"Language, a reflection of the universe" (Stephen Pearl Andrews).
Universology
The term "Universology" −literally, "science of the universe"− and its associated concept was established by Stephen Pearl Andrews, philosopher, linguist and utopian sociologist. According to this author, the key to the discovery of the common principles of all knowledge lies in human language:
There is a universal analogy, so that the same principles act in all spheres of reality. It is the manifestation of the unity that governs the whole universe. Universal analogy must be the foundation of the unity of science. The "great science of analogy" is capable of unifying all knowledge.
Applying this great unifying principle, it follows that there is a close relationship between the universe and human language. The universe expresses itself in our minds as "impressions". In turn, human beings produce "expressions," i.e., they express themselves through their actions. But, by virtue of the universal analogy, impression and expression are reflections of each other. Therefore, by studying the laws of our own actions (and in particular of human language) we can discover the secrets of nature, the laws of knowledge.
Language is a miniature image of the universe as a whole (today we would say it is a holographic or fractal image of the universe). Language reflects the totality of the universe, including its structure. The laws of language are an exact reproduction of the laws of the universe. Language is a manifestation of the universe and a type of the universe.
Just as there are elementary chemical elements, by the principle of universal analogy, there must also be elementary sounds from which language is constructed. These elementary sounds appear in all forms of speech on the planet. It is the Natural Alphabet of sounds of language, the Universal Alphabet. And in the same way that the chemical elements are combined, by combining the elementary sounds, all the expressions of language would be obtained.
Each elementary sound of the Natural Alphabet of the human voice is charged by nature itself with a primitive meaning. These primitive meanings correspond to the philosophical categories, especially those discovered by Kant. The categories of thought constitute the metaphysical alphabet, the primitive elements of Being. The Word, the Logos, is the hidden wisdom that underlies all human linguistic expression.
The universal language that should be spoken by mankind should be a matter of "discovery," of investigation and observation of the fundamental laws of speech, which are analogous to the basic principles of nature. This path is the opposite of that which is normally taken, which is by "invention," by the construction of an artificial language.
The universal language should be expressive, flexible, with the capacity to classify and describe every object or idea. Particular languages would only be idioms of this universal language.
Following these ideas, Andrews designed (discovered) in 1871 a "universal scientific language" which he called "Alwato". The qualifier of "scientific" to the universal language refers to the fact that he developed it with scientific criteria. It does not refer to a language for science, but for human communication.
MENTAL vs. Universology
Universology affirms that language is a reflection of the universe. MENTAL reveals that the universe, the internal world and the external world are manifestations of the primary archetypes.
Universology affirms that there is a universal analogy: the same principles act in all spheres of reality. The coincidence with MENTAL, in this sense, is total.
MENTAL is an analogical system in the sense given by Andrews. The same principles underlie all manifestations. MENTAL is "the all-connecting pattern," as Bateson would say. In all natural languages the same universal principles are also manifested, but they are not explicit, they have to be discovered. MENTAL makes these principles explicit.
MENTAL is a language for science, not for human communication.
Bibliography
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. A Universal Language: Its Possibility, Scientific Necessity, and Appropiate Characteristics. The Continental Monthly, vol. V, No. 5, May 1864. Disponible online.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. Language, a Type of the Universe. The Continental Monthly, vol. V, pp. 691-706, 1864. Disponible online.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. Language, a Universal. The Continental Monthly, vol. V, pp. 532-543, 1864.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. The Primary Synopsis of Universology and Alwato, the New Scientific Universal Language. New York: Dion Thomas, 1871 / Weston, MA: M&S Press, 1971.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. Elements of Universology. An Introduction to the Mastery of Philosophy of the Sciences. New York: S.P. Lathrop & Co., 1881.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. The Basic Outline of Universology. An Introduction to the Newly Discovered Science of the Universe, its Elementary Principles, and the First Stages of their Development in the Special Sciences; Together with Preliminary Notices of Alwato (Ahl-wah-to), the Newly Discovered Scientific Universal Language, Resulting from the Principles of Universology. New York: Dion Thomas, 1872.
Andrews, Stephen Pearl. Revisal of Kant’s Categories. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, July, 1874. Disponible online.
