search for whatever may be (i) given, (ii) perfectly knowable and known, (iii) for all entities capable of meaning, grounding their place in the universe, (iv) epistemically perfect, not just in being perfectly known, but in optimally grounding (foundational of) knowledge of the real—i.e., metaphysics, and (v) ontologically perfect, as far as possible, in being the ‘reason’ (generalized and necessary cause) of all things, but itself not needing a reason (i.e., beyond substance)

Why being?

as noted, absolutely founding and grounding without itself needing foundation or ground

How to approach being? Abstraction

abstraction, its immediacy (not remoteness)

Existence, beings, and being

A being

Being

Experience

the concept

has being

reflexive, which enables talk of experience and shows the artificiality of the concepts of mind and matter as distinct, independent, and sufficient categories

neither material nor non-material, but one of two aspects of being—experiencing vs experienced

Significance of experience

The medium of our being (essentially), therefore named rather than defined (i.e., defined by pointing out rather than by intension or extension… but extension gives the concept ‘color’ by showing its range)

Place of being (essentially), significance, meaning, knowledge

If there is a way to trans-personal being, in time or space or both, it is in experience (which does not rule out that it may also have material aspects)

Kinds and dimensions

Pure and active (attitude is action on experience itself, so no need for attitude as distinct from action) are essentially one (so no need for experience, attitude, and action as distinct characteristics of experience)

Dimensions of experience and their rationale

The dimensions have conformation to the world… primitive object bound feeling (of the world—primitive perception, which has form and quality; of self—feeling as such, which has quality and form; both of which will flower as non-bound conception and emotion); time (its intuition, which includes its cumulative nature and so a record of events—i.e., memory and recall), space and causation and other categories (and so elaborate perception), and absence of time etc (and so immediate object freedom); perception, conception, and feeling join as emotion (a synthesis of feeling, its varieties and integrations, perception and conception), cognition, and intention (directed in space as attitude and time as motivation)

See manual for the way of being.html (document) for comparison with the previous paragraph and mutual improvement

Meaning, knowledge, criteria for knowledge

meaning

knowledge and its criteria

the concept of metaphysics

metaphysics

epistemology, value, and logic

Interpretation and the world

Other fundamental concepts

Universe

The void

Possibility

Logic

deductive or necessary logic

resolving the apparent contradictions of (i) its necessary vs empirical character (ii) precise vs approximate nature (iii) identities vs distinctions from the sciences

abstract and concrete sciences

necessity vs contingency, precision vs approximation

unity of logic—i.e., of deductive logic and the sciences

Natural law

Common paradigms (means)²

The secular and the transsecular

The secular and experience

The transsecular and reason

Dogma and common dual limits

Overcoming dogma—explicit and tacit

The experiential and the metaphysical

Common paradigms and their functions

First order paradigms

the world according to experience so far—self, ethnicity, human being, the cosmos as model for all being

Science

systemic

mechanism, causality, determinism vs chaos, correlation, indeterminism

extra-systemic

emergence of complexity (categorial monism) vs emergence of kinds or categories (dualism)

incrementalism vs saltationism

levels of sentience

environment

organism and intelligence

reflexive intelligence

levels of complexity

cosmological and physical

life

abiogenesis and evolution

Metaphysics

Metaphysical

Speculative, rational, and dogmatic

The fundamental principle^{1, 2}

The boundary of the universe

meaning of ‘boundary’

the boundary

The concept and a heuristic²

The outer boundary of the universe—not just in extension, i.e., in space and time—but conceptual, logical, possible

Heuristics—the ultimate physics, the necessity of necessity…

Is the outer boundary achieved?

The fundamental principle*¹

The principle

Consistency¹

Showing consistency is not proof (nor is it claimed to be); but it counters explicit and tacit objections from inconsistency; and the objection that without consistency there is no point to even contemplating the fundamental principle

Heuristic¹

Heuristic arguments are not proof but suggest and motivate proof, give intuitive reasons, assist conceptual understanding

Some heuristic arguments show the relation of the fundamental principle to the sciences, philosophy, and its branches, and how it grounds our lives and being

Ultimate boundary of physics

From probability—the number of possible states is so large that the probability of a limited universe ‘is’ zero

From meaning—the meaninglessness of limits

Argument from eternity to necessity to symmetry to limitlessness

Argument²

The failure of the approach from science and positive properties of the universe,

The need for careful selection and definition of fundamental entities (particularly, their conceptual formulation)—see the essential ideas

Holism of meaning—does not mean concepts have no meaning; rather the full meaning and power of the concepts is realized in a whole

The arguments

Argument from the properties of the void to its existence

Argument that the void is always there

Argument that (i) either the universe does or does not enter a void state (ii) if it does the conclusion is given (iii) if it does not its existence is eternal and therefore necessary – but, if necessary, symmetrical with regard to all possible states (but, further, from symmetry, non-existence of the void is a contradiction)

The universe as the-manifest-and-the-void is eternal and therefore absolutely necessary (i.e., the necessity requires no further reason); therefore, the necessity is symmetric with respect to manifest vs non-manifest and so the universe must phase between them; but now, it must also be symmetric with respect to all possible states; therefore limitless

Alternative arguments

Doubt²

Doubt and certainty

Attitudes

Meaning of the fundamental principle²

Meaning of the meaning

Intensional—in other terms (i) explanatory (ii) alternate formulations, especially (iii) formulations enabling of use—logic (and more – see the real metaphysics)

Extensional—examples (ultimate cosmology, next)

Ultimate cosmology

Ultimate cosmology—identity, limitlessness, peak being, elaboration, inheritance of the ultimate by all beings, pathways* to the ultimate, enjoyment

Why is there something rather than nothing? The cause of or reason for being

The true fundamental problem of metaphysics

Atman and Brahman*

What is logic? Intensional (possibility, modes of expression) and extensional (incorporation of the real, abstract, and concrete sciences)

Real metaphysics²

The ideal and the pragmatic (tradition as what is valid in the history of human cultures and exploration, and the paradigms)

Their join—a bottom-up approach

The view from above—top-down approach

The concept and a heuristic2

The fundamental principle*1

Doubt2

Meaning of the fundamental principle2

The concept and a heuristic²

The fundamental principle*¹

Doubt²

Meaning of the fundamental principle²