Building from the Seed

I have been writing quite a few posts where the SPLectrum seed took center stage, and for a good reason. The seed principles deal with what is common to all languages, what is common to all of us: personal experience, shared reality and evolving understanding. It lies at the basis of what I call interrelational pluralism, and is opening an avenue to bring in category theory as a more formal treatment of the relational structure of language. Interesting as that may be, it is only one side of the SPLectrum coin.

At the seed level, SPLectrum speaks a meta-language about what is structurally common to all languages. Building from the seed is different. There SPLectrum gives its views on reality, there it speaks a ‘content’ language. It is just one of the many languages that fill the pluralistic landscape. The other side of the SPLectrum coin.

To have two distinct sides of the same coin is important. When we use a content language we use it to express our view - about our ontology or epistemology for example. Bring structural views into the content language and pluralism starts walking out the door. Whitehead’s process theory is a case in point — a real primitive, a process grown from it, and then claiming to be the structure beneath everything: a description quietly contending to replace what it described.

So, the question that kept repeating itself in my head was: are there principles that apply with continuity to all of creation - and where rigidity is appropriate - but that do not impinge on pluralism of expressing, of which philosophical pluralism is only one part. What dropped out of it was rigid on common structure, and pluralistic on what gets expressed. I already spent a lot of time on the former, now I want to restore balance and start spending time on the latter.

From the way we are ‘thrown in the world’ to paraphrase Heidegger, whatever worldview I build has to be from the seat of the subject. That is consistent with the principles. Reality - my reality - is in the way I relate to what is around me - my experience. And that experience, that view of reality can be quite different from what is expressed by the principles - hence the plurality. Of course that is not how SPLectrum approaches it - with SPLectrum I want to explore a view of reality that resonates closely with the seed. However, I will do it from three core values, not from seed principles.

Experience happens with a given language, my toolset of perception. This is given to me by my species, my human community - that gives me the value belonging. What I experience is personal, internal to me, I have no way to let others look through my eyes, hear through my ears, or feel through my skin - the value of privacy. As a community we resonate strongly on what we share, and that is contrasted by the acute privacy of the personal experience. And it is this tension that yields the third value - creativity - an expression of difference against what we have in common. Creativity points back to the creational principle P0. The other side of the coin, three values: belonging, privacy and creativity.

Reading in reverse - make, own, share — not three goods rationed against each other, but one self-creation showing three faces. Put together they are a single liberating force: you make your reality, it is yours, and you share it without losing it. Freedom — not a fourth value, but what the three come to together.

This post is part of the seed series. See also Interrelational Pluralism.

Photo: imsogabriel / Unsplash