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Welcome Metaphysics Realization Resources Anil Mitra
Metaphysics for The Way
of Being The metaphysics—a limitless universe The universe is the greatest possibility Pragmatic knowledge; the real metaphysics The universe, beings, and identity The medium, means, and ways of realization Dimensions of being and paradigms of understanding The metaphysics—a limitless universe Definitions in this essayDefined terms are in small capitals. It is important to follow the definitions and not assign alternative or added meaning to the defined terms. Being and beingsA being is that which is w Being is the property of beings as beings (a being is an existent; beings are existents). The universe is all being w The universe is a being. The void is the being that contains no beings w Existence and nonexistence of the void are identical (though a contra-diction in form, this assertion does not define an opposition and therefore does not specify a contra-real) w The void exists (has being). A law of nature has being w There are no laws in the void. The universe is the greatest possibilityAll possibility emerges from the void, and this is the greatest possibility, or the void would have a law w The greatest possibility is the collection of beings whose conception alone does not rule out their being. How is the greatest possibility to be understood? If it is to be ultimately rich in what it allows, it must be ultimately sterile in what it rejects w It must be understood as what is allowed by logic w Though logic is often seen as sterile, it defines the ultimately permissive boundary of being w All true science, religion, and art—as far as it is about the real—and so much more fall under what logic allows w If it is not contra-real, fiction is realized in some world. The universe is the greatest possible; it must have identity, in peak and void phases w The universe, its manifest and void phases, have necessary being w All beings realize this greatest for otherwise it would be a limit on the universe; beings and identities merge in this realization w The ultimate and the immediate are one. Abstraction and precisionThe development so far is precise in virtue of its abstraction (To abstract is to remove from a concept of an object, that which cannot be rendered precise.) How shall we realize the ultimate in and from the immediate? Pragmatic knowledge; the real metaphysicsTo the abstract knowledge so far, join pragmatic knowledge, which includes what is valid in human cultures w The pragmatic may be imprecise even as we endeavor to improve it. The abstract—the ideal—illuminates the pragmatic and guides it in realization; and the pragmatic illustrates the ideal and is instrumental in realization w In terms of ultimate realization, the join of the abstract and the pragmatic is perfect w The join is named the real metaphysics or just the metaphysics. The meansRealization involves a medium—what it is that realizes and means. What are the medium and means of realization? ExperienceExperience is consciousness in all its forms w It is essentially the place of our being and meaning w We are experiential beings. Because the universe is ultimate, its primitive root is experiential w The universe is experiential w Action in interaction with meditation—conscious directed and undirected change in experiential content and quality—is intrinsic to realization. The universe, beings, and identityThe universe and its identity are limitless in variety, extension, duration, peak, and dissolution w There are limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety; every atom is a cosmos, every cosmos an atom w The cosmoses are in transaction with one another and the void w Identity crosses these forms in realizing the ultimate w Between death and birth, an eternity is an instant w The realizations are not limited to animal form—all beings merge as peak and fragment in dissolution. The medium, means, and ways of realizationThe medium and means of realization are intrinsic to being, i.e., experiential, and instrumental, which are forms that may be labeled ‘mind’ and labeled ‘matter’ w What follows includes exploration of the means and medium. Pleasure, pain, and the varieties of experience, receptive and active, are unavoidable w Enjoyment is appreciation of the varieties w Enjoyment is an ultimate value; therefore, realization of the ultimate is an imperative w There are intelligent, shared, and effective paths to the ultimate. (There is a world of productive sophistication and doubt behind these developments; the sophistication of thought, especially the traditions of philosophy may appear removed from but contribute toward realization w Sophistication may be beguiling and so we ought to endeavor to not to lose sight of the ultimate w Further, preoccupation with doubt can be transformed to positive and existential doubt; the real metaphysics can be seen as embodying an empowering metaphysical theory.) While our being is limited, perfection is not achieved w In realization we attempt to negotiate the world creatively, amid dissolution (and ‘evil’) w Preoccupation with the negative in the world (evil) and ourselves (limits, blocks) ought not to distract us from realization. Dimensions of being and paradigms of understandingDimensions of being are elements of the world that are effective in describing and negotiating the real w A version of pragmatic dimensions of being are natural (of which experience is a part), social, and universal w Since we are experiential beings and experience is the place of meaning, therefore—persons are the aim and object of all endeavor (institutions are important, too, but secondarily) w This—the person – the collection of persons—is the real focus of culture, cultural transformation and enculturation, ethics, economics, politics, and law (‘justice’)—which are to be founded in the natural and informed by the universal. Whereas meditation is intrinsic to (our) being, the dimensions are instrumental in realization (though derived from our world, to project the dimensions beyond, is an aspect of perfection of the real metaphysics). Paradigms of being are general features of the world that summarize its behaviors and forms (paradigms, e.g., causality and mechanism, are more general than laws and theories of science) w A fundamental perfect paradigm of being is logic in that what logic allows is possible w A fundamental pragmatic paradigm of formation is that of incremental variation and selection derived from the theory of evolution (it is fundamental because newness—that which is not contained in what came before—cannot arise without indeterministic variation and, secondarily, because incremental variation is far more likely than large steps) (this is one possible paradigm of formation; the other is formation in random, spontaneous, or transient formation in large steps). Possibility and robustnessFrom lower or no form, this paradigm in action, results in relatively stable, symmetric, and robust form w Since the robust forms are those that persist and foster high-level experientiality (‘higher consciousness’), they effectively dominate the population of the universe w Human beings and the world are most likely robust. Earth-beings, including the human, are significant achievements of being—we can ask and give some answers to questions of the meaning and nature of being and of the status and possible destiny of earth-beings, yet we are far from peak. Though we think our empirical cosmos to be more or less stable and real as experienced—It may be the present fragment of my imagination w However, such forms are not robust w Therefore, our empirical cosmos as we see it is most likely robust and real (and while we are limited beings, we cannot know our world better than what is ‘most likely’ without introducing metaphysical hypotheses). As far as we are limited beings, we live at two levels of being and knowledge—the ordinary and the ultimate; in the ultimate, being has a single ‘level’ and is, perhaps, beyond the robust and the transient. PathwaysA pathway or program of realization will attend to w the immediate—the everyday—and the ultimate w the intrinsic or experiential and the instrumental, the individual w community, and civilization. Pathways will begin with the real metaphysics and the pragmatic (with tradition) w However, our best traditions are in-process and shall submit to imagination, reason (and the varieties of experience), trial and experiment, and refinement, for— “In our true being and in realization, we are always at a beginning”. Doubt ought to have arisen (a) regarding identity of existence and nonexistence of the void (b) about reasoning to the abstract metaphysics (c) concerning consistency of the metaphysics with empirical knowledge and science (d) from the very magnitude of the conclusions. Here, doubt is addressed briefly; for full address see the resources below. 1. Existence and nonexistence of a manifest being is contradictory. However, for the void, to assert nonexistence does not deny existence, but asserts a property of the void 2. Given the simplicity of the abstract, the reasoning from existence and nonexistence of the void is elementary sentence calculus. 3. The empirical concerns only what has been observed. The common, usually tacit, projection beyond the empirical, is circular, for it assumes what it concludes—i.e., validity of the projection. Therefore, the metaphysics is not in contradiction with the empirical and its models from science. 4. The magnitude of the conclusions does not invalidate the proof of the metaphysics. However, a consequence is that there will and should be residual doubt. Given consistency, residual doubt suggests attitudes toward the metaphysics (i) as an existential attitude toward uncertainty (ii) as a metaphysical postulate (iii) as a framework that gives definiteness and finality in depth though not in breadth to metaphysics, epistemology, cosmology, ethics, and answers to existential issues. To sustain doubt is intrinsically healthy in improving the quality of experience; and it is instrumentally effective in realization of truth and the real ultimate. Resources In this précis of the way of being, explanation is minimal, and attention to problems of knowledge is in the background. For more, see, https://www.horizons-2000.org, especially—https://www.horizons-2000.org/2022/resources.html. The way of being my expression of ideas that are derived from but go beyond their sources. The essay attempts to be the briefest that does justice to the way of being. Return to the welcome page | top |
