Psycho-Metaphysics
The Aneristic Principle is that of Apparent Order; the Eristic
Principle is that of Apparent Disorder. Both order and disorder are
man made concepts and are artificial divisions of Pure Chaos, which is a level
deeper than is the level of distinction making.
With our concept making apparatus called ``mind'' we look at reality through the
ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The ideas-about-reality are
mistakenly labeled ``reality'' and unenlightened people are forever perplexed by
the fact that other people, especially other cultures, see ``reality''
differently. It is only the ideas-about-reality which differ. Real (capital-T
True) reality is a level deeper than is the level of concept.
We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids (concepts).
Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group of people with
rather similar grids. Through a window we view chaos, and relate it to the
points on our grid, and thereby understand it. The Order is in the Grid. That
is the Aneristic Principle.
Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one grid with
another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one that will
account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be
True. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the Aneristic
Illusion (Aneristic DE-lusions, or anerisms, are discussed in the
document on
Eristic Avatars,
elsewhere). Some grids can be more useful than others, some more beautiful than
others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be more True than
any other.
Disorder is simply unrelated information viewed through some particular grid.
But, like ``relation'', no-relation is a concept. Male, like female, is an idea
about sex. To say that male-ness is ``absence of female-ness'', or vice versa, is
a matter of definition and metaphysically arbitrary. The artificial concept of
no-relation is the Eristic Principle.
The belief that ``order is true'' and disorder is false or somehow wrong, is the
Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the Eristic
Illusion.
The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition relative to the
grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) Truth, metaphysical
reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely.
Pick
a grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered.
Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and
disordered. A good example of all this is
Starbuck's Pebbles.
Reality is the original Rorschach.
Verily! So much for all that.
The words of the Foolish and those of the Wise
Are not far apart in Discordian Eyes.
(HBT; The Book of Advise, 2:1)