[MD] The differentiating nothingness

[platootje at netscape.net]

Ham,

I?ll respond to your latest reply and hopefully you can repost any 
questions, from your previous reply, that remain unanswered.

You:
But what really confuses me is that you then attribute the negation to 
the
subject of the negation, not Essence itself.

> Duality may be considered as denying Essence.
> This denial of Essence creates a subject, the one
> denying Essence, and an object, Essence being denied.

If the actualization of subject and object comes about as a result of
negation, how can the subject negate?  Unless you're referring to a
"secondary" negation of Essence by the subject (man), there is no 
subject
prior to negation.  Clearly, the primary negation must be Essence 
denying
Itself.

Me:
I realize I?ve given some confusing replies and I realize I hadn?t 
thought this thru.
So I would be willing to say that Essence does the primary negation but 
one thing is stopping me. I think with every negation a less perfect 
(more divided) world is the result. I cannot believe that an Essential 
act would cause a decline in perfection.
The only way out would be a deliberate negation performed indeed by 
Essence, which not affects Essence itself but which creates a 
non-perfect existence in which all the secondary negations take place.

You:
Now I happen to believe that the subject does negate Being from 
Essence; but
I refer to this as a "secondary" negation because the subject is 
actualized,
along with its object, by the primary negation.  Just to be clear, in my
philosophy there are two negations: primary and secondary.  The
actualization of self-awareness and otherness is a result of the primary
negation (by Essence), while the cognizance of finite beingness 
(particular
things and events) is a result of the secondary negation by the subject
(negate).

Me:
I can agree to that, given my answer above.

You:
It would appear that you either reject the primary negation entirely or 
are
not prepared to define it.  This seems to be confirmed by your 
assertion:

> I don't think Essence creates as such.
> I don't believe in Essence as 'the creator'.
> I agree that WE create it because WE have
> the Essential possibility to do that.

Me:
I don?t reject it, I hadn?t defined it. You forced me to define it and 
yes I can agree now.

You:
If you read my thesis, you'll see that an important principle of
Essentialism is that man is an autonomous agent.  Even though he
participates in Essence, he must be free to choose values without the 
bias
or influence of absolute knowledge.  In order to do this, man is
metaphysically detached from Essence (otherness).  He experiences 
Essence
indirectly and incompletely, as the things and values of a physical 
world,
but his actual self (proprietary awareness) has no physical being.  
Except
for his biological body, which is appropriated from othereness, man is a
nothingness.  That's why I use the term "negate", and why I relate
proprietary awareness to the denial of absolute sensibility (Essence).

Me:
I think that both man (self-awareness) as his biological body are parts 
of Essence. It?s the self-awareness that chooses the body. But the body 
is a result of biological and even inorganic forms of Essence and so 
it?s an other to the self-awareness.
There?s no ?nothingness? there.
By the chain of negations that took place since the beginning, man has 
become alienated from Essence, but that certainly doesn?t make him a 
?nothingness?. It?s the distant memory of belonging to Essence that 
causes man to look for Essence. Man still is Essence, all he has to do 
is fully remember.

You:
I spoke of making some concessions to bring our theories closer 
together.
This is not one of them.  If you cannot accept the "self" as an 
autonomous
agent separated from the source but seeking (i.e., valuing) its Essence,
then we have reached an impasse.

Me:
Let me know if the above is a plausible explanation for you.

Kind regards,
Reinier.

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