JOURNEY IN BEING
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Document status: January 16, 2007
Outdated; maintained out of interest
Essential content absorbed to and no further action needed for Journey in Being
Outline:
Introduction…1. Foundation…2. Journey in Being…2
Supplementary chapters…2
Fundamental Problems…2. Lexicon…2. Sources and Influences…2. Bibliography…2. Index…2. The Author…2
1 Introduction
Objectives. 1. Introduction – in ‘Dimensions,’ to the scope and in ‘Themes,’ to the nature, goals and ambitions of the Journey; the main ideas or concepts and themes. 2. Preface – outline and audience
Comment. Some detail needs to be written; immediate sources include Level 5 Outline, Journey in Being ’06 detail and Journey in Being ’05. Place unnecessarily repeated and detailed discussions in later chapters
Introduce threads. 1. That knowledge is faithful either in at least a rough sense and in the (its) special but case of sufficient abstraction; that knowledge is identity if the object is interpreted e.g. as the field of knowledge i.e. knower-known; that this case is ground for the former; that this goes through in the object and its special cases (perception, thought and language) and the case of faith
Introduce terms. Journey and Transformation (individual, group); Being (metaphysics); Universe (phase); Void (possibility, necessity, actuality, first proof of the fundamental principle of being; substance, mind); Normal (feasible); Logos (logic, second proof); Power (the measure of being is being; an approach to what has being); Morals and Politics (practice and principles of group and individual creation of options, choice, and action); Form and Object, Concepts and Fields (of concepts); Theory (metaphysics, science)
Alternative title to Principles of Thought or How to Think: On Thinking; add comment that these titles would suggest arrogance if it were implied that an author is telling his readers how they should think
Emphasis and style. The style is conversational. Argument and closure are de-emphasized; it is proper to introduce some technical terms (e.g. being, exist, the a priori) but some explanation should be given and to distinguish the present sense or use from other uses. Imagination –pictures, symbols– over demonstration; motivation
1.1 Dimensions
Thread. Transformation as for ‘Introduction’
In this essay I have written of a system of transformation and of particular transformations – a journey that is a confluence of individual endeavor and universal process
Consider the universe commonly understood from humankind’s major paradigms of science and scripture (for example the Bible.) Or consider the universe as depicted in stories, poetry or myth. Consider the picture that emerges from all stories written or told. In so far as these stories, fictional or true, have definite form, the picture developed in this essay and so the potential of the journey is infinitely greater in depth, magnitude and variety
(It is assumed that when the stories are fictional they contain and entail no contradiction)
Among texts, ancient and modern, perhaps only the picture of the universe from the philosophies of India have approximation to the picture revealed here
The central developments and insight in this essay are founded in Logic (capitalized when I use it in the special sense to be explained shortly) and simple experience e.g. the fact of experience. If this is true, and I claim that it is, then the developments and claims based in them are more secure than those of science or faith
Some readers will doubt these claims; others may have sympathy for such claims and may anticipate the picture that I show. Of all readers I ask that they suspend judgment until they have traced through my argument and narrative
The conceptual Foundation for the journey is in the second chapter; the third, ‘Journey in Being,’ narrates the transformation. The development of the conceptual base is part of the process but the goal includes transformation not only in ideas but also of identity or self – of being
The conceptual foundation has two roles. First, it is a description of all being –of the universe– based in imagination and Logic and, second, it serves as foundation for transformation. However, it is no more than foundation for transformation requires its own journey and experimentation. I anticipate that I may find aspects of pure experiment or action for which the foundation provides no preparation. At present, the transformations are under way – the system and progress so far are described in the third chapter.
I will now attempt to show the magnitude of the canvas that has been revealed in the journey
Being
‘Being’ is that which exists or has existence. Being is that which ‘is.’ The words ‘being,’ ‘exist,’ ‘is,’ have day-to-day uses that are perfectly adequate for many immediate purposes
These words are simple in their day-to-day use and are ‘general’ in nature e.g. to say that something is blue is much more specific than to say that it exists for everything exists (the reader may see that statements of the kind ‘everything exists’ contain an implicit paradox that is addressed later)
It is precisely the simplicity, general and uncommitted character of ‘being’ that is its virtue and that recommends its choice as a base from which to apprehend the entire universe and its variety
To suggest that some specific kind e.g. that matter may provide such understanding is to prejudice the endeavor from the beginning. If the universe is nothing but matter then the approach from being can only strengthen ‘materialism’ i.e. demonstrate it rather than assume it on the basis of (limited) experience
I emphasize an approach in which the nature concepts and categories (kinds of ‘thing’) are not taken as given in advance but whose natures unfold with experience and reflection
I have applied this approach to the most general kinds (being, universe, logic) as well as to more specific concepts such as human being, thought and feeling. Recognition and understanding of this approach has been revealed gradually in reflection on many topics and my estimation of its power has been enhanced by the unexpected depth and variety of understanding that it has made possible
Use and development of the concept of being (in the essay) has been instrumental in understanding the entire universe and its variety
Questioning every meaning at every use in day-to-day activity may be neurotic. However, it is essential when paradoxes or contradictions arise or in adapting concepts to new situations. Consider the assertion made earlier that ‘everything exists.’ Is it possible that a thing could not exist? The idea of a thing that does not exist appears to be paradoxical – if it does not exist then ‘it’ is empty and has no reference… If something exists it simply is; but there is a variety of uses of the word ‘is’ (the verb to be.) Resolution of a range of issues is taken up later… It is useful to make the following distinction at the outset. When I say that something exists I usually mean that it exists at the present time. However, since there is no common word that corresponds to existence at some time (and place) i.e. to mean that something existed, exists or will exist, I will use ‘exist’ in this sense as well. That is, I will use ‘exist’ in the usual temporal sense and in the less common atemporal sense (if ‘instants’ of awareness are actually small intervals of time, the distinction is not absolute.) ‘Exist’ and ‘is’ will have a temporal and an atemporal sense; I will specify the sense that is used only when it might not be clear. That time and space may not extend to all realms will require a generalization of the idea of atemporal existence
There is existence – without existence there would be no impressions, not even the impression that a reader is reading words. What exists? In day-to-day activities it is practical to think or act as though trees, mountains, books and automobiles do exist; only the neurotic would never act this way. However, there is a valid question whether ‘the mountain’ of my experience exists because every further level of description also seems to refer back to experience. If we are to be able to speak of things-in-themselves we will need either a dual understanding of thing and experience or to show that they are identical (at root)
The essay addresses the dual versus identity problem of being and experience i.e. of what exists; it further addresses the question of the variety of being (things, entities)
The Individual
Apparently some people claim to know precise details of a previous life; I have read of such people but not met one. Coming into being of every individual consciousness is obviously possible since it occurred at least once. That is, it is possible again and over and over. Development of the nature of being in this essay shows that all possibilities must be realized and, therefore, that every individual consciousness must be repeated infinitely into the future and has been preceded infinitely into the past: it means that every individual has been ‘here’ before. These conclusions have significance for the understanding of the place of an individual –and of humankind, even of life– in the universe, especially as the assertions have basis in Logic. Some people think that it is irrational to suppose that experience continues after death. The arguments given show the absolute error of this idea
The assertion regarding realization of possibility is part of the core foundation that is based in Logic
I do not have personal experience (yet) of having been alive before. Therefore every recurrence that is required by the argument will also lack experience of past and future consciousness. Therefore the recurrence described does not have the significance that there will be a conscious connection among the different instances of the consciousness of an individual
This raises the question of the nature of ‘self’ or individual identity. Perhaps knowledge of previous instances lies in the unconscious (whose existence may be shown fairly easily and which cannot have significance unless there is ‘communication’ between unconscious and conscious ‘levels.’) Therefore, it appears possible that awareness of other instances may enter into consciousness. This argument is speculative but it does show that an approach to connection among instances of the individual may be through identity
‘Identity’ is considered in second chapter, ‘Foundation’ where it is shown that individual or personal identity must have transformations in which it does not forget earlier identity but in which it merges in more inclusive and even universal identity
The ‘end’ of an individual life (death) is far from cessation of experience; the end is at most temporary. Death is gateway to the infinite
The Universe
Modern science has enabled reasonable speculation about the size and age of the universe that may be summed up as the ‘inflationary big-bang’ theory or model that the reader who is not familiar with it may learn about from texts or popular expositions. The bases of the theory are (symmetric solutions to the field equations of) Einstein’s relativistic theory of gravitation, quantum field theories, and experimental observations such as the cosmic microwave background radiation whose low temperature (2.725 Kelvin i.e. just 2.725 Celsius above absolute zero) is the current remnant, after cooling expansion, of an initially hot universe. Calculations based on the big-bang theory show the age of the universe to be about 14 billion years. If there is sufficient mass in the universe, gravity will slow and ultimately reverse the expansion and the universe will then collapse on itself (big crunch.) However there is evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and since 2002 most cosmologists have considered the evidence to be conclusive. An alternative to the big-bang is a steady state model; however, the standard big-bang theory has faced stringent tests. It is possible to push ‘predictions’ of the model to early times (10-43 seconds) based on quantum gravitation for which no consistent theory is yet available; therefore, predictions of behavior at the down to 10-43 seconds is more speculative; earlier than this no prediction from modern physics is currently possible
What degree of confidence may we place on big-bang cosmology? The consensus among physicists appears to be that it well describes the large scale behavior of the universe from quite early times to the present. However, the following questions arise. What happened before 10-43 seconds or even earlier? Are final expansion, further cooling and death or contraction into an extremely hot big crunch the only alternatives for the destiny of the universe? And, where is the edge of the universe and what happens at that edge? In the symmetric models, a universe that reverses its expansion is finite and, like the surface of a sphere in three dimensions, has no edge. However, that a symmetric and edgeless model, finite or infinite, well describes the local behavior of the universe does not mean that the model must apply at far reaches where there may be further singularities or warps (deviations from the model) into other ‘universes’
Since theory and universe may deviate not only at physical edges, these singularities and warps may populate our immediate world
One scenario sees our universe as one of many bubble universes that are distributed in a much larger space-time continuum. Could these bubble universes be causally connected? In the Einstein theory of gravitation, two regions with common origin cannot interact if the distance between them is greater than the distance light traveled since the origin. The reason that light speed is a limit is not that it is an imposed limit but it is the speed at which effects (forces) propagate (light is a form of interaction.) I.e., the ‘speed of light’ is not an arbitrary or magical number, it is a constitutive property of the (local) universe. However, in a universe that includes this (our) cosmological system (that contains what we may call the empirically observed universe) as a ‘bubble’ there is no reason to suppose that modern physics applies at all (over the entire domain) or that the limiting speed of whatever physics may obtain is that of light in our system. Light speed is not necessarily a (constitutive) property of all being (it will be seen that it cannot be a property of all being)