the world

two dogmas and their opposition are common enough that they limit our views and progress—(i) that experiential or scientific secularism is the way (ii) religious and other transsecular ideologies

what is the way forward?

being

a being is that which can have a direct or indirect effect on awareness; being is the characteristic of beings

if a being defined with limited concrete detail (i.e., abstraction), it may be known perfectly; other beings are known pragmatically, but no better

a being is that which may be validly said to be

above, ‘to be’ may have any tense, combination of tenses and tenselessness, including absolute tenselessness; ‘a being’, plural ‘beings’, is a noun form; next consider ‘being’, a central concept of the way and of metaphysics, which has the form of a property, but which, in abstraction, may also be considered a noun form; from abstraction though ‘a being’ has noun form, properties and many other grammatical – semantic categories

being, the property of all beings as beings, is—will be seen to be—(i) foundational, for unlike substance foundation (materialism, idealism…) it does not refer to an incomplete science or philosophy (ii) grounding in that we are fully ‘of being’ even though our material, ideal (mental and ‘spiritual’), and any other categorial nature may be rough and unclear

the foundational strength of ‘being’ is that it does not and need not refer; a criticism of ‘being’ is that it refers to ‘everything’, is therefore trivial, and therefore incapable of being a powerful foundation; the response is that a powerful foundation is developed below—and amplified and further argued in the main text; together with the concepts of ‘law of nature’, ‘the universe’, ‘the void’ (nothing or nothingness), and other concepts, being is at the core of a foundation of a perfect metaphysics that represents the universe and reveals it as ultimate

the senses of the terms ‘perfect’ and ‘ultimate’ above, will emerge below and are elaborated in the main text

‘being’ may seem to lack the richness to be grounding of our full nature and place in the world; in fact, as such, it does lack richness, but its strength is that it is capable of being, in virtue of its abstract generality, a perfect container for the richness and it is in studying the kinds and varieties of being that richness will emerge

the main text considers substance and other approaches to foundation—the relative foundation and infinite regress and the non-foundational approach of coherentism

we humans have being—even if we do not know it precisely, for as Descartes famously noted, doubting is being; what else has being?

laws

do laws of nature have being? a law or constraint is a pattern immanent in the world or a cosmos—is there—and thus has being (we are talking of the pattern itself, not just our conception of it or rendering of the conception on paper)

as immanent in the world, laws of nature have being—i.e., are beings

the universe

the universe, conceived as all being (over all space and time), has being, i.e., is a being

in this conception, there is nothing outside the universe; if creation is the action of another being, the universe has no creator; there is no god-the-creator-of-the-universe; if there is a reason for existence of the universe, it is not a causal or creative reason; a candidate for such a reason is possibility; but mere possibility does not deserve to be called a reason, since the universe does exist; therefore, a candidate for existence of the universe is necessity

the void

the void, i.e., ‘nothingness’ is the being that contains no beings

does the void exist? i.e., does the void, as defined above, have being? i.e., is the void a being?

existence of the void is consistent with experience (particularly science) and reason (especially logic)

while this consistency is not proof, various proofs and heuristic arguments can be given; we would like a proof, for existence of the void, as will be seen, is momentous in implications

proof of existence of the void—existence and non-existence of the void are equivalent; therefore, the void may be taken to exist; heuristic—the void is there with every being, for ‘the void together with the being are the being”; it is natural to doubt this proof

being of the void

therefore, due to doubt, and given its consistency with reason and experience, we make the metaphysical hypothesis—

the void has being (exists)

the power of making existence of the void a hypothesis is (i) it cuts through the issue of proof (ii) that there is a proof minimizes the risk of hypothesizing (iii) it renders metaphysics empirical on par with science (iv) but also rational, on account of the proof

fundamental principle

proof—if from the void a possible being were not to emerge, that would be a constraint on or law of the void; but laws are beings and there are no beings in the void; therefore, all possible beings emerge from the void; and the sense of possibility here must be the least restrictive, which is logical possibility and not, e.g., physical possibility; conclusion—

the universe is the greatest possible in the sense that all (logically) possible beings exist somewhere and somewhen in the universe; name this assertion the fundamental principle of metaphysics, abbreviated fp

certainty about the principle is limited by doubt about proof of existence of the void; but from the robustness of the existence claim and the immense value of the principle (consequences below), an approach to the best outcome for (human) being is to regard the fundamental principle as a principle of existential action (‘existential’ stems from it being a strong and grounded stance in the face of doubt)

consequences

there is a limitless array of cosmoses of limitless variety, all in transaction with the void, of which our cosmos is but one

the universe phases in and out of manifest being (non-void being)

the universe has identity, and in phases this identity achieves peak being that is the limit of possible power and knowledge; peaks are followed by dissolutions; yet that power and knowledge is potential in the void and therefore in all being and beings

individuals may realize this ultimate in this life (perhaps rarely) but if not, then beyond (necessarily); death is real but not absolute

means

the ideal metaphysics above points to but does not show the way; negotiation of the way is in terms of—begins with—our limited human form and culture; together the ideal and the limited constitute a real metaphysics that is perfect relative to the ideal value of realization; this notion of ‘perfection’ is greater than our common notion of perfection, which is a mistaken ideal based on false promise and misleading desire

the means is not that of limited secularisms or transsecularisms, but employs what may be found valid or useful in them

metaphysics

if metaphysics is now conceived as knowledge of the real, to have meaning, the nature of and criteria for knowledge should be specified, which we can now do from the above thoughts; we found that we should eschew purism, for in terms of revealed values, dual criteria, perfect correspondence for the ideal side and pragmatic instrumentalism for the process side, result in a perfect synthesis (in terms of the values), which is the real metaphysics

principles

it has in effect been shown that the ultimate metaphysics, in content—knowledge—and method, both emerge from the given; to the extent that the real metaphysics is complete, there is neither substance nor need to an a priori; meaning and explicit demonstration are in the main text

pathways

the path to the ideal is that of intelligent, shared negotiation and enjoyment of the process; which includes pleasure and pain, of which neither are to be shunned; pain is not to be avoided at all cost, but addressed in itself (therapeutically) and by being on a path, which gives meaning; pleasure is often cultivated in itself, which may be constructive, but the greatest consistent pleasure arises in being on a path

pathways and means are further developed in the main text; while many transsecular approaches emphasize worlds beyond our world and inner being, a full path ought also to emphasize the outer being (‘material’), action, and the mundane aspects of secular culture, especially science, technology, politics, economics, and art in interaction with the inner

the concepts (appendix)

dogma, secularism, transsecularism, a being, tense, tenselessness, abstraction, being, foundation, grounding, perfect metaphysics, ultimate, kinds, varieties, law of nature, universe, creation, possibility, necessity, the void, doubt, metaphysical hypothesis, the fundamental principle of metaphysics, principle of existential action, fp (abbreviation for ‘fundamental principle’), cosmos, manifest being, identity, peak being, individual, realization, death, real metaphysics, perfection, value, means, metaphysics, criteria, knowledge, dual criteria, perfect correspondence, pragmatic instrumentalism, process, method, a priori, path, intelligence, sharing, enjoyment, pleasure, pain, therapy, pathway, inner being, outer being, action, secular culture, science, technology, politics, economics, art