Suppose for
a moment that we could form a set of propositions that state today’s basic
foundational assumptions about ourselves and the cosmos, that we could somehow
agree on a set U of indisputable truths, ranging from ethics to physics, from
mathematics to psychology and the arts. The Pi propositions of U can
be dependent or independent among themselves. If all of them were independent, the human experience would be the addition of disconnected actions, but our vital
experience, as well as our science, shows us that this is not the case. Then, at
least some Pi are related. But if there is even one proposition
totally independent of the others, such proposition would not be intelligible,
for it would not have a referent. All Pi are, therefore, somehow
related, and the relation is the thinking-living human being. Now, if all Pi
are related, they could be expressed in terms of some meta-principles or
meta-axioms. This would imply that our axioms are not final (and not axioms),
i.e., that there are other axioms U’, which are not covered by our intuitions
and social agreements. The set of meta-axioms U’, being independent of the set
of the axioms which form system U, would be independent of experience and
intuition, for if they were dependent, they would be part of U, part of our
life experience. But how could we think about something which is independent of
any action of thinking? Traditionally, this dead-end has been solved calling
to the idea of a final ground for thinking beyond human intelligence, a Divine Intelligence, that operates in a wider realm. In any case, since we do not know such axioms neither can we
express them in our intuitions (for then they would be reducible to axioms in U),
we could never construct a formal system of knowledge of Indisputable truths. Indisputable
truths can be constructed only as a narrative of domination, reached by
agreements on the existence of an unprovable universal law, or based on human
conventions.
Existence is Encounter. Meeting at the limen. In the limen, the masks disappear, that is, the basic intuitions of identities, such as the identity that I feel and think in relation to the tree that I see in front of me. The identity of the tree is a projection of mine: the unity of my process of perceiving the tree generates a mask in me, the ghost of a limited unity separated from everything else. The simplest form of intuitive understanding of masks and limen is given to us by numbers. Numbers intuitively express the liminal tension that is Existence. A little etymological note. Rythmos in Greek means flow. Arythmos (number) is what does not flow, what remains solidified. Numbers express the liminoid, and flow, rhythm, expresses the liminal. A rhythm becomes liminoid when we can trace patterns in it, that is, when we can construct masks of identities. Mathematics has spoken of flow using the Latin word “continuum”, the continuous. All modern science, since Leibni...
Comments
Post a Comment
Please write here your comments