I learned the term 'exigency' from Robert Archer Smith in our peripatetic discussions in the mid- 80s in Seattle, when I was an undergraduate studying the field of psychology as a bachelor of science. As I understand it now the prime objective of Mr. Smith's 'principle of exigency' was to think through physics to truth. Although there are different ways of stating the principle the basic idea is that things cannot be otherwise than what they are.
What at first seems to be cryptic or even simpleminded in exigency when pondered deeply gives way to a fine elegance as sharp as Ockham's razor. It also dispels us of any notion that there is caprice in the universal order---Cosmos Today. The probabilistic and statistical methods of quantum mechanics set truth and reality into perpetual drift---one need not look far to realize the deleterious consequences of probability in the practical and moral domains of human life. Within a century probability and statistical science have triumphed as the primary method of access to knowledge of any type. And though this has given the fruit of technical manipulation and so-called technical success, it has de-centered the human knower from the fundamental urge to know and understand reality. Truth is set adrift.
Old fashioned as it may seem, my entire intellectual effort has been spent in the pursuit of true knowledge and truth. Having been thoroughly schooled in modern science as well as in statistics, I have met with dissatisfaction, not so much with the scientific dogmas and theories but with the fact that these avenues do not yield truth. Truth must be banished or at least 'postponed' in the quest for probable knowledge. To my mind this is unsatisfactory as the coherency of human understanding is rendered obscure on account of probable physics.
As is well known I have a powerful ally in the greatest of 20th century physicists---Albert Einstein who correctly stated that "God does not play dice with the universe." Indeed, the universe is 'measured', thoroughly finite, this is its principle of order, its proportion. It is 'kosmiotes kosmos' meaning well-ordered cosmos and not some random design.
That the universe is well-ordered is evident to our senses---a single phenomenon of beauty reveals this--the falling leaf, the leaping fish. A poetry of truth! The fact of natural beauty--this very blustery february day---reveals---if not design, at least a phenomenal beauty. If one begins with the fact of phenomenal beauty and then asks: a) what must the universe be like that the phenomenon of beauty is true? and b) How is it possible that the phenomenon of beauty is grasped? and c)how do these two "orders" work in ensemble?
As a matter of fact there are not two orders (the "objective"-the being-true of the phenomenon and the "subjective"-the grasp of the being-true) but only one---the poetic grasp of the beauty of the falling snow which I see is given together with the fact that it is snowing this morning. It is exigent---were it not possible that I could grasp or have a poetic grasp of today; or, were it possible that today could not be present to me, then I could not claim to have seen the beauty of the falling snow today. But I have seen it! And I testify to the truth of this!
Going farther and to state in somewhat crude and primitive expression, things must be what they are and the observer must be in such a way that the ensemble is coherent. And the phenomenon of beauty demonstrates that this is not merely probable but actual.
Robert Archer Smith's physics of light is to my understanding the 'object side' which answers the question: How must the universe be (physics) such that truth is possible? And my inquiry into Realist Psychology is the 'subject side' which answers the question: How is the truth of the universe knowable? These two questions are as it were two sides of a coin---in this analogy, the coin is the given fact of beauty---this birch tree, this crystalline snowflake. How is the universe ordered such that I grasp the phenomenon and how is it possible that I grasp this phenomenon?
Beginning with what is revealed Today as the primordial fact and fundament of my inquiry, indeed the truth of today--how is this set of affairs possible? This inquiry is the way of exigency!
Chaos today not cosmos today reigns in all aspects of human affairs in the contemporary regime---it is so to speak a cockamamey world. It does not require a great deal of intellect to observe that the world has lost its marbles! Politics, medicine, science, academia, religion have all gone astray---to the thinking mind, it is chaos and nonsense. And yet as I gaze through my window in the early morning light I see the beautiful snow falling. I vow to take the beauty that I see and to proclaim this as truthful. This is my quest and my mission and I will persist in it as long as I take my breath as Socrates bravely said. I will not stop thinking and searching for an adequate expression of this truth until death forces me to stop!
Now I ponder the scientific and political world that surrounds me---I see that in all of its essentials---IT IS WRONG. Now I ponder the nature that surrounds me---IT IS GOOD. I realize the Herculean task that greets the lover of beauty and truth in any age but especially in this "world gone wrong." This world must be overthrown intellectually. The Monarchical sway of probability must be beheaded, education and science must be seen for what they are---IGNORANCE. Here I stand, my archimedean point is the snowflake. If it is not worth dying for then it is not worth living for.
What at first seems to be cryptic or even simpleminded in exigency when pondered deeply gives way to a fine elegance as sharp as Ockham's razor. It also dispels us of any notion that there is caprice in the universal order---Cosmos Today. The probabilistic and statistical methods of quantum mechanics set truth and reality into perpetual drift---one need not look far to realize the deleterious consequences of probability in the practical and moral domains of human life. Within a century probability and statistical science have triumphed as the primary method of access to knowledge of any type. And though this has given the fruit of technical manipulation and so-called technical success, it has de-centered the human knower from the fundamental urge to know and understand reality. Truth is set adrift.
Old fashioned as it may seem, my entire intellectual effort has been spent in the pursuit of true knowledge and truth. Having been thoroughly schooled in modern science as well as in statistics, I have met with dissatisfaction, not so much with the scientific dogmas and theories but with the fact that these avenues do not yield truth. Truth must be banished or at least 'postponed' in the quest for probable knowledge. To my mind this is unsatisfactory as the coherency of human understanding is rendered obscure on account of probable physics.
As is well known I have a powerful ally in the greatest of 20th century physicists---Albert Einstein who correctly stated that "God does not play dice with the universe." Indeed, the universe is 'measured', thoroughly finite, this is its principle of order, its proportion. It is 'kosmiotes kosmos' meaning well-ordered cosmos and not some random design.
That the universe is well-ordered is evident to our senses---a single phenomenon of beauty reveals this--the falling leaf, the leaping fish. A poetry of truth! The fact of natural beauty--this very blustery february day---reveals---if not design, at least a phenomenal beauty. If one begins with the fact of phenomenal beauty and then asks: a) what must the universe be like that the phenomenon of beauty is true? and b) How is it possible that the phenomenon of beauty is grasped? and c)how do these two "orders" work in ensemble?
As a matter of fact there are not two orders (the "objective"-the being-true of the phenomenon and the "subjective"-the grasp of the being-true) but only one---the poetic grasp of the beauty of the falling snow which I see is given together with the fact that it is snowing this morning. It is exigent---were it not possible that I could grasp or have a poetic grasp of today; or, were it possible that today could not be present to me, then I could not claim to have seen the beauty of the falling snow today. But I have seen it! And I testify to the truth of this!
Going farther and to state in somewhat crude and primitive expression, things must be what they are and the observer must be in such a way that the ensemble is coherent. And the phenomenon of beauty demonstrates that this is not merely probable but actual.
Robert Archer Smith's physics of light is to my understanding the 'object side' which answers the question: How must the universe be (physics) such that truth is possible? And my inquiry into Realist Psychology is the 'subject side' which answers the question: How is the truth of the universe knowable? These two questions are as it were two sides of a coin---in this analogy, the coin is the given fact of beauty---this birch tree, this crystalline snowflake. How is the universe ordered such that I grasp the phenomenon and how is it possible that I grasp this phenomenon?
Beginning with what is revealed Today as the primordial fact and fundament of my inquiry, indeed the truth of today--how is this set of affairs possible? This inquiry is the way of exigency!
Chaos today not cosmos today reigns in all aspects of human affairs in the contemporary regime---it is so to speak a cockamamey world. It does not require a great deal of intellect to observe that the world has lost its marbles! Politics, medicine, science, academia, religion have all gone astray---to the thinking mind, it is chaos and nonsense. And yet as I gaze through my window in the early morning light I see the beautiful snow falling. I vow to take the beauty that I see and to proclaim this as truthful. This is my quest and my mission and I will persist in it as long as I take my breath as Socrates bravely said. I will not stop thinking and searching for an adequate expression of this truth until death forces me to stop!
Now I ponder the scientific and political world that surrounds me---I see that in all of its essentials---IT IS WRONG. Now I ponder the nature that surrounds me---IT IS GOOD. I realize the Herculean task that greets the lover of beauty and truth in any age but especially in this "world gone wrong." This world must be overthrown intellectually. The Monarchical sway of probability must be beheaded, education and science must be seen for what they are---IGNORANCE. Here I stand, my archimedean point is the snowflake. If it is not worth dying for then it is not worth living for.
