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The way of being Anil Mitra, Copyright © March 15, 2021. Revised May 4, 2021. Home page for the way of being Contents the secular and the transsecular ideas, the world, and history—continuity
plan general minimize the plan for the outline (Word document) and combine it with the plan for this document this document arrange concept order, need for repetition: detail, chop, import topics
to have pre and post ‘real metaphysics’ treatment: some topics: review main, pithy statements minimize statements, use lower-level styles (higher numeric) for details, eliminate unnecessary repetition get levels, hierarchy, styles, automation right List styles—concept names (List and levels 2 – 95) Normal Main for first look content (one style) Normal Indent styles for brief, essential content (Normal Indent and levels 1 – 95) List Continue styles—detailed content (List Continue and levels 2 – 95) Definition styles—definitions (Definition and levels 2 – 95) Heading Color work with tables of contents to have a range of summary types, e.g.— concept hierarchy concepts with main statements and more 1 Into the waymay add ‘Prologue’ this document is bare content for 2020-2021 informal introduction to the way and its origin in the world in the universe human world satisfaction contentment and seeking enjoyment pleasure and pain progress direction and indirection coherence conflict and cooperation endeavor to improve and go beyond the human and the human world multidimensional a variety of aims and endeavors, human and other value continuum negative to positive commitment continuum absent to intense quest continuum seeking to conservative coherence continuum negative to positive an ideal or guide a true worldview would give best coherence without suppressing multidimensionality origins of the way resources world history received culture experience the individual why choice all choice is influenced by perspective—typically a mix of truth and error, the explicit and the tacit; an explicit view may enhance awareness, truth, and wholeness resource gives realism and closure to understanding and action, meaning and coherence to the variety of human endeavors informs us as to what is real, what possible, what feasible, what worthwhile how reason means of effective understanding and action concept formation and criticism—direct and reflexive, implementation in action, review, learning no a priori in an extended meaning of the a priori abstraction knowledge value agency reflexivity level 0—direct level 1—of paradigms of concept formation and criticism level 2—interaction of all elements of process, sought efficiently the view the fundamental principle of metaphysics the universe and the individual are limitless—the greatest possible intension or meaning—the kind of possibility must be logical, for which our logics are examples corresponding to some modes of expression extension or cosmology—all logical concepts are realized; limited individuals realize the limitless is this hubris it is true it is consistent with experience (and science), for our experience is among the possible, but only part of it, for beyond (and underneath) our experience, cannot be contradicted by our experience it is not a promotion of any limited form what it says in 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 with a perfect aspect in the fundamental principle… and a pragmatic aspect in reason and the range of human knowledge (from the view of limitlessness, for limited beings the pragmatic is perfect in being the best) significance 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 on meanings in going beyond limited notions of experience, we must go beyond and adjust received meanings and system meaning shared and reasoned discovery and realization of the ultimate in and from the immediate the aim of the way will be found 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 the way the way has a base in a demonstrated principle—the universe is the realization of the greatest possibility it follows that the universe has identity, which is limitless in variety, extent, duration, peak, and dissolution; that individuals though limited in present form, inherit the limitlessness of the universe, which they do in merging into peak identity; that there are paths or ways beyond the limits of human power birth and death; and that if enjoyment—appreciation of pleasure, pain, perception, thought, will, and action—is a prime value, it is then desirable or imperative to engage in shared discovery and negotiation of pathways the way of being will be of interest to those who think there is truth in the human traditions including science and search for the ultimate, but that truth may be only a fraction of the whole truth—for while experience may be limitless, human experience so far and its paradigms may be far from the range of experience to be had while subsequent paradigms may be difficult to foresee (e.g., what comes after general relativity and quantum theory, and what comes after that, and so on), the limit of paradigm is easy to see—it is the limit of logic, which is the constraint on any system of concepts to be realizable that, as will be shown in the text by a consideration of the nature of being – the void – and the universe, the universe is the realization of the greatest possibility (which is logical possibility); and that in combining this principle with the suggestive power of the paradigms of tradition and imagination and experiment, the ultimate can be envisioned and pathways to it developed and to those who are interested in following, negotiating, sharing, and continuing to develop such pathways main concepts being a being is that which may be said to be; being is what characterizes beings ‘to be’ is exemplified by any combination of verbs ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘were’, ‘will be’ and so on being and existence are identical the value of ‘being’ is (i) as foundation for knowledge it is, unlike matter and mind, given, though open to discovery (ii) framework for living in the immediate and realization of the ultimate experience experience is any form of animal awareness in the text, the meaning of experience will be given foundation, and its scope broadened to be co-extensive with being the value of experience is (i) it is the place of all significance (ii) we do not get beyond it, for the measure of experience is experience (ii) it is therefore co-foundation for knowledge and action (iii) as the dimension of our ‘inner’ life, it is the place of significance and of our being (iv) it is therefore co-framework for living in the immediate and realization of the ultimate
beings laws laws are patterns over some region of being, e.g., a cosmos laws are beings, for it a law can be validly said to be (a first significant application of the concept of being) the void the void is the absence of being it contains no being; its existence and non-existence may be taken to exist; it is the unique being for which it is not a contradiction to say that self creates (a second significant use of ‘being’) the universe the universe is all being the universe can have no creator, but it may spontaneously manifest from the void, which is an apparent violation of causality (but there is no reason causality as we understand it should apply to the void), but not a logical contradiction (a third use of ‘being’) because the void has no laws, any possible being or state must emerge from the void; and so emergent of the void—the universe—are limitless; which is a trivial demonstration of why there must be phases of something rather than an eternal void (the power of ‘being’ shows itself) some further concepts possibility, logic, science, tradition, and imagination here, it is pertinent to touch on these briefly possibility, logic, science, tradition, and imagination, enable the development of the basic ideas above as an instrument of knowledge and action doubt, attitudes doubt is critical (i) in criticizing and so strengthening the development (ii) in seeing that while the principle of limitlessness is consistent with experience, that the principle ought to be doubted, even though a demonstration is given, and this raises the question of what attitudes we ought to have toward a consistent principle of such power two attitudes will be suggested (i) to see it as a metaphysical postulate that consistent with experience, science, and logic (ii) to see it as an existential principle of action toward the ultimate 2 The worldall beings inherit the power of the universe issue—begin with (i) being—i.e., the abstract or (ii) experience—concrete, immediate, given? resolution—start with the sequence being (for beings, give only a def) ® experience ® beings for experience conclude only about what is actual in it but otherwise possible (mention possibilism) ® conclude what is actual in the universe after FP what a being is that which is; being is the characteristic of beings as beings. alternate definition—being is the characteristic of that which is; a being is that which has being is being a being? the concepts are distinct, but with and only with sufficient abstraction, the objects are the same neutrality of the concept toward differences among beings, kinds, and categories; examples— though we think of beings as manifest, even that distinction will not be sustained in admitting, later, the void as a being toward be-ing vs becoming (vs relation, interaction)—i.e., to form (with extension and quality) and formation (change, with relation) substance distinctions toward any view of the universe as what has been revealed so far in our experience including science (that is, universe as being is consistent with experience and science) … further, universe as being is logically consistent with the content of experience as fact but this says nothing though it is neutral to the distinctions above, it allows them (as well as their ruling out) and the possibility of their reality—i.e., it allows, within it, a range of special connotations of ‘being’ characteristics “what being is” (the object and the concept) existence but note, existence is an equivalent, not another concept the distinction between ‘being’ and ‘existence’—e.g., independent vs dependent existence or being is fundamentally nil, because, as will be seen, to talk of being as distinct from experienced being is null (see discussion of experience) the claim that existence is trivial is true, but the trivial may be potent; the claim that there is no concept of existence stems from the thought that the putative concept makes no distinction, which in turn results from suppressing the concept, which in turn results from thinking ordinary things exist in isolation from their concepts, which the analysis of experience below will show to be untrue the ‘problem of negative existentials’ is trivially resolved by analysis of (the meaning of ) concept meaning no further essential characteristics—being is just the characteristic of beings as beings real removes ‘mystery’ regarding what is real—given that something has being, there is no further question of its reality (e.g., is it material, is it transcendent…) … but does not remove the experience of the real as mystery there of course the question of how being-hood is determined, and this is taken up in considering experience, below power later form the knowable characteristics of a being which have ‘dimensions’ of extension or immanent spatiality, duration or immanent temporality, and, perhaps, abstract dimensions later we find the notion of the abstract to be a metaphorical fiction; therefore, the dimensions of form are extension, and duration—and their absence sometimes ‘form’ will refer only to extensional or spatial form introduce this distinction by using ‘Form’ for the general sense and ‘form’ for the spatial? being must have extensional form exception—absence of manifest being just being—spatiality—does not entail duration non-durational, changeless, or static form is conceivable, therefore logically possible; later we will see that the logically possible is realized, therefore there are static cosmoses, which are of limited significance and cannot support sentient beings becoming, e.g., origins and change, if there is any, ‘entails’ duration—immanent temporality becoming thus, being includes becoming, action, relation… non-characteristics “what being is not”—some other uses of ‘being’ being does not refer specifically to the special—e.g., ‘higher’, ‘spiritual’ – or ‘material’, ‘essential’, ‘independent be-ing’, ‘human’, ‘sentient’… includes these modes, so far as real—i.e., though being is neutral to these non-characteristics they may lie within or constitute sub-divisions within being criticism not a concept trivial significance it is the concept that excludes no object seemingly trivial, being is—will be seen—powerful as ground and container for the world and its variety, for special and general kinds ontology the study of being there is being why foundation without infinite regress, coherentism, or pitfalls of substance—see infinite regress arguments frame for understanding and action does not refer to particular or special beings or kinds—which enables founding and framing them as will be seen, enables objectivity without relinquishing significance via closure in depth but ever openness in breadth—i.e., via ‘philosophical algebra’ foundations on foundations and foundationalism—an appendix to ‘why being’ and foundationalism neutral regress pragmatism transience cartesian skepticism coherentism negative anti-foundationalism pyrrhonian skepticism positive substance what (positive) ‘depth’ pro, con alternatives being the foundational character of being is that, unlike substance, it is not a posit; it is the unknown of a metaphysical algebra; and the power, then, is it allows and levers unfolding of metaphysics as study of the real and, further, since being is ‘that which is’, as study of the immediate and the ultimate how “how being is known and studied” ontology mentioned for completeness; may point out developments here; may further develop later the study of being abstraction if a concept pragmatically identifies an object to abstract is to delete some details from a concept either to focus on the essential or to leave only the undistorted or ‘perfect’ thus, objects may be labeled ‘abstract’ or ‘concrete’, but lie on a continuum—are not fundamentally distinct the abstract is often defined via free, especially linguistic, concepts (‘concepts’) and the concrete by bound concepts (‘percepts’), which renders the abstract suitable for correspondence perfection and the concrete inclined to pragmatic sufficiency later we develop a join of the perfect and the pragmatic in a real metaphysics that is perfect in a way that will be defined the abstract inhabit the concrete; the concrete populate the abstract abstraction enables perfect knowledge, e.g.— there is being
abstracts will provide some examples—as examples on the concrete-abstract continuum to be used, and as a preliminary showing of the power of the concept of being reasons distinguish from ‘reason’ a reason is that which has entailment of a (state of) being a state may be a quality of a being, particularly its existence a reason may be a fact that obtains or a state of being a reason may be abstract or concrete; however, the distinction not intrinsic but relative to (our) mode of conception—‘direct’ as in perception, or representative as in iconic-symbolic conception consequent the entailed state classes of reason logical the relation between reason and consequent is logical ‘logic’ and ‘real’ are defined later real the relation between reason and consequent is in the world self the reason is located in the consequent full a full reason is a reason absolute a full but empty reason deterministic full partial a partial reason is contributory to a reason necessary the consequent is certain possible the consequent is not ruled out impossible if the reason is given, the consequent certainly does not obtain indeterministic neither deterministic nor impossible probable the consequent is likely cause another term for a reason self-cause is logically possible it is obviously possible for complex entities it apparently occurs for ‘particles’ in physic effect another term for a consequent to be a consequent includes but is not limited to temporal consequence power power is concrete cause (and effect), the action of a being on self or other the being that has no power, self or other, does not exist; power is a measure of being monadic, dyadic, perhaps polyadic creation create to materially cause the existence of a being creator being that creates (a being) self-creation impossible, for it presumes simultaneous existence and non-existence exception—the void, for, as will be seen, the void is the being for which existence and non-existence (non-manifestation) are the same spontaneous creation or origin logically possible appears to violate usual notions of cause, so one might not want to call it ‘cause’ but that is somewhat a matter of terminology, for while physical cause might not be applicable at that level, the level is at least apparently not physical in our common sense of the physical—i.e., the void (nothingness) does not seem physical what could begin with experience, especially as it is the place of significance and of ‘our being’, but it is convenient to begin with being, weave experience into the discussion, and then elaborate on being… this will be followed by establishment and development of the ‘real metaphysics’ as worldview use of ‘awareness’ vs ‘experience’ vs ‘consciousness’ ‘experience of’ (first use) i.e., ‘experience of’ ‘the experienced’; i.e., awareness directed toward-from the world (attitude and action) the etymology of experience—ex: ‘out’, per: ‘try’—is not particularly helpful to the meaning of experience used here but is so for the following here, does not refer to the related use of ‘experience’ as the process of getting knowledge firsthand—i.e., doing, feeling, seeing, or thinking about is there ‘experience of’ etc? at least a manner of speaking (metaphor) we use till what obtains is clarified and shown detail an ‘experience of’ is a concept (‘mental content’) and examples are feelings, perceptions… ‘the experienced’ is the object (‘material’ or formal—i.e., of form) and an example is the world, which includes experience itself ‘mind and matter’ 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) ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ can be seen as attributes of experience, as experience is intrinsically ‘mental’ and extrinsically of form; and thus, seeing mind as temporal and matter as spatial is limited as experience has both temporality and spatiality and as experientiality is seen below to be the greatest real view of the universe experience is extensional experience is durational from experience there are ‘mind’ and ‘matter’; later from possibilism (FP), it will follow that the universe must be experiential and there must be mind and matter modes experience is attitudinal-active; bifurcates as attitudinal and active; there is no strictly pure case, for there is always potential relation to the world attitude-action experience directed toward self in relation to (form and formation of) the world note—even though there is distinction, attitude and action are integrated and it is therefore better to conceive and define attitude-action than to define attitude and action separately attitude emphasis on form and world over of formation and self but note in the more inclusive senses, form includes formation and world includes self (and with reinterpretation, the inclusions could be reversed in direction) action emphasis on formation and self over form and world ‘pure’ experience case that the directedness is null (but inner or potential) dimensions or functions inner-outer, form-quality, bound-free, iconic-symbolic, imperative-neutral, state-function-recall (memory) research this based on other documents develop the logic and the implications for cognition, emotion, feeling, memory, personality… animal awareness in all its forms (second use, abstracted from the first) is there non-conscious awareness? will find awareness to be a kind of relation between sentient and world and conscious to non-conscious awareness a continuum (multi-d) of degree, not kind awareness is relational the above may have been repeated below relational being in all its forms (third use, justified below) tie this into being as relational as ‘experience of’, experience so far is relational; pure experience is internally relational and potentially relational regarding the world substance substance theory is rejected here—but taken up as an aid to analysis of the place of experience in the world substance theory is also considered under being as an aid to supplanting the idea of substance as fundamental by being as really fundamental a substance is (here conceived as) a particular that exists independently of other beings one purpose to substance is as founding the existence of all beings on existentially (ontologically) independent beings take up other properties traditionally ascribed to substance, e.g., simplicity—therefore uniformity and changelessness and non-interactivity with other substances (which means that though changeless, substance must allow or require emergence of change) if ontological independence includes causal independence, only self-caused entities like Spinoza’s God can be substances; though this can be gotten around (the void is self-caused), it is an unnecessary sophistication (and from its complexity and power, Spinoza’s God is unfounded, as are all substances) shortfalls of substance are (i) a substance is a posit (ii) a substance is inadequate to variety (iii) multiple substances do not interact dualist foundation is incoherent; substance foundation must be monist a strict material cosmos is one in which matter is the only substance and experience (‘mind’) is no part of matter therefore, our cosmos cannot be a strictly material cosmos; it is at least approximately substance, but the substance must be experiential—and as experiential to have form and change which is experienced as ‘material’; but this is no foundation because as a strict monist world there is no explanation of its being a possibilist cosmos is one in which the greatest possibility is realized in a possibilist cosmos, experientiality may reach down to the root it is later seen that the universe is possibilist being is experiential-relational, where the experientiality down to the root is of the same kind as conscious awareness but of lower degree; and also extends up to the greatest being (whether an actual being or an open hierarchy) there is experience and experience of experience the notion of an ‘external world’ is metaphorical experience is recursive and an as if world which includes experience later ‘as if’ will be removed experience is part of the world even ‘as if’ is not removed, the as if world is a world (of sorts) why place of our being and significant meaning experience is the place our being and place (if not source) of all significance not transcended, for the measure of experience is experience; therefore, for us, being is experiential and, ultimately, as experienced as will be seen, we are entirely experiential; the universe is entirely experiential the place of all change, intrinsic and instrumental relational; therefore, being—the world—is experiential the being without (with no trace in) experience, self or other, is effectively non-existent later ‘effectively’ will be removed; this will require expansion of the meaning of ‘experience’ to the root (to make elimination of ‘effectively’ meaningful and FP to make it true) co-foundation …together with being necessity—experience is our only window on being (for we do not get outside it); it is therefore necessary to foundation sufficiency—and therefore sufficient to whatever foundation there may be with adequate, unconditionally sufficient, e.g., to being will be seen perfect, relative to the aim of realization experience incorporates 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 source of all knowledge—the world being and experience complement one another as object and subject side of the world and approach to the world take up in detail next interpretations of experience and the world experience as if of the real may be (i) categorially in error in mistaking what is ‘as if of the real’ with the real (ii) imprecise, even if categorially valid the aim of this section is to (begin to) derive valid description(s) of the real from experience the full account will be completed after establishing the real metaphysics since we always remain ‘in experience’, the notions of ‘world’, ‘validity’, and ‘the real’ will necessarily be derived from the entire range of experience what in this section, an interpretation is a description of the world that is consistent with the entire range of experience more generally, ‘interpretation’ may be used to refer to description of some object that is consistent with some system of experience the interpretations may include patterns (‘higher’ concepts) projected on ranges of direct experience (percepts or ‘lower’ concepts) why interpretations are pragmatically useful since not posits, even if categorially and objectively unfaithful, are open to refinement and correction analysis of a range of interpretations that are consistent with experience may and will lead, by demonstration, to a true picture of the world and the real (this will require clarification of the meaning of ‘true picture’) the interpretations the main interpretations are numbered (i) and (ii) there is experience—for to doubt experience is to have an experience, positively—experience is the medium of our being and window on being there is experience of experience—for without it, we could not know there is or report experience there is a world—if only that the range of experience is itself a world there must be a world—this will be shown after demonstration of the fundamental principle; heuristic—the standard world view, below, and its apparent stability; existential heuristic—from meaningfulness the world is strictly materialist—this seems to follow from some interpretations of science and the apparent objectivity of ‘matter’, but, as we have seen, it is not a consistent interpretation of our world; however, from possibilism, developed later (the fundamental principle), there are strictly materialist worlds and other barren worlds that are dead to process, life, and experience the world is monist, with experience as the substance and as having a matter-like aspect in having form and formation—this is at least an approximation to proximate experience (i.e., to our experienced world, e.g., the world of modern cosmology—the big bang or, perhaps, the multiverse world) (i) a common world view that we call the standard secular view (SSV)—the world is a place with selves and others (including animals) and an environment (including plants), where the environment is not experientially null but has experientiality at a low or zero level (ii) the world is the world experience as if of a single experiencer, but without the experiencer; though seemingly absurd, this is logically possible; here are two sub-cases (a) the experiencer has the experiential capacity of a human being as it is typically held to be—if our world is as rich as generally held, this cannot be our world (b) the world or universe itself is the experience of an experiencer of sufficient experiential capacity—from the earlier discussion under ‘substance’ this is not absurd, and it incorporates interpretation #i (SSV) above; it shall be named a field of being and experience (FOBE, FOE) interpretation and is an interpretation for the universe; if possibilism (FP) holds this is the maximal universe and includes all other possible interpretations of experience above; FOBE would phase into and out of manifestation, and the manifest phases would include human beings merged as ultimate in peak being characteristics i.e., further characteristics form experience has form (with extension and relation) and formation (with change) form and formation are in more than one place may define identity, sameness, difference, spatiality, temporality here given experience as premise, there must be form and formation; but are form and formation will later be found necessary without further premise—but there are no further modes of difference but for absence (there may be multiple spatialities and temporalities in the same region) experiential relations what to title this—*experiential relations*? note earlier material repeated below; eliminate or join or leave as is? experience of ‘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 a catalogue of beings and kinds, made rational—first in terms of the intension vs extension of ‘beings’ since beings are seen in aspects—even a whole may be seen as an aspect, the rationale is being ® aspects and their kinds classify the kinds rationally intension actual and possible significant beings—actual because they are; possible, for later we find all logically possible beings to be beings; significant because non-significant beings are effectively non-existent (later, they are found to be non-existent) extension beings and kinds grouping particular vs kind kinds being vs essence an essence is ‘what a being really is’ for being as such, its being-hood is its essence essence an aspect of being ‘most’ significant to itself or another essences arise as part of discovery and realization, not as defining characteristic aspect part of a being; a being seen from a perspective an aspect of a being is a being aspects— abstraction to abstract is to filter out detail by working with the concept side of a being with sufficient and appropriate abstraction, the concept may be perfectly faithful to the abstract of the being abstract being there are no abstract vs concrete beings, rather there are continua of abstraction, and ‘abstract being’ and ‘concrete being’ are metaphorical uses for places on the continua aspects of beings entity-hood process relation state i.e., a state of being or affairs form forms as snapshots formations material or substance aspect property quality quantity form includes formation (and ‘static’ form) and how there is no further attribute to form, beyond form and formation reasons considered earlier object identities concept-object make consistent with and eliminate repetition of earlier treatment of abstraction; perhaps combine the two treatments concept-object as the essential object—from earlier analysis of experience therefore, there are no abstract objects as distinguished from concrete objects of course, some objects may be properly called abstract or concrete from other perspectives rather, objects lie on a concretion-abstraction continuum and the distinction is one of how the objects are known, rather than their constitution and, so, from that perspective we consider— concrete objects the term is metaphorical, and used for objects known perceptually (i.e., via bound concepts) abstract objects used for objects known in terms of free concepts and, so, from that perspective we consider— value values as real the abstract and the concrete the abstract and the concrete are not distinct kinds but lie on a continuum (or continua, for there is more than one mode of abstraction) the abstract or ideal forms are immanent in the concrete, so, from the theory of being, there is neither need nor justification for their distinction according to kind what is more because our ideas are (co-) forms, we attribute substance (reify), but there is no need or justification to do that; substance therefore is a reification—and not a justified one at that parts proper parts wholes parts voids parthood whole or ‘all’, ‘the being’, e.g., universe (below) part e.g., cosmos, individual null the void, below, the being that contains no being experiential or sentient elemental through feeling, cognitive, agentive, through… idea subject aspect of form concept sign elements of language phonemes, words, parts of speech (see Part of speech - Wikipedia), tropes intelligent beings intelligence is ability for meaning as significance and reason a hierarchy of intelligent beings— living animal plants? viruses? societies self-aware beings identities identity sense of sameness of self or object here, focus is on self as object self why is my-self this self or, why is one who they are and not another ‘are you in fact You’—or is self a fractured version of Self agents free willed beings free will—what it is or may be; conditions for possibility of; human free will, issue of persons humans can know that their real being is greater than their form—but are at a primitive level and so this knowledge is not common and takes effort but this knowledge is possible—later we find the universe limitless; therefore, all beings are limitless; and realize Brahman (below) societies and cultures human societies … 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, a wave front as much as rays, manifesting agenthood, on the way to ultimate agenthood Brahman thus far in the narrative, gods and Brahman are hypothetical particular beings universe all being; all beings there is precisely one; no other if there are two never-interacting sub-universes, for a being in one sub-universe, it is effectively the universe for a being, the effective universe is all being that has power with the being will see later that there are no distinct never interacting universes nothing outside; neither form, nor matter, nor idea, nor foundation, nor creator, nor potential… contains all possibility for the universe, the possible, actual, and real are the same creator the creator of a being is the reason or cause of its being (existence) no being self-creates (can self-create) for that requires simultaneous existence and non-existence exception the void, because its existence and non-existence are equivalent a creator is other than the created being the universe has no creator—for there is no other being it is logically possible for the manifest universe to spontaneously originate from the void or nonmanifest part a being repeat cosmos creation stable essence pattern law a law is a being limit individual occurs in more than one place; finalize identity the void the absence of being; the being that has no parts the void is a being, for its being and non-being are equivalent this is a first form of the fundamental principle of metaphysics, abbr. fundamental principle or FP its existence is necessary; its destruction leaves it intact; it may be said to self-create there are no laws in the void quantum vacuum the void is not the quantum vacuum in considering the origin of our cosmos, it is worth looking at the origin of the quantum vacuum from the void, rather than looking only at the origin of the quantum fields the concept—study and knowledge of the real has begun therefore, possible trivial so far trivial means easy to the point of tautology, but, as will be seen, not empty or lacking power or potency not trivial in that the conceptions of being (and its relation to experience), experience (awareness), reasons, power, beings, the universe, the void required interactive refinement as part of the metaphysics under development will continue to develop into a metaphysics of ultimate power—the real metaphysics therefore, the present conception is an excellent one does not and is not intended to exclude other conceptions of metaphysics but will include and subsume some of those others and may require or suggest rejections of further others (a) as metaphysics (b) altogether existence of the void above fundamental principle—limitlessness of the universe, its identity, and the individual if a possible being, i.e., one corresponding to a consistent concept, did not emerge from the void, that would be a law of the void; therefore, since there are no laws in the void, all possible beings emerge from the void, i.e.— the universe is conceptually limitless the universe has identity the universe is realization of the greatest possibility which will be seen to be logical possibility this is the second form of the fundamental principle the demonstration is an ontological proof (one that appeals only to the property of being or existing) Anselm’s ontological proof of God’s existence, ‘the ontological proof’ is an example of an ontological proof the individual inherits the power of the universe, for the contrary would be a limit on the universe cosmology of limitless identity developed below; place here? possibility possibility as a property of concepts and their potential objects rather than a property of an object paradigms of possibility 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 thus, note the oneness, at the most inclusive level, of the intrinsic and the extrinsic and, below, note that mathematics and science fall under logic as particularizations in the abstract-free concept-symbolic vs concrete-percept-world directions special real in having some features of the real but not necessarily of any particular being (cosmos) cannot violate logic; may violate law but that is not a primary intent, except to understand law and laws 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 real metaphysics join of the abstract metaphysics above, with tradition, and reason description perfection residual significance of ‘limited world’ philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, value issues newness doubt alternate proofs, heuristics residual doubt consistency alternative attitudes metaphysical postulate existential principle of action meaning of the real metaphysics i.e., meaning and implications of the real metaphysics and the fundamental principle intensional intensional or explicit—limitlessness, the only inconsistent concepts have no objects fact and nature of the demonstration analysis of possibility extensional extensional or implicit—the variety of being being and universe metaphysics of experience developed below under world > interpretations of experience > revisited implications for optimal action distribution of effort – allocation of resources modified Pascal’s Wager reason the concept of reason doubt attitudes interpretations … of experience revisited and ‘finalized’ functions of experience, the revisited, grounded in cosmology and logic, finalized cosmology of limitless identity description (cosmological)— identity of universe and individual, Brahman, extension, duration, variety, peak, cosmoses, transaction the ultimate and the individual in the ultimate, facts, patterns, and values are one individuals proximately limited experiential beings death real but not absolute realization enjoyment appreciation of the quality of living, intrinsic—pleasure and pain, and being in the world pleasure pain value see enjoyment above ethics, aesthetics, intelligence, and their relations intersection of value and being (previously: values are beings) ethics aesthetics intersections of ethics and aesthetics imperative path would be part of ‘cosmology of identity’; promoted because of its significance existence, principles, general characteristics, sources in tradition detail and practice are in the next division—the way givenness of realization beings already participate in the identity and limitlessness of the universe effectiveness of intelligent engagement and development of pathways intelligence define is there a better word than intelligence? world interpretations of experience revisited dimensions of being could be placed in cosmology; is here because it is ‘vertical’ first and ‘horizontal’ second descriptive metaphysics here? finalize placement logic of the problems of metaphysics classical through current problems of metaphysics the logic the descriptive metaphysics emphasize those problems not already treated part of metaphysics dimensions of being could be placed here description of the universe and its forms or patterns form includes formation patterns allow extrapolation, prediction general cosmology logical logical cosmology is general cosmology philosophical method ‘reason’ paradigms paradigms are part of reason but are mentioned explicitly here because their use is significant determinism part determines whole is that not what a pattern is? change color or bulleting of Style Definition … and indeterminism; kinds of determinism; absolute determinism and absolute indeterminism block universe as perspective or description rather than feature of the real relative nature of the determined and merging of identities cosmology of form form and formation method method for general cosmology real metaphysics, received and reasoned paradigm reason—review and extension our cosmos ‘physical cosmology’ method method for general cosmology and cosmology of form methods of physical cosmology astronomy theoretical physics cosmological modeling cosmological realms origins and reasons… galaxies… solar systems… planets… life and its creation and origins here or in ‘metaphysics’ or in experience dimensions of experience here… or under experience? paradigms the pure the pragmatic path combine, minimize the occurrences of ‘path’ also considered below; here the aim would be to derive and show the essentials, to share 3 The waythe world and the real as one the aim of being is the aim of the way the way and its means reason also considered above received ways integration of reason and received ways also considered above; here the aim is practical, detailed, to share rather than to merely inform or instruct principles template design immediate to universal all activities and dimensions of being adaptable to a range of circumstances individuals to civilization templates dedication and affirmation everyday universal world problems and opportunities world problems and opportunities.html (for details, see Journey in Being-detail.html) 4 Into the worldmay add ‘epilogue’ one world the immediate and the ultimate are one becoming and being commitment renewal retreat the secular and the transsecular problem and opportunity see earlier, under—The way > paths > templates > universal > world problems and opportunities have this in two places (here, and earlier—the two places having different emphases) or one ideas, the world, and history—continuity oral and ritual tradition continuous text historical integration cyclical flesh out from outlines… this is very incomplete—but there are resources in other documents… which ones? database of concepts plan the way life death visioning life, death, and their resolution site texts combine the various occurrences of ‘reason’ discovery and action feeling and cognition value and object critical and creative no a priori |