*Contents* 01:18 THE QUESTION 05:16 THE SEEN 06:07 Qualia 09:16 Quote re: red 13:43 Difference 15:55 The visible and the invisible 16:04 Flesh 20:40 THE SEER 25:23 Touch 27:24 First meaning of the intertwining/chiasm 32:23 Vision and touch 38:05 Second meaning of the intertwining/chiasm 40:21 Summary
@@absurdbeing2219 *Statement of Beliefs, so far* 1. *Unified Reality and Manifestations* - Reality is a single, unified, underlying substance, which manifests itself in various forms depending on the "wavelength" or perspective from which it is accessed. This substance is the Will under certain wavelengths and *durée* (duration) under others, reflecting different aspects of a non-computational simulation that we experience as existence. 2. *Finite Wavelengths, Infinite Depth* - Reality is structured into a finite number of wavelengths, each corresponding to a different mode of perception or manifestation of the underlying substance. Within each wavelength lies infinite potential, much like the infinite numbers between zero and one. These wavelengths determine whether reality is experienced as Will, *durée*, or as images and actions. 3. *Bergson’s Dynamic Reality* - According to Bergson, reality is a continuous flow of images in which the body acts as a center of action. The body is both a receiver and transmitter of images, where virtual actions are the potential outcomes of interaction with these images, and actual actions are the realized responses. This flow of images is the expression of the underlying reality as *durée*-a dynamic, ever-evolving process. - **Holographic Component**: Each image contains a holographic reflection of the whole reality, meaning every action or perception is a partial but true manifestation of the infinite complexity within a finite context. 4. *Schopenhauer’s Will and Representation* - Schopenhauer views reality as the manifestation of the Will, an underlying force that drives all existence. The world as representation is how this Will manifests when filtered through the human mind's cognitive faculties. While the Will itself is blind, striving, and without purpose, the world of representation provides structure and coherence to our experiences. - *Holographic Component* The world as representation is a holographic image of the Will, where each perceived object or event reflects the underlying drive of the Will within the constraints of our sensory and cognitive limitations. 5. Spinoza’s *Conatus* and Substance: - Spinoza posits that all things are expressions of a single infinite substance, which he calls God or Nature. Each being strives to maintain its existence (*conatus*), driven by the underlying substance. This striving is both a manifestation of the Will (in the Schopenhauerian sense) and the creative flow of *durée* (in Bergsonian terms). - *Holographic Component*: Every individual expression of *conatus* contains within it the essence of the infinite substance. Each being is a holographic part of the whole, containing the drive for self-preservation and the potential for creative evolution. 6. *Reality as a Non-Computational Simulation* : - The underlying reality can be understood as a non-computational simulation, where the finite structure (wavelengths) interacts with infinite potential (variability within each wavelength). This simulation is not a pre-determined program but a dynamic, evolving process where reality manifests differently depending on the perspective (wavelength) and the interaction with time (*durée*). - *Holographic Component* Within this simulation, every part reflects the whole, and each experience or perception is a slice of the infinite potential contained within the finite structure. The simulation is experienced as Will in some contexts, as *durée* in others, and as a world of images and actions depending on the interaction between the observer and reality.
@@absurdbeing2219 *The Role of Species, Culture, Individuals, and Attitudes as Filters of Reality* In this synthesized philosophy, species, cultural backgrounds, individual perspectives, and even personal attitudes act as variations of a "frequency" or wavelength that interacts with the underlying reality, reconstructing and manifesting it in a specific, finite way. These frequencies serve as filters, determining how the infinite potential of reality is expressed and perceived by different beings. 1. *Species as Frequency Variations* - **Biological Perception**: - Each species, with its unique sensory and cognitive apparatus, perceives and interacts with reality in a distinct way. For example, a bat perceives the world primarily through echolocation, while humans rely heavily on vision. These differences in sensory processing are like variations in frequency, where each species "tunes in" to different aspects of the underlying reality. - *Image Reconstruction*: The way a species perceives and reconstructs reality is heavily influenced by its biological makeup. A species' frequency filters the infinite potential of reality, manifesting it as a world that is specific to that species' needs and survival strategies. This is how the underlying Will or *durée* is experienced in a form that is coherent and meaningful for that species. - *Holographic Component*: - Each species' perspective contains a holographic reflection of the whole of reality but in a manner that is filtered and limited by the species' specific frequency. This means that while each species experiences only a finite aspect of reality, that aspect still contains within it the essence of the infinite whole. 2. *Culture as Frequency Modulation* - *Cultural Perception* - Cultures act as collective filters that shape how groups of individuals perceive and interpret reality. These cultural frequencies are built from shared languages, values, traditions, and histories that modulate the way reality is experienced and understood within a community. - **Image Reconstruction**: A culture’s frequency dictates how the underlying reality is reconstructed in the minds of its members. For instance, a culture that values scientific inquiry might reconstruct reality in terms of empirical facts and logical structures, while a culture that values spiritual experiences might emphasize metaphysical or mystical interpretations of reality. - *Holographic Component* - Each culture, while offering a finite perspective, reflects the whole of reality within its specific frequency. This means that the cultural worldview contains within it all the potential aspects of reality, but expressed through the unique lens of that culture’s history, language, and values. 3. *Individual as a Unique Frequency* - *Personal Perception* - At the individual level, each person’s unique combination of experiences, personality, and cognitive biases creates a distinct frequency that filters reality in a personal way. This frequency is shaped by both biological factors (like species) and cultural influences, but also by personal experiences and choices. - *Image Reconstruction*: An individual’s frequency determines how they reconstruct the world in their mind, influencing their actions, decisions, and interpretations of events. Two individuals from the same culture might perceive the same situation differently because their personal frequencies filter reality in unique ways. - *Holographic Component* - Each individual perspective is a holographic slice of the whole, reflecting the infinite potential of reality but through a unique, personalized lens. While the individual’s frequency offers a finite view, it still contains the essence of the infinite reality in a way that is specific to that person’s life and experiences. 4. *Attitude as a Dynamic Frequency* - *Attitudinal Perception* - An individual’s attitude or state of mind at any given moment can dynamically alter their frequency, shifting how they perceive and reconstruct reality. For example, an attitude of optimism might filter reality in a way that emphasizes opportunities and positive outcomes, while a pessimistic attitude might filter reality to highlight challenges and threats. - *Image Reconstruction*: Attitudes act as real-time modulations of an individual’s frequency, affecting how the underlying reality is manifested in their experience. This means that the same individual can perceive the same situation differently depending on their emotional or mental state, as their attitude alters the filter through which reality is reconstructed. - *Holographic Component* - Even moment-to-moment attitudes reflect a holographic part of the whole of reality. The shifts in attitude modulate the finite aspect of reality being accessed, but each attitudinal state still carries within it the potential for accessing other aspects of reality, depending on how the frequency is tuned. ### Principium Individuationis and Finite Manifestation The *principium individuationis* (principle of individuation per Schopenhauer) describes how the infinite substance of reality is divided into distinct, finite entities or experiences. In this system, the frequencies described above-species, culture, individual perspectives, and attitudes-serve as the filters that bring about individuation. These filters manifest reality in specific, finite forms by selecting and reconstructing certain aspects of the infinite potential within each wavelength. - *Finite Manifestation** Each frequency acts to "collapse" the infinite potential of reality into a finite, coherent experience or manifestation.
Nathan, I want to express my deep gratitude for these videos. Your summaries are clear and offer just what I need to follow along with these dense texts as I'm writing my thesis. It goes quite a long way, especially for younger students such as myself.
Regarding the "in -itself", or the analog of it in MP. I would call it something like the "infinite manifold" which refers to a set of possibilities or appearances that has no end. It implies that for any given perception, there are always more possible perceptions or appearances that could follow. This manifold is essential to the potentiality of perception-there are always more ways an object could be experienced. If correctly understood, as a pre-predicative or pre-reflective consciousness, the manifold is not a rational concept, but brute being itself, which is not a thing-in-itself devoid of any possible subject, but the perceptual faith which constitutes the possibility of being-in-the-world and, thereby, intersubjectivity. The idea that an object can be experience in an infinite number of ways, each revealing something new, creates an infinite manifold. Even if you haven’t yet experienced all possible views, the potential for those experiences exists within this infinite manifold, which is necessarily both inexhaustible and itself constitutive of the universal horizon of "the known & the unknown" "...the structure of the known and of the unknown is a fundamental structure of world-consciousness, correlatively, a structure of the world as horizon of all individual real things capable of being experienced. This structure is characterized by its complete relativity and by the distinction, equally relative and complete, between indeterminate generality and determinate particularity. In the continuous validation of its being, the world, present to consciousness as horizon, has the subjective general character of trustworthiness as a horizon of existents known in general but, on that account, still not known as regards individual particularities. This indeterminate general trustworthiness is allotted to all things which attain separate validity as existent. Accordingly, each thing, as a familiar form, has its own degree of familiarity, ranging from the known to the unknown." - Husserl Experience & Judgement pg 37
@@Haveuseenmyjetpack Straight through, just once, but then, as with every book I really want to understand, I went through it in detail writing out my own summary of it.
So MP's official position was "there is no thing in itself"? Wild. Hopefully that was his view when restricted to phenomenology only? or do you think this is a metaphysical/ontological claim all the way?
Actually, I don't think we can separate MP's ontology from his phenomenology. People often take ontology to mean something like "what _is_ in itself"; i.e. independent of human experience (in which case the ontological claim "there is no thing in itself" would be super-radical), but I would say MP's position is that "what is" just doesn't make sense without a perspective. The thing is always clothed, not because we are limited in our capacity to know it, but because the 'clothing' is part of what makes a thing a thing. Ontology, although not reducible to or the same as it, begins with experience. I'm not aware of MP ever calling his philosophy metaphysics (with the caveat that there is so much of MP's works that I haven't read), but I, for my part, would say it isn't metaphysical at all. Metaphysics, as I define it at least, goes beyond experience to try to piece together an account of how perspective/experience arises (evolves) in the first place. The primordial/fundamental nature of reality that metaphysics aims at, while it won't be a (ontological) thing, can't be nothing at all (as in void/pure emptiness)... and this is where Bergson takes over for me.
@@absurdbeing2219 Sure, the clothing is part of what makes a thing a thing. Are you saying MP essentially wants to reduce things to their phenomenality, or experience OF things?
@@absurdbeing2219 As you define it, metaphysics goes beyond experience, in order to account for the possibility of experience? This was certainly the view of Kant, and most metaphysicians before him as well, and therefore they necessarily sought to proceed only from inferences based upon knowledge (universal principles) a priori. After all, how could one ever constitute a solid metaphysics -- as the science of that which lies beyond the possibility of all experience -- by applying principles which must first themselves be drawn from experience!? They closed off the principle source of all knowledge (experience) by, perhaps unwittingly, assuming, from the outset, that metaphysics and knowledge a priori were one and the same. But aside from quoting some sorry explanation about the etymology of the word "metaphysics", they offered no proof that the material needed for solutions to the questions of metaphysics cannot be contained in the world itself. If metaphysics is to be successful at all, it must (according to the logic above) not aim to pass beyond the world of experience, but understand it more and more completely.
@@Haveuseenmyjetpack Interesting. I think there is a balance to strike here. If MP is reducing things to their phenomenality, then isn't ontology just collapsing into phenomenology? There has to be more to ontology than just our experience of things, or we haven't gone beyond Husserl. This 'more' is, I think, "flesh" as the milieu which is, by definition, not a part of experience; a passive, _invisible_ potentiality standing over against the active, _visible_ thing of our experiences.
@@absurdbeing2219 for Husserl this is “pure passivity”, “primal passivity”. Of course, it was Husserl who originally explored the topic of touching one’s hand etc
*Contents*
01:18 THE QUESTION
05:16 THE SEEN
06:07 Qualia
09:16 Quote re: red
13:43 Difference
15:55 The visible and the invisible
16:04 Flesh
20:40 THE SEER
25:23 Touch
27:24 First meaning of the intertwining/chiasm
32:23 Vision and touch
38:05 Second meaning of the intertwining/chiasm
40:21 Summary
@@absurdbeing2219 *Statement of Beliefs, so far*
1. *Unified Reality and Manifestations*
- Reality is a single, unified, underlying substance, which manifests itself in various forms depending on the "wavelength" or perspective from which it is accessed. This substance is the Will under certain wavelengths and *durée* (duration) under others, reflecting different aspects of a non-computational simulation that we experience as existence.
2. *Finite Wavelengths, Infinite Depth*
- Reality is structured into a finite number of wavelengths, each corresponding to a different mode of perception or manifestation of the underlying substance. Within each wavelength lies infinite potential, much like the infinite numbers between zero and one. These wavelengths determine whether reality is experienced as Will, *durée*, or as images and actions.
3. *Bergson’s Dynamic Reality*
- According to Bergson, reality is a continuous flow of images in which the body acts as a center of action. The body is both a receiver and transmitter of images, where virtual actions are the potential outcomes of interaction with these images, and actual actions are the realized responses. This flow of images is the expression of the underlying reality as *durée*-a dynamic, ever-evolving process.
- **Holographic Component**: Each image contains a holographic reflection of the whole reality, meaning every action or perception is a partial but true manifestation of the infinite complexity within a finite context.
4. *Schopenhauer’s Will and Representation*
- Schopenhauer views reality as the manifestation of the Will, an underlying force that drives all existence. The world as representation is how this Will manifests when filtered through the human mind's cognitive faculties. While the Will itself is blind, striving, and without purpose, the world of representation provides structure and coherence to our experiences.
- *Holographic Component*
The world as representation is a holographic image of the Will, where each perceived object or event reflects the underlying drive of the Will within the constraints of our sensory and cognitive limitations.
5. Spinoza’s *Conatus* and Substance:
- Spinoza posits that all things are expressions of a single infinite substance, which he calls God or Nature. Each being strives to maintain its existence (*conatus*), driven by the underlying substance. This striving is both a manifestation of the Will (in the Schopenhauerian sense) and the creative flow of *durée* (in Bergsonian terms).
- *Holographic Component*: Every individual expression of *conatus* contains within it the essence of the infinite substance. Each being is a holographic part of the whole, containing the drive for self-preservation and the potential for creative evolution.
6. *Reality as a Non-Computational Simulation* :
- The underlying reality can be understood as a non-computational simulation, where the finite structure (wavelengths) interacts with infinite potential (variability within each wavelength). This simulation is not a pre-determined program but a dynamic, evolving process where reality manifests differently depending on the perspective (wavelength) and the interaction with time (*durée*).
- *Holographic Component*
Within this simulation, every part reflects the whole, and each experience or perception is a slice of the infinite potential contained within the finite structure. The simulation is experienced as Will in some contexts, as *durée* in others, and as a world of images and actions depending on the interaction between the observer and reality.
@@absurdbeing2219 *The Role of Species, Culture, Individuals, and Attitudes as Filters of Reality*
In this synthesized philosophy, species, cultural backgrounds, individual perspectives, and even personal attitudes act as variations of a "frequency" or wavelength that interacts with the underlying reality, reconstructing and manifesting it in a specific, finite way. These frequencies serve as filters, determining how the infinite potential of reality is expressed and perceived by different beings.
1. *Species as Frequency Variations*
- **Biological Perception**:
- Each species, with its unique sensory and cognitive apparatus, perceives and interacts with reality in a distinct way. For example, a bat perceives the world primarily through echolocation, while humans rely heavily on vision. These differences in sensory processing are like variations in frequency, where each species "tunes in" to different aspects of the underlying reality.
- *Image Reconstruction*: The way a species perceives and reconstructs reality is heavily influenced by its biological makeup. A species' frequency filters the infinite potential of reality, manifesting it as a world that is specific to that species' needs and survival strategies. This is how the underlying Will or *durée* is experienced in a form that is coherent and meaningful for that species.
- *Holographic Component*:
- Each species' perspective contains a holographic reflection of the whole of reality but in a manner that is filtered and limited by the species' specific frequency. This means that while each species experiences only a finite aspect of reality, that aspect still contains within it the essence of the infinite whole.
2. *Culture as Frequency Modulation*
- *Cultural Perception*
- Cultures act as collective filters that shape how groups of individuals perceive and interpret reality. These cultural frequencies are built from shared languages, values, traditions, and histories that modulate the way reality is experienced and understood within a community.
- **Image Reconstruction**: A culture’s frequency dictates how the underlying reality is reconstructed in the minds of its members. For instance, a culture that values scientific inquiry might reconstruct reality in terms of empirical facts and logical structures, while a culture that values spiritual experiences might emphasize metaphysical or mystical interpretations of reality.
- *Holographic Component*
- Each culture, while offering a finite perspective, reflects the whole of reality within its specific frequency. This means that the cultural worldview contains within it all the potential aspects of reality, but expressed through the unique lens of that culture’s history, language, and values.
3. *Individual as a Unique Frequency*
- *Personal Perception*
- At the individual level, each person’s unique combination of experiences, personality, and cognitive biases creates a distinct frequency that filters reality in a personal way. This frequency is shaped by both biological factors (like species) and cultural influences, but also by personal experiences and choices.
- *Image Reconstruction*: An individual’s frequency determines how they reconstruct the world in their mind, influencing their actions, decisions, and interpretations of events. Two individuals from the same culture might perceive the same situation differently because their personal frequencies filter reality in unique ways.
- *Holographic Component*
- Each individual perspective is a holographic slice of the whole, reflecting the infinite potential of reality but through a unique, personalized lens. While the individual’s frequency offers a finite view, it still contains the essence of the infinite reality in a way that is specific to that person’s life and experiences.
4. *Attitude as a Dynamic Frequency*
- *Attitudinal Perception*
- An individual’s attitude or state of mind at any given moment can dynamically alter their frequency, shifting how they perceive and reconstruct reality. For example, an attitude of optimism might filter reality in a way that emphasizes opportunities and positive outcomes, while a pessimistic attitude might filter reality to highlight challenges and threats.
- *Image Reconstruction*:
Attitudes act as real-time modulations of an individual’s frequency, affecting how the underlying reality is manifested in their experience. This means that the same individual can perceive the same situation differently depending on their emotional or mental state, as their attitude alters the filter through which reality is reconstructed.
- *Holographic Component*
- Even moment-to-moment attitudes reflect a holographic part of the whole of reality. The shifts in attitude modulate the finite aspect of reality being accessed, but each attitudinal state still carries within it the potential for accessing other aspects of reality, depending on how the frequency is tuned.
### Principium Individuationis and Finite Manifestation
The *principium individuationis* (principle of individuation per Schopenhauer) describes how the infinite substance of reality is divided into distinct, finite entities or experiences. In this system, the frequencies described above-species, culture, individual perspectives, and attitudes-serve as the filters that bring about individuation. These filters manifest reality in specific, finite forms by selecting and reconstructing certain aspects of the infinite potential within each wavelength.
- *Finite Manifestation**
Each frequency acts to "collapse" the infinite potential of reality into a finite, coherent experience or manifestation.
Nathan, I want to express my deep gratitude for these videos. Your summaries are clear and offer just what I need to follow along with these dense texts as I'm writing my thesis. It goes quite a long way, especially for younger students such as myself.
Thanks for that kind words, Daniel. I really appreciate that. Only three more videos to go...
Check out Barbaras' The Being of the Phenomenon: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology as well. Might be helpful. What are you planning to write about?
Regarding the "in -itself", or the analog of it in MP. I would call it something like the "infinite manifold" which refers to a set of possibilities or appearances that has no end. It implies that for any given perception, there are always more possible perceptions or appearances that could follow. This manifold is essential to the potentiality of perception-there are always more ways an object could be experienced. If correctly understood, as a pre-predicative or pre-reflective consciousness, the manifold is not a rational concept, but brute being itself, which is not a thing-in-itself devoid of any possible subject, but the perceptual faith which constitutes the possibility of being-in-the-world and, thereby, intersubjectivity.
The idea that an object can be experience in an infinite number of ways, each revealing something new, creates an infinite manifold.
Even if you haven’t yet experienced all possible views, the potential for those experiences exists within this infinite manifold, which is necessarily both inexhaustible and itself constitutive of the universal horizon of "the known & the unknown"
"...the structure of the known and of the unknown is a
fundamental structure of world-consciousness, correlatively, a
structure of the world as horizon of all individual real things
capable of being experienced. This structure is characterized by
its complete relativity and by the distinction, equally relative
and complete, between indeterminate generality and determinate
particularity. In the continuous validation of its being, the
world, present to consciousness as horizon, has the subjective
general character of trustworthiness as a horizon of existents
known in general but, on that account, still not known as regards
individual particularities. This indeterminate general
trustworthiness is allotted to all things which attain separate
validity as existent. Accordingly, each thing, as a familiar form,
has its own degree of familiarity, ranging from the known to
the unknown." - Husserl Experience & Judgement pg 37
This is not the first time you've quoted from _Experience and Judgement_ and each time, it makes me want to read it. Add it to the list, I suppose...
OK now perhaps a little Gurwitsch? Crystal clear phenomenology AT LAST??
Have you read Matter and Memory once, or more than once?
@@Haveuseenmyjetpack Straight through, just once, but then, as with every book I really want to understand, I went through it in detail writing out my own summary of it.
@@absurdbeing2219 I’m going through it again now, using AI to help me think through the original french
So MP's official position was "there is no thing in itself"? Wild. Hopefully that was his view when restricted to phenomenology only? or do you think this is a metaphysical/ontological claim all the way?
Actually, I don't think we can separate MP's ontology from his phenomenology. People often take ontology to mean something like "what _is_ in itself"; i.e. independent of human experience (in which case the ontological claim "there is no thing in itself" would be super-radical), but I would say MP's position is that "what is" just doesn't make sense without a perspective. The thing is always clothed, not because we are limited in our capacity to know it, but because the 'clothing' is part of what makes a thing a thing. Ontology, although not reducible to or the same as it, begins with experience.
I'm not aware of MP ever calling his philosophy metaphysics (with the caveat that there is so much of MP's works that I haven't read), but I, for my part, would say it isn't metaphysical at all. Metaphysics, as I define it at least, goes beyond experience to try to piece together an account of how perspective/experience arises (evolves) in the first place. The primordial/fundamental nature of reality that metaphysics aims at, while it won't be a (ontological) thing, can't be nothing at all (as in void/pure emptiness)... and this is where Bergson takes over for me.
@@absurdbeing2219 Sure, the clothing is part of what makes a thing a thing. Are you saying MP essentially wants to reduce things to their phenomenality, or experience OF things?
@@absurdbeing2219 As you define it, metaphysics goes beyond experience, in order to account for the possibility of experience? This was certainly the view of Kant, and most metaphysicians before him as well, and therefore they necessarily sought to proceed only from inferences based upon knowledge (universal principles) a priori. After all, how could one ever constitute a solid metaphysics -- as the science of that which lies beyond the possibility of all experience -- by applying principles which must first themselves be drawn from experience!? They closed off the principle source of all knowledge (experience) by, perhaps unwittingly, assuming, from the outset, that metaphysics and knowledge a priori were one and the same. But aside from quoting some sorry explanation about the etymology of the word "metaphysics", they offered no proof that the material needed for solutions to the questions of metaphysics cannot be contained in the world itself. If metaphysics is to be successful at all, it must (according to the logic above) not aim to pass beyond the world of experience, but understand it more and more completely.
@@Haveuseenmyjetpack Interesting. I think there is a balance to strike here. If MP is reducing things to their phenomenality, then isn't ontology just collapsing into phenomenology? There has to be more to ontology than just our experience of things, or we haven't gone beyond Husserl. This 'more' is, I think, "flesh" as the milieu which is, by definition, not a part of experience; a passive, _invisible_ potentiality standing over against the active, _visible_ thing of our experiences.
@@absurdbeing2219 for Husserl this is “pure passivity”, “primal passivity”. Of course, it was Husserl who originally explored the topic of touching one’s hand etc