12/17/20

The One and the Many

 Is the ocean one thing or a word describing countless (though finite in number) molecules of H2O? The question of monism and pluralism is fundamental concerning everything that exists, and of events and processes, therefore it was a common concern of pre-Socratic philosophers not simply because they might have shared the issue once it was thought of by a single individual. Parmenides and Heraclitus approached the problem of monism and pluralism from different yet not antipathetic points of view. In that regard they share a concern that hasn't been terminated as worthy of inquiry from fields as diverse as quantum mechanics, Multiverse theory and perception. Compound objects composed of numerous parts in solid objects and sub-atomic particles entangled in three dimensions with the Higgs field reflect the one and the issue as do organic beings. 

One might wonder what logic is and how it exists in relation to epistemology. It is also possible to ask if logic is static or if it is subject to relativity (as reshaped by spatial deformation vis Einstein's General Theory for example). If logic is recognition of relationships among objects or ideas as objects then it could be that logic is a kind of pattern recognition with which one may process information and make extrapolations from a given position concerning a series as in math theory or mathematical metaphysics.- If one is looking for a consistence in logic, that would be a necessary consistence of relations and patterns, shapes and occurrences that would comprise a system of logic. It is therefor challenging to say that logic is inflexible or must be regarding certain relations that must transcend particular logical systems and need be present in every logic system.-Because the issue becomes a little obtuse I shall leave it here for the present with the observation or agreement with a point made above concerning the utility of valid logic within a given system of logic rather than considering a Universal logic, though the Universe itself materially as particles embedded in a Higgs Field apparently seems to have a logical structure for everything in it at the quantum level.

One may have classical logic-Aristotelian logic and move through history to Leibnitz's mathematical logic, Frege and modern symbolic logic and onward to deontic , modal and other new logic systems. Maybe the proliferation of systems of logic supports the concept of logic as a formal system for representing abstract relations of fact and fiction useful for inductive as well as deductive reasoning.




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