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It is worth trying to discover, as I currently am, how many properties of inquiry can be derived from the simple fact that it needs to be able to apply to itself.  I find three main ways to approach this issue, the problem of inquiry's self-application, or the question of its reflexivity:

It is worth trying to discover, as I currently am, how many properties of inquiry can be derived from the simple fact that it needs to be able to apply to itself.  I find three main ways to approach the problem of inquiry's self-application, or the question of inquiry's reflexivity:

# One way attempts to continue the derivation in the manner of a necessary deduction, perhaps by reasoning in the following vein:  If self-application is a property of inquiry, then it is sensible to inquire into the concept of application that makes this conceivable, and not just conceivable, but potentially fruitful.

 

# One way attempts to continue the derivation in the manner of a necessary deduction, perhaps by reasoning in the following vein:  If self-application is a property of inquiry, then it is sensible to inquire into the concept of application that could make this conceivable, and not just conceivable, but potentially fruitful.

# Another way breaks off the attempt at a deductive development and puts forth a full-scale model of inquiry, one that has enough plausibility to be probated in the court of experience and enough specificity to be tested in the context of self-application.

# Another way breaks off the attempt at a deductive development and puts forth a full-scale model of inquiry, one that has enough plausibility to be probated in the court of experience and enough specificity to be tested in the context of self-application.

# The last way is a bit ambivalent in its indications, seeking as it does both the original unity and the ultimate synthesis at one and the same time.  Perhaps it goes toward reversing the steps that lead up to this juncture, marking it down as an impasse, chalking it up as a learning experience, or admitting the failure of the imagined distinction to make a difference in reality.  Whether this form of egress is interpreted as a backtracking correction or as a leaping forward to the next level of integration, it serves to erase the distinction between demonstration and exploration.

# The last way is a bit ambivalent in its indications, seeking as it does both the original unity and the ultimate synthesis at one and the same time.  Perhaps it goes toward reversing the steps that lead up to this juncture, marking it down as an impasse, chalking it up as a learning experience, or admitting the failure of the imagined distinction to make a difference in reality.  Whether this form of egress is read as a backtracking correction or as a leaping forward to the next level of integration, it serves to erase the distinction between demonstration and exploration.

Without a clear sense of how many properties of inquiry are necessary consequences of its self-application and how many are merely accessory to it, or even whether some contradiction still lies lurking within the notion of reflexivity, I have no choice but to follow all three lines of inquiry wherever they lead, keeping an eye out for the synchronicities, the constructive collusions and the destructive collisions that may happen to occur among them.

Without a clear sense of how many properties of inquiry are necessary consequences of its self-application and how many are merely accessory to it, or even whether some contradiction still lies lurking within the notion of reflexivity, I have no choice but to follow all three lines of inquiry wherever they lead, keeping an eye out for the synchronicities, the constructive collusions and the destructive collisions that may happen to occur among them.

The fictions that one introduces to shore up a shaky account of experience can often be discharged at a later stage of development, gradually replacing them with primitive elements of less and less dubious characters.  Hypostases and hypotheses, the creative terms and the inventive propositions that one invokes to account for otherwise ineffable experiences, are tokens that are subject to a later account.  Under recurring examination, many such tokens are found to be ciphers, marks that no one will miss if they come to be cancelled out altogether.  The symbolic currencies that tend to survive lend themselves to being exchanged for stronger and more settled constructions, in other words, for concrete definitions and explicit demonstrations, gradually leading to primitive elements of more and more durable utilities.

The fictions that one devises to shore up a shaky account of experience can often be discharged at a later stage of development, gradually coming to be replaced with primitive elements of less and less dubious characters.  Hypostases and hypotheses, the creative terms and the inventive propositions that one coins to account for otherwise ineffable experiences, are tokens that are subject to a later account.  Under recurring examination, many such tokens are found to be ciphers, marks that no one will miss if they are canceled out altogether.  The symbolic currencies that tend to survive lend themselves to being exchanged for stronger and more settled constructions, in other words, for concrete definitions and explicit demonstrations, gradually leading to primitive elements of more and more durable utilities.

=====1.3.5.4. A Forged Bond=====

=====1.3.5.4. A Forged Bond=====