Adding reason to faith
Home
Main Page
« Previous 5 days  |  Next 5 days »
Wednesday, February 28
View Article  The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality: Part VII of VIII
by Daniel J. Shepard on Wed 28 Feb 2007 12:00 AM EST

The Invention of Philosophy – Q4:                                      What is reality?

 

Part VII of VIII

 

Heraclitus (500 B.C.)

 

… He saw the natural world as an environment of struggle and difficulty and concluded, “all was flux” and was ever changing.

 

S: If reality is as Heraclitus perceived it, the question emerges: How is it that the new metaphysical model embraces a Heraclitus’ concept of ‘all’ being in flux if change takes place in the universe and constancy is a universal aspect of the fabric which lies ‘outside’ the universe?

 

Wouldn’t an unchanging exterior to the universe imply change in fact was not occurring?

 

The answer to the question lies in the understanding that an unchanging ‘outside’ in fact changes while remaining unchanged.

 

It would appear the concept of the ‘outside’ of the universe being in constant flux while never changing is a nonsensical concept.

 

The issue was discussed in great detail within Tractate 6: The Error of Kant. (see www.panentheism.com library)

 

Again the issue is too complex to address in the short space provided here.

 

To be continued: Part VIII ov VIII: The concept of change is a concept, which requires ...
Leave Comment  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos
Tuesday, February 27
View Article  The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality: Part VI of VIII
by Daniel J. Shepard on Tue 27 Feb 2007 12:00 AM EST

The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality:

Part VI of VIII

Simply put abstraction is substituted for the Anaximenes’ ‘vapor’ in the new metaphysical perception of the individual acting within God being. (see diagram 070221d)

 

The point: Anaximenes’ concept is not being rejected as incorrect or inadequate by the new model of reality being introduced by this work.

 

What the new metaphysical system does do is validate Anaximenes’ intuitive thoughts through the process of updating them with science’s more advanced observations regarding our physical universe.

 

To be continued: Part VII of VIII:

 

Heraclitus (500 B.C.)

 

… He saw the natural world as an environment of

 

 

Leave Comment  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos
Monday, February 26
View Article  The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality: Part V of VIII
by Daniel J. Shepard on Mon 26 Feb 2007 12:00 AM EST

The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality:

Part V of VIII

 

 

Anaximenes (545 B.C.)

 

… Anaximenes believed that there must be a single form of “stuff” as the primary source of everything.

 

He suggested that vapor or mist was this “stuff.”

 

 

S: We know now that vapor is simply a gaseous form of water.

 

Does having learned the nature of vapor mean Anaximenes was incorrect in his perceptions regarding the source of ‘everything’?  A

 

bsolutely not, Anaximenes used the concept of vapor merely to exemplify the potential source of ‘everything’.

 

Just because we have shown vapor is not the source of everything does not mean we have invalidated Anaximenes’ intuitive grasp of everything having a source from which it forms.

 

Tractate 10: The Error of Heidegger provides an in-depth examination regarding the source of every-thing’ Within Tractate 10, (www.panentheism.com library) the ‘vapor’ or ‘mist’ to which Anaximenes refers is examined in light of metaphysical thought as it relates to modern science.

 

The underlying principle of physics, namely symmetry, is factored into the dialectic along with the very functionality of’ nothingness’.

 

To discuss the details regarding the ‘source’ of every-‘thing’ within the context of this conclusion is impractical.

 

What can be practically stated at this point, however, is that many philosophers believe that any newly developing metaphysical system demonstrates its validity through the process of reinforcing past philosophical concepts as opposed to casting out all the ‘old’ to make room for the new.

 

The new metaphysical model presented in the work, The War and Peace of a New Metaphysical Perception, embraces the ‘old’, embraces past philosophical ideas and rejects the concept that it, the new system, should replace the ‘old’ concepts of philosophy.

 

To be continued: Part VI of VII: Simply put ...
Leave Comment  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos
Sunday, February 25
View Article  The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality: Part IV of VIII
by Daniel J. Shepard on Sun 25 Feb 2007 12:00 AM EST

The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality:

 

 

Part IV of VIII

 

The ‘constant state of change’ becomes the means by which Nietzsche’s dilemma regarding ‘eternal recurrence’ and by which present day science’s dilemma regarding the concept of permanent equilibrium become resolvable.

 

‘Newness/change’ is ‘created/initiated’ within the mechanism of the universe and becomes a part of the Apeiron but does not ‘change’ the Apeiron in the sense we perceive change to take place.

 

The full discussion of such a concept is addressed in Tractate 6: The Error of Kant. (www.panentheism.com library)

 

It is the tractate regarding Kant that the dialectic regarding a region changing but remaining unchanged is found.

 

If one then proceeds to ‘… strip away all the dogma of order’ from within the new metaphysical model of reality, as Thales of Miletus suggests, one can then find ‘…Within it, the four states – hot, cold, wet, and dry existing as forms of abstractual existence.

 

Anaximander believed that the conflict and interaction of these states gave rise to the cosmos, the earth, and to life’.

 

Abstractually the states of hot, cold, wet, and dry take on a symbolic analogous state represented by the concepts of ‘being’/multiplicity/individuality – noun, being/existence – passive verb, being/process – verb of action, and God/singularity/the whole – noun within the new metaphysical system.

 

v      

 

The point:

 

Through the development of symbiotic panentheism, the individual acting within God, reality now becomes an expanded perception of what we previously perceived it to be.

 

Reality now becomes the sum total of physical reality as well as the whole of abstractual reality within which physical reality finds itself.

 

To be continued: Part V of VIII:

 

Anaximenes (545 B.C.)

 

… Anaximenes believed...

Leave Comment  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos
Saturday, February 24
View Article  The Invention of Philosophy: What is reality: Part III of VIII
by Daniel J. Shepard on Sat 24 Feb 2007 12:00 AM EST

The Invention of Philosophy – Q2:                                     What is reality?

 

 

Part III of VIII

 

Anaximander (612-545 B.C.)

Thales’s student, Anaximander … recognized that the world, and cosmos, was in a constant state of change.

 

He proposed to explain this change by referring to the Apeiron.

 

The Apeiron was something both infinite and indefinite.

 

Within it, the four states – hot, cold, wet, and dry – arose. Anaximander believed that the conflict and interaction of these states gave rise to the cosmos, the earth, and to life.

 

S: Anaximander’s ‘Apeiron’, simply becomes the name for abstraction within the new metaphysical model being examined within this work. (see diagram 070220c)

 

The concept of the world now expands to become the universe and the cosmos, which now expands into being the region outside the universe within which the universe finds itself located.

 

In other words the universe/the physical is located within abstraction or the Apeiron.

 

To be continued: Part IV of VIII: The ‘constant state of change’ becomes ...

Leave Comment  |  Permanent Link  |  Cosmos