Contradictions in Logic

This is not to say that Logic in all its wonders is a useless tool, but merely to point out how it is not as sound and impervious as we tend to use it and think. In part one might argue that the way logic is used is what weakens it, and while I believe this to often be the case of any good concept being watered down, I am speaking more to the essence rather than the practice.

 

For those who are familiar with the concepts of Godël or read the book Godël-Escher-Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid, may already know some if not all of what I am about to speak on. And please, should you have comments, ideas, or discussions, feel free to reach out to me or post somewhere and I will reach out to you.

 

Essentially this is to say that any logic system inherently has one of two characteristics. Either it relies on an infinite series of meta-perspectives or it contradicts itself. For a simple example, English is  language which can speak about itself. Because of this it carries an inherent paradox since I may state “this sentence is false.” There is no way to logically assess this statement, it contradicts itself, and this loop defies the sense of logic we may apply to it. To avoid this one may create an infinite series of meta-languages each to speak about the one after it. This prevents you from saying anything about the sentence of which you speak.

 

I point to this merely to say that logic while extremely powerful, is a tool, and has its own conundrums. It has its own axioms, its own paradoxes, and in practice, blind-spots & loop-holes. I use it a great deal, but associate it with many other concepts as well.

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The Library

I have an idea to jot down my concepts as I understand them and link them together where I use concepts which may imply more discussion.  I will include a key as well, since I am still developing this living document.

The main issues I will probably face are creating cyclic definitions. Naturally there will be inherent issues with paradoxes or such loops Contradictions in Logic, but I will try to make it straight forward and appeal to a $sense of being I will attempt to define the parameters of.

$ Need to create page to define term

# Need to create link to term

¿ Still developing concept

Self-evident or timeless

I am finding that there are many inherent aspects to life, that is to say, facets which are self-evident or timeless. Concepts which are permanent not because they seem impermeable, but because they have no beginning nor end, they can not be stopped for they are part of living, if not simply being.

For example, freedom is something inherent. It can be blocked, distracted from, but never destroyed, it is what you have when nothing is impeding it. The freedom to choose, to feel, to act, the freedom to be.

Similarly, happiness stems from the same eventuality. It is inherent in being, in the fortune of existing and recognizing that because you are alive, you have all you need [$Essentials or $Growing or $Need]. We can impede happiness, but we can not stop it, we can distract from it, but it is there, eternal and we are no more capable of destroying happiness than we are ourselves [$Self].

So far I have personally found 3 things which carry such characteristics $Love, $Freedom, and $Happiness.

Peace & Happiness

Peace is something of a complex concept. The word itself brings up several aspects, whether world peace, peace of mind, calmness, but I would like to speak on a uniform concept of peace. A peace which touches on each of these aspects and is the transcendent concept of it.

I think it is worthwhile to speak quickly on the nature of world peace though. Not to argue for or against, but the concept of peace from war. Often the case in this point is that peace is a resistance to war. That there is some element which keeps us from declaring war, despite the want from atleast one “side” to declare such. This I see as significantly different from peace when both sides would not declare war.

More generally, resistance against a concept is significantly different from simply no interest or not adopting the stand-point. While this seems obvious to the distinction and the individuals holding it, many people believe the resultant effects are quite the same. However, the difference is similar to how the “cold war” was not a war. The resistance or tension itself has effects on decisions, relations, interactions, and subtle acts with one another. Also, the efficacy of this resistance lasts only so long as no one erodes the reason, whether it be fear, hope, hatred, or love. This too creates a weakness in the inherent concept. The strength however lies in the fact that there is a solid aspect which can be strengthened as well, to create a greater resistance.

Ultimately however, this resistance relies on both perspective and individuals allowing themselves to be subjected to such issues. All it takes to remove the resistance is a change in perspective, overcoming the negative or positive emotion holding the individual at bay, and all this can change. It is both an obvious target, a power to wield, and incredibly fragile in the hands of any individual due to its reliance on their belief in the resistance.

Peace, as with other subtle concepts like happiness and freedom are strongest when they are inherent as they truly are. True piece [as I will begin referring to peace for peace, and applied peace as peace from resistance], comes from not being conflicted.  It is the removal of the obstacles that prevent us from acting. While before I used peace as an opposite to war, it is not my belief that one at war can not be at peace, merely that it is unlikely in our societies at this time. Peace is the sense of right and lack of conflict, it is what is left when you are no longer at odds with the world, neighbors, strangers, friends, or your self. It is not so much a particular act, as the potential for acting and being. War, is an action, conflict, is an act, fear is a feeling, but peace is the lack thereof, and acts as a sort of power-vaccum enabling us to act as compelled.

I regard happiness on a similar vein. It is something I have spent my life trying to share with people, and hold in high regards, in a large way because of its effect on my self, utility, and because of how much our society and individuals strive for it. Happiness though, as i see it comes from 2 aspects. First and most common in the American society is distraction, entertainment, beauty, and the like. These all are enwrapped in this enveloping aspect which involves humor, general aesthetics,  puzzling, or other aspects which might take you away from your concerns, override your current conflicts, or generally please you with an energetic, often giddy feeling. While I like this aspect, I feel it is often quite common and easy to come by these days.  The other aspect I feel tends to be more moving, subtle, conceptual, releasing. Overcoming an issue which has been bothering you bear an aspect of both entertainment (the part of celebration), and release, in being allowing yourself to not be disturbed by such issues, and relieving ones self of the burden. This form of happiness is harder to come by as it is not something easily objectified, and is bound upon releasing aspects and being free, as opposed to acquiring or subsumed.

The subtle happiness though is inherent, it is there when you have removed the things which make you unhappy. Unhappiness is an object, a resistance, an issue, happiness is inherent, much like the peace above, or the concept of freedom. It is what you have when not pressed upon, when being true to your self and life.

The problem in approaching this concept of release is that there is nothing to force against, to create, to actively make. You have to trust the release, that in the end when all other forces are removed, you are yourself, that peace, happiness, freedom are what you have when you are not caught under duress. It is difficult to believe that releasing something you feel makes you happy can make you happier, or that by not worrying about an issue you will be able to think more clearly about it, and handle it with greater ease. However, it is where we have come from, it prevents us from burning up our mind, self, body, and feelings on upkeep and lets us handle life as it appears to us, understanding trends and the moment. Where the weakness to this happiness lays, is where the strength of the entertainment happiness begins. Interestingly, as Kant put, subtlety is lost without beauty to garner attention to it, and beauty is lost without the meaning and moving effects of the subtle feelings.

Loves Indomnitability

I realized this a bit ago and wanted to write something on the Strength and Power of love. This is not to sing praise of its effect, nor how it moves people, nor themselves, but more of its indomitable essence, and how I feel it to be more like the concept of Peace, Happiness, and Self.

Earlier I wrote about how the belief in self, love as a shared aspect, and felt from yourself, amongst other things, are quite fragile. I realized then that this fragility is a significant part of why it is so beautiful. More recently though I recognized how for this very same reason they are all quite indomitable.

This follows in quite the same was as the idea of Peace, but I realized that love itself is a sensation from your self. First and foremost though is to understand what form of love I am speaking of. Currently I am aiming towards that which you have from yourself for another, for who they are. As I have come to see it, love from yourself for another can be for who the person is, beneath their facade, and this self is as close to permanent as I have found in this reality. Similarly I feel that while I believe in love for all, a form similar to agape, I believe in love for an individual, one I would distinguish as a subtle sharing, comprehension and feeling of one another, which may or may not include the beauty and passionate forms of eros.

I find that love itself is eternal, that for the very reason that it is so fickle, it can survive anything. There is no way for someone to change your love, no way for anyone to impugn on your love, no way for someone to steal your love. The only way to effect your love is by yourself. What we feel for one another comes from who we are, not what we do, how we perform, nor what we represent.  Love is a feeling we have, an understanding, whether in loving our self or loving other people. It is something which stems from yourself, a decision and recognition both in who you are and how you feel. It is not something someone gifts you, nor is it something you do for someone else, it is a present from who you are. This essence of yourself can no more be taken away than your peace of self, and your happiness, it is there when you are not resisting it, and it is is in the core of your being. It is untouchable by any but yourself, and this power and feeling is yours to have, cherish, hold and be.

In this way I feel love is both fickle since it only takes disbelieving it, fearing it, or forgetting it, to lose it, something that can happen all too easily. At the same time however, like any ideal it is invulnerable to the appeals and actions of others.

On another vein, I feel too that like peace, love is invulnerable to our own appeals, and is perpetually there. That the feeling can only be covered up, confused, overridden with the static noise of entertainment, but never wane. It is still there, merely sublime, awaiting our calm.

Love/Life/Self

I wanted to add this old note so that I may refer to it:

One thing I have come to recognize again is the feeling of love and what it means. It was a while ago that the words and understanding came for some of the reasons i appreciate it, but I thought I would write them here now.

There are a great deals of parallels between loving, living, and understanding. Life without loving yourself, what you do, and others can be difficult to give reason and verve to. Without bonding with life, sensing it personally and opening up to it, you lose a lot of the ability to recognize the sensations and aspects available.

Primarily though I find one of the things that makes love, trust, life, and understanding in general so beautiful is how tenuous it is. Love is uncontrollable, we can presume to force it, or control it, we can adapt it, or feel it in part, but in all forms, love feels the most enriched when it is something given freely. Just as a promise under duress bears no true weight, so love is encouraged by the freedom which gives birth to it. You can’t know that other people love you, that they will love you, that you will love you, and especially that that love will always feel and be the same. Honestly, I feel love continuously changes, it is always of the form of love, but the meanings, feelings, expressions, and passions all revolve in a complex array surging and subsiding each in wake of their own situations and sense of self.

When you can love someone for your own self and reasons, it no longer becomes a liability, but a strength. It is the ability to look within yourself, and look within life and others. With that perception you are left open, but at the same time, you can never fall back further than yourself, since you are truly yourself in all things [another reason why loving your or the self is so crucial]. This ability to give, and express enables us, and the ability to feel and appreciate others expression is just as enabling. Also, in knowing that they give of their own accord, that it is so fragile, and is a culmination of thoughts, feelings, understandings they have that coincide with your own, and gives life to so much of the acts and being you have to together.

Similarly, trusting yourself and feelings is just as fickle. You will always do as you do, make mistakes, hurt and hurt others, but in being and trusting yourself you will learn and be enriched from all of these experiences. You are not unconscious in your acts and are able to recognize the situations you enter and understand your part in it all. Ultimately as well, in trusting yourself, you recognize that you are there for you and with you. Fickle, but powerful, and necessary to love ourselves. It is easy to get lost in doubting, or to believe that trusting yourself will make you complacent, however, trusting yourself lets you act in your own interest, and share your self, washing away your ignorance and empowering you to encourage others as well as your self. It is a matter of perspective, very much a matter of faith, as much as I am reticent to use the word. We have reasons to trust ourselves, and often many to not, but without trusting our self, we will never be able to live our life, love our life, and thereby love others and feel the meaning and passion in being, since we will not play a roll in it then.

I love loving, trusting, and my self, as well as those I am fortuitous enough to share this with.

Transcription

These are some letters I wrote while I was in Maui:

I realized why I am excited to see Anna was that she is helping me believe in myself, more actually my life & the way/truth of being than any other aspects.

I believe I have been compromising myself simply to soothe peoples problem, not help them. It makes me feel as though I’ve been weak. As though I have decided life, my life, is less important than peoples arbitrary noise.

I wonder what will happen if I stop all the amicable noises, stop entertaining, stop catering to peoples insecurities & social wounds. I am afraid, scared that it might ward those I lovve & might love, but in reality I wouldn’t want to encourage that lifestyle & I am not so concerned about being alone.

Actually being alone, while sad, has its own appeal. What concerns me more is hurting my family, the love one. I realized when swimming that having develop a true family as a life goal is dangerous. At best it should be a by-product of self-awareness, not a goal in and of itself.

In part, this is because you have no direct control over it, since it involves both others will, & chance of finding one another. It is hard to let go of though. A life shared, I have held dear for a long time, it is a last refuge of the life-goal of helping people! It is the feeling of culling a dream, a hope, and one I don’t yet cherish. It hurts. However, it makes way for my goal of being which has come to a head on two fronts. First, in my self exploration it is quite evident that despite others, I am me and the best way for me to support life is to pay homage to my priorities & be as aware in my life as I can be. Also, and quite shockingly, it is an issue now. Both Greer & Anna would be helped by it. Greer as an example, and to work towards our/her understanding. Anna is beffeting against it in two ways.

One way is in her awareness, it has struck my triggers that I set to tell me there is someone ready for such. Second, she is in a place where she is doing the same in her first few steps, & it is ^(a big part of) why I am excited to see her, beyond of course the fact that she is Anna.