very particular

What makes a particular a particular?

Our average experience of the world does not consist in the appreciation of particularity, but of universality. This is where the empiricist philosophers went wrong, thinking that the immediacy of our experience is the experience of particulars, when in fact the primal element of our experience is the experience of universals.

However much this tempts me to suggest that particulars are not particularly anything, I know that this isn't quite true. I'm not sure how true this always is of individual objects, but there certainly are some objects which are in fact different than other objects of their class. I may rejoin that these objects that are different than other similar objects are simply closer to their universal than others, but I wonder whether this is enough of an explanation.

At any rate, it certainly seems that particular people can have some meaning in their particularity, but the manner in which this particularity exists remains mysterious.

More numbers

(1, 2, 3) ---> (3 + 2) - 1 = 4

I haven't figured out how to move from 4 to 5 yet, so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

With a nod to the set theorists

All numbers arise from 0, from which spills forth equally number and numeration.

From 0 comes 1, unity, which comes from the placement of 0 within a context.

1 = 1 = 2, or, to put it better, {0, {0}} = 2. Though since 1 x 2 = 2, it may seem that 2 is higher than 1, the existence of 2 depends entirely upon 1 and without 1 it would be nothing at all.

2 comes into being immediately upon the definition of 1. This same movement makes possible the emergence of 3. The motion towards 1 (present in all numbers) in 2 impels the separation of 2 into both itself and that of itself that turns back towards one. Thus,

2 = (1 = 1)
2 = {0, {0}}

However, these two formulations are not strictly the same, for the first stresses the unity towards 1 in 2 while the second stresses the manner in which 2 is spun forth from 1. The dissimilarity-within-itself of 2 gives rise to three, since

2 = (1 = 1) = 1
1 + {0, {0}} = 1 + 2 = 3

Dimension

A dimension is a manner in which that which always stands beyond expression comes to expression.

People usually speak of three dimensions (height, width, and depth) and may additionally append a fourth (time).

In reality, the three spatial dimensions are not dimensions at all. Extensionality itself can be spoke of as a dimension in certain situations, but in the average experience of most people, the so-called domain known as "space" is a manner in which other dimensions (generally time) are experienced.

From "East Coker," by T.S. Eliot

IV.

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam's curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

from Faraway (so close!)

Emit: "Long ago there must have been a golden age of harmony between heaven and earth. High was high, low was low, inside was in and outside was out.
But now we have money. Now everything's out of balance. They say time is money...but they got it all wrong! Time is the absence of money. Wouldn't you agree, Karl?"

Cassiel: "What can I add to that? Time is running away from me, Mr --"

Why Life is prior to space

We may temporarily permit ourselves a foray into a somewhat unclarified to point out now that the priority of time over space necessitates us to consider life as prior to space. I will endeavor to point out why in the following sections:

We have stated previously that time is the medium in which and through which change was experienced, and that, furthermore, it is the core condition for the possibility of any experience at all. Change, however, ought not be defined as a mechanical but as a formal process. We can show this is correct via the following reasoning:

Nothing that changes remains exactly what it was
A thing that has not altered in any way that is potentially observable (whether immediately or via posterior consequences) has not changed.
No change is potentially observable if there are no observers.
Conversely, if there are no observers there is no change.
Therefore, change only exists if potentially observable (whether immediately or via posterior consequences)

Now, observers only ever view formal characteristics. The concept of non-formal observable objects is absurd, since such objects would be formalized by experience and are therefore self-contradictory. Since observers can only view formal characteristics, we must state that change, which only exists in relation to a (potential) observation, must always be formal.

Formality, however, can exist independently of space. Indeed, formality by definition must be prior to space simply conceived, since space is itself a formalization. Time, however, as we pointed out before, is not necessarily a formalization, and only seems susceptible (at least as far as I am presently able to conceive of it) to a limited and partially extrinsic formalization.

Since we have already brought up (somewhat needlessly) the point that only observers formalize, and that space is a formalization, it is clear that there were observers prior to the formation of space. Observers by definition must be alive (though clearly not necessarily in any traditionally conceived biological sense, if our argument is correct). If there are living things then there is life.

THEREFORE, Life is prior to space.

Further proof of this may be had if one considers the discussion of change above. Since we have stated that time effectively changes into space, it is clear that there must be observers prior to the existence of space.

The reader endowed with forethought will already have realized that we are hurling ourselves, with breakneck speed, against Kant's antimony of the eternity and non-eternity of the world. Perhaps we will soon have gathered enough force behind us to shatter this cave wall and break through to the light of day beyond.