Accessing the Inaccessible - Discussions of philosophy, numena, infinity, and eternity
What is innate to the human mind?
A priori is the notion that individuals have innate knowledge not based on experience simply based on the fact that they are human (think Kant).
A posteriori is the seemingly opposing notion that the knowledge individuals possess comes from some prior experience. Empiricism is built upon this foundation (think Locke or Hume).
I have always had a fascination with archetypes yet very little time to delve deeper into the topic or rather theory of archetypes. Are there certain predispositions that all people share? Is there an innateness to humanity?
This leads us to the idea of phenomena and numena. These concepts fall under the category of various forms of thought and are quite abstract to comprehend.
For example, in my History of Anthropological Theories seminar last semester my professor, Professor Glasser, picked up a plastic bottle and placed it in the center of our circle of desks. We were told to look at the bottle and describe what we see.
We all recognized the existence of the object - we were aware of its physicality although none of us could get up out of our seats to touch it. Yet there is something else, something more. There is an essence of that bottle that is intangible, unavailable to us. We can't see the entirety of the bottle but we have the notion that we are perceiving the bottle. What we do not have is a complete notion of the essence of the bottle - this essence is unattainable and inaccessible, yet exists. We are talking about it now, the bottle's essence. So, what is that? The numena is the idea that there are objects or concepts that are not sensed and that are inaccessible - yet we are aware of their existence.
Said in another way, we have incredible difficulty conceptualizing the universe, yes? Start simply. Imagine the Earth. Now go beyond that. Imagine the Milky Way Galaxy. Now go beyond that. Imagine twenty-five galaxies. Now go beyond that. Imagine one million galaxies. Now go beyond that. Our imaginations can continue on, yet the concepts become inaccessible - our minds cannot compute what one million galaxies must be like nevertheless an infinity of galaxies - the infinitude of the universe. The universe itself.
Yet even still. Imagine that you can place a bounds on the universe, you can talk about it, weight it in your hands - if you can do that, then there is something beyond even the universe. Something outside of the universe. We cannot physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, or humanly understand or express the infinitude of things (think music, math, astronomy, language), yet we know that infinitude exists. We are aware of the limitations of our understanding and our mind and yet we innately know there is something beyond those bounds that we cannot grasp - we cannot attain. The existence of something greater than ourselves, greater than what the human mental capacity can understand: it is ingrained in our being. Something that is outside of these bounds of time, space, and knowledge remains constant.
After acknowledging there is something beyond our limits (our numena) and the finite-ness of the human mind through the innate understanding that there is something more, Kant stopped. He rested his case in claiming that what rests in the numena is inaccessible and thus we can only rely on the phenomena, the things that we can understand, in living our lives.
Kant acknowledged a higher intellectual being but asserted that "it" will forever remain a mystery, unattainable. Most Kantians or those who share in his philosophy declare themselves as strongly agnostic and therefore contend that there is a God but He is inaccessible and cannot be experienced.
"...I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription,
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for,
'in him we live and move and have our being';
as even some of your own poets have said,
"'For we are indeed his offspring.'
Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead (Jesus).'
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, 'We will hear you again about this.'So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed..." (Acts 17:22-34).
If God was unattainable, he made himself known to us by becoming like us.
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:38-40).
Even the simple acknowledgement and concept that we have of the infinitude of life, the infinitude of the universe, of math (you can always add another number), of language (you are constantly creating new sentences that have never been said before) means that we have some predetermined concept of infinity, or eternity.
Let's go deeper. With infinity - it is accepted that infinity goes in both directions, from any given starting point. You can draw an endless ray in either direction. Likewise, infinity, or eternity, exists in two directions. There are two routes of eternity. Heaven or Hell. Eternity exists. It's a matter of which end of eternity you will you end up on.
Scripture points to the truth that people are predispositioned to acknowledge infinity.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Oh, also, eternity doesn't begin when you die. It is in the nature of eternity to constantly exist. So, next time when you're contemplating the universe or eternity, know that you were created to contemplate it. But what's even cooler is that you were created to know the one who you are contemplating - you have been given access to the inaccessible.Â
Live in that knowledge and explore it.
