{"id":10705,"date":"2021-05-25T13:14:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T18:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=10705"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:05:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:05:44","slug":"the-four-ontological-aces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2021\/05\/25\/the-four-ontological-aces\/","title":{"rendered":"The four ontological aces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Buddhism has its “Two Truths<\/a>” and its “Three Truths<\/a>“: the “Two” were made famous by Indian philosopher Nagarjuna; the “Three” a little less famous by Chinese philosopher Zhiyi. About a year ago, I offered up four perspectives on mortality<\/a>, and here I want to make the case that they could be seen as a kind of “Four Truths” formula — in effect, the four suits in the card deck of reality (a card deck that remains, however, triadic<\/a>). Let me explain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one level, an individual life is a precious and\nremarkable thing, especially if you\u2019re fortunate enough to live a full one. How\nyou live it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On another, we are of the same substance as all things in the universe, continuous with everything. We just happen to find ourselves at a particular fold in the fabric, but that fabric unfolds on its own and there won’t be much of us around when (and where) most of that unfolding happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

These are the “truths” expressed by my first two options, but on their own neither is very satisfactory. Your life is all you have, and so it matters; it’s all<\/em> that matters. But does it really<\/em> matter, if it will be over and come to nothing? Heidegger believed that our being-toward-death<\/a> confers a seriousness onto our our life. But Heidegger is gone, and we now know better about his<\/em> own life than to take his thinking as seriously as he wanted it taken. Conversely, what matter to me if I am subsumed within everything? Lost in the universe, the weightiness of our lives becomes an unbearable lightness<\/a>. Life, after all, is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where those two truths meet is in relationship<\/a>: in the active making of new folds<\/a>, new and precious matterings<\/a>, which bind us into connections that make our actions real, and that will outlive us. The real<\/em> is this moment<\/em>, when you can reach out, connect with another, change another, and bring something new into being. (And the next moment, and so on down the line.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is, in effect, the third option, which defines truth relationally and creatively, according to what we do with the affordances of this moment and how it allows us to live with others. Without each other (and therefore without the third), neither of the first two truths holds up well on its own. Our life is given meaning not just by the narrative we tell ourselves about it; it requires the universe of relations as a background against which that narrative can bear any weight, any narrative significance, at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first two options, then, are versions of Nagarjuna\u2019s \u201cTwo Truths\u201d: conventional truth<\/em>, which takes what I perceive of my life, and of things in general, to be real (though its reality is miniscule and fleeting); and ultimate truth<\/em>, which understands that nothing is anything in separation from all the things that have made it (that is, from everything). The first truth takes on a more dignified appearance in western humanistic doctrines about the sanctity of the self; this is the truth harbored both within Augustinian Christianity and in the humanism that followed and, in many ways, supplanted it. The second truth comes to us in mystical experiences. We could think of these two as the \u201ctruth-of-the-self<\/strong>\u201d and the \u201ctruth-of-the-all<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third truth (Zhiyi\u2019s) sees the first two as being mutually intersubsumptive<\/a>: they imply each other and require each other. This third truth can be called the \u201ctruth-of-the-between<\/strong>.\u201d It keeps the first two in tension and relation with each other. When its particular relations are given attention, it makes them both viable. This trio resonates well with Peirce’s<\/a>, and with Gurdjieff’s<\/a>, triads: the firstness of the thing in itself, the secondness of relation (and negation), and the thirdness of meaning that emerges from that relation, reconciled. In this sense, the “selfhood” of anything is its firstness, where the It<\/a><\/s><\/em> of (its) reality is felt; “the all” of everything is (ultimate) thirdness; and the “between” is secondness — it is where all things happen. It is the place of events<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even these three truths are not quite enough. A fourth truth is found by implication in Buddhist concepts of liberation or nirvana, but is more directly expressed in the apophatic<\/a> (negatively expressed) traditions of Christianity and other theistic philosophies. It is the \u201ctruth-of-the-beyond<\/strong>\u201d: that which we do not know and cannot know, at least not through the kind of knowing that is known to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether we came from “someplace else,” as some transcendentalist and gnostic versions of this fourth truth might claim, is not really the issue here. But the idea that there is or may <\/em>be a beyond — something that perpetually withdraws<\/a> (like Graham Harman’s withdrawing objects<\/a>) — and even the perspective that we are “in the world, but not necessarily of it,” because we are somehow of a similar substance as that withdrawn essence — suggests a kind of speculative openness that keeps things from getting closed in on themselves. This is the zeroness<\/a> underpinning triadism<\/a>; it is the withdrawal, the mystery, the nature that loves to hide<\/a>. It is the place of the Event<\/s><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the four aces that mark each suit of our deck: the suits of Self, of All, of the Between, and of the Beyond. (Or of Things, of Everything, of Relations, and of Withdrawal. Task for a rainy sabbatical: design deck of ten plus four court cards each, and 22 trumps to connect them<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidegger somewhat picturesquely called them “earth, sky, gods, and mortals,” but this is an odd coupling — really two dyads in relationship with each other (which makes for a complex triad) — and none of his terms quite gets at the between<\/em>. It is a quadrivium, which is what four aces implies. But I intend the four to be not a quadrivium, with four aces marking the four corners of a square, but a quadrinity<\/em>, in specific relationships with each other: 0-1-2-3, where 0 is off the map, the always Withdrawing; 1 is prime, the Alpha; 2 is the end point, the Omega; and 3 opens up to the endless creativity of mediation; but that’s Peirce<\/a> for you). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for what do we do with these aces, we do what we do with everything<\/a>. They are, after all, in everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buddhism has its “Two Truths” and its “Three Truths“: the “Two” were made famous by Indian philosopher Nagarjuna; the “Three” a little less famous by Chinese philosopher Zhiyi. About a year ago, I offered up four perspectives on mortality, and here I want to make the case that they could be seen as a kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688977,691847],"tags":[660397,4417,520620,628451,391,660382,628531,315,16776,16829,628456,4421,16870,628343,660396,660381,660384,350221,660380,660383],"class_list":["post-10705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geo_philosophy","category-religion-spirituality","tag-apophaticism","tag-buddhism","tag-c-s-peirce","tag-eco-ethico-aesthetics","tag-epistemology","tag-four-truths","tag-g-i-gurdjieff","tag-graham-harman","tag-heidegger","tag-nagarjuna","tag-object-oriented-ontology","tag-ontology","tag-peirce","tag-process-relational-ontology","tag-quadrinity","tag-three-truths","tag-tiantai","tag-triadism","tag-two-truths","tag-zhiyi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2MF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6560,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/03\/25\/what-a-bodymind-can-do-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":0},"title":"“What a bodymind can do” update","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The following provides an updated diagram and some further notes pertaining to my three-part article \"What A Bodymind Can Do.\" The earlier parts can be read here: part 1, part 2, part 3.\u00a0 (Please note that this version has corrected a minor error in the originally posted article, and added\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirit matter"","block_context":{"text":"Spirit matter","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/religion-spirituality\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Supermind & Son","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images4.wikia.nocookie.net\/__cb20090120223243\/pdsh\/images\/thumb\/1\/16\/Supermind_%26_Son.jpg\/250px-Supermind_%26_Son.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10136,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2019\/05\/01\/shadowing-unshadowed\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":1},"title":"Shadowing unshadowed","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As agreed to with my publisher (Punctum), the e-book version of Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times is now available for free download (or pay what you can). To celebrate this, I'm sharing a couple of snippets from the book here. As related in my Reader's Guide, the book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/05\/twinpeaks-redroom.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1352,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/10\/01\/philosophy-salvation-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":2},"title":"philosophy, salvation, & the world","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Fabio Gironi has a very perceptive response to the recent posts at Larval Subjects, Ecology Without Nature, and here, over Buddhism, objects, and relations. I like his admission that \"I have never been \u2013 nor [do] I plan to be\u2014a practicing Buddhist or a \u2018believer\u2019 of any sort, but the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1154,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/11\/14\/nagarjuna-ecophilosophy-the-practice-of-liberation\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":3},"title":"Nagarjuna, ecophilosophy, & the practice of liberation","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"John Clark\u2019s recent article in Capitalism Nature Socialism, \u201cOn being none with nature: Nagarjuna and the ecology of emptiness,\u201d has gotten my neurons firing in a productive way. Clark is a political philosopher whose book The Anarchist Moment had long ago excited me about the prospect of melding together a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-theory"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-theory","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecophilosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"QCI%20045.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/11\/QCI-045.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/11\/14\/nagarjuna-ecophilosophy-pt-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":4},"title":"Nagarjuna & ecophilosophy, pt. 2","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing from the previous post... \"For Buddhism,\" Clark writes, \"the negative path of the destruction of illusion is inseparably linked to the positive path of an open, awakened, and compassionate response to a living, non-objectifiable reality, the 'nature that is no nature.'\u2019\u2019 Clark perceptively identifies what I consider to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-theory"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-theory","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecophilosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"QCI%20031.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/11\/QCI-031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/11\/05\/process-relational-theory-primer\/","url_meta":{"origin":10705,"position":5},"title":"Process-relational theory primer","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the tasks of this blog, since its inception in late 2008, has been to articulate a theoretical-philosophical perspective that I have come to call \u201cprocess-relational.\u201d This is a theoretical paradigm and an ontology that takes the basic nature of the world to be that of relational process: that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-theory"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-theory","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecophilosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10705"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11846,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions\/11846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}