Real axioms, e.g. the law of non-contradiction, cannot be false. They are the bedrock for foundationist theories of justification. Unfortunately, that bedrock is rare and understanding what is truly axiomatic is difficult. Lesser minds tend to believe they can create it by fiat: “All men are created equal is an axiom! Therefore....”
fine, but dense reading. Excellent points esp this outstanding line...Culture war always begins with words. It always ends with swords. is it yours and can i quote you?
There’s something missing in this vital discussion fraught with bigger-than-life consequences. Let’s call it:
The implication of “being-in-the-world” (a la Existential Psychology and Heidegger/ Binswanger) when applying Newton’s Third Law of Physics (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) through a metaphysical lens.
From a metaphysical perspective as postulated in the Indian Philosophical tradition (or the Gnostics for that matter), all action begets reaction (spanning over life times), and once we are beyond the opening chess move (for sake of argument, “one’s” initial birth, which was presumably ions ago), we find current life choices atrophied to the point where any discussion about “blank slates” and “all are equal” is reduced and relegated to quaint “first truths” that have in various practical terms lost their relevance and only remain valid largely from the “before God” perspective.
In this non-clairvoyant (where you can’t perceive the real, proximate cause of many events having their roots in previous lives) Hobbesian, self-projected holographic matrix, the collision of apparently conflicting, non-sequitur actions and events creates all sorts of illogical outcomes, dilemmas, conundrums, anxieties, and crazy-making catch-22s, the meaning and monetization of which left and right will forever struggle over. Inhumanity and brutality of various kinds is the resulting outcome we are horrifically condemned to live with.
In the end, men can only create a facsimile of the Logos, even of the Platonic ideos (archetypes), and as such, we are all consigned to Plato’s Cave, and to the “Tree of Woe”.
My 1st year college US Government prof had us read “Men and Nations” by Lois B. Halle, which was my entree to this grave existential reality. My long journey down the rabbit hole of understanding the Matrix began there. Where has it led since then?
To the proposition that none of this can be resolved without the help of metaphysics (the highest form of philosophy) and an attempt at direct mystical apprehension of Truth beyond discursive knowledge (if such Truth exists). The roadmap to “enlightenment” (but not the technique itself) was made succinctly clear by the Tao Te Ching, where we are enjoined to return in consciousness to the Origin (the singularity of Truth, for my lack of better words) by ascending to ever higher states of insight and comprehension by traversing the reverse order of creation): from the multitude of phenomena, go back to the two from which the multitude arose, then beyond the two (dual consciousness), to the one, and then to the formless, indescribable Tao, which is the actual, real Source of it all.
Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”) further popularized the roadmap and hero journey involved, with a hint of the epistemological apotheosis that awaits us at the end. It reveals the best outcome this crazy-making world can homeopathically induce, if only we are ready to “follow the call”, instead of being entranced by the “survival dance” (“The Primordial Wound”, Firman and Gila) it has us trapped in.
The rest is all vanity, muddled thinking and distraction; that is to say, a huge waste of time.
If the trilemma were resolvable, the world would be the same all over (as far as human societies go). Or maybe it would follow that social life at the human level would be impossible.
Because the trilemma exists, choice exists. And evolution of competing societies becomes possible.
We may still end up with a single world dominant accepted solution. If that happens, then it is its own proof of correctness. (At least on earth, for that time-period)
I'm not sure that the coherentist interpretation of leftism is the best, or even an acceptable one. "All men are created equal" is the central leftist axiom. In the leftist interpretation, it implies (maybe with some other, independent axioms) that in an ideal state of affairs, there should be no group differences in outcome. Yet, there are persistent group differences.
Given the axiom, this implies that evil social forces are at work in our world. This consequence of the axiom combined with the moral conviction that the natural state "all men are equal" must be realized and maintained, leads to a permanent war against the forces judged as responsible for the observed situation.
What is commonly called postmodernism, relativism etc., and diagnosed as the "core of leftism" is only a superficial, rhetorical obfuscation of a foundationalism with an absolute morality.
Real axioms, e.g. the law of non-contradiction, cannot be false. They are the bedrock for foundationist theories of justification. Unfortunately, that bedrock is rare and understanding what is truly axiomatic is difficult. Lesser minds tend to believe they can create it by fiat: “All men are created equal is an axiom! Therefore....”
fine, but dense reading. Excellent points esp this outstanding line...Culture war always begins with words. It always ends with swords. is it yours and can i quote you?
You write good articles, Alexander Macris.
All modern errors begin from the denial of essences.
There’s something missing in this vital discussion fraught with bigger-than-life consequences. Let’s call it:
The implication of “being-in-the-world” (a la Existential Psychology and Heidegger/ Binswanger) when applying Newton’s Third Law of Physics (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) through a metaphysical lens.
From a metaphysical perspective as postulated in the Indian Philosophical tradition (or the Gnostics for that matter), all action begets reaction (spanning over life times), and once we are beyond the opening chess move (for sake of argument, “one’s” initial birth, which was presumably ions ago), we find current life choices atrophied to the point where any discussion about “blank slates” and “all are equal” is reduced and relegated to quaint “first truths” that have in various practical terms lost their relevance and only remain valid largely from the “before God” perspective.
In this non-clairvoyant (where you can’t perceive the real, proximate cause of many events having their roots in previous lives) Hobbesian, self-projected holographic matrix, the collision of apparently conflicting, non-sequitur actions and events creates all sorts of illogical outcomes, dilemmas, conundrums, anxieties, and crazy-making catch-22s, the meaning and monetization of which left and right will forever struggle over. Inhumanity and brutality of various kinds is the resulting outcome we are horrifically condemned to live with.
In the end, men can only create a facsimile of the Logos, even of the Platonic ideos (archetypes), and as such, we are all consigned to Plato’s Cave, and to the “Tree of Woe”.
My 1st year college US Government prof had us read “Men and Nations” by Lois B. Halle, which was my entree to this grave existential reality. My long journey down the rabbit hole of understanding the Matrix began there. Where has it led since then?
To the proposition that none of this can be resolved without the help of metaphysics (the highest form of philosophy) and an attempt at direct mystical apprehension of Truth beyond discursive knowledge (if such Truth exists). The roadmap to “enlightenment” (but not the technique itself) was made succinctly clear by the Tao Te Ching, where we are enjoined to return in consciousness to the Origin (the singularity of Truth, for my lack of better words) by ascending to ever higher states of insight and comprehension by traversing the reverse order of creation): from the multitude of phenomena, go back to the two from which the multitude arose, then beyond the two (dual consciousness), to the one, and then to the formless, indescribable Tao, which is the actual, real Source of it all.
Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”) further popularized the roadmap and hero journey involved, with a hint of the epistemological apotheosis that awaits us at the end. It reveals the best outcome this crazy-making world can homeopathically induce, if only we are ready to “follow the call”, instead of being entranced by the “survival dance” (“The Primordial Wound”, Firman and Gila) it has us trapped in.
The rest is all vanity, muddled thinking and distraction; that is to say, a huge waste of time.
If the trilemma were resolvable, the world would be the same all over (as far as human societies go). Or maybe it would follow that social life at the human level would be impossible.
Because the trilemma exists, choice exists. And evolution of competing societies becomes possible.
We may still end up with a single world dominant accepted solution. If that happens, then it is its own proof of correctness. (At least on earth, for that time-period)
I'm not sure that the coherentist interpretation of leftism is the best, or even an acceptable one. "All men are created equal" is the central leftist axiom. In the leftist interpretation, it implies (maybe with some other, independent axioms) that in an ideal state of affairs, there should be no group differences in outcome. Yet, there are persistent group differences.
Given the axiom, this implies that evil social forces are at work in our world. This consequence of the axiom combined with the moral conviction that the natural state "all men are equal" must be realized and maintained, leads to a permanent war against the forces judged as responsible for the observed situation.
What is commonly called postmodernism, relativism etc., and diagnosed as the "core of leftism" is only a superficial, rhetorical obfuscation of a foundationalism with an absolute morality.