I'm inclined to let Michael's argument below pass, but only because I'm exhausted these days by all my activities and responsibilities. Yet...yet...I don't think Michael can slide by the issue as adroitly as he seems to do. Terms like Unity, Truth, Beauty are among the most elastic terms every invented. They are also so inclusive as to defy any presumed exceptions. What part of Unity is not Truth? What part of Truth is not Beauty? Using the analogy to photography, Michael claims that that three shutter functions rely on each other but are not each other. But, again, what part of each is not the other? If there are such parts of each term what disqualifies them from being necessary to both other terms?
I could question Michael'sdefinitions of the terms. He claims that unity lacks excess, for example. Does that mean that some template of unity (that defined by truth or beauty perhaps) excludes something and we can call that something excess? But what of all-inclusive unity, such as, say, the universe. What is excessive then but not truthful and even beautiful. Ah, such slippery ideas. It's not even about words, but concepts and concepts can be turned around like a faceted stone, revealing itself differently over and over. wc ----- Original Message ---- From: Michael Brady <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wed, August 1, 2012 9:21:37 AM Subject: Re: b My task is, above all, to make you see.b On Aug 1, 2012, at 10:09 AM, William Conger <[email protected]> wrote: > If all A (unity) is B (truth) and all B is C (beautiful) then all A is C. > Circular. No, that's the transitive property of identity, but it's not circular reasoning. A (Unity) has the qualities or attributes X, Y, Z (e.g., fitness, completion, lack of excess) B (Truth) has the attributes M, N, and O (e.g., verifiability, replicability, predictability) A = B, but X, Y, and Z are not attributes of B. Fitness, completion, and lack of excess are not attributes of Truth. But Unity manifests Truth (i.e., is equivalent to Truth) in that the qualities of Unity that are used to define it also reveal the truth of it. This is analogous to three distinct properties of taking a photograph on film: f-stop, shutter speed, and film speed. All three must be present (cannot not be present) as the photograph is being taken, and each one exerts an effect on the ways the other two affect the image on the film, yet is separate from the other two. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady
