The way of being

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Anil Mitra, Copyright © 2002 – April 12, 2021

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The main divisions and concepts

Red text is temporary planning

1	Prologue

the world

aims

worldview

sources

significance

aim

means

being

experience

experiential world

2	The world

being

experience

beings

universe

the void

limitlessness

possibility

metaphysics

cosmology

path

3	The way

the way

aim of being

means

path

templates

resources

4	Epilogue

return to the world

being in the world

The way of being

Prologue

informal, essential

the world

contentment and seeking

pleasure and pain (enjoyment)

direction and indirection

conflict and cooperation

aims

a variety of aims and endeavors, human and other

multidimensional

value continuum

from negative to positive

commitment continuum

from nil to intense

quest continuum

seeking to conservative

coherence continuum

from negative to positive

a true worldview would give best coherence without suppressing multidimensionality

worldview

“limitlessness of the universe”

why a worldview

to have direction takes a worldview; the usual views are a mix of truth and error, of the explicit and the tacit; developing an explicit worldview may address the issues while retaining the good

gives coherence to human endeavor

informs us on what is real, what possible

the view of the narrative—the ‘real metaphysics’

the fundamental principle of metaphysics

the universe and the individual are limitless—the greatest possible (the ‘fundamental principle’)

‘intension’ or meaning: this possibility must be ‘logical’ possibility (for which our logics are examples corresponding to some modes of expression)

is this arrogant or ‘blasphemous’

it is true

it is not a promotion of any limited form

what it says is depth is closed

breadth is infinitely open as long as we are limited

it is the end of philosophy (or science) as foundational of our being

and the beginning of action

the real metaphysics

this principle joins to what is valid in (human) knowledge to constitute the real metaphysics

on meanings

in going beyond limited notions of experience, we must go beyond and adjust received meanings and system meaning

sources

for the way and the worldview

history

aims

quest

received culture

experience

the individual

significance

of the worldview

goes limitlessly beyond standard secular and transsecular views in meaning, significance, extension of the universe and the individual

proof; consistency with what is valid in all paradigms, knowledge, and interpretatons of experience; doubt; alternate attitudes

how is the view consistent with experience (including science)—experience shows (a) what is there (b) but what is not there only if we assume essentially everything has been experienced… however it is consistent with our experience so far that, e.g., there is a sublayer for our cosmos which interacts weekly or rarely but is infinite in variety and extent and may interact strongly in our future…

aim

of the way

shared and reasoned discovery and realization of the ultimate in and from the immediate

this will be found also to be the aim of being

enjoyment

appreciation of a world that has contentment and dissatisfaction, conflict and cooperation, self and other, success and striving, pleasure and pain, reason and chaos

means

includes received means

reason

critical—of the world, received knowledge (and ways) show a part, perhaps an infinitesimal part in extent and kind

creative—how can we go beyond the received without going beyond experience… it must be by critiquing our notions of what is experienced and then by critical imagination

the a priori—an extended meaning

no a priori

abstraction

knowledge

value

agency

essential ideas

being

the idea of ‘being’ as that which is, is critical to understanding as ground or foundation that does not seek depth and so avoids assumption such as substance or infinite regress

being provides objectivity where it is possible, without relinquishing meaning; it does so by closure in depth but (ever) openness in breadth—i.e., via ‘philosophical algebra’

experience

in experiencing the world, there is the ‘experience of’ or concept and ‘the experienced’ or object; the ‘experience of’ is experience—the first concept of experience is that of conscious awareness

reason for omitting awareness without consciousness is given below

‘pure consciousness’ is the case that the actual object is nil but there are always potential objects

even logical contradiction may be corrected

to begin, experience will be our term for conscious awareness in all its forms

the significance of experience includes (i) it is the place though not source of all significance and meaning (ii) there is a good sense in which we do not transcend experience for the measure of experience is further experience (iii) therefore the world is effectively the experienced world

experiential world

the dual use of experience and being (world) provides a language that speaks at once to our sense of meaning and of the real

being is essentially experiential (demonstration comes later); here is a heuristic—(i) our world is effectively relational: ‘experience of’ and ‘the experienced’ (ii) matter, such as it is, cannot exclude the primitive of experience from its primitive level (iii) while the primitive level is not as our experience is, it must be primitively experiential and relational (iv) being is essentially experiential (and this informal heuristic is suggestive but deficient as demonstration; clear meanings and demonstration are given later)

the world is primitively experiential; while this seems to contradict whatever may be true in world as form and matter and objective, it is not—and it will turn out that ‘world as matter’ fits nicely into ‘world as experiential’, while the latter provides a framework for a greater world

The world

could begin with experience, especially as it is the place of significance and of ‘our being’, but it is convenient to begin with being, weave experience into the discussion, and then elaborate on being… this will be followed by establishment and development of the ‘real metaphysics’ as worldview

being

the concept—characteristic of that that which may be validly known to be (directly, clearly, or otherwise), without qualification on ‘to be’

why not simply ‘that which is’—(i) it is without meaning (defined later), (ii) ‘that which may be validly known to be’ is essentially the meaningful rendering of ‘that which is’

this depends on extending the intension of ‘to know’

that the criterion is not specified further than ‘may be validly known’ implies (i) no further criteria are to be or received (ii) the question of ‘what has being’ is open, except to elucidate the criterion

the sometime historical ascription of higher modes of existence to ‘being’ will here be subsumed under kinds of being

why being? being—vs substance (foundationalism, coherentism—see infinite regress arguments) vs infinitism (regress)

while being may be founded via abstraction, experience (below) is implicit—therefore it might be better to begin with experience; however there is no loss in beginning with the abstract and then grounding being in experience—see ‘experience’ and ‘beings’ below

foundation

neutral

regress

pragmatism

transience

cartesian skepticism

negative

anti-foundationalism

pyrrhonian skepticism

positive

substance

what (positive)

‘depth’

pro, con

alternatives

ontology

why not metaphysics?

existence

‘that which is’

the sometime historical distinction from being is empty

the sometime historical thought that existence is trivial or meaningless is the result of aborted reason

the sometime historical problematicity of ‘negative existentials’ is trivially resolved by analysis of the meaning of concept meaning

a being

that which has being

plural: beings

continued below

being is not a being

abstraction

could go above

the abstract and the concrete

abstract-concrete continuum

(difference and similarity between abstraction and abstract objects)

perfection

pragmatic

perfect join of the abstract and the concrete

with sufficient abstraction, being is a being (the being)

power

also see reasons, below

a (full, deterministic) cause is that which is of a being, and if it holds or obtains, entails a change or state in some being—perhaps the same being; an effect is the received or entailed change

a partial cause is that which is contributory to a cause

a probabilistic cause is one that makes the change more likely; in true probabilistic cause, there is no further component that makes the change certain

power is the capacity of a being to give and receive cause or effect from itself or another being (or the capacity to be involved in causation)

the being that has no power does not exist

power is a measure of being

form

being must have form (which entails extension—immanent spatiality)

exception—absence of manifest being

just being—spatiality—does not entail duration

becoming, e.g. origins and change, ‘entails’ duration—immanent temporality

experience

use of ‘awareness’ vs ‘experience’

first concept—animal awareness in all its forms

difference between conscious and apparently non-conscious awareness is (can be seen as) difference in degree, not in kind

in a substance world, awareness goes down to the very elements of form; in a possibilist universe it goes down potentially and in any class of identical situations the potential is realized in some of the situations

this may or perhaps ought to be placed under ‘interpretation’

we consider substance not for foundation or to do justice to the received, but to question it—by doing a thought experiment

the aim is to show the nature of cosmoses that are approximately substance and what that entails… but that in general the universe has and can have no substance foundation

now one purpose of universal substance is as foundation—for which it must be ultimately simple

of one kind, and no structure in extension and duration, for otherwise, the substance would clearly need its own foundation (even with supreme simplicity the question of foundation remains unless perhaps we regard the void, i.e., nothingness, as substance and that is where we will head and find that the simplicity of the void is not given but a matter of perspective

but given no structure, substances cannot interact and therefore a substance universe would be monistic and if our world is a substance world the substance would have to have mental and material aspects which is rather easy to see how because both mind and matter—experience of and the experienced—must have extension and change

then, from possibilism (developed later) phases of the universe can be substance but the universe as a whole cannot unless the void (in fact any being) is taken as substance

intrinsic, instrumental

experience incorporates reason

form

experience has form (with extension and relation) and formation (with change)

form and formation are in more than one place

given experience, there must be form and formation; but are form and formation will later be found necessary without further premise

experiential modality

where to place this?

dimensions

dimensions? here?

inner-outer, form-quality, bound-free, iconic-symbolic, imperative-neutral

recall > memory

Research this based on other documents

Develop the logic and the implications

‘mind and matter’

are ‘experience of’ (‘mind’) and ‘the experienced (‘matter’)

i.e., the material is being as such; the mental is relationship; a further ‘kind’ would be relationship of relationship which is relationship—i.e., there is no further kind; mind and matter are the only elements of what Spinoza thought to be an infinite series (but there may be limitlessly many Spinozan attributes

significance

experience is the place but not source of all significance

not transcended

the place of intrinsic and instrumental change

relational

the being without (with no trace in) experience, self or other, is effectively non-existent

later ‘effectively’ will be removed; this will require expansion of the meaning of ‘experience’ to the root (to make elimination of ‘effectively’ meaningful and FP to make it true)

interpretation

an interpretation is a view, picture, or prescription of the real (i.e. the existing) for a part of the real (e.g., a realm or cosmos) or the entire real (the world)

as if

real

interpretations (mutually consistent and inconsistent)

interpretations

substance and substance-free worlds; possibilist worlds

world

this is where the meaningfulness of extension of ‘experience to the root’ is shown

get right: the relation between ‘world’, above, and ‘experience of’, just below

experiential relation

experience of

concept

attitude

action

‘pure’

experience is relational

icon

iconic concept

sign

symbolic-iconic concept

language

symbolic-iconic

syntax is iconic

languages

a metaphysical language

the experienced

world

includes experience—i.e., experience is experienced

object

experiencer

self (also experienced)

relational nature of experience

meaning

knowledge

reason

effective—optimal—way of achieving good—valuable, optimal—outcomes (ends, right ways, virtue)

includes determining value

includes attention to received reason

note the distinction—reason vs reasons

understanding, inference, and feeling—and their products (knowledge, rational action); received reason

includes learning

beings

having clarified ‘being’, this section catalogs beings and kinds—but it is not a mere catalog: it is a rational catalog that derives from the fundamental nature of being, supplemented by pragmatic considerations

the rational (‘logic’) of the development begins, fairly enough with the intension vs extension of being, but the rational of the remainder is rough and needs to be improved and implemented

the rough logic to the extension is to list ‘kinds’ and beings (i) essences—aspects (ii) parthood (iii) abstraction (iv) experiential being (v) reasons—but note that perhaps reasons ought to go under abstraction > form

intension

‘permissive; it requires only that the conceptually hypothesized being be validly knowable (and not required or needed to be real in any foundationalist-substance or coherentist sense… that is there is no requirement of reference to another being) and knowability requires only consistency—it allows but does not require the object of the concept to be more than the concept… and so does not disallow an object but leaves it open to investigation

extension—'beings’ and ‘kinds’

being as such vs essence

knowability

aspect

an aspect of a being is a being

characteristic

aspects

entity-hood

process

relation

form

includes extensional form (which extends and has ‘shape’ in space) and durational form or formation (extends in time, has change)

forms and formations are beings

material aspect

property

quality

quantity

state

of being or affairs

parthood

all

the being itself

the universe

part

for a being—component, element

for all being—a cosmos, a transient, an individual or person

null

the void—the being that contains no being

abstract

abstraction vs abstract being

an abstraction—removal from the concept of aspects of the being—is a being

if what is removed is what may be distorted in experience, the abstract being is perfectly knowable

if what is left gives full knowledge, the abstract is an essence

essence

minimum information to specify a being; desirably necessary and illuminating

if the essence is not the entire being, it is a pattern

pattern

information to specify a being is less than the raw information

law

‘theory’

reading of a pattern, especially for a cosmos or realm such as nature or the material; ‘law’ and ‘pattern’ may be conflated

limits

limitless (ness)

hypothesis

proposed theory or law

sentient being

or experiential being

‘ideational’, ‘ideal’, ‘of mind’

idea

concept

sign

elements of language

phonemes, words, parts of speech (see Part of speech - Wikipedia), tropes

identity

sense of sameness of self or object

form and space—sameness without change

formation and time—change with sameness

identities

… or beings with identity

why are you who you are and not another person

are you in fact You

intelligent beings

phrase ‘intelligent beings’—perhaps begin with sentient and show ‘intelligence’ as part of the hierarchy

intelligence is capacity for meaning (significance), and reason

hierarchy of intelligent beings

animal beings

plants? viruses?

societies

self-aware beings

agents

free willed beings

free will—what it is or may be; conditions for possibility of; human free will, issue of

persons

human beings are on a low rung of knowledge of self and world beyond the immediate, capable of knowing that they may realize greater and ultimate being—which requires some at least tentative knowledge of how (and which we here see instantiated as real knowledge of how)

later, we show the universe to be limitless; this implies all beings are limitless—for if not the universe would not be limitless; but humans can know this; we are perhaps the lowest rung that can; it may seem contradictory for two humans to be both limitless; but limitlessness is realized in merging as Brahman (below); in that form we will not merely infer limitlessness we will see it; in that form we will see all being and beings

…

gods

there are remote gods; but we are not other than gods; we are on the way to becoming god(s)—we are ‘eruptions’ of creation, manifesting agenthood, on the way to ultimate agenthood

Brahman

thus far in the narrative, gods and Brahman are hypothetical

societies

human societies

reasons

also see power above

reasons and reason are distinct

a reason for a (state of) being is that, which if it is true or exists or obtains, then the being obtains with some degree of certainty

necessary reasons

if the being obtains with certainty, the reason is necessary

thus arguments as beings can be necessary (e.g. deductive, with certain premises)

there are certain and contingent facts, e.g. the existence of the manifest universe

there is a conceptual possibility of zero-premise arguments (proving the ‘fundamental principle’ will be an example); equivalently there are necessary facts

possible reasons

otherwise, the reason is likely or possible

or less than necessary with regard to either inference (e.g. inductive) or establishment of premise, and may be strong or weak (or wrong)

effective reasons

material cause-effect—a (full deterministic) cause entails the effect; a partial cause makes the effect more likely; a probabilistic cause makes the effect more likely (the difference from partial cause is that there is no further cause that makes a probable cause a (full deterministic) cause

universe

the earlier listing of ‘universe’ and related concepts were classification; now begin to analyse, clarify, and specify

creator

impossibility of

ontological proof

vs ‘the ontological proof of God’s existence’

identity

cosmos

(cosmoses)

law

defined above

the void

existence of

no laws in the void

first form of the fundamental principle

limitlessness

of the universe, its identity, and the individual

second form of the fundamental principle

a cosmology of limitlessness

description (cosmological)— identity of universe and individual, Brahman, extension, duration, variety, peak, cosmoses, transaction

issues

newness

consistency

i.e., consistency with experience

internal (logic)

external (concrete and abstract sciences)

possibility

possibility as a property of concepts and their potential objects rather than a property of an object

paradigm

intrinsic

i.e., logical

third form of the fundamental principle

kinds

kinds and modes of expression or concept

extrinsic

i.e., real

kinds

kinds and modes of being

metaphysical

general

identical to intrinsic

special

real in having some features of the real but not necessarily of any particular being (cosmos)

purpose—to analyze the real or aspects of it without encumbrance of particulars

real

form

i.e., form and formation > extension, change

theoretical

limited by theory, hypothesis or law

scientific

limited by theory, hypothesis or law

e.g., physical, cosmological, chemical, geological, biological, psychological, social, economic, and political

mathematical

sentient

intelligent

self-aware

able to inquire into the nature and meaning of (its own) being

logic

knowledge may be classified by how it is right or wrong—if it conflicts with itself it is logical (and good if it does not conflict); if it may disagree with the world it is empirical or scientific (and good science if it agrees); and mathematics is the case of science for abstract or possible worlds

science (and mathematics) presume logic; logic may be seen as (proto) science (it is from here that the sense in which logic is empirical is derived)

there is a sense in which science says nothing of the world—the world is there being the world, doing what it does—science is merely saying what it does (but is of course informative to limited minds); similarly, logic, too says nothing; logic (as including science as including mathematics) are aids to limited minds so that the minds can say something and aids to potentially erroneous minds so that they avoid saying less than nothing

mathematics

science

metaphysics

the concept

has begun

therefore, its possibility

the real metaphysics

description

perfection

residual significance of ‘limited world’ philosophy—metaphysics, epistemology, value

realization

newness

doubt, alternative attitudes

proofs and heuristics

optimal action

distribution of effort – allocation of resources

modified Pascal’s Wager

meaning and implications of the real metaphysics and the fundamental principle

intensional or explicit—limitlessness, the only inconsistent concepts have no objects

fact and nature of the demonstration

analysis of possibility

extensional or implicit—the variety of being

being and universe

metaphysics of experience

deriving kinds of world or cosmos from experience

limitlessness of form, formation, and identity

the aim of being

human endeavor and realization

givenness

of the ultimate——human beings partake of the identity and limitlessness of the universe

enjoyment

appreciation of the quality of living—of pleasure and pain—a value and a natural imperative

intelligence

engaging intelligently in pathways and development of pathways is effective in enjoyment

is there a better world for ‘intelligence’

knowledge

for the text—see the way > resources > text design

problems of metaphysics

a logical or coherent account

the problems

cosmology

dimensions of being

here or in ‘metaphysics’

… and experience

value

ethics, aesthetics, intelligence, and their relations

see enjoyment above

imperative

path

also considered below; here the aim is to derive and show the essentials, to share

The way

the way

aim of being

means

received means and ways, reason

path

templates

template design (i) all activities and dimensions of being, immediate to universal (ii) adaptable to a range of circumstances—individual to civilization

everyday

universal

world opportunities and problems

world problems and opportunities.html

Journey in Being-detail.html

dedication

affirmation

resources

database

of concepts (use Access)

plan

text design

continuous text

the way

continuity with all relevant history and text

design includes development of the text versions, sharing, publishing, and translation into action

the text has been written without limit, is yet as if a new and nascent flowering—and yet timeless

life

death

envisioning life, death, and their resolution

Epilogue

return to the world

return to the world

being in the world

one world

the immediate and the ultimate are one

sharing

reason

discovery and action

feeling and cognition

value and object

critical and creative

no a priori

being in the world