The PROBLEM OF PIFFLE, Part Two: Foundations of the Cosmos
Part Two: Foundations of the Cosmos
This is the second of a six part series investigating the paradoxes confronting monotheistic and atheist models of the world. The first part is here.
For the monotheists, our view of the cosmos rests on nine foundations.
Metaphysics
First, as a matter of metaphysics, we hold reality to be real, which means, reality is a single unity, rationally coherent with itself. If reality is real, reality never contradicts itself.
Logic
Second, as a matter of logic, we hold reason is rational, on the grounds that symbols which contradict themselves contradict reality, which cannot contradict itself.
One who doubts the necessity of reason cannot even express said doubts without himself using reason, which proves reason is necessary.
Ontology
Third, as a matter of ontology, we hold that what is, is.
A statement is true when what it says is, is as said. Otherwise, it is false, in part or whole. A meaningless statement is false in the sense that it says nothing.
Again, as a matter of ontology, statements can be either literal or fictional, concrete or abstract, depending on the subject matter, and depending on the whether the word “is” represents an identity (as when two words refer to the one same object “A is A”) or a property (as when two objects share one same a property in common “A is Alpha in Greek, Aleph in Hebrew”).
A unicorn, for example is a one-horned quadruped, in the sense that this is what the word means; but a unicorn is not a one-horned quadruped in the sense that unicorns do not exist, save in fables. Ontology tells us that reality is a unity, but words and thoughts meant to represent reality allow for ambiguity, inaccuracy, falsehood, fables, figures of speech and nonsense.
Ontology, the study of the nature of being, reveals that to be in the literal and concrete sense is not the same as to be in the figurative or fictional or abstract sense. The map is not the territory. The word is not the thing it represents.
Epistemology
Fourth, as a matter of epistemology, we hold that we know reality to be real and reason to be rational on the grounds that contradictions to statements expressing these truths contradict themselves.
True statements, to be statements, must be about something. Statements are predications of a subject matter. A statement that denies what it affirms is untrue as well as untruthful, since it proposes a self-contradiction.
If the subject matter of a statement is about a subject grasped by sense impressions, it is true when the things sensed are as sensed. The method of disproving such statements is generally called empiricism, which is the examination of regularity in nature by comparison to sense impressions.
Empiricism is impossible without assuming the metaphysical principles of cause and effect, essence and accident, continuity of perception, the objectivity of reality, the reliability of the senses.
Empiricism is called a posteriori, because it logically follows after specific sense impressions, hence only reveals particular truths. The most common discipline of empiricism is called natural philosophy, which includes astronomy and physics.
If about a subject grasped by the mind, prior to or regardless of specific sense impressions, it is true when the things apprehended are as apprehended. The method of disproving such statements is generally called rationalism, which is the deduction of formal and universal truths from first principles, but also can include a dialectic process of discovering universals by contemplating the common properties of particulars.
Rationalism is impossible without assuming the metaphysical principle of formalism, such that the forms or abstractions grasped by the human mind, if grasped correctly, reflect and refer to the unseen reality, or noumena, whose forms or abstractions are manifest in the empirical world. The abstractions of the subjective mind and objective reality are one and the same, related to each other as particular to universal.
Formalism is the assumption that empirical reality follows rational abstractions. Logic and physics follow the same rules.
Rationalism is called a priori, because it logically precedes specific sense impressions. A priori truths are truth regardless of the specific cases, hence a priori reasoning hence only reveals universal truths. The most common discipline of rationalism is geometry, which includes mathematics.
Semantics
Fifth, as a matter of semantics, words are fictional abstractions, meant for myth and poetry, but can be deliberately limited and defined to be poetical expressions of a very small and specific range of objects, with the ambiguity that grants beauty to poetry held aside: such words are prose, and are called literal.
Words point to objects but are not the objects themselves, save in the limited case of imperative speech, such as issuing commands, sanctifying a marriage, rendering a verdict, signing a contract, giving one’s word. In all other cases, manipulating the words can alter one’s passions, perceptions, and appetites regarding an object, but do not, without more, alter the object itself.
Hence words are subjective, albeit incarnate objective reality, much as a body incarnates a soul.
Morality
Sixth, as a matter of morals, to misuse words, to portray fictions as facts, to mislead, manipulate, or otherwise misuse the power of speech is morally wrong, that is, it is vice.
It is known to be wrong because any man who says misuse of speech is right is wrong. If he says lying is right, he is either not lying, or he is lying. If he is not lying, he is not doing as he advocates, which is a lie. In either case, it is a lie. Hence lying is wrong. This is a conclusion that proves itself by its own utterance: such things are called self-evident.
This conclusion holds true in all cases, therefore holds true in cases where we are inclined to wish it were otherwise, not matter how strong our personal interests would be served, or personal appetites and passions tempt. It is true regardless of opinion, and cannot be changed by human will.
Adherence to a standard of moral right and wrong, regardless of inclination, wish, interest, temptation, opinion, or will, is called duty. Duty is that one ought to do even when not so inclined.
Habits of thought, word, and action befitting a character inclined to duty are called virtues, for they are the power to overcome contrary inclinations and temptations. Habits of thought, word, and action befitting the breach of duty are called vice.
Of duties, some are natural, and some born of covenants, including voluntary obligations, such as contracts. Of necessity, the duty to habituate oneself to thought, word and action, so as to gain the virtues needed to carry out duties, is a primal natural duty.
Knowledge of duty is through the faculty called the conscience. It operates via a matter of judgment and self-abnegation, as when ravishing beauty is seen, and the judgment assents to confirm the beautiful is beautiful. This is a moral beauty, a sense of fitness and proportion, distinguishing breaches of duty from satisfaction, guilt from innocence, and measuring the proportion of penalty toward guilt by means of proper prudence and temperance.
Human nature does not allow us always, or, sad experience shows, frequently, to assess what is just and unjust in due proportion and temperate measure: this faculty must be trained by experience, and by attention to the experience of forebears.
Because the moral order of the universe is obscure to man, and because man, by nature, is not meant to be alone, the duties running between men, particularly in regard to the use of labor to win life from uncaring nature, and the use of force to coerce other men, are often in doubt. Men is wolf to man: no other danger is even remotely as threatening, neither famine nor pestilence.
Law
To reduce doubt and create a rational expectation of security within family, clan, tribe, or city, laws are instituted among men as rituals meant to make clear and make public the duties society demands, to establish peace, and permit the good life to flourish. Public vengeance replaces personal retaliation or clan feuds. The study of such laws and their execution is called politics. The study of laws governing the marketplace is called economics. The study of war is war.
All three, politics, economics, and war, are specific applications of the moral order, and social instruments meant to serve and nourish it. War is a deliberate breach of the moral order and is just only when meant, as a final argument of sovereigns and last resort, to restore it. Crusade is the use of war to restore the supernatural order.
Law, also called political economics, is regarded as separate enough a field of study from ethics, to be numbered as our seventh foundation. Machiavellianism, which is an attempt to study political economics from a pragmatic stance unrelated to the general good, or the health of the soul, is a perverse dead-end branch of this study.
Politics properly so called is the study of the virtuous arrangement of the state. It is meant to encourage the good of man, promote virtue, preserve civilized traditions, sanctify marriage, as well as to encourage peace, justice, and prosperity while on earth.
Men are not naturally able to perceive what is just and prudent, being confounded by unruly passions, appetites, self-interest. The conscience sleeps more often than wakes.
In the same way natural beauty and manmade beauties meant to mimic nature do not always lend themselves to immediate perception. In many cases, tastes must be trained, and, even as laws are used as tools to discover proper proportions of justice within a family, tribe, or community, artistic traditions and principles are used to train the tastes.
Aesthetics
Eighth, aesthetics is the study of the beauties of nature and art is the imitation of them by man, as a creator created in the image and likeness of the divine Creator. It is by the perception of the sublime beauty within the soul, and its likenesses in the splendors and wonders of the surrounding cosmos in its regularity, order, and due proportion, beauty which is sublime, that is, which induced self-forgetfulness, that we are aware of the divine likeness dwelling each in every man.
Hence the revelation – should it ever be revealed by our Creator — that we are immortal souls in mortal shapes comes as no shock nor surprise.
Theology
Finally, and ninth, the study of revelation, and its relation to man and cosmos, is called theology. It is the queen of sciences, and, without her, the others must wither and die.
Philosophy
The list above gives the reasons for supporting the monotheist worldview. It is to be noted that this list also comprises the seven major and two minor branches of philosophy, that is, all branches of philosophy aside from natural philosophy, i.e., physics.
Note that those pagan philosophers, as Plato and Aristotle, Plotinus and Epictetus, who practiced polytheism, preached belief in an Unmoved Mover, or a Form of the Good, or a divine Mind or Providence, which was at least an abstract form of a single and almighty sovereign power, a Supreme Being.
This is not only because philosophy supports monotheism, philosophy leads to monotheism. To embrace the ramifications of atheism is to reject the branches of philosophy, one by one.
Conclusion
Such is the cosmos of the monotheist. When asked to explain any part of his cosmos, whether doubts should arise touching metaphysics, logic, ontology, epistemology, semantics, morals, law, aesthetics, theology, he has a coherent account.
While he might not be able to explain how the perfect Creator, an eternal and supreme being outside of time, simple, motionless, and fulfilling all potential, a being who sets all material objects in motion, or makes and carries out plans, or acts without being motivated by any want or lack, nonetheless, that nothing moves without a cause sufficient to impart motion is easily explained, for the Creator is also the Unmoved Mover and the First Cause of all causation.
A rational Creator implies a rational creation, and the divine likeness reflected in man implies at least a hope, however rare, of rational adherence in man to the moral order of the universe. Faith in God includes the faith that cause and effect exist in principle even in unobserved events, and acts as a metaphysical axiom allowing empiricism to exist.
Whereas the atheist cannot answer the metaphysical question of why there is anything rather than nothing. His universe is irrational, because not made by a rational creator, hence can have no final cause, no point, no purpose. His universe is not a universe at all. It is a chaos, in which nothing can really exist, not even the atheist.
In the godless universe of the atheist, whether the atheist knows it or not, all is formless and void.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
