Arthur M. Young - The Geometry of Meaning

Arthur M. Young

The geometry

of meaning

This edition of The

Geometry of Meaning is

Volume III in the Anodos

Series of the collected

works of Arthur M. Young,

published by Anodos

Foundation. Except for

editorial and typographical

corrections, and updating of

front and back materials, this

fourth reprint is a facsimile

of the original volume

published by Delacorte Press

in 1976.

also by Arthur M. Young

The Reflexive Universe

The Bell Notes

Which Way Out?

Foundations of Science

Science and Astrology

Mathematics, Physics, and

Reality

Nested Time

Arthur M. Young

The geometry

of meaning

Anodos

Anodos Publications

Front cover art: frontispiece of Europe a Prophecy, an etching by William Blake, 1794. Courtesy of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.

Copyright 1976 by Arthur M. Young

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in connection with reviews written especially for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.

Printed and bound in the United States of America Designed by Jerry Tillett

Cover design by Rocki deLlamas

Fourth printing 2011

First publication, Kindle edition 2016

Anodos Foundation

Rural Route 1, Box 465

Cambria, CA 93428

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Young, Arthur M. 1905-1995

The geometry of meaning.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Knowledge, Theory of. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) 3. Whole and parts (Philosophy) I. Title.

BD161.Y68 121 76-918

ISBN-10: 1-892160-14-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-892160-14-0

The geometry of meaning

was orginally published by

Merloyd Lawrence

and also published by Robert Briggs Associates The publishers wish to thank Sheila La Farge

for extensive editorial assistance

in preparing this book for publication.

The author wishes to thank Sam Brooks for his interest and help in rewriting and simplifying the first nine chapters of this book,

and Chris Bird, Alice Morris, Chris Clark,

and Robert Temple for editorial suggestions.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter I | The fourfold division

Categories of knowing

The four aspects of a situation

Aristotles causes

Chapter II | The measure formulae

A mathematical method

The cycle of action

Use of the measure formulae

Categories of knowing represented by the measure formulae The scientific basis for the human faculties

The learning cycle

Chapter III | The threefold division Examples of the threefold

Chapter IV | Generating other measure formulae Formal device for reducing M, L, and T

Chapter V | The rosetta stone of meaning The four relationships

The four acts

The four states

Illustration from Peirce

Chapter VI | The roots of unity

Negative and imaginary numbers

Cube roots and the threefold operator

Chapter VII | Comparison of threefold and fourfold operators Example from psychology

Constraint and freedom

Order of the realms

Summary

A philosophical overview

Chapter VIII | Substance and form

The theory as it applies to nuclear particles

Form versus substance in science

The threefold operator and the nuclear realm

Chapter IX | Purposive intelligence and the twofold operator Introduction of the twofold operator

The twofold operator in nature

The emergence of life

The evolution of lifeincrease of freedom

Categories of life exemplifying the three degrees of freedom Chapter X | Applications

The fourfold operator

The threefold operator

The twofold operator

Chapter XI | The four elementsChapter XII | Free will

Summary with some emphasis on neglected points Chapter XIII | Types of philosophy Earth versus air

Water

Fire

Rsum

Instinct

Becoming

Where does it lead?

About the author

Index

Introduction

All meaning is an angle.

I dont know where I first encountered this enigmatic statement.

I do recall that its origin was said to be in ancient Egypt, and I draw great comfort from this confirmation that there was at one time, perhaps so long ago that it was not even registered by Greek thought, a tradition that reflected the same conclusions I have reached after a lifelong effort to formulate meanings without reverting to the circularity found, for example, in dictionary definitions.

I would like to call this book an essay in philosophy. However, I should point out that I do not mean philosophy as it is usually practiced today, but in the older sense of the science which investigates the facts and principles of reality. In this sense, philosophy not only encompasses the natural sciences, but explores the implications of the findings of science, and also deals with the relationship between the knower and the known.

Finding the abstruse mathematical formulations of science incomprehensible, modern philosophy falls back on the meaning of words. It therefore loses touch with the reality that gives science its strength and is the ultimate reference for the words upon which philosophy depends.

The ignominy of this retreat was recognized as early as 1905, when the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce berated metaphysicians for not pursuing truth more vigorously:

Its business [metaphysics] is to study the most general features of reality and real objects. But in its present condition it is, even more than the other branches of coenoscopy (the study of ordinary things) a puny, rickety, and scrofulous science. It is only too plain that those who pretend to cultivate it carry not the hearts of true men of science within their breasts. Instead of striving with might and main to find out what errors they might have fallen into, and exulting joyously at every such discovery, they are scared to look Truth in the face. They turn tail and flee her. Only a small number out of the great catalogue of problems which it is their business to solve have ever been taken up at all, and those few most feebly. Here let us set down almost at random a small specimen of the questions of metaphysics which press, not for hasty answers, but for industrious and solid investigation: Whether or not there be any real indefiniteness, or real possibility and impossibility?