Post by CIVILISON on Apr 16, 2009 23:54:54 GMT -5
This is something I wrote out for an academic project based on Josiah Royce's American philosophy. It has some good parts, check it out.
INFINITE WHOLE MADE UP OF INFINITE SUBSERIES
Since the dawn of thinking and reasoning it has been known to philosophers that the infinite Absolute Reality is broken down into infinite subseries. Bradley believed that the serial order does not combine many into one however on Royce’s analysis reality is created for the Absolute to know and reflect itself as each individual human being represents the Absolute in its likeness like a drop of water in an ocean. Royce points out that any infinite series contain an infinite number of infinite subseries. Although our individual expressions are personal to us, as single human beings, they are viewed in terms of the Absolute as expressions of Itself as well, considering we are all part of the greater Absolute reality. Royce further says that the Absolute knows the entire series all at once as opposed to our personal thought contained within the limits and boundaries of time – this means we are part of the Absolute Itself and through the union of our experiences we give the Absolute its whole experience.
GOD’S FREE WILL, MAN’S FREEDOM TO CHOOSE AND THE POSSIBILITIES
As part of the Absolute humans share in Its qualities of Free Will. But one question is raised, if God’s will is absolute and determined how can Man make truly free choices if he/she was made in his image? Royce denies this idea by saying the Absolute knows all alternative possibilities but doesn’t always actualize them. They are therefore real, unactualized possibilities – real because they are known, unactualized because they are excluded – in that sense the Absolute is free to land on one of the countless possibilities experienced through human beings. Furthermore in terms of the concept of possibility Royce defends that there are two sides to being, both valid - one individual and one universal, one empirical and one ideal, one present and the other possible, one concrete life and the other pure form.
SYSTEMATIC UNITY
In an attempt to answer Bradley’s denial of a systematic unity Royce explains that the individual and universal are integral parts of the Absolute; the systematic unity of many parts combined into one whole. The unity is concrete for it does not exist apart from the whole and it determines the part which without the whole would have no existence (think of all the different stages of precipitation to create the whole cycle of rain, water absorption into the earth, plant growth and so forth). Such unity is called organic for it resembles the unified functions of an organism. This can be related to universal and self consciousness wherein the universal is the organic total of all the facts of consciousness. Same goes for the series of natural numbers because the series form a unity.
ROYCE’S DISCRIMINATION
Royce, from his newly developed metaphysical theory said that to be is to fulfill a purpose of the Absolute and that any ultimate explanation of what there is must be laid out in terms of the purposes of the Absolute. Because generally we are unaware of such greater purposes we often explain objects and events in personal terms and not in respect to the purpose of the Absolute. In the stream of complete consciousness that we as humans experience we naturally choose certain elements of it and concentrate on those. We often view objects in terms of their likeness or difference for instance an object could be shorter than the other yet they both have the quality of length – a likeness and a difference at the same time. Royce says that all description of the world around us are produced by a process of discrimination through which we distinguish one thing from another. Such discrimination, as Royce claims, has a definite logical structure. This means by discriminating two facts in space or time we define states in-between these two states. I think what he is trying to say is that by defining processes we are defining the processes within the great process that contains the many processes.
THE WORLD OF DESCRIPTION AND COMMUNICATION
Humans are observant beings, we are meant to observe nature and its laws and compile our own further understandings of them. Royce holds that the categories of likeness, difference, betweeness and dense series are fundamental for descriptive science. Despite all the before mentioned Royce agrees that our experiences is not always accurate or absolute as we are not always able to produce descriptions for all experiences we live through. Also, the representative reality of ideas are sometimes putting us farther from the concrete reality of that something. Moreover, the world of facts and knowledge is dependent on the interaction of all human minds who create science. Therefore the totality of all human experience is not experienced by the finite mind. So if unless we go beyond the world described to us, we have no absolute warrant for our personal descriptions. The World of Description is essentially the material world. In today’s world we have descriptive science with solid descriptive categories. Thus, what we consider as fact must first be approved by the public and the scientific world.
Royce stresses the significance of the difference of the laws of nature which are reversible and between those that define irreversible ones. The processes which categorize mental things such as growth, learning, the stream of consciousness or time are irreversible. However natural laws which are considered reversible in the scheme of time again seem irreversible. In terms of communication Royce claims that our communication is only with beings that are of the same life span as us. Therefore viewing communication as means to connect with other existential realms such as the animal kingdom it would seem rather absurd but in the scheme of the Absolute reality and Mind… is it really???
THE WORLD OF APPRECIATION
It is said that the real world is the World of Appreciation which is the world of conscious selves of varying levels, all of which are ideas of the Absolute. But if this is true than how come most Men regard the World of Description as the real one? Royce explains this by saying that throughout human history man has always been dependent on the descriptive, solid laws of nature for the proper functions of ordered societal structures. But at the same time life is carried out as the consciousness in all alive beings as the everyday events of all conscious minds living on this planet – which is the fundament of the World of Appreciation.
INFINITE WHOLE MADE UP OF INFINITE SUBSERIES
Since the dawn of thinking and reasoning it has been known to philosophers that the infinite Absolute Reality is broken down into infinite subseries. Bradley believed that the serial order does not combine many into one however on Royce’s analysis reality is created for the Absolute to know and reflect itself as each individual human being represents the Absolute in its likeness like a drop of water in an ocean. Royce points out that any infinite series contain an infinite number of infinite subseries. Although our individual expressions are personal to us, as single human beings, they are viewed in terms of the Absolute as expressions of Itself as well, considering we are all part of the greater Absolute reality. Royce further says that the Absolute knows the entire series all at once as opposed to our personal thought contained within the limits and boundaries of time – this means we are part of the Absolute Itself and through the union of our experiences we give the Absolute its whole experience.
GOD’S FREE WILL, MAN’S FREEDOM TO CHOOSE AND THE POSSIBILITIES
As part of the Absolute humans share in Its qualities of Free Will. But one question is raised, if God’s will is absolute and determined how can Man make truly free choices if he/she was made in his image? Royce denies this idea by saying the Absolute knows all alternative possibilities but doesn’t always actualize them. They are therefore real, unactualized possibilities – real because they are known, unactualized because they are excluded – in that sense the Absolute is free to land on one of the countless possibilities experienced through human beings. Furthermore in terms of the concept of possibility Royce defends that there are two sides to being, both valid - one individual and one universal, one empirical and one ideal, one present and the other possible, one concrete life and the other pure form.
SYSTEMATIC UNITY
In an attempt to answer Bradley’s denial of a systematic unity Royce explains that the individual and universal are integral parts of the Absolute; the systematic unity of many parts combined into one whole. The unity is concrete for it does not exist apart from the whole and it determines the part which without the whole would have no existence (think of all the different stages of precipitation to create the whole cycle of rain, water absorption into the earth, plant growth and so forth). Such unity is called organic for it resembles the unified functions of an organism. This can be related to universal and self consciousness wherein the universal is the organic total of all the facts of consciousness. Same goes for the series of natural numbers because the series form a unity.
ROYCE’S DISCRIMINATION
Royce, from his newly developed metaphysical theory said that to be is to fulfill a purpose of the Absolute and that any ultimate explanation of what there is must be laid out in terms of the purposes of the Absolute. Because generally we are unaware of such greater purposes we often explain objects and events in personal terms and not in respect to the purpose of the Absolute. In the stream of complete consciousness that we as humans experience we naturally choose certain elements of it and concentrate on those. We often view objects in terms of their likeness or difference for instance an object could be shorter than the other yet they both have the quality of length – a likeness and a difference at the same time. Royce says that all description of the world around us are produced by a process of discrimination through which we distinguish one thing from another. Such discrimination, as Royce claims, has a definite logical structure. This means by discriminating two facts in space or time we define states in-between these two states. I think what he is trying to say is that by defining processes we are defining the processes within the great process that contains the many processes.
THE WORLD OF DESCRIPTION AND COMMUNICATION
Humans are observant beings, we are meant to observe nature and its laws and compile our own further understandings of them. Royce holds that the categories of likeness, difference, betweeness and dense series are fundamental for descriptive science. Despite all the before mentioned Royce agrees that our experiences is not always accurate or absolute as we are not always able to produce descriptions for all experiences we live through. Also, the representative reality of ideas are sometimes putting us farther from the concrete reality of that something. Moreover, the world of facts and knowledge is dependent on the interaction of all human minds who create science. Therefore the totality of all human experience is not experienced by the finite mind. So if unless we go beyond the world described to us, we have no absolute warrant for our personal descriptions. The World of Description is essentially the material world. In today’s world we have descriptive science with solid descriptive categories. Thus, what we consider as fact must first be approved by the public and the scientific world.
Royce stresses the significance of the difference of the laws of nature which are reversible and between those that define irreversible ones. The processes which categorize mental things such as growth, learning, the stream of consciousness or time are irreversible. However natural laws which are considered reversible in the scheme of time again seem irreversible. In terms of communication Royce claims that our communication is only with beings that are of the same life span as us. Therefore viewing communication as means to connect with other existential realms such as the animal kingdom it would seem rather absurd but in the scheme of the Absolute reality and Mind… is it really???
THE WORLD OF APPRECIATION
It is said that the real world is the World of Appreciation which is the world of conscious selves of varying levels, all of which are ideas of the Absolute. But if this is true than how come most Men regard the World of Description as the real one? Royce explains this by saying that throughout human history man has always been dependent on the descriptive, solid laws of nature for the proper functions of ordered societal structures. But at the same time life is carried out as the consciousness in all alive beings as the everyday events of all conscious minds living on this planet – which is the fundament of the World of Appreciation.
