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2. Models and meaning
| 2.11 |
Historical "universal constants" of western
classification systems |
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| Since humanity first appeared, there have existed Universal Constants that underpin the prime ideas of each and every culture. | ||
| Some of these have existed for tens of thousands of years and still underpin our understanding of present society. We will now look at some of these prime universal constants. | ||
| 2.11.1 | The Prime Universal Constant of God or God(s) | |
| The concept of higher physical and/or spiritual beings other than humans influencing the course of our lives is the oldest prime universal constant of humanity. | ||
| We will discuss God(s) in more detail at a later date. But for now, we should consider that in human knowledge, the concept of God or God(s) still remains not only the oldest but also the most influential prime universal constant today. Every culture and every society ( except communism) has in some way religious connections with the concept of God or Gods existing. Regardless of what we have discussed so far, a great many readers believe in the existence of one Supreme God, or Gods. | ||
| 2.11.2 | The Prime Universal Constant of laws from God(s) | |
| The next most significant and long-term prime universal constant is the concept that God (or Gods) have given humanity certain immutable rules in regards to behaviour. | ||
| Again, we will discuss these in more detail later. But for now, we recognize that the first and primary laws noted in the earliest cultures that underpin almost every religion is the belief that laws have been given to humanity by God (or Gods) and it is the duty of human beings to obey these laws. | ||
| 2.11.3 | The Prime universal constant of universal laws or "science" | |
| The earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkadia), Egypt, Sth America (Olmecs, Mayans) shared strong understanding of mathematics and the knowledge that patterns exist everywhere in nature. As such, humanity over the thousands of years, from the formal mathematical works of the Greek Euclid (600BC) to the latest Nobel Prize winning discoveries has assimilated a wealth of knowledge collectively understood as science. | ||
| The concept of a science as a collection of facts, truths or even laws is a relatively modern concept (less than three hundred years old). Up until the nineteenth century, knowledge of how and why things work were considered branches of a wider concept of philosophy. There were no university courses to attend to qualify as a scientist of physics, chemistry or biology. For the most part, the pioneers in their respective fields for 1000 years were either enthusiasts, or educated clergy. | ||
| Aristotle is considered the first Westerner to formalize the study of objects into a framework over 2000 years ago. Even during his time, the equivalent of sciences today were considered the "muses" (from which we derive the word 'music'). | ||
| While many formulas, axioms and theories have changed over the centuries, the fundamentals have gradually strengthened to enable science to be recognizes as a prime universal constant in its own right. | ||
| Today, the confidence in science is such that a number of readers of this book may regard science as a more credible prime universal constant than the concept of the existence of God(s). | ||
| In stark contrast to the sum history of human discovery, modern divisions of science actively guard and control their respective disciplines, with formal training courses at university and post graduate study, rules of argument, and publishing new discoveries. Those that publish ideas or philosophy from outside this framework of "qualified experts" are largely ignored at best, or at worst ridiculed as not having demonstrated ability to make statements on such an expert subject. | ||
| Science now has many dozens of immutable laws that are taught and considered as "absolutes" such as The Laws of Thermodynamics, The Periodic Table, Valency, Isotopes and Molecular Biology. These immutable laws underpin the foundations of all human technology, manufacturing and western education. | ||
| 2.11.4 | The Prime Universal Constant of truth | |
| The Prime Universal Constant of truth represents the most important linkage concept of both science and religion(the belief in God or Gods). In this way, the concept of truth represents a unique concept in being key to two universal constants normally seen as complete opposites of each other. | ||
| Both the words "true" and "truth" have their origins from the word "troth". It is a word from the ancient Norse Pagan religion known as Asatru. Troth's original meaning was "faithfulness to the law of the Gods." | ||
| It is also possible that the word troth has relationship to the ancient Egyptian god for wisdom and health- THOTH, accounting for the ANKH symbol, the ancient Egyptian cross symbol worn around the neck as a sacred charm by millions of believers 2000 years before the birth of Christ. | ||
| The word "faithfulness", comes from the Old French words feid, and feit, which themselves were derived from the Latin fides, fidus meaning trustworthy. | ||
| With the early advent of Christianity, the word Troth lost its specific pagan meaning and came to mean "faithfulness, good faith, honesty and loyalty." At the same time, the word "triewe" (true) emerged, meaning "of persons steadfast in adherence to a commander, or friend, to a principle or cause to one's promises, or faith; firm in allegiance; faithful, loyal, consistent." | ||
| In this original grouping of meanings, the most important concepts are loyalty and consistency. Secondly it is important to recognize that it is the individuals consistent display of loyalty that underpins the earliest meaning of the word "true". | ||
| As the word "loyalty" in contemporary culture is interchangeable with the word truth, this ancient definition may not be entirely clear. The origins of the word "loyal" comes from Old French word loial and leial that themselves are derivations of the Latin legalis meaning "law." | ||
| The word "honesty" comes from the Latin honour, meaning essentially respect, and/or reverence to rank. | ||
| Later definitions of the word "truth" reinforced these beginnings, e.g." honest, honorable, upright, virtuous, trustworthy; of things reliable, constant", as in the writings of Milton " This way the noise was, if mine ear be true." | ||
| In the middle of the 16th Century, truth confirmed its status as a scientific term with the meaning " agreeing with a standard, pattern, or rule; exact, accurate, precise, correct, right" (1550). | ||
| It wasn't until the 17th Century that the word true took on the added meaning linking it to a concept of an underlying reality and linking it with the concept of fact, the 17C definition being " of a statement or belief consistent with FACT agreeing with REALITY representing the things as it is." | ||
| Therefore we can see in the history of meanings attached to the word "truth", linkages to both the Universal prime constants of God(s) and Laws from God(s), as well as the emergence of science in the study of consistent pattern. | ||
| 2.11.5 | The Prime Universal Constant of reality | |
| An important prime universal constant developed and intimately linked to the prime universal constant of science is the concept of reality. | ||
| Reality comes from the Latin word realis, which itself comes come from res= thing and rem=see. | ||
| In the mid 16th century, the word real came to mean "that which is actually and truly such as its name implies; possessing the essential qualities denoted by its name; hence genuine, undoubted" (1559). | ||
| Here we see with this definition a building block on the principle of consistency of action (true) to consistency of appearance of things (real). The Sun for example, consistently appears each day, as night also comes. The rain falls, the crops grow and die. We all die. Mountains remain and so on. The more consistent in appearance, the more we see stability in things, the more real they can be described. | ||
| Around the beginning of the 17th century, the definition of real developed further to mean " having an objective existence; actually existing as a thing." (1601). Real had now become a word defining what exists and what does not exist. | ||
| The definition of real and the concept of reality now provided a benchmark by which it could be argued what is considered real and what is considered unreal case by case. As items could be defined as only one or the other, it did not take long to extend the definition to mean a collective reality. | ||
| Around 1647 that is exactly what happened with the word reality taking on the meaning: "real existence; the aggregate of real things or existences that which underlies and is the truth of appearances or phenomena." | ||
| Reality is now viewed, not simply as the individual perspective, but a collective concept, underlined by truth. | ||
| 2.11.6 | The Prime Universal Constant of Fact | |
| Fact comes from the ancient Latin word facere meaning "do, a thing done or performed." In its original meaning, there is no attempt to define fact as having actually occurred, nor of fact from non-fact for verification purposes. | ||
| In the 16th century, the word fact came to be used interchangeably with the word truth and reality. Now the web of reality and the web of a concept of universal truth were established. The discoveries of Newton and Descartes in the next century enabled this definition to be expanded to mean " something that has REALLY occurred or is the case; hence a datum of experience as distinct from conclusions" (1632). | ||
| 2.11.7 | The Prime Universal Constant of Validity | |
| The word Valid comes from the three Latin words valere = be strong, validus= strong, validere= strengthen | ||
| The important aspect of this definition is that it clearly outlines that valid arguments are arguments that are strong. | ||
| An argument can be strong, not just by the detail, but by several other means: The perceived credibility of the person making the statement; The perceived authority of the person making the statement; The amount of coercion provided in making the statement. | ||
| Thus valid arguments not only include those that are rationally explained, but those where sufficient force has been applied to coerce agreement as well as those proposed by individuals/organizations holding sufficient authority. | ||
| Valid is the traditional idea that like virtual gladiators, ideas come to the Coliseum of knowledge of the period and do battle in front of the peers and eminent knowledge bearers of their field, who then decide in their wisdom which arguments have fought valiantly and which arguments do not deserve a second chance. | ||
| Thus humanity has seen the vilification of a great many thinkers and the end to a great many ideas, not on their individual merit, but by often the strength and established foothold of the opposing speakers. | ||
| This we see is the way that so many arguments have gone and why so many arguments have resulted in the end of good ideas, not because the ideas themselves were flawed, but because they were placed forward in circumstances that were not strong enough to withstand the brunt of the opposing forces. | ||
| An associated word to validity is the words "prove" and "proof" Both words come from the Latin stems probare= test, approve, demonstrate, also probus= good. Hence the original meaning of the word prove was "To make trial of, try, test". | ||
| A further associated word to validity is the word "ratify" which comes from the Latin ratus, meaning "fixed", "established" and is the past participial of the word reri, meaning "think, reckon". | ||
| The original meaning of the word was "To confirm, make valid (an act, compact, promise, etc)." | ||
| Unlike the concept of a gladiatorial battle of ideas, the original application of the word ratify was in fast tracking via the system of imprimatur and the notion of divine right- that is to say that a person in authority may deem that what is stated is what is to be believed whether the statement or ideas are based upon some notion of common sense or not. | ||
| 2.11.8 | Summary of Prime Universal Constants | |
| As you can see by this section, the meanings of every day words we take for granted like "truth", "honesty" and "reality" are powerful constants supporting the complex world of politics, religion, science and society we have made. We can learn and understand much about our society and why things happen by just studying the origin and development of these universal constants. | ||
| There are a number of Prime Universal Constants we have not discussed here, but will cover later. For the moment, it is hoped that we have shown clearly that all Prime Universal Constants have a history, original meanings and emerging interconnection between terms. | ||
| We will now look at the historical tradition of category and rules of classification. | ||
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