Hi Mark --
I find it difficult to follow your contention that your perception of Reality raises it above the illusionary. What you describe is an idea. It is a system by which you understand Reality. I have no problem with your position that our awareness creates our awareness. I also understand that without such sensibility we could not perceive. Where I conflict with you is that such perception is only assumed by man. Through the principle of negation of essence, all existent things come into being. Where there was nothing there is now something.
Yes, I'm articulating my creation hypothesis. It's only a theory, a conceptual paradigm, by which I understand Reality. What I call "actualized reality" is the world of appearances, to borrow from Hegel. The source or "potentiality" for actualized reality is a "negational" Essence about which we are unable to assign descriptive attributes..
I would make only one minor correction to your analysis. In my view, existents cannot come into being without nothing, because nothingness defines being. Therefore, to say that "where there was nothing there is now something" strikes me as illogical. There is no such state or condition as pure nothing. It simply is not.
The interaction of our beings with what we perceive as other creates our self concept. This is analogous to a bubble only being in existence because of the water. The only thing that makes our negation important, is our personal sense of it. I can only see through my eyes, not yours. The mechanics or process by which this happens is not as important as the personal soul (so to speak). A computer negates which didn't exist by creating a picture on the screen. However, this is the sum total of it. Our awareness of this existence is that mechanical part. The values, emotions, desires, opinions are also part of the mechanics, that can be explained by simple biology. Our personal involvement with this mechanics is the only true negation. Now that personal "I" does not exist. In itself it is nothingness. Yes, when the body dies, our appreciation of reality through the senses disappears, but the underlying "I" does not. This is analogous to a bubble bursting at the surface of the water. The identity of the air disappears, but the air does not. The "I" is essence, it does not need to be a negate. Perhaps we are saying the same thing, I lose track.
You've grasped my negational ontogeny brilliantly, and I can understand your concern about a "negational Self". Can value-sensibility equate to "nothingness", even in the absence of an otherness? Going back to my statement above, however, you'll see that I don't support a state of Nothingness. In other words, there is ALWAYS a referent for sensibility. And it is this referent (otherness) which is created by essential Value concurrently with the nothingness-self (negate).
You see, my metaphysics posits Existence as a Sensibility/Otherness dichotomy. This means that whatever "negations" are secondary to this primary division (difference) bear the imprint of the dichotomy. Thus, by negating 'being', we also actualize contrariety -- time/space, beginning/end, self/other, large/small, good/bad, and all the rest. Even in the negational mode of actualized Existence, Essence is ABSOLUTE.. Never is there pure NOTHING.
With that in mind, do you still challenge my concept that the autonomous "I" (individualized value-sensibility) is a negate? If so, how would you define it?
Thanks, Mark. (I'm always open to suggestions, especially from one who understands where I'm coming from.)
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