Reality beyond Subjective Thought…
The Limits of Thought
“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning”…
― Werner Heisenberg
“Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system”…
— Rupert Sheldrake
Whether that was the Cartesianism Dualism (Mind-Matter) of Descartes, French Rationalism, British Empiricism, Scottish Common Sense Realism, the Absolute Idealism of Hegel, the Idealism and mind-dependency of Reality of George Berkley, the entanglement of the agent & world of the US Pragmatists, or the unique embodied lived experience and subjective phenomenology and Umwelt of Jakob von Uexküll.
However, this orientation of Western Philosophical thought towards the Primacy of Human Consciousness of Man not only ultimately led to the deconstruction of Modernity via the ideas of Post-Modernity (rejected concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth), but also led to Modern and Post-Modern Society redefining the nature of Reality.
A shift is highlighted in the quotes below from two leading 20th Century Intellectuals — Quantum Theoretical Physicist David Bohm and 20th Century Psychologist Karl Weick.
A Reality that was mind-dependent.
“To change Reality, you have to change your inner thoughts”…
— David Bohm
“To talk about sensemaking is to talk about reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves and their creations. There is a strong reflexive quality to this process. People make sense of things by seeing a world on which they already imposed what they believe. In other words, people discover their own inventions. This is why sensemaking can be understood as invention and interpretations understood as discovery. These are complementary ideas. If sensemaking is viewed as an act of invention, then it is also possible to argue that the artifacts it produces include language games and texts”…
– Karl Weick
“Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends on what we look for. What we look for depends on what we think. What we think depends on what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality”…
— David Bohm
[ LINK ]
It was a Reality dependent on the Beliefs we hold.
A perspective of Reality exposing the limits of thought as highlighted by Freeman Dyson’s observations on the “collapse of the wave function” in quantum physics.
A Reality dependent on the stories we tell and the myths we embrace.
“Western society realises the essence of Marxism: radical atheism and materialism, internationalism and universal non-belonging, the primacy of praxis and the death of philosophy, the domination of production and the universal manipulation of nature”…
— Augusto del Noce
A Reality that could be shaped, controlled and manipulated via semiotic signs distributed by the Media, Social Media, and adoption of Semiotic Sign Machines (e.g. Computers, Smart Phones etc ).
A Reality where these Modern intellectual ideas would ultimately lead to the endemic embracement of a Theology of Marxism, Scientific Gnosticism (Scientism), the notion of Historical Materialism, the emergence of Trans Humanism, Hegel’s Second Nature, Socialism, Communism, Fascism (Dengism), and ultimately a New Totalitarianism.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and faction, true and false, no longer exists”…
— Hannah Arendt
Reality beyond the Conscious Self-Ego?
But was there a Reality independent of the Conscious Self-Ego?
“There is an eternal and unchangeable order of truths and values, which we can come into contact with using intellectual intuition”…
– Augusto del Noce
Was this Reality accessible via Nominalism and a Horizontal Form of Metaphysics?
For example, empiricism and logical positivism that reflected Man’s physical entanglement with the Natural World?
“Knowledge of the soul is the only universal truth and the only wisdom — all other knowledge is transient”…
— Plato
Or did this require a Vertical Form of Metaphysics, the metaphysical, a Realism and belief in God?
For example, the gift of reason (combining faith and reason — the Soul and the Mind) grounded in Transcendental Metaphysics, Logos and a recognition of Man’s relationship with God.
Natural Order of Things
“Reason in man is rather like God in the world”…
— Thomas Aquinas
Ideas briefly outlined in The Nature of Reality — Perceiving Minds and Objects — The Contingent Being of Man and the Necessary Being of God and a related article, Truth and Reality — Integrating the Eternal with the Temporal which explores the work of Medieval Scholastic Theologian and Philosopher John Duns Scotus.
“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name”…
— Confucius
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
A Material World, a Mental World and a Spiritual World.
Mind, Body, and Spirit.
An Observer, Sign, and Observed.
Logic, Rhetoric, and Grammar.
Deduction, Induction, and Abduction.
Logic (Study of Thought), Metaphysics (Study of Being), and Semantics (Study of Meaning).
God, Man, and Nature.
A World View that reflected a Natural Order of Things and provided an intellectual scaffolding that saw Western Civilisation flourish.
One in which a serious education required God.
“I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact, the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language”…
– Werner Heisenberg
Where the source of eternal truths determines all other Contingent Beings including Man.
Limits of Thought and the Entanglement of Man
“Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe”…
– Erwin Schrodinger
It was based on a dialogue between two great 20th-Century thinkers and traverses the modern intellectual landscape of Theology, Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Science.
Inquiring into fundamental metaphysical questions relating to the nature of reality, the study of being, the nature of human consciousness and the human condition.
Distinguishing between the notion of truth and reality and the role of human agency.
“To be is to be perceived”…
― George Berkeley
The dialogue highlights the Limits of Thought — a Reality beyond Thought — and by doing so implicitly challenges the foundational axiom — A Primacy of Human Consciousness — of Modernity & Post-Modernity.
For example, the Temples of Reason — the Cult of Reason — the notion of Man as God (Theology of Marxism) — the notion that Man alone shapes and creates History (Historical Materialism).
A subjective mind-dependent reality which was the essence of Idealism and George Berkley’s metaphysics.
A subjective mind-dependent reality which was the essence of William of Ockhams Nominalism (ie. Limits of Reason, Ockham’s Razor & Concepts in the Mind vs Scotus Divine Illumination, Formal Distinction & Realism of Universals ).
A subjective mind-dependent reality which was the essence of Post-Modernity (e.g. Relativism, Pluralism, Deconstructionism, Fragmentation, HyperReality, Absurdity, Irony etc..).
A subjective mind-dependent reality that remains the essence of the Theology of Marxism.
“Now subjectivism reduces all science to the knowledge of one individual, the Ego – which, as just shown, is no science at all. If its fundamental definition of knowledge means anything, or is faithfully adhered to, subjectivism teaches that the intelligent subject has no intelligence save for itself – has no warrant for believing in the existence of anything save itself – knows nothing but the inexplicable order of its own sensations and thoughts. It reduces all existence to an unrelated One, while of an unrelated One no science is possible. In a word, subjectivism if logical, annihilates science at a blow”…
– Francis Ellingwood Abbot
Krishnamurti and Bohm’s Reality Beyond Thought dialogue highlights the Contingent Nature of Human Being, the Fallibility of Man, the limits of Reductionism and, the need for Open Inquiry and humility.
The sacredness of life and the awe, mystery & wonder of the experience of being.
A dialogue that also highlighted the limits of the mechanisation of thought, the entangled nature of the Observer and Observed, the role of insight and silence (absence of thought activity), stepping beyond the known ( a negative capability, the unknown and sacred) and the need to shift beyond the process of thinking — a reorientation towards wholeness & oness.
“If two things interact by means of an energy that cannot be divided, that link is indivisible. Therefore, fundamentally, the entire universe is indivisible, and in particular, it means that the thing observed and the apparatus which observes it cannot be really separated.
“We already had this point that the observer cannot be separated from the observed. In fact, whenever you observe, the thing observed is changed because it cannot by this interaction be reduced below a certain level. Therefore, you have the transformation of the object observed in the act of observation. I had already noted the similarity to consciousness: that if you try to observe your thought in any detail, the whole train of thought changes. That is clear. So therefore you cannot have the separation of the observer and the observed in consciousness. The observer changes the observed, and the observed changes the observer, therefore, there was amysterious quality which was not really understood in physics”…
– David Bohm
[ LINK ]
A Reality beyond Thought
“Since we cannot change Reality, let us change the eyes which we see Reality” …
- Nikos Kazantzakis
The dialogue between Krishnamurti and Bohm provides Humanity with an invitation for our Modern and Post-Modern Society to reflect on the axioms and ideas that provide the foundational metaphysical, philosophical and theological foundations for how we perceive Reality.
Our Ideas literally have consequences and the fabric of our knowledge of reality is contingent & fallible.
Ultimately, shaped by the type of questions we ask.
Krishnamurti and Bohm’s dialogue provides humanity with a pathway to move beyond a mind-dependent reality — the conscious self — ego.
Exiting the Modern and Post-Modern cul de sac which is eroding our Sense of Coherence.
“If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we see at once that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions of the human mind”…
– Wilhelm von Humboldt
It represents an opportunity for us to recognise the Limits of Thought, develop our Negative Capability, and recognise the Contingent Nature of Being — Humanity’s relationship with God.
“European civilisation rose on the principle of a world of universal and eternal truths, in which all men participate – on the principle of the Logos, in other words”…
– Augusto del Noce
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