And difference begets something.
Anyway, welcome to the first post of this monthly blog for 2020. Like previous incarnations, it's all about grappling with a set of metaphysical conundrums — with the purpose of resolving them. The type of niggling questions that children ask themselves in the playground, the ones that are never answered satisfactorily despite being so fundamental, the ones that might drive us towards insight or insanity unless shut out by more mundane diversions…
- “Is the universe infinite?”
- “Is time forever?”
- “Can space or time be divided infinitesimally or is there a limit?”
- “Is ‘nothingness’ possible?”
- “Is the universe ultimately one of entities or processes (or is this a false dichotomy)?”
- “How come we are conscious, how does it work?”
- “Why do we only seem to find complexity at our own scale?”
- “Have I ‘free-will’ or is the universe utterly deterministic at some level?”
- “What’s the point of everything? What is the purpose, if any, of being me?”
- “Is death inevitable or theoretically avoidable?”
Etc…
That's this blog's focus.
Objectivist metaphysics to the rescue
Philosophy, at least the honest kind that takes reality and science seriously, helps us get closer to answering these questions, or helps pose better questions with clearer, fully considered premises.
Objectivism offers such a sturdy, healthy branch of the tree, deeply rooted in Aristotle’s truth-seeking. Its metaphysics are lean and logical, unambiguous and beautifully coherent.
My encapsulation of its core metaphysical/ontological axioms:
- Existence exists;
- It is/has identity;
- Consciousness (an information process) is the identification of that which exists.
It is the integration of these three axiomatic aspects of reality that I will be exploring, and thus go some way to help answer those ‘childish’ types of questions set out above.
Furthermore, to more fully grasp the integration, I will draw upon an array of key thinking tools; from mereology to information theory and neuroscience (especially predictive processing) in order to build a more accurate model of the mechanics of reality.
That's this blog's approach.
Universe of Difference
But this 2020 blog is different from my previous efforts (links via profile sphere at the bottom). It is intended as a monthly commentary about the construction of my allied website Universe of Difference (launch button in the footer).
As UoD is an unadulterated dive into a ‘metaphysical model’. I would rather not distract visitors there with prosaic postings. It's a holistic visual experience, intended as a contemplation aid rather than a mishmash of turgid texts.
At time of writing this post, ‘the universe’ over there is nothing more than meaningless ‘grey-noise’ — differences not yet making a difference, representing nothing but a random similitude.
But each month more of the ‘mechanics of reality’ will be revealed in Universe of Difference; those changes will be unpacked here in this blog…
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