February 1987
1. History of universals:
Plato: There is a general ideal entity (the true) which is named. Materially instantiated particulars have their being in being like the general.
Aristotle: Recurring identities are noticed in the comparison of particulars, affirmed by the mind.
Locke: Selected identities (concepts) are built up out of comparison of empirical patterns.
Hume: Concepts are resemblances noticed in empirical observation.
Wittgenstein: There are ranges of overlapping family resemblances.
2. Existence is particularity. (There must be opposition (difference) for something to be separate, and thus to exist.
3. Language is universality. (Language always deals with patterns, with types. It is rule based.)
4. Particularity is initially and ultimately revealed in sensation.
5. Particularity as realized (revealed) in sensation is amorphous, irregular, anomalous. It can never be trusted or dealt with. It is an asymptote never grasped by human beings.
6. Universality is always realized (created) in the mind.
7. Universality is fictive convenience, at least as much bound by desire, the inside universe (mentality), as by the outside universe (supposed reality).
8. Universality and particularity are both universals and relate only to universals.
9. The mind considers and uses only universals.
10. All thinking is comparison of universals (pairing of patterns).
11. If two patterns are paired by a thinker, and that thinker chooses to emphasize their difference, one is called a particular vis-a-vis the other.
12. If two patterns are paired and the thinker chooses to emphasize their similarity, that similarity is called a universal.
13. But each pattern in the mind is already a universal. Where does the original universal come from? It is a hypothesis (guess) imposed upon phenomena by the thinker in self-defense, to simplify the unknowable welter of particularity in phenomena.
14. Knowledge consists of universals which are patterns used successfully in dealing with the universe. That success can be personal (heart, performative, satisfying), or mental (mind, coherence), or physical (strength, empirical), or enabling (might, pragmatic), or any combination of the above.
15. There are three main “enabling” realms:
- a. Nature (technology)
- b. Ideas (mathematics, logic, philosophy)
- c. People (society, politics)
16. Particularity and universality are thus relational terms. Some universals when paired are seen as different, so one is called a particular. Some universals are seen to be alive, so they are united by the creation of a more general universal.
17. Thus is created a hierarchy of universals, culminating in The Universal. But The Universal has existence and significance only as a particular.
18. Language is of two types:
- a. Ordinary: universality is family resemblance, which means that logic is not strictly usable. (Law of excluded middle does not hold.)
- b. Technical: Universality is a common essence, which makes strict logical entailment possible, because the law of excluded middle does hold.
19. Law of Excluded Middle: Either A is true or not true. Logic can be used only when the terms are identical in each usage.
20. Questions:
- a. Is ordinary language simply sloppy language?
- b. Can “good” poetry be written in a technical language?
- c. Can good thinking be done in ordinary language?
- d. Can a person ever be saved if he knows only ordinary language?