Lessons in metaphysics and being
(For The Way of Being)

Anil Mitra

Copyright, 2002 – 2023

Updated – May 15, 2023

Website since 1999

Contents

Overview, design, and plan

The lessons

Deciding the lessons

Plan

Lessons

What people want

The empirical universe

Possibilities

Questions and reflections on our nature and the nature of the world

About religion and metaphysics

On the framing of such questions

The essence of the real metaphysics

More on possibilities

Topics in metaphysics

On a central aim of thought

Pedagogic

Lessons for The Way of Being

Overview, design, and plan

The lessons

The lessons are a ‘way into the way of being’ that (i) given broad acceptance of limited secular and transsecular paradigms of the way the world is, prepare readers for the real metaphysics for the limitless universe (ii) present the metaphysics (iii) lay the foundation of realization of the limitless ultimate (iv) sustain the associated gestalt and living toward the ultimate in and from the immediate (v) address and employ the difficulties of language and reflection on the same (vi) while having subtlety and sophistication, avoid entrapment in the edge of sophistication and ignorance and emphasize that the aim is clear and upward thinking and action (vii) help sustain action in two worlds—the immediate world of limited being and pragmatic ideas and the ultimate world of limitless and precise thought and being.

Deciding the lessons

The discussion above suggests some lessons and how to arrive at lessons.

Additionally, I will survey potential readers for their interests, view of the world, needs, wants, and reactions to the way of being. Possible elements of the survey—

Personality (Jungian typology).

Secular vs transsecular (seeker, follower, or passive; dogma vs reason).

Economic situation and education.

Conservative vs liberal.

Attitude to the authority of received truth.

Are they self-entertaining?

Prefers town or nature.

Plan

Implement the overview and design. Review, finalize, and writeup the lesson titles.

Lessons

What people want

Why do people accept dogma?

Why do people turn to secularism?

Moving beyond.

The empirical universe

Will discuss the truth that the empirical pictures (science) have; invalidity of the conclusion that the empirical pictures are essentially complete.

Possibilities

Possibilities that are consistent with the empirical picture, with remarks that (i) while possibility is not demonstration is in another lesson (perhaps with remarks on the essence of the demonstration, doubt, and attitudes) (ii) the primary purpose of the possibilities is to show what may and will be shown to lie beyond the empirical—i.e., to give a picture of what is to come (iii) a secondary purpose is to defuse the objection that ‘the limitless universe beyond is inconsistent with science and reason’.

Preview of the nature of possibility.

That what lies beyond is not a mere collection of ‘gaps’.

Questions and reflections on our nature and the nature of the world

What is the essence of the world—what is it made of, is it inert or conscious and living, is it necessary or an accident, is it limited or limitless, and what is the nature of the idea of limitlessness—i.e., is it material or conceptual limitlessness and what are material vs conceptual limitlessness?

Why is the world? Is it contingent (and limited) or necessary and limitless?

What is our nature in that we have conscious experience and knowledge of the world, in that we seem limited—but overcome some limits? Are we indeed limited? Are we finite accidents or limitless necessities?

Is it good to attempt search beyond our empirical world (to be good, there would have to be a beyond, and to realize it would have to have positive value)?

About religion and metaphysics

Should the word ‘religion’ be used?

What is religion? Is religion to be conceived empirically in terms of the religions—or is it to be understood conceptually and, if so, in what terms?

Though the religions may be dogmatic, religion is not necessarily so, and is a valid enterprise.

Remarks on religion and yoga (including that both have meanings according to which they function to ‘bind’ beings to the real).

Because the term is suspect to some, ‘religion’ may be replaced with another term, e.g., ‘metaphysics’. But even metaphysics has undesirable connotations. Ontology is a possibility but not a common term.

But the fundamental issue is whether a rational and realist knowledge of the real is possible. Some roadblocks and answers are—

Because of the gap between the place of knowledge (e.g., mind) and the known (the world), we never know that we truly know the real. Science is a possible answer, but the elementary entities of science face the same problem. Response—via abstraction and Descartes’s method, some perfect knowledge is possible.

Even though some knowledge is possible, can we know the entire real? Response—as limited beings we can know the boundary of and a framework for the real. This shows us the ultimate character of the universe and our own being; that we can achieve the ultimate, but not how to achieve it. For this we can fill in with our pragmatic knowledge and since this is the best we can do (for now), the framework and the fill in are perfect relative to the ultimate value, even though not relative to traditional criteria. Notice that the traditional limits of empiricism and rationalism are, therefore, uncritically critical, and critical criticism enables perfection (as stated). A source for the development is metaphysics.

On the framing of such questions

In thinking of such issues, we find that while we have intimations of truth, we do not seem to have the truth; and that while we may seem to think freely, we invariably have some picture of the nature of the world (the scientific, the religious, the everyday, etc.) in the background.

That is, a necessary condition for language, thought, and realization to be complete or completable is that we should have a definite, true, and ultimate picture of the world or universe—that is, we should have what is called a metaphysical system (i.e., a true, ultimate, and demonstrated metaphysical system).

What we will find is that while we are limited, we can have (i) a framework or boundary of such a system (with regard to thought and the real) (ii) potent but limited fill in of details which may be pragmatic in not having perfect precision (but that it is the nature of limited beings on the way to the ultimate that the ‘fill in’ need not be perfect according to received criteria).

The essence of the real metaphysics

The following is a tentative thought—the essence is the equivalence of possibility and actuality; of the void and experiential or conscious being, and the entire real (universe); that it is both process and ultimate; that we are on the way to the ultimate (which requires engagement rather than passivity).

More on possibilities

The range of possibilities.

The robust and the real.

Possibility and logic.

Topics in metaphysics

More formal.

‘Meta’, particularly meta-metaphysics.

Method and content; reason.

To be developed.

Circle of ideas.

See the canonical elements and sources.

On a central aim of thought

Done consistently with our place in the universe, thought and action, sophisticated and direct, constitute a web.

Pedagogic

The issue of meanings and system meaning.

The issue of received vs new world views; that there will be conflict of gestalt, but that the old is contained in the new; need to the old aside at least temporarily; need to build up the new gestalt or intuition by first attending to formal meaning and development.

That academic readers may have difficulty that, in some ways, is greater than the potential difficulty of non-academic readers.