International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Philosophy
International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Conference proceedings; Medicine -- Congresses; Science and the humanities -- Congresses; Technology -- Congresses
we are caught in the snare of monism, pluralism having apparently become
the equivalent of chaos, and thus the _bête noir_ of rational
metaphysics. Nay, in the opposed camp itself, some of the most ardent
adherents of pluralism, the liveliest of wit, the most exuberant in
literary resources, are the abjectest believers in the hopeless
disjunction and capriciousness of the plural, and hold there is a rift
in the texture of reality that no intelligence, "even though you dub it
'the Absolute,'" can mend or reach across. Yet surely there is nothing
in the Many, as a sum of units, the least at war with the One as a
system of harmony. On the contrary, even in the pure form of the Number
Series, the Many is impossible except on the principle of harmony,--the
units can be collected and summed (that is, constitute the Many), only
if they cohere in a community of intrinsic kindred. Consequently the
whole question of the chaotic or the harmonic nature of a plural world
turns on the nature of the genus which we find characteristic of the
absolutely (_i. e._, the unreservedly) real, and which is to be taken as
the common denomination enabling us to count them and to sum them. When
minds are seen to be necessarily the primary realities, but _also
necessarily federal_ as well as individual, the illusion about the
essential disjunction and non-coherence of the plurally real dissolves
away, and a primordial world of manifold persons is seen to involve no
fundamental or hopeless anarchy of individualism, irreducible in
caprice, but an indwelling principle of harmony, rather, that from the
springs of individual being intends the control and composure of all the
disorders that mark the world of experiential appearance, and so must
tend perpetually to effect this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account