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Synopsis:
It is the irony of history that a daring and difficult idea becomes popular in the general culture only after it becomes irrelevant. Einstein’s insight into relativity was a feat of genius, but few in his day (and ours) grasped the finality of what he purposed. As theoretical science shows signs of age and dementia, we stumble toward a greatly diminished horizon of certainty. The discoveries that awaits us will be subtler than those of Einstein, but far more profound.
This book, commenced in 2009, is a natural outgrowth of the philosophical ideas presented in Icarus Transfigured. These notes and their organization are still evolving, so there are sure to be a few typos and rough patches.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Background: The Role of Autism in Science, Philosophy, and Big Pictures
A Primer on Metaphysics: Knowledge, Limits, and The Unknowable Thing-in-Itself
A Primer on Metaphysics: Logic, Language, and Incompleteness
The Limits of Science to Know Reality Without A Thing-in-Itself
Space and Time: The Bait-and-Switch of Einstein’s Space/Time
Infinity and The Big Picture: The Center of The Universe After All
Life, Evolution, and Design: Parts, Wholes, and The Halting Problem
Life, Evolution, and Design: Fairy dust, Synchronicity, and Irony
Life, Evolution, and Design: The Can’t-Get-Here-From-There of Natural Selection
Mind, Matter, Will, and Being: Observers and Fine-tuned Universes
The Limits of Theoretical Science: Mathematics, Many Worlds, and Duct Tape
Big Picture Analogies: Analog, Digital, and Holographic
The Legacy of Science: Science as Theology, Science as Ironic History
Perception, Insight, and The Thing-in-Itself
Perception and Intuition: Seeing and Believing
Truth and Beauty: The Uncanny, The Sublime, and The Avant-garde
Intrinsic Value and The Thing-in-Itself
Value as End in Itself: Materialism versus Idealism
Value and The Acted-Upon World: Liberals, Conservatives, and The Mechanics of Value
God, Value, and Intuition: Wasteful Designers, Mysterious Ways, and The Ontological Argument
The Universe and The Thing-in-Itself
Useful Fictions: Being, Time, Gravity, and Will
Ideas, Ideal, and Symbols: Déjà vu and The Illusion of Eternal Recurrence
The Universal and The Particular: The Forest, The Tree, and The Sublimity of Monsters
God as The Thing-in-Itself
Divine Clues: Coincidence, Metaphor, and Unfalsifiability
Our Relationship with God: Personality, Impersonality, and Imagery
The Mechanics with God: Unconscious Idea, Unconscious Will, and Memory
Other Topics Arising from Our Metaphysical Dilemma
The Noumenon and Unknowability: Ignorance, Bliss, and The Garden of Eden
Good, Evil, and The Sublime: Fate, Judgment, and The Theatre of Impersonality
The Culture of Good and Evil: Myth, Reality, and The Unimaginable
Aesthetics, Love, and Sex: Quality, Quantity, and The Irony of Repetition
Miscellaneous Topics: Genius, A Will to Irrationality, Etc.
Book Copyrights ©2009-©2011 Michael Teague. All rights reserved.
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