A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
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TryingMyBest
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A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by TryingMyBest »

I aim to be clear and concise in proposing one way to study the principles of reality (to map reality).

Creating a crude starter-map is relatively simple.
To start, assign every word from a thesaurus unique coordinates (x,y,z).
Then program these words (nodes) to move in the direction of their synonyms.
Then let the simulation run until sense emerges from the chaos.

To develop a more rigorous map, use the definitions of words, abiding by English grammar syntax rules. Also, the coordinates are not limited to 3, it is highly probable that much more than 3 dimensions will be needed to differentiate all the meaning and essence. These maps may bring to light essential truths and may also lead to the creation of new words in order to better describe the principles of reality. I am merely introducing the topic, an accurate model of reality would require countless modifications and adjustments.

This seems to me to be an achievable task that might illuminate some truths and essence of reality. It also seems like it would be an invaluable tool for philosophers. If I had my way, creating this map would be my full-time job. I think the development of these models will advance the field of philosophy.
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LuckyR
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by LuckyR »

Why English?
"As usual... it depends."
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TryingMyBest
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by TryingMyBest »

Good point LuckyR, the process should work to illustrate the human experience of reality regardless of which language is used.
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The Beast
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by The Beast »

The products of consciousness are a translation of the substrate/reality. The translation changes the substrate to accommodate the agents of change. IMO Beauty is an agent driven the translation. My own definition of beauty is a spectrum in which years ago had two words and now has twenty. The words are a definition of the translation felt by my substrate. If I change my DNA to include a few more million of olfactory chemosensory cells in addition to the dedicated enzymes, then the definition of the translation of beauty will change. If I consider Beauty as a force of attraction, then I must consider that all forces of attraction could be grouped together in a spectrum in which the definition of gravity is a main part of the spectrum. The substrate/reality has a nomenclature made possible by the rules of Gravity. Conditioning is what allows me to feel the beauty of broccoli which then changes the nomenclature of my substrate/reality. By extension it is true of all substrate properties. If I can feel God, I could define the translation in my own spectrum as all there is. Being alive is what allows for conditioning and this is what I could do to like it. What do you think? A 5 or a 6 surely no more than an 8.
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by h_k_s »

LuckyR wrote: December 21st, 2018, 2:42 amWhy English?
English is a great language derived mostly from the French with bits and pieces of German and Keltic.

The French comes from the Latin.

The Latin comes mostly from the Greek but also with some ancient Egyptian and Etruscan mixed in.

We can say that English is the most evolved of all languages.

However there is nothing you can say in English that cannot be said in French, Latin, or Greek as well.
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by h_k_s »

TryingMyBest wrote: December 21st, 2018, 12:03 am I aim to be clear and concise in proposing one way to study the principles of reality (to map reality).

Creating a crude starter-map is relatively simple.
To start, assign every word from a thesaurus unique coordinates (x,y,z).
Then program these words (nodes) to move in the direction of their synonyms.
Then let the simulation run until sense emerges from the chaos.

To develop a more rigorous map, use the definitions of words, abiding by English grammar syntax rules. Also, the coordinates are not limited to 3, it is highly probable that much more than 3 dimensions will be needed to differentiate all the meaning and essence. These maps may bring to light essential truths and may also lead to the creation of new words in order to better describe the principles of reality. I am merely introducing the topic, an accurate model of reality would require countless modifications and adjustments.

This seems to me to be an achievable task that might illuminate some truths and essence of reality. It also seems like it would be an invaluable tool for philosophers. If I had my way, creating this map would be my full-time job. I think the development of these models will advance the field of philosophy.
Fundamental Philosophy is independent of any language.

It does not require English, Greek, or any other.
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by Count Lucanor »

TryingMyBest wrote: December 21st, 2018, 12:03 am I aim to be clear and concise in proposing one way to study the principles of reality (to map reality).

Creating a crude starter-map is relatively simple.
To start, assign every word from a thesaurus unique coordinates (x,y,z).
Then program these words (nodes) to move in the direction of their synonyms.
Then let the simulation run until sense emerges from the chaos.

To develop a more rigorous map, use the definitions of words, abiding by English grammar syntax rules. Also, the coordinates are not limited to 3, it is highly probable that much more than 3 dimensions will be needed to differentiate all the meaning and essence. These maps may bring to light essential truths and may also lead to the creation of new words in order to better describe the principles of reality. I am merely introducing the topic, an accurate model of reality would require countless modifications and adjustments.

This seems to me to be an achievable task that might illuminate some truths and essence of reality. It also seems like it would be an invaluable tool for philosophers. If I had my way, creating this map would be my full-time job. I think the development of these models will advance the field of philosophy.
In the best case scenario, yet unlikely, that will only map English grammar. Get us something from which will emerge sense as in Pragmatics.
The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
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cavacava
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by cavacava »

TryingMyBest wrote: December 21st, 2018, 12:03 am I aim to be clear and concise in proposing one way to study the principles of reality (to map reality).

Creating a crude starter-map is relatively simple.
To start, assign every word from a thesaurus unique coordinates (x,y,z).
Then program these words (nodes) to move in the direction of their synonyms.
Then let the simulation run until sense emerges from the chaos.

To develop a more rigorous map, use the definitions of words, abiding by English grammar syntax rules. Also, the coordinates are not limited to 3, it is highly probable that much more than 3 dimensions will be needed to differentiate all the meaning and essence. These maps may bring to light essential truths and may also lead to the creation of new words in order to better describe the principles of reality. I am merely introducing the topic, an accurate model of reality would require countless modifications and adjustments.

This seems to me to be an achievable task that might illuminate some truths and essence of reality. It also seems like it would be an invaluable tool for philosophers. If I had my way, creating this map would be my full-time job. I think the development of these models will advance the field of philosophy.
I am not sure I understand the benefit of having more than two dimensions, maybe you can provide an example. Word meaning seems to (me) be describable in two dimensions; the metaphoric as the vertical axis and the metonymic as the horizontal axis. What difference would the other axis make?
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by LuckyR »

h_k_s wrote: December 22nd, 2018, 12:03 pm
LuckyR wrote: December 21st, 2018, 2:42 amWhy English?
English is a great language derived mostly from the French with bits and pieces of German and Keltic.

The French comes from the Latin.

The Latin comes mostly from the Greek but also with some ancient Egyptian and Etruscan mixed in.

We can say that English is the most evolved of all languages.

However there is nothing you can say in English that cannot be said in French, Latin, or Greek as well.
Well, it does have the largest vocabulary. However, is a germanic (not romance) language, not that it matters.

As to the ability to "say" things, it's my understanding that every language has thoughts/ideas/concepts that cannot be completely translated into other languages.
"As usual... it depends."
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by h_k_s »

LuckyR wrote: December 23rd, 2018, 3:57 am
h_k_s wrote: December 22nd, 2018, 12:03 pm

English is a great language derived mostly from the French with bits and pieces of German and Keltic.

The French comes from the Latin.

The Latin comes mostly from the Greek but also with some ancient Egyptian and Etruscan mixed in.

We can say that English is the most evolved of all languages.

However there is nothing you can say in English that cannot be said in French, Latin, or Greek as well.
Well, it does have the largest vocabulary. However, is a germanic (not romance) language, not that it matters.

As to the ability to "say" things, it's my understanding that every language has thoughts/ideas/concepts that cannot be completely translated into other languages.
Calling English "Germanic" is a major misnomer since 70% of the words are French -- ergo Romance.

Philosophy is supposed to enable you to figure such misnomers out on your own.
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TryingMyBest
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by TryingMyBest »

Thank you for the comments. I am attempting to first analyze the thesaurus in one-dimension. That is, to assign each unique sense of a word a variable with a random number between 1 and 10,000. Then I am changing the variables so that they become the average of the variables of its synonyms. (This will cluster words of similar meaning.) After a few iterations, this should determine how many unique clusters of meaning there are in the language. Are all words connected to each other or are there thousands of unique clusters of meaning? I don't currently know and not knowing makes me curious to find out.
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by LuckyR »

h_k_s wrote: December 23rd, 2018, 5:24 am
LuckyR wrote: December 23rd, 2018, 3:57 am

Well, it does have the largest vocabulary. However, is a germanic (not romance) language, not that it matters.

As to the ability to "say" things, it's my understanding that every language has thoughts/ideas/concepts that cannot be completely translated into other languages.
Calling English "Germanic" is a major misnomer since 70% of the words are French -- ergo Romance.

Philosophy is supposed to enable you to figure such misnomers out on your own.
Ha ha, you give me too much credit. The fact that linguists classify English as a Germanic language is not my opinion.

"The various subgroups of the Indo-European language family include ten major branches, listed below in alphabetical order:....

Germanic (from Proto-Germanic), earliest attestations in runic inscriptions from around the 2nd century AD, earliest coherent texts in Gothic, 4th century AD. Old English manuscript tradition from about the 8th century AD. Includes English, Frisian, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Low German, Icelandic and Faroese....."

Whereas:

"The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (470 million), Portuguese (250 million), French (150 million), Italian (90 million),[4] and Romanian (25 million).[5]".

Note the absence of English, since it is of Germanic origin.
"As usual... it depends."
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h_k_s
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by h_k_s »

LuckyR wrote: December 24th, 2018, 4:08 am
h_k_s wrote: December 23rd, 2018, 5:24 am
Calling English "Germanic" is a major misnomer since 70% of the words are French -- ergo Romance.

Philosophy is supposed to enable you to figure such misnomers out on your own.
Ha ha, you give me too much credit. The fact that linguists classify English as a Germanic language is not my opinion.

"The various subgroups of the Indo-European language family include ten major branches, listed below in alphabetical order:....

Germanic (from Proto-Germanic), earliest attestations in runic inscriptions from around the 2nd century AD, earliest coherent texts in Gothic, 4th century AD. Old English manuscript tradition from about the 8th century AD. Includes English, Frisian, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Low German, Icelandic and Faroese....."

Whereas:

"The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (470 million), Portuguese (250 million), French (150 million), Italian (90 million),[4] and Romanian (25 million).[5]".

Note the absence of English, since it is of Germanic origin.
As a philosopher you should be able to disagree with any so called experts, especially when all the evidence contradicts their worthless claims.
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The Beast
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by The Beast »

Would you discuss the possibilities (outcomes) of the model? Anyway. English is a vernacular language written in the Roman alphabet with a large influence from the more erudite Normans.
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Re: A Method to Study the Principles of Reality (A Map of Reality)

Post by LuckyR »

h_k_s wrote: December 24th, 2018, 11:12 am
LuckyR wrote: December 24th, 2018, 4:08 am

Ha ha, you give me too much credit. The fact that linguists classify English as a Germanic language is not my opinion.

"The various subgroups of the Indo-European language family include ten major branches, listed below in alphabetical order:....

Germanic (from Proto-Germanic), earliest attestations in runic inscriptions from around the 2nd century AD, earliest coherent texts in Gothic, 4th century AD. Old English manuscript tradition from about the 8th century AD. Includes English, Frisian, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Low German, Icelandic and Faroese....."

Whereas:

"The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (470 million), Portuguese (250 million), French (150 million), Italian (90 million),[4] and Romanian (25 million).[5]".

Note the absence of English, since it is of Germanic origin.
As a philosopher you should be able to disagree with any so called experts, especially when all the evidence contradicts their worthless claims.
Hhmmm... professional linguists who have devoted their life's work to the study of the history and origins of the world's languages or a random anonymous internet posting... hhmmmm... I'll go with the professional scholars, if you don't mind.

"...all the evidence...", really? Overreach much?
"As usual... it depends."
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