Metaphysics and Transcendence

by Gibson,Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780415321280
• ISBN10: 041532128X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-25
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Metaphysics and Transcendencetakes up this story for the future. Arthur Gibson presents a new metaphysics with a genealogy based on counter-intuition and locates counter-intuition and complexity at the foundations of truth. Having devised fresh concepts on the basis of the new frontiers of science and philosophy, the author presents original explanations of transcendence arguing that just as we need revolutionary and original ways of depicting the physical world, so it is with such topics as God, miracles, the resurrection, the source and identity of consciousness and reason itself.

Author Biography

Arthur Gibson is Reader in Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Surrey, Roehampton, and Visiting Fellow of the Cambridge University Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law, Faculty of Law.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
PART I The problem	1	(12)
Introduction	3	(10)
Beginning philosophy	3	(4)
Starting again	7	(6)
PART II Prognosis	13	(56)
1 Complexities of meaning	15	(15)
Simplicity versus complexity	15	(1)
Counter-intuition 1	16	(3)
Nash 'simplicity'	19	(1)
Kolmogorov complexity	20	(5)
Metaphysical meaning	25	(1)
Counter-intuitive pictures	25	(5)
2 Simple-minded philosophy	30	(23)
Myths of simplicity	30	(1)
A philosophical biography of simplicity	30	(3)
Difficulty in defining Ockham's philosophy	33	(3)
Ockham and reference	36	(6)
Resurrected Ockham	42	(2)
Ockham's Razors	44	(6)
Anti-realism's true Razor?	50	(1)
Future contingents	51	(2)
3 Transcending cultural limits in logic	53	(16)
Beyond simple transcendence	53	(1)
The scope of logic	54	(1)
Limits and transcendence	54	(1)
Counter-intuition 2	55	(1)
Paradox	56	(2)
Transcending logic	58	(1)
Wittgenstein, Kant and Fermat	59	(2)
Mallarmé's game	61	(2)
Metaphoric logic	63	(2)
Realistic propositions	65	(4)
PART III Infinite metaphysics	69	(72)
4 Philosophy of mathematics, mathematical physics and creativity	71	(22)
The rationality of originality	71	(1)
Original literature and logic	72	(1)
Language games and philosophy of mathematics	73	(3)
Games, constructivist mathematics and infinite play	76	(4)
Exploring new pasts with future possibility	80	(1)
New values of the constructivist game	81	(3)
Counter-intuitive constructivism, literary games and infinity	84	(3)
The counter-intuitive mystery of emergent physics	87	(6)
5 The quality of creative language	93	(30)
Logic of literary creativity and philosophy of mathematics	93	(2)
Contradiction and counter-intuition	95	(2)
Counter-intuition and linguistic cosmology	97	(5)
A qualitative continuum and live metaphor	102	(3)
Counter-intuition and surveyable sense	105	(1)
Natural languages and surveyability	106	(3)
Non-algorithmic cosmology, non-surveyability and literariness	109	(4)
Logical pictures, live metaphor and infinity	113	(5)
Qualitative infinities	118	(5)
6 Virtual reality metaphysics	123	(18)
Logic of metaphoric film	123	(1)
Logical possibilities	123	(4)
Film metaphysics in language	127	(1)
Imagination and logic	128	(1)
Representation and metalanguage	129	(3)
Realism, counter-intuitive proof and recognition	132	(1)
Mimesis, transcendence and cosmology	133	(4)
Sublime creativity and universals	137	(4)
PART IV Real-world solutions	141	(97)
7 Some resurrection logic	143	(25)
Reductionism in ignorance	143	(1)
What is possibility?	144	(3)
Empirical possibility and belief	147	(5)
Ontology and retro-chic theology	152	(1)
Conceptual strategy	152	(2)
Mapping between subjects	154	(2)
Is there on y one logic?	156	(1)
Creation and resurrection	156	(1)
Resurrection and the start of the universe	157	(2)
Creative catastrophes	159	(1)
Mathematical truths and ethics	160	(1)
Empirical beauty	161	(3)
Ranging aesthetics	164	(2)
Creating universal art in ontology	166	(1)
Conclusion	167	(1)
8 The semantic logic of 'God'	168	(24)
Exploratory presuppositions	168	(3)
When angels go proxy for God	171	(2)
Referring to God	173	(2)
'Gods' and God	175	(2)
Philosophy of live metaphor	177	(1)
Melchizedek and God	178	(2)
Is quantification divine?	180	(3)
Identity of reference to God	183	(1)
Is philosophy of dead language possible?	184	(2)
Metaphoric 'gods'	186	(4)
Identity in Christology	190	(2)
9 Modern philosophy and ancient consciousness	192	(19)
Philosophy of alternative cultures	192	(1)
Is logic applicable to identity?	192	(3)
Knowledge of other minds	195	(1)
Cogito ergo sum	196	(2)
The first person	198	(1)
Neurophysiology of the person	199	(1)
Philosophy of sexual neurophysiology	200	(1)
Antecedents of Descartes	201	(2)
The imagination of the first person	203	(1)
Psychoanalysis of Sumerian gender?	204	(1)
Multiple personality and personal trance	205	(1)
Female multiples	206	(1)
Projecting multiple personality on to deities	207	(1)
Multiple personality deity	208	(1)
The unconscious downloading ancient Sumer?	209	(2)
10 Transcendent reason	211	(24)
Removing dogmatic assumptions	211	(4)
Argumentum ad hominem	215	(1)
Aristotle's dialectic, syllogistic and rhetoric	216	(1)
Proof in logic for rhetoric	217	(1)
Counter-intuitive solutions to paradox	218	(2)
The relevance of logical propositions	220	(3)
Enthymeme	223	(2)
How short is a chain of premises?	225	(1)
'For the most part'	225	(1)
Plural generalisation of probability?	226	(1)
Inference in the Gospel of Mark	227	(3)
False metaphor in some rhetorical scholarship	230	(3)
Conclusion	233	(2)
11 Conclusion	235	(3)
Notes	238	(17)
Bibliography	255	(15)
Indexes	270
Name index	270	(2)
Subject index	272