Supporting essays for the way of being
Anil Mitra, Copyright © November 16, 2023 – February 13, 2024

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Introduction | Maintenance | The essays | Descriptions

Supporting essays for the way of being

Introduction

The functions of the supporting essays are

To keep the main essay (2023) and the brief version short and essential,

To have the special topics and each special topic in one place,

To avoid repetition.

Further, some supporting essays will be standalone and definitive articles.

The list below will also include canonical essays from 2022.

Maintenance

The document shall be updated when new essays are written, or the names of old essays are changed.

The essays

The supporting essays

a journey in being, abstract objects, background to the way, cosmology, dialetheia, essence of the way, essence of vedanta, fundamental paradigms for metaphysics, god, metaphysics, metaphysics and vocabulary for the way, natural mereology, necessity of being, on meaning, outline of the way, philosophy, program for the way of being, resources for short version, stages of human growth, the universe, plain version.

Canonical essays from 2022

dimensions of being, experience, and the world, language for metaphysics (short version), lessons for the way of being

Descriptions

Plain version of the way of being—designed to be accessible to a wide range of readers.

(a personal and general complement to the introduction, which may absorb some aspects of the introduction), and other possible introductory topics. A very brief version of part of the background is in the preview to the long essay of 2023.

Background to the way of being (a personal and general complement to the introduction, which may absorb some aspects of the introduction), and other possible introductory topics. A very brief version of part of the background is in the preview to the long essay of 2023.

Program for the way of being—for realization and publication.

Worldviews, their imaginative development, justification, and limits (may be absorbed to the background, above). That justification combines the empirical, analysis of meaning, the rational, the pragmatic, and their combinations.

A short essential version of the way of being—for general use in presentation, as essence, and as base for the outline.

A detailed outline of the way of being—which will follow the outline of the present document and fill it in with sub-topics in detail; it will be the basis of a detailed version of this essay (the little manual is an early version) and reflect many of the items above, especially the application and elaboration (which may be the source of a limited number of main topics such as the problems of metaphysics and philosophical cosmology; philosophical cosmology will, of course, include but go well beyond considerations of physical cosmology).

A journey in being—an intersection of the way of being and a life in novel form.

Stages of human growth—from conception through natural and social development and beyond into individuation and universal understanding and being.

The definitions—the system of definitions employed in the metaphysics as an ultimate system of knowledge. The functions are (i) to coordinate the definitions of this and the supporting essays (ii) to aid in revealing systematic and informal metaphysics (iii) serve as one basis for an index.

Philosophy—the original intent was to complement the metaphysics with a treatment of epistemology, which is necessary to justified metaphysics—for if metaphysis is knowledge of the real, a claim that something is real requires that we know that it is real and to justify that we know is an epistemological issue. In fact even what it is to know is epistemological. However, it became clear that on general ground and ground particular to the way of being, that that aim and significantly more would be achieved by expanding the scope of the document to the main branches of philosophy (and a bit more, e.g., philosophy of science). The topics will be (i) what is philosophy (ii) what are its academic side (metaphysics, epistemology, logic, and value theory) and existential sides (e.g., philosophy for being and living in the world) and how do they relate and emerge from common ground (iii) why epistemology and metaphysics are essential to one another (in fact, they are closer than just that—for, if metaphysics is about the real and knowledge is part of the real, then epistemology is part of metaphysics, and, given good epistemology, whatever metaphysics is possible would flow from it; but there is still more—for effective study, metaphysics and epistemology are best done together; and yet more, for as is seen in the real metaphysics, they are different aspects of experience) (iv) what is knowledge (i.e., what constitutes knowledge in a knower or in a publication) (v) what are considered to be sources of knowledge, e.g., the empirical, the rational, the cultural context, (vi) what are criteria of validity (vii) skepticism—Cartesian and Pyrrhonic (and that while Cartesian skepticism requires doubt until justification can be given, Pyrrhonic skepticism denies the possibility of knowledge and aims at calmness via suspension of judgment) (viii) what is metaphysics (and what is science); that the given definition ‘knowledge of the real’ though somewhat different than traditional conceptions, its extension significantly overlaps tradition; that though we can be skeptical about knowledge under any conception, there is perfect knowledge of the real in a universal abstract, (ix) that such abstract metaphysics, epistemology, logic, and ethics (philosophy) come together in the perfect real metaphysics.

Metaphysics—(i) systematic and ad hoc and (ii) rigorous and intuitive—which will cover reasons for the present conception, its relations to received conceptions and comparison of merit, its effectiveness, and its developments. It will not argue for system and rigor vs ad hoc and intuitive metaphysics but for the critical-creative give and take between these elements. It will argue for metaphysical neutrality, and for metametaphysical neutrality (which includes neutrality to neutrality).

Metaphysics and vocabulary for the way, to be combined with metaphysics.

Fundamental paradigms for metaphysics—a system of paradigms (i) drawn from human knowledge and experience (ii) for preliminary elaboration of metaphysics and cosmology.

Cosmology—with the following aims (i) cosmology as developed in recent essays such as the 2021 the way of being template (ii) experiential cosmology, i.e., the varieties of experiential being, especially with focus on how to develop the variety, the variety, and use in realization.

The universe—develops (i) a detailed picture of the universe that emerges from the real metaphysics (ii) method for the same.

On meaning, essential to and an essential element of general understanding and, particularly, the metaphysics.

On the necessity of being, an essential element of the metaphysics.

The essence of Advaita Vedanta, which, though it lacks demonstration, is the philosophy that comes closest to the way of being in its picture of the real

God, a reflection.

Method (use the section on method in the long essay of 2023).

Logic, which will emphasize the meaning of logic, both formal deductive logic and science under one umbrella (and justification of the same), ‘philosophical logic’, logic as both knowledge and inference, and the fundamental nature of logic.

Value theory (axiology) with ethics and aesthetics (aesthetics will emphasize beauty as meaning and motivation over theory).

Real psychology, which is to emphasize aligning attitude toward being in the world and realizing aims, especially the ultimate in and from the immediate; academic psychology will be of interest (i) in supporting this aim (ii) delineating the dimensions of experience and being. On a personal note, the issue of whether I was a rebel and its significance.

Application and elaboration—supplements and may be part of the detailed outline—applications and developments of metaphysics, classical and modern problems of metaphysics, philosophical cosmology and application to physical cosmology, epistemology, logic, and ethics. In addition to developments, elaboration may include explanations, intuitions, motivations, and historical perspectives. Possibly, add a very brief version of this document to the essay.

Abstract objects—an important application and supporting essay.

Dialetheia—an important application and supporting essay. Further examples will be sought to flesh out the dialetheia and to provide material for analysis. The existence of absolute dialetheia is to be investigated further. The usefulness of relative dialetheia and their treatment by paraconsistent logics are to be investigated.

Natural mereology—potentially useful for the metaphysics of the way and as supplement to dialetheia.

Select essays—from canonical works for the way of being.

Resources—supplement to the resources, in the long essay of 2023, will absorb all the resources, leaving only the essential ones.

Index—to the supporting essays (this list forms the basis for the index).

Reference essays—to be updated and reformatted—the little manual, paths, ways, beyul, and a system of human knowledge.