I’ve been thinking and rethinking, drawing and redrawing this same “triad” diagram for the last 10 years.

About three years ago I figured out the problem I was trying to resolve with all this diagramming: I believe we confuse explicit and objective expressions or manifestations with the tacit subjectivity that produces them, and consequently we think about subjectivity reductionistically, which produces fundamentalisms. (See my earlier post today on scientism.)

The biggest change in this version is I now consider every element in the triad tacit. For a while I was thinking that Concept was articulate, and that tacit Value and tacit Ability became explicit through overlap with Concept. I now believe Concept is tacit as well, and that all three elements in the triad are manifested when they come in contact with the rest of reality — with non-self.

(FYI: I have read enough “linguistic turn” philosophy to understand what kinds of objections and accusations I am inviting by thinking about subjectivity this way. To be honest, I am not sure how to defend it, yet, and, please understand, I do feel obligated to do so. But that will have to come later.)