Chapter 12. A Metaphysical Grammar

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1	A Word of Encouragement
2	Dar al-Hikma
3	Proclus' Elements
4	Reversion in the Corporeal
5	Mathematical Recursion
6	Episodic Memory
7	Mortality
7s	Classical Mortality Arguments
8	Personal Identity 1 2 3 4
9	Existential Passage 1 2 3
10	Precedent at Dar al-Hikma
10s	Images of Dar al-Hikma
11	Passage Types
12	A Metaphysical Grammar
13	Merger Probability
14	Ex Nihilo Probability
15	Noetic Reduction
16	Summary of Mathematical Results
17	Application to Other Species 1 2 3 4
18	Potential Benefits
19	A Dedication
Appendices
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Chapter 12
A Metaphysical Grammar

We have seen in previous chapters that Metaphysics by Default allows for four different types of existential passage. These types are:

unitary — the traditional "one-to-one" passage.
merged — two or more persons passing to a single recipient.
ex nihilo — a birth which receives no passage.
split — one person passing to two or more recipients (rare, at best).

Under Metaphysics by Default any passage must be one of these four possible types.

It may be helpful at this point to bring all of the passage types together within a single timeline illustration. This figure can serve a function similar to that performed by a language grammar. A grammar formalizes the rules of a language (its syntax) with authoritative examples of word use. Exemplary sentences are kept as simple as possible in the interest of clarity, and with the understanding that a writer will create more elaborate sentences by combining words according to the rules of the grammar.

A "metaphysical grammar" appropriate to Metaphysics by Default is printed in Figure 12.1 below:

Fig. 12.1
A metaphysical grammar

By the understanding we've acquired in previous chapters we can decipher the events (and a non-event) represented in the figure.

In Figure 12.1 time is assumed as running from left to right. Four events occur, ordered temporally as (1.) to (4.). Also, the single non-event at bottom is noted as (5.). Here is the deciphered grammar:

a one-to-one, unitary passage.
an ex nihilo passage.
a two-to-one merged passage.
a one-to-two split passage.
a Methuselah, preceding and succeeding all recorded events, participating in none.

The metaphysical grammar is simple. Each passage type has been recorded only once. Moreover, the number of participants in each passage has been kept to a bare minimum.

The metaphysical grammar is also complete. Every passage type possible under Metaphysics by Default finds its example in this figure. Additionally, the "Methuselah" timeline illustrates the sole non-event condition — a longevity which surpasses all recorded events.

This metaphysical grammar derives from the root philosophy of Metaphysics by Default. Its meaning is unambiguous. No alternative interpretation of Figure 12.1 is possible within the philosophy.

Even when we consider the figure as an abstract symbol, quite apart from any school of philosophy, no alternative interpretation suggests itself. The lines, qua lines, sketch no representational figure; form no equation; trace no physical or social process. They are as meaningless as any random set of lines can be.

And this makes the symbol well suited for use as a metaphysical grammar. A teacher might employ the symbol as a tool of pedagogy, or else as a ready test of a student's understanding. In either case the student would recognize the symbol just as the metaphysical grammar, or else not at all. Regardless of the student's language or cultural background, misinterpretation would be unlikely.

This is a good time to pull from our pocket al-Farabi's word of encouragement, from Chapter 1:

[As regards] those who seek the right path. When one of them rejects anything as false, he will be lifted towards a better symbol which is nearer to the truth and is not open to that objection; and if he is satisfied with it, he will be left where he is. When that better symbol is also rejected by him as false, he will be lifted to another rank, and if he is then satisfied with it, he will be left where he is.

Whenever a symbol of a given standard is rejected by him as false, he will be lifted to a higher rank, but when he rejects all the symbols as false and has the strength and gift to understand the truth, he will be made to know the truth and will be placed into the class of those who take the philosophers as their authorities.

If he is not yet satisfied with that and desires to acquire philosophical wisdom and has himself the strength and gift for it, he will be made to know it.[1]

I think the metaphysical grammar fulfills some of the promise in al-Farabi's words. This unambiguous symbol maps out all of the passage types implicit in the metaphysical philosophy. If I've set a high enough standard for the philosophy, its symbol may satisfy.

If not — well, in that case al-Farabi stays upon our leisure.

In our mind's eye we have now tried the third stepping stone, which is just the enumeration of all passage types. The metaphysical grammar completes this third step. Two stepping stones now remain between our current position and the living world that waits beyond the river Lethe.

next Chapter 13: Merger Probability

Chapter 12 Endnotes

[1] Walzer 282-83.