The Non-Transcendent Thing-In-Aspect

The history of philosophy has spent more time trying to assess what is outside its scope rather than what is in it. The distinction of inside and outside has plagued thinkers for centuries, leading them out into that great beyond, the abyss where human thought no longer applies.>Little justified headway has been made. Indeed there may be something to investigate, but whether we even have the proper tools for such investigation is still, and probably forever will be, doubted. There is no appeal to something that can be outside of experience with tools of experience. Conceiving one with the other seems a fruitless task as every object we are left with is nevertheless still an object of experience.

Thus to remove the begging question, we must start on grounds that need not appeal to any transcendent object that would require a philosophical position on that which is outside of consciousness. Kant’s Thesis on the thing-in-itself is often seen as one of these appeals to a transcendent object (an object outside of experience). However, I think it is essential for Kant’s object constitution model to be put within a framework that does not posit the thing-in-itself as a transcendent object, but as an immanent logical relationship whereby it is still maintained as an object-of-consciousness.

Pre Reflective Consciousness takes perception as given. When we perceive a tree, we perceive a tree, not a collection of brown wood, green leaves, a life form, etc.,that then becomes Nominal, but as a tree immediately given. This is similar to Gestalt theorists who state that we perceive wholes before their parts, and that as wholes, they represent themselves in ways irrepresentable by its parts. Regardless, every perception shows a new holistic aspect. One of which could be divided into innumerate parts and relations.

It can be shown by moving around the tree with each perception flowing to the next, conceptually identified as the tree with the same identity as the previous perception. It can even be shown by reflecting about the tree, breaking it into parts and characteristics. This is an aspect of reflective consciousness.They can even be shown by unrelated mental states that still add or remove something to the perceptual synthesis of the tree.. Hence, we can still suspend judgment about an independently existing world where tree x in conditions of the phenomenal world is out of experiential and metaphysical range, all the while positing an object-in-itself of consciousness, and an aspect of that object-in-itself.

The various aspects, or presentations given to us by the object are mediated by a-priori categories, organizing it, in conjunction with the a-posteriori data as an object in itself. We do not perceive this tree merely as the concept of tree personified, but as individual substance, conjoined yet distinct from its concept. To perceive any object is to inhabit it by letting “drop” a background and a focal point. Within the focal point is the object and its horizon, whereas the background consists of objects whose horizons are blanked out for the purpose of the current inhabitant (Gurwitsch, 2009).

That is not to say that the horizons of other objects do not affect the horizon of others as say we would when focusing on a billiard ball with a cue stick in our hand reading to shoot. But such horizons are limited from the entire extent of conscious knowledge and possible awareness. The object-in-itself outside of consciousness, or the transcend object, that many philosophers have gathered soil trying to justify is thus replaced by an object-in-itself immanent of consciousness. This entails an object-in-itself that is entirely within the experience of consciousness, whether as an implicit logically conditioned shadow, or as an experienced aspect-of-object mediated by its conceptual horizons.

Try thinking about a red vase, for instance, and then think about you walking around that red vase, putting water in it, thinking about the vase as a work of art, knocking the vase off the table, analyzing the vase’s composition in a laboratory, measuring the vase, being cut by the red vase, having a shocking traumatic flashback while looking at the red vase. All of these represent different aspects that occur with the perception of the red vase. They indicate various modes of interaction by a subject.

In this sense, there is no one perception of the red vase that experiences all of the same content , nor could we know every possible perception that the red vase could expose, thus we could never know the entire content of the red vase, as every thought and experience of it reveals something new either within the content of the red vase or the subject. If we are cut by the red vase and become angry and hostile, a mental state attributable only to the subject, even that anger and hostility seep into the content of the red vase. Making it contemptible, or angry itself, or reproachable, etc..

Therefore, the subject and object distinction must also be collapsed in terms of discerning both to their own separate worlds within ordinary perception, or as Hussrel calls it, the natural attitude, insofar as an a-priori concept, as well as a-posteriori information are both are mediated by one another (Solomon, 1972). There are no a-priori concepts unmediated by the conditions of experience. Even the concepts of the understanding In Kant are still mediated by the conditions of synthetic unity. Even the concept Universal, within conditions of Thought, is experienced as a particular, individualized unity, separate and distinct from other concepts and sensations.

There is also no a-posteriori experience that is not mediated by Kant’s logical conditions and concepts of the understanding (Kant,1783). All in all, we have a distinction between the phenomenal object as an object-in-itself and as object-in-aspect which are both necessarily mediated by the conditions of experience. The object-in-itself is purely non-empirical, only deduced or given by the a-priori categories and transcendental concepts that posit identity to an object over and through its myriad experiential aspects (Kant, 1783).

That object-in-itself is idealized as distinct from any singular aspect but also distinct from its universal concept. The red vase mentioned earlier can immediately neither be entirely the red vase that I am seeing at this one moment, nor the concept of a red vase. Nor even, the concept of this particular red vase. We suppose in Thought, that there is information always missing to an object, leaving it never fully complete even if our knowledge of it as it is is fulfilled (Solomon, 2001).

If you asked me “do you have all the knowledge of the red vase” I would say “no”, for I am missing innumerate aspects such as physical properties, philosophical theories and modes, functional properties, possible states that the red vase could be in, such as broken. But if you asked me “do you see the red vase”, and I did in fact, I would say “yes”. One can see where the distinction lies.

I need not have the entire epistemic picture of an object to perceive it as an object-in-itself insofar as I posit it as a phenomenological relation between an aspect and its shadow, an in-itself . But again, this in itself is still an aspect.. When we use one, we use the other and we cannot conceive of one without the other.

This is the context whereby Kant’s synthetic processes occur, allowing us experience and knowledge of an object whatsoever. Kant states: “By synthesis, in its most general sense, I understand the act of putting different representations together, and of grasping what is manifold in them in one knowledge” (Kant,1783).. In the aforesaid arguments, we can see the parallel between Kant’s “one knowledge” and the aspect. The aspect is the product of Kant’s syntheses, that which is grasped as a singular unity.

In order for an experience to be an object of consciousness, for Kant it must be preconditioned by three syntheses. The first is the Synthesis of Apprehension in intuition, which is responsible for the organization of raw sensual input into spatial-temporal dimension. If consciousness is a stream that passess from one object to the next, whereof when we are aware of one object, or inhabiting it, we neglect all else that is not related. When I view a dog running around a park, my attention is not inhabiting a lamp, or the number 4, or even the beauty of the landscape. It is inhabiting the dog.

Each requires its own selective attention, albeit in incredibly fast and overlapping ways. But if Synthesis of apprehension did not occur with our senses, Kant argues that all would be a buzzing confusion of objects presented simultaneously, unable to separate one’s content from another either in space or in time. Synthesis of Reproduction in Imagination is the next, and tantamount and interlinked with the former. Synthesis of Reproduction is responsible for retaining earlier intuitions in order to retain the same, one representation, as well as spark an onset for other associations. This synthesis is responsible for allowing thought to transition.

Imagine drawing a line in your mind, for instance. Slowly trace the line. You will see that your mind, in tracing the line, continues along the same line. Every new second, we are not posed with a dot, then another dot, then another dot. Instead, it is one continuously smooth line. One then views the line not as parts, but as a singular whole organized along a temporal stream. In other words, this provides continuity for our presentations (Scott, 1994). This synthesis also has the product of maintaining associations among our thoughts, that then allow transition into new ones. The reproduction synthesis can be seen almost as constructing icebergs, whereof we view the top layer and its content thereby allowing us access to the implicit associations beneath.

Thinking of red oil paint, for instance, we are confronted with its color, its function, as well as implicit facts about its physical properties such as its texture. We associate it as milky, malleable. We do not denote a weight that measures 5 tons. It sounds absurd, but it is very peculiar and incredibly efficient that thoughts have appropriate, organized associations (Scott, 1994). They have certain empirical and a priori rules. Kant says, “This law of reproduction presupposes that the appearances themselves are actually subject to such a rule,and … accompany each other according to specific rules”(Kant, 1783). Without the a-priori grounding of an object and its properties, there could be no rules for empirical associations, for what will become part of an object’s content.

From the organization of the object via these two syntheses, we have then the Synthesis of Recognition in a concept. This synthesis is that which applies Kant’s Concepts of the Understanding: Quantity, Quality, Relation, Modality, and of course, separate from the Concepts of the Understanding (Kant, 1783), the specific, empirical concept that the object refers to. These concepts finalize the object as a singular, real, changeable thing that is no longer just a sum of parts, nor a collection of sense data. The concept has real implications for the possible presentations of the object.

We may see an organized material, “the red vase”, but until the concept has been applied, there is no linguistic, epistemic knowledge that can come from the vase. It is merely there, devoid of any conceptual information, and devoid of its organization into a real, singular object. The empirical concept allows us to impose the notion of Vase onto the red vase. Now, with this imposed, we can know about the red vase, a priori, without having to appeal to this red vase here. It takes part in the universal concept. I know that vases have a hollowed out interior that can hold things.

Therefore, upon even the slightest, most implicit perception of it, I have in mind this universal concept that allows me knowledge of the vase prior to any testing or interaction. Moreover, the concept is what allows for it to be represented into language. Me must therefore, as appropriate to language and conceptual distinction, separate the indefinite concept and the definite concept. The former refers to the universal, whereby the object in question is related to its universal companion, sharing only necessary features, the concept of hammer for instance. But the latter refers to also accidental qualities.

This hammer, for example, has many features that are not part of my concept of hammer. For instance, that it has a yellow circled engraving on it, or that its handle is smooth, or that it is used as a door-stopper. These qualities do not partake in my universal definition, however, they nevertheless occupy their own space as a definite, particular concept. Hence the Synthesis of recognition is twofold.

It organizes representations of an object by its universal concept, reaping the necessary information it can. But it also forms the concept of the particular object, this particular hammer, into its own distinct unity. All of these syntheses form the object-in-aspect.

For Kant, there is only the object-in-aspect produced by Syntheses and logical categories as well as the object-in-itself deduced a-priori via the conditions of thought that the mind undergoes. The object-in-itself, then, is not something independent of the mind, but that which exists as a necessary foundation for an aspect. Without presupposing an object-in-itself, an aspect is shallow, holding no weight.

But the structure of the mind will not allow such aspect to be presented without first supposing that such object has an 1) an infinite number of possible presentations, 2) immanent knowledge that eludes our current comprehension, and 3) a backdrop to which, when not perceived, still subsists.

These conditions for Kant are not ones within the object itself, as these 3 features are never actually experienced, but are products of the conditions that the mind has for allowing any possible experience whatsoever.

Hence, the ding-an-sich that Kant refers to need not refer to an object outside of consciousness, as referring to it puts us into epistemological uncertainty, but akin to the phenomenologists, as an object-in-itself-of-consciousness that remains as a logical placeholder for aspect variation.

References:

Gurwitsch, A., & Kersten, F. (2009). Studies in phenomenology and psychology.Springer.

Kant,. (1783). Prolegomena to any future metaphysics.

Scott, S. (1994). The synthesis of production and reproduction …

Solomon, R. C. (1972). From rationalism to existentialism.

Solomon, R. C. (2001). Phenomenology and existentialism. Rowman & Littlefield.

A Singular Mystery

                                    A Singular Mystery

The sound of a bird stopped the moment in its tracks. He knew it was coming. He knew the deterioration of the sound before it happened. Predilection gave him all of this. Yet, there was still a small fraction, an undeniable crevice of Being that could never condition itself entirely to his knowledge. He had no reason to read anymore, no reason to seek out the world; his intelligence filled every lack. He was the embodiment of knowing. When he picked up a book with the extremities of his hands, poof, the entire plot, the characteristics ,a summary, every word transcribed into one single unit of information. Absolutely fascinating, but to him, incredibly mundane. It was far too simple as an experience, no endeavor of curiosity and pursuit towards an end, just one packet of bit sized knowledge delivered with ease. His sensor could predict sensations that breached a threshold up to two seconds before it became Being, and about one second after it dropped out. Time was thrown into observable conditions. The switch happened two years ago. Search for consciousness outside the conditions of Earth has always been a vast, provocative search, one that favored itself among spacecraft and all kinds of objects being thrown out into the great beyond. The One Who Knows All was the first known human scientist to have discovered a technique that didn’t involve hurdling people into Nothingness. It was called The Thought Defibrillator. In layman terms, The Thought Defibrillator was a honing radar that could detect the presence of Psychological Thinking. If a life form had thoughts, this radar could sense it up to five light years away. One night, while The One Who Knows All was testing the machine on a dry plateau, higher than the nearest mountain, the globular dial atop the jet black doric-style silicon base, the machine shot back a detection signal in the form of a massive implosion. The machine stayed perfectly okay. Just as it had been, beside the air of smoke billowing around it. But the scientist had felt the real blast of impact, a ringing that had nothing to do with his body. He immediately understood. Everything he perceived within awareness, the plateau, the intricacies of the machine, the pitch-black sky with the now far-too-aware being that was on its own planet. He knew far-far-far too much. There was no limited sphere where knowledge ended and began, hence no collision of his Will and the dread of Ignorance: that which makes us fully human. Initially he observed it with awe, but it dwindled farther and farther into disinterest. Even though he knew as much as he could ever want from anything, he was plagued by frustration as the days went on without surprise or novelty. No new aspects were revealed by consciousness’s light onto the world. It was the intellectual sameness every time any object was encountered. Years this went on, until now, until the beautiful song from the bird shot through the omniscience, as if the bird was itself participating in the very essence of Beautiful and that essence had sewn every bit of his knowledge into a uniform, incomparably non-dual Mystery. There was nothing he knew, no theory he could craft that could ever explain the mysterious beauty of this one song, by this one bird, in this innumerate world. Ignorance brought him home.

Sensations Without Knowledge

>The problem of universals has been for the human mind one of the most perplexing yet acquainted phenomena. We come into contact with them on a daily basis through every object we know. Whether it be cars, mirrors, or even human beings, we never know an experience now without universal concepts. Language is a great example of this. When engaging in philosophical discourse or scientific thinking what we are using are not particular objects or things but abstract universals derived from our experience as a whole, building up knowledge akin to a statue. What we have as a life form, however, is not the mere utilization of concepts and universals, but a broad, rich, and confusing sensory field. We take information from the outer and inner senses and meld them as interconnected concepts. For instance, in touching a hot stove, we do not just experience a “blank” sensation devoid of characteristics. In fact the experience tells us something about ourselves, that I am in pain, and something about the stove, that it is hot. Upon moving my hand to a cold surface, it is not hot, but something the contrary, deemed cold. The point being that these sensations are not without their universal, or conceptual counterparts. We require conceptual understanding before knowledge of the senses takes place. Pleasure and pain seem to be integrated at birth as receptors for primitive, or sense-knowledge, but as we move past the earliest developmental stage of life we develop concepts and thus can acquire knowledge beyond pain and pleasure. Even a baby touching a stove is in pain, but does not necessarily know that it is hot. Thus, in this essay I will argue for a position that holds that knowledge beyond pain and pleasure requires concepts as a mediator to the body’s sensory field and particular objects. Firstly, I want to begin with a distinction between sensory knowledge, and as Hegel refers to it, sense certainty. The former is the aforementioned way we gain knowledge through our senses via concepts and understanding. The sense of vision is a good example of this. Let us suppose that Adam, a complete human being with the full capacity for every sense is placed into the world without any experience whatsoever or even utilization of cognitive capabilities. That is, he is hypothetically devoid of concepts. Would we suppose that if a car stood in front of him he would know what it is? Or what it does? Or even that it’s a complete object at all and not a collection of parts? Very likely not. Therefore he does not know what to do with said object nor anything about it. However, we would not say that Adam is not experiencing the car at all. Obviously he is in contact with it. His eyes are picking up its colors & shapes. If he were to walk over to it he could touch it and feel a variety of tactile sensations. What we have here is an example of sense certainty. Even though Adam does not have the knowledge of what the car is, what it does, or even what the sensations he feels are categorized as, he is still nevertheless certain that these are sensations he is having. Certainty of the senses, however, does not bring us knowledge of what the thing really is. If our goal in knowledge justification is to provide meaning as to what a thing is, then sense certainty does not give us that criteria. We could say, opposed to Adam, that with concepts, even if we do not understand every inner working of a cars interior and their relations, we could see any “car” and drive it. The concept does not limit itself to any particular object that resembles a car, but to cars in general. Thus, let us hypothetically say that we implant into Adam the knowledge of what this singular car is. That is, he knows that it’s function is to drive from locations with much greater speed than manual walking. He may even learn how to drive from point A to point B with various body mechanics. But without the concept of “car” not denoting any particular car, Adam would not know what to do upon seeing another car of completely different build, make, and model. His body would not know how to respond to it but he would certainly notice consistencies between the former and this current one (it is not just the mind that utilizes concepts, but also the body). Over time, Adam would develop the knowledge of “car” and no longer see it as a sensory manifold nor as a mere object without a function. This is how we operate in our world. Every particular thing we come into contact with we have seen before in some form or another. It may be an exotic animal, or a mysterious life form in the distances of our galaxy, nevertheless we never approach these objects as mere sensations. We never take them in as just what our eyes are seeing or what our hands are feeling. They are conceptualized into greater or less degrees of knowledge. This is what perception is, not sense certainty. For instance, the exotic animal that we have never laid eyes on is not a collection of random visual stimuli, but an animal, or life form, or object. Or, if we know more about it, we could classify its taxonomy, or understand more of its function and way of life. We could go more or less general, but regardless we require these already learned concepts in order to have knowledge of things, or particulars, at all. I want to conclude with some questions that pose issues with the aforesaid claim. The primary one being, if knowledge of particulars requires concepts, then how can we develop concepts from particulars in the first place if we already require knowledge to do so? In other words, how is it possible to move out of the sense certainty stage? To this, I’d say it’s possible due to the already implicit knowledge of pain and pleasure. We don’t have to learn that something is painful, we just know. Through pain and pleasure in infancy, I believe we are able to organize information relating to the various objects at our disposal, such as our mother, food, toys, etc. Through these initial stages of organizing via pain and pleasure we then develop in the human brain greater capacities for abstraction and thus more information is added to the organized objects such as those that are not directly seen in them, such as their function. Our sensory field thus becomes divided and conceptually organized into the world as we know it. Indeed there are some potholes here in this explanation and even if this is not correct, it is evident from the developmental stages that infants do not utilize concepts or general thinking, whereas adults and adolescents do. Their experience thus should be categorized initially as not knowledgeable, but as sense certain, even if self-awareness has not yet arisen. They are obviously still seeing objects, feeling them, hearing them, smelling them, tasting them, and sensing pain or pleasure in their body. However, as I have been arguing, this does not equate to the knowledge of a thing, but rather the certainty of experiencing that thing, even as non-unified sense data. References: Goldman, A. I., & McGrath, M. (2015). Epistemology: A contemporary introduction. Oxford University Press. Pojman, L. P. (1998). Classics of philosophy. Oxford University Press. Harris, H. S. (1998). Hegel: Phenomenology and system. Hackett.

Modes Of Engagement

When we encounter an object in the world, there are two senses in which we come to know it. Firstly, we have impressions such as the objects size, color, shape, & motion, which we correspond as within the object. The other sense is in the type of engagement that we confront the object with. We may examine the Apple, as a amateur biologist and/or philosopher would, and explain its qualities, the effects it has on other objects, it’s nutritional content, the context-free building blocks it has in common with all other objects in the world, or we may confront it from a quasi non-cognitive standpoint that simply views the Apple as sustenance. 

In this sense, the object becomes less of an object of examination and rather one that is meeting the needs of the subject acting on it. These two examples give light to the two distinct ways in which we come to make contact and knowledge of the world through a consciousness that is not complete in itself and thus depends on the qualities, effects, and metaphysical speculation of objects that seemingly exist outside of itself. 

I intend to delve into Lockean epistemology, its conception of primary, secondary, & tertiary qualities and their important relation to various corresponding modes of encounter that we find in human consciousness when dealing with any object whatsoever.

 Locke begins his analysis by distinguishing the various qualities that we find within objects and the knowledge supplied by them. Firstly, we have the underlying constitution of the object that is said, by Locke, to exist within the object itself. Qualities such as solidity, extension, figure, and/or motion and rest are all considered primary qualities according to Locke insofar as they are part of the very object’s constitution. Secondary qualities, on the other hand, are not directly part of the object’s constitution, but rather an accidental by-product of the qualities present in its constitution. These qualities include color, sounds, smells, tastes, etc. 

These qualities are dependent on the particular relations and arrangement of the microstructure by which the primary qualities manifest. The third type of quality, and one which will become quite important later on are Locke’s tertiary qualities. These qualities essentially take on the power to affect qualities in other objects. This is where object to object relations become present. Without tertiary qualities, there would be capacity for one body to have an effect on the qualities and activity of another body. Locke states that the power of the sun to melt wax is a tertiary quality. As one can see, the tertiary quality is dependent on both objects. The sun may have the power to melt the wax but only insofar as the wax has the power to be melted. (We don’t need to complicate the usage of the term power, it merely indicates the influence that the object can have on itself, its environment, a subject, or other objects). In a similar case, we may watch a brick break through a window by being thrown. 

Firstly we know that the brick has the potential to break the window with a certain amount of action potential. This means that (i)the brick can break objects similar in constitution to the window, and that (ii) by being used in a particular way, its effect can be strengthened or diminished according to the task at hand. Notice here, “task at hand”. Pay attention to how the brick, when considered under the notion of being used for something, is confronted and engaged with in a different way than if I were simply assessing the brick as a structure of its own. On the former hand, when engaging in its mode of “being used for something”, we focus more on the power that the object has on its environment, how it can be manipulated according to various tasks, so on and so forth. 

But in the other mode of engagement, we may simply view the brick in philosophical contemplation, as a “Thing”, as something that possesses an underlying constitution, consisting of the mysterious qualities of extension, solidity, motion & rest as well as various secondary qualities accessible via the senses. In this mode, we are looking at the object from a detached perspective, of which the power that it has on its environment is lastly considered.

 We are here the philosopher attempting to assess & organize the metaphysical and epistemological building blocks of the world and consciousness. Whereas the mode of engagement that is associated with the tertiary qualities of an object is not at all detached. In fact, when we engage in this mode, we are in what the phenomenologists will later call the Natural Attitude. In this mode, we are not reflective, thinking subjects, but rather a pre-reflective acting subject that is manipulating objects in order to reach the goals of projects designated by said subject. This is precisely why tertiary qualities are just as important as primary and secondary ones. If there were no effect that one object had on another, or no power that could influence a subject, there would be no utility of objects and therefore no projects or goals designated by a subject through objects. 

For instance, in writing this paper, I am using the object of a computer towards writing a paper over Lockean philosophy for my modern european philosophy class, in order to (a) not fail the paper, which would (b) fail the class, which would © affect my GPA, which would (d) affect my ability to pursue a career of my choosing, which would (e) make me a failure of my life project as it now stands. As we can see, the objects manipulated always have their end goal in the designation of the goals of the subject. In this sense, the object becomes less a “thing” and more of a function, The way in which I choose to define my goals as well as my self-concept affect the objects that I use, and the power I extrapolate from them. 

At the moment, even my so-called detached speculation on the epistemological/metaphysical of Locke’s philosophy is dependent on the fact that I have to write a graded paper for it. 

Hence, our modes of engagement with an object typically overlap in some type of way. The projects of a human subject are thus always bound up with the ways other entities become intelligible. As a result a large part of our definitions of objects, or our Nominal essences as Locke calls them, are dependent on how human consciousness engages in the world. The real essence of an object, according to Locke, is the underlying cause and/or structure that produces an object’s observable qualities, whether these be primary, secondary, or tertiary. Real essences only exist as unknown microstructures that are responsible for the qualities we see in an object that make it what it is. 

We never perceive or have an idea of these essences. But on the contrary, Nominal essences are the abstract ideas that we make to identify similar qualities shared by objects. Locke states, “ I would not here be thought to forget, much less to deny, that Nature in the Production of Things, makes several of them alike: there is nothing more obvious, especially in the Races of Animals, and all Things propagated by Seed. But yet, I think, we may say, the sorting of them under Names, is the Workmanship of the Understanding, taking occasion from the similitude it observes amongst them, to make abstract general Ideas, and set them up in the mind, with Names annexed to them, as Patterns, or Forms (Locke, 290). For example, identifying two separate substances as “brick”. The Nominal definition we may have for a brick may consist of a large or small rectangular block typically made from fried or sun dried clay of which is used in building. In this definition, we see two different sides. One that matches up to the object as itself, as its primary and secondary qualities.

 This is the object-in-itself, of which is complete, and lacks the ability to change itself according to itself. Accordingly, the first mode of detached engagement. Whereas the latter part of the definition corresponds to the second mode of encounter, one which involves the activity of the subject (e.g., building), and the power of the brick in relation to the various other objects of equipment that are used in the task of building something. This corresponds to human consciousness of which is incomplete, setting up tasks, curious regarding its place in the world; In summation, needing, desiring, wanting something outside of itself (Sartre’s being-for-itself). As we can see, in our Nominal definitions we extrapolate not only qualities but also powers and their relation to other powers. These powers, as one can see, become furthermore manipulated in various situations such that one power corresponding to one other power will never subsist. There is the brick’s power in relation to the window, or the brick’s power in relation to other bricks, or a house, etc. 

Thus our Nominal definitions consist of a baseline common denominator of power that the object may possess as well as room for it to be manipulated according to an innumerate number of needs, wants, and demands. In having both sides of this Nominal definition, and in correspondence, both sides of Being (in-itself & For-itself), we are able to not only identity and sort out a world of unending change and ambiguity into something intelligible and relatable, but also manipulate the powers of the objects in said world in order to meet the demands, wants, and needs of the for-itself mode of consciousness, which at times speculates on the nature existence, and at other times acts in the world according to its projects and needs. Bibliography: Locke, J. (2014). An essay concerning human understanding. Wordsworth Editions. Jones, J.-E. (2022, September 2). Locke on real essence. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/real-essence/ Sartre, J.-P., & Richmond, S. (2022). Being and nothingness: An essay on phenomenological ontology. Routledge. Solomon, R. C. (1972). From rationalism to existentialism.

Mind In Skin

It was the year 2450. Approximately four hundred years ago, a newly appointed meteorologist, one Steven Marai, was working on a model weather clock he had been tinkering with since his Masters thesis: Weather & Time. The thesis was never picked by the institution, nor any others and as a result, Marai failed out of his position at his university. His childhood best friend cousin, one Avaline Denty, felt pity for the newly dropped out college student, as it did appear at times that he was incapable of functioning as a socially normal adult. She thus, as inconspicuous as the story began, hired Marai as a meteorologist and sanctioned a corner of the institution she owned as a world renown psychologist and neuroscientist. Working in emerging field she was at the forefront of, “ Shame attention science”, as it was called, Denty studied the physical and psychological conditions of shame, where attention is directed in the act of shame, as well as its stark relationship to the body; weather, as it would entail, was one of these conditions. Denty did not believe that Marai could actually contribute to her endeavors in the field, but she did consider that having him up there in that cut-off, asbestos laden office couldn't hurt. As it turns out, this decision and the combination of the proximity of these two people would throw a monkey wrench into the causal sequence of the earth and the human brain, and thus would consequently render its fate of the human person overruled. 

Marai, who had been living off the cognac and cigarettes he had found in the supply closet of his office, presumably belonging to the recently fired janitorial staff, fiddled with nearly anything he could get his hands on except for his failure-indicated Weather Clock. Only when he was drunk or bored enough would have the heart to put his cold fingers on it. The Weather Clock, much to the chagrin of Avaline Denty, was actually a rather elaborate invention. It stood about two feet high, consisting of a copper prism as its base. Extending from this heavy block were zinc wires rising in all directions to meet at their zenith a singular, cylindrical tube brimming with silver mercury.  A long, transparent conduit connected the cylinder to the copper prism. A shiny glass dial was fixed to its center, indicating various measurements that the technician (at this point, only Marai) could then read and assess. 

The Weather Clock’s function was to predict a cycle of the upcoming and current hour of Weather in any given area. Despite Marai’s knowledge, I must mention, this latter description is as literal as it comes. The Weather Clock was firmly capable of designating a location between 4sq ft and 5000 sq ft, defining the area’s circumference and then honing on the given area for predictions regarding current and upcoming meteorological data.This was indeed its most significant function, and yet it remained completely oblivious to its creator and everyone else. Since the prototype was juggled among a myriad of professors at his previous university, it was likely the function was produced by an unlikely admixture of ideas and blind changes. 

As the story goes, one night while Marai was still cashing in his checks as a full-time meteorologist, he returned to his office at Shameless Inc to fiddle with some equipment he had recently found out of sheer boredom. He had no friends, nor family except his despondent childhood best friend cousin, whom the majority of the time seemed completely indifferent to himself, and thus he would find himself, for the majority of dark nights, to the closest place he could call home: his office; six  floors and a thousand yards from Denty’s.

The forecast that night, according to the weather clock that was now high up in a plastic bin over a storage unit, for which Marai would invariably store there when he could not test the sight of it, was not reading outlier data of a probable, increasingly dangerous, whirlwind. Not just any whirlwind, mind you, for the clocks dial were now beginning to collapse into each other. This was a meteorological occurrence unprecedented by the Weather Clock. It was turning and contorting, moving hither and thither. Finally, hearing the buzz of the Weather Clock from the plastic bin, nearly heading for its descent off the storage unit, Marai snatched the bin from thin air and set it calmly on the table. Perhaps, he thought for a split second, it was destined to fall. But no, he was cut short by the windows shaking from the outside. The whirlwind was an unavoidable fact, everything was shaking, the ground felt to be collapsing. Marai, not knowing what else to pursue, reached for the only object due for comfort: the cognac. To him, the world was a sinking gut, traversing through the possibility of a building falling apart. Turns out, that possibility would almost be correct. He cursed the now screaming Weather clock, damning its creation, damning the dreg of life it had taken him on. The pursuit of nothing. A device that did nothing but show the exterior of a man devoid of spiritual fulfillment. 

Yada, Yada…. As the story goes, Steven Marai would now become a murderer of his own creation. Death by chemical solution. Death by the cognac. Death by the institution's own possessions. God knows what he put in that solution . Perhaps the various chemicals Shameless Inc had been manufacturing on the hush-hush. Thelemine, G Magnitreaq, Detrehedro, Mulic powder, you name it. Perhaps the cognac. Nevertheless, he had the damn thing drowned  in its new amniotic fluid. Just like he thought he would die by that storm, in his body, so too the Weather Clock would die by the liquid, in its plastic bin. Quid pro Quo! But no. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, HAHAHA! NO! The quid pro quo would only remove one identity. The device’s death was long away. And so again, the gods would change the circumstance of humanity with such phoenix-like qualities! Only this time, there would be only ash. 

The Weather Clock and its green  amniotic fluid danced in harmony, a new Adam and Eve catching first glance of each other until each grew horns. The mixture exploded,  piercing the atmosphere with a thin, but extraordinarily powerful gust of air straight into the eye of the cyclone. The process had the effect of: 

• Evaporating Steven Marai into a million small pieces.

• Leveling out the entirety of his office.

• Replacing the Whirlwind with clear blue skies. 

As fate would have it, Denty hearing the massive implosion and having been the only other person in the building at this time, she would be the one to discover the state of affairs Marai’s office was now in. The entire room was empty. No tables , no glassware, no machine parts, no books, no Steven Marai: except for a singular gray box that stood directly in the middle of the room. In it was a green solution filled all the way to the brim of the Weather Clock, now sunk like a rock in a river of new life. 

In the end, Avaline Denny discovered the connection between the data of her cousin and the removal of the whirlwinds prophecy. After a series of tests and experimentations she further discovered the function of the weather clock and it’s amniotic fluid: 

• To control the given meteorological data within any given area. ( The area could be the cube or some circumference of an area spanning 4sq ft to 5000 sq ft.) 

Dents was able to modify it down to a commodity:

 

• Having the Weather Unfetterer solution, as it was now called, was paired in percolators on the outside of the Weather Clock. 

• It had a plastic, transparent shell surrounding the device, completely safeguarding the malfunction that killed Marai. 

• There was a square controller built into the sheath of the shell, capable of changing temperature, range, humidity, wind, you name it. (Temperature range: 40 degree F - 105 degree F).

• Had sizes small enough to fit into a pocket.

After playing hush-hush with Marai’s death, blowup, and creation, Denty presented her new device to the world market under her newly named organization, Weather Inc. as : The Weather Unfetterer. Immediately the device caught the unanimous attention of the world, including national governments. It was cheap. It was handy. It was picked up by nearly all sectors, sanctions, and statuses of society. Even if you yourself did not own one, the area you inhabited was surely affected by a governmental Weather Unfetterer. People had them in their houses, in their cars, in their pockets, nearly everywhere you could imagine a Weather Unfetterer was surely governing that area. Natural disasters were simply a thing of the past, the Weather Unfetterer was the optimism for a new future. 

However, it was not long before a dramatic shift in human cognition began. As I might now be inclined to put it, it was Noah's ark of attention and body parts. Months after the Weather Unfetterer was introduced to the consumer market, a worldwide frenzy began,  causing all attention, all feelings of shame and success to hone in and obsess about the only object fully in our possession: The body. It became a generalized belief, as instinctual as it was to eat, to correlate psychological characteristics with features of corporeal build. In other words, the self-concept had left its resting place in the sky and was reborn rooted into physical form. A certain sized lip or the irregular shape of a curved hand paired in relation to a 2-inch suction on the waist. Each independent appendage, mixed to manifest a gestalt with all other physical features, would now act as data for self- interpretation and personality characteristics. 

“Soma Therapists”, akin to plastic surgeons, became increasingly popular and in demand. They replaced the forefront of medicine as a mediator of the mind and body—now aptly termed Bodythought. They provided clients with information regarding psychological deficiencies and the addition, subtraction and rearrangement of flesh that would yield the deficiencies replacement. 

Humanity, still enamored by the influence of the Weather Unfetterer all but noticed the blink of an eye metamorphosis,  mania, and obsession it was now in the jaws of. It was as if the body hyper fixation had always been a thing, as if “soma therapists' had always been a thing, as if the only novel fluctuation was how to now control the weather with the push of a button! How spiritual-like! Gods of weather before mind! And all the while the people kept up their obsession, removing, cutting, augmenting clothing to get to the brass of the body, responding in fear and awe to the intrinsic shame of mind in flesh, Avaline Denty continued the metamorphosis of her own obsession. 

For the previous year, before Marai’s accident, Denty had been taking part in various research studies at Shamless Inc. attempting to  design and utilize a novel neurotransmitter located within the shame center of the brain. Apparently with her most up to date experiment,  one occurring only days before the accident, it had shown with two rhesus Monkeys that by taking the novel neurotransmitter, G-Mew, as it was called, and combining it with an adrenaline compound, a very specific psychological effect would be caused, one of which the entire human race was now experiencing. Denty watched the world’s regression with amusement. She was quoted as having said in private: 

• “Spiritual conquest! HA! First climb over this mountain of flesh and just maybe you’ll find me in the clouds!” 

Or singing:

• “Regress! Regress! Regress!!….So I can progress! Progress! Progress!” 

• “Skin in jolly, mind in folly!”

The world's obsession with the body was as much a function of the brain as it was an expression of Avaline Denty’s  own obsession with enlightenment. She had been pumping this new concoction into the Weather Unfetterer’s amniotic fluid, causing every user to blindly ingest this novel, cognition-altering substance. It was inescapable insofar as the Weather Unfetterer was around. Nobody knew of Denty’s other hand in the device. Not her staff, not the government, not the people, not even other scientists. Not a single soul in the cosmos was aware of her intentions—just as she liked it. 

The planet carried on as usual, her plan guised by the recipe of the Weather Unfetterer’s amniotic fluid. One could make the damn thing perfectly as instructed by the recipe, all the while oblivious to a single thing about Denty’s malicious compound. The secret was in the very blueprint of a machine, and yet no perception of it could be found. 

And so the secret lived on, for 42 more years, before dying in a bath on a Tuesday reading a book titled: “Unbloomed Lotus: What to do!”. And with that, Avaline Denty, a human pioneer, was thrown off the human plane into her abyss, grieved by a world who eventually, and quickly made due with her leftovers. 

II

Fast forward four hundred years to the life of Dr. R. Calamari. 

Born forty eight years prior, Dr. Calamari at its current date, is a pioneer and innovator within the re-emerging field of “Soma Therapy”. After its hundred year stagnation in terms of principles , practices and research, Calamari began his new outline of Soma therapy. Writing and publishing books establishing its principles and beliefs, the myriad of equipment he made and used, and not to mention the six volume, in total two thousand page work on the particular relations between sizes, shapes,textures, and activities of the body and their research-proved personality correlates. For instance, here is a redacted example from Volume 4, page 247: 

                                                            R. Calamari

                                 

Appendage/Organ: 

Lower Lip

Size: Redacted 

Shape: Redacted 

Anomaly features: Redacted 

Extra information: Redacted 

Sketch: 

Redacted

Personality Correlate: Thoughtfulness (1 Variant); Compassionate (2 Variant )

Link to other Appendages: 

Nose (pg. 203); Eyes (pg. 104); arm (pg. 410)

Pg. 247

The entire premise of this therapeutic model is based firmly, according to Dr. Calamari in psychological “lacks” that can then be substituted, or “surrogated” with corporeal “fills”. The body was therefore not only an expression for mind, but also our greatest source of personality construction and interpretation. The good doctor wrote and published various theories describing and explaining this relationship. However, his greatest source of influence was his emphasis on the dual-part Soma Therapy model, specifically the first part. This half stated that with enough genuine dialogue between client and practitioner, with sufficient elaboration of psychological “lacks”, each client could then express, with surprisingly accurate description , the ideal, or “pinnacle” as it was called by Calamari, of their own personality. Phase two, with its own depth of research and experimentation would then surrogate the psychological “lacks” with corporeal “fills” in order to mitigate and augment various personality characteristics to mimic, or “surrogate”  that person’s pinnacle. Again it should be noted that this personality “pinnacle” could actually be conceived via the rearrangement of the body because, to put it rather dully, the Self now used the body as a source of interpretation for far more than blank sensations. This was the new epistemology. Traits, attitudes, inclinations, even some types of values could all now be conceived via the appearance of the body. How strange! How beyond belief! But yet, this is what humanity believed, and even worse, they acted on it! : 

• The presence of spiritual investigation: GONE 

• Mind’s discernment of itself independent of its own most physical form (The body): ALMOST GONE 

• Emphasis in society on mental cultivation on values, activities, beliefs and perceptions: HOMOLOGOUS WITH THE STATUS OF THE  BODY 

Indeed, this was the new state of affairs for the world. Mind in skin. And so too, the good doctor, with his innumerate number of Weather Unfetterers littered about his laboratory, became product and victim of the same system responsible for his livelihood. The tragic fate of many! Five hundred years ago, maybe he could have been a biochemist, or a philosophy professor at Uni, or even a poet expounding the beauty of nature. But no— that would never happen. It could never happen. The world was as it was and R. Calamari’s mind was structured as it was. No past history, no future destination could ever suggest an alternate trajectory. 

But recently, a new trajectory would take light. Despite his well maintained appearance to the public, Dr. Calamari was too , just like transformation from human to ape, beginning to experience some unique changes to his Bodythought. His knowledge remained, his obsession remained, yet there were new fantasies, new obsessions that were just now taking position to tango in that cranium of his. The good doctor was, as modern science would have called it, on the cliffs edge of a full fledged psychotic break. This break, however, unlike the breaks of four hundred years ago, not only brought the good doctor to the lowest rungs of obsession, chaos and delusion, but also to the briefest artifacts of lucidity and “truth” wholly forgotten to the human race. Here was a snippet of  its outcome in the BodyThought of Doctor Rayk Calamari: 

III

“Christ, hand me the scalpel already.”

But Proteus wasn’t there. 

“I guess I’ll just get it myself. Just wait till I catch you and make you cough up your answers.”

Disgusting . What else am I supposed to do? He’ll be coming back. He’ll see the lack of progress. Not to mention my own dissatisfaction! The mirror was relentless. I found that out the hard way doing self- instrumentalization. It was always the hardest part, reflecting yourself back before completion. But forget it. Proteus demands. That damn sea god! Stick to Greece! But he’s also right: corporeal form must be perfected. Why do I even have ideas posing incredulity to the body? It’s the nose. Or maybe the hand. Yes! The hand. I must fill it. HA! But now let’s focus here on our main attraction.

Dr. Calamari was now inserting a soma-instrument into the lower right quadrant of his lip, causing himself to bleed profusely. A voice echoed from behind his work station. 

“How deficient in contrast to your pinnacle, ol Ryke!—Weakling!!…

But keep going, yes, oh yes you are close.

Maybe just one more?

You're doing fantastic work here doctor….

I believe in your metamorphosis more than all those other fools…

A man of science and Bodythought!” 

And there he was, that perverse fish. 

And Indeed, the good doctor was correct, here he was, the deity known to Ancient Greece as Proteus , the sea god, the transmuter of forms, Dr. Calamari’s most recent self- conceived hallucination, now laying on his operating table. 

The practice used to be so simple. The principles even simpler! But now, what a fucking mess 

I’ve made of it! No..no.no.no.no. 

Not a mess!! A cleaning! Yes! A cleanse! Ha! The purity was simply never there. But now I am entering new green fields! Or should I say..hehehe.. pink! He set the instrument down. This lip configuration certainly adds up! I appear looking into the broken mirror, devoted! Courageous! That damn Proteus, sea god or not, doesn’t dictate me. Choose your damn oceans and I’ll c h o o s e  myself! I will reach my pinnacle, with or without him. The delusions of others doesn’t depend on my flesh, only their perceptions of it, delusions or not. So goodbye! 

I looked down, now seeing the red ink dripping off my face and coagulating into a pool on the floor. Welll…I answered:

“There are two routes”: 

1. HEAL

2. BEGIN NEXT THERAPY SESSION

Upon the lip being completed and “ filling the lack”, I certainly feel more like myself. Yippee!! More kind, more friendly, I look beautiful and compassionate! Of course exactly what the research had indicated. It’s never really about the traits though is it? It’s the organization! The ability to mix face together with legs and feet! Order. That is my cause and effect. Pinnacle this, pinnacle that, maybe it helps other people, but how deluded are other people really? 

“Where is their spirit?” 

My god why am I saying these things. What spirit?

Wait, yes. A procedure. That is what I must do. I cannot wait. 

And there he was again, Proteus, blue as can be, holding that tacky looking trident again. 

Blah! Blah! Blah! There he goes again justifying my actions. Ha! Tell a human right from wrong will ya non-human? 

Ow! The pain on my temple insinuated that my arm had just hit it. That looked angry! Was I angry? Or maybe regretful? 

Ah! I should be more appreciative of Proteus, he’s just trying to help. He was the one who sent me on this mission after all. When nobody else believed, there he was, telling me how noble my pursuit was. 

Waitt… was it I or he who came up with this idea? 

No matter! He sounded my convictions and ultimately manifested the content state I was now in! I was not unhappy after all! 

Bleh! What a blessing and a curse. Oh how self-creation is as much a burden as it is a catharsis! 

Maybe just one more operation! The flesh around the eyes! How important! The eyes reveal everything. This was how the research was mapped out to end: with the eyes. The pinnacle was quite close with the lip maneuver. I just don’t feel exactly myself yet! That’s the goal isn’t it? To look like myself? I must look like myself to feel like myself.  

But I know how close I am. That is what Proteus keeps saying, how close I am. I think the last one will do. Yes! 

Option 2 

Proceed with operation. 

The eyes will be perfect, devoid of blemish. That will be the apex of my pinnacle. A body finally fulfilled and thus a person. All the research, all the correlations, they will reach their sum total. It was never for nothing. That is what the sea god has been trying to tell me. The last one! Proteus don’t hold me back now! I’ve finally attuned our desires. How will you do without me? My craving is yours after all isn’t it? 

He waited but with no response. 

The blood came in waves. Pulsations wrestled from the stitches in my arms, legs, mouth, torso, any appendage you could conceive. But it doesn’t matter, the healing. I have become embarrassed by my own ideal, and yet I still continue onward! Tell that to human freedom! “I am no longer Bodythought!” 

The scalpel now held in his forefingers, standing in front of his favorite broken mirror. 

“I am no longer Bodythought because I have found a mind that does not betray its limits,  something beyond physical form. Perhaps my dissatisfaction was but another part of the satisfied whole… And yet even if this operation kills me without any retribution of skin for reward, I will perform it simply as an act of my own incorporeality!” 

And so it went, despite the pain, despite the threat of death, the good doctor traversed onward, carving into the flesh around his eyes to produce the greatest contradiction known to himself,  and humanity as a whole. But Calamari did not die,  nor did his hallucinations of Proteus ever return. He woke up three days later, surrounded in blood, miraculously removed from his psychotic stupor. And as it would turn out, he had also been relinquished of the influence by the Weather Unfetterers molecules. He had returned to a state of cognition known not by human beings for the past four hundred years. For the first time in his life, he had felt shame. A sense of shame directed towards something that was wholly invisible. Albeit, upon looking into the mirror at the abhorrent mutilation he had delusionally weaved into his own body, he was certainly disgusted, but not by what he saw in the mirror. It was what he could never see in the mirror that disgusted him so deeply. It was the invisible actor hidden behind the curtain of an entire life of physical form. This was a feeling ubiquitously unknown to mankind. Dr. Calamari had returned this artifact to its rightful home within himself and the light of  human consciousness. 

He stood in the mirror, disgusted, perplexed, confused, uncertain to all the future possibilities of Mind A N D body,  and with a shrug of the shoulders, laughed himself to tears. 

The End.