The principal problem of philosophy
The fundamental idea of any philosophy is the integrity
of the world. All individual philosophies treat this problem
from their specific viewpoints, and there can be no philosophy
that would not embrace the world as a whole, at least as a mere idea.
In Unism, the principle of the integrity of the world acquires
the triple form:
- The world is unique. Nothing can exist "outside"
it, and the very possibility to think of another world indicates that
it is a part of this world, which is the only one. Alternatively,
the world is all.
- The world is a universe. That is, it comprises any
possible distinction, thus consisting of innumerable partial
"sub-worlds", and each part of the world is like the world for
its constituents. Alternatively, the world is everything.
- The world is a unity. Any two things are somehow
connected in the World, however different they may seem.
Specifically, any thing is virtually equivalent to its
environment which complements it to the world. Alternatively,
the world is a whole.
This 3U principle may seem too general to be of any practical
importance. However, it may be unfolded and applied to any specific
situation, so that the philosophy of any particular sort of things
could be derived from the idea of the unity of the world, combined with
the specific definiteness of the things.
Matter, reflexion, substance
These are the three basic categories of the philosophy of Unism.
The unity of the world may be considered as the common origin
of all things, which is called matter. Therefore, the world
is matter, and there is nothing in it other than matter.
Being unique, the world may only be related to itself. That is,
any definiteness of the world arises from its relation to itself,
any change in the world leaves it the same, and any action of the
world may only be action upon itself. This universal self-relation,
self-transformation and self-action is called reflexion.
The unity of the world implies that reflexion should be as universal
as matter, and every part of matter should be subject to reflexion,
and no reflexion can exist without matter (something to be reflected).
In this sense, matter and reflection are identical, remaining opposite.
The unity of these two opposites is called substance, which is
both reflected (and reflecting) matter and materialized (and materializing)
reflexion. The world is substance. This aspect of its unity refers to
the self-reproduction of the world. Nothing else is needed to create
it, or to trigger its movement and development. Thus Unism rejects
any deity, and eventually any religion.
Everything in the world has its material side, being somehow
related to matter. In the same way, everything becomes ideal
when considered as a kind of reflexion. However, real things
combine both the material and the ideal, thus representing their
relatedness to the world as substance.
Existence, life, activity
The universal relation of the world to itself is reflexion. Being
the link between matter and substance, reflection combines two polar
aspects: its conservative side (originating from the "passiveness"
of matter) will be called existence, while the productive side
(representing the "creativity" of substance) is called activity.
The link between these two levels of reflection is known as life.
That is, mere existence is not enough for activity, and not any level
of life may be associated with activity. Activity is understood as a
kind of life that changes existence, as well as existence that brings
forth life.
Existence is the syncretic level of reflexion, so that the reflected
is not distinguished from the reflecting, and reflexion itself.
This is not so with life, which assumes that one part of the world
reflects another, and the reflecting is different from the reflected.
Self reflection of a living creature is merely external, that is,
mediated by environmental changes caused by the creature's behavior.
For instance, when people spoil the conditions of their living and
then suffer from that, they act like animals, not like human beings.
The level of activity is characterized with the dominance of internal
reflection, when one is aware of the results of one's action before they
are actually produced. That is, the reflecting is again identical
with the reflected, though not coinciding with it.
Being, motion, development
These are the three levels of existence representing yet another
dimension of reflexion.
Being is the primary kind of reflexion, since anything has
to be before it could change in any way. Thus being is akin
to matter as the basis of the world. This "static" side of existence
may be called internal.
Motion means any modification of being without changing the
being itself. In other words, the changes are external to
being, relating it to other instances of being and thus to the rest
of the world. This is the "dynamical" side of existence.
Development implies a synthesis of being and motion, when
something remains the same and changes as well. This may only mean
the growth of complexity when the boarder between internal and
external depends on the level of consideration --- that is,
hierarchy.
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