[MD] Relationship of paradigms to metaphysics

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 9:56 AM, T-REXX Techs, Inc.
<trexxtechs at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I need some practical assistance here.  I know that we all operate day to
> day with a paradigmatic set of unexamined beliefs or assumptions about the
> nature of reality.

Dan:

Let me start by saying I am not exactly sure what you are looking for
here, so if my answers seem a bit off base please feel free to ignore
them.

I would say under some circumstances such as by intellectually
participating in this discussion and considering the nuances of the
Metaphysics of Quality that we are in the process of examining the
assumptions as well as the belief sets that permeate our culture and
trap us.

Take, for instance, this extreme case:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57556662/north-korean-prisoner-escaped-after-23-brutal-years/

Note how he say he assumed that everywhere was like where he lived.
Being born into captivity he had no notion that a world different than
his was out there. Reminds me a bit of the bug living its whole life
inside the sock until it is suddenly turned inside out revealing a
world the bug never experienced.

Like this unfortunate fellow growing up in a concentration camp we are
all living inside our own cultures. Knowledge gives us the power to
see past those limitations, either self-imposed or otherwise.

> These beliefs seem to me to derive implicitly from some
> culturally pervasive metaphysics that may have been specifically articulated
> in the past and has since become diluted and absorbed into current society.

Dan:
That's interesting... yes, I would say that is entirely possible.
Idiosyncrasies such as the names of the days of the week and our
system of time keeping were apparently articulated at some time in the
past and now we simply follow those patterns without really
questioning why we do so. I don't know as I would call that a
metaphysics, however. It seems more like social patterns being passed
on from generation to generation, a paradigm, if you will. Even what
Robert Pirsig calls subject/object metaphysics isn't really
articulated... at least not until he did so. It was more assumed,
right?

> Would I be wrong to say that a metaphysic is an articulated system of
> assertions about the nature of reality,

Dan:
I would say metaphysics examines the nature of reality (experience).
So yes, I think you are right in saying what you say.

> while one's paradigm of reality is a
> socially inherited and unarticulated operational framework?

Dan:
In some cases, sure. In other instances though, a person starts to
intellectually examine said patterns and questioning their validity.
In that case, although the model may be inherited, it becomes
articulated.


> Please let me
> know your definitions of metaphysics, paradigms, and their relationship.

Dan:
I should think we model our paradigms, our reality, our experience, on
the culture in which we reside. This may or may not be articulated.
Metaphysics on the other hand is an intellectually articulated set of
ideas, or patterns of quality, that inform us as to the nature of
experience by ordering it. In that case it would seem paradigms exist
within a metaphysics acting as its basis or foundation.

Hope this helps a bit.

Thank you,

Dan

http://www.danglover.com