Most inquiries into the deepest or ultimate nature of reality conclude:
- 0: Buddhist emptiness; nihilism (one is not related to the other).
- 1: Monotheism, Atman, monism.
- 2: Dualism, mind-body Cartesianism.
The number 3 might also have its part to play here, as the glue or relation connecting the other 2 (Bradley’s regress, triadic interpretations of Christianity).
This is related to the metaphysical origin of the world, the one, god, or first cause that produced all the rich multitude we observe. It has been debated since ancient times whether 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 at the top, as many schools of thought have previously claimed. How much multiplicity immediately emerges after the One? Two? Five? An uncountable amount? An infinite amount? Does it resemble a mirror trick in which two mirrors can produce infinite images?
Are we among the uncountable many that came from the initial two (duality seems essential for the many to emerge), which in turn were part of the One?
Bradley’s regress might be of help here. The endless third connection posited between the two might be the paradoxical key to the quiz.
Maybe there is a difference between the essential undivided One and the mirror-like divisible phenomena. The One may appear in the game of existence as a multitude, while in essence it is one.
The Many alone cannot account for the plurality we encounter. There could be many scattered things with no structure or organization. This would still mean nothing. Interconnectedness is what allows our world to exist. Maybe interconnectedness itself is the key and the many are not needed, with the many being an illusion or a word game.
If there is the One, what makes it shatter and split? Should there 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.