The way of being
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Anil
Mitra, Copyright © 2002 – April 13, 2021
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The main divisions and concepts
1 Prologue
the
world
aims
worldview
sources
significance
aim
means
being
experience
experiential
world
2 The world
being
experience
beings
universe
the
void
limitlessness
possibility
metaphysics
cosmology
path
3 The way
the
way
aim
of being
means
path
templates
resources
4 Epilogue
return
to the world
being
in the world
The way of being
informal, essential
the world
contentment and seeking
pleasure and pain (enjoyment)
direction and indirection
conflict and cooperation
aims
a variety of aims and endeavors, human and other
multidimensional
value continuum
from negative to positive
commitment continuum
from nil to intense
quest continuum
seeking to conservative
coherence continuum
from negative to positive
a true worldview would give best
coherence without suppressing multidimensionality
worldview
“limitlessness of the universe”
why a worldview
to have direction takes a worldview;
the usual views are a mix of truth and error, of the explicit and the tacit;
developing an explicit worldview may address the issues while retaining the
good
gives coherence to human endeavor
informs us on what is real, what
possible
the view of the narrative—the ‘real metaphysics’
the fundamental principle of
metaphysics
the universe and the individual are
limitless—the greatest possible (the ‘fundamental principle’)
‘intension’ or meaning: this possibility must be
‘logical’ possibility (for which our logics are examples corresponding to
some modes of expression)
is this arrogant or ‘blasphemous’
it is true
it is not a promotion of any limited
form
what it says is depth is closed
breadth is infinitely open as long as
we are limited
it is the end of philosophy (or
science) as foundational of our being
and the beginning of action
the real metaphysics
this principle joins to what is valid in (human)
knowledge to constitute the real metaphysics
on meanings
in going beyond limited notions of experience,
we must go beyond and adjust received meanings and system meaning
sources
for the way and the worldview
history
aims
quest
received culture
experience
the individual
significance
of the worldview
goes limitlessly beyond standard
secular and transsecular views in meaning, significance, extension of the
universe and the individual
proof; consistency with what is valid
in all paradigms, knowledge, and interpretations of experience; doubt;
alternate attitudes
how is the view consistent with
experience (including science)—experience shows (a) what is there (b) but
what is not there only if we assume essentially everything has been
experienced… however it is consistent with our experience so far that, e.g.,
there is a sublayer for our cosmos which interacts weekly or rarely but is
infinite in variety and extent and may interact strongly in our future…
aim
of the way
shared and reasoned discovery and
realization of the ultimate in and from the immediate
this will be found also to be the aim of
being
enjoyment
appreciation of a world that has contentment and
dissatisfaction, conflict and cooperation, self and other, success and
striving, pleasure and pain, reason and chaos
means
includes received means
reason
critical—of the world, received
knowledge (and ways) show a part, perhaps an infinitesimal part in extent and
kind
creative—how can we go beyond the
received without going beyond experience… it must be by critiquing our
notions of what is experienced and then by critical imagination
the a priori—an extended meaning
no a priori
abstraction
knowledge
value
agency
being
the idea of ‘being’ as that which is, is
critical to understanding as ground or foundation that does not seek depth
and so avoids assumption such as substance or infinite regress
being provides objectivity where it is
possible, without relinquishing meaning; it does so by closure in depth but
(ever) openness in breadth—i.e., via ‘philosophical algebra’
experience
in experiencing the world, there is the
‘experience of’ or concept and ‘the experienced’ or object; the ‘experience
of’ is experience—the first concept of experience is that of conscious
awareness
reason for omitting awareness without
consciousness is given below
‘pure consciousness’ is the case that the actual
object is nil but there are always potential objects
even logical contradiction may be corrected
to begin, experience will be our term
for conscious awareness in all its forms
the significance of experience includes
(i) it is the place though not source of all significance and meaning (ii)
there is a good sense in which we do not transcend experience for the measure
of experience is further experience (iii) therefore the world is effectively
the experienced world
experiential
world
being is essentially experiential (demonstration
comes later); here is a heuristic—(i) our world is effectively relational:
‘experience of’ and ‘the experienced’ (ii) matter, such as it is, cannot
exclude the primitive of experience from its primitive level (iii) while the
primitive level is not as our experience is, it must be primitively
experiential and relational (iv) being is essentially experiential (and this
informal heuristic is suggestive but deficient as demonstration; clear
meanings and demonstration are given later)
the world is primitively experiential;
while this seems to contradict whatever may be true in world as form and
matter and objective, it is not—and it will turn out that ‘world as matter’
fits nicely into ‘world as experiential’, while the latter provides a
framework for a greater world
being
the concept—characteristic of that that which may be
validly known to be (directly, clearly, or otherwise), without qualification
on ‘to be’
why not simply ‘that which is’—(i) it is without
meaning (defined later), (ii) ‘that which may be validly known to be’ is
essentially the meaningful rendering of ‘that which is’
this depends on extending the intension of ‘to
know’
that the criterion is not specified
further than ‘may be validly known’ implies (i) no further criteria are to be
or received (ii) the question of ‘what has being’ is open, except to
elucidate the criterion
the sometime historical ascription of
higher modes of existence to ‘being’ will here be subsumed under kinds of
being
why being? being—vs substance (foundationalism,
coherentism—see infinite
regress arguments) vs infinitism (regress)
while being may be founded via abstraction,
experience (below) is implicit—therefore it might be better to begin with
experience; however there is no loss in beginning with the abstract and then
grounding being in experience—see ‘experience’ and ‘beings’ below
foundation
neutral
regress
pragmatism
transience
cartesian skepticism
negative
anti-foundationalism
pyrrhonian skepticism
positive
substance
what (positive)
‘depth’
pro, con
alternatives
ontology
why not metaphysics?
existence
‘that which is’
the sometime historical distinction from
being is empty
the sometime historical thought that
existence is trivial or meaningless is the result of aborted reason
the sometime historical problematicity of
‘negative existentials’ is trivially resolved by analysis of the meaning of
concept meaning
a being
that which has being
plural: beings
continued below
being is not a being
abstraction
the abstract and the concrete
abstract-concrete continuum
(difference and similarity between
abstraction and abstract objects)
perfection
pragmatic
perfect join of the abstract and the
concrete
with sufficient abstraction, being is a being (the
being)
power
a (full, deterministic) cause is that which is of a
being, and if it holds or obtains, entails a change or state in some
being—perhaps the same being; an effect is the received or entailed change
a partial cause is that which is
contributory to a cause
a probabilistic cause is one that makes the
change more likely; in true probabilistic cause, there is no further
component that makes the change certain
power is the capacity of a being to give
and receive cause or effect from itself or another being (or the capacity to
be involved in causation)
the being that has no power does not
exist
power is a measure of being
form
being must have form (which entails
extension—immanent spatiality)
exception—absence of manifest being
just being—spatiality—does not entail
duration
becoming, e.g. origins and change, ‘entails’
duration—immanent temporality
experience
first concept—animal awareness in all its forms
difference between conscious and
apparently non-conscious awareness is (can be seen as) difference in degree,
not in kind
in a substance world, awareness goes down
to the very elements of form; in a possibilist universe it goes down
potentially and in any class of identical situations the potential is
realized in some of the situations
we consider substance not for foundation
or to do justice to the received, but to question it—by doing a thought
experiment
the aim is to show the nature of cosmoses
that are approximately substance and what that entails… but that in general
the universe has and can have no substance foundation
now one purpose of universal substance is
as foundation—for which it must be ultimately simple
of one kind, and no structure in extension and
duration, for otherwise, the substance would clearly need its own foundation
(even with supreme simplicity the question of foundation remains unless
perhaps we regard the void, i.e., nothingness, as substance and that is where
we will head and find that the simplicity of the void is not given but a
matter of perspective
but given no structure, substances cannot
interact and therefore a substance universe would be monistic and if our
world is a substance world the substance would have to have mental and
material aspects which is rather easy to see how because both mind and
matter—experience of and the experienced—must have extension and change
then, from possibilism (developed later)
phases of the universe can be substance but the universe as a whole cannot
unless the void (in fact any being) is taken as substance
intrinsic, instrumental
experience incorporates reason
form
experience has form (with extension and relation)
and formation (with change)
given experience, there must be form and formation;
but are form and formation will later be found necessary without further
premise
experiential modality
dimensions
inner-outer, form-quality, bound-free,
iconic-symbolic, imperative-neutral
®
recall > memory
‘mind and matter’
are ‘experience of’ (‘mind’) and ‘the
experienced (‘matter’)
i.e., the material is being as such; the
mental is relationship; a further ‘kind’ would be relationship of
relationship which is relationship—i.e., there is no further kind; mind and
matter are the only elements of what Spinoza thought to be an infinite series
(but there may be limitlessly many Spinozan attributes
significance
experience is the place but not source of
all significance
not transcended
the place of intrinsic and instrumental
change
relational
the being without (with no trace in) experience,
self or other, is effectively non-existent
interpretation
an interpretation is a view, picture, or
prescription of the real (i.e. the existing) for a part of the real (e.g., a
realm or cosmos) or the entire real (the world)
as if
real
interpretations (mutually consistent and
inconsistent)
interpretations
substance and substance-free worlds; possibilist
worlds
world
experiential relation
experience of
concept
attitude
action
‘pure’
experience is relational
icon
iconic concept
sign
symbolic-iconic concept
language
symbolic-iconic
syntax is iconic
languages
a metaphysical language
the experienced
world
includes experience—i.e., experience is experienced
object
experiencer
self (also experienced)
relational nature of experience
meaning
knowledge
reason
effective—optimal—way of achieving good—valuable,
optimal—outcomes (ends, right ways, virtue)
includes determining value
includes attention to received reason
note the distinction—reason vs reasons
understanding, inference, and feeling—and their
products (knowledge, rational action); received reason
includes learning
beings
having clarified ‘being’, this section catalogs
beings and kinds—but it is not a mere catalog: it is a rational catalog that
derives from the fundamental nature of being, supplemented by pragmatic
considerations
intension
‘permissive; it requires only that the conceptually
hypothesized being be validly knowable (and not required or needed to be real
in any foundationalist-substance or coherentist sense… that is there is no
requirement of reference to another being) and knowability requires only
consistency—it allows but does not require the object of the concept to be
more than the concept… and so does not disallow an object but leaves it open
to investigation
extension—'beings’ and ‘kinds’
being as such vs essence
knowability
aspect
an aspect of a being is a being
characteristic
aspects
entity-hood
process
relation
form
includes extensional form (which extends
and has ‘shape’ in space) and durational form or formation (extends in time,
has change)
forms and formations are beings
material aspect
property
quality
quantity
state
of being or affairs
parthood
all
the being itself
the universe
part
for a being—component, element
for all being—a cosmos, a transient, an
individual or person
null
the void—the being that contains no being
abstract
abstraction vs abstract being
an abstraction—removal from the concept of
aspects of the being—is a being
if what is removed is what may be
distorted in experience, the abstract being is perfectly knowable
if what is left gives full knowledge, the
abstract is an essence
essence
minimum information to specify a being;
desirably necessary and illuminating
if the essence is not the entire being, it
is a pattern
pattern
information to specify a being is less than the raw
information
law
‘theory’
reading of a pattern, especially for a
cosmos or realm such as nature or the material; ‘law’ and ‘pattern’ may be
conflated
limits
limitless (ness)
hypothesis
proposed theory or law
sentient being
or experiential being
‘ideational’, ‘ideal’, ‘of mind’
idea
concept
sign
elements of language
phonemes, words, parts of speech (see Part of speech -
Wikipedia), tropes
identity
sense of sameness of self or object
form and space—sameness without change
formation and time—change with sameness
identities
… or beings with identity
why are you who you are and not another
person
are you in fact You
intelligent beings
intelligence is capacity for meaning
(significance), and reason
hierarchy of intelligent beings
animal beings
plants? viruses?
societies
self-aware beings
agents
free willed beings
free will—what it is or may be; conditions for
possibility of; human free will, issue of
persons
human beings are on a low rung of
knowledge of self and world beyond the immediate, capable of knowing that
they may realize greater and ultimate being—which requires some at least
tentative knowledge of how (and which we here see instantiated as real knowledge
of how)
later, we show the universe to be
limitless; this implies all beings are limitless—for if not the universe
would not be limitless; but humans can know this; we are perhaps the lowest
rung that can; it may seem contradictory for two humans to be both limitless;
but limitlessness is realized in merging as Brahman (below); in that form we
will not merely infer limitlessness we will see it; in that form we will see
all being and beings
…
gods
there are remote gods; but we are not other than
gods; we are on the way to becoming god(s)—we are ‘eruptions’ of creation,
manifesting agenthood, on the way to ultimate agenthood
Brahman
thus far in the narrative, gods and Brahman are
hypothetical
societies
human societies
reasons
reasons and reason are distinct
a reason for a (state of) being is that,
which if it is true or exists or obtains, then the being obtains with some
degree of certainty
necessary reasons
if the being obtains with certainty, the reason is
necessary
thus arguments as beings can be necessary
(e.g. deductive, with certain premises)
there are certain and contingent facts,
e.g. the existence of the manifest universe
there is a conceptual possibility of
zero-premise arguments (proving the ‘fundamental principle’ will be an
example); equivalently there are necessary facts
possible reasons
otherwise, the reason is likely or possible
or less than necessary with regard to either
inference (e.g. inductive) or establishment of premise, and may be strong or
weak (or wrong)
effective reasons
material cause-effect—a (full deterministic) cause
entails the effect; a partial cause makes the effect more likely; a
probabilistic cause makes the effect more likely (the difference from partial
cause is that there is no further cause that makes a probable cause a (full
deterministic) cause
universe
creator
impossibility of
ontological proof
vs ‘the ontological proof of God’s existence’
identity
cosmos
(cosmoses)
law
the void
existence of
no laws in the void
first form of the fundamental principle
limitlessness
of the universe, its identity, and the individual
second form of the fundamental principle
a cosmology of limitlessness
description (cosmological)— identity of universe
and individual, Brahman, extension, duration, variety, peak, cosmoses,
transaction
issues
newness
consistency
i.e., consistency with experience
internal (logic)
external (concrete and abstract sciences)
possibility
possibility as a property of concepts and their
potential objects rather than a property of an object
paradigm
intrinsic
i.e., logical
third form of the fundamental principle
kinds
kinds and modes of expression or concept
extrinsic
i.e., real
kinds
kinds and modes of being
metaphysical
general
identical to intrinsic
special
real in having some features of
the real but not necessarily of any particular being (cosmos)
purpose—to analyze the real or
aspects of it without encumbrance of particulars
real
form
i.e., form and formation >
extension, change
theoretical
limited by theory, hypothesis or
law
scientific
limited by theory, hypothesis or
law
e.g., physical, cosmological, chemical, geological,
biological, psychological, social, economic, and political
mathematical
sentient
intelligent
self-aware
able to inquire into the nature and meaning of (its
own) being
logic
knowledge may be classified by how it is
right or wrong—if it conflicts with itself it is logical (and good if it does
not conflict); if it may disagree with the world it is empirical or
scientific (and good science if it agrees); and mathematics is the case of
science for abstract or possible worlds
science (and mathematics) presume logic;
logic may be seen as (proto) science (it is from here that the sense in which
logic is empirical is derived)
there is a sense in which science says
nothing of the world—the world is there being the world, doing what it
does—science is merely saying what it does (but is of course informative to
limited minds); similarly, logic, too says nothing; logic (as including
science as including mathematics) are aids to limited minds so that the minds
can say something and aids to potentially erroneous minds so that they avoid
saying less than nothing
mathematics
science
metaphysics
the concept
has begun
therefore, its possibility
the real metaphysics
description
perfection
residual significance of ‘limited world’
philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, value
realization
newness
doubt, alternative attitudes
proofs and heuristics
optimal action
distribution of effort – allocation of
resources
modified Pascal’s Wager
meaning and implications of the real metaphysics
and the fundamental principle
intensional or explicit—limitlessness, the only
inconsistent concepts have no objects
fact and nature of the demonstration
analysis of possibility
extensional or implicit—the variety of being
being and universe
metaphysics of experience
deriving kinds of world or cosmos from experience
limitlessness of form,
formation, and identity
the aim of being
human endeavor and realization
givenness
of the ultimate——human beings partake of the identity
and limitlessness of the universe
enjoyment
appreciation of the quality of living—of pleasure and
pain—a value and a natural imperative
intelligence
engaging intelligently in pathways and development of
pathways is effective in enjoyment
knowledge
for the text—see the way > resources > text design
problems of metaphysics
a logical or coherent account
the problems
cosmology
dimensions of being
… and experience
value
ethics, aesthetics, intelligence, and their
relations
imperative
path
3
The way
the way
aim of
being
means
received means and ways, reason
path
templates
template design (i) all
activities and dimensions of being, immediate to universal (ii) adaptable to
a range of circumstances—individual to civilization
everyday
universal
world opportunities and problems
world
problems and opportunities.html
Journey
in Being-detail.html
dedication
affirmation
resources
database
of concepts (use Access)
plan
text design
continuous text
the way
continuity with all relevant history
and text
design includes development of the
text versions, sharing, publishing, and translation into action
the text has been written without limit,
is yet as if a new and nascent flowering—and yet timeless
life
death
envisioning life, death, and their resolution
4
Epilogue
return
to the world
return to the world
being in the world
one world
the immediate and the ultimate are one
sharing
reason
discovery and action
feeling and cognition
value and object
critical and creative
no a priori
being in
the world
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