"Science, in the sense of knowing everything, cannot restrict itself to objective material, but must also be open to other possibilities of consciousness" (Franklin Merrel-Wolff).
open itself to other possibilities of consciousness" (Franklin Merrel-Wolff).
"Science is on the threshold of a paradigm shift" (Ervin Laszlo).
"A radically different vision is about to open up for science" (Bernard Haisch).
The Concept of Paradigm
The word "paradigm" comes from the Greek (paradeigma) and means "model, pattern or archetype". This was the term used by Thomas Kuhn to refer to a worldview, a vision of the world, a global way of conceiving reality. According to Kuhn, the notion of paradigm plays an essential role in the evolution of science:
A scientific theory is a set or structure of concepts interrelated and united by a common philosophy oriented to substantiate that theory.
Every scientific theory is supported or immersed in a certain vision of the world, a vision associated with the cultural context of a certain period of time. The scientist is not free, but a conceptual prisoner of his time, of his cultural context. And science is not a mere accumulation of knowledge in progression towards truth, since truth is mediated by the prevailing worldview of each epoch.
At a certain moment, the scientific theory is insufficient or inadequate, the paradigm is no longer valid and is replaced by another, producing a revolutionary change and imposing a new conception of the world. The new paradigm replaces the old one because it is incompatible or because it generalizes it. In the latter case, the old paradigm would be a particular case of the new one.
Kuhn's ideas, reflected in his main work, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (1962), are inspired by physical theories, especially the conceptions of Aristotle and Newton. According to Kuhn, Newton's ideas were not superior to those of Aristotle, but simply different, reflecting different times.
Kuhn is considered to be the main representative of "the new philosophy of science". His thought has also influenced history, the social sciences, economics and philosophy in general.
Today we speak of a "paradigm shift" as a change in the way of interpreting reality. We also speak of "dominant paradigm" to refer to the concepts, values and beliefs of a given domain.
The concept of paradigm has been used mainly in physics, computer science and mathematics. In physics, the most representative example of paradigm shift was the emergence of Einstein's theory of special relativity, which generalized Newton's mechanics. Newton's theory was a particular case of Einstein's theory for small velocities compared to the speed of light.
In today's times of great development of computing in general, computers are considered to have had a great impact on our conception of the world. With the Internet, we perceive the world differently. According to Gregory Chaitin, the computer has brought about a paradigm shift.
Currently, in philosophy of science, a modified version of Kuhn's theory is accepted, accepted by Kuhn himself 15 years after his seminal work in "Second Thoughts on Paradigms" (1977). It is a synthesis between two models:
The "gradualist" model. Every scientific theory evolves continuously, cumulatively and progressively, refining and improving detail, but without making major conceptual changes.
The "breakthrough" model. Theory evolves through leaps, discontinuities, major conceptual changes.
The concept of paradigm has been criticized by applying to it the same medicine. Indeed, Kuhn's theory can also be considered a paradigm (actually, a meta-paradigm, i.e., a paradigm that deals with paradigms) because his idea of paradigm was itself paradigmatic, since it implied a change in the way of looking at science. Applying the same philosophy to it, Kuhn's theory (or meta-theory) can also be said to have arisen in a certain temporal and cultural context, so that:
It cannot be claimed that this theory is true.
It is possible that this meta-theory (or meta-paradigm) could be replaced by another meta-theory (i.e., by another meta-paradigm) in the future, by another way of looking at the world.
A Universal Paradigm
Paradigms evolve toward greater abstraction and generality, for the natural tendency of human consciousness is to move toward unification. The final result of this evolutionary process must be a universal paradigm, a universal vision of everything. And not only of science, but of humanism and even of spirituality.
A universal paradigm must be founded from the deepest possible level. This level corresponds to the conjunction of the 4 universal principles:
Principle of descending causality.
Principle of duality.
Dialogical principle.
Principle of economy.
It must also correspond to the synthesis, unification or equivalence of:
Universal semantic primitives.
Philosophical categories.
Primary archetypes.
These primary concepts must be structured in a universal language, which would be:
A philosophical language: the "philosophical language".
It would be an a priori philosophical language. Primitives are concepts established a priori. They are innate and pure concepts of thought.
Traditional computer languages are a priori. International auxiliary languages (such as Esperanto, Interlingua, etc.) are a posteriori.
Internal (mental) and external (physical) categories are unified, as in Hegel's philosophy. There is absolute identity between internal and external world, between ontology and epistemology, between subject and object.
With universal language we can "express ourselves" (construct expressions), in the same way that, according to Kant, thanks to the categories, the pure concepts of the understanding, we can think (make judgments). Language makes it possible to represent the complexity of the world.
A dialectical language: the union of opposites.
The primitives of universal language must be structured as pairs of opposites or dual concepts. Universal language is the global union of all opposites or duals, a union realized by consciousness, where everything is connected: the manifest and the unmanifest, the rational and the intuitive, the superficial and the profound, the universal and the particular, the internal (mental) world and the external (physical) world, the static and the dynamic, the absolute and the relative, the qualitative and the quantitative, the abstract and the concrete, etc.
The universal language has to unite all possible opposites or duals, because otherwise it would not be a universal language. The law of supreme economy, supreme simplicity and consciousness is achieved by the integration of all pairs of opposites. The primitives are opposites or duals, and all are united through a third element, which is the universal language, the language of consciousness.
In the universal language we can distinguish 4 types of dialectics:
A vertical dialectic between primitive concepts and their concrete expressions, a dialectic between the universal and the specific, the general and the particular.
A horizontal dialectic between each primitive and its dual.
A relational dialectic between the primitives themselves, a "multilectic".
An "autolectic", a dialectic of each primitive with itself. It is what is called "conceptual reflection" (a concept applied to itself).
The opposite or dual operation is a meta-primitive, a meta-archetype or meta-category that is present, explicitly or implicitly, in all primitives.
Opposites or duals do not only appear in primitives. They also appear in other aspects, among which the following stand out:
The union of subject and object.
Universal language unites all opposites or duals. But the fundamental duality, the most important, is that of subject-object or internal-external, as David Bohm asserted. All other dualities are derived from this fundamental duality.
The union of the universal and the particular.
Universal language is the supreme universality. The best proof that language is truly universal must be its diversity of manifestations and applications. From this point of view the boundaries between domains are diluted; everything is the same thing, for everything is the manifestation of the same archetypes.
The union of syntax and semantics.
To every formal expression there must correspond univocally a semantics, and vice versa.
The union of lexical semantics and structural semantics.
The relational dialectic (the combinatorics of primitives) must be realized through the primitives themselves. That is, the structural semantics must be the same as the lexical semantics. Being a universal language, its grammar would also be universal.
The union of ontology and epistemology.
The philosophy of universal language and Jung's Unus Mundus are essentially the same: the belief in the unity of all that exists, that all physical and psychic phenomena are manifestations of the same deep reality, and that there are fundamental patterns from which all internal and external reality manifests itself. Expressed in philosophical terms: ontology (what is) and epistemology (what we know) must be the same thing.
The union of reductionism and holism.
The universal language is constituted by a finite set of primitives, which are dimensions or degrees of freedom. In this sense, it is a reductionist language. It is reductionist in that it identifies dimensions of consciousness. But it is also holistic because it provides a unifying paradigm of internal and external reality.
The union of the simple and the complex.
The primitives of the universal language are of the utmost generality and, therefore, it is a language of supreme simplicity. The primitives are the supreme manifestation of the principle of economy. The universal language is the simplest possible language. But through simplicity is produced (by combinatorics of the primitives) complexity. These two poles of reality are united in universal language: the simple at the deep level and the complex at the superficial level.
Theory and practice.
Universal language must be both theoretical and practical.
The union of the finite and the infinite.
The set of primitives of universal language constitutes the source of all possible expressions of the formal sciences, that is, the sciences that can be formalized by means of a language, such as mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and so on. And this is so because they have a deep common foundation. By means of the combinatorics of primitives, a conceptual big-bang is produced, that is, the totality of possible expressions. That is to say, from the finite (the primitives) the infinite is potentially generated, the infinite possible expressions.
An archetypal language: the language of consciousness.
The universal language would be the "neutral language" sought by Jung and Pauli, a common language for the physical and psychic worlds.
Primitives are degrees of freedom, basic paradigms, dimensions of consciousness and dimensions of reality (internal and external). They are universal and transcendental patterns of an abstract type, underlying the physical and psychic worlds. Archetypes are more or less universal, according to the magnitude of their manifestations. The more abstract an archetype is, the more universal it is and the more manifestations it has. The primary archetypes of the universal language are of supreme abstraction.
Archetypes are forms without content. They are inexpressible and unrepresentable. They can only be grasped intuitively. Only their manifestations are representable: the concrete expressions, the forms with content.
Each primitive is a door or dimension of consciousness and is interrelated with the others, forming all of them a unity, which is the universal language, the language of consciousness, the foundation of internal and external reality.
The language of the primary archetypes is the language of consciousness because it connects all the opposite archetypes. The primary archetypes are condensed centers of energy-consciousness that connect the inner with the outer. They are the patterns by which we apprehend external and internal reality, the patterns by which we think, intuit and even imagine. The primary archetypes establish the limits of what we can know and express, and also establish our vision and understanding of the world.
Universal language is the closest possible approximation to consciousness that brings us closer to the experience of unity.
An abstract language of a mathematical type.
Because of its supreme level of abstraction, universal language must be the foundation of mathematics and be at the same time a mathematical language. It would be a philosophical mathematics. Therefore, the primitives must be able to be represented by symbols or signs without any reference to any concrete natural language.
In the primitives, because of their supreme level of abstraction, there is no space and no time. There is no physical space and time, but there must be an abstract space and time, and both united, as dual aspects of the same reality that transcends them. Abstract space is the mother space where expressions (combination of instances of primitives) are manifested.
In addition to the primitives, the universal language must allow the construction of derived or secondary concepts.
Properties of the universal language.
The universal language must have all the possible generic properties, because if it did not have them, it would not be a universal language. We can highlight the following:
"Theory of everything".
In the universal language everything is connected and the boundaries between the different domains are diluted. It is a "theory of everything", of the real world and of the possible worlds.
Foundation.
Universal language provides a solid, simple and clear foundation of all sciences or the foundation of universal science. Since Aristotle, scientific knowledge is the knowledge of the universal. The most obscure thing about a science has always been its foundation. A science cannot be founded on itself. It needs a meta-science, a deeper foundation. "No science is able to demonstrate scientifically its own basis" (Descartes).
Universal language must be the foundation of all formal sciences: mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, systemics, etc. The computer implementing the primitives would be a "philosophical computer", where the primitives would be the instruction set.
Minimum effort.
Being the universal language of supreme simplicity, all problems are clarified, solved, simplified or transcended. From the deep level everything is easier, everything is achieved with minimum effort. "Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better" (Einstein).
Creativity.
Creativity arises from combining concepts to create new concepts. The deeper the elements to be combined, the greater the combinatorial freedom and the greater the creative capacity. In this sense, the creativity of the universal language is supreme because the combinatorics is performed with deep, simple, abstract and powerful resources, which are the primary archetypes.
Fractality.
The universal language is fractal because the same primitives apply at all levels.
Bootstrapping.
The primitives of the universal language are independent of each other, but each depends on or relies on all the others. There is no hierarchy. All primitives are of the same level. They are combined through language. The power of language is its combinatorial power. A primitive in isolation is useless. The power lies in its relationships and combinations. This feature is called "bootstrapping".
Perfection (or supreme order).
The universal language is a perfect and ideal language, an ordered or structured language. The most fundamental aspect of order is precisely duality, which is really a meta-archetype, for it is present in all primary archetypes.
Universal language would be like the philosopher's stone or the Holy Grail, for to find the primitive universal semantics is to find the common deep essence of all things, the root of consciousness and creativity, the place where everything is related and connected, where boundaries disappear, where everything is the same thing.
The closest possible approximation to consciousness and universal language.
Consciousness is at a higher level than the mental so it is impossible to conceptualize it. However, we can approximate it by means of philosophical categories, primary archetypes and universal semantic primitives, which are equivalent and which constitute the limit of the knowable. This level is not expressible; only its manifestations are expressible.
The strategy for attempting the search for a universal language based on consciousness, and therefore of supreme conceptual simplicity, is to apply universal principles:
The principle of downward causality (PCD). It states that everything goes from the universal or general to the particular. Or from the deep to the superficial. Or from the superior to the inferior.
The dialogical principle (PD). It is the union of opposites, complementary or dual.
The principle of economy (EP). It is the use of the least possible energy, which requires the least effort. Nature follows the principle of economy. Occam's razor is an application of the principle of economy: among several possible theories, one must choose the simplest. Einstein's razor must also be applied: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
These 3 principles are related:
PCD is a type of union of opposites: PCD ⊂ PD.
PD is a type of economy: PD ⊂ PE.
Therefore, we have the fundamental triadic relationship PCD ⊂⊂ PD ⊂ PE. So there is really only one universal principle, which is the principle of economy. The supreme principle of economy is consciousness, which contemplates everything as an indivisible unity. Consciousness is the supreme simplicity.
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In the following section, we present MENTAL, a universal language that fulfills all these criteria and properties. It consists of 12 dual universal semantic primitives, which are also philosophical categories and primary archetypes (or archetypes of consciousness).
MENTAL is the simplest language, the truest, the most generic, the most abstract, the most natural, the most intuitive, the most creative, the one that provides the most freedom, the most profound, the one that needs the least information, the most necessary, the one that requires the least learning effort and the most practical. MENTAL is the simplest manifestation of the new paradigm of science: consciousness.
