Chapter XXI (part 8)

Therefore we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that all attempts to express super-logical relations in our language will seem absurdities, and really can only give hints at that which we wish to express. Thus the formula, A is both A and Not-A , or, Everything is both A and Not-A , representing the principal axioms of higher logic, expressed in our language of concepts, sounds absurd from the standpoint of our usual logic, and is not essentially true . Let us therefore reconcile ourselves to the fact that it is impossible to express super-logical relations in our language as it is at present constituted. The formula, " A is both A and Not-A " is untrue because in the world of causes there exists no opposition between " A " and " Not-A ." But we cannot express their real relation. It would be more correct to say: A is all . But this also would be untrue, because "A" is not only all , but also an arbitrary part of all, and at the same time a given part. This is exactly the thing which our language cannot express. It p. 267 is to this that we must accustom our thought, and train it along these lines. ______ We must train our thought to the idea that separateness and inclusiveness are not opposed in the real world, but exist together and simultaneously without contradicting one another. Let us understand that in the real world one and the same thing can be both a part and the whole, i.e., that the whole, without changing, can be its own part; understand that there are no opposites in general, that everything is a certain image of all . And then, beginning to understand all this, we shall grasp the separate ideas concerning the essentials of the "noumenal world," or the world of many dimensions in which we really live. In such case the higher logic , even with its imperfect formulæ, as they appear in our rough language of concepts, represents in spite of this a powerful instrument of knowledge of the world, our only means of preservation from deceptions. The application of this instrument of thought gives the key to the mysteries of nature, to the world as it is . ______ Let us endeavor to enumerate those properties of THE WORLD OF CAUSES which result from all the foregoing. It is first of all necessary to reiterate that it is impossible to express in words the properties of the world of causes. Every thought expressed about them in our ordinary language will be false . That is, we may say in relation to the "real" world that " every spoken thought is a lie ." It is possible to speak about it only conditionally. by hints, by symbols. And if one interprets literally anything said about it , nothing but absurdity results. Generally speaking, everything said in words regarding the world of causes is likely to seem absurd, and is in reality its mutilation . The truth it is impossible to express; it is possible only to give a hint at it, to give an impulse to thought. But everyone must discover the truth for himself. "Another's truth" is worse than a lie, because it is two lies . This explains why truth very often can be expressed only by means of p. 268 paradox, or even in the form of a lie. Because, in order to speak of truth without a lie, we should know some other language—ours is unsuitable. What then are we able to say about the world of many dimensions, about the world of noumena, or world of causes? 1. In that world "TIME" must exist spatially, i.e. temporal events must exist and not happen—exist before and after their manifestation, and be located in one section, as it were. Effects must exist simultaneously with causes. That which we name the law of causality cannot exist there, because time is a necessary condition for it.