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| | the availability of middle terms is otherwise restricted, can it happen that | | the availability of middle terms is otherwise restricted, can it happen that |
| | these processes become deterministic. | | these processes become deterministic. |
| − | </pre>
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| − |
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| − | =====1.3.5.3. A Fork in the Road=====
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| − |
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| − | <pre>
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| − | | On "logical semblance" -- The concepts "individual" and "species"
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| − | | equally false and merely apparent. "Species" expresses only the
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| − | | fact that an abundance of similar creatures appear at the same
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| − | | time and that the tempo of their further growth and change is
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| − | | for a long time slowed down, so actual small continuations
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| − | | and increases are not very much noticed (-- a phase of
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| − | | evolution in which the evolution is not visible, so
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| − | | an equilibrium seems to have been attained, making
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| − | | possible the false notion that a goal has been
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| − | | attained -- and that evolution has a goal --).
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| − | |
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| − | | (Nietzsche, 'The Will to Power', S 521, 282).
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| − |
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| − | It is worth trying to discover, as I currently am, how many properties of inquiry
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| − | can be derived from the simple fact that it needs to be able to apply to itself.
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| − | I find three main ways to approach the problem of inquiry's self-application,
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| − | or the question of inquiry's reflexivity:
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| − |
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| − | 1. One way attempts to continue the derivation in the manner of a
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| − | necessary deduction, perhaps by reasoning in the following vein:
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| − | If self-application is a property of inquiry, then it is sensible
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| − | to inquire into the concept of application that could make this
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| − | conceivable, and not just conceivable, but potentially fruitful.
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| − |
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| − | 2. Another way breaks off the attempt at a deductive development and puts forth
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| − | a full-scale model of inquiry, one that has enough plausibility to be probated
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| − | in the court of experience and enough specificity to be tested in the context
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| − | of self-application.
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| − |
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| − | 3. The last way is a bit ambivalent in its indications, seeking as it does
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| − | both the original unity and the ultimate synthesis at one and the same
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| − | time. Perhaps it goes toward reversing the steps that lead up to this
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| − | juncture, marking it down as an impasse, chalking it up as a learning
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| − | experience, or admitting the failure of the imagined distinction to
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| − | make a difference in reality. Whether this form of egress is read
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| − | as a backtracking correction or as a leaping forward to the next
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| − | level of integration, it serves to erase the distinction between
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| − | demonstration and exploration.
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| − |
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| − | Without a clear sense of how many properties of inquiry are necessary
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| − | consequences of its self-application and how many are merely accessory
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| − | to it, or even whether some contradiction still lies lurking within the
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| − | notion of reflexivity, I have no choice but to follow all three lines of
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| − | inquiry wherever they lead, keeping an eye out for the synchronicities,
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| − | the constructive collusions and the destructive collisions that may
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| − | happen to occur among them.
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| − |
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| − | The fictions that one devises to shore up a shaky account of experience
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| − | can often be discharged at a later stage of development, gradually coming
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| − | to be replaced with primitive elements of less and less dubious characters.
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| − | Hypostases and hypotheses, the creative terms and the inventive propositions
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| − | that one coins to account for otherwise ineffable experiences, are tokens that
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| − | are subject to a later account. Under recurring examination, many such tokens
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| − | are found to be ciphers, marks that no one will miss if they are cancelled out
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| − | altogether. The symbolic currencies that tend to survive lend themselves to
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| − | being exchanged for stronger and more settled constructions, in other words,
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| − | for concrete definitions and explicit demonstrations, gradually leading to
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| − | primitive elements of more and more durable utilities.
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| | </pre> | | </pre> |