the individual but stops short of seeing that individual as alien; it stops short of seeing the individual as creating all meaning in the face of the absurd. Meaning is derived in part from a metaphysics that originates in the individual who looks without depression or euphoria at the real… and also in part from wonder rather than absurdity regarding the world that is implicitly delusional plaything of an ego. Further, the view is not that of the individual against the universe but—while of course there may be intense difficulty of fact and feeling—but that of individual and community within the universe. Regarding community, realism requires acknowledgement that the motives of others—and therefore likely of self—contain the pure and the impure, but—since this is unlikely to change—also acknowledgement that it would be tragic to be stopped short by the insults to self from the world

Contribution to thought

The ideas are, it is hoped, a contribution to the meaning-in-the-sense-of-significance of being and of life… to a balance between achieving and deep satisfaction… to being centered in being regardless of circumstance—within reasonable bounds… and, also within reasonable bounds, to uses of centeredness in achieving

Method

Concepts

Knowledge and its nature

Kinds of knowledge

adaptation, fixed adaptation, implicit faithfulness, adaptability, gross morphological adaptability, fine morphological including neural adaptability, know how, knowing that, concept, Object, explicit faithfulness

Knowledge and its nature

form of knowledge, concept, mental content, metaphor of the replica, memory, iconic, symbolic, confidence, faithfulness, non-essentialism of critique, agnosticism, critique by case or category of knowledge, perfect faithfulness, sufficient faithfulness, conceptual kinds, bound, percept, feeling, free, higher concept, iconic, symbolic, sources of knowledge, observation, inference, induction, deduction

Action

implicit-faithfulness, explicit-faithfulness, partial separation, complete separation

Elements of method

Introduction

elements of method, creation, validation, discovery, justification, processes of knowing, observation, inference, fact, premise, conclusion, induction, law, conceptual description, theory, hypothesis formation, scientific method, deduction, elements of justification, reason, experience, elements of creation, imagination, reflexivity

Justification

degrees of certainty, confidence, pragmatism, verification, falsifiability, testability, final justification

Observation

experience, observation, experiment, analysis of meaning

Inference

Kinds

induction—generalization, pattern, symmetry, concept formation, deduction

Creation

aesthetics, Ockham’s minimalism, analogy, intuition—cultivation of special insight, incubation, imagination, analysis of meaning, concepts, articulated systems, abstraction, example, critical imagination, problem solving approaches—break problem up into parts etc., reflexivity, metaphor, the idiosyncratic

Justification

prediction, experience, experiment, observation, critique of justification

Justification and creation—human and institutional factors

Human

persistence and passion, place, cultivation, formal, informal factors, meta-cognition, immersion and interface

Institutional

motivation, communication, complementary endeavor

Creation of conceptual systems

analysis of knowledge, analysis of meaning—relative to context, integrates experience, selection and development of articulated systems of concepts

The necessary Objects

abstraction, intuition, grounding, ground, given: lack of need for

The practical Objects

Discipline, Disciplinary method, Practice, Unit entity, Unit process, Unit interaction, Metaphysics, Placement in the Universal context, Freedom of conceptual interpretation, Revision of elements, minimizing Ad hoc elements, approach to inherent disciplinary limits

Transformation

moral_[2], ethics_[2], feasibility, expected outcome, value, optimal, good

idea, transformation of being, essential transformation, sheer transformation_[new], ideas and the normal, experiment, minimal set, journey quest in world and psyche, world as culture and civilized and wilderness, inspiration, Tantric practice (chöd)

means (method_[5],) catalyst, tradition, dynamics of being, integration

dimension, psyche, world_[4], travel

kinds, culture, nature, service, shared

secondary phase, social_[2], value_[4], charisma, influence_[2], artifact, technological, psychological, social_[2], design, simulation, construction

Reflexivity

reflexivity, generalized reflexivity, reflexivity and metaphysics, journey and reflex

Themes

hierarchies of certainty, method and content, elimination of essentialism, guide versus definitive

Themes and objections

Theme—Method—and principles of thought and action which is perhaps primary—may be elaborated as follows which is repetition from the discussions of ‘method’ and the ‘principles:’ Theme—Method. All knowing—including method—as intuitive and empirical, method as content… method as arising in the study of content and therefore method and content as coeval, the method of abstraction from intuition to what on account of conceptual elimination of contingent detail is necessary and empirical, necessary and Logical objects, relation to the practical objects. Method is further elaborated in discussion of the following themes above: Journey, Being, Meaning, Against substance, Subsumption of kinds under the Object. Also significant to method are argument, objection and counterargument; and action and faith. Theme—Principles of perception, thought and action. Habits of thought conducive to discovery. The habit of no habit; which itself cannot be too serious. Emptiness and filling. Reflexivity and action. Subsumes method in interaction with content; subsumes meta-method

Theme—Method—Method and Content—Intuition as including all knowing without a priori commitment—Abstraction as omission of distortable details on the way to empirical-rational and necessary but not a priori knowledge of Global and Local necessary Objects—Framing as elimination of the ad hoc from and raising to its intrinsic limit of practical Objects, i.e. the disciplines and so on—and Reflexivity over given, hypothetical or fictional-speculative and critical elements as source of new and rational knowing

Theme—Principles of perception, thought and action—see reflexivity as part of method

Objection. Circularity of abstraction

Objection. Every rational scheme requires at least one unproved axiom and one unproved rule of deduction

Objection—The foundational fallacy

Essence

Method gathers together and formalizes what has been seen. The following elaborates the thoughts of the previous paragraph

While working on the novel metaphysics I realized that I was using novel extensions, variations, changes, and criticisms of classical through modern ideas of method. I recognized that I was asking: What may be known empirically? What is logic in face of the fact that every fundamental axiom of logic may come under doubt? Since there are apparently no rules of deduction for the rules of deduction what is the foundation of inference itself—i.e., inference is foundational for to knowledge, what if anything is foundational for inference? And if rules are founded in second order rules, do not the latter require third order rules: in other words, does it not appear that there is either no final foundation or infinite regress? The problem is of course well known and it is usually accepted that there is no final foundation. However, here some foundation has been found

In some directions these novel aspects of method are ultimate. They are not limited to metaphysics but have application to the institution of thought and action in general. They have implication for the concepts and contents of philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, Logic and the nature of inference in general, mathematics, science, what it is to have empirical knowledge

I saw that content and method are not distinct at root; that method is not received even when it is taken as received—method and content develop together although at different rates

The Universal metaphysics already had a nice foundation when I thought to seek a foundation that would ground the metaphysics in the abilities of—human—being. In earlier philosophy—the philosophy of Immanuel Kant—intuition has been used to find foundation for the categories of perception; and some form of logic has founded inference; those earlier philosophies appealed to the mechanics of Newton and the Geometry of Euclid to found the perceptual categories of space, time and cause and to Aristotelian logic to found inference. We now know that those foundational sciences of the world and of inference are not as firm as they were believed to be in Kant’s time (some simple logics may perhaps be excepted)

An essential step was to reign in all knowing, i.e. perceiving and thinking inferentially, under the umbrella of without a priori foundation. That allows that there may be some foundation; that the foundation is not received; and that the foundation may therefore emerge

The developments in method are already anticipated in bringing demonstration—Logos—under intuition. The developments show content and method as on par: method lies within being: perhaps method and content may be regarded as conjugate

The reigning in of all knowing under an intuition that has no explicit a priori validity is one key to the unification of knowledge of content and knowledge of method. From within intuition are found the fundamental but universal and necessary or perfectly Objects known in intuition; though known in intuition the perceptual Objects are primarily empirical and the remaining Object, Logos, is rational. In case of the perceptual Objects, perfect faithfulness is a result of simplicity; for Logos, faithfulness results from its implicit definition (however, its concept Logic, is approximated by the logics and therefore, there are explicit and excellent approximations to it)

The present section gathers together the explicit and implicit developments regarding method and attempts to see to what extent a uniform theory of method and content is possible

It is also important to be concerned with the development of knowledge in its details—the disciplines and their contents—while being concerned with the metaphysics or universal picture and its ‘method.’ The dual and interactive concern has implications. As an example a modern view of science is that its assertions should be falsifiable or testable. This suggests never ending development. The development of the metaphysics shows an alternate view of scientific theory—i.e. a scientific theory reveals a fact or facts regarding a limited domain. This view and the view from revisability are dual rather than exclusive

The view of disciplines from revisability occurs when those disciplines would be applied to an open context, e.g. the Universe (relative to finite being, the Universe is effectively open.) As has been seen the framing of the disciplines by the Universal metaphysics encourages progress of the disciplines to their intrinsic limit; this limit is achieved in a number of cases, especially in Cosmology; and the disciplines of Worlds may be seen to be ‘on the way’

The occasion to be critical and constructive with regard to a number of disciplines that may be seen as being in hierarchical and lateral organization and interaction has also lead to some thoughts on constructive thought (creativity)

Method and constructive thought are the two topics considered in this chapter. Traditionally, they are taken as working together. Here, in addition to interaction, it is attempted to see overlap and synthesis. When method is regarded as prescription, constructive thought is greater because it may be generative of—advances in—method; if a priori prescription is relinquished, the distinction between method and constructive thought fades

Introduction

Place of Method in the narrative

In the process that resulted in this narrative some reflections on method and on discovery emerged. That the content—the Universal metaphysics, its interpretation in relation to action, and its application—has been novel and ultimate in some directions has proved a fertile source on method

Additionally, since method is a form of content—in which the process of knowing and knowledge itself are content—the metaphysics and other ideas have implications for the method. The implications are two-way for it is in the concept of method that it should have implication for knowledge including the metaphysics and the ideas

In summary, method and content emerge together. They do so because they are not fully distinct and where they are they interact

The process of development has not been linear. The thoughts on method emerged in parallel with the (other) content—Intuition, Metaphysics and so on. It has been useful to gather together the thoughts on method. At first these thoughts were fragmentary and semi-formal

In this chapter, the thoughts on method are given their latest form. The thoughts fall under formal Method and discovery or Principles of perception, thought and action

Method

In developing the Universal metaphysics—Intuition through Cosmology—and the Applied metaphysics—Worlds, Journey—a powerful understanding of method has emerged. This understanding which has both necessary and contingent aspects is an extension of prior conceptions of method that is (a) ultimate in the direction of demonstration of the Universal metaphysics of necessary Objects (b) an enhancement with the potential to raise knowledge of practical Objects to its intrinsic limits and includes science, logic and grammar

Whereas there is a tendency to regard method as received and while it is true that it stands somewhat over contextual content, there is no ultimate distinction between content and method—method is a form of content—and both have necessary and contingent aspects

In this chapter what has emerged regarding method is collected together and formalized

Principles of perception, thought and action

Some aspects of the development of explanatory frameworks are not algorithmic, i.e. ‘non-linear’ or ‘creative.’ This is true in particular of the development of the Universal and the Applied Metaphysics and Method itself

Although it is perhaps true that there is no method regarding the creative and that creativity is perhaps a special talent whose features have variance among disciplines and individuals, it is also perhaps true that what is essential in formal method emerges after creative development and, then, creative input is required again to go beyond method as it stands at a particular time. Outside application that is marked by routine, then, method is perhaps only the formalization of what has emerged and makes understanding, application, and further development easier

In the developments of this narrative, many lines of development have been tried and many abandoned, and there is formal input and analogy from an immense variety of ideas and disciplines from the traditions and from individual reflection and experience. The development, then, has been a fertile ground for various and repeated exercise in attempts to go beyond formal method. It has therefore also been an occasion to observe and reflect on processes of attempting to go beyond formal development in the traditions including philosophy and of my own thinking

The section Principles of perception, thought and action brings together these reflections and attempts to bring some unity to them under the ideas of reflexivity and of action and faith

Wide-angle view

Integrate the original and the modified developments

The original development

The steps in developing the Universal metaphysics were (1) reign in all knowing under Intuition whose character includes that the means of knowing itself is not transparent and the knowing does not carry its own explicit justification, (2) use abstraction in the sense of identifying those elements of what is seen that constitute necessary Objects, i.e. those Objects for which knowledge is perfectly faithful, (3) from the necessary Objects develop the Universal metaphysics

The essential elements of method identified in this process are (a) understanding the nature of Intuition—i.e. that it includes perceiving and deducing, (b) Abstraction which results in knowledge that is empirical and perfectly faithful, (c) using abstraction to arrive at the necessary Objects—especially Universe, Domain, Void and Logic—that constitute the Universal metaphysics

The steps in developing the Applied metaphysics—the term is used even though the result is practical rather than perfectly faithful knowledge—which is the interaction between the Universal metaphysics and the study of special contexts. The components of the method for the contextual studies are the phenomena or what is to be explained, the elements or terms of explanation, and the theory or local conceptual framework of explanation which includes (a) perception and establishment of fact and (b) induction including pattern recognition, and (c) deduction (thus the methods of science are an explanatory framework as are the symbolic studies such as logic and grammar)

Then, elements, phenomena, and theory iterate within and in interaction with the Universal. Then, the elements may root to the universal; the phenomenology and behavior begin to fit into the universal ‘model.’ Understanding expands from its ad hoc and academic forms to the universal

The method or approach of Applied metaphysics, then, is (1) identify the components of disciplinary studies including science and symbolic studies, (2) iterative experiment with all these components with freedom within the envelope of the pure (Universal) metaphysics allowing—though not requiring—elements to extend to the root of being and to lie within any category of being, seeking andor predicting new phenomena, and channeling existing explanation by imagination but constraining it only by Logic

A modified development

The reference for this new development is journey in being-for Robin.doc

The goal is a framework for knowledge, its nature and use, and its faithfulness

At outset, we note the encompassing context in which knowledge and action are not separated. This is a realm that includes (a) knowledge as knowing, i.e. as capturing the object through correspondence andor replication and (b) the instrumental view of knowledge. The encompassing context is one in which measures of knowledge are neither relevant nor emerged across the entire context; this encompassing realm contains the correspondence-replication and the instrumental realms where measures or faithfulness are emerged. When there is correspondence-replication there is at least the potential for instrumental application and therefore it is perhaps the case that the instrumental realm contains the realm of correspondence

Framework for the correspondence or replication view—this is new and the relevant sources are the sections Establishment of an epistemology through Improved analysis of knowledge of journey in being-for Robin.html

Knowledge as simple and complex fact. Inference as tautology

Abstraction from conception or intuition (as mental content… including the ability to have mental content… and it is noteworthy that a rock does not have mental content—at least of this type) to the necessary and empirical but not a priori universal Objects—Universe, Domain, Void, Logic (and others) which includes the Metaphysics through Cosmology

Applied metaphysics—the study of contexts in which the interactive study of the pure and universal metaphysics with the contextual study has the potential to eliminate the ad hoc from the context and to raise it to its intrinsic limit on faithfulness

Journey—here the system of knowledge enables the dynamics but at the same time there is inclusion of the larger context of immersion in being, i.e. knowledge as not yet separate or needing separation from action

What Method derives from the traditions

The idea of Method derives, of course, from the traditions of thought. In any discipline or area of thought there is, having had success, a natural desire to instruct others in the approach and to formulate the approach as close to algorithmic as possible

Since contexts vary, there can be no Universal completely algorithmic method

Here, the idea of method is extended to the Universal context in a post hoc way—i.e. the justification is a posteriori rather than a priori. The significance is (1) that there is some method for improved showing or demonstration of and elaboration within the Universal metaphysics and (2) there is some mesh of the method of the metaphysics and the received ‘methods’ of the disciplines that illuminates the metaphysics and raises the local discipline and its ‘methods’ to—potentially and actually in important cases—the intrinsic limit

The development derives much from the traditions regarding method—as noted above

Contribution to thought

The developments have implication for the nature of method and creativity in general. There are, in particular, implications the meaning and limits of empirical knowledge, the significance of induction and the nature of scientific method, for the nature of Logic, of the ‘logic of logic’ i.e. how Logic is arrived at and to what extent that process is empirical andor necessary, and the nature of the of foundation of metaphysics without substance but that is also terminating—in that it is not necessary to go under the phenomena—and therefore in the fact of—some—demonstration that requires no assumption

The conclusions regarding method are, it is felt, a contribution to the general notions of method and creativity. The conclusions are spelled out in greater detail in the remainder of this chapter and the narrative

Contribution

Concepts

Criteria

Significance, Ultimacy, Originality, Novelty, History

Ideas and Transformation_[new]

Metaphysics_[3], Logic_[3], Theory of the Normal, Theory of Objects, Cosmology, Applied metaphysics_[3] (Worlds,) Journey

Philosophy and Metaphysics

Philosophy, Metaphysics_[4] (critique, concepts of, definition, projection)

Critique of modern philosophy, Capitulation to science, Capitulation to materialism, Capitulation to relativism, Abandonment of significance, Overgeneralization of past failures of system, False conclusion from the categorial gap between concept and Object

Critique of continental philosophy, Abandonment of reason

Critique of analytic philosophy, Rejection of interdependence of analyses, Rejection of systematic meaning, Capitulation to intuition, Exaltation of common meaning, Exaltation of piece-meal analysis

Note—I do not intend to criticize the various emphases of modern thought as such. My criticism is of the raising of these tendencies to absolutes, the emphasis on such tendencies to the exclusion of other modes of philosophy, and of the definition of real philosophy as one or more of these modern emphases

Ultimate_[2], Breadth_[2], Depth_[2]

Classes of problem, Death of problematicity, Variety and detail, Importance of

Problems of Metaphysics, Categories, Being-as-being, Fact-of-being, Existence, Form, Substance, Fact, Concept, Object, Meaning, Particular object, Abstract object, Language, Knowledge, Intuition, Universe, Law, Law, Void, Logic, Logic, Logos, Logic as law, Normal, Science, Mind, Matter, Body, Soul, Spirit, God, Identity, Death, Identity, Freedom of will, Variety, Extension, Duration, Process, Determinism, Causation, Mechanism, Evolution

Bertrand Russell’s problems of philosophy, Appearance and reality, Existence of matter, Nature of matter, Idealism, Knowledge by acquaintance, Knowledge by description, Induction_[2], Knowledge of general principles, A priori knowledge, Deduction_{[2, added by author]}, Universals, Knowledge of universals, Intuitive knowledge, Truth and falsehood, Knowledge—error—probable opinion, Limits of philosophical knowledge, Value of philosophy

Wikipedia Unsolved problems of philosophy, Aesthetics, Essentialism, “The medium is the message”, Art objects, Epistemology, Gettier problem, Molyneux problem, Pyrrhonian regress, Münchhausen Trilemma, Perception of color, Ethics, Moral luck, Problem of evil, Philosophy of language, Moore’s disbelief, Philosophy of mathematics, Mathematical objects, Metaphysics, Sorites paradox, Counterfactuals, Material implication, Philosophy of mind, Mind-body problem, Cognition and AI, Hard problem of consciousness, Philosophy of science, Problem of induction, Demarcation problem

System of Human Knowledge

Human knowledge_[3], Discipline, Practice, Ultimate framework, Reconceptualization of disciplines, Elements of content, Elements of method, Experiments with concepts, Filling out, Covering the categories, System, Symbols and knowledge, Universe, Category, Artifact

Themes

Contribution

Theme—Contributions. Original contributions—Intuition through Being. Contribution to thought, action and their history. Contribution to philosophy and metaphysics. Contribution to definition and definitive resolution of the classical through recent problems of metaphysics. Contribution to method and effective development of conceptual knowledge and understanding for new and extended contexts. Contributions to Human knowledge

Significance of the ideas of the narrative for thought and its history

Theme—Significance of the work

Pivotal idea—Significance of the work—The general significance of the work is brought out in the narrative. The significance for academics include the following recapitulation of the main areas of contribution—(a) Metaphysics, Logic, Theory of Objects, Cosmology, and Method; (b) the possibilities of Human and Animal Being; (c) Human knowledge nature, extent, and content; and, specifically, (d) potential contributions to logic, science…

Essence

I believe that the contributions and potential contributions of this essay to human thought and action may be significant. The general contributions are: the articulated and founded views of the Universe as having the greatest possible variety and of individual being as capable of and necessarily realizing that variety; of the relationships of those views to the immediate world and immediate endeavor; and perhaps of the process I have undertaken in arriving at the views and in the beginnings so far of realizing what is shown necessary (as pointed out in the narrative, though realization is given it is far more likely and perhaps more enjoyed when it is sought as adventure but with diligence)

I have attempted to formulate what might be objective criteria for significance. However, I do not expect such criteria to displace evaluations by others or the ‘judgment of history’

The purpose of this chapter is to gather together and make explicit what I think to be the contributions of the essay

The Introduction is followed by the Main contributions—i.e. those that belong to the main thrust of the essay. This is followed by three sections of contributions that are secondary to the main thrust of the essay; gathering these together has encouraged some further development that is included below

Introduction

The Universal metaphysics develops around the following equivalent assertions, (1) The Universe has the greatest Logically possible variety—a simple statement with implications whose significance is immense, (2) The states of the Universe are those permitted by Logic—i.e., metaphysics and Logic are equivalent, (3) The Void exists and contains no contingent Law (a contingent Law is one that could be otherwise without violation of necessity or Logic)

This metaphysics has been glimpsed in Western and Eastern traditions—the typical glimpse is of a facet or aspect but without significant development—but, as far as I know, has not been conclusively elaborated as it has been in Intuition through Method—the elaboration includes the areas of idea, action, and transformation—and has not been demonstrated at all prior to the work leading up to this essay. That stands to reason for the demonstration is an essential ingredient of the elaboration in the variety of formulations of the metaphysics as well as its detailed development and application within philosophical thought, to the major disciplines of thought, and to paths of action and transformation

The developments mentioned just recounted constitute the system of major contributions of this narrative

In referring to the contents of this work as ‘contributions’ it is understood that the assertion is that I believe them to be contributions. I have some doubt about the demonstrations and minute doubt about the lack of prior demonstration and elaboration. The doubt about prior demonstration is minute because although I have read and researched extensively I have not come across any hint of demonstration. For example, the ‘Great Chain of Being’ of classical and medieval thought is imaginative but without demonstration (further the imagination is quite limited.) The Eastern philosopher Sankara stands in a tradition that conceives the identity of the individual and all being; but there is no proof. Wittgenstein and Leibniz talk of the identity of metaphysics and logic but there is no theory of variety and the showing is inadequate to any standard of demonstration (and this is why Wittgenstein’s Tractatus can have no theory or demonstration of variety: why the theory of variety does not naturally fall out of the development.) Additionally, it is not possible for a writer to predict the judgment of history. The doubts are not insignificant but they are not blocks; and part of the doubt is psychological rather than Logical: it is the magnitude of the result that causes doubt. Regarding Logical concerns, I estimate that the doubt has some par with the recent computer assisted proofs in mathematics but is far less than the doubt that modern physics represents final physics. Except these doubts and I may assert that I know that this work makes an immense contribution

Reference

Concepts

Influence_[3][new?], Source_[new], Author

Glossary, Index

Themes for the Journey in being and the Narrative

Essence

Objects

Essence

Religion[possible new location]

Essence

What Cosmology derives from the traditions

Method—Science and Participant-Analysis

Political economy

Politics

Economics

Essence

Pure being

Knowledge and its nature

Religion_{[possible new location]}