[Dialogue] Grand Design & Ontology

[David Scott]

John,
david scott here

Your work is already a success.  Anyone who writes about "ontology"
with a sense of humour has already won the day.

Keep it coming.

david

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 11:51 AM, jlepps at pc.jaring.my
<jlepps at pc.jaring.my> wrote:
> Colleagues.
>
> Our discussion is very enlightening and fruitful. Thanks for all the
> participation and insights that keep on coming. Right now we seem to be
> ruminating about what does reality consist of, and that's an arena on which
> I've been brooding for awhile. Below is the Summary and Introduction to a
> paper that's been in the works for a couple of years. Your insights and
> interest (or lack of it) would be most welcome. If anyone is interested in
> the whole thing as it now exists, let me know and I'll send it. It's
> currently about 36 pages. The list serve does not allow attachments, so be
> sure to send your email.
>
> Draft 6 July ‘08 – May. ‘12
>
> DIMENSIONS OF ONTOLOGY
> John Epps
>
> Executive Summary
>
> Human authenticity consists of being in a right relationship with reality.
> Reality consists of eight interrelated dimensions: Space, Time, Physical
> Matter, Technology, Socio-culture, Identity, Energy, and Meaning. They seem
> to occur in closely-related pairs: Space and Socio-culture; Time and
> Identity; Technology and Energy; Physical Matter and Meaning. Each of these
> eight dimensions is universal in scope. Each poses its own issues in terms
> of attaining a right relationship to it. Different dimensions are emphasized
> at different times, and the present seems to be a time of emphasis on space
> and socio-culture dimensions.
>
> Introduction
>
> Whenever we're wrongly related to reality, we are in a situation of
> self-destruction. In religious terms, it is a condition of un-faith or sin.
> Restoring faith means authentically re-connecting with reality. But
> conceptions of what constitutes reality vary considerably, and change from
> time to time. What I'd like to do is first, to attempt a quick summation of
> what constitutes reality in the contemporary mind-set, then second, to
> indicate the issues we have in relating to it, and finally, to indicate ways
> in which authentic relations can be re-established or at least communicated.
> The aim of the paper is to provide the basis for addressing the crises of
> faith that people experience today and offer the possibilities of
> encountering life as meaningful.
>
> The matter of clarifying what is real, or what reality consists of, is an
> on-going effort. One of the latest from the point of view of science is
> super-string theory which posits that the ultimate entity of which
> everything consists is not a tiny particle (even a point-particle), but
> rather is vibrating energy strings. It’s a fascinating theory well-explained
> in the book The Elegant Universe by Brian Green[1]. In the process of
> describing this theory, its justifications, and implications, Green
> indicates that reality has 11 dimensions, not simply the three spatial and
> one temporal that we are familiar with.
>
> I do not intend to further elaborate on this theory or even attempt to
> understand it, but rather I’d like to use the notion of multiple dimensions
> as a metaphor to attempt to grasp the common understanding of reality's
> components and the way that "spirit problems" consist of unhealthy relations
> to reality.
>
> I’d like to begin by providing a sort of roadmap of reality, i.e., an
> indication of the multiple dimensions of reality that we assume in our
> normal operation. This is sort of a pop-ontology that attempts to get at the
> assumptions out of which we live. It's an attempt to state the "common sense
> of science" that is active these days. Once people thought reality consisted
> of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Everything else consisted of
> some combination of the four. That view now seems at best, "pre-scientific."
> Later, people lived in a “3-story universe” (and that was common sense, not
> religion, though religion used it to convey its particular insights); today
> we live in a multi-dimensional universe that must become the mode through
> which religious insights can be communicated, understood, and embodied.[2]
>
> We’re all familiar with the diagram of an atom, that represents the
> relationships of its various components. I’d like to use it as a graphic
> portraying the relationships among the various dimensions that compose
> reality. Each of the “orbits” in the diagram affects all the others, though
> each has its own integrity. That is an important factor to note in our
> assumptions about reality. Now I’d like to describe the dimensions that we
> assume as constituents of reality.
>
>
> [1] Brian Green, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and
> the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (New York: Random House, 2003)
>
> [2] Some time after the 3-story universe collapsed, a more "scientific" view
> was developed in which reality was composed of the basic elements contained
> in the Periodic Table. Still later atoms and the sub-atomic particles
> surfaced. The point is that notions of what constitutes reality change. This
> paper attempts to mark the current milestone in that change process.
>
>
> I. DIMENSIONS AND ISSUES  (Below is an outline of section one)
>
> A. SPACE
> "And remember, no matter where you go, there you are." – Earl Mac Rauch
>
> B. TIME
> "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." – Groucho Marx
> "Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at
> once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working." – Anonymous
>
> C. PHYSICAL MATTER
> "Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major
> categories: those that don't work, those that break down, and those that get
> lost." –Russell Baker
>
> D. TECHNOLOGY
> "For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of
> life, please press three." – Alice Kahn
>
> E. SOCIO-CULTURE
> "It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming
> up it." – Henry Allen
>
> F. IDENTITY
> "To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity." – Robert Louis
> Stevenson
>
> G. ENERGY
> "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues." – Duke
> Ellington
>
> H. MEANING
> "How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and
> shirt size?" ­ Woody Allen
>
>
>
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>



-- 
Margaret and David Scott
Flathead Valley College