Philosophical Investigations Note 8

Things are the intersection of systems, defined in terms of the ways they relate to each other.

So is meaning, a second-order relation of things (embodying the relation of systems of thought).

Descartes 1

Descartes was misguided. The world is simulation. Then why something not nothing? Existence is relative. So must the self exist? Only in relation to that which it exists in relation to. The self and the world only exist in relation to each other.

Note 151

What is culture? It is essentially a relation of one set of properties of a reflexive system to another.

Note 150

On history:

1. The search for political, social order and equality
2. The search for cultural perfectibility
3. The search for human perfectibility

The end of history reconciles the possibility of obtaining all 3 that covers the scope of the diversity of political, human and social objectives. The spirit of an era gives direction to, and shapes its institutional forms and objectives, as well as the hermeneutics of the interactions that make up the functioning of a myriad of social systems, within the context of a present and evolving pattern of material relationships. The role of incorporation of additional elements adds an open-endedness, and an additional layer of adaptive complexity, to this evolving system.

Note 149

Meaning is the structure of relations of meanings. “Context” is just a way of foregrounding this concept as we apply meanings in relation to each other via propositions.

Note 148

Any real solution to dualism must transcend dualism, and show us the way to what lies beyond it. This applies to both epistemic and ontological questions.

Note 147

What defines power? Depends on your objective. What defines objective? Systems, which give rise to goals and meaning.

Systems create dynamics that drive adaptation, whether convergence or divergence; they create strong self-perpetuating institutional forms.

Power is essentially systemic. It is an advantage due to certain properties within a given system. This positional advantage is cashed out as power in various forms. Partial analysis is a useful heuristic but misleading if taken literally.

Philosophical Investigations Note 7

Those who can describe who they are are either simplistic, deluded or lying.

Those who can’t have serious split personality issues.

Therefore, I can describe who I am, and I cannot describe who I am.

Because meaning is context dependent, it cannot encompass structure.

Therefore the picture theory of meaning is false.

Note 146

Systems of thought may share reference points and patterns in the way its concepts refer to other concepts and things, that can be translated to other systems of thought- and others which may not be so translatable. This is not because they are cognitively incommensurable but because the significance of the component relationship or idea can only be grasped in terms of the broader implications it has for the system of thought to which it relates, which therefore conditions it’s meaning. In that sense, the way concepts refer to common phenomena, are an anchor point for referencing across systems.

This has nothing to do with the broader point about the ontological reality of the reference, but the epistemic one about the role that the reference plays in our language games when we posit systems of thought.

This is not pre-determined by the theory, but by how we choose to understand it, as a description of a plural reality, or a description of a single reality. If we are agnostic to this and see it as an interpretation of experienced reality, there is no reason why one account can not replace another, unless it is defined (problematicized) differently.

Note 145

What is the teleology of things? A cause, value, identity nexus. Intellection is a part of this process, so it is inherently conservative.

Systems are a composite of things, and an interaction of micro-teleologies. Incorporation is part of a process of changes in teleological aims, preserved through individual identities and social forms, as the developmental process (combining dialectics, technological re-parameterization; and emergent choices) alters the teleological structure over time.

Note 144

The world lies in the coexistence of opposites. The paradox is the knot that ties the idea to reality.

Is a system of binaries, like a binary code, a fact about the world, or a condition of our thought? Or a condition of the process of framing? Are any of these questions meaningfully answerable?

Note 143

Knowledge is a synthesis of question and answer.

Underlying facts (patterns that give rise to all possible answers to all possible questions) form the basis of validity.

Does this mean that questions form the patterns of underlying facts? Not necessarily.

But in the social sciences, reflexivity poses additional problems.

Grammar is a posing of problems.

This limits our access to underlying facts to a certain viewpoint.

Underlying facts is something we infer. Or we can do away with validity altogether.

It depends on our frame of mind.

Note 142

The world of complete markets is a world of standardization, where the relationship to our environment and its aspect that make us human are lost. All our activities are therein proscribed, and money is but access to restriction. Such is, in embryo, the middle class and the sterility of its outlook.

Note 141: On Truth

Philosophy - a rationalization of the unknowable in terms that are unknown.

What we call truth are properly speaking patterns of regularity - we get no privileged access to what we don’t already have.

It remains impossible to know how much we know, for that would already presuppose that we knew what truth in relation to itself is, which is precisely what we don’t know.

We cannot know what truth-in-itself is (or speak coherently about it) but what truth is to us must be given perspectivally. But the presumption of our ability to approach objective truth is dependent on the consistency of truth in relation to itself (which is the best we can do) with truth in relation to us.

This has nothing to do with truth-in-itself.

Weber Notes 2

“It is certain that the integrity of personality flows from the existence of values to which it’s own life is related. And if on occasion these values were located exclusively within the sphere of its own individuality, then self-realisation with respect to just those interests for which it claims validity as values is the idea to which personality relates itself.” -Max Weber

***
Interests directed at external validity; validity defined as interest: that is how the personality relates itself to itself; as valuing thing to self-interested thing.

Note 140

Existence is a framework within which one thing relates to another. It is a pragmatic concept. Applied to experience, it is a framework by which the contents are related to each other.

Note 139

Truth and duality coexist. Truth is what we call our ideas; consistency is what we get in the world. So it is meaningless to say what is true in the world. But there are standards of truth in what we think of it; given by the world. This makes our statements about our thoughts about the world true or false - it does not make our statements about the world true or false. The language games that translate the former into the latter may take different forms.

***
Time just is the process of determinacy interacting with indeterminacy. Laws are determinate; but states of the world are not. So multiple equilibriums are possible.

***
Language games translate properties into meanings that relate to each other. For example, truth and consistency. In doing so, they define the justification (pragmatism), reference and use of the subject.

Weber Notes 1

“As rational action in the the economic and political sphere follows its own law like autonomy, so every other rational action in the world remains inseparably linked to worldly conditions that are alien to brotherliness.” - Max Weber

***

Society as technology to navigate, discover and develop structures and processes around lawlike autonomies in physical, economic, political, social, and teleological domains.

Note 138

The maya is the concept of truth itself: truthfulness springs from illusion. Form violates the essence of truth.

Therefore nothing is knowable.

Note 137

Two sources of growth: improved rate of circulation of transactions and money (demand-driven); or improved processes and products (higher circulation of activity or new activities which translates into higher capital circulation and hence drives growth).