>> Reilly Jones (Reilly@compuserve.com) wrote:
>>> There really is something that gives coherency to
>>> the subjective "I" and that something constructs a
>>> boundary between one quark or bit of substance and
>>> the quark immediately next to it.
>> IAN: What is this "something."
>I doubt that the "subjective 'I'" is bounded at the
>quark level <sneeze - oops, there goes part of
>myself!> In any case, this "something" is called
>organizational or semantic closure (cf. anything on
>autopoiesis).
IAN: Semantic closure, yes, in that the
boundary of identity is merely a product
of semantics, of words, of utility, and
as such is ultimately an illusion. No
question that placing limits on identity
is useful in the process of communication.
But my effort is to map the reality beyond
the words we impose on things, and I believe
that that reality is what the "mystics" speak
of: a unified and holistic identity unbounded
by the illusory and self-serving categories
that the mind imposes on reality. We become
so attached to our categories, they become
more real than the reality we impose them
upon, to a large extent because the mind
IS the process of categorizing and thus
IS those categories. To see that which
lies beyond the mind, its words and
categories, is to see the truth.
I believe that this truth is as logical
as the system of categories we impose
on the universe; in fact, I think that
the underlying holistic reality, even as
it tends by its very nature to defy logic,
is, once we can grasp it, more logical than
the system of categories we impose on it.
As to "autopoiesis," which I guess would be
loosely defined as a system that is self-de-
fining, even that is an expression of holistic
identity. When we define a region of space as A,
we simultaneously define a region of space that
is not-A. We know what A is and define it as such
only because and only if we also know what it is
not. So even the most sharply defined category
confirms holistic identity, and thus holistic
identity is always true, and atomism is never
true, but always assumed, always semantics.
It's probable that because holism is always
true, and thus there is no not-holism, that
that is exactly why holism is nearly imposs-
ible to grasp... by its own rule it disappears
and defies perfect description. Holism defies
the perfect perception of holism because of
holism. It must therefore keep breaking down
into parts, into atoms, into entities, into +
and - , into universes, into us. But if we add
up all the parts and map the structure of their
identities, we can see the self-hiding holistic
reality and map the structure of absolute truth.
A CONTRADICTION? NO!
One might say that if holism asserts that A is
true if and only if A and not-A, and if holism
is 100% true such that there is no not-holism,
then holism contradicts itself. How can holism
survive this apparent contradiction? By the
logical necessity that the holistic reality is
zero. If there is 1 there is -1 (ad infinitum),
and the holistic sum is zero:
0 = (...-1 <---0---> +1...) = 0
The number system describes the absolute truth.
So there is 100% 0, since the sum of all entities
(which defines "the whole") equals zero. Zero keeps
breaking into +1 and -1, which are "not-zero" and
yet also zero. So zero is zero and not-zero, the
whole is whole and not-whole, which means the
whole is the whole and yet is also composed
of parts. In this way, holism (A=~A) is
always true since atomism is holism.
**************************************************************
VISIT Ian Williams Goddard ---> http://www.erols.com/igoddard
______________________________________________________________
IDENTITY MATRIX | I D E N T I T Y C O N S E R V A T I O N
-----------------| The basis of logic is identity (ID). The
1 2 3 | basis of ID is difference. Degrees of dif-
_________ | ference can be quantified as ID units. The
1 | 0 1 2 | | ID Matrix shows the ID units of three num-
| | | bers, and may do so unto infinity. The ID
2 |-1 0 1 | | units of each number are derived from the
| | | others, and therefore ID is holistic not
3 |-2 -1 0 | | atomistic. As the sum of all ID units unto
----------- | infinity equals 0, identity is conserved.
_________________|____________________________________________
GODDARD'S METAPHYSICS-> http://www.erols.com/igoddard/meta.htm
______________________________________________________________
D I S T R U S T A U T H O R I T Y