Heidegger

THE MATERIAL IMPERIUM. In this eliminativist account there WAS no ’start’ to the universe. Nor, [together with David Hume,] does the theory represent ‘cause’ as some phenomenon that occurs on each appropriate occasion as it arises. The universality of matter is conceived of as an existential integrality or default state without a beginning – either natural or creative. Simply put, there was no need of a causae causantes, either unmoved or moved, because there was no first move – matter has ALWAYS existed flexibly, in a yielding state, expressed as deformation, disintegration or motion. No ontological jump-start or prime mover of apparent motion was ever needed, as neither a God nor material could ever exist in an existential modality of immobility or immovability. The seething never ending activity of the micro-world is the moving material imperium in endless and eternal mediated or controlled incarnate agitation. I have called this cosmic power: ‘The Existential Imperative.’
This eliminative deterministic description submits that the manner in which the cosmos exists in all its richness and diversity is not because the material universe and the laws that govern that universe are different entities - there is no ontological double-act of a regularised materiality and a separate determinating, supervenient governor [Laws of Nature] arriving or occurring as something coterminous, complemental, extraneous or as an ontological bolt-on or afterthought. The ergodic principle states that ‘everything which is not forbidden is compulsory. ’ That only matter is ‘possible’ can be confirmed by checking if phsyicality not forbidden by some ontological rule or other, by which the universe operates, which rules that matter should not or cannot exist. Plainly this is not the case and one only needs to look around to see the evidence. The material to be found in the cosmos – that which IS the cosmos – consists of physical regulatory corporealities which cannot react or exist in any other condition. The qualification for existential status is by way of an autopoietic yielding self-adjustment. The existential imperative is concretised in ceaselessly moving matter, which exists in compliance with the dictates of that which is existential. There is no ontological difference between the existential imperative and that which is existentially impartial or imperant. It is impossible for imperant entities to remain extant in any other way but imperativally. As Marx wrote figuratively of commodities as congealed or crystallised labour, we too can speak metaphorically of the existential imperative as concretised matter, which exists in compliance with the mandates of that which is existential - namely - itself. There is no ontological difference between the existential imperative and that which is existentially imperatival or imperant. It is impossible for imperant entities to remain extant in any other way but imperatively.
PROVISIONAL LAWS OF THE EXISTENTIAL IMPERATIVE. On the basis of this analysis we can formulate the first provisional laws of the existential imperative. (1) Vacuuity [nothingness] or the absence of matter is infeasible. A vacuum, if it were to be a physical possibility [which it isn’t] would be instantly filled. [*nature loves a vacuum.*] Part vacuums do NOT qualify as a vacuum because a vacuum is an absolute. (2) Only that which is material can exist – the non-material can neither exist nor not exist. (3) To exist is not an option that is selected automatically unless an alternative is specified. The default of that which exists can only exist as that which changes. (4) That which changes can only change itself – it cannot change another entity. All entities are self-changing. This paper will seek to link Hume’s questioning of the traditional understanding of contiguity and the constant conjunction of objects as causality to the notion that the existential modalities of all cosmic entities are determined by an active universal primal intrinsical power or force that governs all the matter and energy in the universe autopoietically. The view is offered that the cosmos consists of a self-changing, auto-limitational, deterministically engendered autonomous unity. What we anthropocentrically perceive of as the components of this holism, undergo persistence-driven formulaic self-change in response to their impingemental relationship with the totality of the surrounding conditions with which they are holistically combined. CONATUS PRINCIPLE. Known to the philosophers of the seventeenth century as The Conatus Principle, every entity in the cosmos is seen to exist in modalities of perseverance or of a systematised persistence to remain extant in its current existential modality. All objects exist to resist the interference, destruction or diminution of their present modes of intrinsicality or of the motion of bodies. Spinoza expresses this by saying that each mode has an innate striving (conatus) to persevere in being. Conatus also refers to the force with which the motion of an object is initiated and maintained. What IS force, power or energy? I have called it the material imperium, but no scientist or book of physics will answer that question. The answers are always metaphysical and couched in terms of ambiguity, euphemism and tautology and usually define energy as:
‘The capacity of a physical system to do work.’
If pressed for further clarification they will claim that energy or force can be measured, until it is pointed out to them that the things which they claim to be measuring is not energy, power or force – but energetic physical entities, chemicals, macro objects, quantum objects, powerful structures and forceful corporeal systems. It can now be appreciated that it is not only the concept of the prime-mover that remains outside the boundaries of man’s comprehension, but the very energy, power or force which he thinks dwells intrinsically within the corporeal objects which populate his daily life and drives the dynamic mechanisms of those things with which he thinks himself so familiar, such as the watch that he wears upon his wrist. For Descartes the active power or propensity of bodies to change and move exists by courtesy of and in compliance with the power of the Christian God. For me the cosmos exists in an inevitable conformity with the prescriptions of the universal laws of physicality, which are the basic aspect of an ineluctably determined reality. Entities persist in exigent conformity to the generality that describes the recurring facts or events embodied in nature. That IS NOT to claim that these ‘laws’ actually exist - but rather that ‘that which exists’ exists in both a regulated and at the same time regulatory manner, which we humans anthropocentrically dualistically perceive of and label as being: ‘subject to laws.’ The whole history of mankind has involved the imposition of laws and regulations being imposed extrinsically from some outside authority. It is difficult and somewhat counter-intuitive and at variance with one’s doxastic epistemological and moral or religious concepts to perceive of ‘laws’ as being physically intrinsical and autopoietic inherent in matter itself. The existential imperative proposes that the reason that objects exist in the way that they do, is that there is no other way in which they COULD exist. The claim made here is that there IS NO quality of being contrary to fact in the cosmos. No pretended or imagined ‘otherworld’ or ‘possible-world’ version exists, but such let’s pretend ontological scenarios are extremely valuable as intellectual stimulants and motivational entertainment for inducing and encouraging our understanding of the real world. Such is the power of the universal physical prerogative it is impossible either for entities not to exist, nor for them to remain everlastingly or temporarily extant – even for an instant in any continuous stative existential manner. There are no existential ‘ifs or buts’ – no counter-factuality exists in the cosmos

Posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
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