JOURNEY IN BEING
THEORY OF BEING
Being… Metaphysics… Objects… Meaning… Logic… Mind… Cosmology
Theory of Being
OUTLINE
Preliminary… What is Theory of being?… Aims… Significance of Theory of being to the narrative… Significance of Theory of being in general… Outline of Theory of being
The title of Metaphysics in Journey in Being-New World is ‘Metaphysics: Theory of being.’ Theory of being is now taken in a broader sense described below. Some relevant material may be in Metaphysics
Theory of being develops and elaborates a description or picture that is shown to capture (apparently, as never before) the depth and breadth of all being – of the universe
Theory of being shall be the name for the study of being from its conception in Being through Human world
That there is a coherent study that may be labeled Theory of being and what the principles of this study may be has begun to emerge above and becomes transparent in what follows
That the topics from Being through Cosmology should be parts of a Theory of being may be regarded as evident and will, in any case, be manifest in the development. That a study of human being should be a part of the theory is not as evident but is also explained in Human world
Is there a justification of the name, ‘Theory of being?’ Let the requirement for justification include the following. The theory shall concern all being. It shall cover the depth and variety of being. It shall be developed from a few simple and demonstrated principles. It shall reveal any essential dynamics that holds for all being… Then, the theory to be developed is justified in its name. It may additionally be noted that the theory develops numerous consequences both fundamental or metaphysical and cosmological that may have otherwise been mere speculation or reasonable guess, resolves numerous problems in the understanding of being and mind, and places any logically prior understanding of being –including the logically prior elements of human knowledge– in context
External—contribution to thought and transformation, influence
Intrinsic—the journey itself—such foundation in ideas as may have arisen along the way; implicitly ultimate in breadth, explicitly ultimate in depth of understanding; and a framework for transformation and its possibilities—showing some possibilities and the limits of possibility but leaving the details of journey and means open
(External)
The place of the Theory of being in the narrative is to provide some foundation for Ideas and for Transformation
(Intrinsic)
A Theory of being will provide a development of the idea of Being, its nature (metaphysics,) and its varieties and elaboration – Objects through Human being and Faith. In the ideal case, the theory and its varieties will be ultimate in foundation or depth and variety. The development shows that the Theory of being of this narrative is ultimate in this sense
The theory is also seen as a contribution to thought in the areas of Metaphysics, Objects, Meaning, Logic, Mind, and Cosmology
Being is the central idea. Being is that which exists. The fact of being is equivalent to the condition of existence. That something exists (if only illusion but all is illusion is paradoxical) is unquestionable. This follows (equivalently) from the fact of experience – even if appearance and reality are not distinguished, i.e. even allowing for illusion. Some simple things have unquestionable existence: the universe (all being,) the void (absence of being,) domain (part,) and Form. It may be immediately shown that the void exists and contains no form; this is crucial to foundation of the metaphysics to be developed. Also, there is sentience but its nature is not immediately given and is deferred to Objects. It may be said that the meaning of being harbors a necessary empirical fact. However, beyond this, what things exist, what forms there are – are relatively difficult questions that are taken up in Objects. This points to the significance of the concept of being. It may be regarded as a label for the unknown for what there is and, dually, for the character of what there is. The power of the concept is analogous to the power of naming the unknown in algebra. Here, in not specifying the nature of what has being at the outset is what is effectively and powerfully a denial of substance theory –of the habit of substance thinking– that will be revealed repeatedly to have great power and simplicity
The habit of substance thinking is tenacious and difficult to avoid. One source of the difficulty is that the habit is natural enough in practical thought – to think that the world is not as it seems in everyday thought may grow to neurotic proportions and it may require robust judgment to eliminate the habit from analysis while remaining grounded in day to day affairs. A second source of difficulty is that substance thinking is typically implicit and its form is not typically the form of metaphysics of substance but in simply taken practically given ideas –including much that is culturally relative– as absolutely given. If a philosopher –a thinker– adopts an approach that is critical but not sufficiently so, he or she may come, as a result of premature reflection, to reject categories that are sound by other categories that easily overcome a first criticism but are impoverished and perhaps unsound in ways not immediately apparent (the narrative illustrates numerous examples including some that lie at the core of fundamental thought)
Human being is infinitely retarded by a cult of celebration of premature ideas, both critical and constructive
The concept of existence is seen to harbor a potential paradox that is well known in analytic philosophy. When, for example, it is said that unicorns do not exist, what is it that does not exist? The resolution of the paradox is the occasion for a second meditation on meaning and requires the distinction of concept and object that will be instrumental in subsequent reflections on meaning and on the various concepts that are taken up. As a result of the reflection on the meaning of ‘existence,’ the sense of being is seen as trivial. There is no sense to the existence of something over and above the sense of the thing. While the idea of being has been criticized on similar accounts, this is in fact another way of seeing the source of the power of the concept of being… A final consideration on Being is that of local and global mode of description. The use of the global mode (in which the verb ‘is’ may refer to any point or set of points – in which the universe is viewed in its entirety over patchworks of space, time and any other elements of extension) introduces much economy into the subsequent discussion
The core of this description is Metaphysics, the description of being and its nature. The description is shown to be necessarily true and explicitly ultimate in depth which means that all being and kinds of being are manifestations of its fundamental and ultimately simple objects. That the objects are ultimately simple means that any simpler objects that are proposed as fundamental are either too simple or have hidden structure. All description or Theory of Being flows from Metaphysics
The necessity of the metaphysics is such that it is experienced as discovery rather than creation. The experience has been felt as that of stumbling on some wonderful and initially strange land or moonscape
In the metaphysics, Form is shown and seen to be immanent in being –of being– rather than imposed on or merely perceived in being. The name, Metaphysics of Immanence is appropriate
There is a broader sense in which Metaphysics is the entire theory; this is natural because the different aspects of description are not entirely distinct. There is no point at which it can be said that metaphysics has definitely ended and, e.g., cosmology has begun. The different aspects are as follows
The Methods employed in the development of the metaphysics deserve mention. The comment on ‘methods’ has been moved to Journey… outline-reserve to a location after detailed treatment of the metaphysics. Reasons are stated there. The comment should be used to enhance the kinds of conclusions in the metaphysics i.e. ‘fact of being,’ ‘all…’
Objects is concerned with the characteristic means by and ways in which the experiences of objects occur despite the fact that the experience is not (the same kind as) the thing. When may the experience or concept be taken to be fully equivalent to and when may it be practically equivalent to the thing? These difficult questions of epistemology are not central to the journey but are interesting enough and their consideration is included because the metaphysics illuminates them. There are concepts and objects (this requires analysis.) Identity and value are among the ideas that have objecthood i.e. exist; the case of identity is especially fruitful. That value (morals) has objecthood places value and being (particular) on the ‘same plane.’ In a substance / deterministic view of being, value appears as if an appendage. Having morals is not only about right / wrong but is the place where being has a point (those who see no point to being may wonder how it comes about that they and, apparently, not ‘mere’ matter have the ability to conceive of ‘point vs. no point.’) Pointed-ness is placement squarely in being; this is a point of value. The natures of abstract and particular objects acquires a particularly neat and illuminating analysis (the distinction may be seen as artificial and this conclusion should be regarded as surprising.) Objects makes it clear that there are significant cases of necessary and of sufficient faithfulness to the object but that faithfulness is not universal especially with regard to the ever present and pressing, sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful details of this world. This is good to know because it shows that on the way to or in being; universal objectivity is neither possible nor desirable but is an impediment. When objectivity is possible it is good; when not, that too is good for it is placement in and not above or outside being. The following cases or kinds of object arise: local (ground, intuition, common knowledge, science… generally contingent and capable of error unless otherwise demonstrated; the ground case is immanent and ‘object’ lacks significance) and universal (necessary except when applied to the not universal case)
Meaning is a contemplation on ‘dictionary meaning’ versus use, on the significance of field of meaning or context, on sense and reference, and on the significance and use of meaning in the narrative. The discussion is illuminated by Metaphysics and by Objects
Logic is central in the Metaphysics. Logic is the implicit limitation or constraint on what is, on the variety of being. The theory or description of Logic is the theory (description) of possibility. This is shown to be closely related to the classical notion of logic as the theory of deduction. In Logic, there is an examination of the implication of the idea of the object (reference) to the classical paradoxes and possible implications for consistency of logics. Science is taken up as inductive logic, i.e. conclusions are not necessary even when they may seem inevitable; this view of science is illuminated by Metaphysics according to which the distinction between contingent (e.g. scientific) and necessary (e.g. logical) truth is relative to context. An alternate view of science as factual (immanent) over a limited domain allows scientific theory to be seen as of being even though limited
Mind is central to (human and animal) being but the concept of mind has been the subject of a number of problems and paradoxes in the history of thought to such extent that the existence of mind has been seriously doubted. Metaphysics clarifies the concept of substance and shows substance theory to be void. In doing so, the categorial problems of mind are shown to be the result of (at least implicit) substance thinking. If matter and mind were substances, there would be an unbridgeable gap between them. However there are no substances and mind and matter are revealed as different aspects of being and bound together in being and, in so doing, there are resolutions of the mind-matter or mind-body and mental causation problems. There is a distinction between mind-as-humans-experience-it and mind-at-the-root. This practical distinction will be very useful in developing a detailed picture of psyche in Human being in which much that has been ad hoc is replaced by necessity. However, since mind is not a substance it does (need) not go to the extreme root or ground; and because it is not a substance it may, on the Metaphysics, reach to the root. These developments make it possible to illuminate consciousness and originality, to develop a uniform description of consciousness and feeling, and to resolve the ‘gap’ between consciousness and matter as an instance of the resolution of the ‘mind-body problem’
Cosmology is the theory of variety. It is shown that the metaphysics of immanence is implicitly ultimate with regard to breadth. This means that every consistent description, i.e. one that neither harbors nor entails contradiction, is realized but that it is not possible to list all such descriptions. In terms of the universe being ever fresh, that may be seen as a good thing. Systematic developments regarding space and time; recurrence; annihilation; identity and the meaning and significance of karma and death; origins and mechanisms –necessary and contingent– of origins of entities including cosmological systems, living forms, symbols; the idea of a creator are given. The truth and significance of scriptures is illuminated. It is shown that the only fictions are logical contradictions. It is therefore required to understand the physical impossibilities of this world and this is done in terms of the concept of the normal. The similarity between the nature of the void and the quantum vacuum makes it possible to think that some foundation for quantum mechanics may be found in the Metaphysics