Sunday, September 4, 2016

And Now, Something 'Metaserious'

This comes from a discussion I had recently regarding metaphysics.



I conclude for now that metaphysics can be considered similar to what is called metadata. That is, in how one can understand metadata as that which coincides with the data in a file, program, or document, but may or may not necessarily be inherent to the data itself. That would be where you have the information that is supposed to be there, organized down to the very letters that make up the words that in turn are composed to form the grammatical structure and function as the communication, be it code to operate a program, or the sentences and paragraphs that form a letter, posting, or book - this all forming the data 'as is'. The metadata are the things surrounding the data as is, such as a person's interpretation of a piece of literature, or how a computer performs the execution of a program, and how the programmer and/or user assess whether the program is working properly, as well as the ideas and opinions one might express about the program (such as whether it sucks or not <.<).

Similar, metaphysics deals with the things surrounding what is the physical, or what is the natural. Therefore, we could put the basics in some order, or chain of being such as this:

Supernatural
Praeternatural
Natural
Subnatural

This shouldn't be confused with the Great Chain of Being, although it is a similar sort of order. The reason is that 'natural' cannot entirely sum up humanity alone as being natural being. For animals, plants, and even rocks and dirt are natural because they exist in nature and comprise the whole composition of nature. Subnatural is something that I keep for the moment undefined, since I have yet to find anyone that will even seriously discuss what could possibly be considered subnatural. For what really could exist in a natural world that is 'below' nature, but still somehow 'is' or exists as, or in nature? I mean, even if we were to categorize atomic or subatomic structures as subnature, they are still a part of nature, even the very kernels of nature - somewhat like how the letters and grammatical markings are still a part of the data, even though it would be hard to decipher meaning out of them without being placed as they are in the structure of the data to compose a certain meaning. The letters and grammatical markings, and likewise the atoms and their subatomic particles, still have meaning even if we as of yet do not know how to decipher their meaning without, or, more precise, outside of how they have meaning within or alongside the rest of the parts in the whole being that is put in place.

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