greenfairy
philosopher wood nymph
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Well I'm in the process of writing it all down as a philosophical document, so I can't do it all here. Probably nothing you don't already know. But it's all centered around balance. Everything points to it.
Here's a cool little thing from chemistry. Spontaneous processes go in the direction of the greatest entropy, or randomness. To cause a nonspontaneous reaction, work and energy must be applied. This is a basic underlying process, and reflects the principles of balance and harmony. Chaos (high entropy) is the state of both death and creation. The universe and life goes through cycles of order and chaos, each time rearranging itself in different ways. A billion different permutations of reality. Everything works in cycles, in macrocosm and microcosm. The principle of balance works in macrocosm and microcosm, of general to specific. The way this process relates to humans is the following.
We are constantly in different situations. No 2 moments will be exactly the same. Each point in time will have similar situations, but different circumstances. The universe was in a different arrangement. It is a cycle.
Life requires a delicate balance in its environment to survive. I survives within a certain range of air pressure, temperature, and gravitational force; it needs a certain amount of water in the body, a certain range of pH, a certain balance of chemical compounds and elements. Life depends on balance.
Life needs a certain amount of order to survive, on the basic molecular level; we need gravity and air pressure to keep our molecules from floating off into space.
Order and disorder, balance and imbalance exist on a spectrum. On the end of extreme order, life ceases to exist because life exists through change. The environment changes all the time, and life must adapt. Life is movement, and rigid order limits movement (like molecules in a solid state- there are no life forms which exist as complete solids). On the end of extreme disorder life ceases to exist, because we have no bodily structure, and our environments are so chaotic the necessary balance is upset. In death, our bodies decay and go back to a state of entropy (a spontaneous process, with the lack of work our cells had been doing).
So since we can't have complete chaos or order to survive, we must have a balance.
Here we have several principles:
The universe is cyclical.
It goes through cycles of order and chaos.
(When we have relatively equal portions of the two we have balance, when one is greater than the other we have imbalance.)
It goes through cycles of balance and imbalance.
Life requires balance to survive.
A balanced state with change within it, where life thrives is an example of another chemical principle- dynamic equilibrium.
LeChatelier's principle states: If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, volume, or partial pressure, then the equilibrium shifts to counteract the imposed change and a new equilibrium is established.
This principle can be applied more generally to systems of life(forms): If a system at equilibrium (in balance) experiences a change, then the system will shift to counteract that change until (a new) balance is restored.
If we apply this to the environments humans have created for themselves, shaping the environment takes work and energy. Otherwise entropy and chaos would ensue. Thus, it takes energy and work for humans to create and maintain balance with each other, preserving the greatest amount of life.
We can infer that life, in order to perpetuate itself, is driven by nature to consciously go in the direction of balance. (Unconsciously we become more random, thus necessitating this effort.) This is what people are attempting to describe when they talk about ethics. Ethics is the study of how to create and maintain balance for the purpose of preserving life.
Obviously there is no one right way since I have already said that no 2 situations are exactly alike, and will involve different individuals. Most of the time this will just happen, if people go toward their personal well being, since groups are made up of individuals. But if each of us strives for balance, then based on some of the underlying principles of reality we should have results we like, which are consistent with our well being.
And the last point. If one wants to find "meaning" in human existence, look at the patterns in history. History is a cycle of disharmony and harmony. The process of creating harmony through balance is a learning process and increases consciousness. So the purpose of human existence is to learn. A human learns throughout its life (and must in order to survive), and the pattern could be expanded to the more general. Since each situation is unique, each of us and each group has the opportunity to learn balance and harmony in a different way. History goes through cycles of gradually increasing in consciousness, and then forgetting, then learning it all again. I believe each cycle is slightly different. We spiral up, then spiral down again.
This part I can't prove, as it is more mystical. But almost every ancient pagan society, from the Mayans to the Egyptians to the Hindus, has some form of this belief. It's ancient wisdom. You can choose to accept it or not, but since it's based on cycles and patterns in reality, it is probably as real as anything could get. (This is how ancient people learned before modern science- they looked at patterns and principles, then applied them to microcosms and macrocosms.
Here's a cool little thing from chemistry. Spontaneous processes go in the direction of the greatest entropy, or randomness. To cause a nonspontaneous reaction, work and energy must be applied. This is a basic underlying process, and reflects the principles of balance and harmony. Chaos (high entropy) is the state of both death and creation. The universe and life goes through cycles of order and chaos, each time rearranging itself in different ways. A billion different permutations of reality. Everything works in cycles, in macrocosm and microcosm. The principle of balance works in macrocosm and microcosm, of general to specific. The way this process relates to humans is the following.
We are constantly in different situations. No 2 moments will be exactly the same. Each point in time will have similar situations, but different circumstances. The universe was in a different arrangement. It is a cycle.
Life requires a delicate balance in its environment to survive. I survives within a certain range of air pressure, temperature, and gravitational force; it needs a certain amount of water in the body, a certain range of pH, a certain balance of chemical compounds and elements. Life depends on balance.
Life needs a certain amount of order to survive, on the basic molecular level; we need gravity and air pressure to keep our molecules from floating off into space.
Order and disorder, balance and imbalance exist on a spectrum. On the end of extreme order, life ceases to exist because life exists through change. The environment changes all the time, and life must adapt. Life is movement, and rigid order limits movement (like molecules in a solid state- there are no life forms which exist as complete solids). On the end of extreme disorder life ceases to exist, because we have no bodily structure, and our environments are so chaotic the necessary balance is upset. In death, our bodies decay and go back to a state of entropy (a spontaneous process, with the lack of work our cells had been doing).
So since we can't have complete chaos or order to survive, we must have a balance.
Here we have several principles:
The universe is cyclical.
It goes through cycles of order and chaos.
(When we have relatively equal portions of the two we have balance, when one is greater than the other we have imbalance.)
It goes through cycles of balance and imbalance.
Life requires balance to survive.
A balanced state with change within it, where life thrives is an example of another chemical principle- dynamic equilibrium.
LeChatelier's principle states: If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, volume, or partial pressure, then the equilibrium shifts to counteract the imposed change and a new equilibrium is established.
This principle can be applied more generally to systems of life(forms): If a system at equilibrium (in balance) experiences a change, then the system will shift to counteract that change until (a new) balance is restored.
If we apply this to the environments humans have created for themselves, shaping the environment takes work and energy. Otherwise entropy and chaos would ensue. Thus, it takes energy and work for humans to create and maintain balance with each other, preserving the greatest amount of life.
We can infer that life, in order to perpetuate itself, is driven by nature to consciously go in the direction of balance. (Unconsciously we become more random, thus necessitating this effort.) This is what people are attempting to describe when they talk about ethics. Ethics is the study of how to create and maintain balance for the purpose of preserving life.
Obviously there is no one right way since I have already said that no 2 situations are exactly alike, and will involve different individuals. Most of the time this will just happen, if people go toward their personal well being, since groups are made up of individuals. But if each of us strives for balance, then based on some of the underlying principles of reality we should have results we like, which are consistent with our well being.
And the last point. If one wants to find "meaning" in human existence, look at the patterns in history. History is a cycle of disharmony and harmony. The process of creating harmony through balance is a learning process and increases consciousness. So the purpose of human existence is to learn. A human learns throughout its life (and must in order to survive), and the pattern could be expanded to the more general. Since each situation is unique, each of us and each group has the opportunity to learn balance and harmony in a different way. History goes through cycles of gradually increasing in consciousness, and then forgetting, then learning it all again. I believe each cycle is slightly different. We spiral up, then spiral down again.
This part I can't prove, as it is more mystical. But almost every ancient pagan society, from the Mayans to the Egyptians to the Hindus, has some form of this belief. It's ancient wisdom. You can choose to accept it or not, but since it's based on cycles and patterns in reality, it is probably as real as anything could get. (This is how ancient people learned before modern science- they looked at patterns and principles, then applied them to microcosms and macrocosms.
