|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
BACK TO SITE PLAN Site Plan Note: Neologies and ambiguities clarified in GLOSSARY are marked "(G]".
SECOND ENLIGHTENMENT, ESSAY IN PHENOMENOLOGICAL ONTOLOGY AND REASON.
Rational Ontology is the most inclusive Cognitive Model of concurrent knowledge, interacting with all current crucial domains and disciplines. Unlike Dogmatism imposing its Dogma on cognitive domains, Rationality acts as their servant, supplying them with foundations which enhance their coherence and providing a platform for further development.
ABSTRACT A.TWO PHILOSOPHIES
An unfortunate homonymy collects under "Philosophy" two strictly disjoined domains and opposed attitudes: Dogmatism and Rationality. Before contrasting them we shall briefly recall some essentials of the human faculty of reasoning and of the deductive/inductive inference.
AA.DOGNA AND AXIOM
"Theory" will denote a hypothetical structure of statements deduced top-down from "founding" top "Presumptions", which are taken for granted. Bottom statements may be assessable by facts, which allows inductive verification / falsification of Presumptions. Factually controllable Presumptions will be called "Axioms" and a Theory founded in them - an axiomatic Cognitive "Model". Otherwise, the uncontrollable Presumptions will be called "Dogma" and the Theory founded in them - a "Dogmatic Theory". Axiomatic Models get justified exclusively by facts and by the capacity to coordinate them. While Axiom admits doubt and factual falsification, Dogma is taken as absolutely true and admits no doubt, nor refutation.
AB.DOGMATISM AND RATIONALITY ABA.DOGMATISM
By Dogmatism we shall understand the attitude supporting Dogmatic Theories. Dogmatism presumes that human mind can ascertain by Apriori speculations the rules underlying transcendent reality and imposes them on Cognition as absolute, dogmatic foundations. Disdaining facts, Dogmatism gets its Entities from intuitive Naive View, aka, Naive Realism, as "real things" having "real properties" exactly as perceived. Whatever its highbrow verbiage, Dogmatism boils down to Naive View. Its Entities -containers of properties- are called Noumena: Dogmatism is synonymous with Noumenalism. It is not necessarily religious. The Dogma of Aether damaged Physics for more than a Century.("BBC Physics and Aether"). Naive Dogma of noumenal "property containers" damaged Logic for over two Centuries till our own days.("BBB Dogmatic Logic"). Finally, dogmatic ideologies presided over foremost massacres, atrocities and genocides. ("BBAA Fichte and Romanticism", "BBAB Hegel and utmost Dogmatism").
ABB.RATIONALITY
By Rationality we shall understand the attitude supporting axiomatic Cognitive Models. Rational Ontology is the most inclusive Cognitive Model of concurrent knowledge, interacting with all crucial domains and disciplines. Rationality is Phenomenal: deeming transcendency unknowable, it reduces its Entities to structures of observable Aspects (aka, Properties or Attributes) of Phenomena. A single Attribute is a full-fledged Entity and Entity void of Attributes is a nonsense. Unlike Dogmatism imposing autocratically its Dogma on cognitive domains, Rationality acts as their servant, supplying them with foundations which enhance their coherence and provide a platform for progress.
B.FIRST ENLIGHTENMENT
Naive View guided original Humans in the struggle for survival, assisted by natural languages which came forth to communicate in terms of naive Noumena. Entirely taken up by this struggle, they had no time, nor motivation for abstract inquiries and were taking the hostile "Reality" dogmatically, at the face value. However, having gained some security and leisure, they started to investigate deeper and finer patterns of the apparent "Reality" and abstract intellection was born. Thereafter, human history became an incessant conflict of enlightened Rationality and obscure Dogmatism. Kant compared it to an obscure ocean from which emerge at times enlightened isles of Rationality, rare and far between. The astounding self-generating and sticking power of Dogma stems according to Kant from laziness and cowardice. Laziness to think, rather than to enjoy snug platitudes of Naive View. Cowardice to stray off beaten tracks and to follow Horace's "Sapere Aude" (Dare to Reason). Modern times start with the First Enlightenment which has been triggered by the First Scientific Revolution.
BA.FIRST SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION BAA.GALILEO
Galileo's main achievement was the Galilean Relativity which laid the cornerstone of scientific Physics valid till our days as support of low speed Mechanics. Its main principles are: -Steady state of an IR (Inertial Referential[G], a body on which act no forces) is uniform movement. -Movements of IRs are mutually relative. There is no absolute movement. -Galilean Transformation (G-TR) of speed between IRs is additive: speed of somebody walking at v within a train moving at V appears to an outside observer as V+v. For Galilean Relativity speed is "covariant" among IR's by G-Tr. -Speed covariance extends over totality of Mechanics whose rules and events are covariant by G-Tr among all IRs. -Space and Time are invariant, i.e. absolute and identical for all IRs.
BAB.DESCARTES
His main achievements are: -Permanent Doubt as source of inquiry, completing Galileo's Relativity with Uncertainty. -Cogito ergo Sum, which, in literary form, set thinking as the unique certain bedrock of inquiry, postulated primacy of subjective Aspect of Observation[G] over the objective, eradicated anterior beliefs in naive "objective reality" and established primacy of subjectivity in Science. -Arming Galilean Relativity with exact mathematical tools, namely Referentials and Analytic Geometry which founded Calculus and all subsequent scientific Models.
BAC.NEWTON
Newton may be considered as founder of modern Physics and one of the greatest scientist of history, due to his Model of Gravitation, which is a remarkable instance of Galilean Relativity developed with Cartesian tools.
BACA.NEWTON'S PARADOXES
Emerging Rationality did not eradicate the anterior Dogmatism and First Enlightenment witnessed perverted coexistence of rational Reason with most absurd Dogmatism. Mechanistic Dogma of Absolute #Space[G] and of "Reality" having the fabric of "billiard balls" engendered Newton's Paradoxes: 1.Gravity acts at large distances which contradicts the dogma of local "billiard balls". 2.#Space (distance) determines the Gravity Force, which does not act in any way on #Space, thus contradicting the action/reaction principle. Both Paradoxes represent Facts contradicting Dogma of absolute, mechanistic #Space. Questioned about it, Newton answered with the famous "hypotheses non fingo" clearly implying that science coordinates events and ignores transcendency.
BAD.KANT'S PHILOSOPHICAL SYNTHESIS
Kant enlightened Philosophy by banning Noumena from cognition and by accordingly, for the first time, inducing Ontology from concurrent Science, viz. from Newton's Model. However, foundations of Science were afflicted at his days by several dogma: mechanistic fabric of "Reality", absolute time/space and certain, absolute Science. Newton dodged the refutal of mechanistic "Reality" by facts with his "hypotheses non fingo", but Kant could not follow him there. His job consisted precisely in making hypotheses and sincerity of his Ontology could be bought only at the cost of truly reflecting its roots: from paradoxical Science Kant rigorously derived paradoxical Ontology. In spite of having banned Noumena (Dinge an Sich) from cognition, he founded his Ontology in absolute time/space, and other Noumena or "absolute categories of Pure Reason". His Synthetic Propositions A Priori reposed in these Noumena in order to satisfy the Dogma of certain, absolute Science. Although fallen prey to dogma, Kant did not play down rational Science, but, on the contrary, overestimated and absolutized it. Paradoxically, his dogma supported the strongest ever argumentation against dogmatic obscurantism and for enlightened Rationality. He gives excellent example and guidance to those who, in our days, seek to understand the concurrent world. -Example of sincerity, rigor and respect for Science. -Guidance resumed in "Sapere Aude", "Dare to Reason!".
BAE.SOCIO-POLITICAL
Socio-Political is the best known domain of the First Enlightenment, due to its impact on subsequent revolutionary changes of socio-political structures. However, chronology did not respect the foundations order: Kant came too late for Voltaire, Diderot, Montesqieu and Rousseau. Lacking consistent basis, the socio-political reflects uncritically current controversies: its apparently rational form and declarations conceal noumenal utopianism. Oblivious of its rational roots, it slipped almost entirely into dogmatic irrationality. French Revolution triggered by Enlightenment's ideology radically denied its roots replacing Diderots with Robespierres.
BB.REACTION OF DOGMATISM
First Enlightenment did not eradicate concurrent Dogmatism and soon collapsed under its reactionary assaults. This reaction went on uninterrupted till our epoch which is dominated by dogmatic obscurantism, out of which tries timidly to emerge the Second Enlightenment, triggered by the Fin-de-Siecle Crisis.
BBA.GREAT IDEALISTIC SYSTEMS
Dogmatic reaction reached its apogee in "Great German Idealism" starting with Fichte's Romanticism and culminating with the utmost, unyielding Dogmatism of his famous student Hegel.
BBAA.FICHTE AND ROMANTICISM
Romanticism is known mainly as esthetic current praising spontaneous improvisation, but in that aspect it had no noticeable practical impact. It's true that romanticist artists followed innovated rules, but they applied them as meticulously as their predecessors. Romanticism impacted principally the Socio-Political in the form of Nationalism. Fichte became the flagship of Nazism and, implicitly, of all nationalistic wars and genocides.
BBAB.HEGEL AND UTMOST DOGMATISM
UNEQUALLED CONCEIT: In his dissertation Hegel asserted a priori that the solar system may only have seven planets, seven being some metaphysically privileged number. Informed about the discovery of the new planetoid "Cesna", he commented: "if facts contradict my theory, so much the worse for the facts" ABUSE OF THE TERM "DIALECTIC": "Dialectic" whether that of Socrates, Plato, Sartre or of contemporary Physics and Biology denotes reasoning attempting to reconcile pretended logical and factual contradictions. Hegel misnamed with it the following pseudo-reasoning: Pure Being(?), upon examination, is indistinguishable from Nothingness(?). When it is realized that what is coming into being(?) is returning to nothingness(?), both Being(?) and Nothingness(?) are united as Becoming(of what?). To resume: Thesis: BEING (a nonsense; fallacious inflection of the copula[G] "be"; Antithesis: NOTHINGNESS (non-Being, nonsense squared) Synthesis: ANYTHING ("A very small bird", would probably say Andre Breton) SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPACT Hegelian Dialectic, slightly touched up by Engels became the Credo of Communist Empires. Whatever the Thesis and Antithesis, the Synthesis invariably declared that the KGB questioner was right and the suspects guilty and doomed to Gulag or to death.
BBB.DOGMATIC LOGIC
Naive View (NV) guided original Humans in the struggle for survival, assisted by natural languages which came forth to communicate in terms of naive Noumena. Their main constructs, propositions, predicate properties- attributes on entity-subject in form of "[Subject] is/has [Property]", eg. "my-car is green" or "- has greenness". Now. such entity/container-of-attributes is precisely a dogmatic Noumenon. One discovers with astoundment this naive "kitchen" language expression as basis of the dominant Predicate Logic (PL), which pretends to be the absolute foundation of Mathematics and Science. As to Mathematics PL IMPORTS from it several concepts: relations, constants, variables, valence, equality and "logical" boolean operators, or rather the whole Boolean Algebra corrupted and incorporated into PL under the misnomer "Propositional Calculus". (see CA1.INTRODUCTION TO PROPOSITIONAL CALCULUS ) Thus, PL imports from Mathematics enough to found Mathematics in Mathematics in a clear vicious circle. One would expect Logic to be founded in Ontology and Epistemology and to found in turn Mathematics, Linguistics and other disciplines. One finds instead a double circularity, 1.Mathematics-PL-Mathematics 2.NV-PL-NV: NV founding PL via natural languages and PL founding in turn NV via its noumenal predicative propositions. The conjurer trick of Mathematics founding Mathematics via PL, bestowed upon PL the fame of the absolute foundation of Science. (More in CA2.INTRODUCTION TO PREDICATE LOGIC )
BBC.PHYSICS AND AETHER
Dogmatism impaired Physics by founding it in the Dogma of Aether. which is discussed in 0D AETHER AND DOGMATIC THINKING . Here we shall concentrate on its interest for Epistemology, as illustration of the contrast of dogmatic and axiomatic attitude. A question indeed may arise if Aether was Dogma or Axiom. It postulated that light is a wave and, by analogy with known wave phenomena such as sound, must be supported by oscillating particles of some fluid, some cosmic gas or liquid: the Aether. So far so good, at the outset Aether looked like an Axiom. True, from the very beginning it raised unusual amount of exceptionally tough problems: it had to behave like a solid with respect to light, like no-interaction vacuum with respect to "matter" of stellar bodies, while interacting with permeated "matter", like glass or water. Yet, for each new problem falsifying a current version of Aether a new version was duly created, at the expenditure of effort and ingenuity hardly ever matched in the history of Science. Physicists were certainly not lazy, but if they were less busy adjusting Aether, they might have heard Ockham whispering that its odd complexity called for some simpler Postulate. Still, so far, Aether could pass for a particularly complex Axiom. Decisive blow came with the MM (Michelson-Morley) experiment showing that C is invariant, independent of the speed of source and Observer, contradicting the Galilean additive speed Transformation and falsifying Aether beyond repair. From this moment the superhuman efforts to save it at any price and at the expense of facts, glaringly reveal its dogmatic nature.
BBD.FIN-DE-SIECLE CRISIS BBDA.THE PARADISE
19th Century Physics and Logic were dominated by reaction of Dogmatism against Rationality of the First Enlightenment. Physics was founded in the dogmatic delusion of Aether. Logic was dominated by the naive, noumenal Predicate Logic (PL), assumed to be the universal, absolute foundation of transcendental "Reality" and of human knowledge thereof. All areas of Science, momentarily excepted Mathematics were assumed to be recursively founded in PL. Finally, in 1873 Cantor conceived the naive Set Theory which supplied the missing link and completed the hierarchy of "Cantorian Paradise": 1.(naive) Logic, the universal, absolute foundation, 2.(naive) Set Theory, founded in (naive) Logic, 3.Mathematics, founded in (naive) Set Theory, 4.Physics, founded in Mathematics and in the mechanistic Dogma, itself founded in (naive) Logic. 5.Other "hard" Sciences, founded in Physics, 6."Soft" Sciences, founded in "hard" Sciences. This edifice of Science was apparently solid as Cheops Pyramid, bestowing upon scientists the gratifying conviction that THEIR Logic, explains and determines the "Real Universe".
BBDB.LOST PARADISE
At the end of the 19th century two breaches appeared in the Pyramid setting off the Fin-de-Siecle Crisis of Thought and the Second Scientific Revolution: 1.In Physics, the Michelson-Morley experiment showed invariance of C, which wrecked the mechanistic Dogma. 2.In Logic, Russell's Paradox wrecked the foundations of PL and of founded in it Set Theory. Question arose, if apparently local breaches in the solid Pyramid may be patched locally, or rather set off global reconsideration of the whole structure. In Physics Einstein has chosen the global approach, scrapped Aether with the mechanistic dogma and created new Physics, extending Galilean Relativity over electro-magnetism, non-inertial Referentials, Gravity and #Space/Field equivalence, in the manner founding the new Rationality of the Second Enlightenment. Logicians, contrarily, did not notice that Russell's Paradox wrecked the naive PL beyond repair and try in vain, till our own days to patch it, rather than to scrap the wreck and to conceive in its place a new rational Logic.
C.SECOND ENLIGHTENMENT CA.SECOND SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Expelled from the Paradise of reassuring certainties of the Olympian "Reality", Science detached itself unprecedentedly from the Naive View and, compelled to count on itself, engaged entirely in the way of "Sapere Aude". Revolutionary concepts of Extended Relativity are discussed in "OUTLINE OF EINSTEINS RELATIVITY". Here we shall briefly mention a few, especially contesting the Naive View: -C invariance. Light passes me at C whether I move at 0.9 C in its direction or against it. -#Space[G], which not only supports Field propagation, but is P(henomenally)-Equivalent[G] with Field. -Cosmos entirely reduced to P-Equivalent #Space/Field. -Relative Time and Space components of #Space, which respectively dilate and contract in relatively moving Referentials[G] in function of their speed. -Non-Euclidean #Space, whose local curvature is P-Equivalent with local Field Force.
CB.RATIONALITY OF THE SECOND ENLIGHTENMENT
In "ABB Rationality" we defined rational Ontology as the most inclusive Cognitive Model deriving its concepts from the concurrent knowledge. Consequently, it replaces the dogmatic, authoritarian hierarchy Ontology/Epistemology/Science by its inverse: Science/Epistemology/Ontology. Having reviewed the Second Scientific Revolution, we endeavor to derive from it the Epistemology and Ontology of the Second Enlightenment, respectively, "Relativistic Dialectic" and "Relativistic Phenomenology".
CBA.RELATIVISTIC DIALECTIC AND PHENOMENOLOGY
Their full derivation would exceed by far the Abstract and we shall restrict it here to superficial review of essential phenomenal concepts derived from Extended Relativity: -Observation or Event: Polar Structure or Dialectic Dichotomy (see below) of Terms Subject/Object or Observer/ Observandum, fundament of Cognition. Relativity of Observation makes it essentially uncertain. It extends its polarity and uncertainty as the basic fabric of the whole Phenomenal Universe. -Phenomenon: particular spatio-temporal structure of Events. -Aspects (of Phenomenon): Events composing it. -Entity: linguistic and logical synonym of Phenomenon. -Referential: Entity solidary with an Observer (a human or a technical detector). -Reference System: A system of coordinates associated with a Referential. -Phenomenal Equivalence (P-Equivalence): Relation of Aspects of a Phenomenon (Continuous Field wave and Discrete photon are P-Equivalent aspects of the Phenomenon "Light"). -Polar Structure of Phenomenon: apparently opposed, but in fact complementary, P-Equivalent Aspects or Poles, eg. Light with P-Equivalent Aspects of continuous wave and discrete photons. -#Space, abstract topological concept such as Riemann #Space, sharply distinct from its unfortunate homonym "space" of direct perception. -Dialectic Dichotomy (short "Dichotomy"): synonym of Polar Structure, appropriate outside of Physics and "hard" disciplines. Terms of Dichotomy are synonyms of Poles. -Cosmos reduced to P-Equivalent #Space/Field. -Awareness: Dialectic Dichotomy of Mind and Brain. Brain Aspect interests mainly neurologists. Mind Aspect is crucial for our cognitive inquiry. Its basic structure, defined in "STRUCTURES OF MIND", encompasses "Sensorium", "Imagery" and "Symbolics". -Sensorium: Domain of 2D sensations, which evoke Plato's allegoric shadows on the wall. -Imagery or PS (Phenomenal #Space): continuous domain of 3D Image Patterns constructed from sensations by Morphogenetic faculty of Mind, appearing illusorily to Awareness as "real objects" of Transcendency. This illusion underlies Naive View. Rationality starts by overcoming it. Patterns of Imagery evoke Plato's allegoric "Ideas". -Symbolics, or AS (Abstract #Space): domain into which Images are mapped as discrete Symbols organized in symbolic or Abstract structures such as Languages, Logic and Mathematics. -Reflection, or Lateral Thinking: two-way interface between Imagery and Symbolics which comprises: -Symbolizing or Mapping Image Patterns into Symbolic or Abstract Structures. -Understanding, or recurring symbolic Structures to Imagery Patterns. Recurred Imagery Patterns embody the "Meaning" of Symbols. NOTE: definitions of Theory and Model from "AA Dogma and Axiom" may now be completed. They are Abstract Structures, maps of PS events, deemed to coordinate them, respectively hypothetical and verifiable. -Locality: PS Events are said to be locally related when their Model's representations are continuously transportable via a geodesic of Model's #Space Continuum to its common point. Locality is Model dependent and AS being by definition discrete, it presupposes the Model fitted with some discrete simulator of Continuum, such as Calculus. -Causality and Implication: Given locally related Events A,B they appear respectively as "Cause" and "Effect" if B has never been observed without A, while A might have been observed without B. Causality transforms into Implication Relation of Model's Abstract #Space. Thus, Causality is covariant with Implication: to say "A is cause of B" is equivalent with "A implies B". Causality is never certain, but at best not (yet) falsified by an Observation of Effect lacking its apparent Cause. Given the fundamental uncertainty of Observations, Causality is falsifiable and uncertain, extending these qualities over all cognitive Models.
CBB.LOGIC CBBA.ESTABLISHED NOUMENAL LOGIC
Numbers speak for themselves: the totally renewed post-Crisis Physics covers just two basic Models, Extended Relativity and Quantum Field Theory, while the post-Crisis established "Logic" counts over 150 Systems, all equally naive and empty. Mainstream consists of different patches of the Predicate Logic, whose fatuity we have seen above, in "BBB Dogmatic Logic". As marginalia we shall mention: -Corrupted Boole Algebra dragged illegitimately from Mathematics to Logic under the name of Propositional Calculus. It underlies a legion of toys such as 3 and 5 valued Systems and about 70 Modal Logics. -Trials of Fuzzy Logic circularly ill founded in naive "Fuzzy Sets" and restricted to fixed, 2-Operand naive Operators. (Compare with the Fuzzy Logic of the Cognitive Network in the following paragraph.)
CBBB.RATIONAL PHENOMENAL LOGIC
Event Patterns of Phenomenal #Space (PS) map into Abstract #Space as Entity structures ( BAA.STRUCTURE OF MIND ) Patterns related by Causality map into Networks of Entities related by Implication ( CAUSALITY ), or "ER" (Entity/ Relation) Networks. We define Logic as Minds faculty to create ER's and to process them with help of the dynamic faculty "Inference". Logic is thus a Mind's subconscious construct supporting the daily behavior. Irreplaceable as pilot of simple activities, it may be misleading due to the vagueness of Causality, to Mind's limited working memory and to its incapacity to concentrate simultaneously on numerous issues. Facing shortcomings of their natural faculties, humans usually produced compensating tools: hammer to assist striking and extrinsic "Logical Systems" to assist intrinsic Mind's reasoning. A Logical System, may be justified exclusively by its capacity to support Mind's intrinsic, ER based Logic. Our "Cognitive Network" (CN) and its applications have so far stood this test. CN is supposed to deal with large practical problems and for that purpose has been programmed as kernel of several Artificial Intelligence applications. We have chosen one of them, destined to identify misfunctions in spacecrafts, to support a tutorial providing an epistemological description and an introduction to development of CN applications. It's expressed in terms used in medical diagnostics, more familiar to the average reader and may be consulted in CCA.COGNITIVE NETWORK