The way of being—outline for a long version
Anil Mitra, © December 6, 2023

Contents

Introduction

Purpose

This document is an extended outline for a detailed essay on the way of being.

Many essays on the way of being have been written; they are incremental improvements; over time the fundamental aim has remained constant but understanding and elaboration have improved and emphasis on supporting and secondary topics has changed.

This essay is intended to capture the details in form and with emphases that are a final writing.

As of Wednesday, December 6, 2023 this document remains in active process.

Plan

The base structure is that of the essential way of being, whose plans for enhancement and elaboration will be imported to this document and executed in two stages—

1. Short term—to complete the structure.

2. Long term—to fill in the structure.

Combine planning with the elements and the plan.

Introduce an index in-process (i) so as to have a ready index (ii) to help with writing and editing.

The elements

To be completed

.for all sections

.summary

.why

.relations to other sections

.important concepts over and above the essential concepts

.a section for the concepts

.the relations between the section for the concepts and the index

.for all concepts

.what, why, how

.greatest depth of present meaning

.relation to other concepts—place in the narrative

.relation to other meanings—current and historical – ordinary and philosophical

Sources

The outline itself is further defined in the essential way of being (..\index.html).

The little manual has an extended outline, narrative, and an extensive list of resources and references on the way of being and other sites.

The outline

Into the way

What the way of being is. Information on the site. Some explanations on the order of topics. Description of the outline of the way. Description of some resources.

Some elements

.what (it is)

.why (motive)

.human nature

.contentment

.pain

.seeking

.combinations

.limits of common and historical views of nature, human nature, and the human endeavor (worldviews)

.kinds of view

.common (putative)

.tacit

.science

.the sciences of mind and body (including physics, biology, and psychology)

.the sciences of society

.the science of the ultimate (metaphysics, the real metaphysics)

.religion

.religion as search beyond empirical science (i) with rationalism and/or (ii) risk

.that religions, though they have differences, have largely preferred ideology over search

.metaphysics

.conceptual

.active

.seeking (vs stasis)

.seeking is always nascent, at the beginning (in the world of the spirit)

.always needs refreshment (risk, retreat)

.overview

.the essentials (center ® out, not top ® down or bottom ® up)

.the order (and why)

into the way (looking in) ® being (what and why) ® metaphysics (the ultimate) ® experience (global means, but need specific means) ® the real metaphysics ¬ path principles ® paths and ways ® postscript (looking out, seeing the world afresh)

.descriptions

.on definitions

.the essential concepts

the main concepts are in small capitals; lesser and derivative concepts are italicized and in brackets; comments are in regular font—

the world, exploration (of the real), worldview (and worldviews), history, abstraction, being (the verb to be—most inclusive and neutral form of; and existence; significance), a being (plural: beings; real, as if), the void (for which, to be is not to be; contra-diction, contrareal), natural law, the universe (its limitlessness), the ultimate, experience (and meaning and knowing; as essence of significant being; as extending to all being), the immediate (and the concrete), real metaphysics (with emergent epistemic-significant criteria; tradition), pathways (to the ultimate in and from the immediate; principles and practices; ways, traditional vs rational-empirical), becoming (has being)

.summary

.on reading the way

.difficulties

.remedies

The definitions

The definitions in the way—how they are identified, how they are to be read and interpreted, and that they are definitions of real objects and therefore require demonstration to establish existence.

Preview

Relate this to .summary and .overview in Introduction to the way of being, above

The essence of the way. On reading, understanding, and implementing the way.

Being

On the concepts and objects for being, existence, beings, the universe, the void, patterns, and laws.

Similarity and difference of being here and in other writing.

Existence and dialetheic nature of the void (with some clarification of what dialetheia are and reference to the supporting essay, dialetheia).

That there are no laws in the void.

Some elements

.bareness of being

.what

.why

.neutrality

.metaneutrality

Some concepts

.a sample section

to be

.neutral, most inclusive—any set of times or places; or none in the case of abstract objects (of course, none is a case of any set)

.but note that the universe is not in time; rather it contains time; but this observation needs modification for the fundamental notions are (i) sameness and difference (ii) self-sameness at instants over change duration (identity) (iii) given a fixed instant in duration, change over extension

beings

being

void

universe

cosmos

pattern

law

Metaphysics

Metaphysics, the present concept, relations to the received; possibility, logical and real; demonstration of the fundamental principle—the universe is the realization of the greatest possibility.

Some elements

.the fundamental principle and its meaning

.intimations of the ultimate

.on truth

there is a difference between (i) what is true for empirical, immediate, and practical or pragmatic purposes and (ii) what is true for absolute and ultimate purposes

…and the difference in principle is profound – even on empiricism; and it is shown that the difference is profound in fact

.on constructing metaphysics

.re the limits of imagination—not just human but of our being—about the question of whether we are limited to human form… we are not: we are absolutely limitless being even though we might not see it

.you cannot prove limits to our being or imagination without at least tacit assumption of some limits

.cosmology

.god

Experience

The document is in process and editing takes up here.

Some elements

.roughly the same as consciousness but more—i.e., not just ‘experience of’ things but

.awareness (felt)

.the structure of experience

.the experience (the concept)

.pure experience as experience with object as empty or null

.the experience itself (as relation, intention)

.the experienced (object)

.extension to the root of being

.motive and base of reasoning—the inadequacy of strict materialism and dualism

.possibility

.necessity

.consequent theory of meaning

.the theory

.necessity

.sufficiency

.application

.theory of being, problems of paradox and dialetheia

.nonexistent objects

.possible and impossible objects

.not as in “the candidate has thirty years of experience”

.problem of illusion

.problem of materialism (and idealism)

.the ‘main way’ – experiential → meditative, yogic, the way of science (experience so far)

Real metaphysics

Topics to be determined from the present and earlier system of essays, particularly the little manual.

.absolute determinism and absolute indeterminism

The ultimate

Some elements

.reasoning to the ultimate

.imagination

.imagining, allowing even the absurd

.metaimagination

.Wittgenstein

.David Lewis

.combinatorics

.science

.the imaginative literature

.stories

.wordplay; examples

.take away the object nothing and you are left with the object

.nothing has no law and therefore everything

.with nothing there is no thing, but everything and something

.questions

.are these just wordplay

.are they puzzles about the real

.are they clues to the depth of the real

.poetry

.framework

.guide

.proof

.forms of logic

.all is logic

.description

Method

Pathways

Some elements

.principles

.tradition (ways, religion, philosophy, schools such as existentialism)

.pathways

.everyday and immediate (this world)

.universal and ultimate (the universe)

.dedication and affirmation

Postscript

Some elements

.attitude

.certainty and demonstration constitute one of the attitudes

.may and will have combinations (no purism except as it emerges), each assigned weight and resources

.risk

.don’t need science type contact with the real

Resources

Plan

See the 2023 version for planning.

Index

.an index is planned

being, 6

beings, 6

cosmos, 6

is, 6

law, 7

pattern, 6

to be, 6

universe, 6

void, 6