Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 17 Mar 1998 04:55:28 +0100
Richard Douglas wrote:
> There is no such thing as nothing. "Nothing" is an abstract idea.
> There is no such thing as absolute Void. There has always been something
> here, and always will.
Nothing is a thing, a mental thing. Abstract ideas like nothing are things
at the intellectual level just as laws are things at the social level, bugs
are things at the biological level, and atoms are things at the inorganic
level. Nothing is a necessary idea in the world of ideas. Take away the
concept of nothing, of zero, and the world of mathematics crumbles. Thus,
to state "Nothing is something" is one of those wonderful SOM paradoxes
that gets close to the fire of truth.
> What drives existence forward, what provides change, is the irresolvable
> contradiction of existence being both monist and manifold, One and Many.
Again, in the world of ideas, the concepts of one, many and none are
essential. I'm reminded of the scientist who asked the Buddha, "How many
things in a thing?" to which the answer came, "As many as you want."
In his post of Mar. 14, Doug Renselle pointed out the primitive conceptual
variables on which classical science assumes but cannot define or prove:
mass, length and time. I would add the variables of one, many and none to
that list along with all incompatible pairs -- up/down, inside/outside,
true/false, good/bad, life/death, etc. on which the entire edifice of the
intellectual level is built and maintained. In MoQ terms, the static latch
of the intellectual level consists of dichotomies. As Plato said, "You
cannot conceive of the many without the one." To which I add the corollary:
"You cannot think of anything without its opposite."
That's why Pirsig said all metaphysics depends on the first division, the
first cut. To think at all, to reach the intellectual level, we must split
our awareness right down the middle. Of course, we forget we do this, then
forget that we've forgotten.
Your assumption that one and many drives existence foward may be valid
although I'm not sure just what you mean. But, if I accept your premise,
the question still remains, Why is this so? God, accident or good? Are
there other possibilities?
Platt
Catch 49: The universe is mindless.
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