0021 Of course, Heidegger would (if he could) return the insult, by calling Rorty a liberal propagandist.
After all, Rorty is not concerned with questions of truth3V, preferring issues concerning social consequences3H.
0022 Plus, Heidegger (if he could) would have regarded the imprisonment of Rorty and other social democratic philosophers as a matter of “petty details”.
Petty details?
In Heidegger’s view, the West has exhausted its options1H. And, proof comes later in the title of Rorty’s book, Contingency, Irony and Solidarity. Are these options? Or, are they signs of exhaustion? Compare that title to Being and Time.
0023 The squishiness of the former title is made worse when Rorty’s dichotomy of choice, private versus public, appears to align with the potentials of good1V and options1H, respectively. Is truth3V private? Is reality3V public? If so, then I ask, “Are these affirmations the poisonous fruits of the Treaty of Westphalia?” The Treaty of Westphalia marks the start of the modern era, almost four hundred years ago.
Perhaps, Rorty inadvertently testifies to Heidegger’s proposition. The West has exhausted its options1H. Politics2 is the intersection of the actualities of reality3H and truth3V, arising from the potential of viable options1H and good1V. Without a good1V, there are no options1H. So, politics2 is dead. But, our love (philo-) of wisdom (-sophy) endures. So, it is only a matter of time before politics2 rises again.
Shout it from the rooftops!
Politics2 is dead. Long live politics2.
0024 My thanks to Michael Millerman for his excellent chapter into how Rorty views Heidegger, chapter three in Beginning with Heidegger: Strauss, Rorty, Derrida and Dugin and the Philosophical Constitution of the Political (2020, Arktos Press, London), pages 97-134.
0001 The Grammy Awards Ceremony is broadcast February 5, 2023. Sam Smith and Kim Petras win the grammy in the category of Best Pop Duo or Group Performance for their song, “Unholy”. Their grammy performance quickly goes viral, with many Christian podcasters dubbing the performance… say nothing of the ceremony… “Satanic”.
To wit, I now examine the official video for this song (not the Grammy performance) for the unholy message that the song sends. My conclusion is that the moniker, “Satanic”, may apply. But, so does the word, “political”. This music video spins an artistic message, at once cryptic and revealing. I strive to delineate this message, using the methodology of the category-based nested form.
0002 This music video is an actuality.
According to A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form (available at smashwords and other e-work venues), in order to understand (or appreciate) an actuality2, one must figure out its normal context3 and potential1. So, this is what I intend to do. My determination of normal contexts3 and potentials1 is purely speculative. Do not take them as judgment or doctrine.
I start with a guess. The normal context3 is politics. The potential1 is for ‘something Satanic to be exposed’. Thus, the normal context of politics3 brings the pop-music video, “unholy”2, into relation with the possibilities inherent in ‘an exposure of something Satanic’1. Maybe, Satan shows his plans for the future. Who knows?
Here is a picture.
Figure 01
0003 Politics?
The song is released on September 22, 2022, six weeks before the November midterm elections in the USA. The November 8, 2022, elections occur at the time of a lunar eclipse.
0004 So, I suspect that politics3 includes astrology3.
Several astrological squares and oppositions are in play on September 22, 2022. Here is a picture of some of them.
Figure 02
0005 The Saturn-Uranus square is at the top of the list, since it dominates the last half of 2021 and almost all of 2022, including the span from September through November. In the following figure, a zodiac sign is the normal context3, a planet is the actuality2, and the potential pertains to the astrological characteristics of such an arragement1. When two planets are at right angles to one another, it is almost as if they work at cross purposes.
Here is a picture.
Figure 03
0006 So, the release date offers clues to the potential of ‘stellar arrangements’1. Whatever Satan is preparing, it is simultaneously a cold calculation and a steaming pile of manure.
0007 Speaking of cold calculations, the video begins.
A woman in white gets out of a car. Is she the daemon of the American Democratic Party? What is a white woman? A woman who has abandoned Jesus and found… shall I say?… someone willing to put a warm coat of manufactured virtueupon her? She is obviously highly educated. She is well manicured. As he goes to park the car, she enters the foyer. She reaches into her pocket and lifts out a playbill (an official narrative) and a condom from the Body Shop (protection, of sorts).
0008 Here is a diagram of the first of five movements in the video itself.
Figure 04
0009 Well, isn’t that the way the music video starts?
Biden is a good looking man. He drives the car and parks it at the Body Shop. He has been there before. He knows the price of things. The lyrics mention daddy. Daddy Biden. Shall I call him Biden Joe? Biden goes up the stairs and passes the whores of various nations. Can I make out China, Iran and Ukraine? Miss Ukraine devours the blossoming youth of her nation.
Biden Joe is tempted. And, he knows how to play the game.
Figure 05
0010 Someone pulls on Biden Joe’s tie. Then, a vision captures his gaze. Biden is in a booth, overlooking a theater. He engages two active parties (Ukraine and China?), in pay for play. Biden sees Biden. Joe observes Hunter. Both are the same person.
Say what?
0011 Suddenly, Sam Smith, perched in a balcony seat in the theater of the Body Shop, captures the viewer’s gaze then hurtles it towards the blue center-stage, where Kim Petras descends upon a swing in the shape of a heart. Her madonna-like visage lands on the top of an automobile. American, no doubt. Biden Hunter is in the back seat, in full erotic rutting. He has what it takes to satisfy the material girl. He is in deep doo-doo (English, for “fumier”).
Figure 06
0012 In the fourth movement, Biden is spent and on display, mimicking the Hangman of the Tarot Cards. The Hangman card is often interpreted as the potential of an unusual revelation. Here, the revelation is compromising. Biden is exposed (on top of the car, for all to see) as who he is (a load of manure, for all to smell).
Figure 07
0013 The drama is not over.
The spent handsome man, simultaneously the daddy and the man-child, lays on stage as completely revealed to an American public as a liar and a cheat. It is written on the car. The entire dance troupe awaits the next moment. The audience in the theater (perhaps, the mavens of corporate media) applaud. What a performance!
Then, the white woman walks up the aisle towards the stage. Who knows how she got there? But, she is there to render a judgment. She steps on stage and observes the prone corpse of her man, in a pure Saturn-square-Uranus pose of cold calculation looking upon someone who could not keep his business clean.
She turns and faces the audience.
She has a choice.
0014 Here, we see the crux. Here, we see the materialization of ‘something’ that Satan wishes to be revealed. It is all about choice.
Does the white woman, a key demographic that remains wedded to the Democratic Party, repudiate the man that she was led to believe in, and embrace the perverse machinations of the Body Shop, the apparatus for the temptation of the father and for the corruption of the son?
Or, does she repent?
0015 Here is the message.
Figure 08
0016 The curtain falls. But, there is one small issue. A foot of the corpse remains on display, indicating that what has been exposed is not for certain. Not even Satan knows the future for certain. Sam Smith and Kim Petras are big fans of the projected outcome. But, the story has only begun.
0017 Now, I recapitulate.
First, I place the work of art under examination into the slot for actuality in a category-based nested form.
Figure 09
0018 I make an initial guess. My guess is informed by Christian podcasters commenting on the Grammy ceremony.
Then , I proceed to imagine the normal context3 and potential1 of various aspects2 (here, movements2 within the drama). Do these cohere with my initial guess? Some will say, “Yes.” Others will say, “No”.
0019 Here is the breakout for the realm of actuality2.
Figure 10
0020 Do these cohere with the realness of the music video?
Yes, these are the actualities2 that I endeavor to put into normal contexts3 and potentials1.
0021 What does this imply?
The astrology of the time of release frames the movements in term of a square between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. The artist pours out a beautiful and captivating music video with two figures represented as one. Yes, that one handsome man, like a bull, is simultaneously Daedalus, who fashions the wings of escape, and Icarus, who uses the wings, fashioned by his father, to fly too close to the Sun. To me, this associates to the contemporary story of Joe and Hunter Biden. Oh, did I mention that Jupiter in Aries is in opposition with the Sun in Libra?
And what of the woman in white?
Does the white woman represent one of the most faithful demographics wed to the Democratic party?
She opens and closes the music video.
0022 Here is the breakout for the realm of normal context3.
Figure 11
0023 What does that imply?
The normal context3 of astrology addresses a post-Christian world. In this pagan world, certain bonds, certain promises, and certain rituals are presumed to be substantial. But they are not. The woman in white lives in a world of pretensions. The playbill recounts an official narrative. And, the condom? That is official, too.
The Body Shop manifests the will to power in the furnishings of materialism. The philosophy of the will to power asks one to pay for entrance into the Body Shop. Daddy is hot. Daddy cannot hide his business. But, he retains restraint. Not so, his son, who is the same as the father. The symbolism of the double is striking. Temptation for the father translates into lust with the son. The father and the son are both out of control. Both are to be exposed and ruined.
Where?
On the stage of the Body Shop.
0024 Where does that leave the white woman?
She faces a choice.
And, that choice reveals ‘something’ Satanic.
Satan dreams that her choice comes to pass.
0025 Here is the breakout for the realm of potential1.
Figure 12
0026 The story of the stars offers a narrative of fate.
In our world of pretensions, playbills offer narratives and condoms offer protection.
From fate?
0027 The Body Shop seals the fate of the one man, who is really two. Daddy wants something to keep himself warm. The son wants someone to cool himself off. But, the selves are no different. They both subscribe to the Body Shop. For them, the choice is already made. Their destiny is certain.
0028 But, is the same fate necessary for the woman?
I don’t think so.
If anything, this advertisement for the Body Shop aims to foreclose any option that prevents the destiny that Satan plans for her.
She has a choice.
Unholy or holy?
Will she signal her manufactured virtue by repudiating her own ruined man, while simultaneously bonding with the unholy Body Shop?
Or, will she mourn the loss of her pretensions, and appeal to the love of God?
0029 I reiterate. These associations and implications are purely speculative. They are to be taken as an act of appreciation, rather than a judgment or a doctrine. My thanks to Sam Smith, Kim Petras, along with their collaborators, for producing this engaging music video. Here is a work of art worth examining.
With that said, I recount my initial guess.
Figure 13
0030 For those interested in trying their own hand at this diagrammatic method of art appreciation, please consult A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form and A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).
Here are some other music videos worth trying the method on.
“I Wanna Get Better” by the Bleachers
“Doom days” by Bastille
“Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance
“This is Gospel” by Panic at the Disco, plus its sequel
“Hi Ren” by Ren
0031 If the reader wants to suggest other music videos worthy of examination using this method, please e-mail Razie Mah at the address that appears in the Primers.
0001 Many home and private schoolers face a difficulty.
They want to teach their children and students about God and nature.
At the same time, they want their children and students to pass standardized tests constructed by government agencies that declare themselves to be “not religious”.
Can a “not religious” sovereign establish a religion?
I like to call this apparent anomaly, “Big Government (il)Liberalism”.
Other names also apply.
0002 Indeed, parents and teachers suspect that the standards… or perhaps, the norms… of these godless educational… er, indoctrinating agencies do not allow a type of thinking that has been common to Christian civilization since its inception. This type of thinking is both analytic and synthetic and is promulgated by the schoolmen (or “scholastics”) of the so-called “Middle Ages”.
As it turns out, scholastic debates concerning mind-independent and mind-dependent reality end up with a definition of sign-relation that incorporates modern science, while at the same time transcending it.
Of course, the mechanical philosophers of the 1600s don’t know this. Modern scientists try to model observations and measurements of phenomena, using their highly specialized disciplinary languages. These models break down into two elements: cause and effect.
But, material and physical cause and effect cannot describe the causality inherent in sign relations.
0003 Surely, there are three elements to all existence.
Charles Peirce (1839-1914 AD) reads Francisco Suarez (1548-1617), a Baroque Scholastic, and comes up with the idea that there are three categories. Firstness has one element. Secondness (which includes mechanical science) has two elements. Thirdness has three. These three categories describe the causality inherent in a sign relation.
These three categories are also the foundation for the category-based nested form.
0004 So, what does this mean to parents and teachers?
None of the government agencies, who declare themselves to be “scientific”, can define the sign as a triadic relation.
So, perhaps that is a good place to start.
0005 Semiotics encompasses the natural sciences, not the other way around.
Teaching your students the analytic and synthetic practices of the category-based nested form and semiotics will prepare them for technology, engineering and mathematics. Science typifies secondness. And, secondness stands between thirdness and firstness.
Say what?
Take a look at the following figure. Even without familiarity with Peirce’s categories, the diagram tells a story concerning the relevance of triadic relations1 in regards to inquiry3 and science2. Understanding is not the same as scientific determination.
Figure 01
0006 What about the social sciences?
I wonder, can modern social scientists observe and measure social phenomena?
Can they model observations of religious behavior, when they describe themselves as “not religious”?
If everyone can be religious and if social scientists choose not to be religious in order to build models of their observations of those who are, then isn’t there some sort of contradiction?
Or, is that the nature of specialization?
Speaking of specialization, sociologists do not study psychology. Psychologists do not study sociology. Plus, sociology and psychology ignore biology. All these disciplines are alchemically sealed within their own academic echo-chambers. They cannot hear one another.
Say what?
0007 The category-based nested form is a triadic relation, that is both synthetic and analytic. It is useful for reading texts. It is a powerful tool for picturing the purely relational characteristics of psychology, sociology, cognition and evolution.
A Course on How to Define the Word “Religion” offers a unique path into topics covered by the so-called “social sciences”, without the blinders of BG(il)L.
Please consider this course when developing a curriculum for your children and your students.
0008 A Course on How To Define The Word “Religion” may be found at smashwords and other e-book vendors. Use the search terms: Razie Mah, series, course, how to define the word “religion”.
The course consists of ten primers, followed by the masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”.
The primers and the masterwork are punctuated, not by page numbers, but by points. A one-hour class may cover around forty points. That is a little slower than one per minute. If you conduct a class, record the number of points covered per session and report to raziemah@reagan.com.
0009 The first five primers are listed below.
Figure 02
0010 These five primersintroduce the category-based nested form, the two-level and three-level interscope, and topics covered by psychology and economics.
0011 The second five primers are listed below.
Figure 03
0012 These five primers introduce tiers, institutions, politics and religion.
The range of applications for the category-based nested form is remarkable.
0013 These ten primers open the door to the masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”.
This masterwork is one of three, covering the entire human evolutionary record.
0014 The method of instruction is to read and discuss. Some points will pass rapidly. Other points will evoke discussion. Don’t worry about timelines. The love of wisdom walks at her own tempo.
0015 The following blogs dwell on each of the ten primers.
Some educators say that evolution should be a key concept in teaching sociology, psychology, and other social sciences.
Yet, the modern social sciences simply take the biological sciences for granted, then mimic the empirio-schematics of the natural sciences. Disciplinary languages bring mathematical and mechanical models into relation with observations and measurements of phenomena.
The modern social sciences ignore human evolution and the mysterious character of the biological sciences.
The modern social sciences embrace empirio-schematics.
0016 Razie Mah proposes that human evolution has three aspects. He writes three masterworks, one for each aspect, as depicted in the following figure.
Figure 04
0017 The third work, How To Define the Word “Religion” covers the character of our current Lebenswelt. Speech-alone talk is one of the defining features of our current Lebenswelt. The spoken word may be pictured as a category-based nested form.
Here is a diagram.
Figure 05
0018 How To Define the Word “Religion” relies on the truly postmodern philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. The word, “postmodern”, is a site of contention, because many modern intellectuals label themselves with the term. What a fashionable attribute. No one wants to be called, “modern”. “Postmodern” is in vogue.
Yet, these self-identified “postmoderns” cannot identify Peirce’s three categories, nor how they fit together. The category of firstness is the realm of possibility. The category of secondness is the realm of actuality. The category of thirdness is the realm of signs, mediations, judgments and normal contexts.
Instead, postmodern academics propose only two categories: their good and political fellow travelers and their evil and despised detractors.
Just kidding.
0019 Peirce’s categories permit the construction of the category-based nested form.
Here is a picture.
Figure 06
0020 Ten primers prepare the student for How To Define the Word “Religion”.
The first is A Primer on the Category-Based Nested Form.
0021 The student?
This course is suitable for freshmen of all stripes, whether in middle school, high school or college.
0022 How so?
Freshmen enter introductory courses.
Freshmen need intellectual tools.
The intellectual tools introduced in these primers are relevant to understanding all three aspects of human evolution: the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, the first singularity and our current Lebenswelt.
0023 Peirce’s categories label the number of elements. Thirdness has three elements. Secondness has two. Firstness has one.
0024 The three elements of thirdness are relation, actuality and potential. Each category is represented in thirdness. Thirdness exhibits the logics of exclusion, alignment and complement.
0025 The two elements of secondness are contiguous. One real element is contiguous with another real element. For nomenclature, I place the contiguity in brackets: one real element [contiguity] other real element. The contiguity has the character of substance, causality, embodiment, information and so forth. Secondness exhibits the logics of contradiction and noncontradiction.
0026 The one element of firstness can be really goofy. Imagine two frames. In one frame, the canvas is covered with the color gray. The other frame holds a painting of a park in Paris in the middle of summer. Both images belong to firstness.
Here is another way to imagine firstness. Picture a coin. One item has two faces. One can only observe one face at a time. Firstness exhibits logics that are inclusive and allow contradictions.
0027 Here is a picture of the nested form. The categories serve as subscripts.
Figure 07
0028 So, what do the covers for the primers, as well as the masterwork, How To Define The Word “Religion”, portray?
Here is the pattern.
Figure 08
0029 Now, back to education.
I appeal to homeschoolers and private schools.
0030 How does one teach the ten primers as well as the masterwork?
The method is easy. Read and discuss. The text is marked with points. Step by step, both instructor and student can walk together and examine each point. Both will learn along the way.
Timing?
Each point takes one to three minutes.
An assessment of class time may be found in day 23 of this blog.
0031 The advantage?
Right now, so-called “public” schools teach the scientific facts of human evolution, according to a Darwinian picture of descent with modification. But, imagine that the facts constitute an actuality2 that will enter into a category-based nested form.
The following nested form results.
Figure 09
Indoctrination asks the student to recite the facts of human evolution2.
Education asks the student to consider the normal context3 and assess the potential1 underlying the facts2.
0033 The second primer covers sensible and social construction.
This primer is a little loopy, because, when sensible construction fails, social construction begins and when social construction ends, sensible construction begins once again.
0034 I proceed by way of example.
Today, in 2022 AD, all books on human evolution weave the fossil record into a seamless garment, starting around two million years ago and ending with paleolithic hunter-gathers.
A sequence of figures depict the actuality2 of descent with modification3.
Figure 10
0035 Descent with modification3a is situated by evolutionary science3b.
Here is a picture of a sensible construction.
Figure 11
0036 Clearly, a situation-level nested form emerges from (and situates) a content-level nested form.
Sensible construction is composed of content and situation levels, in a two-level relational structure.
Of course, some clever comedian adds more figures to the picture of human evolution painted by descent with modification.
The additional features raise a question.
Figure 12
0038 Comedians love to upset the narrative.
Clearly, the fat guy with a beer2a cannot be explained by evolutionary science3b with material and physical models2bbased on natural selection and genetics1b.
Neither can the hunch-back at the computer.
Sensible construction fails.
Figure 13
0039 When sensible construction fails, social construction begins.
A social construction appears within a nested form on the perspective level of a three-level interscope. A three-level interscope is a nested form composed of nested forms.
Figure 14
0040 Well, of course, the guy with the beer does not descend with modification from the guy with a spear. The two guys occupy different living worlds (or, in German, Lebenswelts). The guy with a beer belongs to our current Lebenswelt. The guy with the spear belongs to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
Does this sound vaguely familiar?
Recall that actuality2 represents a dyad composed of two contiguous real elements. Actuality2 looks like this:
one real element [contiguity] other real element
Correspondingly the perspective-level actuality looks like this:
the Lebenswelt that we evolved in [first singularity] our current Lebenswelt2c
0041 Notice that elements of the perspective level are really empty slots.
0042 What is the potential1c?
A perspective-level potential1c virtually brings the potential of natural selection and genetics1b into relation with the potential of both archaeology and history1a.
The potential1c is triadic relations. Triadic relations include signs, mediations, judgments, normal contexts and category-based nested forms. The human niche is the potential of triadic relations1c.
0043 What is the normal context3c?
The normal context3c is not clear. Whatever it3c is, it3c puts evolutionary science3b into perspective, even as evolutionary science3b emerges from and situates the potential of Darwin’s foundational principle of descent with modification3a.
I do not think that the perspective-level normal context3c rules out theology.
If I look back at the original comedy, where the guy with a spear “evolves” into the guy with a beer, I see an intimation of a theocomedy, the humorous counterpoint to our great theodrama.
Human evolution comes with a twist.
0044 Here is a picture of the beginning of a new age of sensible construction.
A nested form is composed a three elements. The subscripts for each element are 1, 2 and 3.
An interscope is composed of three nested forms. The subscripts for each level are a, b and c.
A three-tiered relational structure is composed of three interscopes. The subscripts for each tier are A, B and C.
0046 In some specialized social circles, a three-tiered relational structure is called a “cake”.
Unfortunately, the term, “cake”, applied to the three-tiered relational structure, sounds half-baked.
0047 The individual in communityA is the first tier of this grand relational structure.
The discussion starts with a nested form, as depicted below.
Figure 16
0048 This nested form comes from theology.
A theological question gets raised, “What happens when a person dies?”
A theological answer is provided.
0049 Then, a three-level interscope for the individual in community is constructed by expanding each element of the “partially differentiated” nested form into a “fully differentiated” interscope.
Here is a comparison of the elements of the less differentiated nested form and the virtual nested form in the realm of normal context for the more differentiated interscope.
Figure 17
0050 The normal contexts are key psychological questions.
