Being and the Absolute

And Development of the Idea of Being

AREA 3 WHAT ARE THE TRANSFORMATIONS AND DYNAMICS OF BEING?

What is the Dynamics of Being?

Dynamics involves the idea of cause, or the interactions that are essential in change. The dynamics of being is the involvement or character of involvement of being in its own change. The keys are knowledge, choice based in knowledge and action stemming from choice

Criteria and selection for the elements and the dynamics

Criteria: From the foregoing considerations the elements should satisfy at least the following. 1. Derive from experience with being human...and with the sub-form of matter. They should therefore reflect the fundamental ontological character of animal and human being. Demonstrate from origins in “no-thing” the phenomenology of the world and mind...including the origin or primality of awareness and the phenomenology of world and mind including the apparent dualisms of subject-object, mind-mater, process-being or action-being. 2. Be sufficient to provide and generate both process and path of discovery human being in search of itself - and of Being...be sufficient to requirements for discovery and exploration in the levels of being

Selection: I have experimented with various elements. I started with being and process. I may even have started with matter and process but matter is clearly too restrictive. Relationship seemed to be necessary in terms of the interactions among being and among process and between being and process. In a sense being includes process but it is convenient to start without this as an explicit position...and to allow a reinterpretation as being-process. Humans are in process but not merely in process - we make choices and act. I know this is a loaded assertion and there are times when I may think as I might on a Sunday afternoon picnic [non-aggressive thinking] but what if I²⁴ have a destiny? I also want to sometimes think as though there is a raging river to be crossed without the luxury of an eternity for the crossing. As though I am at the edge of reality… So I incorporated action which includes process. Similarly, meaning includes and is in a way generic for relationship. In a number of ways relationship is included in being but its explicit inclusion in the elements enables the presentation of an explicit dynamics. I regarded - and regard - knowledge as an important but it can be seen as part of being or alternately as a form of relationship

The elements of the dynamics are:

B... Being

M... Meaning...including relationship

A... Action...change...or process - the process of change

Some basic modes:

Being... Natural, Social, Universal...and Mind or Spirit or Consciousness or Awareness or Psyche

Action... Indeterministic -Being in transition, Evolution, Choice, Design, Quantum Phenomena...I am developing a notion of the exploration which would be a most fundamental form of action including creation, discovery, experiments in being, geographical discovery and migration...and

Deterministic - all of the foregoing non-deterministic processes have deterministic phases we could call those phases “Being stays at home”, the stable phase in the rise and fall...Classical Phenomena

Real Action: It is important to note that for action to be creative it is necessary for there to be interaction between indeterminate and determinate phases. For example indeterminism has been criticized as the basis of ethical choice since it is “completely random.” But when indeterminism acts upon a structured base choice is possible in ethics that while not completely rational is not completely a-rational...and creation is possible in evolution, knowledge and discovery that also include elements of intuition and inspiration and of rationality. It is interesting that evolution by variation by selection and quantum mechanics provide models at different levels and in different ways of determinate-indeterminate process that make for the growth of structure. Variation and selection - the distinction, when one recognizes the underlying dynamics, may be approximations of description - may be a trial prototype for action. Thus these disciplines may provide some elements of a “foundation” of mind and creativity...and of concept and elaboration of action. However, as noted in Consciousness, Mind and the World I prefer to have foundation in the common²⁵...and believe that such foundation of the fundamental truths are possible and desirable as more robust and more accessible

Primary action or exploration is the relation b « B or individual being in search of - or in relation with - Being. This defines exploration. All sub-actions [and sub-objectives...and this may be seen as a dual problem] are found in exploration

Relation... Or Meaning...Knowledge²⁶, Communication, Force...Relate to Heidegger’s idea of care

Logic of Meaning

Life codes the conditions of its ongoing existence. Humankind further codes and creates through symbols and language in culture. These codings or ability to code, are evolutionary adaptations. This is true even in alienation and “deconstruction.” This is placement in the elements of universal process which, as matter of course, contains “stabs” of creation and results that are occasionally more than transient. Yet these are the processes of the Absolute. Meaning, even with its stable-unstable character, is placement in the Absolute, participation in the Real

The dynamics is

Being is in relationship...individual beings relate to one another

Relationship - meaning - generates action

Action results in, is, or equates to change in being

Analogical sources for the dynamics

In physical science: I mean such theories as Newtonian Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics and the Dynamics of Matter and Gravitation as formulated in the General Theory of Relativity

In biology and philosophy: the dynamics of evolution - variation and selection; in metaphysics or ontology - the balance between indeterminism and determinism in the generation of structure

I am not thinking of immediately applying these dynamics to the present case. Rather, they have a certain precision and a certain developed form expressed in the process language of calculus that may be a good metaphor for clarity and accuracy in the dynamics of being

There is a need to be careful that the clarity of the analytical and physical theories should not lead to erroneous analogical thinking

The use of dynamics

One must first know structure. Physical description is too basic and incomplete despite its possible metaphorical use. Consciousness as conceived in Consciousness, Mind and the World is a beginning. From Consciousness and from observation of nature: being is constituted of beings...and the aggregate of such beings constitute Being

Using the analogies - examples

The following are intended as examples and as analogical...systematic, comprehensive and derived treatment - as far as it is a good thing - is being developed in ongoing explorations. The conclusions also follow from common experience

Relativity and Gravitation: In phases of existence, the universe is constituted of local beings [b] that explore, learn, remember, correct, transform and grow. Relationship, communication and dialog are prior to rigid coordination or knowledge...and the “sum” of [b] in relation and process [meaning, action] is Being B

Quantum Theory: Superposed on the determinate phase above. [1] In a universal sense F = B. [2] There is a basis for local growth, evolution of [b]. [3] Accepting quantum realism as fundamental, i.e. quantum dynamics Þ geometry Þ gravitation; additionally, hypothesizing unification of the known forces [gravitation, electro-weak and strong]: there is one force, the force of some grand unified theory whose geometrodynamics includes all physical being. Translate this metaphorically: B, the one principle, is universally and locally creative...creation requires asymmetry and this Þ decay, destruction; a perfectly symmetric universe would last forever but would have lasted forever - it would not evolve and could not have come into being; since the conditions of existence includes “laws” these must also include asymmetry; less asymmetry Þ slower creation and evolution but richer and longer lasting [more stable] existence Þ near symmetry in a universe that is rich in structure

Neurology: Memory and processing are in the same place / are dynamically interactive - at the neuro-physiological level and functionally: processing includes laying down of memory; memory conditions and gives context and so on to processing. This is a case of B = B-M-A. More generally this implies the integration of organism, of organisms [society] and organism. Metaphorically: this reminds us of the physical integration of the elements through the conditions of genesis and, generally, of the integration of [b], M, A to constitute B

Evolutionary biology: In life the “function” of relationship becomes specialized as the functions of coding [genetics] and function [soma, body.] In mind the conditions of evolution become internalized: mind - or an aspect of mind - is adaptability - being adapted to adapt

Philosophy: Despite the various differentiations - internal/external, subject/object, mode and monad/whole, B = B-M-A...before all else comes presence or being in Being

The following is an expression of what has been said on derivation from common experience

The essential truths are few simple

The path may be difficult, detailed, rich...and recreated again and again at many places and throughout history

The truths are accessible to and best known from common experience

...with trial and persistence...and support from specialized disciplines or study. This naturally brings into question the nature of these disciplines and whether they are not common after all and if so how to render them as such

This raises the question of the nature of special intuition e.g. the intuition of an Einstein in theoretical physics or a Ramanujan in number theory. The etiology of such intuition is a complex issue - the questions of nature, nurture including self-nurture, circumstance, cultivation, receptivity, memory and imagination... However, to raise the question of etiology and to suggest its importance and utility, or to suggest the centrality of common experience is not to deny the singularity or brilliance of special intuition, ability and accomplishment. Further, the existence of special intuition, rather than casting a shadow on common experience, shows or exemplifies the intimate connection of human being with Being

These truths...and the present principles follow from the nature of being, of who we are

The most important relation is with all being

This does not deny the particulars...each day, disappointments, sunsets, ambitions, jobs, family, mountains...which, after all, are among the elements that constitute ‘ultimate being.’