Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Harmonizing Evolutionary Convergence

Glossary Menus

causality

I began developing a comprehensive science of causality in 1980 by looking at a printed railway timetable. The ink on the paper provides us with information about times of train departures and arrivals enabling us to plan our journey.

How does it do this? A random scattering of ink particles on the page would not provide any information, even though they would be the same weight as the ink on the timetable. It is able to tell us which train to catch because of the structure and form of the particles.

But these do not activate immediately, like a locomotive. Rather, we introject information into our minds and psyches as concepts, illustrated in the meaning triangle. It is these nonphysical structures that cause us to behave as we do, as forms of energy, helping us to catch our train.

This simple semiotic principle applies to all our learning as intelligent, learning animals. For instance, as I saw in 1980, when crossing a busy road near my apartment, I needed to assess the speed of and distance between cars to determine when it was safe to do so.

Furthermore, the meaningful structures we receive from our external environment are not necessarily conceptual. For instance, listening to a Bach concerto or studying the elegance of the solution to a mathematical puzzle can give much pleasure.

In addition, our inner environment is constantly informing us, as we interpret the data patterns emerging directly from the Datum as knowledge and information, some of which, neither we nor anyone else has ever seen before.

To understand how and why we are creative beings, we need to methodically map the Cosmic Psyche, previously the domain of mystics, rather than scientists. By thereby studying the psychodynamics of Society within the context of evolution as a whole, we can understand why today’s Information Society is being so afflicted by fake news and Internet trolls.

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Etymology

About 1600, ‘that which constitutes a cause’, ‘the relationship of cause to effect’ in 1640s, from causal ‘expressing a cause’ in grammar and logic around 1530s, from Latin causalis ‘relating to a cause’, from causa ‘a cause, reason, motive’, of uncertain origin.

Cause ‘reason or motive for a decision, grounds for action; motive’ entered English about 1200, from Old French cause ‘cause, reason; lawsuit, case in law’ and directly from Latin causa, which also had legal connotations.