This is currently the shortest general version of TWB. There is also a mobile version. Other versions are linked from the resources in this text and the site home.

The introduction is followed by definitions, a discussion of knowledge and argument, and then development of ideas specific to TWB, which begins with being and beings (the discussion of knowledge and argument is part of the main development). The section on definitions is presented as a matter of convenience, for the definitions are repeated in the development.

Def. N This is the format for definition, (numbered ‘N’; Small capitals mark a defined term in a definition; content in brackets is either optional to or a comment on the definition).

Items of lesser importance are rendered in a light colored font.

About the way of being

In what is written here we go beyond widely accepted human knowledge to the ultimate, which is limitless. If the method is accepted, the consequences are certain, but we do not have absolute certainty in the method. What is more, the consequences seem compelling. Therefore certainty and doubt coexist in existential truce.

Def. 1 Preliminary and non-technical. In this work, The way of being (TWB) is shared discovery and realization of what is real (in this world and beyond and their mesh; it begins in traditions of world thought, knowledge, and exploration).

One way of living, sometimes called secular, is based on ordinary experience, reasonably extended by reason. Transsecularism usually speculates, sometimes dogmatically, on what lies beyond. In the friction between these views, it is a common tacit default that the universe is as seen in the current secular view.

However, reason that begins with ordinary experience is silent on possible regions beyond its valid domain.

We find that it is possible to talk validly of those regions—whether the possible is realized and, if so, what it is like.

TWB develops a framework of knowledge of the universe, which is filled in with pragmatic knowledge, including science and its method. If the method of the development is accepted, the system is certain. But since the method is not absolutely certain, we also address the issue of doubt.

Many people live on a range an acceptance-seeking continuum; TWB should appeal to those who incline toward more than just acceptance.

Sources

It is inherent in these considerations that knowledge is a guide in further discovery and realization.

Though this version does not cite sources, there is a list in my influences, and a longer list in main influences. What these sources may not reflect is that it is not particular individuals that are the main inspiration; rather, it is, even in its limitations, the power of (human) mind, complemented by experience, reflection, criticism, and, especially immersion in and inspiration from, nature-in-the-sense-of-places-less-touched-by-human-influence.

There is a store of information and inspiration in secular and transsecular traditions. TWB seeks to build on, incorporate valid elements of, and go beyond the traditions of world thought and literature, while thinking imaginatively, empirically, and critically of the traditions and itself. It finds a way of thinking securely of what lies beyond the traditional pictures of the universe.

TWB is intended as a contribution to the traditions. It is intended as a serious account—one that addresses many ‘serious’ problems in the history of thought. This is significant, for, if it is successful in its intent, one reason for it is the refinement and sharpening of thought that is the result of facing the problems.

Experience, too, is a guide, before or on par with and as a source of and guided by knowledge. The individual experience behind the way is exposure to and examination of nature, culture, mind, self, and the history of ideas.

Why being?

Many approaches to the foundation of knowledge are based in something thought to be fundamental, e.g., mind, matter – atoms – spacetime, process, relation, spirit, gods, concepts, and word or logical atoms.

However, such foundations are relative in that the founding substance (mind etc.) may be – seem – reasonable but is not truly founded. Thus, the relative foundation may be imprecise and incomplete—even radically incomplete. Yet, for many immediate purposes, such foundations, even contradictory foundations, may be useful—they are as-if foundations for proximate rather than ultimate purposes. Though we often think and feel about our sense of the real reveals the real, as ‘solid’, its reality may be limited to the conditions of our form via local formation.

Being (defined later) is ‘what there is’. Thus, it does not introduce some kind (of thing), e.g., substance (as the term is used in western philosophy), as foundation. All it says is ‘things are what they are’. It neither asserts nor denies mind, matter, atomism and so on—rather, such kinds, as far as real, are allowed to emerge from experience and analysis.

Def. 2 Preliminary and non-technical. Use of the concept of being neither denies nor affirms the reality of kinds such as mind and matter, but permits us to treat them as-if real, i.e., as real for certain purposes.

The use of the concept of being may be criticized as trivial—how can ‘things are what they are’ be a useful foundation? It turns out being can be a basis of a system with power that is greater than the power of materialism and so on—a power that, in some ways, is even ultimate.

The details of how this happens is in the main text. Some essentials are in (i) introducing a system of concepts centered on being (ii) careful analysis, beginning in argument, of what it means to be empirical and rational. An important point to emerge is that, for knowledge, content and method cannot be entirely separated, and that, to some extent, they (must) emerge together.

The use of ‘being’ in metaphysics is similar to the use of unknowns in mathematics, e.g. the ‘x’ in algebra. A metaphysics that begins with being may be algebraic in that what we know directly is ‘input’ and, in proceeding from being, we may arrive at what we do not directly know.

It is important – and will be seen – that the view based in being, though it is ‘metaphysical’, is also empirical and rational.

The foundation in being is not merely formal. It encourages an open attitude. Some readers may think that the received secular view reveals all things. Some may think that the real is defined in their religion. The foundation in being suggests an openness—the thought to all readers “my view may be in error and incomplete; perhaps the universe is nothing more than what I think, but perhaps in the range from part of what I think to limitless; let us explore what really holds; let us explore our modes of exploration”.

Consider the question, “What is death; is it final; if not, what lies beyond it?” The open attitude suggests that until we have a positive answer, we shall be open to all possibilities. What we will find is that death is a gateway to ultimate limitlessness.

About systematic versus open philosophy

Systematic philosophy attempts to understand or know the world through comprehensive frameworks. The great system builders—Hegel is exemplary—aimed at complete and final systems.

Other philosophers are suspicious of system in philosophy. This is natural to a skeptic, to open thought, and even to reason, for is it not too much to claim to perfectly know the world in its essence, if any, and adequate entirety? And is not system an imposition of a limited perspective?

But can we not attempt both systematic and open philosophy? Being suggests a way which is developed in this work.

Beginning with ‘being’, which is, as will be argued, known perfectly in abstraction, we can conceive all, part of, and absence of being (or null being)—i.e., ‘universe’, ‘beings’, and ‘the void’. Beginning with these concepts, the universe is found limitless in the sections being and beings through limitlessness of being and the universe.

This is the basis of a framework that is (i) closed regarding depth or foundation but open regarding breadth or variety (ii) not imposed but emergent, for the structure that will follow emerged iteratively over time and evolution of the work and emerges with the conceptual development in the work.

An overview of the way of being

The content of the way, which follows, is argued, not assumed.

The universe has identity and is limitless in that it realizes the greatest possibility (which has significance for knowledge and our place and future in the universe).

The universe and its identity are limitless in extension, duration, and variety; they phase through void and peak states without limit or end.

All beings inherit this limitlessness (rather, as will be seen, they already have it). There are pathways from the immediate to the ultimate. Effective pathways enhance the immediate and realization of the ultimate.

The text has an axiomatic structure that weaves through it. This structure is a part organizational and bookkeeping device. It is intended to assist in capture of the real. But precision enters via removal from concepts of what is distorted—i.e. by abstraction. Together, axiomatization and abstraction capture the real. That is, the structure is more than a system of signs and rules. It needs no semantic interpretation, for it is already semantic.

Reading The way of being for understanding

Keep the big picture in mind

Keep the big picture in mind.

The revealed universe is ultimate; though not entirely new it will be unfamiliar to many people – academic and other; it includes what is valid in but is not intuitive in terms of received views; seek to absorb the view to intuition.

Suspend criticism on initial reading

Suspend criticism on initial reading.

It is important to suspend attitudes that prevent absorption of new ways of seeing. This of course does not entail uncritical acceptance but a neutral attitude until the meaning of the ideas is absorbed.

Similarly, criticism is essential to understanding and acceptance and can be kept in balance with openness or deferred to follow up reading.

Pay attention to meanings via definitions

In going beyond received views meanings of terms should and must change even as they retain elements of received meanings; it is essential to pay attention to the definitions.

The meaning of being and reasons for its choice (see Why being?) are crucial; it is important that it is a ‘bare’ concept and it does not have the depth of meaning assigned to it in recent (e.g., Heideggerian) philosophy; rather, it is a container for whatever depth there is and may emerge.

Holism

Holism—the meaning of the work is more than an accumulation of meanings of the terms – pay attention to the structure of and relations among the meanings at each stage of development and among the states.

The meaning of the system of the way is more than the accumulation of individual meanings; it is a structure in which the individual meanings stand in relation; one approach to seeing the structure as a whole is to work through the development more than once.

The selection of concepts is particularly important – the base concepts in being and beings are (i) based in being (ii) selected to contain the range of possible objects in the universe. It is this selection that already but implicitly harbors the metaphysics of the ultimate of the work.

It is significant that experience is defined after the metaphysics has been made explicit (by derivation), for it is the metaphysics that allows us to find that we are characteristically experiential beings in a characteristically experiential universe—and that that finding does not say that we are spiritual or material or not spiritual or not material. Rather the finding is (i) neutral on the issue of materialism (but allows talk of as-if matter and as-if mind) (ii) that the issue of mind vs matter is not one of great moment.

Definitions

The definitions are also given in the main development. For convenience, they are here collected together.

Def. 3 Ordinary language as one base for discovery, expression, and justification of knowledge is presumed (and improved upon in the development). A concept is a mental content. A referential concept is a concept in referential form, i.e., a concept that is intended to refer to an object, real or fictious. The association of a sign—elementary or compound—with a concept constitutes a linguistic concept. The meaning, conceptual or linguistic, of a referential concept is the concept and its possible references (objects) in use. Knowledge is meaning realized.

Def. 4 A definition is a conceptual specification.

Def. 5 A fact is a true assertion (knowledge is factual).

Def. 6 Knowledge or belief are true and certain when it is indubitable that their content corresponds to the fact(s) to which they are intended to refer (notes—some accounts of knowledge do not require absolute certainty; while certainty is desirable in some endeavors, it may not be the case that it is always desirable, e.g., to base action on it; though correspondence is not the only ‘theory’ of truth, it is, as will be seen, adequate to the needs of the present development).

Def. 7 Perfect faithfulness of knowledge is perfect depiction so that truth and certainty have meaning and can be asserted (examples will be given).

Def. 8 Abstraction is removal from a concept of details so that what remains is known with perfect faithfulness and certainty (examples will be given and are essential to the development).

Def. 9 Discovery is a creative phase of knowledge acquisition (though significant, it is not the focus of this discussion of knowledge and argument).

Def. 10 An argument is an establishment of fact (to argue is to establish a fact; here we consider only argument in abstract rather than argument among people or argument kinds specific to fields of inquiry).

Def. 11 Direct argument is direct establishment of a fact.

Def. 12 In indirect argument establishment of facts, from given facts, further facts are inferred (the given facts are often called premises because the characteristic of inference is that independently of their truth (facticity), if the premises have a claim to truth, the further facts or CONCLUSIONS may also have a claim to truth).

Def. 13 In certain inference, if the premises are true, the conclusions are certainly true.

Def. 14 Deduction is certain inference from premises to conclusions (stepwise) via laws of logic (and, given logic, the conclusions are implicit in the premises).

Def. 15 In intrinsic inference, the conclusion is established without recourse to premises (this is related and, at least in some cases, maybe identical to intrinsic fact). Though the inference of “something“ from “nothing“ may seem absurd, we will find that it is not— and an example will be given.

Def. 16 In likely inference (or reasonable inference), if the premises are true, or likely to be true, the conclusions are also likely to be true (this kind of inference is ‘ampliative’, i.e., the conclusions contain some information not present in the premises).

Def. 17 In induction, some observations of instances and regularities, are generalized or lead to general principles. Abduction is argument to the best explanation( and is often used in science). In inference by analogy, if two systems are similar in some ways, similarity in some other ways is concluded.

Def. 18 An argument is valid if the conclusion certainly follows from the premise (a standard approach is step-by-step, via rules of deduction). A valid argument is sound if the premise is true. A necessary argument is a certain inference from the empty fact (an important example will be given).

Def. 19 In the less than certain case, the argument is good if the conclusion likely follows (e.g., with pragmatic certainty) from the premise (such arguments are usually less than certain because they are ‘ampliative’, i.e., the conclusion has information not at least implicit in the premise). A good argument is strong if the argument and premise are likely enough that the conclusion is likely.

Def. 20 Being is existence; a being is an existent (in talk of a being, awareness is implicit, which entails an improved definition—a being is a referential concept and its – intended – reference or, alternatively, the being is the real and intended object of a referential concept).

Def. 21 The universe is all being.

Def. 22 A cosmos is a causal domain in whose interactions with the rest of universe over the times of concern, are below the threshold of observation including measurement.

Def. 23 A pattern obtains for a being if the information to specify it is less than the raw information.

Def. 24 A law for a being is (our reading of) a pattern (usually of a degree of general applicability and for one or more cosmoses, typically abstract in nature).

Def. 25 The void is the being that contains no beings (if it exists, it is an empty being and it contains no laws).

Def. 26 A being that is not the void is manifest.

Def. 27 A being is possible if existence is not ruled out by the concept.

Def. 28 A being whose existence is not ruled out by the concept alone is conceptually possible, which defines logical possibility.

Def. 29 A maximally expressive language is one that would be capable of describing all logical possibility.

Def. 30 Logical possibility is the greatest possibility in the sense that, presuming logic(s) for a maximally expressive language, the being has realized all that can be realized.

Def. 31 Limitlessness for a being is realization of the possible (and, optionally, the impossible—because it explicitly includes the void among the limitless but makes no difference for manifest being).

Def. 32 If, further, the existence of the being is not ruled out by the nature universe (or the locale, e.g., a cosmos, in which it is embedded), it has real possibility (or relatively real possibility, of which an example is physical possibility).

Def. 33 A being that is not possible is impossible.

Def. 34 A being whose nonbeing (nonexistence) is impossible is necessary.

Def. 35 Metaphysics is knowledge of the real.

Def. 36 Limitlessness defines a perfect and ideal metaphysics.

Def. 37 When the ideal metaphysics is adjoined to at least pragmatically valid knowledge, what results is named the real metaphysics or just the metaphysics.

Def. 38 A robust world or cosmos is one that is significant because it has an adequate combination of endurance in time, beings capable of cognitive experience, and causal ability to register in experience.

Def. 39 Experience is awareness in all its kinds and levels.

Def. 40 The form of experience as we experience it is experience-of (subjective, as-if mental) – the-experience (being – as justified below, relation, interaction) – the experienced object (which includes what may be called as-if material). In ‘pure experience’, the object is null (but there is a potential object).

Def. 41 The most primitive aspect of being (experience) is that of sameness and difference. Emergence implies change (duration). Identity is (sense of) sameness across duration. The characteristics of identities are properties. Extension (displacement) is measure of difference across identities (there are no further fundamental kinds of sameness and difference).

Def. 42 To engage in true yoga is to see one’s identity with the universe, especially in peak states, and to be (on a path to) that identity. Yoga includes seeing and living the subject – interaction – object sides of experience as one and merging with all being.

Def. 43 A system of categories is a classification of being into kinds at all levels, which derives from real metaphysical knowledge, and—especially—enables understanding and prediction via methods.

Def. 44 The subject of ethics concerns right ways of being and acting (where being is interpreted as liberally as in the discussion of being; that ethics concerns ‘value’ does not imply that it is nonfactual).

Def. 45 To doubt is to question what is accepted as or potentially true including reasons for the acceptance.

Def. 46 Given a system of value and knowledge relative to the immediate world and the ultimate, a path is (i) a way of realization of the value as an end, as a process in – for – and from the immediate world, and in the being of beings (ii) employs knowledge as means (iii) is individual and shared (iv) is negotiated (does not merely follow received prescriptions and questions its own foundation) (v) is open to return to ground level and abandonment of designed process.

Def. 47 Return signifies a focus on the world that is freshened by a new point of view. The focus is an ongoing ‘conversation’ between ideas, action, and realization.

Knowledge and argument

This section is about method. Subsequent sections are content (the system of TWB). But the two are not distinct, for (i) knowledge is in the world and (ii) method and content emerge together.

Language, concepts, and knowledge

The knowledge of interest is whatever may be regarded as fact (defined below). Though there is a traditional distinction among fact (knowledge-that), knowledge-of (acquaintance), and know-how, the distinction has been questioned.

Though the structure of language, particularly of grammar, has ‘depiction’ of the real as one of its functions, we shall not be explicitly concerned with grammar here.

Def. 4 A definition is a conceptual specification.

As it is the aim here to describe the real, it will not be enough to present an axiomatic system.

As defined, definition does not imply existence. Where it is not transparent, existence must – and will – be established.

Def. 5 A fact is a true assertion (knowledge is factual).

Facts are simple (e.g., atomic facts if there are any), compound, and complex (as in theories).

Def. 7 Perfect faithfulness of knowledge is perfect depiction so that truth and certainty have meaning and can be asserted (examples will be given).

Def. 8 Abstraction is removal from a concept of details so that what remains is known with perfect faithfulness and certainty (examples will be given and are essential to the development).

Discovery

Def. 9 Discovery is a creative phase of knowledge acquisition (though significant, it is not the focus of this discussion of knowledge and argument).

In worthwhile knowledge endeavors, one need is for tentative theories and ascertain significant factual data. This stage is ‘discovery’ and is interactive with the establishment phase of knowledge. As an example, the system of TWB was arrived at over many iterations. Here, we focus on establishment of theories and data (justification).

Argument

The elements of argument are direct establishment of fact and indirect establishment, or inference of a fact (conclusion) from an established fact (premise).

Direct argument

Def. 11 Direct argument is direct establishment of a fact.

Certain or precise

Certainty is possible via relaxation of precision and by abstraction.

Some facts are intrinsic in that their truth is necessary (examples will be given).

Likely or nearly precise

Direct establishment is likely when doubt is low or accuracy is high. Precision may be confirmed by corroboration or theoretical agreement with other facts.

Indirect argument or inference

The phrase ‘have a claim to truth’ distinguishes between certain and likely inference.

Certain inference

Def. 13 In certain inference, if the premises are true, the conclusions are certainly true.

Deduction

Def. 14 Deduction is certain inference from premises to conclusions (stepwise) via laws of logic (and, given logic, the conclusions are implicit in the premises).

Intrinsic inference

The way of being

The certain inferences in this work are both intrinsic and deductive.

Likely inference

Certain inference is not ampliative, but may be effectively so when the conclusions are not intrinsically obvious or not obvious inferences from the premises.

Induction, abduction, and analogy

Such inference is typically more than a process from premise to conclusion but is seen as strengthened with buttressing information or inference and repeated confirmation.

Manifest patterns may perhaps be thought of as intrinsic and likely inference.

The way of being

The likely inferences in what follows are abductive and analogical.

Some special cases considered above

Establishment of fact is a special case of argument (in which inference has zero steps).

In intrinsic inference, there is inference from an empty premise (no facts presumed) to a (non-empty) conclusion. Is such an argument possible? An important example will be given: existence of the void will be shown to be certain and necessary.

These special cases augment an argument that minimizes the difference between observation and inference.

Argumentative strength

Both direct and inference indirect establishment can be certain; and both can be less than certain but good in terms of appropriate criteria or in restricted settings.

The certain case

The less than certain case

What argument does

Argument synthesizes (i) knowledge (fact) and its establishment (‘method’), (ii) the sciences – abstract (logic, mathematics) and concrete – regarding content and method, and (iii) as will be established later, knowledge, inspiration, and value.

Though there is difference, argument (‘method’) and content (fact) are not distinct for (i) discovery and knowledge are part of the world (ii) argument is part of the structure of being (see discussion of being, just below).

Being and beings

Being

That is, a being is that which is, in the most inclusive but real senses of ‘that’ and ‘is’.

Though it is redundant to say so, the being exists when the reference is not null (empty); otherwise, the being is (may be called) nonexistent (which includes fictional reference). Given this conception of being, argument is immanent in being.

That it ‘normalizes’ the idea of a nonexistent being, is one reason that the ‘improved’ definition is indeed improved. But, though it is not as obvious, it is also improved in the case of existent beings. For, without the concept, no being is identified. Particularly, a name alone identifies nothing (for philosophers, the idea of a ‘rigid designator’ involves a fallacy—one that could be named ‘the fallacy of the nonexistent subject’; to put it in other words – no concept, no designation).

An aside—‘object’ has two philosophical senses. Here, it is the same as ‘a being’. Another use, not used here, is when the object is ‘as-if’, e.g., a fiction which may be spoken of as though it is a being.

Consider an ordinary ‘thing’, e.g., a football. We might say that the-football-as-a-football does not exist before it is made. However, it does exist in the sense above, without further qualification. That is, it exists and does not exist. This leads to a distinction—global existence (the definition above) vs local existence which entails only existence at some places and times but nonexistence at others. These considerations result potentially in a can of paradoxical worms, which shall not be opened here—but see Dialetheism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Dialetheia (this site), and a long version of this work.

Definition does not imply existence; however, there is being and there are beings.

Though knowledge of being as such is synthetic (concept-object and not merely in the concept or analytic), it is perfect and true via the abstraction in the concepts of being and beings.

The universe and its contents

Def. 21 The universe is all being.

There is exactly one universe; all (real) beings and (real) kinds are parts of it.

Examples of kinds are mind, matter, spirit, process, relation, concept, word, trope; of those, whether the kinds that are objective in nature exist is (left) open (such kinds include mind, process, and matter).

A proper part of the universe is a being that is not the universe itself; the universe may be considered to be a part of itself but not a proper part (but the distinction between part and proper part is not significant in this development).

The universe has parts, which include itself (not regarded as a proper part), other real beings (proper parts), and, if it exists, the empty or ‘null’ part or void (should it exist, it will be a proper part).

Cosmoses

Def. 22 A cosmos is a causal domain in whose interactions with the rest of universe over the times of concern, are below the threshold of observation including measurement.

Our cosmos exists (it is a being).

If they exist, other cosmoses are beings (it will be seen that there are limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety).

Laws

Def. 23 A pattern obtains for a being if the information to specify it is less than the raw information.

Def. 24 A law for a being is (our reading of) a pattern (usually of a degree of general applicability and for one or more cosmoses, typically abstract in nature).

Laws are beings.

The void and its existence

Def. 25 The void is the being that contains no beings (if it exists, it is an empty being and it contains no laws).

That we talk of ‘the void’ rather than ‘a void’ is justified later.

For the beings introduced so far, existence was implied in their definition, and it was not necessary to explicitly establish existence. This is not the case for the void.

Existence and nonexistence of the void are equivalent (this is not a contradiction, for the meaning of ‘existence’ is different for the void than it is for other beings). This is a central truth of the development.

Doubt of this equivalence is natural, even imperative. Doubt of this equivalence is taken up later, in doubt.

The void exists (it is a being).

There are no laws of the void.

Def. 26 A being that is not the void is manifest.

An apparent paradox

The apparent paradox that existence and nonexistence of the void are equivalent may be defused by considering that the meaning of existence for the void should be different than it is for non-void beings.

Is not the equivalence of existence and nonexistence for the void saying that the void exists and does not exist? And is it therefore not paradoxical? In fact, there was paradox already lurking in the earlier conception of being, which it may be useful to review. For the void, however, we can say that global nonexistence is global existence. Here, we shall here say no more except that simultaneous existence and nonexistence of the void suggests that it grounds the vacuum in quantum field theory. This is further brought out in a long version of this work and below in all beings are limitless and what follows that section.

Possibility

The concept of possibility

Def. 27 A being is possible if existence is not ruled out by the concept.

Conceptual or logical possibility

Def. 28 A being whose existence is not ruled out by the concept alone is conceptually possible, which defines logical possibility.

Def. 29 A maximally expressive language is one that would be capable of describing all logical possibility.

Def. 30 Logical possibility is the greatest possibility in the sense that, presuming logic(s) for a maximally expressive language, the being has realized all that can be realized.

Formal or symbolic language is limited relative to language in use. In use, the symbols are bound to a world of intuition (in the sense of Kant) and therefore language in use, i.e., communication is not (necessarily) just the discrete set of symbols—the symbols communicate part of the being which may be a continuum and are heard because the receiver’s being is similar to that of the communicator. Thus, while language is not maximally expressive, formal languages are likely less so. On this account, while limited, beings are incapable of expressing all possibility.

A being that realizes the greatest possibility is limitless.

Infinities are not inherently limitless; the limitless is not inherently infinite, but it has (all) infinities.

Real possibility

Logical possibility is a prerequisite for real possibility; real possibility presumes logical possibility.

Impossibility, necessity

Def. 33 A being that is not possible is impossible.

Def. 34 A being whose nonbeing (nonexistence) is impossible is necessary.

A being cannot be the fundamental cause of all being for that would be both necessarily and contingently unsatisfactory. Therefore, bare or absolute necessity can be the only true and ultimate cause of the universe.

Limitlessness of being and the universe

The limitlessness of being

If from the void the greatest possibility did not emerge, that would be (constitute) a law of the void. Therefore, all possibility emerges from the void.

Since there has been no assumption in making this conclusion, absolute necessity is the cause of the universe.

This resolves (what Heidegger called) the fundamental problem of metaphysics, i.e., why there is being at all, i.e., why there is something rather than nothing.

The universe is the realization of the greatest possibility (i.e., the universe is limitless).

The universe confers greatest possibility on all beings (otherwise there would be a limit on the universe).

The limitlessness of all beings also follows from the identity of a being with the being-and-the-void (the implied identity of all beings is an apparent contradiction, which is resolved in that it holds on sufficiently large time scales or, alternatively, at a level of description above time).

Essential consequences of limitlessness

Comment 1. Following is one core of a ‘center-out’ approach to presentation.

All beings

The universe has identity.

The universe and its identity are limitless in extension, duration, variety, peaking of being and dissolution; it contains cosmoses without limit to kind and number.

And every cosmos is as if an atom in another and every cosmos contains as if atoms that are cosmoses.

All beings inherit the limitlessness of the universe—they realize peak being (this can also be derived from the fact that a being and the being-and-the-void are identical).

The realization of peaks by all beings is not a contradiction, for they merge as one in the peaks.

Birth and death are real—and this is not a contradiction, for, though real, birth and death are not absolute.

Beings have limited form on limited scales but on death they diffuse into the background, from which they emerge on birth.

It is in higher forms that we see across the multitude of forms that do not seem to communicate with one another.

— And while particular manifestations may be limited, limitlessness, which is potential in the background, is realized in the ‘sum’ of the manifestations.

Does emergence as peak require an eternity? Perhaps, but even if so, in the diffuse state between death and birth, whether of a person, a world, or a cosmos, eternity is as-if an instant (and the life of a cosmos is an instant in eternity). We might speculate that despite pleasure, pain, and striving, all forms of life that we know, including ourselves, have both significance and triviality relative to the peaks.

There are paths in, for, and from this world to the ultimate (a careful specification of paths is given later).

The void

There is effectively one void (the number of voids presumed to exist has no relevance to the real). The void is the empty being.

Knowledge

We begin and will continue to see, especially later in implications for knowledge that the limit of knowledge and of the universe are identical, i.e., that of logical possibility. This constitutes a framework for ultimate knowledge, which is ultimate in depth but ever open for breadth or variety (as long as the knowers are limited beings).

Metaphysics

Def. 35 Metaphysics is knowledge of the real.

The possibility of metaphysics has been called into question over the history of thought, but we have just seen the emergence of metaphysical content, beginning with being. The content so far is perfectly faithful – ideal – by abstraction.

An ideal metaphysics

Def. 36 Limitlessness defines a perfect and ideal metaphysics.

In greater detail, from the perfection in the abstraction in the concept of being, there is a perfect and ideal metaphysics, a framework, which is summarized – the universe is the realization of the greatest possibility, which gives us an ultimate value, realization of the greatest possibility.

Real metaphysics

Def. 37 When the ideal metaphysics is adjoined to at least pragmatically valid knowledge, what results is named the real metaphysics or just the metaphysics.

In greater detail, when adjoined to all (at least) pragmatically valid knowledge, the result is not always perfectly faithful, but as the best we have as limited beings, it connects us (our experience) to the real and is perfect relative to dual criteria of adequate faithfulness and the ultimate value (of realization). This system is named ‘the real metaphysics’ or just ‘the metaphysics’.

While the criterion for the ideal metaphysics is perfect faithfulness the criterion for real metaphysics is dual—a join of perfect through adequate faithfulness with value (roughly, ‘ethics’).

The real metaphysics implies the existence of all possibility including worlds. Are all possible worlds of the same significance?

Robust worlds

Via inclusion of pragmatic knowledge, the real metaphysics incorporates all valid (human) knowledge. This inclusion suggests that while many possible worlds are transitory and do not register strongly in experience, our world—the world of common experience—is likely robust (but not eternal) in endurance. While robust worlds may be statistically infrequent, the argument that they are most commonly experienced is strong. Though we may not peak in this cosmos, it is certain that, in diffusion, we are part of peak process.

Though imperfection in cognition suggests the impossibility of perfect metaphysics or pragmatic metaphysics of the ultimate, both have been demonstrated.

In the robustness of our world we are part of peak process – on the way to peaking – for a robust concept of ‘god’ is a process and peaking that is the world or worlds and is neither alien in kind nor remote in extension and duration (space and time).

Experience

We will define experience, show it to be fundamental to (our) being, describe its form, show that it is fundamental to (as-if) mind – matter – space – time – property – and – cause, and show it as fundamental to realization (yoga).

The concept of experience

Def. 39 Experience is awareness in all its kinds and levels.

The fundamental nature of experience; reasons for its deferred treatment

(The concept of) experience is implicitly present in (earlier) talking of being.

If its explicit treatment came before metaphysics, it would have to be reworked.

There is experience; and it is known by there being experience of experience

There is experience, for it is in and only in it that there is awareness (and even if that is illusory, illusion is experience).

Without experience of experience, there could be no real talk of it.

In terms to be introduced below, while experience is the mark of a subject, it also presents as object.

We are experiential beings

Experience is (one vehicle for the) essence of (our) being, for all significance registers in it.

We are (effectively) experiential beings.

The form of experience

Conditions of realism including formation of cosmoses ground a strong argument that the experience of experience shows the form of experience.

The universe is experiential

The world is the object of and includes experience

The world is an object of experience and includes experience.

If the universe were a cosmos with a single kind of element, experience would be a suitable candidate. However, from the metaphysics, the universe has no ultimate kind. Yet, experientiality in primitive form, can and will occupy the lowest levels (at which experientiality is not varied and rich as it is at higher levels). This is neutral on the reality of matter but affirms that there is as-if matter whose interactions are primitively experiential, which sometimes manifest as causal. A world that is not experienced is effectively nonexistent.

The universe is experiential

The universe (being) is (effectively) experiential (this and the earlier statement about the world are consistent).

That the world is experiential is to neither deny nor affirm that it is material, atomic, spatiotemporal, ideal (in the sense of psychological or spiritual in nature), causal (in the sense of physical causation), in its ultimate nature.

The form of experience suggests and the real metaphysics (all beings interact) confirms that experience is relational and this is what is meant when we affirm that the universe is a (relational) field of experience.

That the universe is a field of experience allows both zero and infinite values, i.e., voids and particles. Also, from the real metaphysics the ‘speed of light’ has no significance for the universe at large and therefore there is no limit on beings interacting with other beings (even in our cosmos, the limit is contingent).

Identity, extension, and duration

Originally, sameness and difference arise together from, e.g., the void. Our experience of sameness, difference, and identity arises, necessarily (from limitlessness), either in a single step or (perhaps more likely) iteratively, with selection.

But how does the uniformity of extension and duration that is our space and time arise (in general relativity it is, of course, not true uniformity, but in terms of the distribution of matter, it is a kind of uniformity because the space time metric depends only on the distribution of matter, so in the absence of local matter space and time are in fact uniform, and in the presence of matter the different measures of space time at different locations are related so that standard measures can indeed be set up)?

The answer is in the sameness of sameness and difference. Furthermore, it has already been seen, and relativity lies in the incomplete distinction between the different modes of sameness the identity. And that the quantum lies already in the void, and it’s signature, therefore marks extension and duration, that is – the objects whose identity constitutes extension, and duration, whose is measure is space and time or rather spacetime.

But how does sameness of sameness and difference arise? The real metaphysics implies that (a) one step emergence does occur (b) it also occur via mutual interaction and spreading.

Yoga

Though yoga has an historical origin in thought and practice in India as well as modern manifestations, true yoga incorporates the real metaphysics, the truth that we are experiential beings with matter- and mind-like sides, and that we are destined to merge as peak being. Further, yoga seeks effective paths to the ultimate.

The as-if material and the mindlike sides of being are significant to ways of realization of the ultimate. Thus—

Yoga as binding of beings to being has two ‘sides’—physical and meditative.

As we are experiential beings, the meditative might seem supreme, but since the sides are not distinct, the physical is as essential (it being thought that experiential being must have a body).

Ethics

Ethics has been present from the beginning, for (i) experiential being is the place and focus of ethics (ii) right knowledge is a foundation and element of ethics.

Given that peak being is realized by all beings, there is an ethical imperative – value and reward in – being on effective ways to peaks in and in enhancement of the world.

In this brief version of TWB, beside the above universal aspect, ethics is immanent in the work.

Doubt and certainty

On certainty

It was observed that certainty may not always be desirable (i) because it does not necessarily have meaning in all contexts (ii) because it is not always possible (iii) because there is often a need to balance effort in being certain with effort applied toward action and this may be the case for the greatest of our endeavors.

Yet, so far as certainty, at least of some degree, is good, at least some doubt is good. And where absolute certainty is desirable, it must wait until all reasonable doubt is removed.

Doubt and its use

Def. 45 To doubt is to question what is accepted as or potentially true including reasons for the acceptance.

In seeking a presumption free grounding (as far as it is possible), the meaning and value of truth (defined earlier) and seeking should be included in the questioning.

One motive to active doubt is to find the place of doubt and to find a balance of doubt and certainty.

General doubt

Unquestioning certainty regarding what we hold as knowledge is, rather obviously, a recipe for ignorance and error, so general doubt is good—an instrument toward valid knowledge and toward realization.

However, (i) the value of doubt does not reasonably entail value to neurotic doubt or doubt as a rhetorical weapon (ii) doubt itself ought to be subject to doubt.

So, It is healthy to be open to both doubt and certainty.

We gain strength from certainty and doubt in ‘existential balance’.

Doubt in the way of being

Doubt may and ought to arise regarding the arguments. The essential doubt concerns existence of the void. Alternative demonstrations of limitlessness may be given. One is as follows. Either the void exists or does not. If it does, the earlier argument is sound. If it does not exist, the universe is eternal. Our cosmos exists (if it does not exist as the object, we think it to be it exists as the experience of ‘it’). By symmetry, eternity will not generate one possibility without generating all possibilities. Therefore, the universe is limitless.

Regarding the arguments, especially existence (and consistency) of the void and its consequences, doubt may remain.

A response to doubt, then, is, given consistency and an argument for limitlessness that is (at least) reasonable, to regard existence of the void as a postulate to guide thought, action, and living.

Thus, the way will involve living on ranges in a continuum of doubt and certainty.

The value of truth and certainty are neither absolute nor the same for all activity; it is to be in balance with realization; and the balance will depend on the activity (and perhaps in ultimate realization truth will be absolute without further requiring it, i.e., beyond the fact of realization).

Implications for knowledge

In this version of TWB, this section is intentionally brief; it is amplified in a long version of this work, which takes up questions of the nature of knowledge, its sources, its methods, its value—all in general and in light of the real metaphysics.

That there are significant consequences of the development culminating in the metaphysics is manifest.

First – It provides a framework for an ultimate view of the universe that synthesizes logic, abstract thought, rational metaphysics, science, and ethics. It finds that careful reflection on the methods and problems of human knowledge reveal much more than is held in received thought.

Second – It shows science to be open with regard to the extent of the universe and its kinds, e.g., the cosmological singularity (big bang) is but an atom of existence.

Third – It provides a degree of closure to many discussions in philosophy which are unnecessarily open ended as a result of unnecessary metaphysical neutrality and of metaphysical bias, but it is not uncritically closed. Yet, it is open in ways that are metaphysically essential and which the modern analytic and scientific canons allow but frequently do not admit and may deny (and even where it is admitted, the canons rarely contemplate or attempt to demonstrate ‘limitlessness’). That is, it is not carelessly, uncritically, or even lazily open or closed.

Fourth – Thus, the possibilities of being beyond what we see with our senses, instruments, and theories, which are spoken of in religion in mythical terms, can enter the realm of the concrete. It is of course a non-specific concreteness—we know that we are (part of) peak being, which is not remote (there may of course be remote but lesser peaks whose being may lack robustness).

For a framework for (human) knowledge grounded in the real metaphysics, see a system of knowledge.

Pathways and programs

Path and program structure

Enlightened pathways

Effective pathways

Immediate and ultimate as one

Sustaining and setting effective attitude

Affirmation

Dedication

Dimensions of healthy life

Pleasure and pain

Therapy and sharing

Direct address of pain

Attention to a path; meaning of pain

Program – being –the world and beyond

Ideas and foundation

Practice and retreat

Nature as place of being and of inspiration

Society and culture

Artifact

Universal

Program – beings and community

Morning, first things

Enlightened pathways

Effective pathways

There are effective, enjoyable paths to the ultimate.

The paths invoke all capacities of beings, object-like (of the object, but not ‘objective’) and subject-like (of the subject or experience but not ‘subjective’).

Immediate and ultimate as one

A balance between realization as process and in the moment – the immediate and the ultimate as one. Being on the way. Emptiness – oneness of being(s) and the void (nothingness).

See yoga.

Sharing

Paths are shared – the more capable assist the less capable.

Negotiation of paths

Paths are negotiated (realization is discovery – or rediscovery – in which received paths and leaders may inspire but are neither authority nor final truth).

Leadership

A charismatic leader inspires. A true leader encourages balance of individual, path, society, and emergence and continuity of leadership.

Attitude

Effective attitude

A good or effective attitude for realization is that of shared endeavor and positivity to and recognition of the worth of being and all beings in the immediate world and on the way to the ultimate as detailed above and below.

Sustaining and setting effective attitude

The effective attitude is maintained by keeping good attitude in shared awareness.

An approach to sustaining a positive attitude is the sequence – recognize, acknowledge, defuse, affirm, return.

Recognition

Maintaining a healthy attitude requires awareness of attitude. A way to recognize decay of attitude is good, e.g., a worn item, reminders, cultivating a spacious approach to the day, perhaps via meditation.

Acknowledgment

Acknowledge decay of attitude, accept in the sense of not judging it negatively but as something to turn around.

Defusion

Take time away from activities of the day, exercise, meditate (calming, analytic, and emphasis on attitude awareness).

Affirm

One’s place in the universe (self = all). The way of being with discipline (in balance with abandon), security, and sharing.

Return

Return to activities of the day.

Affirmation

Affirming commitment to the world and its inhabitants and to identity with the ultimate real.

Dedication

A dedication to the way of being—to living in the immediate and ultimate as one.

What does this mean?
How is its truth and value known?
How is it realized?
Why being?

To its shared discovery and realization under the pure and pragmatic dimensions (categories) of experiential being in form and formation on the way to the transparently limitless ultimate.

From being to limitlessness to experiential being
to enlightened pathways to attitude
to health to address of pleasure and pain.

To overcoming the bonds of limited self, so that even in trouble or doubt or pain, life is flow rather than force.

Via therapy and sharing,
Direct address of pain,
Attention to a path and the meaning of pain and doubt.

To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond.

A process version of the transcendent
living in the immediate and the ultimate as one.

Dimensions of healthy life

Healthy living (physical, mental, communal, and spiritual) and enlightenment attend to quality of all life in this world (and a hierarchy of ‘needs’), on the way to the ultimate.

Pleasure and pain

Pleasure and pain (and doubt) are inevitable; an effective path emphasizes pleasure in the path itself (over diversion). Pain is addressed by—

Therapy and sharing

First – By therapy, by the fortunate joining with the less fortunate.

Direct address of pain

Second – Where indicated by addressing with pain, doubt, and destruction, but not by an attempt to eliminate all pain.

Attention to a path; meaning of pain

Third – Rather, there is an optimum of the address of pain and being on a path, in which residual pain is given meaning by being on an aware path of realization.

Death

A will to live and avoid death is natural. However, that we die and that our cosmos will end or become uninhabitable seems almost certain. Though we generally expect lives of people and worlds to follow a ‘normal’ trajectory, the end may come at any time. Coming from this point of view (and a secular view) we may wonder whether the metaphysics and realization have any significance. We may wonder whether they are at best mere solace.

On the other hand, we have seen that we are eternal; that on death, a person or a cosmos enters a diffuse state to emerge again; that the process is repeated and one path is through higher and higher form as peaks are approached.

This gives balance to passive nihilism. Death is a teacher. Motivated by the metaphysics, we may seek equilibrium and to engage in the way of being. It is a point upon which to meditate—first in calming (should anxiety be an issue), second in analyzing and intuiting the upward-downward cycles of realization, and third in commitment to realization in this world and beyond.

Tradition

Because traditional religions have appeal, their formulaic approaches and spiritual content may be recommended as a useful supplement to some people. For example, the four truths of Buddhism may help understanding of the human condition and the eightfold way of Buddhism and Yoga may help some people toward realization here on earth.

However, TWB is not presently formulaic and its principles do not recommend any particular religion. Further, while the religions and their institutions have positive and negative attributes, to assess their contribution and to suggest (needed) improvement would lead away from the purpose of a brief version of TWB.

Design of programs

Those who would be on a path may develop and share path programs which address the needs of paths (described above), will continue learning and revising paths and programs, and, where needed, return to the beginning of the way, which includes abandonment of what has gone so far as a source of freshness and inspiration.

The programs have two meshing and merging emphases (i) the level of being, which emphases the universal and the long-term and which frames (ii) the level of beings. Details of the programs are developed below.

Design for the programs has (i) a menu of activities from personal and local to social and universal and (ii) a daily program or routine, also a menu, with home and journey options and a long-term program of foundation and realization. The design for the menus and the programs is based on the real metaphysics, the ideal and ultimate framework, filled in with cumulative pragmatic knowledge, which includes argument as an approach to generation and justification.

The menu is based on categories of being from elementary to high levels. In this account menus and programs are merged.

Notation

Comment 2. This section will be omitted from the mini- and mobile- versions.

Items in this font are specific to the author.

Items in this font are tailored to be of general application.

The level of being

Aim

Develop a long-term program for the following in sequence and parallel, in terms of months – years – phases of life and history. Consider institutionalization of TWB – reasons and cautions.

Program

The elements of the program are the topics underneath. ‘Ideas and foundation’ is perennial, ‘Practice and retreat’ is every six months to annual. The remaining elements are engaged in parallel.

The level of beings

The routine is presented as a menu of possible elements for (i) planning and activities from which to select (ii) flexible times and durations. The emphasis in at the level of being is universal; here it is individual through community.

Program – being –the world and beyond

Ideas and foundation

The author – Experiencing the world, reading, reflection, synthesis, writing, publishing, advertising—a program of study and development.

Experiencing the world, reflection, synthesis and sharing—a program of development.

Experience

Reading

Reflection

Synthesis

Writing

Publishing

Advertising

Practice and retreat

Travel and journey for immersion in nature and culture; retreat for renewal of awareness, self, and attitude.

Nature as place of being and of inspiration

Comment 3. Pictures?

As path to real self and being.

Society and culture

Political economy

Economic and political thought, individual, charismatic, and collective action, local through global community – challenges and opportunities.

Society and its elements

Reflection and action on social organization and institutionalization—small to large scale; cultural (knowledge – generation, vertical and horizontal transmission, and institutions of knowledge and education), political, economic, aesthetic (play, art, spirit).

Society, institutions, and the individual

Will leaders in culture, spirit, politics, and economics arise from within institutions or without? It will likely depend on the field of endeavor; and it will not be ‘either / or’—the leaders will have ties to culture via institutions but are likely to act with independence.

In ideas, leaders will likely have absorbed ideas and issues of world thought. However, thought within institutions today seems constrained by ideology and mass production. We expect and encourage leaders to have independence from the mainstream. This depends on field and an assessment is that it is more likely in philosophy and humanities than the sciences that the next great ideas will be extra-institutional.

Artifact

Beings undertaking and designing for self-evolution; exploration of mind and space; synthesis of natural and artificial being.

Self-evolution

Exploration of mind and space

Synthesis of natural and artificial being

Universal

Yoga

Yoga (practice and synthesis of be-ing and becoming; living at two levels, pure and pragmatic; synthesis over spacetime and above spacetime.

Search for the ultimate

Search for gateways to the ultimate in and from the immediate.

Program – beings and community

Morning, first things

Every day

Rise

The author – rise, medications, breakfast.

Rise – preliminary actions for the day.

Affirmation and attitude

Affirmation, dedication, review attitude set and reset.

See the internet resources for a suggested affirmation and dedication.

Review

Review day through life plans.

Home

The author – open files, set alarms, walk.

Prepare for activities of the day.

Away

Chart the day.

The way

Foundation

The author – developing TWB, sharing, publishing, advertising, earning.

Sharing experience of the world, reflection, synthesis and sharing.

Realization

Living the way, yoga (physical, meditative), sustaining path through doubt, pain.

Nature as inspiration

Society and sharing – local to global; politics and economics; relationships, work, school; sports.

Technology for exploration of space, and experiential being – AI as agent and complement to (human) beings.

Ground

Safety, security.

Afternoon

Tasks

Tasks, lunch.

Exercise and excursion

The author – exercise, excursion, photo essays.

Exercise, excursion, select activities.

Evening

Review

The author – review planning and other activities – tomorrow through life, shower, fluids, dinner.

Review planning and other activities – immediate through long term; regular evening activities and meal.

Network

Share, network.

Entertainment

Personal – entertainment – home or evening out.

Entertainment, relaxation.

Sleep

The author – sleep early.

Sleep.

Internet resources

Daily routine – home (pdf, word docm), away (pdf, docm).

TWB – a program (pdf, docm).

TWB – affirmation with dedication and attitude setting and resetting.

TWB – site, in-process long version of this work.

For a system of (human) knowledge based in the real metaphysics, see a system of knowledge.

For social action, see challenges and opportunities.

For sources, see my influences and main influences.

Return

Having taken time to emphasize reflection on our place in being, we (re) turn to focus on action and transformation.

The return is a complement to into the way of being—the difference is one of emphasis… ‘into’ emphasized ideas, here we emphasize action and looking outward, beyond our temporal being.

We are the ultimate even – especially – when we do not see it. Our work, if we choose it, is to see and realize the ultimate in sharing, while attending to immediate ground, informed by our new understanding.

The focus

Def. 47 Return signifies a focus on the world that is freshened by a new point of view. The focus is an ongoing ‘conversation’ between ideas, action, and realization.

Focus – ‘conversation’ among living in the immediate, community, and the way of being.

A time of living in the present, for the present as (if it is) ultimate.

Into the way of being

Why being?

Keep the big picture in mind

Suspend criticism on initial reading

Pay attention to meanings via definitions

Holism

Definitions

Knowledge and argument

Direct argument

Certain or precise

Likely or nearly precise

Indirect argument or inference

Certain inference

Deduction

Intrinsic inference

The way of being

Likely inference

Induction, abduction, and analogy

The way of being

Some special cases considered above

Argumentative strength

The certain case

The less than certain case

What argument does

Being and beings

Being

All beings

The void

Knowledge

Experience

The world is the object of and includes experience

The universe is experiential

On categories

The level of being – the category of experiential being

High-level – subject–relation–object

Intermediate – form and formation

Our world – mind, nature, and their unity

Doubt and certainty

Implications for knowledge

Recognition

Acknowledgment

Defusion

Affirm

Return

Aim

Program

Experience

Reading

Reflection

Synthesis

Writing

Publishing

Advertising

Political economy

Society and its elements

Society, institutions, and the individual

Self-evolution

Exploration of mind and space

Synthesis of natural and artificial being

Yoga

Search for the ultimate

Every day

Rise

Affirmation and attitude

Review

Home

Away

Foundation

Realization

Ground

Tasks

Exercise and excursion