Given that the answer to the basic question
in philosophy was that "the world is material; matter is
the prime factor, consciousness is the secondary one", it
was currently believed that philosophy has no longer to revert
to the basic question, and should only focus on the issue of man,
on the methodological fundamentals of thinking and knowledge.
This is obviously untenable inasmuch as man will always raise
the question of existence and further philosophical projections
may be developed against the materialistic answer to the basic
question. We have already too many questions in stock for the
answer to the basic question under general form to be sufficient.
Modern science raises further questions in philosophy, if we only
think of the recently perceived "black holes" in the
cosmos, the expansion of the universe or of the gains in modernbiology.
We are naturally inclined to search for a
landmark in the depths of things and of the world. This explains
why we further science and philosophy. Life may be full of lofty
things but it is also marked by limits and bounds. Philosophy
has always tended towards what elevates man. Its exertions towards
profundities inspire loftiness in man's spiritual life.
To put it briefly, philosophy has constantlyfollowed the same aims:
- to guide us to the profundities of the world;
- to open ways for science by hypotheses resulting
from philosophical projections;
- to bring about man's spiritual elevation,
to promote the civilization of the human society and to establish
value systems. We are living a time when both science and our
philosophical projection on the world turn out to be insufficient.
Nowadays, mankind is in need of a philosophical compensation,
which can only be given by a philosophy in continual progress.
3. If nothing had been existing, what
could have existed then ? Had there been an infinite, entirely
void space ? Such a space, extending in non-being, a nothingness,
would still be something, would still be an existence. Nothingness
cannot yet be something, our mind can cogitate it irrespective
of the grounds behind this representation possibility. One can
imagine an infinite space without matter, though such an image
is rather mathematical.
What really matters is that we can imagine
the infinite space without matter, for this is sufficient for
our experiment, without assigning any value or significance to
this situation other than the possibility to be able to imagine
nothingness. Nothing cannot be defined in similar terms. The
infinite nothing is nothingness, but nothing itself induces no
image in the mind, since nothing is neither space, time
or matter and the mind refuses to cogitate it. The concept of
absolute nothing is repulsed by the human being and this is an
experimental fact since it is a result of the brain functioning
like a material device. This result is invariant, repeatable by
anyone and observed by many philosophers. We can no doubt speak
about nothing for otherwise we would have no symbol
and word for nothing. But a thorough, deep image about
nothing is impossible. We feel deeply troubled when searching
for this image. Nothing is a linguistic or a mathematical symbol,
like an empty set, but which has no strict philosophical correspondent.
This stage of our experiment cannot be overlooked and, like any
experimental result, will be a support for the subsequent reasoning.
Let us denote this experiment by (II).
Given that we cannot imagine or cogitate thenothing - we must state that:
III. the nothing does not exist.
We now obviously must state that:
IV. existence exists.
The space, the time and the motion will
be recognized as realities originally known by man via empeiria,
and philosophically known as forms of existence with matter.
Our first thought on existence refers to the
space - time existence, though statement (IV) is valid for the
total existence. Let us assume however that we are ignorant
of the total existence and are only aware of the space
- time existence, which is empirically given.
In this case we shall have to admit that
V. thespace-time existence
qua unique existence has ever existed,
for had it arisen at a certain time, the nothing would have
pre-existed, and we have seen at item II that this is impossible.
Similarly, the space-time existence cannot be discontinued to
pass into what cannot exist.
Statement (V) calls for a reasoning. In order
to verify whether it is true or false, let us see how we cogitate
the being of existence ever. Reverting mentally in time, this
always endless backward cannot be essentially cogitated,
it cannot be understood by my mind. I can admit the existence
in time towards -infinite
in an abstract, mathematical way but not in an experimental philosophical
manner. Indeed, though the mind does not refuse to proceed as
a tendency towards -infinite
in search of existence, it refuses to accept an endless search.
The minus infinity of time is a philosophical tendency and expression,
but the mind enmeshed in the human being
VI. cannot comprehend,
cogitate existence ever in a phenomen-physical way.
By philosophical experiment one cannot comprehend the existence
ever of existence. Existence ever is only mathematically acceptable.
That the infinity of time can be philosophically
stated on grounds of the mathematical concept of the infinite
is no stronger argument than the phenomen thought via empirical
physical concepts on the impossibility of going backwards to the
minus infinity in time. The second argument is stronger and that
is why it assumes the value of a philosophical experiment, since
it is deduced by our mental structures with respect to the immediate
empirical understanding of the world without resorting to mathematical
images.
Experiment (VI) is equally essential to (II).
While experiment (II) and statement (IV),
its corollary, have led to the conclusion that existence exists
forever, experiment (VI) invalidates this statement.
We have obviously reached a contradiction
since we could not introduce the philosophical concept of
t =- infinite.
Otherwise stated, it is impossible to change the mathematical
concept of - infinite
into a philosophical concept as a philosophical truth of existence.
This logical deadlock may be synthetically expressed as statement
VII. Existence exists ever and does not exist
ever.
Letus recall that this statement refers to the space-time existence
which is regarded to be uniquely possible.
The Philosophical Experiment
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