[MD] The tetra lemma

[MarshaV]

David,

The other article looks very dense, but it is extremely helpful in its 
explanations.  I copied it into Word and made it more reader-friendly.   - 
While I wouldn't want you to leave the MOQ & American Pragmatists track, I 
hope you'll keep Buddhism in mind for another decade.  The MOQ being a 
synthesis of East and West, Buddhism has something very valuable to consider 
too.

Marsha


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david buchanan" <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>
To: <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] The tetra lemma



Thanks, Marsha.

I found this section especially helpful. It explains what an essence is and 
confirms my hunch that such an idea is "obviously false" and "a profound 
misconception of reality". Apparently, the metaphysics of substance is 
something even worse than materialism. Its downright crazy. Independent and 
immutable? Like what?!? Even a materialist will admit that stars are born 
and die, that mountains wash away, that even the universe has a life span. 
This nonsense has got to be the vestige of some forgotten religion.

Emptiness and Lack of Substance
The doctrine of impermanence is intimately related to the doctrine that all 
things lack inherent substantiality. The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna 
argued that things cannot have separate essences because this would result 
in an unchanging world: “If there is essence, the whole world will be 
unarising, unceasing, and static. The entire phenomenal world would be 
immutable” (FWMW, p. 72). In other words, if something has its own separate 
essence, then it is entirely separate and without dependence upon anything 
else for its existence. As a result, it can never be affected or changed. 
Thus, if things had essences, then the whole world would be immutable and 
static, which is obviously false. The conclusion is that all things are 
empty of any such essence. This doctrine of emptiness (sunyata) is 
fundamental to Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Similarly, Whitehead states 
that “it is fundamental to the metaphysical doctrine of the philosophy of 
organism, that the notion of an actual entity as the unchanging subject of 
change is completely abandoned” (PR, p. 29). Process philosophy departs from 
substance philosophy by denying any isolated, individual essence to things. 
The idea that things have essences is at best a useful abstraction, and at 
worst a profound misconception of reality: “The simple notion of an enduring 
substance sustaining persistent qualities, either essentially or 
accidentally, expresses a useful abstract for many purposes in life. But 
whenever we try to use it as a fundamental statement of the nature of 
things, it proves itself mistaken” (PR, p. 79). ...An important instance of 
this mistake is the Cartesian assumption that the human subject is a 
fundamental essence prior to human thought....

[The whole article is at 
http://www.integralscience.org/whiteheadbuddhism.html ]


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