|
The way
of being Contents Dimensions and paradigms of being
The way of being PlanSource documentsSource or study topic 1. For source documents, see outline of the way.html. DesignComment 1. Material to be added. The way of beingThe way of being is shared discovery and realization of the ultimate in and for our world and beyond. Comment 2. This essential version of the way has (i) essential ideas and conclusions (ii) two simple arguments (iii) a short account of a method. Comment 3. The main terms do not have precise and universally accepted definitions. However, the definitions lie within main family resemblance, and are chosen so that their system achieves a natural and universal structure, which is a justification of the choices of definition. Comment 4. The term ‘ultimate’ may refer to extent (e.g., in spacetime) or kind or both. Hypothetical conceptions of the ultimate abound in human thought—e.g., the enlightened being, peak being or God, or the self-contained cosmos of modern physics. Here, the nature of the concept will emerge with analysis. We will find a framework for the ultimate. However, the analysis will not be closed, for, as we will find, as we will find, the full ultimate lies beyond our immediate knowledge and being. Nonetheless, we also find that it remains open to transformation of our being. BeingThe conceptA being is an existent; being is existence. Comment 5. The term ‘existent’ suggests but is not limited to entities and may include processes, relations, concepts, words, and tropes. Further, as far as matter, mind, and spirit are real, material, mental, and spiritual objects are also existents. Comment 6. The following material may be placed in a separate strikethrough section to be placed after the section, universe. Comment 7. The existence of particular beings may be questioned. Introduce abstraction—to filter from observation, detail that is distorted. This notion of abstraction is essentially concretion and shows that there are beings. Anticipating the next section, it further follows that there is exactly one universe, to which all beings and kinds of being belong. Thus, if there are such kinds as matter, mind, and spirit, they belong to the universe. Why being?In asking what is real, what is in the universe, and what is not, there is a tendency to think in terms of individual and cultural experience, which may (i) be distorted, (ii) limited, and therefore (iii) proliferate existents, kinds, and categories. Being is neutral to the distinctions explicit or implied in these items, and therefore avoids the errors they entail. This is part of its power (another part is that it can also be a container for our being). However, that lack of kinds and distinctions could be a weakness—it could even render being as essentially a void concept. It will turn out that the reverse is the case—that being is ultimately empowering, metaphysically (we will find an ultimate metaphysics and that we are on a low to intermediate rung of a hierarchy of being), and, as will be seen, epistemologically, axiologically, and logically. Comment 8.
That we are on a low or intermediate hierarchic rung is not a judgment
of value but a UniverseThe universe is all being. CosmosComment 9. What lies beyond the empirical? Can we talk about it? Realistically? A cosmos is a causal domain whose interactions with the rest of the universe are presently negligible. Currently, our observation does not extend beyond our cosmos. Comment 10. It is consistent with observation and reason for there to be limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety. A goal here is to find a way to talk realistically of what lies beyond our cosmos. Comment 11. Note that ‘beyond’ does not mean only in space and time but also (i) within our world but at too low a level of interaction to be significant (ii) beyond spatiotemporal description or even above such description. LawsComment 12. Here and subsequently, strikethrough is used to indicate brief vs more complete treatment. It eliminates the need for two versions of assertions. A As they are immanent in the world, laws have being—that is, laws are beings. The voidThe void is the absence of being. Existence and nonexistence of
the void are equivalent. Therefore, The void is the being that contains no beings. There are no laws of the void Comment 13. Should doubt be introduced here? PossibilityComment 14. Possibility goes here. A description of the world or part of it may be mistaken because it is not possible due to its form or because of its mismatch with its intended object. The condition for formal
possibility is Comment 15. This notion of logic is identical to deductive logic, which may be called formal logic. The notion is that of necessary deduction from premises to conclusions. Another way to conceive formal logic is to look at structures to which logic has been applied and see them as grids. Then, logic is the condition for absolute validity of a structure—i.e., the condition for the structure to exist in some possible world. Comment 16. Formal or logical impossibility is often but not always obvious. For Russel’s famous paradox regarding the set of sets that do not contain themselves, it is implicit. Real possibility is what avoids errors of mismatch with objects. Examples are agreement with laws. Real possibility presumes
logical possibility. Logical possibility is the most inclusive possibility,
for a description that violates logic is unrealizable at all Comment 17. Our cosmos as a whole is one possibility. Relative to limited spacetime regions of the cosmos, we may imagine other hypothetical possibilities that are consistent with logic and realism. Other cosmoses are other possibilities. Ideal metaphysicsComment 18. Metaphysics is knowledge of the real. The analysis so far shows that such knowledge is possible, even if only elementary. If a Comment 19. Various points at which doubt should arise! From the nature of the proof, motivated also by the magnitude of the conclusion, doubt should arise and is addressed in doubt and certainty. That is, the universe is limitless in the sense that all possibility obtains. Particularly, the universe phases eternally between peak being and dissolution to the void.
Comment 20. It is effective to place further conclusions later, in the real metaphysics. Comment 21. This will challenge intuitions that serve well in ordinary and scientific realms. However, from limitlessness, except that logic obtains, laws and paradigms from a cosmos – cause, variation and selection, mechanism, quantum behavior, and coordinate measure – have no necessary purchase. This may summarily be written – for the universe, cosmological realism is suspended. Comment 22. The limitlessness of the universe is the fundamental principle of metaphysics (abbr. fundamental principle, fp). Comment 23. The question of validity of the framework is addressed as in the discussion of abstraction in the section, on being. Comment 24.
The argument to the fundamental principle and its consequences
constitute a framework that may be called ExperienceExperience and beingExperience is awareness in all its kinds and levels. We are experiential beings—it is
in experience that all significance registers and without experience we are The hypothetical being that does
not register in experience is The structure of experienceThe structure of experience is
(a) ‘experience of’ (subject or as-if mind) (b) ‘the Comment 25. It is effective to further develop the structure of experience later, in dimensions and paradigms of being > the structure of experience. Real metaphysicsIntroductionThe ideal metaphysical framework shows that all beings realize the ultimate but not how to best realize the ultimate or what the ultimate is. Real metaphysicsThe perfect metaphysical
framework may be supplemented by what is at least pragmatically valid in the
system of While the real metaphysics has application in our world via, e.g., theories of science, how does it apply across the universe? It began in the ideal metaphysics, with the universe as the realization of possibility. It continues with dimensions and paradigms of being, below. Dimensions and paradigms of beingComment 26. Simplify so as to separate essence from detail. The Aristotle’s Categories, Categories, (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Comment 27. Though categories are the highest proper genera, just as a set is a subset of itself, being may be taken as the highest of the genera—a category itself. Comment 28. As the highest genera, we expect and want the categories to be pivotal in understanding, explanation, and prediction. We might want perfection in this matter. However, we might not always have perfection and we also want understanding etc. at levels below the high genera. These functions are the desiderata that motivate the dimensions and paradigms. We classify the dimensions as pure and pragmatic in just the senses that the real metaphysics has pure and pragmatic sides. The structure of experienceComment 29. The general form of experience above was given earlier in experience > the structure of experience as follows, The structure of experience is
(a) ‘experience of’ (subject or as-if mind) (b) ‘the Comment 30. We now further develop the form of experience. Comment 31. In pure experience there are no real objects but may be potential ones. Comment 32.
Matter and mind are not denied but are regarded here as ways of
speaking about The subject side has reason The object side includes The subject side connects to the object via intention, will, and action. The universe is The pure dimensionSince
experientiality and being-as-being are Experiential being is the pure Thus, the pure dimension is at a higher level than the categories, unless, of course, being itself is taken as a category (as suggested above). The general paradigm—as realization of possibility under logic (as explained in possibility). Comment 33.
At this level, every being is all being and being-as-such and, so, all
beings, including the void, would be this highest level of category. However,
for ordinary purposes, in our ordinary world, distinctions are necessary, and
the beings are not categories. Still, A good – perhaps one of the best
– path paradigm is the philosophical school of yoga, understood as a way for
experiential beings to unite as Comment 34. Research modernization of yoga beginning with yoga.
Comment 35. Though the choice may seem subjective and limited, it level of description transcends that of subject-object and matter-mind. With similarity and difference, these yield exhaustive markers of identity, extension, duration, and property, demonstration of which is taken up in longer versions of this document. Comment 36. Which will be linked later (older versions may be temporarily linked). Pragmatic dimensionsPragmatic dimensions are categorized (i) according to the above aspects of experience (ii) and then, according to divisions of human knowledge and experience (pure or abstracted aspects included). Object aspect of experienceA western emphasis—emphasizes disciplines and paradigms from philosophy and the science. Comment 37. Justification – pragmatic metaphysics. Metaphysics and abstract sciencesMetaphysicsMetaphysics as science (with epistemology, ethics, and logic), i.e., philosophy as general knowledge. Abstract sciencesAbstract sciences – symbolic systems, linguistics, ideal metaphysics as an abstract science, formal logic, mathematics, computer science. Paradigms for metaphysicsGeneral logic Concrete sciencesThe sciencesThe sciences – physical, life, social, and psychological; and their application including exploration of space, time, and the universe. The social sciences and technologySome detail on the social sciences and technology is relevant, especially to exploration of the universe from the as-if material side – sociology (individual and group, one and all, few and many), politics, economics, law, technology, exploration, resource location and extraction, and culture. Culture is conceived as knowledge development and transmission and includes tradition, art, religion, and entertainment. Paradigms from the concrete sciencesParadigms include indeterminist (random) process; formation by incremental variation and selection to form (e.g., void to transients to structures to cosmoses and particles to molecules to replicators to species to species); causation and mechanism – with and without probabilistic process; groups – formation and process. What is the role of these paradigms? Logic in its pure form allows worlds and beings that we would normally think of as absurd; the paradigms enable estimation of probabilities or likelihood. Subject aspect of experienceExploration of and with mind – metaphysics (knowledge, its development, and paradigms) and meditation (yoga is implicit, for though yoga transcends the subject-in-a-limited-sense, in reality the subject is not separated from the object). Paradigms are similar to those of the object side. The subject side has reason, emotion (especially pleasure and pain), value, and will to action. Comment 38. The subject side is elaborated in the structure of experience.
|