This is related to the metaphysical origin of the world, the first cause that produced all the rich multitude we observe. It has been debated since ancient times, whether or not the multitude is identical to the one or whether it emerges from it.
Let’s hypothesize that there is a hierarchy of being with the One being at the top, as many schools of thought have claimed beforehand. How much multitude does immediately emerge after the One? Two? Five? Uncountable? Infinite? Does it share similarities with a mirror-trick where two mirrors can produce infinite images?
Are we one of these uncountable multitudes, that were part of the initial two (duality seems essential for the many to emerge), that were part of the One?
Bradley’s regress might be of help here. The endless third connection posited on the two might be the paradoxical key solution to the quiz.
Maybe there is a difference between the essential undivided One, and the mirror-like divisible phenomena. So it just appears in the game of existence as a multitude where in essence it is one.
The Many alone cannot account for the plurality we encounter. There could be so much “many” scattered, with no structure, not organized. This would still mean nothing. The interconnectedness is what makes our world be. Maybe the interconnectedness itself is the key and the many are not needed, the many being an illusion or a word game.
If there is the One, what makes it shatter and split? There should be something else that makes it shatter? Can it shatter and split itself?
This logical antinomy of:
- there could not be more than one; there is an inseparable one
- there cannot be just one, something else must exist to create the multiplicity
could be the essence of existence, the one that we cannot experience or comprehend.
There must be a way to gather all findings from the antinomies and use non-classical logic to create a method of inquiry that transcends our limits but fits the cosmos.