Thursday 12 October 2017

An Eternal Question Or "What Is Eternity?"

Sometimes, comments on a post generate a further post. See the comments on The New Quest.

If I had graduated a decade earlier, then I would have become a junior lecturer in a University Philosophy Department, arguing about abstractions. Instead, I went on the dole and began to gain concrete experiences to philosophize about.

Both God and time travel raise the question of whether our temporal dimension could be some other observer's fourth spatial dimension. Even if this were possible, I think that that other observer would have to experience duration along a second temporal dimension - unless some meaning can be given to the term, "transtemporal"?

Eternity And Philosophy: An Argument Derived From Kant
"Self" and "other" are interdependent;

"self" is recognized as such only by contrast with "other";

"other" is an object of consciousness which is not only reproduced in imagination but also recognized as having been perceived before and which therefore at least seems to have continued to exist independently of the (by implication temporally enduring) self even while not being perceived;

random, fleeting sensory impressions would not constitute an objective realm;

therefore, a recipient of such impressions would be at most momentarily conscious but would not become self-conscious;

even if it is postulated that all memories are illusory (which is another argument), the experience of having memories (whether illusory or not) and therefore of enduring through time seems to be necessary for self-consciousness;

a self is a being with a history of experiences and interactions;

therefore, self-consciousness cannot be atemporal and must be temporal - unless it can somehow be "transtemporal."

I also argue (see Gaia And The Universe and Gaia And The Universe II) that the one being becomes conscious of itself by appearing to itself as other. Maybe realization of oneness with being is our nearest approach to experience of eternity:

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
"And Heaven in a Wild Flower
"Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
"And Eternity in an hour..."
-see here.

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