Entanglement, Emergence, Being in the World and Divine Order…
Physical Entanglement, Conscious Entanglement and Moral Entanglement
“Dasein is a being that does not simply occur among other beings. Rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact that in its being this being is concerned about its very being. Thus it is constitutive of the being of Dasein to have, in its very being, a relation of being to this being”…
— Martin Heidegger
“If quantum entanglement is true, if related particles react in similar or opposite ways even when separated by tremendous distances, then it is obvious that the whole world is alive and communicating in ways we do not fully understand”…
— Christian Wiman
“Moral choices do not depend on personal preference and private decision but on right reason and, I would add, ‘divine order’”…
— Basil Hume
Synechism
ˈsinəˌkizəm
- a principle in philosophy holding continuity (as of hypotheses) to be of prime importance
- Synechism, as a metaphysical theory of Charles Sanders Peirce, is the view that the universe exists as a continuous whole of all of its parts, with no part being fully separate, determined or determinate, and continues to increase in complexity and connectedness through semiosis and the operation of an irreducible and ubiquitous power of relational generality to mediate and unify substrates
[ LINK ]
In Metaxy the unique in-between nature of human being was explored.
A relationship of Being that reflects the contingent being of man and the necessary being of God.
A Metaxic state of Human Consciousness that reflects a Unity of Being within an Order of Being — a Monism.
“The new invention of Monism enables a man to be perfectly materialist in substance, and as idealistic as he likes in words”…
— Charles Sanders Peirce (CP 1.18, 1903)
Being in the World — Dasein (Heidegger) — Lived Body (Lieb) (Husserl) — Embodied Perception (Merleau-Ponty) — can be understood as Man’s entanglement in the World — the deeply intertwined symbiotic relationship between Human Being and Being.
An entanglement that can be viewed through a Unity of Being.
An entanglement that can be viewed through the concept of a formal distinction (John Duns Scotus). [i.e. a key philosophical concept to explain how two (in this case three) aspects of a thing can be really different yet inseparable. It occupies a middle ground between a real distinction (as in Thomas Aquinas, where two things are entirely separate) and a purely conceptual distinction (as in nominalism, where distinctions exist only in the mind)]
A formal distinction between Rosmini’s three modes of Being — Real Being, Ideal Being and Moral Being that are all encapsulated into an inseparable Unity of Being.
Each of these modes of being is distinct and different in its nature, but they are inseparable and entangled aspects of a single human being. They are different ways of understanding and engaging with the same underlying reality, but they are not independent substances that can be entirely separated nor do they exist only in the mind.
Note: Scotus holds that Being is univocal (one meaning across all things), while Rosmini sees a hierarchy in Being. Rosmini’s Ideal Being has a Platonic element (Being as the source of intelligibility), which may differ from Scotus’ formal distinction, since Scotus was more Aristotelian in how he viewed universals (i.e. a Moderate Realism where universals exist formally in individual things before our minds abstract them).
“Unity is not equal to Being, but is the unifying principle to Being”…
— Marsilio Ficino
Cognition and Consciousness — Epistemology, Ontology and Meaning
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness”…
— Albert Einstein
If :
- Cognition is a mind-dependent representation of a mind independent reality (i.e. Mind dependent representations of Meaning, Being & Knowing) — a classical mind (e.g. Descartes and Kant) dependent mediation and representationof a Mind Independent Reality including categories and concepts and their relationships (i.e. Abstraction — Apart from the World). It reflects the way the mind represents the world and plays a crucial role in shaping how we perceive (Descartes) and understand a mind-independent reality. Cognition does not simply mirror the world but is shaped by the mind’s a-priori structures (Kant).
then
- Consciousness represents Mans participation in Reality (a relation of being to this being — the entangled geometric metaphysical unity of meaning, being and knowing) — the entangled unified representation & interaction between the Mind, Body and Environment (a unified form of Being — Part of the World). The mediation of Human Beings relational participation in Being. Human Consciousness as the metaxic state of mediation between the Immanent and Transcendent states of Being. The analog entanglement and interaction of the physical & metaphysical aspects of Human Being. The flow — continuum — of emergent physical and metaphysical relationships shaped by a Divine Order . An Intentional Consciousness (Husserl) where the Self is not closed but where consciousness is fundamentally relational and interactional — always engaged with the World and the objects there in. A vitalism — a continuous flow — a continuum of Man’s conscious participation and mind dependent interpretation of a mind independent reality.
“All living things must move and act in space to survive. When motion ceases, life ends” …
- Barbara Tversky
“It is, rather, solely an act of the understanding, which itself is nothing but the faculty of combining “a priori” and of bringing the manifold of given representations under the unity of apperception; and the principle of this unity is, in fact, the supreme principle of all human knowledge”…
— Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Cognition viewed as a mind-dependent representation of a mind independent reality. The process of organising, categorising, and abstracting experiences. Mind dependent representations of Meaning, Being & Knowing (Apart from the World).
“The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs”…
— Charles Sanders Peirce
Consciousness viewed as Mans participation in Reality (a relation of being to this being — the entangled geometric metaphysical unity of meaning, being and knowing) via the interpretation of signs that mediate meaning (Part of the World).
A recognition of the Unity of Being, Being in the World and Being as part of a Divine Order.
“Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces any new idea; for induction does nothing but determine a value and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequences of a pure hypothesis”…
– Charles Sanders Peirce
To illustrate this distinction between Consciousness and Cognition:
- Meaning emerges through consciousness and the actualisation of potential — being in the world (i.e. Abduction, Hypothesis and New Relationships of Meaning); whereas
- Knowledge eminates via cognition and the potentialisation of actual — apart from the world (i.e. Abstraction and Generalisation from Induction (Generalisation of Particulars — Logical (Rationalism) & Biological (Empiricism)) to Deduction (Generalisation to Universals — Logical (Rationalism)).
Note: this distinction between Meaning’s association with Consciousness & Being in the World and Epistemology & Ontology’s association with Cognition (Mind) & Apart from the World can be understood through the prism of Peircian Semiotics which is relational in nature (Observer, Observed, Sign).
Traditionally, semiotics is considered part of philosophy because philosophy deals with the broadest questions, and meaning is one of those questions.
However, if we accept that all human knowledge and experience are mediated via our Being in the World and Consciousness — a mediation through signs — then semiotics could be seen as the foundational discipline, with Philosophy, Science, Physics etc… as all subsets of Semiotics.
The ramifications of this reordering of this hierarchy (Order of Things) — Semiotics and disciplines of Knowledge — are profound.
For example, Science tends to take an ontic (i.e. ontological — what exists)) approach, analysing being from an external, detached perspective (i.e. apart from the World — viewing Reality from the balcony of Cartesianism abstraction) rather than recognising the embodied entangled nature of Being (i.e. semiotic — lived embodied experience — being in the world) that allows such analysis to emerge in the first place.
Scientific progress emerges from new relationships of meaning (i.e. Semiotics & Abductive Reasoning) and our being in the World.
Modern Science is increasingly in crisis as it orientates increasingly towards a world of abstraction and academia (apart from the World).
Without recognising a Metaphysical Geometric Unity that is ever-present in Man’s participation in Reality through Being (Unity of Being) it is inevitable that our Sense of Coherence collapses.
Hence, a new Dark Age.
Being in the World , Consciousness & the emergence of potential new relationships of Meaning as the source of new Knowledge (Actualisation of Potential) and cognition & mind’s mediation of new knowledge as the source of new modes of Being (i.e. participation in Reality) and possibility for new Meaning (Potentialisation of the Actual) — Both unified by a Unity of Being, Morality and Divine Order
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
―John Dewey
If the actualisation of potential is the process of discovery (i.e. new relationships of meaning) — the source of a new hypothesis (via abduction) and potential knowledge — then the potentialisation of the actual could be described as the process of mediation, transformation and integration — taking what is already known or actual and expanding the possibility of its meaning.
This could involve:
- Embodiment: Turning knowledge into lived experience, such as forming new habits.
- Creative Reinterpretation: Finding new applications or meanings in what is already established.
- Refine Skills: Enhancing and evolving existing capabilities beyond their current state.
- Recontextualisation: Placing old ideas into new frameworks to unlock latent potential.
Essentially the act of re-infusing the known with new dynamism, making the actual not a fixed endpoint but a foundation for further emergence and Human participation in Being.
A Unity of Being and ongoing interplay between the :
- relationship of Substances (Aristotle — essence, matter & form);
- intelligence (Peirce — meanings mediation of ontology and epistemology — a dynamic process part biological (embodied), part logical (abstract) and part participatory in Being (Being in the World — Observer & Observed mediated via Signs ); and
- a Divine Order (Rosmini & Kant — where Morals, Ethics and Values enables a Self-Reflection of Pure Reason (reine Vernunft) to a refined Ethical Practical Form of Reason**** — praktische Vernunft
[ **** Note — Kant’s critique of Pure Reason recognised the need to go beyond a proto-phenomonological understanding (i.e. experience is structured by the subject) of Reason (Verstand) and beyond the speculative functional elements of Pure Reason (reine Vernunft) to a unified moral form of reasoning that captures a Unity of Being and Divine Order.
Kant distinguishes between:
- Verstand (Proto-Phenomonological Understanding (i.e. experience is structured by the subject)) — Unity of Representation (appearances) by means of rules. This is the faculty that organises sensory experience using concepts and categories (such as causality, substance, etc.) into coherent knowledge. It operates within the realm of possible experience and is responsible for making sense of empirical data; and
- Vernunft (Pure Reason (reine Vernunft) & Practical Reason (praktische Vernunft ). Unity of rules by means of principles: This is a higher-order faculty that seeks ultimate principles and unifying ideas beyond experience. It tries to go beyond the limits of possible experience, leading to metaphysical inquiry (pure reason) such as truth, being, reality and existence, together with the exploration of foundational questions of human agency (practical reason) such as ethics and morality.]
Human Being’s being in the World
Extrapolating Rosmini’s three modes of Being — Real Being, Ideal Being and Moral Being from the Individual (Self — Unity of Being) into a Husserl Intentional Consciousness view whereby the self is not closed and where consciousness is always fundamentally relational and interactional — always engaged with the World and objects in it, a relational perspective of Human Being’s being in the World emerges.
“The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of ‘independent existence.’ There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe”…
— Alfred North Whitehead
Three modes of Human’s participation in Reality that reflect the entanglement of Human Being .
The development of an understanding of the ways in which Human Being is interwoven with the rest of the Universe.
Each represents a different layer to Human existence.
- Physical Entanglement that reflects the interconnectedness of the material world, reflecting quantum and classical connections that tie all physical entities together. This entanglement represents how everything in the universe, whether at a subatomic or cosmic scale****, is interrelated and coexists in a complex web of relationships. It is one way of understanding Being in the World through the lens of physical reality and the forces that govern it.
- Consciousness Entanglement that reflects how consciousness itself is not separate but interconnected (refer Nietzsche’s evolved understanding of the nature of consciousness) across individuals, transcending the boundaries of individual minds. An acknowledgment of how thoughts, emotions, and experiences are mediated and shared, influenced, or entangled with others, creating a collective or universal field of consciousness (for example — zeitgeist and mimetic theory ). It also reflects Consciousness’s Metaxic Semioticmediation of the Physical and Metaphysical aspects of participation in Reality and its role in facilitating the emergence of new Meaning. This brings a deeper spiritual and philosophical layer to the concept of Being in the World through considering consciousness as more than just individual self awareness but extends to collective awareness (e.g. culture) and other Beings.
- Moral (Divine Order) Entanglement that reflects the ethical and moral dimensions of existence beyond the current paradigm of modern science focus on horizontal causality (refer Del Noce critique) whereby laws are viewed as constant relationships of phenomena. This would represent a foundational shift in moving beyond studying reality as a series of forces to one recognising a higher divine and universal moral order. One that entangles all human beings, guiding them toward a higher purpose and interconnected moral truth. One that informs how our ideas, beliefs and actions in Being in the World have real world consequences. One that also introduces a moral dimension to reasoning (Kant — practical reasoning).
**Refer — Eames — Power of Ten [ LINK ]
Being and Physical, Metaphysical and Moral Entanglement
Physical Entanglement — Being in the World
- Physical Entanglement (Real Being) — A physical entanglement of matter manifested through the actualisation by form & essence results in new substances and emergent relationships between substances. The emergence of new possibilities — new properties, structures, or forms of organisation. It gives rise to emergent new modes of being and interactions through material relationships.
This includes inter alia:
- Ontological Emergence: Where the relationships between substances do not merely reveal pre-existing properties; rather, generate novel properties that are irreducible to the sum of their parts (e.g. chemical bonding, biological life, or even social structures). This is similar to Heidegger’s notion that Being is always in a relational mode with the world;
- Relational Realism: If matter is entangled in a way that structures its possibilities (e.g. The Adjacent Possible ), then these relationships could be seen as a Heidegger ground of manifestation — where the physical structures do not emerge from isolated substances but from their interdependent configurations (also refer to — Everything is a Remix — the Basic Elements of Creativity); and
- Process Philosophy (Alfred Whitehead, Gilles Deleuze): If reality is a process of becoming (Whitehead: actual occassions (event driven moments of experience) — Deleuze: a state of continuous differentiation and flux — Aristotle: actualisation of possibility) rather than static being, then physical entanglements are the mechanisms by which novelty emerges (emergence). Just as Heidegger suggests that Dasein discloses Being through our involvement in the world, physical substances disclose their potentialities (i.e. material actualisation of forms) through physical entanglement. The emergence and manifestation of new participatory structures of Reality and new modes of Being (or according to Deleuze becoming and shifting away from the notion of Being as a stable static state all together).
Conscious Entanglement — Human Consciousness’s Metaxic Semiotic Mediation of the Physical and Metaphysical
Conscious Entanglement (Ideal Being)
- Consciousness entanglement of Ideal, Real and Moral Being — Rosmini saw consciousness being inherently linked to a moral awareneness and intuition of Being (also refer to Kants’s critique of pure reason ( reine Vernunft) inability to prove the existence of God), hence the need for moral guidance in practical reason (praktische Vernunft)) .
- Consciousness entanglement with Cognition ( Capacity for Self-Reflection — mediation of Unity of Self — Self Aware Subject — Sense of Self — Conscious Self) — Rosmini saw the role of consciousness as enabling a self-reflection of human cognition and participation in Ideal Being (a self-awareness — a second-order cybernetics (Heinz von Foerster) — Charles Sanders Peirce Altersense (Double Consciousness — Ego & Non — Ego)). Likewise, Kant viewed consciousness being structured by the transcendental unity of apperception (a representation as one’s own — a self-attribution of a mental state — necessary condition for self consciousness) — the synthesis of all experiences (Unity of the Manifold) under a single self-aware subject . This means that our sense of self (i.e. conscious self) is not derived from experience but is a necessary a priori condition for experience to be intelligible.\
- Consciousness entanglement with Divine Order and Physical World -Human Consciousness and its entanglement with the Transcendent (Divine Order) and Immanent (Physical World) mediates Mans understanding and actions. The metaxic mediation of a mind-independent reality via a mind dependent representation (Embodied Cognition — (Merleau-Ponty, Varela/Rosch/Thompson — The Embodied Mind).
- Conscious Entanglement leads to Emergence — This includes:
- Semiotic Emergence: New relationships of Meaning emerge through the process of Being in the World, environmental context and via the rational processes of abduction, induction and deduction — forming, testing and generalising new hypotheses and “best explanations”.
- Ontological Emergence: Where new relationships of meaning do not merely reflect pre-existing interpretations of Being but result in novel conceptual frameworks and knowledge of what exists (act of being). The actualisation of potential is a dynamic understanding of the process of creation (a dynamic interpretation of Ontology) and the revelation of new substances and instances of being.
- Epistemological Emergence: The process by which new forms of knowledge, understanding, or cognitive frameworks arise that are not reducible to their foundational components. Through the dynamic interplay of signs, contexts, and interpretive processes, novel ways of knowing and understanding emerge. This process is not merely a reflection of pre-existing knowledge but involves the creation of new epistemic structures that transcend the sum of individual semiotic elements. As individuals and communities engage with signs within specific contexts, they co-construct meanings that lead to new insights and conceptual frameworks. This aligns with the notion that our knowledge is continually evolving through interpretive interactions with the world. For instance, the development of scientific theories often involves the reinterpretation of existing understandings through new semiotic lenses (e.g. Copernicus Revolution), leading to paradigm shifts and novelty.In everyday life, our personal experiences and culture shape how we interpret signs, leading to unique perspectives and knowledge. Epistemological Emergence within Semiotic Entanglement highlights the transformative potential of interpretive processes, where the engagement with signs and contexts leads to the creation of new knowledge structures that are irreducible to their individual components — the potentialisation of the actual is a dynamic understanding of the process of discovery (a dynamic interpretation of Epistemology) and the revelation of new knowledge.
- Conscious Entanglement leads to Boundary Constraints of Interpretation (Necessity) and at the same time the Adjacent Possible (Possibility) -Through the Pragmatic Maxim and the Semiotic Triadic that brings together the relationship between the Observer (Interpretant), Object and Sign, the Semiotic entanglement shapes the boundary conditions of interpretation of concepts and categories through our experiences and practical effects, together with Kant’s a priori structures of the mind. This process of mediating meaning also enables meaning to evolve and be refined over time (mediating ontology (actualisation of potential) and epistemology (potentialisation of actual)). Hence, new possibilities (modes of Being) emerge through the Adjacent Possible.
- Conscious Entanglent is mediated by Semiotics that shapes our Perspectivism of Reality (Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Derrida) — Semiotics does not merely attempt to describe reality but it actively shapes our interpretation of Reality (Refer Nietzchean Perspectivism). Meaning is entangled within spatial relationships of signs, and the interplay of differences in structures of thought and perception. Heidegger’s notion that language is the “house of Being” reflects this entanglement, where our being in the world is always already mediated by semiotic structures such as linguistics. Through semiotic entanglement, the mediation of reality by signs, symbols, and interpretive structures enables the continuous transformation of understanding, forming the foundation for cultural, philosophical, and scientific progress. This entanglement allows for the evolution of knowledge, as new modes of interpretation generate novel conceptual frameworks that, in turn, reshape how we engage with the world.
Moral Entanglement — Human Beliefs & Actions and Moral Laws & Divine Order
“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law”…
— Martin Luther
- Moral Entanglement (Moral Being) — If Real Being entails physical entanglement and Ideal Being constitutes conscious entanglement, then Moral Being manifests in a divine entanglement — a divine & ethical order.
- An entanglement of agency & practical effects with the conscious self & will (i.e. interplay between phenomonology of will & divine will).
- Ideas that bridge the immanent (substance) and the transcendent (divine).
- Moral Being is the realm in which the contingent being of man, through his decisions (conscious beliefs) and agency ( conscious actions — free will) aligns with or deviates from the Necessary Being of God and a Divine Order.
“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law”…
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
This includes:
- Moral Law and the Ground of Obligation: Moral Being arises from the necessary structure of ethical reality (Kant: moral ought constitutes a categorical imperative), wherein actions are not merely subjective choices but are embedded within an objective moral order. Rosmini, building on Kantian and Thomistic traditions, posits that Moral Law is an a priori reality (morality in individuals prior to consciousness), guiding human agency toward the good. This moral structure is not an imposition but an intrinsic condition of being, where moral necessity (the ought) is deeply tied to ontological necessity (the is) of the Divine. The moral imperative emerges as an entangled force, shaping human conduct within the broader teleology of being.
- Moral Duty and the Phenomenology of Will: Human will, as contingent and finite, is inherently bound to moral duty — an obligation that emerges from its participation in the Divine Order. According to Kant, humans are morally obligated by the categorical imperative, a principle of reason that guides action irrespective of personal desires or inclinations. Moral duty is not an arbitrary construct but is revealed through the exercise of reason (Kant’s Practical Reason (praktische Vernunft)) to guide human will toward moral duties based on universal law irrespective of personal desires or inclinations. In this sense, moral duty is the active realisation of meaning in the ethical domain, where acts of will either harmonise with or disrupt the metaphysical order of goodness.
- Moral Order and the Structure of Meaning: Moral Being is the sphere in which agency is the actualisation of values — where human decisions manifest in either virtue or vice, justice or disorder. The moral order (refer to Plato’s Form of the Good and the nature of God’s Will in Christianity) is not reducible to human constructs but is an extension of the necessary divine structure that sustains all being. Moral agency, then, becomes the manifestation between the immanent and the transcendent, where ethical action is both a manifestation of personal freedom and a participation in universal moral law.
- The Metaxic Tension of Navigating a Moral Order: Rosmini’s categories align with the broader phenomenological insight that human consciousness exists in a state of metaxic tension — between finitude and infinitude, contingency and necessity. Moral Entanglement, then, is the process by which human consciousness navigates this tension, engaging with the world in a way that is always already mediated by moral structures. This aligns with Heidegger’s notion of being in the world but extends it into the realm of moral significance, where the meaning of being is inseparable from ethical engagement and a higher order telos.
- Moral Entanglement and the Actualisation of Meaning: Just as semiotic entanglement structures epistemic emergence, moral entanglement structures ethical becoming. Meaning does not emerge in isolation but through engagement with the moral law and the lived experience of duty. The actualisation of moral being is thus the process by which human agents recognise and fulfill their participation in a divine moral order.
“Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality”…
— Edmund Burke
- Through Moral Entanglement, the ethical domain is revealed not as a mere human construct but as an essential mode of being, where human freedom (possibility) and divine order (necessity) intersect and are mediated through the metaxic semiotic (metaphysical & physical) nature of human consciousness.
- In this way, the moral self is not just being in the world (Heidegger) but is also fundamentally shaped by the relationship to the transcendent, the beliefs and actions of conscious man and alignment with or deviation from the Divine Order.
“There is nothing indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails. It tells you to do the straight thing and it does not seem to care how painful, or dangerous, or difficult it is to do”…
— C. S. Lewis
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