AN APPROACH TO THE GROUND OF BEING

AN ETIC PERSPECTIVE

ETIC
-ANTHROPOLOGY-ROBERT FELEPPA, "EMIC,ETICS AND SOCIAL OBJECTIVITY"
CURRENT ANTHROPLOGY,VOL.27.NO 3,JUNE 1986.243-255.

ALSO CALLED

EXTRINSINC
-LITERARY THEORY-NEW CRITICISM-RELATED TO STRUCTURALISM-WELLEK AND WARREN'S THEORY OF LITERATURE

INTERNAL PERSPECTIVES AND METHODOLOGIES
-WESTERN ESOTERIC SCHOLARSHIP-PIERRE RIFFARD'S "The Esoteric Method" In WESTERN ESOTERICISM AND THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION (Leuven:Peeters,1998).


RESEARCH METHODOLOGY


I am adapting in my research a Rosicrucian (AMORC)conception of a possible cognitive encounter with the Absolute or the ground of being,where

The Absolute is understood as both an end in itself and as a point of reference for a constellation of ideas/
and as a point of reference for the correlation of a contellation of ideas.

See Kant on analytical and synthetic judgement.How helpful will his charactersation of these cognitive strategies facilitate my work,particularly the ultimate goal I outline here?
How does Kants entire project in his three critiques relate to mine?


I see this conception of an ultimate cognitive goal as exemplified by

1.Harvey Spencer Lewis,a modern Rosicrucian philosopher, on the cosmic: "The cosmic mind does not contain the particulars of human knowledge and experience but is an exalted level of evaluation"
from a 1980s edition of The Rosicrucian Manual.

2. The summation of Dante's Paradiso-see in particular the commentary on the concluding canto by Singer.

The Dvine Comedy 3:Paradise, London: Penguin,1988.Trans.and commentary by Barbara Reynolds.

"In that abyss I saw how love held bound
Into one volume all the leaves whose flight
Is scattered through the universe around;

How substance, accident, and mode unite
Fused, so to speak, together, in such wise
That this I tell of is one simple light.

Yea,of this complex I believe mine eyes
Beheld the universal form-in me,
Even as I speak,I feel such joy arise".

345.

Reynolds' commentary:

Summation:
"The final vision,the crown and climax of the whole work,consists of two revelations.First,Dante perceives in the Dvine Light the form,or exemplar,of all creation.All things that exist in themselves ("substance"),all aspects or properties of being ("accident"),all mutual relations ("mode") are seen bound together in one single concept.The universe is in God.

347-48.


In that abyss I saw how love held bound etc: In the Divine Essence,Dante sees that all creation and all time are bound up,like the pages in a volume,in God.


...substance,accident and mode:Substances,i.e. things existing in themselves,accidents,i.e qualities residing in substances,and the relations between both are seen by Dante to be so fused together in God as to be indistinguishable.

348.

Yea,of this complex I believe mine eyes beheld the universal form etc. :A "substantial form" is the distinguishing feature of a substance,that which makes it the thing it is and not another.The "form of the universe",would be the feature,property,or nature of the universe,that which makes it what it is.To glimpse that would be to read in the mind of God Himself the divine iudea of all things,an experince which would defy description in mortal words.All Dante can do is to convey the exultation of spirit which is renewed in him when he speaks of recalling it.

348-9.



The Divine Comedy:The Complete Text
trans. by Henry Cary.ed.Ralph Pite. london Everyman,2001.

...I look'd,
...
...and,in that depth,
Saw in one volume clasp'd of love,whate'er
The universe unfolds;all properties
Of substance and of accident,beheld,
Compounded,yet one individual light
The whole.And of such bond methinks I saw
The universal form;for that whene'er
I do speak of it,.my soul dilates
Beyond her proper self...

358-9.

"In its depths I saw that it contained, bound by love in one volume, that which is scattered in leaves through the universe, substances and accidents and their relations as it were fused together in such a way that what I tell of is a simple light. I think I saw the universal form of this complex, because in telling of it I feel my joy expand".

His experienmce is the reward and the fulfillment of his faithful thinking;but it is also much more,-'exceeeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,according to the power that worketh in us'.In the end,the scholastic,from very faithfulness i his thinking,becomes the mystic,and thought is wholly surpassed in vision.





3. Kunene's description of the climatic congnitive realisation in classical Zulu thought:

4.Anthony Kenny on the nature of a metaphysical system in Aquinas and Hegels exemplification of this understading of a metaphysical system in his works on mind,history and aesthetics.

5.Anselm of Canterbury's proof of the existence of God understood not as prooof but as a cognitive and research strategy,a strategy exemplified by Aquinas Three Proofs,the latter understood,again,as a cogntive and research strategy,for integrating ideas at increasingly inclusive levels of correlation/integration.Note,however,the qualification on intellectual approaches to God attributed to Aquinas's later career.

6.The entire cogntive process operating in terms of a dilectical relationship between extraplation of theory from particulars and theoritical framing of particulars.

7.The vision suggested by the conclusion of newtons principa
8.platos dialogues on knowledge pf the good
9.IFA
A.THE ODU ACCORDING TO OHOMINA
B.ESHU AND PARADOX-PLUS ALL LAWALS TEXTS ON ESHU- RELATE TO TANIA AND COLERDGE-SEE TILLEYS USE OF CLOEIDGRIDGE IN METAPHOR AND MATRIL CULTURE
TANIA-THE SYSTEM IS PARADOXICAL BUT IT DOES NOT COLLAPSE