METAPHYSICS



METAPHYSICS

[OUTLINE]

ANIL MITRA PHD, COPYRIGHT © JUNE 2004

SINCE THE METAPHYSICS IS A RESTRUCTURING OF JOURNEY IN BEING, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO PRINT THE ENTIRE TEXT

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CONTENTS

OUTLINE

Prologue to the Metaphysics

Introduction: an Adventure in Being

Metaphysics: Theory

Metaphysics and the Theory of Being

Knowledge and Action

Metaphysics: Topics

Cosmology

Mind

Theory and Approaches to Group Action and Value

Classical and Modern Problems of Metaphysics

Metaphysics: Applications

Experiments in the Transformation of Being

The Variety of Being

Action, Charisma and Influence, and History

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE TO THE METAPHYSICS

INTRODUCTION: AN ADVENTURE IN BEING

An Individual Journey

Personal

The Significance of the Individual Journey

Origins of the Dynamics of Being

The Present

Ends

Journey into Ultimate Being

Fundamental Principles

The Principle of Being

The Principle of Meaning

Reflections on the Principles of Being and of Meaning

There is Exactly One Universe

The Principle of Identity

The origin of the Principle of Identity

The Four Paths or Ways

Knowledge

Being

Experiments with the Variety of Being

Society

The Stumbling

The Journey Continues…

METAPHYSICS: THEORY

1 METAPHYSICS AND THE THEORY OF BEING

1.1 What is Metaphysics?

1.1.1 The Possibility of Metaphysics

1.2 Importance of Metaphysics for the Journey in Being

1.2.1 As a Foundational aspect of the Experiments in the Transformation of Being

1.2.2 Every Organism has an Intrinsic Metaphysics

1.2.3 Metaphysics and Science

1.2.4 Using the Tradition

1.3 Being

1.3.1 Existence

1.3.2 [Materialism]

1.3.3 Existence and Concepts

1.3.4 Nothingness

1.3.5 Possibility

1.3.6 Nature of Being

1.3.7 Characterizing Being

1.3.8 Being, Process, Cause, Time and Dynamics

1.4 The Principle of Being

1.5 Ultimate Being

1.5.1 What is Ultimate Being?

1.5.2 The Possibilities of Actual Beings

1.5.3 What Possibilities are Good?

1.5.4 Omniscience

1.6 Systematic Metaphysics

1.7 Language, Words and Metaphysics

1.8 Metaphysics / Action

1.9 Metaphysics and the Possibility of Knowledge and Logic

2 KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION

2.1 Knowledge

2.1.1 Two Roles for Knowledge

2.1.2 What is Knowledge?

2.1.3 Intuition and Formal Knowledge

2.1.3.1 Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description

2.1.3.2 Journey in Being is an Adventure in the Forms of Being and Thought

2.1.3.3 Alien world view of Knowledge; Presentationism and Representationism

2.1.4 How is Knowledge Possible

2.1.4.1 The Functions of Knowledge

2.1.4.2 Kinds of Knowledge

2.1.5 Knowledge, Belief and Truth

2.1.6 Knowledge, Meaning and Reference

2.1.7 Criteria of Validity

2.1.8 Security

2.1.9 Criticism, Skepticism and their Radical Forms

2.1.9.1 What is the Depth of Knowledge in the Organism?

2.1.10 Justification and Action

2.1.11 Knowledge and Action

2.2 Processes of Knowledge

2.2.1 Discovery

2.2.1.1 Concepts

2.2.1.2 Articulation of Concepts

2.2.1.3 Field of Concepts

2.2.1.4 Conception or Concept Formation

2.2.1.5 Definiteness of Concepts

2.2.2 Justification

2.2.3 Science

2.2.4 Direct Knowledge

2.3 Knowledge Used in the Journey in Being

2.3.1 Topics

2.3.2 Range of Human Knowledge

METAPHYSICS: TOPICS

3 COSMOLOGY

3.1 Reflections on the Number of Universes

3.2 There is Exactly One Universe

3.3 Regarding “Something from Nothing”

3.4 Regarding the Existence of Consciousness and Presence

3.5 Principle of Connection

3.6 Becoming

3.7 Kinds of Process and Cause

3.8 Co-origins of Being, Causation, Dynamics and Time

3.9 Reflections on the Approach to Co-Origins

3.10 Structure

3.11 Anthropic Principles as Examples of the Transcendental Method

4 MIND

4.1 Mind and Metaphysics

4.1.1 What is Mind?

4.1.2 The Fundamental Role of Experience or Feeling

4.1.3 Unconscious Mental Processes

4.1.4 Unconscious Mental Processes and the Body

4.1.5 Mind / language

4.1.6 Mind / body

4.1.7 Mind / body: summary and consolidation of philosophical conclusions

4.1.8 Mind / body in science

4.1.9 Noumenon and Phenomenon

4.1.10 Origins of Ideas

4.2 Characterization of Mind

4.2.1 Purpose of this Section

4.2.2 A Set of Mental Axes

4.2.3 Mind / Being

4.2.4 Key Characterizations

4.2.5 Relation to Environment

4.2.6 Creation

4.2.7 A Unified Theory of the Functions of Mind

4.3 Dimensions of Mind / Being: Introduction

4.3.1 Indefiniteness of Concepts

4.3.2 Example: Humor and Emotion

4.3.3 Dimensions of Mind / Being: Outline

4.4 Dimensions of Mind / Being: Foundations

4.4.1 Objectives

4.4.2 Criticisms of the Classical Functions of Mind

4.4.3 Explanatory / Organizing Principles

4.5 A System of the Dimensions of Mind, Being and Action

4.5.1 Character of Mind / Being

4.5.2 Functions: States and Processes

4.5.2.1 Memory

4.5.2.2 Attitude – and Concepts

4.5.2.3 Action

4.5.2.4 The Body

4.5.3 Extension in Time

4.5.3.1 Learning and growth; development of the functions

4.5.3.2 Personality and its Development

4.5.3.3 Commitments

4.5.3.4 The dynamics of being; becoming; local / non-local

4.5.3.5 Arching from the Individual / Here-Now to the Universal

4.6 Symbol and Language

4.6.1 The importance of language

4.6.2 Analytic or Linguistic Philosophy

4.6.2.1 Solipsism

4.6.2.2 The Concepts, “Everything” and “Nothing” or “Nothingness”

4.6.3 Meaning and Communication

4.6.4 Kinds of Linguistic Meaning

4.6.5 Formal Systems and Formal Meaning

4.7 Metaphysics and the Possibility of Knowledge and Logic

4.7.1 Knowledge and Inference

4.7.2 Knowledge and Inference in an Organism

4.7.3 Metaphysics and the Possibility of Knowledge

4.7.4 The Possibility of Logic

4.7.5 Analytic and Synthetic Propositions

4.7.6 Metaphysics and the Possibility of Implication / Inference

4.7.7 Not Every Idea is a Form

4.7.8 The Variety of Logical Structures

4.7.9 Mathematics

4.8 Theories of Action

5 THEORY AND APPROACHES TO GROUP ACTION AND VALUE

A Purpose: Constructive, Aesthetic and Global dimensions of Ethics

5.1 Nature of Moral Conduct

5.1.1 The Possibility of Moral Conduct

5.1.2 What is good is not laid out in advance

5.2 Free Will

5.3 Ethics and Morals

5.4 Philosophical and Reflective Ethics

5.4.1 Constructive vs. Passive and Prescriptive Ethics

5.4.2 Ethical Traditions

5.4.3 Applied Ethics

5.5 Analysis of Judgment

5.5.1 The tension among imperatives

5.5.2 Ethics, Metaphysics and other concerns

5.6 Meta-ethics

5.7 Ethics, Being, Knowledge

5.8 Ethics and Journey in Being

6 CLASSICAL AND MODERN PROBLEMS OF METAPHYSICS

6.1 The Problems of Metaphysics

6.2 Modern Problems in Metaphysics

6.3 Types of Metaphysical Theory

6.4 Criticisms

6.5 Argument and Construction in Metaphysics. Meta-questions

6.6 Recent Metaphysics

METAPHYSICS: APPLICATIONS

7 EXPERIMENTS IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF BEING

Purpose and Nature of the Experiments

What is a Transformation of Being?

Possibility

Means or Ways

Meaning and Value

The Value of Transformations of Being

Dynamics of Being

Becoming

Perception and Vision-Quest

Dreams and Hypnosis

What Will a Theory of Dreams Do?

The Nature of Dreams

Sleep

The Meaning and Function of Dreams

Hypnosis

Samkhya

Meditation

Intuition and Mysticism

8 THE VARIETY OF BEING: IDEAS, CONCEPTS AND THEORY, AND EXPERIMENTS

God / religion

Logos

Computation

Computational Models of Mind / Cognitivism

Theoretical and Conceptual Background: Ontology and Knowledge

9 ACTION, CHARISMA AND INFLUENCE, AND HISTORY

Significance of History

Kinds of Change

Charisma and Patriarchalism: Two Kinds of Influence

The Problem of Significance

The Place of Social and Political Theory

Social Theory

Theories of Social Structure

Social Change and Dynamics

The History of Influence

Concepts in Politics

What is Politics?

Issues

The Origin of Theory and Possibility of its Application

What is Theory?

Meta-theory

Origin and Possibility of Action

Political and Moral Theory

Justification of Theory

Political Systems

Theatres Influence

Education

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