From: platootje@netscape.net
Date: Mon Aug 29 2005 - 19:31:26 BST
I've been hesitating about posting this. I see the relation to the MoQ very clearly. I like to know if others do too, and any other comments you may have:
Aristotelian logic
Our experienced reality consists of everything we experience. So let say the collection of all things we experience is {A..Z}.
We first look at one element of this set: X.
If we want to apply the logic to X, X must be a statement, so we describe our reality in statements:
'Tree' then becomes 'This is a tree'.
Every piece of our reality can be described by a statement in this way.
So we look at statement X.
Logic sais: if X is true then not-X can't also be true.
(if 'this is a tree' is true, then 'this is not a tree' is not true).
Now we've seen the values 'true' and 'false'.
There's one more value that's possible, which is NULL or unknown. This is neither true or false.
Now for formal writing lets agree upon the following rules:
X is true will be written as X is TRUE
X is false will be written as X is FALSE
X is null will be written as X is NULL
not-X will be written as !X
Formal logic says that if X is null and we have statement Y, saying X is true, and statement Z, saying X is false, then both Y and Z are not true and not false.
So, applying logic we can say the following:
if X is TRUE then !X is FALSE
if !X is TRUE then X is FALSE
if X is NULL then !X is NULL
from this follows:
if X is not NULL then !X is not NULL
So, what are we saying in normal language? We're saying that if something is known that the negation is als known. So we can only know things of which we also know the negation. So we can only experience things of which we can also experience the negation.
This implies that the known X and the negation of that, the known not-X, become known at exactly the same time.
Also this implies that if X is unknown, also the negation is unknown and so it's impossible to distinguise the 2 from each other.
From the above we can say that our reality consists of {A..Z|!A..!Z} where for every element the value is not NULL.
So what's the difference between the following 3 statement:
A) X is NULL
B) X is TRUE
C) X is FALSE
Well, A is not part of our reality, B and C are part of our reality
To come from A to B one has to make a value judgement
To come from A to C one has to make a value judgement
So making a value-judgement creates reality.
============================================
Now asume X is TRUE. Is this an unchangable truth? For the statement 'This is a tree' you can say that this is TRUE at the moment you're looking at it (even then it's discutable, are you absolutely sure it isn't a picture or something...). But the point is X is TRUE only when we experience it, as soon as we turn our back X is NULL, you're not absolutely sure it's still a tree.
So is there an absolute reality?
An absolute reality would be a reality that is independent of the way it is experienced. From the above we can conclude that if something is not experienced (valued as either TRUE or FALSE) it's not part of our reality. So the answer is no, there is no absolute reality.
How constant is the collection {A..Z|!A..!Z}?
At certain levels it is not very constant. When I think 'that girl is beautiful' then that thought is part of my reality, but it dissapears from my reality soon as the thought goes away. If you try to minimize your thoughts you minimize the collection of intellectual {A..Z|!A..!Z}.
If there's a tree outside my window I will probably see the tree everytime I look outside the window. It's a lot harder for me to look and not experience. So some elements 'seem' constant and unchangable but that's depending on the way we exerience them, or on what level the value-judgement is made. The value judgement: 'That girls is beautiful' is made on a very consious, intellectual level. But the value judgement 'there's a tree outside my window' is made on a lower level.
To be continued (maybe)
Reinier.
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