Before the manifestation of existence

Transcription

1 Before the manifestation of existence Miquel Ricart Original text in: 1. I belong to my truth. To the limits of a body. 2. The first mistake is that of not considering things from the precise place. The precise place is outside the entirety of the characteristics of each act. It is an essentially objective place. And prior to the truth. 3. Situated imaginarily on a flat and unlimited surface the void is defined as a category by any other describable or referencable thing. 4. It is concerned with determining the dimension of what is apparent in the contradiction. 5. The absurd is already in the being. And the multiplicity of its expressions and forms. 6. The consciousness of being is a fundamental theme of this book. 7. The perception of dimension is a subjective and random process. Dimension is formed of parts that characterise it. Nothing is totally. Nothing constitutes a place of reference. There are essential affirmations that are objectively true but on not being sufficient, must be passed over. Unstable dimensions are once again erected. Being is the inevitable centre of the reordering of the real possibilities that concern it. Like all being, I decide. And I maintain the paradigms of doubt however I can. 8. Under no circumstances whatsoever should models of identity be included. Perhaps events are predetermined, but such a possibility is tangential to expressions of reason. To qualify events I can or cannot turn to models. The models must lead to values. The models may also be establishing a type of different division to the previous static or dynamic. It is not possible to assimilate events to hypothesis; neither is it possible, generally speaking, to establish a system of occurrence of events, susceptible to critical observations. Has the action of being been excessive? Or, on the contrary, has its inactivity been excessive? It would be said that the very vital happening is alien to being in itself. 9. Who really is regarding me reflects my experience; and also regarding me creates all the incorporeal spaces. 1/24

2 10. Everything that transcends me (the search for truth, events as a whole, etc.) form part of a disperse I. 11. I succumb: I constitute the draining of forms. 12. Horror can cover us and continue growing, becoming an invisible enormity No, we do not know what stops it. 13. I have thought it and written it; it belongs to the authenticity of the subjective. 14. Given the brevity of the existence of being, inquisitive or investigative intellectual actions that tend to clarify questions that one could define generally as essential do not seem to be overtly necessary. However, reflexive questions such as the concept and limits of certainty, identity and the uniqueness of being, events and their interpretation, the meaning and perception of reality do indeed seem to be worthy of consideration 15. Things are as they are due to the very strength of events, for their very dynamic and because reality is thus; totality, summit and splendour that dissolves into nothing. 16. The most transcendent processes are those that originate inside the very being, and that the very being leads back to oneself. 17. What is inside me belongs to me: only this; my insoluble attached being: language in waiting. 18. Only in abstraction, in its infinite spaces, can I consider the possibility of certainty. 19. ABOUT EXISTENTIALISM The supposed primordial certainties about the origin of being, of such unusual and diverse characteristics, have gradually faded away over time in light of logic and intellectual rigour. The majority of hypotheses about what exactly is the being have also been dissipated, due to their condition of being fantasy-filled and false. The human being corporeal reality that constitutes or should constitute the main concern of thought is debated in the shadowy silence of their own existence. We know that the being is found amidst the confusion, the inevitable and the temporary, and that on being unable to reach any categorical criteria about its essential identity, is obliged, in reflecting, to use criteria of approximation; and thus, with this behaviour, only slight advances, albeit confused, are made. Today, at this moment in history, it seems that there is no other possibility in the attempt to know what being is than reasoning, with all the conditions intrinsic that this involves, between the confines of the absurd, of the indemonstrable and of intuition. The following are considered fundamental aspects of existentialism by writers: the concept of finitude, death, anguish, blame, fragility of existence, subjectivity, abandonment, desperation, despair All of them are essentially human concepts, zenithal and axial concepts of the life of being. 2/24

3 20. We always find ourselves before the intellectual itinerary that goes from the idea to its affirmation or negation. Always before the periodic probability. Those same words always emerge. 21. Why reject those that they deny? What are they guilty of? 22. To each period its own analyses. To each moment its ethical component. To each event its evaluation with respect to man. 23. So in those times even darker than today s there were only laws against man, at the same time a dismal and confused dogmatism, there were only conjectures, lies of all kinds, mistaken codes, ideological remains 24. Accepting known truths we are left with just two spheres of thought: one, that of truths still not demonstrated and, two, the way and place that refers to the totality of truths, those already known and those which are being gradually incorporated into the world of knowledge. 25. Doubt as a critical attitude must also be subject to criticism: constantly determining its closeness to or distance from the absurd. 26. The greatest existential contradiction of being human is not being able to explain it to oneself as essence. 27. Before the existential void not even rage seems to have a place any longer: all has become desolate due to the resignation of being before the absurd. 28. With respect to the inner self, every act is transparent. 29. The past has a progressively articulated structure: through it and only this way the past is explained partially. 30. The rationality of the critical spirit, as an essential condition, avoids the consideration of thoughts and acts that are not susceptible to transcendent analysis; it strives to move away from any system of equivalence, as well as actions and tautologies. Moreover, the rationality of the critical spirit aims to show the enormity of human ideological chaos and the limitation of the action of understanding; pursuing, essentially finding coherence in abstraction, and tending towards an intuitive analysis of what is perceptible to the senses. And all this despite the limitation involved, for dialectic reason, the ambiguity of the very existence of being. Because there is no genuine reference to any being that is not the very being considered within oneself; one cannot isolate theoretical knowledge from human reality as such. Because, however perfect and complete a system of thought was, it would be written by and for being, and because there is no theory of worth that does not explicitly refer to being, and because there is no set of ideas whatsoever worthy of being considered if the essential presence of being is excluded from it. 31. From among all human events, only some intellectual processes are independent. 3/24

4 Intellectual processes may be using the words of A.J. Ayer regarding ethical and aesthetic judgements cognitive and emotive. 32. Intellectual processes are in themselves and for themselves : as well as providing external results considerations, conclusions, definitions they contain properties relating to their own concept. 33. There is no act that begins without a prior analytical process. Unconscious processes are derivative analytical processes. 34. Mankind s dependence on random external factors is of such importance that there is no idea that can overcome it. A latent contradiction between theory and practice thus remains. And thus such extensive uncertainty takes on fundamental characters. 35. Reasoning is an open process. And internal rules applicable to the intensity of its content do not exist. 36. To total renunciations, relative possibilities. To rational ambitions, their own limitation. 37. There are some concepts that must be of special consideration, and among which should be mentioned the following: the evaluation of the reference of events, the previously occurred and its influence on the here and now and the incomprehensible. Additionally, the all redirected to the origin, the poverty of irrational power, the totalitarian and its origin, the automats of the totalitarian structure of power, the clans and their servants (the henchmen). And finally one can include among the relevant concepts: the human beings that it has partially destroyed, evil as an unfortunate and incomprehensible characteristic of the human species, disgust as a sentiment and consequence of this evil and the human limits of forgiveness. 38. Never against the truth. 39. In any fundamental question, the commission of a new mistake will have a heavy bearing of the structure of the basic system of reference however slight in which the argumentative capacity of the human being is sustained. 40. Everything appears separate before a being that lives bewildered and defenceless before the external world. 41. In reality, and attempting to speak precisely, it is not about understanding the world : rather, it is about trying to see what there is in the world of the comprehensible. 42. Acceptance of the absurd is an essential condition of transcendent reasonings. The philosophy of the 20th century, work by this author published in Spanish by Editorial Crítica, S.A., Barcelona, /24

5 43. What space of the conscience do words emerge from? And what is the origin of this definitive formation? 44. Individual and free reflection establishes exclusively the authenticity of the hypothetic, the doubtful, the probable, of everything regarding that which oneself one s inner self is both origin and destination. It is true as soon as it is comprehensible, as soon as it is given meaning, meaning that is sometimes founded on a sole vital possibility. 45. It seems that, in some way, the act distances itself from the will. The act is difficult to define from the factors which coincide in time with it. On the other hand, the previously occurred act limits the capacity of reasoning about a new act: it creates a precedent that must be strictly considered. However, taking all into consideration, man can increase the degree of willingness of the act, shaping it into their ideal theoretical characteristics: this objective of difficult growth in its specific development can only be achieved by being in conditions to turn to rationality. 46. There is a movement of the human being towards the void, towards silence, towards extinction. 47. Abstention of thought creates empty spaces of diffuse limits. 48. Acceding to definitive words would be the equivalent of linking concepts with imaginable totality. 49. There is no other time than now. All values must be in accordance with this consideration. It is the only independent one. 50. ABOUT AMBIGUITY The term ambiguity, so important in the sphere of thought and language, means, according to the Webster s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention an equivocal or ambiguous word, expression, meaning, etc. In reference to language, ambiguity may occur with regards to both words and sentences. However, ambiguity appears especially in the theoretical analysis of existence. For a person faced directly with reality, they have no choice but to try to use the most appropriate criteria in the analysis of the immediate, especially if the immediate to be considered is adverse; however, any explanatory or evaluative criteria of reality are partial, evasive, and ambiguous. Alongside a distant constellation of theories, there is nothing more for each human being than what is closest and comprehensible, in other words, that which concerns them directly. The life of the human being is, in the end, quite outside what is externally widespread, because the absurd takes charge of breaking up everything human that is non-individualised insofar as it establishes or aims to have established specific references or affirmations considered indefectibly as true. And again, once again, emerges the confirmation of an imprecise but perhaps inevitable vision of difficult-to-specify diverse ideas and desires. Concepts such as matter, substance, and so many others demand the intellection of their main, authentic truths. Definitions are needed that are in accordance with the essential concepts: in this respect, 5/24

6 there is only room for the effort of the human intellect, unceasingly reappearing from the dense foliage of ambiguity. 51. On the faces of the sick, especially in that fatigued look aimed at the infinite, is found the truth of life; it is precisely there, and in no other place. All other theories about human life are nothing more than approximations, hypotheses, subterfuges, unconnected descriptive spaces 52. The intellectual approximation to nothingness as a concept is consubstantial to abstract thought. 53. To each specific situation, a single suitable attitude. 54. Sign is everything that produces attributable emotions. 55. The sign does not possess consistency outside the acceptance that each one does the same. 56. The greater the closeness of causes, the greater the need for autarchy. 57. The absurd, as well as being accessible, contains its own answers. 58. Nothingness and the absurd form an absolute intellectual limit; before their authenticity and conceptual plenitude any arguments that claim to be transcendent are dissolved. 59. Despite everything, over and over again throughout time, the most transcendental intellectual processes those that are aimed at the essence wear themselves out, cancel themselves out in the interpretive difficulty of their own expression, are dissolved in the ambit of the radical enigma of their very origin and meaning. 60. Between the real and its perception a system of symbolisms is created. Note According to Paul Watzlawick, a system consists of a set of objects as well as the relationships between the objects and their attributes. The following are classes of systems among other things and according to the authors : interactional systems, closed systems, dyadic sub-systems, circular and selfmodifying systems, stable systems, communication and general system, logistic systems (Abbagnano), artificial systems, social systems, symbolic systems (these latter three, according to Amparo Gómez), conceptual systems, real systems (both in the words of Ferrater Mora). I end this note by quoting Abbagnano s definition of system in his dictionary: System is a deductive totality of discourse. 61. Decisive circumstances are all those that can be separated from the act to which they are joined and continue being the object of definition. 62. In writing this book, I have not claimed to do anything more than find some truth and beauty in an incomprehensible world, in an absurd world full of absolute ambivalence. 63. For the development of a structural programme of thought, we would have to, above all, set our sights on a set of rules and some ends and objectives. The rules would have to 6/24

7 coincide with independent certainties, and the objectives would have to be placed within the realm of possibility. Moreover, the programme would have to be isolated from random factors. A programme parallel in thought to the self-questions about essence. 64. Human experiences are weakly comparable. They only form precedents in a partial way. 65. Life surpasses in its difficulty and harshness not only the capacity of acceptance of being, but also its capacity of comprehension. The human thus stays strength, although lucid and serene, it must be said dramatically limited in their intellectual possibilities, by the very reality of their existence. 66. Philosophising consists of thinking about existence and, perhaps, about essence. The result of this individual activity is shown in a vague set of approximations. 67. Every vital fact that takes place in time constitutes a process. Processes are analysable and lead to value judgements. 68. We cannot have evidence of the existence of facts: it is only possible for us to sense the inclusion of them into the wholeness of sensitivity. 69. ABOUT THE ABSURD The Absurd is beyond any theory, affirmation or reasoning: it is in itself. Despite the importance that could be given to the so-called authors of the absurd, they did not need to emerge in order for this concept to be decisive in the sphere of thought; the absurd already existed before them from the origin of time and in all its splendour. However much one tries to achieve a better world the best of all possible worlds one will not find anything other than an absurd world of which one must recognise whether you like it or not its tendency towards emptiness, its unceasing approximation towards an incomplete future. Regarding the clear and inevitable corporeal weakness of being, with all the physical pain that being involves, one sees an almost total lack of appreciation and valuation by authors. It seems that no-one dares to speak about the suffering of being. Generally speaking, neither is the death of the being dealt with in its biological aspect, that is, in the disappearance of the matter of being. This is unfortunate, because despite the fear that the question arouses, reflection about death would allow a greater approximation to the most authentic aspect of reality. Deep down it seems as if the aim is to distance the being from the absurd conceptually, which does nothing more than favour the most unreal and dehumanised part of man. I believe that what should be done is to study not just the idea of the existence of the human being as such, but also in particular the relationship of the human being with reality, starting from the fundamental and almost defining basis of the temporary nature of existence. 70. Reality conditions their own analysis, on forming part of the closed world of identities. 71. A human act is shown in two fundamental orders: its volitional action and its temporary function. 7/24

8 72. The absurd is an independent structure. 73. As I consider. Or, as I establish a proportion, capable of being valued, between the diverse appreciations of a fact and its abstract reality. 74. An absolutely true fact is that which can be considered in isolation. 75. There is no foreseeable identification between the word and its origin, between the voice and its original figure. 76. I hear neither analogous voices and nor do I detect similar forms. Against dogmas, against uncritical systems, against ideologised institutions Yes, always for the determinate being, the being of disfigured reality, uncertainty Yes, for the solitary being, for the alien being that we identify through our own daily strangeness 77. The most rational aspect that can be attributed to the being is its possible internal rigor before the essence. 78. In all reasoning, there are three fundamental reference points: facts, objects, and to a lesser extent, concepts. 79. I am almost nothing. And nothing do I represent. 80. The lack of references means that the action of being is confusing. Additionally, in another order of ideas, the lack of references is related to the will of being. And finally, and in relation to the above, one can state categorically that one vital reference must necessarily be independent. 81. The consequences of a fact must be valued jointly with the concept of it. 82. The annulment of the concrete should leave an immanent trace. 83. The vain part of struggle comes from the fact that all reference systems are dependent on each other. Reference system here is understood as a series of logically related concepts or events. 84. An idea has no prearranged location in the intellective process. 85. The domain of the inner self is enormous. And in this inner self the most transcendent is implicit. 86. At that moment there was a great confusion of people, images and voices which implied a return, in the imagination, to the origin of known time. 87. Spirituality comes from perception: the latter delves partially into the being. 8/24

9 88. What is most authentic is not accessible, it is outside reality. Its very uniqueness outlines its own trajectory. 89. It is not possible to go beyond what is obvious. Everything that from the external has gradually gone to form part of the multiplicities of the being is obvious. 90. The objectification of human existence describes a possible world, a fundamental world within the ambiguity of perception. 91. The past time of the origin of facts, the authentic dimension of them Everything seems unified before the possibility of happening. 92. What may belong to the sphere of the perception of being is the essential object of thought. 93. The reiteration of similar periodical events situates those who experience them, alternatively, in each of the two focuses of an ellipse outlined in subjective space. 94. The human being does not cease to mentally move themselves away from their environment, especially that which is closest, looking away from that which they fear most. (The causes of human fear are well known and we do not need to go into them). Through this evasive attitude, the human being may come to believe, in their idealised concept of themselves, that it is something more than an accumulation of weak and heterogeneous substances. 95. Despite everything, on many occasions one can avoid making a mistake: its very negative characteristics make it definable. 96. The internal form must only be considered through the data accumulated by sensitivity. 97. A human fact only deserves to remain in the conscience when it has elements of identity with the human being from which it comes. Among these elements of identity should be highlighted the magnitude, form and intensity. 98. Identification consists of the individual adaptation of the sign. 99. Propositions detain their form, not their meaning, in time. Social evolution, along with all its connotations, affects the meaning of grammatical oration Specifying is equivalent to defining a space Total and unique, the space that occupies the certainty of nothingness overwhelms the being It functions through the development of the tendency in which conviction materialises By just fixing on origin in space and time one can establish evaluative functions. 9/24

10 104. Since at least apparently the world is there, it can be described Irrationality has, as soon as it appears, a total devastating power. Beneath it lie all ideas, all strengths, all possibilities 106. Some of the manifestations of the absolute are internal in the being. The absolute, as a referential concept, is closely linked to the vital attitude of being: it indicates an adjudicative meaning of the action My actions would only reflect the being that I am if they were independent As Popper says, the world is the community of all processes. One could say that it is also the whole of everything capable of being appreciated by sensitivity Concrete states not yet tangible are sets of diverse elements, the internal properties of which consist of, among other aspects, not being lineal or static. Moreover, these states fundamentally determine any aspect of reality: this leads to the inevitability of their reference A positive judgement comes from the facts The manifestations of thought are already in the reality of being Being is modified by action. And each action forms part of being All action has a meaning. The knowledge of mankind comes from the analysis of the accumulation of action There is a trajectory in reasoning that qualifies with a large part of unknown content that which determines. Within this itinerary plot are built the lines of reasoning starting from that which one wants to demonstrate, which is equipped with the truth. All types of radical and external reasoning lack the acceptance that exclusively provides it with the subjective element of the evaluation of the concept Everything that is absurd is compatible with the fact that mankind assigns rationality to each thing. Nevertheless, these rationalities are nothing more than appearances that exhaust themselves, and which are determined by mythical characteristics. Everything is incessantly returning to the uncertainty of the previous and immediate origin Time is made up of acts, and of empty spaces In this book I have attempted to undertake a search in fact an approximation of the true knowledge of reality. We know that the invariables of the absolute are found at least in this moment in time outside the sphere of human reasoning. Perhaps we cannot go beyond now and in the strictly non-scientific sense the expression of ideas and the analysis of perceptions. 10/24

11 And despite the limitations that exist, it involves trying to interpret reality, or perhaps more precisely, of undertaking a critical analysis of reality Anguish is a process of precision Mankind is a being that exists in an independent system. Of this system in which the reality of mankind is defined we do not know for sure more than the need for its theoretical conception Abstract relation is that based on pure concepts Being is, fundamentally, a conditioned existence: randomness and chaos determine it No to pure judgements that do not respond to a body The immediate contains the plenitude of the possible being We understand by logic among other possible definitions that which is derived from history causing the least dispersion Freedom is, in a certain way, the external form of being Dignity is the individual manifestation of values That which a time ends indeterminately seems it must mean that nothing almost certainly will vary as a result of such a finalisation in the surrounding space. Nothing apparently will be modified, except the domain that sensitivity occupies 128. Every fact, or every system of facts, involves a specific codification * regarding mankind Reality is, fundamentally, the closest environment capable of consideration Nothing should go in mankind s behaviour against the essence. The essence is the analysis of all that is not conceptually capable of breaking up, and which is, furthermore, of absolute dialectical necessity One should start reasoning accepting the totality of the incomprehensible. During the dialectical process, one finds the peace that confirmations imply The two words that should refer to every act are: not eternal Say: Everything is a lie. And say it aloud, so that everything that is false is destroyed, so that the truth of the dead man fills all the spaces. * Note Codification is used here not in the sense of a set of rules, but rather in that of a system of signs, words, letters, figures, or symbols, used to represent others for secrecy or brevity. (reference of the note: code, Oxford English Dictionary) 11/24

12 134. Interpretation is the adaptation between thought and reality The expression In the sense of forms a determination of interpretation: it introduces a proposition into a whole of connotations Everything comprehensible can be conceptualised On choosing the paradigms necessary for existence, I separate the facts of time in which they occur. And these being timeless, I incorporate them into an ideal The main object of philosophy is the analysis of human reality, as regards fact, as regards perceptible system Approximations to the truth may be independent of each other One of the fundamental aspects of reflection is studying the relationship that mankind has with the facts, with what has knowingly occurred Projective factors influence continuity. Projective factors are among others thought, the dynamic of being, the very extrapolation of reality 142. The contradiction is also within ourselves: we feel it spreading inside us in a continuous and vital way One could understand by reality everything that, being in the sphere of knowledge, is capable of being associated with an act of will, or, with a specific and singular fact Identities are defined essentially between parameters of knowledge. This involves analysing principles through a process, a process subject to variables. Some real similarities have a bearing on identity. In the end it seems that it is all a question of quantifications, of tree-shaped structures, of origins and reciprocal and diverse implications The world as configuration constitutes the impossibility of defining human beings All theorisation about mankind does nothing more than refer to an imagined being, to the conceptualisation of a set of statements Analysing strictly : Has anyone reached any coherent conclusions about mankind? Has anyone found anything that can be considered really valid for the transcendence of being? 148. What characterises two different moments of cyclical time is, fundamentally, the footprint they stamp on the being by those that experience them There only exists (for the object of its possible intellectual consideration) that which we know occurs through our senses. 12/24

13 150. The imagination establishes the parameters, delimits the contours, determines the signs 151. An action is an image of the corporeal nature of being in space The external is one for our perception: this unit of the external is, nevertheless, conceptually inaccessible for the being The meaning that each proposition has for us is susceptible to being disjointed The more fear there is, the less essence. The greater disdain for reality, the greater the possibility of precision Philosophy constitutes the introspection of the information contained in what is intellectually accessible Everything is implicit. The more confusing it is, the more implicit. And the more negative is reality, the greater its transcendence There are debts of gratitude that will always remain strained throughout the days. There are also affections that will remain unharmed forever and which, forming part of ourselves, are the consequence of the love and intelligence of those to whom so much is owed The analysis of inner reality forms part of the mystical world with its own existential coordinates. Once time has been interiorised, and all the possibilities of subjectivity have been objectively considered, we can establish a system of intellectual pre-relations, an evaluative order in questions of thought Immersed in the vital incoherence of being, I statically interrogate an immaterial conversationalist 160. A fact is everything that being able to be known independently is at the same time consubstantial with a specific moment in time. Its definitive situation in total space constitutes the authentic dimension of facts It can be stated that, fundamentally, there are but two questions on which to base philosophical reasoning: the perception of the world and the intuition of nothingness. Other questions of essential importance such as the real meaning of human existence (not the symbolic or fantastic meaning that some endeavour to give it) are included in one way or another in the two questions mentioned above I call identifiable what is apparent of perception The concept of imprecision does not need to be attributed uncritically to chance circumstances, since in reality such a concept responds, essentially, to the subjective processes of elaboration of the idea. 13/24

14 164. I form part of something imprecise that is alien to me On annulling a fact whether its own existence, or the possibility that it occurs itself not only is the fact in itself annulled, but also all its derivative factors, the magnitude of which is impossible to foresee. Annulled thus it should be considered is a part of the world. Annulled at the same time and it is unrepeatable is that which could have been the living presence of mankind There is no essential paradigm than redefining Despite everything, mankind needs to continue in the intellectual circle of abstraction Language is an end in itself: in its interior it contains the majority of possibilities that can be related to the being The impossibility of defining reality involves the need to approach the essence All values form circular chains: they have no origin The only thing that matters is what is real, authentic, that which we know undoubtedly exists: our visible surroundings, the truth made evident, concrete knowledge Both the symbol and the sign refer to representations. The symbol is, however, more idealised, and basically refers to notions that have become abstract. The sign, on the other hand, brings together in its interior, not only passive (demonstrative) characteristics just like the symbol but also rules of action (or rejection of action). The symbol is formed, in general, by accumulation, while the sign has a more ahistorical nature. The symbol, on the other hand, has the higher number of mystical attributes, that is, irrational components, than the sign has. Talking of the above I read in the work by Mario Bunge Emergencia y convergencia (Gedisa editorial, 2004) the following considerations. 1 st An artificial sign, or symbol, can be characterised to designate a concept or to denote an extra-conceptual element. 2 nd Signs are perceptible entities, not abstract entities such as concepts and propositions. 3 rd Signs represent non-symbolic elements The idea-subject relation depends on the terms on which casual relationships are established Nothingness emerges again, and the living being that we are is shaken towards specific forms that evidence itself substantiates The imaginary outlines of possibility in space are only determinable from their origin. 14/24

15 176. What is apparent is a daturn of an arrangement Identities exist but they are constantly dispersed. I will raise my voice, which I hardly recognise as my own. In my agonising cry 178. Everything transcendental remains recondite, ancestral in its essence, invariable in its depth, cyclical and mythical, unsolvable 179. Over and above the persistent reality of being as regards specie, there only seems to remain, including everything, the silence of the whole of the totality of beings. It is an immense, inexplicable and explicit silence Mankind determines limits The truth in its conceptual, informal and tautological aspect can only be sensed: temporary factors, both external and internal, determine it. It is subject to a sensorial / intellectual / temporary process The attitude of thinking comes from quantifiable variables What is substance? Necessary structure, Constant relationship, Being, essence, the nature of things, Utility that by its nature competes to exist in itself and not in another by inheritance, Reality that exists in itself and is a support of qualities and accidents, etc. are some of the meanings given by dictionaries for the term substance, (specifically, the first two from the Diccionario by Nicola Abbagnano, and the following ones translated from the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua). That which is substance is intimately linked to the transcendental unknown and to the existential void. Usually, questions that are difficult to answer in dialectical processes are avoided. It seems that, faced with the difficulty of understanding what is apparent, any intellectual process regarding the vague is unnecessary. Timothy Garton Ash says in a newspaper article that English-speaking intellectuals ask, Where is the substance? And one supposes that they refer in each case to a specific substance that clarifies the question raised. Can we assign the characteristic of permanence to the concept of substance? Is substance as can be read in the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy the ultimate ontological category? 184. Our life is written as a manner of speaking on just one side of the sheet of paper We must progress towards reality in its exact terms. And from this intellectual moment, one discovers if one is sincere that there is nothing but agony, or the sinister and ineluctable image of how much it appears to be. There is nothing but a reality that one wishes to rationalise from an incomprehensible world. Note The problem of substance is the only permanent enigma that Haeckel accepts (in reference to the Seven Enigmas of the Universe set out by Emil Du Bois-Reymond). By problem of substance we should understand, according to Rescher, the ultimate origin of matter and its laws. All this is stated in the book titled The Limits of Science by the abovementioned Nicholas Rescher. 15/24

16 186. Everything except reason cedes, declines, becomes more and more unattainable, avoids, returns to the space of total and definitive form The theories relating to mankind are often invaded by the sudden access of the concrete fact; that is why abstraction is vital as state, as a place of redirecting positive opinions There would be the truth: beyond mankind Without trace of being Thoughts are developed among the oscillations of doubt, emerging from among psychic places, the distance between which seems to vary continually. And through some thoughts the philosophically pure ones we gradually approach a truth that seems to be immobile, without possessing more than indications and partialities for this. Despite of everything, the being progresses In real time and only in this a relatively accessible plenitude is formed. Real time is that which is immediate to the perception that each being has of themselves So that I could try to elude the recognition of the immense universe of surrounding philosophical and idiomatic possibilities, so that I could try to stop feeling the almost continuous influence of that space over me, it would be necessary for me to be able to give space, in my own inner self, to the formation of a new existential paradigm What is apparent shows some specific aspect of reality and has, in consequence, a content that must be analysed; because simply due to its condition of accessible it can now have a meaning I know what I am experiencing as existence, what I am seeing being Through the spaces of our own half open wounds we stare, astonished, at a circular, decomposed and deadly world Some intellectual processes must remain open, that is, they must be susceptible to the modification and enlargement of their concepts, theses and conclusions Between silence and sleep, the denials of Pyrrho of Elis; because confirming the metaphysical, the non-evident, the hypothetical, is an effort that does not correspond to mankind Any man in his individuality, from the radical nature of his essence 199. Mankind must be immersed in his own I, and try to exist in the peace of the absurd. Diffuse duplicity. The world constitutes the possibility of what is accessible. 16/24

17 200. Those of us who are deeply joined to the roots of satiety relate the images to true origins I am conceptually on the margin. That is why I only deny; that is why I only denote In this configured fact, identical to that described, predetermined, tangible, in this certainty of finite dimensions in the same argument I must, despite everything, relapse Individual nothingness itself may seem ambiguous before accessible reality. At the same time, however, it is possible to transcend the limits that exist between that first space the closest to us and our other adjacent zones. In the above process one finds diverse determinant interactions, however much diffused and dispersed their appearance. And at the end of the process there is almost always something that the will of mankind makes feasible Nothingness constitutes the immediacy of the adverse fact absolutely inacceptable for the true being; it always forms part of facticity, and is inserted into the event Oneself as regards being : this proposition comprises considered objectively the whole of all the internal characteristics of transcendence The fundamental finalisation of creative capacity is rather circular, a rigid image, symmetrical 207. All the possible concepts about the diverse aspects that constitute reality have been there for a long, long time, slowly forming, emerging alongside the fact Each contradiction delimits its own independent system The fundamental problems are, above all else, questions of conceptual density, of cognitive intensity Human means the demonstration of anguish through the possibility of existence. Note Ruth Barcan Marcus defines the term contradiction in the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy as the conjunction of a proposition and its rejection All propositions make the being explicit, and to a greater or lesser extent, transform that being Do not undergo anything unknown What is irrational is intimately linked to the very human reality. In a successive way, and generally speaking throughout different eras, what has been qualified as irrational is that which surpasses the human capacity of acceptance of adversity, in other words, everything that leads to inadmissible consequences, everything that considered in depth does not respond to the linear nature of a conventional method. The fact is that what is irrational no longer only fits with the big theoretical systems or in the elemental dogmatic systems. The irrational is rejected face-on, it is feared. However, 17/24

18 the irrational remains, for the moment, immune to historical time, forming a very important part of the whole of all that we do not understand, or perhaps better, everything that we are incapable of analysing or even attempting to accede to The fact of the human species being practically totally conditioned by the immediate makes the theses that idealise mankind false. This dependence on a random future dramatically limits the general expansion of being. Such integral dependency also limits the expectation of the usefulness of introversion of the selfsame being Trying to establish identities, making the effort to obtain elucidations, endeavouring to achieve serenities, constitute fundamental proposals of human beings The temporary factor particularly the past is surely the greatest restriction and greatest condition among those that have an almost continuous form on the thought of mankind. This is mainly because some adverse facts above all the most devastating survive indelibly in the very humanity itself. Before the impressive and complex mystery of reality, it seems that the most coherent thing to do is to remain at a certain distance from almost everything 217. The origin of being, the meaning of life, death and pain, along with some other important questions, are external to the identity of the selfsame being. The lack of knowledge of such questions is truly of enormous importance; and their permanence in time, their non-dissolution, continues to constantly form part of the perceptible space in which life occurs I try to move myself away as much as I can from my own consubstantial error A predetermination aims to include possibilities of concretion in models. The possibilities of concretion are temporarily determinable. The acceptability of the models depends relatively on the effectiveness of the action The non-proximity of essentialities may involve considering the meaning of the possibility of the action Doubt has left scattered remains of reality that have remained inscribed in time I in the staticity of my strange silence leave disperse everything I do not write down Reconsideration of the problems of form and distance. Also of movements and sounds. All the theoretical possibilities that volume, form and symmetry offer for philosophical analysis coincide in some moments in time. So much error so close! The congregation of so many fabulous monsters seems impossible. But they are really there, dispersed among inequality and chaos. Imperfection prevails in all parts. Everything is excess and backward. An immense nothingness limits the environment that leads to nowhere. 18/24

19 223. That of being sacred : maintaining unreachable the limits of the sphere of being The interpretive process detects the antagonistic forms implicit in negation The interaction distances and limits in processes may establish a structure. This structure is multi-jointed, simultaneous to thought, and indefinable There is an order of exclusions established according to their own negativity The return of memories is too intense Meanwhile, the fact, independently, is waiting to happen Although the difficulty involved is almost unsurpassable, it is essential to try to eliminate the error of the conscience of being There are sets of words whose origin is due, solely, to an attempt by us to approach reality. These words in this determined use mutually broaden and complement their content until reaching a greater significant plenitude. Rationality orders the words, and the words take us into rationality The study of the conceptualisation of facts constitutes the fundamental object of abstract thought That which has no meaning considering things transcendentally is nothing more than a fact, yet another fact, another certainty 232. The literary image as regards concretion of the idea by means of language occurs warped A symbol is any unessential fact or object that aims to attribute transcendence In a void of death, I carry destruction within me What I think shapes me as a being The symmetry of time and the beauty of dispersion. Whatever the facts, they always end up forming a unity within the being. The transcendent unknown must be dealt with from theory; an exclusively pragmatic attitude is equivalent to ceding in reflection. What really hurts, what damages and remains stony before us is the non-obvious, that which we cannot explain despite it being essential. We remain as human beings static before doubt. Beauty of dispersion, and also the possibility of relationship between the facts; slight remembrance, to sum up, of past harmonious and full moments. Note The term sacred should be understood according to the fourth of the meanings of the term given by the Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española, which translated says worthy of veneration and respect. 19/24

20 237. ABOUT RATIONALITY Moreover, it is true that, deep down, affirmation about what is transcendent is either obvious or incomplete; this means being particularly restrained in expression. Thus, does mankind, in specific situations, have any real choice that enables him to act in way that could be called rational? We know that, on occasions, the force of circumstances goes beyond the rational action of being. It is also the case that many ideas about the rational seem not to refer to being, to this archetypal being that we believe we know or sense. And for this latter to be thus, it seems unavoidable to establish two spheres that refer to rationality: one the authentic, in which there is a reference to being in the fullness of its essence, in which are included all the hypothetical approaches that are elaborated at the margin of being considered in itself Nothingness is, fundamentally, a possible and unrepresentative state; a state in which intuition can only be reached in a relative and diffuse way. Additionally, nothingness is as well as negation conceptual separation. Nothingness is indeterminable: it has no parameters, or references, or its own values. It is, nevertheless, there, immediate to the extinction of being. Nothingness is invariable in time: it lacks, with regards to itself, any type of component or projection. Finally, nothingness is unique, and does not allow duplicities or divisions; it is total in its essence Which places that are not empty should mankind s intellectual search go towards? 240. Throughout time, being remains imperturbable in its authentic reality: nothing nor anybody can transform it, and it is no use trying to idealise it; being is in itself. Mankind is almost totally conditioned, in his capacity to think and act, by the external world and by his own internal organic processes: this is how the being that is is finally determined. Mankind, in his existential activity, constantly seeks his salvation in, to the margin, and on occasions against the world: his struggle is incessant and sometimes desperate. Mankind as being is completely incomprehensible to himself; the opinion of being regarding himself insofar as existing essence always ends in the most absolute vacuity Knowing is determining the essence of form for oneself Here, where we are now, in this precise and known world, there are too many voices, evil and injustice ABOUT REAL BEING Authors, even the most erudite, on referring to being, do so referring insistently to a theoretical being, to a being that endeavours to deprive itself of corporeal nature. Indeed, these authors seem to refer to an immaterial being, an imprecise and, in brief, inexistent being They do seem to be capable of writing about the truth of being showing its corporeal nature. The fact is that before so much misleading and empty theory, the only thing that really exists is the reflection and action of the selfsame being before their own life, of the 20/24