Vocabulary Part 2

“Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt” – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922 (The limits of my language mean the limits of my world)

Meta- (Gr. μετά): The prefix meta comes from the greek preposition  originally meaning “with,” “beyond,” “after” or “among.” Its meaning evolved in different contexts, particularly linguistic, philosophical and technical uses. In the Greek, metá could indicate physical position (before or after) or a change in state. Over time, its use in compound words expanded to convey more abstract concepts, such as self reference or transformation. For instance, the word “metaphysics” comes from ta meta ta physika (Gr.τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά) which means “the thing after physics” which alludes both to the fact that it was Aristotle’s unnamed book after his book called Physics, but also because its subject matter is after or beyond the physics of the material world.

The most important thing to remember with words that have the prefix meta- is that the root word is being transcended. There is something to whatever the root word is that transcends its particulars and tells a universal story about each individual while never being that particular individual. You can think of this in terms of a young girl playing house with a doll and being the “mommy.” What she is doing isn’t acting like her mother, a specific instantiation of mother, but she is acting out the abstract concept of motherhood as such which she learns by watching her mother and maybe other mothers and abstracting out general principles of motherhood which she can then reapply. We can say that the abstract concept of motherhood that the baby is extrapolating from particular instances is the meta-mother which, for all intents and purposes, is the Mother Mary…that which is important about motherhood across all mothers.

Cogito:

The Cogito refers to Renee Descartes’ maxim “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). I want to take a quick moment to explain the almost inexhaustible importance of this statement which so frequently is thrown around casually by people who never really learned why it was important, what it meant and what impact it has had on the world.

Some 35 years after Francis Bacon published his “scientific method,” French philosopher and early scientist Renee Descartes released his book Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) which aimed to establish an indubitable truth on which reality could rest. The project of the meditation begins with Descartes taking as a given that everything he thinks he knows is doubtful. Is the floor stable? Does 2+2=4?  Is there a God? Do objects move? From top to bottom Descartes meditates on a world in which every proposition can be doubted.

At the absolute bottom of everything he comes to the one thing he can’t doubt. Even with the presence of an evil genie who magically would make him think things like 2+2=4 when in reality it isn’t, he cannot be made to doubt that so long as he can think he must, at least in some manner, exist.

From the act of thinking, Descartes concludes that he exists at the very least as a thinking thing (Lt. res cogitans). The Cogito is not a logical inference like a syllogism, but an immediate and self-evident intuition. The moment one thinks, one is certain of his existence at least as res cogitans.

What the Cogito does for Descartes is provide an Archimedean point which is absolutely immune to skepticism and lays the groundwork for Descartes’ mind-body dualism distinguishing the thinking self from the physical self. This marks the turn towards both modern philosophy and science (which, at this point, was the study of Alchemy and Natural Philosophy which we will talk more about when we get to a deeper analysis of Jung).

Descartes feels that if he can make a proposition which is a logical inference from the fact that the mind necessarily exists, then that inference would be on stable ground and he could move away from his doubt and skepticism. From this point he proceeds to ground knowledge, starting with mathematical knowledge, into the self making the individual consciousness the anchor that holds all knowledge together.

In emphasizing individual consciousness and rationality as the basis for knowledge as such, he not only gives birth to modern philosophy and science but he changes the epistemological landscape in a way that we are still very much under the sway of. Later on this emphasis on the individual subject broken away from broader existential or social constraints is something that Nietzsche and Heidegger will hold him to task on. But that will come several hundred years later and even with that it is still felt lingering over the epistemological framework of the west to this day.

Subsidiarity:

Subsidiarity is the principle of organization that emphasizes that decision making responsibilities should be handled at the most local or immediate level possible, rather than by a centralized authority. The idea holds that higher-level entities (governments, large corporations, communities) cannot adequately address issues themselves and even if they could they would rob individuals of their agency in doing so.

It is an idea that springs from the understanding that the degenerate nature of a tyranny needs to be avoided and that by  placing power into a series of increasingly higher levels of responsibility and authority, instead of consolidation into a single hand, individuals as well as societies can grow, both tyranny and chaos can be avoided, and a balance of culture and nature achieved.

The original idea comes from the book of Exodus where Jethro, Moses’ father in law, suggests to Moses that by adjudicating all the disputes of the Israelites himself he is going to both wear himself out and set himself up as just a replacement Pharaoh. The suggestion turns into something like groups of ten having a leader. Then ten groups of ten electing a leader. Then ten groups of ten groups electing a leader. From there, authority, problems and decision making go to the next step up and only some very small problems ever get all the way to Moses himself.

In Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931) the Catholic Church officially adopted subsidiarity as a Catholic social teaching, but its use in secular contexts such as governance and corporate management is widespread.

By encouragement of local authority with multiple levels of higher intervention possible not only are the catastrophic results of centralized authority mitigated but individuals are given the chance to exercise responsibility.

Mamalian Play Circuit:

The mammalian play circuit is a neural system in the brain that drives playful behavior and is essential for social, cognitive and physical development in all mammals, humans included. It is one of the seven primary emotional systems identified by Jaak Panksepp in his book Affective Neuroscience.

The circuit is a subcortical brain system whcih generates the urge for playful activities such as rough-and-tumble play. It’s evolutionarily concerned across mammals, promoting behaviors that help animals learn social rules, develop physical skills and build emotional resilience.

The play circuit involves several brain regions and neurotransmitters including the thalamus and the cortex (the parafascicular thalamus and somatosensory cortex process sensory inputs during play like touch or movement which makes activities like wrestling rewarding owing to the production of dopamine and serotonin).  Also, the play circuit involves the striatum and basal ganglia which regulate motor patterns and reward anticipation, driving the repetitive, joyous movements in play. The play circuit also involves the periaqueductal gray (PAG) whcih modulates emotional responses ensuring play feels safe and pleasurable.

Why is this important? We need to be able to recognize that there is knowledge (some might argue most knowledge) which is embodied into us on our biological platform and, since evolution is a conservatory force, these circuits which date to some 200-300 million years ago are so deeply enmeshed into our bodies that it is often the case that we (mammals) show an embodied and emergent morality which arises from the neurological realities of the brain and show common in all mammals.

Pantha rhei (Gr. πάντα ῥεῖ):

Pantha Rhei, “everything flows” or “all things are in flux” encapsulates the idea that change is the fundamental essence of the universe. This idea was first put forth by 5th Century Ephesian philosopher Heraclitus who argued that everything in existence — nature, people, societies and even ideas — is in a continuous process of transformation. There is nothing which remains static.

Heraclitus further argues that all stability is merely an illusion and what seems permanent is only a snapshot of an ever-changing process. Heraclitus believed that change arises from the tension between opposites like hot and cold or life and death which drives the dynamic flow of existence and is governed by the logos.