The way of being

A brief outline

To be revised with site and doc plan parallel to the extended outline

Anil Mitra

Copyright © November 16, 2020 – January 25, 2021

Home

Notation

Temporary comments.

† In the longer outlines, essential headings and content are marked with a dagger.

* Stars mark headings for special topics and special or detailed content that will be only in the long outline.

Contents

1	Guide

1.1	Wide-angle view

1.2	Design

1.3	Entering the way

1.4	Dedication, affirmation, and meditative presence to the real

2	Being

2.1	Experience

2.2	Being

2.3	Cause

2.4	The world

2.5	Kinds of being

3	Metaphysics

3.1	On metaphysics

3.2	Possibility

3.3	Method

3.4	A fundamental principle

3.5	A real metaphysics

3.6	Experience and the real

3.7	Universe as field

3.8	The nature of being

3.9	The ultimate

4	Realization

4.1	The aim of being

4.2	Means

4.3	Path templates

4.4	To step into the world

5	Resources

5.1	External sources

5.2	Site sources

5.3	The way as resource

5.4	Influences

5.5	For study and research

5.6	Planning*

5.7	The concepts

The way of being

An outline

Guide

This division is a guide to the way and the book.

The way is inspired by sources, upon which it builds.

Wide-angle view

Make a plain English version of the ‘Wide-angle view’.

The way of being is about discovering-defining-and-creating aims of being, and about sharing and realizing those aims. Our personal aims and our views of common aims and their possible objectivity vary widely. Let us therefore attempt to set up a common ground in terms of a demonstrated worldview.

Worldviews can be liberating or constricting. I shall show that some common western worldviews are limiting in outlook and truth and then introduce realism. The development in the main text has a ground in western and eastern views.

Science is based in experience so far and so true science definitely shows part of the truth but is not known to reveal the entire truth. However, that science has revealed the entire truth is a widespread default view. The default is encouraged by (i) thinkers who argue that science has revealed everything (ii) the power and scope of science that make it seem that science covers all niches of the real (iii) the view that there is no going beyond science (iv) the unsatisfactory status of religious and mythic alternatives.

It is also encouraged by secular rationalizations that are a natural consequence of the foregoing as well as made acceptable where secular education and economic well-being are widespread.

Religion answers to possible truth beyond science but does so uncritically and often dogmatically. Therefore, for many persons, even though religion points to possible symbolic truth, dogma and misuse of religion discourage exploration beyond the scientific picture.

There are limits to observation. Thus, even if a limit such as the one due to a finite speed of light did not hold, it seems to be certain that we have so far observed only a finite part of the universe.

What, if anything, lies beyond what human beings have observed so far? Consider the universe to be all that there is over all measures of difference (e.g., extension and duration) and their absence. Then there is precisely one universe, and it follows that, since we know of the one universe, there is a sense in which there is nothing beyond what we know. However, in a more complete sense, what we mean by “what there is” is not just that there are things but what they are.

It is possible that what lies beyond is not just infinite but limitless in every possible way. Suppose we conceive of worlds beyond the observed, is there an absolute limit on such conceptions? If the conception were to be self-contradictory, its realization would be impossible. More generally, logic is an absolute limit. It is possible that it is the only absolute limit. But to say the universe is and not just may be the realization of logical possibility, based on the discussion so far, would be speculation.

The reader may be thinking ‘but logic is so sterile’. In fact, as a requirement on what is real it would be sterile. However, as a limit on the possible, it would be the most permissive—the richest—and it would leave knowledge of the real limited only by the power of imagination. In fact, the nature of logic as a limit on conceptions for possible realization, opens up a window on the nature of logic (though this is not a new idea, and has been developed by thinkers from Leibniz to David Lewis, the developments here and in the main text will empower it beyond what has been thought thus far).

Is it possible to go beyond the scientific picture without mere speculation? Consider the following argument. If the universe is ever in a void state—a state of nothingness, i.e., a state where there is no being at all—then there would be neither laws nor constraints and, so, all possibility would emerge from the void. Does the void exist? Yes, in that the existence and nonexistence of void are equivalent. Therefore, the universe is the realization of all possibility.

That the universe is the realization of all possibility will be named the fundamental principle of metaphysics, which will be abbreviated to ‘the fundamental principle’ and ‘FP’.

What kind of possibility? It must be the greatest kind, subject to consistency. That is the universe is the realization of logical possibility. This is the greatest possibility in the sense that all concepts whose realization entail no violation of logic are realized. It does not mean that the universe is the best possible, but it is entailed that it contains the best.

It has been shown that there must be phases of something rather than nothing—and much more.

The demonstration ought to be doubted. Doubt may arise regarding premises and inferences. The premises are (i) consistency of the concepts—the universe, the void, and logic (ii) existence of the universe (iii) validity of the application of logic. The consistency of the concepts follows from their abstract character—i.e., that the abstraction in question is filtering out what is subject to distortion. This is evident regarding the universe and the void. Regarding logic, what is being done is to define logic—it is not assumed that our logics are true logics (more is said on this point below). The critical step is the demonstration of the existence of the void. The main text gives further proofs (and heuristics), but doubt is not entirely removed. However, existence of the void is consistent with experience and therefore existence of the void may be taken as (i) a postulate (ii) and existential principle of action.

A technical doubt concerns a logic so vast as to contain specification of an unrestricted universe. It is recognized that there are problems with concepts such as ‘all objects’ and ‘unrestricted quantification’. However, the situation is not one of application of a priori logic. Rather, the logic is to emerge simultaneously with discovery of the world and forms of expression. Naturally, our logics will have application. And, in any case, regardless how well developed our logics are, it is clear that what is revealed is a necessarily existent universe that is limitlessly greater than otherwise imagined, not just in reason, or from science, but perhaps also in dreaming and fiction.

This is one way in which it emerges that logic is empirical. It is (thus) that logic is the theory of everything, and, beyond our logics, there are logics—involving newer modes of expression—awaiting discovery. It is further seen to be empirical in that logic is the constraint on a (kind of) conceptual expression for realization at all, and the determination of the same must be empirical. In this manner, logic and science are on one footing—(i) discovery of theories, logical – scientific – mathematical, are empirical-hypothetical while (ii) proof under a theory is deductive. This may be expressed in another way—logic is the condition for concepts to be realized at all, science is the condition for realization in a particular context (and thus, science presumes logic).

The demonstration of the fundamental principle, above, will be revisited and further critiqued in the text. The nature of logical possibility will be developed. Consequences will be derived. The result will be to establish a worldview that goes far beyond what is generally held as established. Here, a few consequences will be examined—

The universe has identity. The universe and its identity are limitless with regard to variety, kind, extension, duration (and any other measures beyond space and time or their absence), peak without limit, and dissolution. In particular there are arrays of cosmoses without limit to number and variety of physical law. If all that is given is present experience, then the universe of individual experience beyond the present, must be limitless like the universe itself. In the whole the universe and the individual are absolutely indeterministic. But part of that is the being of phases with form, cause, and change—individuals, worlds, cosmoses among whose apparent limits, except for the logical, are not absolute even though real. There are and must be effective enjoyable paths, beginning in our world, from the world to the ultimate. Our being is part of and the same as the ultimate and the eternal.

The sense in which the universe is absolutely indeterministic is that given a state, other putatively related states are not determined at all (except for possibility).

The chapters on being and metaphysics develop a foundation, realization is on achieving the ultimate from and in the present. A final chapter has resources, for the way.

What is valid in cumulative human culture, including science, is instrumental in realization. The metaphysical consequences above guide and illuminate culture, and culture illustrates and is instrumental in the ultimate picture. Human culture has what may be called ‘unnatural’ criteria of validity for knowledge—they are unnatural in that they do not arise naturally along with the knowledge itself but, regardless of attempts at rationality, have an ad hoc nature, in part due to the fact that the function of knowledge is not given or perfectly known. But now, the metaphysical provides natural criteria—it reveals an ideal ultimate, and relative to that ultimate, culture is the best and perfect instrument because its iterations from civilization to civilization and cosmos to cosmos will and must succeed. But the metaphysical itself is perfect on any count—so far as perfection is possible and meaningful. Therefore, the dual system—the metaphysical and the cultural—constitute an organic or natural whole that bear with them their own criteria, which are not ad hoc or imported. The name of the system will be the real metaphysics. It is not being said that the cultural criteria are without significance; however, that significance is seen to have a delimited context.

While the present view just developed is far greater than the scientific and religious pictures it is not subject to the limits of either. Thus, while it is understandable why positivist thinkers might think the boundary of science to be the limit of the universe, their reason for thinking that way is now defused. And while the dogmatic speculations of religions make many turn away from religion, the present view is limitlessly greater in magnitude while it also meets the canons of reason and rationality.

As an example, while pain is a puzzle on the accounts of the Abrahamic Religions, on the present view (i) pain is necessarily part of the universe but (ii) an essential component of resolution of the problem of pain is that all those who have the manifest power should seek realization of the ultimate (and to alleviate pain for those without this power).

If the universe is limitless, is pain without limit? Note, first, that even if such should be the case, it would not constitute disproof of or reason to disbelieve limitlessness. However, it will be argued in the main text that the majority of systems in the universe are relatively stable and symmetric, where pain is functional and therefore not without limit.

An aim of being now emerges. It is to be in a process of discovering and being on pathways to the ultimate. Being on a pathway is not about following—rather it is about sharing: a sharing in which some individuals may be ‘spiritual leaders’ but not rule setters or sole vehicles of truth. It is not altogether about the ultimate, for the immediate is the platform for the ultimate (on a more inclusive perspective, the immediate and the ultimate are one but may be interpreted as distinct).

The aim of being is shared discovery and realization in and from the present.

It is in the present in that some individuals see it in the present, some—perhaps a few—realize it from this life as platform, and in that there are some tentative and experimental ways of doing so (which are sometimes exalted as absolute). It is from the present in that there are paths to the ultimate beyond death (i.e., of limited identities, which the real metaphysics reveals as real but not absolute), and which traverse civilizations, worlds, and cosmoses on the way to the ultimate.

The ultimate which in Advaita Vedanta the realization of the individual or Atman—self—and is named Brahman.

In the shared endeavor, all lifeways which enhance this world and or the beyond have validity. There is no suppression of either the immediate or the ultimate in favor of the other.

The aim of the way of being

The aim of the way being is to live in the immediate and ultimate as one—to live well in the world is to live in its transience and its embedding in the ultimate. Realizing the aim entails realizing the ultimate.

Limits vs limitlessness of being

There is a range of apparent limits—individuals have limited physical and mental capacities, the world has limited resources, the empirical cosmos is about 13.8 billion years and 93 billion light years in diameter, and the entire universe itself may be limited in age, size, and permissible kinds of being. However, the certain limit of being is consistency. That is, given a conceived history of the universe, the only certain limit is that the conception should not violate any logical principle. That is a very weak limit. It means that there is no real limit. It entails that individuals inherit the limitlessness of the universe. In particular it means that our apparent limits, if their violation is not a violation of logical principle, are real to us, but not absolute. Particularly, death would be real but not absolute. Of course, it is not given that the limit of consistency is attained. Therefore, the aim of the way includes discovery and realization of true limits and what may be reasonably achieved. It will be found that the true and reasonable limit is the limit of consistency (and that limits of physical and mental capacity and death, are real while in present form, there is transcendence of that form, in which the ultimate is realized. It is further found that this realization is most enjoyed and efficient when it is engaged (rather than passively achieved). Therefore, to the extent that enjoyment is a value, there is an imperative to develop and be on paths to the ultimate.

Means of discovery and realization

The means of the way are experience, reason, and action. Experience includes perception and conception; reason includes understanding and inference—both necessary and inductive; action includes exploration and transformation of being. One of the outcomes of experience and reason is knowledge—which includes the traditions of cultures. Most cultures have tacit or explicit world views, which guide thought and action. The worldviews are not final, but, rather, all these elements emerge and evolve together.

Naturalism and metaphysics

A naturalist view of the world is based in direct experience. Nature is, first, ‘the world as we find it’, which has an elementary level that is thought but not known to be unalterable by human being. In the view of nature here, the social and artifactual world is within and not apart from nature. It is efficient to find patterns—laws and theories, for example, as in logic and the concrete and abstract sciences—in nature, but, unless proven real, the patterns serve mainly to coordinate the phenomena. It is understood that experience and patterns may be in error and are subject to improvement. It recognizes that there may be an unseen world but—unless proven otherwise—is neutral toward its existence and nature. Nature may also be understood in terms of what it excludes—a supernaturalism that assigns reality, without proof, to an imagined but unseen world.

Metaphysical systems begin as a view of the universe that is consistent with but not required by experience. Such metaphysical systems are labeled ‘speculative’ or ‘hypothetical’. Thus, the connotation of ‘speculative’ in ‘speculative metaphysics’ is not pejorative—it does not connote mere, wild, or irrational speculation. Many metaphysical systems in the history of philosophy are speculative in this sense. Such systems may be refined by bringing them into line with further experience. In this sense, the theories of science are metaphysical, but it is essential of science that contact with the empirical remain close. Thus, there is a distinction between the aims of science and of metaphysics—science seeks also be to be predictive and applicable, metaphysics seeks to explore all that is real.

However, that may be, there is an imperative to seek a metaphysical system that (i) is required by and not merely consistent with experience and (ii) covers all the real, at least in its main contours.

It is commonly thought that such a metaphysics is impossible. We will find it to be eminently possible—not merely by showing possibility, but by producing such a metaphysical system (the issue of the possibility of what may be widely held impossible is taken up in on possibility and impossibility; here, it is to be noted that the only true and certain impossibility is logical impossibility, which, rather than being restrictive or sterile, is the richest possible possibility).

The system will be called a real metaphysics and will have a rational framework in that (i) the experience in which it is based, is necessarily of the real and (ii) it is consistent with and required by that experience.

The real metaphysics will be more than the framework just been described. The framework itself guarantees that the universe is without limit and that individuals realize this limitlessness, but it does not show how. The means of realization will include all valid human knowledge (with reason, where ‘reason’ shall denote the means of acquiring knowledge). Such knowledge is imperfect on its own traditional criteria. However, the value revealed by the above framework shows human knowledge to be a perfect instrument of realization (because it is the only instrument and because, in its in-process form, it is guaranteed to succeed). Further, the framework itself is found via an abstraction from pragmatic human knowledge to its real content. Thus, the framework with in-process human knowledge is a unitary and perfect system that we shall call a ‘real metaphysics’.

A real metaphysics

At the center of the way is a real metaphysics that is required by—necessary reason that grows out of—experience. A proven fundamental principle is that the universe is the greatest possible—in the most inclusive but consistent sense of possibility.

From this principle it follows (i) that there is one universe, which has identity and is limitless in extension, duration, variety, and peaks and dissolutions of being, all in contact with a void that has but contains no being (ii) the variety includes limitlessly many cosmoses, themselves of limitless variety and not just ones similar to ours but with different physical constants (iii) individuals inherit the power of the universe and necessarily realize he ultimate. This abstract knowledge is rendered concrete by synthesizing it with experience and the ongoing traditions of world cultures—and the outcome is the real metaphysics.

While realization is given (a) there are efficient and enjoyable paths to the ultimate (b) the fundamental principle itself does not show how to realize the ultimate—and the way is found by joining practical knowledge to the principle and its consequences, which forms the real metaphysics (c) the metaphysics has broad and deep consequences for human knowledge and exploration of the real (d) if enjoyment is a value, there is an imperative to live well in the world on a path (e) pain is unavoidable and its best address is a combination of therapy, acceptance, and being on a path (f) which is negotiated via experience and reason in terms of the real metaphysics.

The work is an elaboration of these themes.

The main divisions are being, metaphysics, and realization, followed by a resource supplement.

The division on realization presents path templates designed to be adaptable to a range of life situations and personal and group orientations.

The table of contents provides a further overview.

Design

A temporary section. Essential and permanent material will be placed in the resources.

Essentials for the way

Beginning

Informal introduction or prologue

We infuse our lives with aims, but they appear to have little objectivity, reality, or universality. To judge those issues, we would need a true and ultimate worldview.

Our secular worldviews are limited, and religion provides limited and often dogmatic alternatives.

The boundary of any real worldview is defined by the most permissive kind of possibility—which must be possibility intrinsic to the concepts or descriptions of the world, i.e. logical possibility.

It will be shown that the world is this limit—i.e., that the universe is the realization of logical possibility (and this more a conception of the logical than a subscription to our systems of logic).

This reveals an ideal, which must be complemented by pragmatic knowledge to be an instrument of knowing and realizing aims.

To move forward, we need a foundation for knowledge and its place in action and realization.

Traditional putative foundations are substance and relative, which not true foundations. Substance foundations are implicitly incomplete, while relative foundations are explicitly so.

Perhaps rather than to find foundation in sub-stance, i.e., ‘below the world’, it is better to find it in the world itself, but in that case, there is really no foundation to be found—rather it is already there, waiting to be seen. To say the foundation is in the world is to say it is in ‘what is’, i.e., in (the concept of) being.

We will find that rather than seeking foundation ‘underneath, behind, or beyond’ the immediate or the phenomenal, foundation is to be found in the phenomenal.

But what of the distinction and putative gap between the phenomena and the noumena—between appearance and reality, i.e., between experience (aware consciousness) of the world and the world, i.e., between experience and being.

This sets up, at least tentatively, the following program

Beginning or prologue

This section

Add ‘to the reader’

Being

Experience

Being

…

Knowing

Metaphysics as the real and knowledge of the real

Perfect and perfect criteria (abstraction)

Concrete and pragmatic criteria

The real metaphysics

Essential developments

Add detail for the previous two items here

Ethics (value, axiology)

Cosmology

Problems in traditional and modern metaphysics

Realization

Add detail here

Being

Knowing

Realizing

Beyond

An informal epilogue

Plan

Immediate

Make a brief > intermediate outline; the very briefest part of these documents shall be the same as the extended material of index more.

Do logic of organization and flow, place plan in the main outline

Editing

Edit the outlines in parallel (with the essential way of being.html—essentials with study topics and a journey in being-outline.html—with external and site sources)

In the end, all there will be the main outline (reducible to the brief outline), a temporary short version (e.g., the precis and earlier précis of the way of being) and a long essay (reducible to a brief essential essay)

Writing plan

Set up two outline documents, one skeletal, the other full. Keep them coordinated while importing to them the present document and the longer outline. Hone. Write a brief version as manual. Write the long version in-the-world.

Writing

Documents that may be of use

See the site and site planning pages home, planning, reading, and priorities

use the long outline side by side with the present document to write a short outline with essential statements, a short version, and a long outline and long version…

… also use the essentials-temporary, to be absorbed.docm, which should be eliminated after use

journal

personal and general manuals, an earlier manual

every-day and universal templates

topics and concepts for the way.html

journey in being-axiomatic.html

Logic of organization and flow

The main parts

Guide

Metaphysics (knowledge)—Experience, Being, Metaphysics (with topics in metaphysics, cosmology, and ethics)

Realization (action)—Aim, Means, Paths (with templates and resources the resources may be in a separate section and include planning with personal planning and topics for study)

Notation and styles

Essential and repeated from the head of the document

Temporary comments. Alt + C. Two uses are (i) for material that is repeated (for information or when one of the occurrences may be deleted or replaced by a link) (ii) for work needed.

† Essential headings and content are marked with a dagger, especially in long versions.

Headings that designate essential content and essential content are marked with a dagger

* Stars mark headings for special topics and special or detailed content that will be only in longer outlines (currently main outline,).

Some possible styles as markers—not essential

Main Alt + Z, fundamental—pertinent to wide-angle view

Realization—use Main style, above

Normal Alt + N, for general statements

Criticism Alt + O, doubt

Concepts Alt + F (definitions—Alt + K)

Forward ref Ctrl + 7, for material that could be placed at the given point but is efficient later

Metaphysics Ctrl + 8, knowledge

Navigation

Frames

Collapsibility

collapsible sections

nested collapsible blocks

Entering the way

Understanding

For intelligibility, most terms used refer to concepts that belong to families of ideas in common use, every day or philosophical (see the system of concepts). Thus, the terms may be familiar to readers. However especially absent a final metaphysics or a well-defined context, the meanings of the terms may be vague, multivalued, incomplete, uncritical, without foundation, or limited.

The real metaphysics is definite, and its context is ultimate. In that context, these problems of meaning are overcome. Variety of meaning is allowed over a variety of limited contexts.

For development and understanding, it is essential to follow the defined meanings of the concepts—individually and as constituting a system.

Of course, it is enriching to relate the present meanings to the received—but to project received meanings would result in inconsistency and confusion. While related to traditional contextual meanings, the meanings here are emergent with the development. The validity of the emergent system will be found in the manner and detail of the emergence.

For a listing of concepts, see the system of concepts. The main concepts include being, experience, universe, the void and its existence, metaphysics, possibility, realization, and pathways. Observe that the meaning of ‘experience’ will be significantly enhanced to a meaning broader than its common use in the wide-angle view.

The divisions and their hierarchical structure are arranged for usability.

Realization

The picture of the universe in the real metaphysics is the foundation.

The aim of being is to live in the immediate and ultimate as one—to live well in the world is to live in its transience and its embedding in the ultimate.

The means are the metaphysics and reason, selective use and integration of traditional ways, and reinforcements.

There are two path templates, every day and universal, presented at three levels of depth and detail.

Dedication, affirmation, and meditative presence to the real

“Presence to the real”

A dedication and affirmation.

Should this go to the division on realization? Should it be distributed throughout the document? A mix of a brief statement at one location and details distributed?

Statement, review, analysis, significance and use, and references to the text

“How to persuade”

Being

Experience

The concept

Experience (and consciousness), the related concepts of phenomenal and non-phenomenal awareness

Experience is real

Though the seeming object of experience—the world—may be illusory, there is experience

To doubt experience is experience

Experience is the name of the immediate

A real world

The meaning of the term ‘real’ shall be that it is the real or non-illusory object of experience.

The meaning of the term ‘real world’ is that it is the total real or non-illusory object of experience. An equivalent term ‘the external world’ is misleading, for there is no ultimate distinction between the internal and the external.

There is experience of experience, for without it there would be no knowledge of experience

That is, experience is self-reflexive.

Thus, there is a real world, even if it is only of experience itself

There is a real world that is more than just experience

Nominally, the real is a name for the appearances or phenomena of ‘objects’.

And nominally, the real world is a name for the totality of such objects.

We will simultaneously develop a necessary meaning for the real and the fact of the existence of real objects and the real world.

Functionally, of course, at least some part of the apparent world may be designated real, but we will be able to go beyond just function.

Experience is relational

Experience relates subject (experience of) to object (the experienced or putative world)

But is there a real world beyond just experience? What is the world ‘made of’ and what does that question mean? This is addressed below, especially in the world and experience and the real.

The range of experience

Introduction—the aims of the section are understanding, use, and preparation for a fuller metaphysics of experience—e.g., Whiteheadian.

High level consciousness vs elemental experience, preliminary to the world and its interpretations.

Modes—pure (its relativity to the subject), relational (attitude, action)

In pure experience there is no actual (‘external’) object, but there is always an internal object, and a potential external object.

Therefore, experience is relation (relational)

Attitude and action are not distinct from experience as experience

Elements—feeling, object bound-free in recall (memory), concentrated-neutral, form-quality, outer-inner, intense-moderate-minimal, compelling-relaxed, focus-background

The following needs careful reworking and amplification. Especially with regard to what the higher elements are (intention to be considered for inclusion), and what their relation to the lower elements (also review) may be.

Foundation of the elements

Foundation of the elements is in the form of an organism and its function in an environment—e.g., existence of form follows from the nature of being; the particular forms of organism-environment follow from adaptation; feeling is the fundamental element of relation (mind, experience) from which all other elements emerge as variety—difference, quality—and combination; perception is bound to the object and is associated with intensity and compulsion from zero or minimal to strong or intensely compelling; inner-outer is self vs environment perception – is relative to the organism of focus – and is a pragmatic rather than fundamental distinction; thought and imagination are free recall that are partially controlled or willed and partly spontaneous—and reflexive, i.e. there is awareness and thus thought and imagination about thought and imagination, which is a component of will and control; emotion is a complex of thought, imagination, and feeling associated with objects; and will is the perception of self in relation to the environment, awareness of need and desire in that connection, relating need to needed action, and resulting in motive power toward needed action

Hallucination—free but intense, compelling, so seemingly bound (hypothesis)

Delusion—incoherence of free-free or free-bound modes (hypothesis), thus cross-over between delusion and hallucination

Functions—feeling, conception (iconic-symbolic), thought, imagination, emotion, intending, acting, reflexing

Mood—quality of emotive state in terms of sense of wellbeing, and energy of intention and action (hypothesis)

The nature of experience*

This section will emphasize the study of consciousness in two phases—prior to and after, say, 1970.

It may be efficient to place this after the first two subsections of the section on the concept of being, so that the discussion may have the benefit of the discussions of being, meaning, knowledge, and significance.

Being

Alt titles—'Existence’, ‘Being as existence’

The concept

That which is.

Existence.

That which may be validly said to be—in the most inclusive sense of the verb to be.

Essence and structure

Concept (‘experience of’), referent (‘the experienced’, object), meaning, knowledge, knowing (understanding and reason) action, verb to be, existence, being, beings, whole, part, nil

Later, understanding is conceived as part of reason, and reason will be seen as part of knowledge and knowing.

On knowing, reason, attitude, and action

At the elemental level, there is but primitive action which is ‘nothing but’ motion. As representation and symbol emerge, knowledge comes to be seen as distinct from action as the intentional and directed ‘motion’ of sentient beings, though in interaction with it. This is the situation with specialized knowledge in the disciplines. At a fundamental level, action and knowledge continue into one another. The ‘person of action’ and the ‘person of knowledge’ are functional under specialization, but in more general contexts, those functions are fractured and distorted.

The reality of being

To say that there is being or that being is real, is, in line with the meaning of the term ‘real’, above, is to assert that there are referents as described in the concept and structure of being.

We might say that the being is the referent.

However, it is and will turn out to be more effective, from the point of view of sound and robust conceptions of meaning and knowledge, to say that a being is a concept-object pair (the object but not the concept may be nil).

Significance

The concept of significance

The ‘significance of significance’—so far as significance counts, experience is the place of being, but the object of significance is the universe

The significance of experience includes that it is the essential though not entire place of being

The significance of being

It is a given.

It is ground of the real.

It is—will be found to be—ultimate foundation for metaphysics without substance, axiom or posit, or unending regress.

Though elementary, it is container for all being or existence, including higher being—animal, human, and any beyond.

Cause

The idea of cause

Reason, interaction

Causes

Reasons, power or effective cause, possibility, necessity

The world

The idea of the world

The extent of the world

The world and its experiential boundary, interpretations (of experience), standard—material and monist as being-experience, maximal, the real

Kinds of being

Should this section be placed after the fundamental principle… after the real metaphysics? Divided into two parts, one here and one later?

Kinds

A category is a class of beings, usually just under being in inclusiveness. The classes should (i) be functional in understanding and explanation (ii) as far as possible, constitute a complete account of being (iii) not be too specialized (this is to be expected on account of items i and ii). Though it is not usual, being may be and is here regarded as a category. The empty class may also be seen as a category.

A variety is the range of being in a category. Though it may seem too varied to consider it so, the entire range of being is a functional variety in that it is and will be seen to be the range of beings that are metaphysically equivalent to the void.

A dimension of being is a category, especially one that is used in an explanatory worldview.

A kind is a category, dimension, or variety.

Kind, category, and dimension belong to a family of meaning.

In some parts of this section, given development so far, some kinds are known real, others possible (in the sense of ‘interpretation’ or logical possibility and consistency with experience, developed later). The possible but not so far known to be real are in (i) the concrete-abstract continuum and (ii) an experiential hierarchy > higher kinds and the universe and its identity. The listed possible will be shown real later, after development of the fundamental principle.

Dimensions of being

Dimensions are close in meaning to kinds and categories.

Real (perfect)

Perfect means perfectly known, which is therefore real.

Pure

Being itself—experience, experience of, the experienced

Necessary

These are necessary aspects of being.

Form and change

Form (no being without form), relation (no form without relation), change (no experience without change, function of relation—i.e., dynamics—on an indeterminist-determinist continuum).

Relation is part of form and therefore does not need explicit mention. I.e., the fundamental entity is, equivalently—

Form and change, or

Field and change

Foundation of the real dimensions

The pure have been founded in being > experience and the concept of being.

Pragmatic

The nature of the pragmatic is that it includes the practical, i.e., it enables some negotiation of the world, even if incomplete with regard to precision and range; projected (e.g., cultural).

A western system of pragmatic dimensions (non-disjunction for convenience), at increasing level of detail from #i to #iv, is

being-as-experiential (it will be seen later that all being is experiential in a fundamental sense of experience) > beings,

experience of and the experienced (i.e., mind and world—world includes mind, pure experience is the case where the experienced is nil—but pure experience may be experienced),

the world divides as dimensions—nature (accessible to direct experience, conceptually opposed to any presumed hypothetical inaccessible or supernatural level, presumed unmalleable in fact and to human agency at an elementary level, commonly but fallaciously presumed to lack experientiality and agency, but in fact possessed of the elements of experientiality and agency); individuals (or persons or units of higher experientiality-agency… and units of society) and society (groups of individuals in interaction—a dimension within and not apart from nature, malleable) and civilization or cohesive collections of societies across the universe—across time and worlds; and the universal (of and beyond experience so far)

the dimensions of the world divide as

nature—the elementary or physical, the complex or living, and mind—the experiential aspect of the physical and the living

psyche, individual—mind-body agents, organisms with self-awareness, meaning, volition, intention, will, and designs

society—the foundation of the dimensions of society is its arrangement as individuals, groups and institutions, as a world and in the world of nature and beyond; its functional elements must be those of knowledge (culture), decision (politic), and organization (economic), which are elaborated as the cultural (meaning, explicit and implicit knowledge and discovery, lateral communication, and vertical transmission including education), the political (decision and consensus), and the economic (all activities and institutions or social structures all activities leading to and involved in value determination and delivery—includes exploration, refinement, production, technology, resources, transactions, and meta-activities such as planning, design, and optimization; modern economics emphasizes a subset of these activities)

universe—what is in and beyond the world of experience of a civilization regarding nature, individuals, and civilization, all the way to the ultimate known via reason and necessary fact (e.g., there is a universe); includes any real but unknown

Foundation of the pragmatic dimensions

Items i and ii, above, repeat the pure dimensions.

Item iii is founded as stated, e.g., nature is accessible to direct experience, presumed unmalleable, and opposed to any hypothetical supernatural level; individuals are units of agency and of society or interactive groups of individuals; the universal is what is beyond our experience of the world so far in kind (nature and so on) and extension in form and change (‘space and time’)

Item iv is founded as explained.

Foundation of the pragmatic dimensions

Particular beings

Universe

Universe, definition, existence, one universe, not created, not effectively caused, possible, may be necessary

The void, existence does not follow from the definition

Existence of the void, proof, doubt, consistency with experience, postulation, existential principle

The universe as the manifest and the void

Cosmos

Individual

Concrete-abstract continuum

Knowledge of the concrete—directly in perception, indirectly by effect

Knowledge and definition of abstract—by abstraction and by symbolic construction

Concrete and abstract are not essentially distinct

Effective talk of all referents (objects) requires metaphysical system

Beings from beings

All, part, nil

Sum and difference

An experiential hierarchy

Introduction

Some aspects of the following anticipate the real metaphysics

Elementary

elementary experience (feeling, atomic vs relative), stimulus-response

Sentience

Clear sentience, perception

Higher sentience

Memory, conception—iconic and symbolic, thought, emotion

Reflexive experience, intentionality, self-awareness, self-direction

Individuals or persons

Agents

capable of apparent understanding and design but—from the real metaphysics—also true understanding and design

capable of—reflexively—understanding and knowing the above

Heidegger’s Dasein and comprehension of the question of the meaning of being (with Sorge or concern, the structure of consciousness par excellence, elevated to the ultimate—per Heidegger)

Human beings and perhaps some other animals are likely on a low rung of intelligent agency

Higher kinds

Possible and therefore per the real metaphysics, true higher and remote kinds but, if their power is not organic, the kind is likely improbable and ineffective except in limited locales

Hypothetical higher forms and awareness of multiple lives; gods

Hypothetical self-aware phases of the universe; into which all forms merge

Of which there is a highest kind, Brahman or Aeternitas, as an actual or a progression, into which all lesser kinds (agents, remote gods) merge

The universe and its identity

The ultimate

Identity of self (person) and the ultimate—constant contact and communication between self and the highest kind even when the self does not have explicit knowledge of it

Metaphysics

On metaphysics

The concept

Metaphysics is knowledge of the real.

Why it must be knowledge of the real, i.e.—why knowledge-and-the-real are inseparable.

Possibility of metaphysics

Why metaphysics as knowledge of the real is adequate—and perfect

Metaphysics was begun in being

How it is possible—essentially a repetition of “Why metaphysics as knowledge of the real is adequate—and perfect”, above

How it will be extended

Justifying the term ‘metaphysics’

The historical meanings in philosophy

How the present use covers the essential historical meanings (and more)

Preview of the real metaphysics, the abstract and the concrete

Preview of the problems of metaphysics*

Plan of development

Possibility

The concept

Logical and real possibility

The concepts

Logic and science

Enter mathematics and its relation to logic and science. To the long outline only?

The concepts

Their oneness

Their dual empirical-rational character

Empiricism-rationalism—unity, but not identity

The greatest possibility

Metaphysical possibility

Necessity

Equivalence of the unconditional (being) and the necessary (being)

Unconditional or premise free necessity and its symmetries

Method

Reason as means of knowing

Reason as traditional reason and understanding

Immanuel Kant is the exemplar of the traditional senses—for Kant, understanding is direct knowledge and reason is knowledge by inference. The sense of reason here, covers the entire process of knowing—i.e., understanding and reason (which may, of course, include action in itself and as experience).

On possibility and impossibility

When certain kinds of assertions of fact or inference are claimed impossible, possible, contingent, probable, or necessary, it is, except when otherwise clear, based on accepted paradigms of the world and reason. It is critical to identify the paradigms, subject them to critique, to identify their presumptions of reason and value, and to attempt to seek greater paradigms, up to the absolutely limiting paradigm(s) that there may be.

Doubt and method

Is this the best level and placement for this section? Note---there are two other sections with ‘doubt’ or ‘criticism’ in their title.

Descartes

Doubt and certainty

Criticism and imagination

Percept and concept

… or fact and pattern

Necessary vs contingent fact and pattern

Reflexive doubt

…i.e., doubt applied to itself

Must all assertions be doubted? Is certainty epistemically essential?

Proof—its nature and role

Are there other approaches to reliability in knowledge?

The postulational

The existential

Reflexivity*

A fundamental principle

Statement

Consistency

Derivation

Proofs

From existence of the void.

From considerations of necessity—see necessity.

Heuristics

Purposes of the heuristics include (i) understanding (ii) enhance confidence in the principle (iii) ideas for other proofs.

Doubts

Alternatives to proof

I.e., the principle (i) in the realm of knowledge as fundamental (ii) in the realm of being and ethics (value) as existential or not having to do with proof or certainty.

Also see reflexive doubt.

Fundamental postulate

Existential principle

Ultimate consequences

Connection to the real

The fundamental principle reveals the universe as ultimate in power and nature—the only limits on what is known true being the limits of logic on knowledge. However, the principle does not show us where we are located in relation to the ultimate or whether the ultimate is worth aiming or how to achieve it and what good paths of achievement may be. These issues are addressed by the real metaphysics.

A real metaphysics

The real metaphysics

Criticism

Criticism immanent in the text

Critical assessment, with summary

Incorporate the criticism of ‘magical realism’ as opposed to proximate vs ultimate realism

Assessment

The real metaphysics is the perfect for knowledge and realization in the universal or ultimate perspective; in this perspective, entire swathes of traditional intellectual sophistication and criticism are rendered irrelevant; knowledge and action are seen continuous and elements in a continuum, rather than essentially distinct or polar

The foregoing sophistication remains relevant in perspectives below the universal, but its significance is altered; the significance is diminished relative to the universal and while its traditional limits render it incomplete and open ended, the incompleteness is relative to detailed and local aims

Method of use

General

Special

Experience and the real

Interpretations of experience

The concept of an interpretation

Definition—an interpretation is a description of the real or a part of the real that is consistent with experience as datum

On the choice of experience—the givenness of the subject

Here the main concern is with interpretation as description of the entire real (at some level of detail) and, unless otherwise stated, that shall be the use of ‘interpretation’ in what follows

An interpretation is a pre-metaphysics

A pre-metaphysics is consistent with experience but not known to follow from experience

If the interpretation can be shown to follow from experience, it is real and of

The world or universe

World as fact, construct, or fiction

Use of the terms ‘world’ or ‘universe’ to describe a symbolic or iconic system—hypothesized, postulated, or imaginary, is distinct from the present use. Such worlds are not—and may or may not describe—worlds in the present sense.

A sub-world in the case that the description is of part of the real

Interpretations without the fundamental principle

Real

The world as and of experience

Standard monist as sub-world, extent unspecified

Conditional on cosmos as substance, the cosmos must be monist, cannot be (only) material

Field of being (and experience)

Field of being and standard monist, extent unspecified, are equivalent, when ‘zero experientiality’ is a case of ‘experientiality’

Possible

‘Possible’ means possible real.

Following is a range of possibilities as in considerations in the fundamental principle and the real metaphysics. The classes are not exclusive in fact or intent.

Standard material as sub-world

Extent unspecified

Minimal

Maximal

Standard monist as sub-world

Extent unspecified

Minimal

Maximal

Field of being

Extent unspecified

Minimal

Maximal

Solipsist

Universe as experiential being, limitless

Sub world as experiential being, limited

Real interpretations with the principle

All interpretations in the previous section

Universe as field

A field of experiential being

Form, relation, and change

Discussed fundamentally in form and change, where it was seen that form includes relation and so “form, relation, and change” is equivalent to “form and change”—and to “field and change”.

Combine the two sections?

Identity

Sameness, difference, identity (of self and object), space, time, causation

The nature of being

Being is experiential and relational

Some beings may effectively have zero experience; all being is potentially experiential

Material and living being are not true categories but have explanatory power

The nature of experiential being

See kinds and varieties of being > an experiential hierarchy.

On material and living being

See kinds and varieties of being, especially lower-level sections necessary and pragmatic (dimensions of being), particular beings, the concrete-abstract continuum, beings from beings, and an experiential hierarchy.

The ultimate

The universe and its identity

All beings realize the ultimate

The block universe

The block universe

Determinism and indeterminism

Agency is causal in realization

Paths of realization

Problem of pain

Death

Death as real but not absolute

Ordinary and extraordinary paths

Problem of limits

Death and other apparent limits

Local vs universal limits

Ethics

Realization

The aim of being

Means

Metaphysics and reason

Ways and catalysts

Reinforcing the way

The issues—knowledge, blocks, commitment,

Reinforcement—the moment in balance with destiny, healthy living, source literature, sustaining the way—ritual, sangha, practice, action, and nature

Path templates

Development and use

Introduction

It is convenient to have two templates—every-day and universal.

The every-day and universal templates mesh—the former emphasizes the personal, immediate, and inner; the latter emphasizes the social, instrumental, and universal… but all aspects are immanent in both templates.

Derivation from metaphysics

Adaptability—the templates are general frameworks

To be on a path is also to develop pathways

Reinforcement (above)

Resource supplements

The templates

Write essential outlines from the latest document, e.g., the latest general manual.

Everyday template

The everyday template.

Universal template

The universal template.

To step into the world

Resources

In the final version, this may be a level II heading. It is presently level I so as to show its sub-heads in the contents.

External sources

Internet

Reading

Site sources

Essays

Resource articles

The way as resource

Formal

Informal

Influences

For study and research

Essential

Possible

American parties, constitution – living document | trust | immanence + suggested amendments

Planning*

priorities

The concepts

A system of concepts

Being and its elements are laid out in being, metaphysics is a framework of explanation in terms of a mechanism with partial causation-determinism, and realization employs the explanation toward be-ing and transformation (becoming).

Structure of the system

This division is a resource, but it might be convenient to place it separately

Being and experience

Experience, awareness, real, world, consciousness, relation

Concept, meaning, knowledge, verb to be, beings, significance

Cause, reasons, effective cause, power, possibility, necessity

The world, interpretations (of experience)

Kinds and varieties of being

Kinds, dimensions, categories

Real, form, relation (relation is part of form), change

Pragmatic, nature (elementary, living, mind); individuals and society (and civilizations); the universal

Concrete, abstract, continuum (vs polarity)

Particular beings, universe, the void, manifest, cosmos, individual

Experiential hierarchy

Elementary experience, feeling, stimulus-response, sentience, perception, higher sentience, memory, conception, thought, emotion, reflexive experience, intentionality, self-awareness

Individuals, persons, agents

Higher kinds, gods, Brahman, Aeternitas, ultimate

Beings from beings, all, part, nil, sum, difference

Metaphysics

Metaphysics

Possibility, logical and real possibility, logic, science, metaphysical possibility, necessity, unconditional (being), method

Doubt as method, certainty, reflexive doubt, proof, postulational approach, existential approach, reflexivity

Fundamental principle, consistency, derivation, proofs, heuristics

Doubt

Principle as fundamental, fundamental postulate, existential principle

Real metaphysics, method of use

Experience and the real, interpretations with and without the fundamental principle

Universe as field of being and experience

Form (relation is part of form) and change

Identity

Sameness, difference, identity (of self and object), self, object, space, time, causation

The nature of being

Being is experiential and relational

The nature of experiential being

On material and living being

The ultimate

Identity of the universe, all being realize the ultimate

Block universe, determinism, indeterminism

Paths, pain, death (as real but not absolute), ordinary paths, extraordinary paths

Problem of limits

Ethics

Realization

Realization, aim of being

Means, reason, ways, catalysts, reinforcing, knowledge, blocks, commitment, the moment, destiny, healthy living, literature, ritual, sangha, practice, action

Path templates

Resources

Sources, influences

Glossary

Index