I think I took more from Gadamer than I realized. I think I may have introjected that understanding into my reading of Buber, too, though I am not sure how much. * Some distinctions: 1) an empathetic, reconstructive understanding of the subjectivity (that is the way of seeing) of fellow-subjects 2) a sympathetic, participatory understanding … Continue reading People inside-outside
I have been concerned with the topology of eversion for a long time – long before I began my kabbalah studies, which was relatively recent. I’m old enough now that I experience as recent anything that has happened within the last ten years. Traditional esoteric thought has viewed the various domains of thought in planar … Continue reading Pinhole gates
I’ve had many names for this book brewing in my head, each with its own thematic emphasis. The book always concerns the relationship between design practice, our own personal and collective psychic-orders (faith) and our experience of the world. The core claim is always the same: our conceptions of design, of philosophy and of religion … Continue reading Volume titles
It is truly hubristic for anyone to believe he has a right to dissent — to disagree with one’s supposed peers and alleged superiors that what they call true is sufficiently true, and what they call good or just is actually good and just. But I am not alone in my dissent. I am backed … Continue reading Hubris of dissent
Over the last decade, I have observed a pattern in political thinking concerning comparisons. In this pattern, some real object of criticism is compared unfavorably to some counter-ideal. But the counter-ideal is never sampled from reality. It is always a concept whose function is absence of whatever is being condemned. The West. The gross unfairness … Continue reading As opposed to
In earlier invocations of the “Pearls and Shells” anomalogy, the pearlescent element, nacre, insulated the subject from the object and environment, and allowed these not-self beings to peacefully neighbor or environ the self. This individuating substance was imagined to be mind: We coat whatever realities we cannot incorporate into our own selfhood with intelligibility. Mind … Continue reading Pearls and Shells, reinvocation
Psychology is how a materialist copes with transcendence. Realities barely within the soul’s reach but well beyond its grasp — including the soul itself — are flipped inside-out, everted, into objects and stuffed inside each individual’s mind. Everything-sized souls, everted, become minute, and are sealed inside the physical body — ghosts who haunt our physical … Continue reading Psych everso
Ontopologically, Beriah sur-prises what Yetzirah variously com-prises as objective content in Assiyah. Neither Beriah nor Yetzirah is something that can be comprehended. Yetzirah comprehends by one of myriad formational, enworlding principles. Yetzirah is not itself comprehensible, for the reason that sight cannot be seen. Beriah comprehends (envelops) comprehension through observation of difference among enworldments, even … Continue reading Notes on design esoterism
I forgot my coinage “metannoying” until need brought it back to memory. This magical word transforms something infuriating and alienating into something properly comical. Metannoying is what happens to a soul when it experiences its first comprehensive conversion (metanoia) and it wakes up into the center of a new world as an all-intuiting sage and … Continue reading Metanoyance
I’ve always considered Pascal’s wager somewhat and stupid and crass. The basic argument is this: If God does exist, and we live in accordance with God, we enjoy eternal life in Heaven. If God does exist, but we live as if God does not exist, we suffer eternal damnation. If God does not exist, but … Continue reading Pascal’s Wager 2.0
For better or worse, my own mind is radically wired for vision. I understand that this is generally true for all human beings. Our species’s primary sense is sight, and our visual processing apparatus, relative to other animals, is hypertrophied. But experience has demonstrated to me that I rely on visual intelligence more heavily than … Continue reading Eversive knowing
Nick Gall and I have developed a framework for thinking about modes of conversation: debate, dialogue and dialectic. Debate is conversing with the intention of advancing our own ideas against the other’s. This is an arguing mode of conversation. Dialogue is conversing with the intention of getting inside the other’s ideas and really understanding them … Continue reading 3D conversations
I’m noticing that I am using the terms “concept” and “conception’ very differently from how Langer uses them. In my way of thinking and talking about them, conception is a conceiving move — and what is conceived through the conception is a concept. When a student is presented with a new kind of math problem … Continue reading Conceptions and concepts
Nick was asked by an old colleague to provide a simple, universally applicable definition of fruitfulness. Earlier, I would have pointed to Thomas Kuhn’s paper on theory choice, where fruitfulness, along with accuracy, consistency, scope and simplicity, was a characteristic that might make a theory more attractive to a scientist, depending (scandalously!) on that scientist’s … Continue reading What is fruitfulness?
I was sent an image of an everting sphere. Notice how the sphere becomes a shell-like torus midway through the eversion. Note that we human beings can view reality from an inner first-person and outer third-person and experiences at once a metaphysical behind and a metaphysical beyond. Recall that the Chinese coin was understood to be … Continue reading Everso
When I, as a subject, look into a mirror I see me, as an object. When I reflect on this experience, I realize that it is still my subjective I who sees: what stands out to me when I look at my objective me-image is quite different from what another person sees. * The relationship … Continue reading Reflection on reflection
Mutual, mutable, mutate and mutant are all derived from the same Latin root, mutare, to change. Mutual comes from Middle French mutuel, from Latin mutuus — lent, borrowed. Mutable, from Middle English, from Latin mutabilis. Why should anyone care about this etymological bit of trivia? For me, the profoundest value of entering a relationship of … Continue reading Mutual mutation
It seems obvious to me that Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Postphenomenology are complementary lenses for understanding social situations. ANT gives us the network viewed “objectively” outside-in, and Postphenomenology helps us understand inside-out how the nodes interpret inputs from the network and translate them into outputs. An ANT practitioner will be the first to tell you … Continue reading ANT, Postphenomenology and their mutant child, OOO
I’ve called my metaphysic a “metaphysic of surprise”. To get what I mean by this, it is helpful to keep in mind the basic terms of my metaphysical conceptualization, which are 1) metaphysical reality versus 2) our understanding of reality which is truth. In my view, truth is an adequate-as-possible person-reality interface, true to the … Continue reading Surprise vs comprise
This is a series of rewritten, streamlined posts on the theme of shells and pearls, which I’m considering incorporating into my pamphlet. I’ll link to the originals. If you have time to compare, let me know if you think anything was lost in the chipping, sanding and polishing. Evert Announcing an exciting new vocabulary acquisition: evert. I have … Continue reading Shells and pearls