ENTER IDEAS
… MOSTLY ON
PHILOSOPHY
ANIL MITRA PHD, COPYRIGHT ©
1992 – 1996, REFORMATTED June 14, 2003
Document status: June 14, 2003
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THE IDEAS
1992 - 1996
Philosophy. The second transcendental method
The first transcendental method is Kant’s.
Instead of asking how knowledge is possible he starts with the possibility -
that possibility is one of the conditions of our existence. He then asks what
the possibility of knowledge implies for existence!
The second transcendental method is that of
Heidegger. The approach of Hegel is not transcendental but direct. Heidegger’s
transcendental method is an inversion upon European philosophy up to his time.
Actually that is just a label rather than a fact, for the idea is original with
Aristotle and not new. However Heidegger has content because of development of
philosophy from Aristotle up to his time and the turning away from first
principles. So what is the second transcendental method? It is not so much to
reinstate being as central but to turn the issue of being into a question. But
not merely into a question for we are in the process of an answer and therefore
the status of being, that which can ask the question of the nature of its own
being, is on the continuum between absolute fact and absolute question. This is
good because it faces the nature of our existence directly - the fact that that
nature is not exactly known but at the same time does not turn away from the
tradition although it places that tradition under examination in a new light.
Of course, it is not due to Heidegger that the nature of being incorporates
also the element of answer and the positive contribution of the tradition
Philosophy in the animal and primal realms
While it may not be absurd to talk of primal
man as being a natural philosopher, is it not absurd to think of an animal as a
philosophical being. No. First, we recognize the element of animal being within
us. That is not the snarling being of the wild of popular fiction. It is the
being that lives in immediate sensual relation with its environment. When man
is so socialized, and so anthropic, living in a citadel of delusion and
degradation every idea is corrupted by social discourse and meaning is flung
far from the center so that any search for meaning results at once in vertigo
and rests upon a quicksand the real world that is both solid and flowing
becomes alien. Every thing is distant different. So the concept of the animal
is foreign
Animal being is being that lives in immediate
sensual relation with its environment. The origin of philosophy is in play and
death. Look at an animal in these two modes. Not a pet but a creature that is
not dependent on man for survival. You will see the regulation of rhythm and
mood in a way that incorporates learning and acceptance of what is real. An
animal is a wild Socrates. That is almost an insult to the wild except that it
is not meant as defining in any way
I know this from my experience in nature
Philosophy in the common realm
Philosophy starts in this realm. Every
individual has a metaphysics. Like religion, philosophy becomes esotericized.
Philosophy and metaphysics start with the given and the common and circle back
and in this the given and the common is enriched and changed
Philosophy. Delusions of completeness and
separateness or omission
Two sources of barrenness and alienation
Delusions of separateness
Being-body
World-self
Object-world
Inner-outer
Object-subject
Percept-concept
Philosophy. Theories and facts
Facts are agreed upon data
Theories are agreed upon hypotheses
In evolution of knowledge, facts and theories
are mutually interactive. Theories form a framework for criticism of facts. And
facts form a basis for criticism of theories. The system as a whole has contact
and is immersed in the real
Philosophy. Primal knowledge
All the fundamental questions have excellent
answers in the field of belief-wonder-behavior-custom-ritual-taboo. The answers
are found in the action and relations of primal man
We in the grandeur of our skeptical delusions
feign idiocy. Modern secular man is not more proud of anything than his
ignorance
Philosophy. Inverted logic or confusion of
cause and effect
Past --> present --> future. This is
the evolutionary sequence. However we are given the present. We argue from the
present to the past. The present is the datum that implies evolution…and
evolution informs the present. This is similar to Kant’s transcendental method
in which instead of asking how knowledge is possible, the possibility of
knowledge is taken as given and Kant then asked “What does this imply about
existence?” As in the evolutionary sequence, this turns around and then has
significance for the nature and possibility of knowledge
Matter --> mind. But matter is not primary
data. Experience is primary data. But one has to be careful not to equate the
data of experience with only external data
Actual = real. The consequence of this false
equation is determinism
Philosophy. Causality
Causality has been reduced to sequence and so
on. Hume was not the first to do so…so did William of Occam [1285-1347/49]
But what is causality? Is it a mere concept
or is it something in the body and sense?
Philosophy. Pragmatism
Says: knowledge has a context
But this is true in any real system
Philosophy. The problems of metaphysics
What is metaphysics?
What is the nature of existence?
The problems of: substance and being,
immutable and final elements, God and the Absolute, mind and body or
consciousness and matter, free will and determinism, ideas and universals,
logos - is the universe knowable?
Philosophy. Meaning and existence of God
As an ultimate we do not expect immediate
evidence. What seems to not be so obvious is that we should not expect to find
immediate meanings or concepts to be valid. Concepts and particulars should
both evolve
We should look to all sources: the world,
analysis and philosophy, science, common experience, animal, primal, mythic,
mystic and poetic
Philosophy. Two functions
Universalizing and extended reflection
Philosophy. Metaphysics, epistemology and
rhetoric or dialectic. Unification
These are Greek words and modern coinages may
be good
Rhetoric combines logic with persuasion…but
dialectic may be a better word. I have been looking for a better word
Metaphysics, epistemology and rhetoric or
dialectic…combine in philosophy, and in rhetoric/dialectic
Philosophy. The meaning of monism
If all the world had a common origin in no
thing, and all the elements of the world interact, is this not a form of monism
Philosophy. Quality of knowledge
When is one claim to knowledge “better” than
another? Correspondence, pragmatism, sociology of knowledge, evolutionary
epistemology, relational, mythic…
When is “knowledge” knowledge?
Kinds of knowledge: scientific, poetic,
assertory, behavioral, mythic, ritual, institutional-paradigmatic, being
Is all true knowledge science?
Philosophy. Purpose
Nature of purpose. Whose purpose?
Purpose from separation. Individual and
universe. Proximate in the ultimate
Purpose as encoding in the individual through
evolution
Consider this scenario: that the universe
evolved from no-thing. The process is mechanistic. Local purpose evolves and
spreads out into the universe at large. Thus no-thing is equivalent to the
universe and mechanism and purpose or teleology are not as different as we
thought. This means that we are misconceiving the nature of mechanism
Philosophy. Professionalization
The specialization and professionalization of
disciplines in particular and work in general has advantages and drawbacks. The
primary advantage is standardization and codification of the best methods, and
certification. This is the ideal and professionalization also serves special
interest and profit. But the primary drawback, is the resulting inertia,
displacement of individual and local initiative, the non-linear multi-solution
approach, the dislocation of human beings from the elements of their work and
the import and alienation of work
Philosophy. Beauty in science
The object of study is beautiful in that it
is an unfolding view of existence that is probing deeper on multi-levels,
incorporating more elements of existence despite the parochial reductions that
do occur; and showing the diversity of elements and modes of existence [being,
meaning, action], the levels of being, our own lives and hopes to be
interwoven. More and more is explained by less and less. The diversity is shown
to be more and more wonderful and at the same time is revealed as a unity
Writers like Steven Weinberg and Stephen
Hawking see a certain despair in what they perceive to be a material and non
human centered universe. The materialist claim is a delusion based on
scientific progress and realism. The reply is not that science has had “Dreams
of a Final Theory” before - it has - but that [a] it ignores the edges and
seams of the existence described in science itself - witness, for example the
flip-flops in cosmology over the short history of science, [b] it ignores
primary and central elements of experience and is based in the limited sphere
of the scientist, perhaps in self-interest, and supported by clever arguments
and delusions…and so the confidence in the world views despite the flip-flops
Counter-perspectives to materialism and the
philosophy of scientific despair. Man in his history is so limited and mean and
his ego so exalted that the non-anthropic view is refreshing. The concept of
the anthropic is also ego-centric and also alienating. It is close to the
delusion of persecution in which the psychotic by seeing him/her self as the
object of persecution also sees him/her self as the center of being. It is a
false, premature centering at any cost; a staking out of a professional
position; and the resulting alienation is the despair of the bully and the psychotic.
Humility works in more than one way. The humility that sees man as alien can
also be seen as a closet arrogance. And the view that man is part of all being
can be seen as a grand delusion but also as humility - man is not special.
There is a certain falsity to the ideas of humility and pride
The fundamental beauty of science is the
beauty of its theories, the creativity of the ideas, the mesh with reality, the
universalization of thought. This is conceptual…but related to perceptual
beauty. The hallmarks of this beauty are simplicity, necessity, inevitability,
symmetry and the conceptual beauty of symbolic calculi
Philosophy. Evolution: some balances
Structure and process
Variation and selection
Flux and stability
Non-equilibrium and equilibrium
Process and state
Unity and diversity
Each being to be must be, must have
separateness [stability] and must also have relatedness [flow]…
Unity and diversity
Relation and separation
Cooperation and competition
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 1 -
Objectives and Principles
Objectives
To show the structure and enumerate the
branches. To show the necessary and contingent aspects. To show the
arbitrariness to the divide between the necessary and the contingent. To note a
parallel between necessary/contingent and nature/nurture
Principles
History and logic. In the first place logic is applied to the
disciplines as they stand today while history shows how and to what extent the
branches have their necessary and contingent origins in the historical process.
It is necessary, for example, that knowledge have a sufficient development
before the universalizing and reflexive principles of metaphysics can emerge.
This does not imply at all that such ideas could not or never did emerge
earlier but that a sufficient development provides content
Confluence and interaction. First among the variety of cultures. The
discreteness of Hellenism and its immediate and conventional sources ought not
to be assumed. The variety and contrast of ideas and institutions within a culture
and among cultures provides a variety, comparison, dialectic within which
specific positions that might otherwise have seemed universal but otherwise ad
hoc to have place and significance. Second among the variety of thought within
philosophy and among the disciplines that emerge, with development, from
philosophy
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 2 -
The Branches, Nature and Origins
Philosophy
Philosophy - the “most general science”,
study of the most general features of reality - natural and supernatural.
Includes metaphysics [ontology], epistemology, logic, axiology, ethics and
aesthetics
Metaphysics
The science of being as such, the study of
the most general features of reality: natural and supernatural
Ontology
Science of fundamental principles; doctrine
of the categories. Ultimate philosophy, rational cosmology
Etiology
The theory of causation and causality
Cosmology
Origin and nature of the universe
Physical cosmology
Origin and nature of the physical aspects of the
universe according to physical science
Cosmogony
Pictorial, allegorical and metaphorical
treatment of the origin of the universe
Nature
Ambiguous term. 1. Objective rather than subjective,
2. Original essence as opposed to essence conceived, modified or portrayed by
man
Philosophy of nature
Basic laws, processes and division of objects
in nature. 1. Matter and energy: the substance of nature; the most elementary
forms of nature, 2. Life: the characteristic, self-replicating forms of
nature…with organization of physical form that evolves and functions in the
physical environment. 3. Society: groups of living beings, marked by inclusion
and exclusion, organized to further the function of the beings and create and
further group values. Creation of these values and socialization are coeval.
There is essential tension between values, their institutionalizations and
interpretations, and their dynamics. 4. Mind: seat of awareness, consciousness
and conscious thought, conscious will, perception, conscious feeling. The
unconscious is, among other things, the phase between or relating mind to body
which is the matter- energy-living form of the being
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 3 -
The disciplines
The Sciences…and Engineering and Technology
Physics and physical sciences: knowledge/science of matter and energy
Biology: knowledge/science of live and its evolution
Sociology: knowledge/science of society, its institutions, cultures and histories
Psychology: knowledge/science of mind, mental processes, the unconscious
Various sub-disciplines and cross-disciplines
such as anthropology which includes physical and cultural anthropology
Art, Religion, History and the Humanities
Language and linguistics, logic, mathematics
Language
Covers the topics communication, reference
and referent, signs, symbols, syntax and meaning. Philosophy of language covers
nature of language, study and advance of its adequacy in relation to its
functions
Semiotics, the theory of signs, originated in logical empiricism and has three
branches: 1. Pragmatics: relation between signs and users, 2. Semantics:
relation between signs [and relations among signs] to the referent - truth,
theory of logic, and 3. Syntax: theory of formal relations among signs: grammar
and formal logic
Linguistics
Study/science of language
Logic
Structure of deductive reasoning
Formal logic: investigates the form of propositions and
other speech-acts and deduction…as opposed to
Symbolic logic: treatment of formal logic by a formalized
logical language or calculus
Mathematics
The discipline which uses the axiomatic
method which begins with undefined terms and axioms [or fundamental but
unproved propositions involving the terms or variables] and proves theorems
[other propositions] by the methods of formal logic…and introduces new terms or
concepts
But the history of axiomatic systems involves
an inductive process
The symbolic science of form, structure and
process
The discipline which encompasses arithmetic,
algebra, geometry, analysis and abstraction from these
“Mathematics is what mathematicians do.”
Nature of mathematics
Three common views are Logicism, Formalism,
and Intuitionism. The mathematical empiricism of Mill is usually
discounted. Realism or mathematical realism or the “Realistic
Foundations of Mathematics” is different from Mill’s empiricism and integrates
other views as aspects of the nature of mathematics and emphasizes the origin
of mathematics in the world of mind and object. Here, object is understood in a
general sense of including process and relation
Logicism or the Frege-Russell hypothesis
The undefined terms of mathematics can be
defined or interpreted in logical terms and the postulates and theorems of
mathematics are propositions of pure logic. The methods of deduction are the
methods of deduction of formal logic
Formalism - David Hilbert
The primitive symbols are both logical and
mathematical and the logical theorems or formulas are supplemented by real
formulas
Intuitionism - Brouwer, Heyting
Mathematics is the “exact part of our
thought” not reducible to science, logic or philosophy. The source of
mathematics is an intuition which presents mathematical concepts and inferences
as intuitively clear. Brouwer and Heyting trace this partially to Kant’s
synthetic a priori in mathematics of number which Brouwer retained and
space-time which Brouwer later abandoned
Realism - developed 1991 - 1993, A. Mitra
Mind, symbolic systems have coeval origins in
[or are] the world. This implies the intuitive aspect. That this evolution is
“incomplete” [in process] implies 1. With regard to the incompleteness of
mathematics - a foundation in logic. 2. With regard to the incompleteness
[contingent or necessary, perhaps for reasons other than the incompleteness of
mathematics] of logic: Formalism and Intuitionism. 3. With regard to the
processes of evolution: an ongoing development of logic and of the formal and a
priori aspects of mathematics. 4. A view of mathematics with an
independence-return relation to science/world. Note an alternative view - the
“culturalism” of Raymond Wilder; I find this view to be uninteresting
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 4 -
Epistemology: the Philosophy of Knowledge
Epistemology covers the nature of knowledge -
what is it, types and modes of knowledge, and questions of validity?
The Nature of knowledge
Relations known, apprehended truth. Opposite
of opinion. Relation between subject and object. Synthetic knowledge…since
evolutionary epistemology, the a priori is a form of synthetic knowledge
Types of knowledge
Intuitive
Residing innately in the knower or mind, a
priori
Iconic
Iconic, echoic…
Symbolic
Knowledge mediated by symbols: general
symbols, language, logic, mathematics
Conceptual
Universal knowledge. Knowledge of patterns,
relations, universals
Direct knowledge
Direct perception of conceptual knowledge
Rational
Knowledge by concept, conceptual process, not
based I empiric
Synthetic
Knowledge drawn structure-form-process of the
object
Note that the above includes behavioral,
stimulus-response…and feeling-emotional types
The foregoing, especially since evolutionary
epistemology, are highly interrelated; former divisions are at least blurred
Types and classes of subject - According to
types of knowledge possible
Stimulus-response
Perceivers
Conceivers
Direct conceivers
Conceived: the Absolute
Epistemology
Origin, structure, dynamics, methods,
validity of knowledge and understanding
Types of epistemology
Functional epistemology
Modern epistemology. Includes
hypothetico-deductivism of which the empiricism of Bacon and later thinkers is
a special case. Includes pragmatism, the Kuhnian critique, and the ideas of
Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend. Evolutionary epistemology is a
form of hypothetico-deductivism informed by Darwinian evolution
Rationalism
Rationally founded knowledge is possible and
valid
Evolutionary epistemology
Evolutionary study of knowledge and
epistemology
Study of origins of knowledge in organic and
other evolution
Sociology of knowledge
This includes relativism, ideologism, the
group-bonding source of knowledge, the group-bonding function of knowledge.
Descriptive and micro-sociologies
Universalism in epistemology
It is not implied that any one “function” or
philosophical viewpoint is the one. All functions - and others - may be
present. Thus evolutionary, functional, sociological, scientific and other
dynamics may be present, and dynamically interactive
The epistemologies include a number of
functions. Other functions are implied by the types and classes of knowledge
and subject and the nature of knowledge. This includes
Philosophy of science
Objective knowledge
Science, of course, need not be seen as
objective knowledge. Additionally there are functional approaches and these
include functional epistemology, and the sociology of science
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 5 -
Axiology
Axiology: the study of value or “goodness” in the widest sense of the terms. A distinction
is made between instrumental value [means] and intrinsic value [ends.] Further
distinctions may be made. There are numerous views of the intrinsically good.
In Hedonism it is pleasure; for Kant, a good will; for Pragmatists,
satisfaction, growth, or adjustment; Humanists, harmonious self-realization;
Christians, the love of God. Pluralists argue that there is any number of
intrinsically good things. G. E. Moore developed a theory of organic wholes,
holding that the value of an aggregate of things depends upon how they are
combined. The relation of value and fact is also important
Ethics
Theory and practice of judgment in relation
to actions, ends and dispositions
Meta-ethics
The nature of moral concepts and judgments
Normative ethics
Criteria of what is right and wrong
Deontological ethics
Theory of right action
Axiological ethics
Based on value, the good
Teleological ethics
Based on ends
Aesthetics
Philosophy of beauty and beauty and judgment
in art
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 6 -
The Philosophies and the Disciplines
The disciplines interact in a number of ways
Scientific philosophy
Evolutionary epistemology
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of biology
Philosophical psychology
Biomechanics
Psychology of philosophy
Psychology of logic
…
Philosophy. Philosophy and Its Branches 7 -
Religion, its Nature and Philosophy
Are we to take religion as a given thing? Or
as a concept - in evolution?
This question arises in general in relation to
topics of study. Meaning is a major topic. Regardless of philosophical school a
fundamental position is that meanings as posited are in transition…and such
transition is due to incompleteness of understanding of both the topic and the
nature of meaning…and may also be due to the object [the subject of study]
itself being in evolution…the factors in this latter evolution may include
natural and artifactual evolution…and the study of meaning may be a factor in
the artifactual evolution
Religion as a fact - religion exists and
there are beliefs, observances, rituals, shrines, places…and these have
significance to the individual devotees and their societies. This, of course,
is not a commitment to the truth or falsity of the beliefs or the absolute
relevance or irrelevance of the beliefs, rituals and so on
Religion as a concept - as a thing that may
be defined, characterized, understood, compared
The “scientific” study of religion has
assumed the empirical mode. Piety and so-called respect for piety has shunned
the latter
Empirical and conceptual studies are both
important
For we should not ignore primality and the
profound elements of the past. Understanding and wholeness require
conceptualization but not mere conceptualization. And, if we wish to enter the
process, we [moderns] must conceptualize - for we must first remove those parts
of religion which we deem to be merely historical and reveal that which is
essential and potential. I am going to say that, despite technology and science
and modern rationalism, we moderns poorly understand the nature, meaning and
potential of religion, that there are elements of religion in its actual and
potential forms that are important to us - as important as science and the
so-called objectivity of science but that we cannot begin to understand or
evaluate these claims without first conceptualizing religion - that is
understanding what it is and can be. We must first overcome our prejudices
based on mere experience and history
Characterizations of religion
In Western Philosophy the central fact of
religion has been characterized as the reality and nature of God and man’s
relation to God. Without going into detailed analysis and evaluation it is
important to note that this is a function of the central religion of the West -
Christianity. Further, note that this focus is central to the Religions of The
Desert: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. And even if we expand to include the
Religions of The Tropical Forests can we say that we have expanded truly to the
Religion of Being?
Subsidiary issues are: soul, Atman,
immortality and reincarnation, religious moralism and sin, the progress of man
in the religious dimension called salvation in Christianity, and the sacred -
the pervasion of the ultimate or God in or its relation to the profane
A characterization of religion that I
formulated one time
The foregoing includes actual and ideal
elements…and the actual includes, also, what are usually considered to be
secular: politics…
My concept of religion: Religion is that
which relates the whole of human being [humanity] to the whole of Being or
existence as a whole which includes humankind
Modes of relation between Individual and
Being
There is none that we reject though there are
some that we emphasize while there are others that we identify as supplementary
or metaphorical
Primary modes of relation in religion
Mysticism
Intuition
Direct apprehension or perception of the
conceptual. Universals
Visionary. These are close relatives of what
are called “hallucination” and “delusion.”
The Journey…into nature and the unconscious
and so into the universal
Philosophy
Action
Supplementary modes
Classical religion
Art, poetry
Tantra
Science
Meditation
Rational-empirical philosophy
Primal knowledge
Feeling-emotion
Perception
Language, logic and mathematics
Philosophy. Metaphysics
General Metaphysics
Being and the Absolute
The Absolute as being for which eternity is an instant
and infinite magnitude a point; that is beyond or includes process; that is and
knows all
Being in the general sense as being-meaning-action… there is an alternate process
viewpoint
Being as prior to space…space as the embedding of being in the
absolute
Action or process as prior to time…time as the concept of action or
process and their embedding in the absolute -psychological - intuitive - mystic
- primal time
The metaphysics of the absolute
The metaphysical hierarchy: Absolute
potential --> manifestation --> being-relation-action
The cosmology of the absolute: the chain of
being
On the nature of being and knowing
Consciousness [awareness] and being
Consciousness and process
Philosophical metaphysics
The philosophical absolute
General and descriptive metaphysics and
ontology
Being - relation - action
Time
Process and genesis
Being
Relation, quality and pattern
Knowledge
Flow and encoding
Gnosis and knowledge
Synthetic metaphysics: alternatives as
identical or overlapping…and alternatives as complementary
Cosmological scenarios
On objectivity in metaphysics
Kant introduced the concept of the impossibility
of metaphysics. How can one get out of this? The first step is to realize how
limiting and limited are the fields of the rational and of science. The second
step is to realize that one is out of the cultural field and in the field of
metaphysics
Physical metaphysics
Time
From psychological to mechanical, to
thermodynamic, to quantum and cosmological
Space
From psychological to mechanical to quantum
and cosmological. Mechanical space as the seat of matter
Space-time-matter…or space-time-energy
In cosmology [gravitation/relativity] space,
time, and matter [or energy] are in interaction. Particles as discontinuities
in the space-time-energy matrix
Cosmological scenarios
Singular origins with inflation; closed, flat
and open; Hubble constant as time dependent and possibly increasing:
anti-gravity
Multiverses with and without present causal
connection; singularities and singular connection
Difficulty with ultimately distinguishing
flat/curved and closed/open, the latter especially when curvature is non-uniform.
Ad-hoc nature of extrapolations from the known universe as absolute; the
sequence of models
Creation and destruction of statistical
disorder functions [entropy]
Biochemical metaphysics
Anthropological metaphysics
The metaphysics of
Phenomenology
Psychology’
Mind and person
Philosophy. Heidegger, meaning and being
I do not need to go into a preliminary on the
nature of meaning. I have done this 100’s of times. All is flux. But within
flux there are islands of stability
Heidegger arrives at the significance of
being by questioning the substance ontology - the idea that there are permanent
essences underlying “properties” and the phenomenal. Heidegger argues that this
ontology underlies Western Philosophy from the early Greeks to the time of
Heidegger’s analysis and is the source of a number of errors and false
dichotomies [mind/body, categorical ethics/relativism…]
The essence of being is temporality and the
essence of human being is that it can question the nature of being. But, says
Heidegger, we must first investigate the meaning of being since this is not
given to us…
Philosophy. The field of being - an outline
1.
Field of
being
2.
Total
field of concepts and discourse
3.
Text:
theory and writing
Philosophy. Science, progress and the social
milieu
1.
The growth of science
There is clear growth of science. This is not
questioned here although a Kuhn may have done so. A psychosocial analysis of
Kuhn and his supporters would be interesting
2.
A concept of progress and its modifications through criticism
The criticism of progress as linear and or
inexorable is valid. However this view of progress is a paper tiger. The
function of the view is not at all philosophical but plays a social role and we
should be resisting the role rather than criticizing the concept. Arm chair and
pulpit intellectuals are boring
Knowledge and language have many modes…and roles. Knowledge is rooted in and roots action. I suppose this a form of pragmatism but it is not in the sense that I do not present it as an epistemology or criterion but as the primal fact of knowledge…the separation between knowledge, object and action is never fully complete but in order for there to be knowledge there must be some separation - and modes and phases of separation and by comparison some of the modes may appear as absolute or possessed of intrinsic criteria
3.
The social milieu
I have experimented by immersion. Whereas
there are numerous macro and micro studies on the scientific community there
are no studies of the milieu of practice and the mutual driving roles of
science and practice; and there is no study by immersion
Particularly
I found:
Cyclicity in what is taken as established
Minimal proof regarded as establishing conservative positions
Hierarchy precedes rationality
Strong interaction to the point of confusion between rationality, group dynamics, administrative, political, economic and legal function. This may be as it will always be. The point being made here is the belief that science is supreme
4.
Further development needed
Detailed description
Further analysis
Further experience and views of the medical establishment
Multiple domains and institutions
Intrinsic science
On science as an umbrella term
Philosophy.
Relation with psychology
Original unity of the fields
Role of psychology in philosophical analysis. Fact vs. content of psychology
Role of philosophy in development of psychology. Analysis of psychological concepts. Critique of psychology as a science
Philosophy.
On necessary and the contingent
Related to nature and nurture
Nothing is either contingent or necessary
Philosophy.
On definition
Definition
as part of the knowledge, action cycle
…part of the evolution of an axiomatic system
Kinds of
definition
Ostensive
Essential - by necessary and sufficient conditions
Aristotelian - by necessary and sufficient conditions
Analytic
Operational
Synthetic
Functional
Dialectic
By meaning
By use
1997 -
present
Philosophy.
Dimensions. Growth. Social Stage
A role of the social stage of development is the working out or support of the social agenda
Philosophy.
Social theory
The concepts of mass and globalization. Mass refers to the mass that is attached to a social concept by virtue of and assumption that society is infinite - or very large compared to the particulate units of society - in size. Assignment of mass is a form of concretization. As an example consider an argument that capital punishment is “self-contradictory” because [in the case of murder] it sanctions the act that it condemns. A counter-argument is as follows. The function of “punishment” is not only punishment, or correction, or rehabilitation, or justice, or revenge but is also a form of defense. In a small group the need for defense or protection against a dangerous or “aberrant” member is obvious. Selection ensures the survival of groups that protect themselves and also the survival a stable individual type that is self and group protective and this requires and includes that group decision/consensus is normally considered and undertaken before the self-protective act. In a large group the delusion of mass, perhaps a form of denial/delusion of power, is the assumption that such protection is not necessary. The actual situation is of course not neat and the distortions of mass include both maximization and minimization at the same time, in sequence and in a sort of balance. In a large society, self-protection remains necessary and the needs of group decision/consensus are approximately but not completely formalized in institutions. Note that concept of complete formalization is itself a form of mass; that distortions of mass - max. and min. - pervade language and thought as in the degradation of words and ideas to the secular and on the projection of the secular and the “material” to the ultimate
Other
examples of mass:
·
Problems
defined and solved by a central agency or government and consumed by the
population; the attitude that fosters this
·
Infinite
progress. Mass applied to time
·
Context
free thought. This includes absolute frames of though - even the absolute is self-contextual.
An example of an absolute frame to which mass attaches is the idea that
delusions of mass can be finally evaluated
·
Good
will prevail
·
Evil
will prevail
A source of mass, as in the present example
of capital punishment, is globalization, from the local. A related
source of mass is universalization from the affective-emotional or other
particular aspect of being to the entire human or to entire being
World
Application:
A way for people to develop their own L-program - text based or interactive using, perhaps, VB or VBA, or other programming perhaps as simple as BASIC or FORTRAN…
Living:
issue of
Philosophy.
Matter and Materialism:
Matter is what I touch! This is simple. Whether it is profound is a matter of perspective. [What is obvious often needs to be stated because from common and obvious ideas may come profound consequences! Or, the obvious is frequently obvious only after its statement. And the reason for statement may not be obvious. ] Thus, by extension: Mind, too, is what I touch. This too is simple! And, by extension, the Ultimate is simple! Thus the implication of a simple statement can - and in this case is - profound and that is not a matter of perspective. None of this is Naïve Realism for it recognizes that what I touch is more than what I [immediately] think it to be and it does not specify what the universe is or is made of. I am simply saying that the world begins but does not end with what I touch
Scientific Materialism, the thesis that the ultimate is defined by some definite universal physics such as Newtonian quantum mechanics - perhaps some future version - is both intricate [yet, of course, also simple in some senses] and profound in potential though not in actuality since it is not yet established
The ultimate in understanding is not an opposition of modalities but a synthesis: science and sense, not science versus sense. This is just an example and understanding does not stop at any one place: science, sense and culture. And not just cultures but cultures; not just cultures but the world; and the origins of the world and being
Health and
New Vision [NV]:
The changes
in relation to diet and diets, weight, self and physical attributes,
allergies and factors affecting all these and other elements, and
perception of these items. And of consequent ability to select factors for
change and control health results is ongoing and constitutes a division of NV
I want to carefully think, review and write about this
Some perceptions include observing eating and drinking establishments after not eating there or drinking for a while
NV = Perception!
Science
…is a dialogue between thought, perception and action. This is what provides grounding not the merely empirical aspects of science! Thought is the theoretical, conceptual, explanatory… aspect of science. Perception is the grounding in the world, the empirical aspect - but also in the organism. Similarly thought is grounding in the organism through mind - except that I am not thinking of mind or mental as other than organic. Action is the seeking aspect which drives thought and perception and applied to thought it includes the organizing, unitizing principle; applied to perception it is experiment; and applied to the world it is technology, engineering - the applied sciences and other applied endeavors!
All these divisions and distinctions! Not really so distinct. The distinction is artifactual and unitization is through the agencies of institution and person. Note that person and institution are tightly related non-disjunct concepts. Actually: unity is given; the integration is of the artificially or artifactually discretized elements
Human life
and knowledge
…includes science and all the elements described above! These elements include dialogue, grounding and unity. But these elements do not have to be built in - they are already there. The grounding of life including human life is prior to its functions and agencies
Language
…to understand its significance ask, “What do we do with it?” We communicate, represent, and… This is related to the question “what is done with communication?” But also to “what are the advantages of language over non-linguistic communication?”
Look to origins of language and linguistic ability!
Why it is
difficult for societies to adapt to changing conditions
This function of factors which include:
The weight of history - which makes for structure and strength - also makes for difficulty in or slowness of response. This inadequacy of response is a function of institutionalization and of reaction
Investment and inaccuracy in communication result in distortion of reality perception
Special interests - among other factors - result in incomplete representation in government
Why Biology is Important to Philosophy and
EML
Origins, genesis are a source of knowledge about current structure and relationships in the world - about being. Biology provides information on origins and genesis. But biology is also rooted in the actual world. And it provides mechanisms so that the understanding is a realistic understanding that is concept based and therefore is embedded in the world; and requires minimal information can generate much understanding
Evolution provides a Universal perspective
Function provides a proximal perspective
The theory of evolution provides a relationship between these two perspectives
Provides insight into epistemological and metaphysical issues. An example is perception. Perception is sometimes considered to be a topic in sensation and the immediate integration of sensation. But perception can also be considered in generalized senses: a vertical generalization leads to conception and thought; while concurrent lateral and vertical generalization lead to lateral generalization leads to inclusion of intuition. Other modes of generalization are possible. The resulting generalized concepts of perception are structured and biology provides insight into the generalized and the specialized concepts of perception. The ways in which insight is provided are similar. Here I will consider only simple perception
Consider the question “what are the modes of
being [energy]?” Information is provided by the senses. To get a complete
answer to our question we might need to assume that sensual information is
complete. But our senses may be only attuned to the given [proximal] modes of
being. Thus reasoning from senses seems circular
Ways out of this circular reasoning come from physics and from biology:
Physical or energy accounting. This is the classical method of physics
Biological niche fulfillment
On File Converters
It ought to be possible to build a converter from input-output and to develop a program to automate the development of converters
Philosophy - Evolution - Projection to the Universe
Although one can do the following:
Catalog modes of being. Example: natural, social, ideal, universal
Elaborate on sub-categories: Natural = physical, biological; ideal = mental, spiritual; universal = absolute…
Elaborate details, theories, justifications; and connections among the modes, sub-modes…
All this is precursor to and suggestive of projection of evolution to the ultimate. Of course the unitizing connections are perhaps the strongest of the suggestive elements. And although the projection is to the ultimate, the projection itself is not ultimate for there are other modes of projection, which are at least equal to the evolutionary. I have argued that the evolutionary projection is the most general of the process projections, but the absolute projection is more direct and more inclusive - and perhaps, as I have argued, the most inclusive,
That the
evolutionary is the most general process projection is highly suggestive but,
relative to process projection, the question I should be asking is what do I
mean by evolutionary, and why is it the most general of the processes?
Physics and biology have partial answers to these questions but they are also paradigmatically mired in the more restricted concepts of process dominated by the concept of sequential process causation
All of the above are part of the most fundamental consideration that follows
Evolution is the most basic, most primal process of becoming. Do not argue with this - it is not a fact or a factual claim. It is what I mean by evolution. What is factual, and necessary to flesh out this meaning of evolution, is to show continuity with and inclusion of the fact-bound meanings of evolution in biology, geology, cosmology, and physics… and of the concepts of evolution from elsewhere in the world. All this can be done and further, by position, evolution as the most basic process of becoming - and therefore also of equilibrium and decay - is the most general process and process projection
Any equal more general or alternative projection would either be an equivalent process or a non-process projection
The most general, basic, primal process projection must provide for the emergence of the new, of what is not contained. Therefore it is non-deterministic, and without explanation. That is the essential generation at the point where novelty is introduced is without process or causal explanation. Within process, cause and explanation are tied up together. But there is also structure in the world. Structure is what emerges. So the key elements must be generation and structure. Or, variation and selection… This is what the most primal process must have. To be complete and to be explanatory it must include the non-caused process: nothing or nothingness --> being and existence --> the all, the absolute and the ultimate. This too is encompassed by primal a-causal [process sense] process. The formula is: f --> b --> “
The Dynamics
of Reality
Reality not fixed in interaction; in creation; levels; even when the ultimate is achieved - that too is dynamic and potential; and that potential includes f and “ --> b --> f
It is seen and felt; not merely symbolized. And that seeing includes the seeing of ordinary things but also seeing the real. And all this is originally given; but people do not see - and this is in part the condition of existence!
Become, effected and affected
Philosophy: the question of being
This entry deals with the following issues: What is most fundamental? This is a form of the question of substance! It generalizes Kant’s Transcendental Method
Kant asked not what is the nature of experience as deduced from existence but “What are the necessary conditions of existence given the fact of experience? “He thus inverted the usual logic of placing the universe before mind. This made Kant an idealist. More accurately practical reason resulted in his holding an idealist position without positing or believing in idealism regardless of whether he also posited or believed in idealism
This approach of Kant, a revolution in thought and philosophy, opens up new vistas and at the same time is the subject of intense debate and attack. Debate because dialog. Attack because those who are tall are the subjects of attack, because the approach stands against the alienating position of human being as peripheral of mind as epiphenomenal. That latter approach is the approach of materialists, the church, of all or many who wish to control, who seek tight constraining categories
Aristotle and Heidegger ask, “What is being?” This puts them in sympathy with Kant but also on a larger canvas than him
Being is primary
This seems like it might be against Sartre
We know and are being. Universes are us [we]! This stands against the powerless, self-pitying and yet self-aggrandizing point of view, a view encouraged by the power relations of a certain kind of society, “what a minute tiny speck I am. Just a cog in the vast social machinery of this great state. How humble I am. I luxuriate in my ignorance. I am so proud of the fact that I know how much I do not know. The more I know the more I know I do not know…”
Generalizing all the above:
What must the universe be like so that the world is possible? The world, not the universe, is our most primitive experience. The world is being, mind… Ask, “How did a sentient, planning, designing, hoping, living, knowing being arise…and from what… ultimately from no-thing?”
For we know the world and that it is and that it is not just possible
This position remains in dialog with the position: the ultimate constituents of the universe determine my being, Being. And this dialog is our adventure of discovery and remains in contact with the world. Ultimately the dialogs themselves arise from the same no-thing! But when the poles of the dialog break down into rigid ontologies they become nothing
Philosophy: The Most Basic Knowledge, The Most Basic Relationship
I am concerned here about criteria to answer the question “what relation defines my most basic knowledge?” Is it what the societies in which I live teach me? I ought to consider that possibility for individuals learn a lot from their society. And we act very often, as though the knowledge learnt in society is most fundamental. In our little mutually conditioned relationships within which we fancy that we are independent and that that knowledge which is so basic to our being is trivial - that is what we do
Another aspect of that same self-centered promotion is the self-centered negation that says, “If it is not that knowledge then that knowledge is nothing. “
But no! The universe contains society and every other part of the universe. Therefore my most basic relationship is with the universe. For the universe is ALL. And, if I think that my relation with my cradle is most important then I remember that the cradle is part of the universe
The most basic relationship is I-ALL
The most basic knowledge, from which all other knowledge springs, is knowledge of the ALL
ALL = NOTHING. And at this level percept = concept
This is the genetic point of search for the fundamental
The next level is the difference self vs. not self which is the same as I / ALL
At the process level the distinction I / ALL is equivalent to Cause and Causation
Philosophy - Biology: Understanding the Complexity of Organisms in Terms of Evolution. Co-evolution of form and function
The Problem
The problem is one I have returned to many times. I do not mean it is or is not a problem in the sense of presenting and insurmountable obstacle to evolutionary theory or that it in any sense “disproves evolution. “ I mean that it is an issue, which is at the core of evolutionary understanding and is always capable of further illumination
Thus, I am not really discussing a “problem. “
Commentary - Co-evolution of form and function
I have written on this topic from a number of angles. One is that while it requires attention, there is a distinction between an individual’s difficulty in understanding and in nature’s ability to “create. “ Therefore, while some persons and establishments regard problems as absolute, incompleteness of human knowledge may be regarded as an invitation to “adventures of ideas”. This side of human knowledge is in process
Another angle is that of gradual variation while the exact “function” changes. This is a skeleton argument. Finding gradations of form and function in nature today fills it out
I want to formalize this concept
The formalization is co-evolution of form and function
Related Discussion
Function has been regarded as relative to human understanding. Of course, this is so for any human knowledge. But there is another related meaning of function, which removes the essential subjectivity. This is the one, which regards function as a form of relationship
This is related to the nature vs. nurture argument. First, nature and nurture do not complete the field of concepts of the relevant domain - individual choice is also a factor. Second, it may be better to talk of bio-socio-psychology rather than nature, nurture and individual. There are alternative modalities and modality schemes. Nature - society - psychology - universal is an improvement upon bio-socio-psychology
The Absolute: its Meanings… this topic is dealt with in many places; here some points:
The Absolute as the final context
See also the PowerPoint presentation on Evolution, Design and the Absolute
Evolution, Design and the Absolute - an outline concept:
The concept of the following outline is the provision of more inclusive contextual frameworks. This is interspersed with my own process
1.
Origins
2.
Knowledge
3.
Design
4.
Evolution
5.
Philosophy
6.
Dynamics
7.
Experience
8.
Action
9.
The
Absolute
10.
Destiny
Evolution - Conditions to support life-as-we-know-it as we know them
First few seconds or microseconds
What kind of perturbation in the pre-universal [uniform] space-time-matter continuum
F = zero = uniform space-time = Limit of [space-time-matter] as matter è F
Evolution and the Absolute - some oppositions:
|
Evolution |
Absolute |
|
Individual |
Whole |
|
Matter |
Idea |
|
Science |
Direct, Body, Intuition |
|
Process |
All Times and Spaces |
|
Progress |
Flow |
|
Question |
Answer |
Comments: why the apparent oppositions are incomplete as oppositions,
incomplete, not true oppositions; and are actually compatible and integrated
Evolution, Design and the Absolute - It’s Content; Understanding it…Some general comments:
Content:
The nature of being and the Universe. The previous sentence did not emphasize process…that is because being/universe are used in the most general senses which include process, include all modes of being, all extents of the universe, all edges of physical and other reality
Use and Application to all modes of sentient activity, including knowledge, design and planning, action for all being and modes-dimensions -extents of being
The process is reflexive, that is, the learning of EDA is applied to itself
My path of learning
Use - but not exclusive use - of a full range of understanding which includes that of the Western Traditions but also the traditions of the East, of primal and primordial cultures
Understanding Evolution, Design and the Absolute
That although the fundamental truths are few and ultimately simple they are not fixed or concrete
That although the fundamental truths are few and ultimately simple one of the paths to these truths that I have used is the path of the modern western tradition. This path appears to be restrictive in its outlook but that is not inherent in the path but is a feature of some of its institutions and practitioners. The continued use of a focus based on this tradition, of course based in an immersion in it, leads out of these restrictive features…. This is an approach that uses a form of paradox and this is one source of difficulty. Learning, and assuming and using a range of disciplines from the Western tradition till they become second nature, grounded in my own being is a source of difficulty. Also, I am not using tradition as tradition but require immersion in the ongoing process at the forefront in the various disciplines including my own activity in a number of areas And there is the interactive use of the disciplines. Then there is the unlearning and relearning of other traditions… and through direct experience and thought
EDA is the history of my own confusion… i. e., I have a tendency to struggle with an understanding and then when I have succeed to move on rather than to consolidate and polish…The path I’ve taken is through a lot of disciplines into which I’ve put a lot of effort… I have developed a facility for abstract, imaginative thought and one of my concerns is the reality of that thought…These points are interesting in themselves; also explain some of the non-intrinsic difficulty in following EDA
The reflexivity of EDA referred to above is an historical reflexivity in that the development of EDA is ongoing and therefore the reflexivity itself must be ongoing and incremental
Evolution.
Philosophy. Biology
Does the environment satisfy the definition [concept] of a species?
Philosophy. Evolution. Logic. Process. Gödel. On definition as a process: the evolution of axiom systems
1.
Consider
a being B in a
2.
B
explores U and remembers:
Symbolically, and in terms of icons
In neurons, and “tablets and text”
A special case is stasis
3.
Language
arises as mirroring simple common event patterns
4.
Structure
of process-pattern is mathematics
5.
An axiom
system maps a class of structures but even within that class areas of structure
remain outside the purview of the axiom system. Thus truth is not provability
6.
The only
way for all true statements to be provable is for all statements to be provable
Psychology: Personality and disorder
Putative relations between creativity and mental disorder are commonplace. Perhaps the relation is real and due to common unusual features or perhaps as Konrad Lorenz wrote depression is a deviant heightened caution and mania a deviant heightened energy…
Consider that depression may suppress personality traits into indifference while mania may exaggerate traits into semblance of disorders
There is a relation between energy and personality so that what may appear as a quality in one case may be a disorder in another
Liken personality to a riverbed and manic pressure to a high flow volume. If the bed is a wide and deep canyon it contains the flood which can be deployed to productive ends. If the bed is shallow the same flow is destructive. No matter how large the flow section a large enough flow causes the river to overflow the banks
Implications of the analogy are easy to draw. The analogy can be made more sophisticated, further considerations factored in. As analogy it is useful but incomplete
But it points to the non-analogical importance of not considering the elements of psychology in isolation
Process and
Reality, Verbs and Nouns, Punctuated Equilibria, Design and Growth.
In Process and Reality, Whitehead speaks of the inadequacy of the subject-predicate form. What does he mean and what is his motivation in doing so? There is the general motivation of the essential inadequacy of language - he says something like “a completely adequate language must await a completed metaphysics. “ He is arguing that since the form of language has content, we cannot have a fully adequate language - or know that we do - until we have an adequately full picture of the universe. More particularly, he must be thinking about the adequacy of language as a vehicle for his process metaphysics. In the subject-predicate form of a proposition the predicate predicates something of the subject. The subject has a quality, the subject is somewhere, the subject is doing something, the subject is doing something in a certain way, the subject is doing something to an object, something is being done to the subject…In addition to exemplifying the subject-predicate form the previous sentence also paraded a number of the major parts of speech…It would be interesting to do an analysis of how complete a cover of know reality is provided…Much of the development of philosophy is concerned with the development of this analysis…I have not seen a item by item analysis - with or without integrating relations. Regarding the issue of process: is the subject-predicate form adequate to express pure process? “Universe” is not a sentence…How is the evanescence of objects built into language? Must it be left to poets…This is a point to the inadequacy of the subject-predicate and the noun-adjective-verb-adverb-preposition metaphysics…Where do we find these forms in the continuous and relational language of physics?
Punctuated equilibria, design and growth appear to be discontinuous. Pre-modern descriptions of physics were also that way…But the discontinuity of evolution is only apparent - what is sudden in the paleontological perspective is gradual in an intrinsic biological perspective…Even saltations such as chromosome splitting are continuous from a physico-chemical perspective
The mathematics of calculus shows how to put flux in to the language of discrete objects, changes and relationships. And then after the introduction of flux as a fundamental metaphysics of physics - and life and geology through Lyell’s uniformitarianism - the discrete was reintroduced by the mechanics of the quantum, speciation, and extinction…
…
In conclusion: flux is a mask for the discrete, the discrete is a mask for the continuous, the language of one can be wrought into the language of the other, and the real plays no favorites
Philosophy. Nature. Human Relation to Nature.
The
1.
Since
Rousseau and before there is the concept of “return to nature. “
“Discours sur les sciences et les arts [1750; A Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts], in which he argues that the history of man’s life on earth has been a history of decay. This Discourse is by no means Rousseau’s best piece of writing, but its central theme was to inform almost everything else he wrote. Throughout his life he kept returning to the thought that man is good by nature but has been corrupted by society and civilization. He did not mean to suggest that society and civilization were inherently bad but rather that both had taken a wrong direction and become more harmful as they had become more sophisticated. “
2.
Some
debate continues. Civilization elevates humans…it is corrupting…return to
nature…progress…humans are good . . . are corrupt by nature…Children are born
innocent but are corrupted within their own life…The life of the “Noble Savage”
was not so pure…
3.
This is
especially important to me as I love nature and in my own life it is a source
of beauty. I find that loneliness in the city becomes aloneness in nature. I
would not abandon civilization but I would join it more closely to nature and
that join would not be one of essential choice, it would not be a theoretical
one. From that join I learn the full dimensions of what it is to be human…and
as always it is not just nature and civilization but nature - i. e. the
physical worlds of the earth and space and the world of life / civilization,
culture and society / psyche or the inner and outer worlds of mind and spirit /
and the universal, the unconscious and the unknown that are to be integrated…There
is fundamental value to diversity…of experience…for multiplicity is
adaptive…the way…; and while integration is good the world and being provide
their own integration through process. What other value do I see in the
experience and being of nature and the wild? In the following contact implies
becoming and integration as an inherent element of the nature of being
Contact with the source which is our nature, the original unity
Contact with means. It is not so much contact with nature - regarding the issue of contact with means - but proximity of all the elements of a world; persons are closer to the means of their living; they are close to the circle of their being their world is meaningful to them because they are it and its product. None of which is to deny the value of specialization, none of which is to deny the existence of alienation, of fragmented and the values of the outside of the circle of the far journey…these elements are not to be denied and it is their non-denial from within the circle - the circle of a culture and the circle of a persons being - that is integrative…or disintegrative yet real. There is an element of the modern world teaches persons that they are dependent, irrelevant, alienated atoms that are mere expressions of their culture regardless of how empty that culture may be…contact is against this element
Contact with the real, with vision and with the universal through nature
1.
I can
debate whether this integration is good or whether choices have to be made. I
can debate what and how to integrate and the possible result and value and how
to go about it all
2.
I
believe the following:
Experience of nature is good and fundamental - even in its harsh aspects
A significant part of my life is that experience
The integration of the experience is good
Relative to the debate
Karl Popper in discussing the philosophy of science said, “Our ideas die for us” meaning - in that context - that science progresses by testing hypotheses and discarding the unsuccessful ones
There is still a role for dying for
our ideas. Or, positively, I put my being and not just my words into my
belief…my life is an experiment…this is in the nature of being for nature is
not ultimately rational or deterministic…therefore my experiment with my life
is good…it is not just that it feels good…the feeling is both personal and
related to global in which there are many life paths, ways and experiments…they
form a joint endeavor…we encourage each other despite our differences…and out
of our multidimensional experiments is the promise of growth yet that too is
not an ultimate promise because since humanity is a part of the universe…and
the final attitude is that despite our beliefs we do not know the ultimate
outcome and like Arjuna we stand firm
as we walk into the arena of life…
This discussion has raised - and provided some answer - the question of analyzing real alternatives. The alternatives are real in that they have to do with our lives and beings and are not only conceptual. Of course the “alternatives” can be complementary parts of being…our disordered perceptions - based in the yin-yang of spitting - sometimes sees them as competing alternatives. The discussion leads into the following:
Philosophy.
Society. Belief. Cultural Artifact. World View. Comparative Analysis.
Volumes have
been written on comparative analysis. Yet diversity is good, choices are not
necessary even when conceived as necessary. In my own life I have experienced
two and more cultures and a number of modes of life within the multi-culture of
Consider the apparently different and at-odds segments of a given society that is often considered as unitary. An example is science vs. religion vs. fundamentalism
Although these factions are sometimes recognized - validly or otherwise - as “incommensurable”, they are frequently thought of as unitary with regard to other societies and cultures. Why?
Are they incommensurable and what are the common elements that make them unitary, hollow? In their debate both science and parapsychology seem empty. What is the common element and to what unitary feature of western civilization does that point?
Such features give us leads to the unitary elements of a given culture. Conflict can point to similarity and identity and not just to difference
What is common may be tacit, institutionalizes rather than rationalized, part of the social ground
This points to a way to seeing and forging unitary links among “incommensurable” elements of the world and universe, and among different cultures in the geo-temporal continuum…
Here then is one instrument of
comparative analysis. It is that difference points to unity, conflict
points to shared adaptive niches and spaces
Further comments added
A practical comment that others have made. Whereas relativism has been used cynically to argue against Euro-centric and Anglo-centric negative judgments and treatments of other cultures, recently the same thinking has been used to argue against decimation and mistreatment of tribal and other groups by indigenous cultures
Theoretical. Both meaning and judgment ought to be refractory according to relativism. Therefore the question of judgment ought to not arise
To judge for or against judgment are, similarly, invalid. According to relativism, “Agnosticism” ought to be the only valid position
Be immersed in various cultures. Eat, live, enjoy, procreate, suffer, fight, and speak - the language - within them. Then hypothesize and analyze
Existence. Meaning. Language.
Many years ago
when I was in the 10th standard [grade] at St. Xavier’s High School
in Hazaribagh,
P. T. Chacko “Lidrejer Gonzizdz ov Boedry” i. e., Literature consists of poetry
Anil Mitra “Ho-hum” i. e. Yikes, I’m suffocating!
Chandru Sajnani,
another student - probably the most outspoken in the class, “No way” i. e.,
Prove it! Given the nature of student to teacher relationships in 1962
P. T. Chacko Face reddening, veins distending, spitting out in anger, accent even thicker than usual, “Dhiz Uzlezz Djenerazhun” i. e. this useless generation
Anil Mitra…30 years later…. “Wow”
Wow!
Given the difficulties of language very little meaning in language is literal [context free, predefined, atomic…]…i. e., so much meaning is evoked by sound, rhythm…appeal to the affective and intellectual sensibilities i. e. language is poetry…and therefore literature is poetry…and poetry is language is poetry…
Who needs damn literal meaning anyway?
Aneeeel…don’t you know that communication of precise meaning is important for the important and proper functioning of society and that boring is good?
“Nature is bountiful even if erratic…and it is in human nature to survive in those circumstances. Societies that depend solely and excessively on literality become excessively dependent on it and then need it, it is one of the concurrents of a oppressive economy that is geared to militarism even in “peace”, one in which the spark of humanity is eradicated from its citizens so that they are like the living dead and the only type of relationship available to such persons - because the capacity for full relationships has been eradicated in them and replaced by voracious need - is the relationship of mere dependence and passive satisfaction of the bastard remnants of human expressions…referred to as “codependent!”
Real reality is full of sudden vicissitudes, sudden wounds and strange beauties…
Philosophy.
Society and Sociology. Specialization and Advance of Knowledge.
I have written on the following earlier and in a number of other places
1.
Functions
and disciplines become specialized. Why? It is a real process: initiative meets
opportunity. Therefore, there is a valid function to specialization. The
process is meshed with social process for it is within society that the
opportunities of the kind referred to occur. Socially speaking, there is a
functional specialization. This is true whether function is regarded as
intrinsic or as something that is assigned. Of course - there could be a number
of debates at this point but I want to move on ahead and make the point
2.
Within a
specialization there is scope for detailed elaboration of knowledge,
technique…that does not occur in the generalist scenario
3.
Now
there can be, and there does occur - in many cases, as a result of opportunity
and initiative and not necessarily as a result of any program:
cross-interaction, -fertilization, integration, -criticism…which are the same
as the original process of specialization applied to its results. This results
in integrations, other specializations, and advance. “Advance” is not a
valuational term as used here
4.
Now
there can be disciplines such as the psychiatry, psychology, or sociology…of
philosophy, or of biography, or of texts, or science, or politics…and there is
philosophical psychology…These interactions are not necessarily symmetric in
that the cross-interaction may be a join of subject-matter or criticism of one
discipline from the vantage-point or using the methods of another
5.
Next
come triads and multiple interactions…
Nature. Quantum Mechanics. Existence. Common
Sense
The first paradox of quantum mechanics is something from nothing has a finite probability, does not violate conservation laws
Does this violate commons sense? What is common sense? There is the “can’t get something for nothing” idea but the function of this is to remind people that goals usually need to be worked for, and its not meant or known to be an absolute because it could not be an absolute…and it certainly could not have been intended to be elevated into a law of physics and nor could it be regarded as the basis or partial basis or reinforcement for any absolute or law. But, its human nature to regard its reasonable day-to-day conclusions as absolutes for many reasons, one being conservatism - so you will not go wrong and will not get into catastrophe, power relations, ego and self-aggrandizement…And, the same applies to physics and metaphysics, logic and reason, and science and all the rest including the poetic and dream flights…
So, does it violate common sense now that we have gotten absolutes out of the way? Well, it is not out of the question to get a lot for a little even though a little for a lot might be more the rule. So, over large amounts of time everything from nothing is not ridiculous especially considering that we are so young compared to eternity even we can imagine back to the first three minutes and earlier of our baby universe
Philosophy.
Psychology. Mind, Body. The Senses and Motor Activity.
Sensation is considered to be part of mind or mental phenomena. Sensing is receiving and part of being done to. Grant that - it is not quite accurate since sensing also involves activity. Why, then is motor activity including the sending of information as information considered to be a bodily or physical activity
Philosophy. Psychology.
Mind. The Senses.
What are the senses. In addition to the traditional five - sight, sound, touch, smell and taste there are:
The sense of time, various somatic senses including the senses of pain, body position, movement and effort, inner sensations of organic activity and drives and urges…Then there are various sensations, in addition to touch - some of which may be considered to be variations of touch that are associated with the skin. The somatic sensations form a continuum with the mental and are involved in - if not constitutive of - mood, emotion and cognition. Cognition? Well what is perception, and what is thinking? Thinking is an activity which involves also the sensing of inner states - streams of symbols and icons…and activity is known and directed through sensation of activity. Some of these are the same as or similar to the somatic sensations. They are heat, pain and its varieties, touch and location of touch, pleasure and its varieties, touch and its varieties such as the sensation of a air or water flowing over the skin, qualities of touch such as greasy, smooth…It needs to be considered whether some of these varieties are senses or variations or qualities just as in vision there is intensity, color, shape, size…Pleasure and pain may be considered to be poles of the same continuum but when one considers the varieties of pleasure these are not polar “opposites” of the varieties of pleasure…And note that some of these items are not mere sensation and involve perception and conception
Well that is interesting for the way the “physical” or the somatic meshes intimately and intricately with the mental or psychological. The somatic and the psychological form a continuum. Other continua are sensing-perception-cognition and experience-activity. The sense-percept-concept continuum is not merely an aggregate under a common label such as cognition, but forms a continuum by virtue of the boundaries being gradual and indefinite and interpenetrating. For example, it was noted above that thinking involves sensing… This is an interesting line…
There are
catalogs of experience and one example is Ackerman, D. 1990, A Natural History
of the Senses,
Philosophy.
Sociology. Knowledge. Science.
The epistemic issue is not so much with the validity of the content of science. We know that the fundamental concepts have a range of validity and certainly of utility. The issue has to do with the boundaries of the range and of attitudes toward these boundaries. We know of course that, in knowledge, the domains of importance are tied in to the other institutions of society. It is not a question of one conditioning the other - the institutions are mutually conditioning. But beyond that, the institutions form an interactive whole within which the individual institutions lack complete meaning
The boundary issues, then, have to do not only with the ranges of validity and with the associated dimensions - nature, society, mind…- or categories…but also with the boundaries of the social context and the fabricated elements of that context
Philosophy. The
Biological, Human and Social Sciences. Scientific Research.
Electrons do not have idiosyncrasies. Therefore the statistics of electrons is an essential statistics
People and relationships are complex and self-modifying and self-correcting. Therefore a statistical psychology has only a limited validity in fields such as performance and creativity, therapeutic relationships…relationships in general. The validity is that of being able to make certain predictions and understanding for populations as a whole. This is useful. However these utilities cannot be extended to the limits of individual human behavior, possibility, capability or the potential for healing and group achievement
Philosophy.
Evolution. History.
History
The logic of history…whether there is pattern, logic or law to the sequence of events
Metaphysics of history…interpretations of the meaning of history
Historiography
The art of recording history
Historicism
The view that the history of anything is a sufficient explanation of it
Evolutionary History
As fact: when there is at least partial progression, a relation among the elements of the sequence that show events as outcomes of previous events
As theory: a mechanism or understanding of the fact. When the fact is explained by a mechanism rather than explained away
Philosophy. An
Outline.
As for life, no one approach but a circle of approaches
The Problems of Philosophy…includes what it is, why it is “useful. “
The Activity of Philosophy
The Psychology of Philosophy
Types of appeal and types of need to do philosophy…relation to types of philosophy
To explain does not mean to explain away. Types of need/appeal correspond to variety of social needs and to modes of approach to the real
This does not mean that all “doing” under the name of philosophy equal in significance. At one extreme there is the invariant…what is constant behind the variants: this is the essential; at the other extreme is the neurotic. In between is the ground of creativity which shows variation and respect for the real and so contributes to the essential
Metaphysics, epistemology and ethics [and axiology]…schools and movements…special branches
History…the idea of Philosophy as a separate discipline…philosophy and the other disciplines…the disciplines and the world of action…reification of the disciplines
Philosophy.
Morals and Power.
Much moralizing is the attempt to affect, control, and manipulate
Evolution. Blind
or Directed?
Mechanism is more powerful than teleology…as an explanatory mechanism
Directed? Does this depend upon the viewpoint? View evolution as a tree or a wave-front
Philosophy. How
modes of subject-object combine to make traditional disciplines
Subject = Reason + Object = Universe --> Discipline = Metaphysics
Subject = Perception + Object = Matter --> Discipline = Empirical Science
Subject = Perception + Object = Self --> Discipline = Intuition
Philosophy.
Logos. The Logic of the Absolute
Not a logic of symbols or creation but…
…The expression, the breath of and coeval with creation
In this realm the a priori and the a posteriori are not distinct
Philosophy. Metaphysics. The Idea of Multiple Universes
It is an old idea:
In Indian philosophy
Hegel
Primal thought
“Worlds on worlds are coming ever…”
The earth on the back of a turtle
But what does the idea mean? There is one universe. It must mean the successive revelation of greater and greater realms or universes…through ideas, theories and seeing - through discovery
Philosophy.
Metaphysics. Map of the World Concept.
Entered to Dreams
and Vision
I lives in the world and - unavoidably, as part of that condition of living in the world, as part of my very being, not just explicitly, consciously, or as part of culture - I have an idea of the layout of the world
Not just of geography - of space, matter and time - or of emotion or thought---but of ALL of the world
In philosophy, this is metaphysics
All beings have an ontology
These need not be exact or explicit…the idea of exactness, as an absolute category of the nature of knowledge is an idea that, though much loved, is foreign to the real nature of being. Such ontologies are part of the evolutionary, experimental nature of real being
I am in process - in life, in evolution, in the universe…climbing the mountain barefoot…redoing my maps as needed
Come science and philosophy with their army of foot soldiers wearing heavy mountain boots bristling with spikes, going up the main trail, trampling on green things…with the priests making grand proclamations and wearing gray locks…and the captains - large meat eating, stern, wielding whips, drawing blood from the weary soldiers “No, stay there, don’t stray there…”, “Hey, you, good lad - here’s a morsel for your efforts…”, “Don’t go there…there is no there…”,…and the people at the foot of the mountain repeat “There is no way but the one way.”
This is how we incorporate being: By experiment without predetermined maps…exploration is also map building No rules for map building. No final identity. What are we? Worlds, being, maps are part of the process
Philosophy. Occam’s Razor
William of Occam [1285-1347/49] non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem; i.e., entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity. Others stated earlier but Occam stated the principle frequently and sharply. It is hard to imagine that the idea is that recent but it must be so in its scholastic application for there must probably be a corpus of doctrine before the application of a principle of economy of thought
The principle is fine when applied to theory…but at some point the need for action supersedes neat theories
It is mixed in its value when applied to the whole world or to any whole paradigm
Relative to phenomena outside dominant paradigm and that cannot clearly be dismissed as fad or occult or pseudo-science, Occam’s principle is implicitly applied, by redneck scientists, as follows:
“The phenomena do not exist.”
How do I know? Examine the literature as, for example, in the writings of Dirac, Weinberg and Hawking. Or Anglo-American psychology and philosophy of the middle third of the twentieth century
Examples:
Humankind is a lonely, isolated, alien, accident
Mind is a word for something physical or the organization of something physical, at best an epiphenomenon
Computers are conscious - put forward by the successors of those who thought that humans aren’t conscious
Philosophy. Metaphysics as a Set of “Conceptual Coordinates”
Analogy to the history of space-time. From preferred directions and locations to isotropy and homogeneity [no point is the center…or every point is the center]. Existence or not of absolute coordinates
Philosophy. Human Nature in an Ontological Sense
Meaning of the issue. The ontological sense does not at all refer to what makes human being special, or distinct from other species but what makes us what we are, as part of the ultimate and as special though not distinct
Significance of the issue:
Clears up many confusions by providing the general context of understanding. As an example the question of free will. The following comment is merely a sketch elaborated elsewhere. Due to creation the universe is not deterministic; human being must partake of this character and this is the foundation of free will. An argument against free will is that future specific events are inevitable. This is not a clearly meaningful statement. What will happen will happen, of course, but what will happen is not fully known in our temporal world and is not determined by the present; one of the factors determining future events is the intervention of free will
Minimizes the need for numerous special activities…epistemology, ethics…cuts through many a Gordian knot by providing a context for direct rather than inverse logic
Provides context for centering/against alienation. Centering does not mean that human being is at the center of the universe…but one could say that, based in Occam’s razor and also positively in science and certain philosophies, human being is a center of being. Sheds light on a specific set of concerns: what are the elements of human psychology in relation to endeavor, social action, universal context/religion…
If human being is not the center…then it is a normal “product” of the universe; if my consciousness is not special then it is normal and as such is coeval with the universe and more generally with the universe of universes in the infinity of infinities
On the nature in the ontological sense of what it is to be human
Of the world…and that there is only one world and therefore
Partakes of its structure, stability and processes…grounded
Part of the creative action of the world…not the whole of creative potential…but in relation to the whole
Partakes of determinism and structure and indeterminism and creativity. The freedom which is a source of error and despair is also a source of knowledge, action and grounding. Choice is evolutionary and partakes of the nature of the universe
The special nature of “what it is to be human”
Evolutionary process incorporated…creativity and adaptability part of human psyche: choice, learning, selecting
Codification of above. Instruments of codification in addition to genetics: cognition, language and culture
Philosophy. Humanities. Biology. Anthropological ontology
Concerns:
The intersection of ontology and anthropology
The ultimate nature of human being and therefore also of being
Some issues are
On the nature of death
Death as an absolute is a concept
The standard concept of death is very much tied in with materialism and the related para-epistemic issues of power…
Beyond death = “Nothing”
Is baseless: empirically, no one alive has died. Even “near death” is not known to be near death
It is also self-contradictory since its primary hypothesis is the empirical fact referred to in the previous line. Further “near death” is only near death by a set of material criteria
To claim D+ = 0 is counter to the principles of implication
It implies that our conscious existence is an event with a probability = 0
There are material arguments against death as absolute. See John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, 1986
On the nature of being
The above have implications for the nature of being and its continuities through the eternities of eternities and the infinities of infinities through the metamorphoses and mutations and flows among being and as known, for example, by the necessity of meaning. The absolute integrates and subsumes all being
Philosophy. Language. Philosophy and language
Nature of linguistic expression
Linguistic expression as an interaction within a system that is an interactive part of the universe. Detachment from immediate practical action is possible
The elements and system of language. Language presupposes a metaphysics. Words are symbols for atoms of the human cognitive environment: things, actions, qualities, relations. Facts are the simplest elements of the world. Actions, things and relations are thought to be not found in isolation: an action is an action of some thing; a thing does not subsist in itself but is always found in some process; relations are between things; qualities are qualities of things, actions and relations. These whole complexes of words, that describe facts, are the expression of propositions. The standard form of a proposition is the subject-predicate form. The proper expression of a proposition is a sentence. The expression of facts is not the only form of communication in language. Thus there are other forms of expression and, correspondingly, other kinds of sentences such as command, and question
Words are not the simplest symbols of language. The simplest written forms are the alphabet, and the simplest spoken forms are the phoneme. There are various kinds of compound word some of which are contracted to a single word and others remain phrases. A number of standard prefixes and suffixes are used in the formation of compound words
Sentences may be compounded in various ways to form compound sentences. Groups of sentences that more or less represent a complete thought or phase of thought are paragraphs. Both form and style are involved in the choice and formulation of words, phrases, sentences and so on. In standard usage form predominates in the sentence and smaller elements of language. Style predominates in the paragraph, its alternates such as verse and in larger elements. The distinction between form and style is not definite; continuity of a train of thought or expression in an essay may be considered stylistic and formal
There is a standard vocabulary, a standard system of spelling and phonemic combination, standard forms for phrases, simple and compound sentences, standard elements of style. These are sometimes treated as static but are and due to varying requirements, various individual and multi-cultural influences the fact of language is a fluid one
Types and sources of meaning
Types: literal, figurative, poetic, interactive
Sources: speaker’s, writer’s, thinker’s…and listener’s…
Analytic philosophy, philosophy of language
Positivism,
Ernest Gellner’s
sociological analysis of
Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Austin, Strawson, Grice, Quine, Searle…
Speech theory, speech-acts and other approaches
Linguistics
Symbol, language, logic, mathematics
Language, metaphysics, being, society. Symbol, interaction, reality, ground. Existence or otherwise of a factual base for the concept of the literal. Metaphorical and poetic expression. Existence or otherwise of full demarcation of the poetic from the atomic form of expression. Language and other modes of artistic expression
Language, consciousness and mind. Language and psychology
Evolution of the language containing system: common origins in a world of being, action and meaning of thought, speech, sense and vision, communication, icon, symbol…
Languages
Word play.
Words, ideas, grammar, spelling. The origins of English and the poets. Chaucer,
Origin of
philosophy in Western Civilization 600 BC in
Language as the primary expressive tool of philosophy. Poetry and speculation; atomism and criticism. Science as the phase of philosophy that requires realistic immediacy - and power and survival - at the expense of ultimate fullness. This does not mean that immediacy and ultimacy are ever at odds but only contingently so. Speculation and criticism - variation and selection - are the elements of process and creation
Hermeneutics and meaning
What is said i.e. content. Speakers’ and hearers’ meaning. The open text as an evolutionary object. Texts as evolutionary objects
How said: implicit content, emphasis, implied nature and degree of truth, command, question, persuasion. Spoken language and the presence of the speaker and the audience. Emphasis, attitude, gross/subtle gesture and presence of the entire person
Why said. Intent, motivation, unconscious, secondary motives and purposes
Where and when said: context and the metaphysical background
Philosophy. Metaphysics
and ethics.
Metaphysics implies ethics
My philosophy is a philosophy of action [this is different from the idea that philosophy implies or should imply action] in two ways:
The metaphysics includes action, informs and implies what is action…action is an element of the metaphysics
Without action, philosophy is incomplete
Philosophy and anthropomorphism.
Seeing the universe in the human image is anthropomorphism
Seeing humankind as central, or as the pinnacle of being is anthropocentrism
These are supposedly bad
But there has to be an unconscious projection [morphism] and there should be a self-confidence in one’s own being [centrism]
This is also part of learning. Force starts as an intrinsic body concept, becomes a part of parlance, then of technology and commerce, then of science. Consciousness starts as human consciousness…then may attach to other entities. Just as the evolution of the idea requires reconceptualization of force, so consciousness. We are still at the infancy of the idea of consciousness
Anti anthropomorphism can also be anthropomorphic. For, in saying that the universe should not at all be in the human image one is saying that the human is alien, not of the universe, special
Modernism and
post-modernism.
Post-modernism comes after the modern era that began with the enlightenment, rationalism, science, the industrial revolution, the new affluence, and the belief and confidence in these elements
Modern
thought - the environment of science
This is influenced by:
Science-economics, the relation
Professionalization
Science as career
Broad access to science and education
Neo-educational ideals
Democratic ideals
The modern
analytic environment
Thought evolves to a point where there is diversity and breadth…therefore thought can study thought as an object
Evolution of thought is visible
Analysis matures in individual disciplines: logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy, philosophy of the disciplines
Analysis yields to analysis
These are some of the features of the later modern environment which leads to familiarity and complacency. This combines with some of the usually recognized features contributing to post-modernism
Post-modernism
Affluent, apocalyptic, post WW II psychology
Nothing is right, there is no truth, radical heterogeneity rules despite the requirements of existence; everything about modernism is relative and oppressive - thus post-modernism; further, the underprivileged will accept post-modernism as a liberation theology despite the false hope and the additional burden of an unnecessary and post-apocalyptic metaphysics
All sex is rape or prostitution; even homosexual and lesbian sex
The economic practice of the typical post-modernist flies in the face of political and economic realism; this is especially true of Noam Chomsky
The post-modernist is either oppressed or oppressor. This, of course, is pretty much human history. But the post-modernist is allowed the luxury of feeling the next best thing to morally right [least morally wrong] while remaining in the relationship of [economic] colonialism. Thus post-colonialism means the end of traditional but not actual colonialism
Philosophy. An
Aspect of the Problem of the Given.
i.
What is
the nature of the given?
ii.
What is
given?
The second question is as important if not more so than the first. Options:
a.
The
present
b.
The
hidden… various hidden worlds
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