JOURNEY IN BEING
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Outline
Introduction… Foundation… Journey in Being… Fundamental Problems… Lexicon… Sources and Influences… Bibliography… Index… The Author
Comment. Currently in Journey in Being outline of introduction
Introduction and outline. The nature of metaphysics. Introduction of ‘being’ makes it suitable as foundation for the Journey. The Theory of Being is the base for a metaphysics of ultimate depth and breadth. The idea of the normal relates the immediate world to the ultimate. Basic results of the theory and Some applications of the theory Applications of the Theory illustrate it and show its power. Theory of Objects considers the simultaneous address of the problems of being and of knowing; form, identity, individual, world and journey (becoming.) Further ‘application.’ ‘High’ concerns. Logic and Cosmology. The immediate: Human Being and Faith which consider freedom and necessity; various dimensions of human being and society; limits and possibility; morals – the real and the good; the nature of faith; the question of the necessity of faith: whether faith (not particular faiths and religions) is necessary; and the place and problems of the faiths
Topics. Conceptions of metaphysics2. Criteria for the conceptions. The first present conception: metaphysics as the most fundamental study. Criteria for the fundamental object of study. The criteria lead to the second conception: ‘being’ as fundamental not mind, matter, or process… Exclusive and inclusive senses of metaphysics; overlap and identities with logic and cosmology. Extension of the concept to art and then to metaphysical action. Universal and present significance. The project of the metaphysics. Completeness of the theory of being
Topics. Completeness of the metaphysics – based in the Theory of Being. Completeness by intension. The demonstration is based in an analysis of the necessary properties of an absence of being and an application to the fact that there is being. of the theory follows from interaction of the general idea with the facts of being. Supplement with details. Completeness in extension. Demonstration of completeness is executed via a listing of problems of classical and modern metaphysics and showing that the list is complete. Worldly, pedestrian and universal metaphysics. Metaphysics has become largely pedestrian. This is good except for attempts to exclude all else. The great critical traditions are necessarily keenly insightful and productive of developments in thought but are invariably based in an inadequate conception of knowledge and the nature or meaning of what is involved in such conception. Two approaches to the possibility of metaphysics. The first is constructive. In the second, I question the function and being of knowledge. The Theory of Being, below, shows the possibility of universal metaphysics. Subsequent sections develop and show the richness or productivity of a universal metaphysics. In these developments I have learnt much from the tradition including analytic philosophy
Topics. Introduction. The Concept of Being. Motive. Why existence? Analysis of existence. Reference of the term exists: kinds of existing thing. Existence-as: as preliminary to existence. The claims of matter and mind to being as being. Power
Theory of Being. Requirements. Theory of Being and its development: five basic concepts – four constitutive concepts – being, the void, logos or logic, universe and the relational concept of the normal. The claims of mind as a sixth basic concept. Choice of the term ‘the void;’ existence of the void
Basic results of the theory. Basic propositions that establish the ultimate depth and breadth of the theory. On possibility and description. Examples of descriptions chosen to show the depth and breadth and revolutionary character of the theory. Analysis of the Critical Post-Enlightenment Attitude. Logic. On interaction. There is one universe. The actual, the possible and the necessary are equivalent. Implication for modal logic. The foundational character of the theory. Relation to older metaphysics, science, common sense. The concept of the normal
Comment. Review the results above and in the corresponding location in Journey in Being for sequence, logic, completeness, precision and brevity. Review the uses of ‘phase’
Some applications of the theory. Foundational character – see above. The Character of the Noumenon. Elimination of (essential need for) substance. Fundamental problem of metaphysics. Analysis of a variety of basic conclusions regarding derived though basic concepts
Introduction: primary concerns. Two main concerns: dual address of the nature of being and knowing and defining the classes of existing thing. The Role of Clarity and Precision. Clarity and precision are necessary. The Role of Imagination. Freedom of imagination is essential
Topic. Dual address of the nature of being and knowing; Concept3-object as object; Inspiration; Noumenon; Meinongian extension; the Variety of Objects; Form. What is form? The concept of form. Form is adequate to a theory of variety. Kinds of form. Form and object. Dynamic form; examples of dynamic form: causation, objecthood, space-time. Indeterminism and formlessness. A variety of forms: Recurrence. Identity, individual, world, journey. Higher identity; Brahman. Logos. Laws of nature. Doubt, modes of knowing. The Nature of Knowledge: What is an Object? Action
Topic. Being, knowing and their relationship. 4 Short outline and Summary of Ideas. 4 Long outlineTheory1. Theory and fact. Theory is essential to flexibility and growth in knowledge. Theory, field of concepts, laws and principles. On radical criticism. Metaphysics as universal theory; its possibility. Uses of metaphysics practical moral and conceptual. That any object that is known to exist can be known; necessary dual discussion of existence and object; meaning of the claim that knowability and existence are identical; conditions for knowability or existence. ; For what kinds of object can it be said that they are as known; practical and ‘perfect’ examples. Idea as object. Knower and known as object. Institution of knowledge vs. truth. The concept-object. Knower and known as object. 4 Being and knowing. Narrative. Uses of ‘theory’ including the colloquial. The sense of ‘theory’ used here: theory as fact; an example. Everyday reality is theoretical. An example of the theoretical nature of ‘common’ reality. Conceptual objections to theory as fact. Analysis of the idea that external object cannot be known; logical impossibility as preliminary to possible revision. On radical criticism. Conceptual character of theory. Freedom in concept formation and meaning. The theory is not identical to its formulation; field of concepts. The growth of theories. Incomplete knowledge. Stability of meaning. There is no (guaranteed or algorithmic) method to developing theory; this is necessary to their development. Metaphysics as universal theory. On the possibility of metaphysics. Metaphysics is useful. The ‘uses’ of metaphysics practical, conceptual and moral. Metaphysics and specialization. Interaction with complete range of problems of philosophy, various scientific and other disciplines. Metaphysics and significance. Metaphysics and experiments in being. An example. The nature of faith and its place and future in the modern world. Metaphysics and morals. Debt to Iris Murdoch and to Plato. Does metaphysics reveal knowledge of the thing-in-itself? Conditions for revelation of the external object. Knowledge or concept can be equivalent to the external object when that object exists. Preliminary and necessary dual discussion of ‘existence’ and ‘object.’ Circumstances in which the external object exists as known. (1) The instruments of cognition are perfectly attuned to the world. (2) The requirement of exact correspondence or equivalence is given up. (3) There may be apparent gifts of perfect and natural knowledge; and the corresponding moral case. (4) When, as in the ‘Theory of Being,’ a consistent system of concepts is based in certain truth e.g. there is being. A tentative quantum theory of perfect knowledge of being. The concept-object. Knower and known as object.
Further possible objects: process, relationship, property, universal, morals
The theory of being is clearly revelatory and revolutionary for the understanding of the entire range of being
Language. Summary of the discussion. In the following I address first, ‘What is language?’ and second ‘What are the limits of language?’ and I relate the two questions. My general answer to the question of limits uses a generalized concept of language (I criticize necessary restriction to the particular –linear non-iconic– conception and justify the generalization.) However, this is not a means of evading the question even of the limits of linear language; and even regarding linear language I question the idea of limits as the limits of a closed system. Thus there are multiple issues addressed below, and some disentanglement is desirable. What the discussion will say after disentanglement. 1. The putative concept of language based on the languages of humankind. 2. Such restriction is the basis of most formal study. 3. The (implicit) program of linear linguistic self-containment is impoverishing even as it is also enriching in formalism and in culture; the program is implicitly self-defining and self-propagating. 4. ‘Language’ has two functions: thought and communication; one may say that there are two forms of linear language – c-language for communication and t-language for thought. 5. I propose the following extensions: t-language to include all thought especially the nonlinear thought of visual imagery. C-language would not be limited to spoken language. 6. I argue that such conceptions are natural extensions of linear language and enriching of the ‘human experience.’ 7. Criticisms of language as an instrument. 8. Language as an instrument of thought. The limits of language are the limits of thought. 9. Language as an instrument of communication. Linear language has clear limits as an instrument of communication. This is naturally true also for language in any sense. ‘Perfect communication is neither possible nor desirable; except routine literal communication, the function of communication is necessarily that of what is novel to the audience and therefore must essentially be that of pointing. Normally, in this world, re-creation rather than communication is necessary to new experience – to being ‘alive.’ The limits of communication are, from the point of view of the real – of being real, not true limits but are constitutive of functional communication. 10. Varieties of linguistic form. Illocutionary point. Metaphor. Preliminary observations. Earlier and later meaning. Are all descriptions metaphorical? That all is metaphor has the interpretation: explicit meaning is based in or refers to implicit meaning at animal andor unconscious levels. By identifying the ‘objective’ statement as metaphorical in this way, understanding has been enhanced. Objective statements become flush with life. Principle of effability. Meaning of the principle. Apparent ineffability and actual effability are compatible. Consequences of the principle. It follows from this that there can be no absolutely hidden truth. Source of the principle. As noted, it follows from the Theory of Being. 11. Morals and concepts. Main discussion. What is language? What are the ‘delusions of language?’ The first delusion. Language is recursively delusional. Language functions. Language functions include thought and communication whose character and imperatives are related and overlap. Paradigms of language. The languages. Open ended character of definition. Open ended character of language? Why we think ‘language’ is Language – again. I now rail against analytic philosophy even though I become tired of doing this. I do so because analysis is one of the places to which I turn for inspiration. A theory of limits is generally one of a fixed system. ‘Limits’ of language and so of thought. The strengths of ‘linear language.’ Language and culture. Without the culture of our language we would be mere animal. There is an alternative. Embracing an alternate modality is not rejection of what has been definitive of human being and culture. It is an expansion rather than an alternative. Where, however, have I shown that this possible enlargement of the idea of language can overcome limits? In the first place new conceptions are not merely about overcoming limits but are also about emerging from narrow perspectives. A non-linear iconic view of language also overcomes those limits that are the limits of flatness and linearity. And, in connection with depth, this language need know no contingent limit. Two kinds of doubt have been cast on the ‘Theory of the Limits of Language’ and ‘Limits of Thought.’ First a direction in which formal thought has absolute depth. Second, enmeshment is freedom; Identity with the ultimate is being the ultimate; but would not that being, that or any transcendent ultimate, tire and seek particularity. (It is interesting that this is a Vedantic and a Biblical theme.) The temporal ultimate would seek the particular. Moments of perception are among my favorite times of day
Objectivity of Morals. What does it mean to say a moral is objective? An example. Morality and the Good become Objective by Allowing Flexibility, Doubt, Question, or Process in Ideas (learning.) The degree of doubt may include dependence on the breadth of original context (quality) of the imperative and the contemplated breadth of context. The Good; Ideals; The Highest Ideal. Development of the idea of morals as discovery. 1. The immediate case. Plato’s idea: The Good is The Real (or identical to it.) 2. The ultimate case. Root indeterminism and human choice. The fate of morals in a changing context – actual or contemplated. As noted objectivity may be introduced by allowing flexibility of ideas or concepts. Ontological or metaphysical moral: it is not possible think about questions of the objectivity of an object without reflection on the nature of the object
An account of morals. Need for a sufficiently rich account. Kinds of difficulty in moral behavior. Relation between the kinds. Practical and ideal relations. That the drive to or ability for the practical and the ideal appear to reside in the same ‘inner’ place. A theory of morals
Topic. Politics and ideals; and the world. The possibility of politics. The problem or question of ideals. The modern world. What is the problem; and the nature of the problem? The importance of clarity and realism. A proper statement i.e. conception of the problem will go far toward solution. Application: preliminary examples. Issue of war, terrorism and peace. Question: what is the source of the disconnect between people and government? State-capital-manufacturing has or may have no interest in real connection. Question. How may rational government approach the problem of aggression? Energy policy. On democracy