Topical Index 

(see the Commentary below)

An annotated contents  (old)

Index  (old)

 

0.  Introduction,  & (part 2),  Recap (brief list of explanatory links)  

0.01  New!  Here are the contents of this website as of 12/3/05, including the text of the pdf files.  It is a 3 meg file.  Lacking a search tool onsite, it could be used to search off-line.  This was concatenation performed by an anonymous volunteer.  WYSIWYG.  Note that Google's site-search function may now be used here.

------------------------------

Even Newer.... 

9-12-10. I'm using Notepad++ and FileZilla. I have never used an HTML editor. I may need to install an old copy of MS ExpressionWeb that I've never used. Testing...123...testing! Well, it worked, sort of, but I do need a WYSIWYG editor!  

Ok, now I'm using ms/ew.......   Hey, this is working, too.  Not too shabby, and not so difficult if I use ms/ew on individual local files, and don't have to set up a duplicate website. 

What I mainly wanted to do is point to where I have been for the past few years..........

Open Minds Forum Reality Uncovered FacebookPhysics Forum

Another site to search is Starpod.  See my instructions, 9/15, on the following page. 

And here is the new page, definitely under construction.....

------------------------

The Topical Index proper comes after the following chronological section.  Notice also that there are summary pdf files in section 0.2.  These also may serve as introductory material.       

[10/8/07] Work is beginning on a New Topical Index and Syllabus.  There is also a new Recap page. 

What follows here are the more recent pages listed chronologically.  These pages take the form of a weblog. 

    0.1  On the Web (a continuing weblog)  (in chron. order: 7/10 - 8/8/2002): 

ImmaterialismMind,  PostmodernismEschatology,  A Hard Core of Truth Seekers?,  Funda-Mental& (part 2),  Quine's Holism,  Jerry Fodor & Co.,  'Naturalism in Question',   A de facto Dualism,  Mind-Body & God,  Theistic IdealismCharles S. PeirceC. S. Lewis,  Bomb + Internet >= better than a Saucer?!,  Idealist Cosmology,  Holographic Universe,  Teilhard's Omega,  Tipler's Omega,  Blood in the Water?,  From Intangibles to Memes,  

(9/7/02 to 12/21/02):  

The Observation Factor& (part 2)MaterialismCoherence II,  Dan Hutto,  Mind-Body Debate,  Huw Price,  Atomism & TranshumanismRepresentation, etc.,  Who's Keeping Score?,  Coherence Theory,  Aristotle Gets Real,  Representation, Reduction, etc.,  Nature & Plato, etc.,  Rationalism vs. Naturalism and other Orthodoxies,  What Is There?,  Coherence,  How to See,  Alice Through the Looking Glass,  Direct Realism,  Do Ideas Count?,  A Semiotic Answer?,  El Camino Real,  Gospel of the Real,  East is East & West is West,  Creation & Maya,  The Epistemic-Ontic Divide

(1/8/03 to 2008): 

On the Side of Reason,  Messianism,  The Force is with Us,  Unreasonable Coherence,  Creation vs. Evolution,  OmegaNumbers,  Symmetry,  Bootstrap,  Mandelbrot Mystery,  Tar Baby,  Cosmic Dialectics,  Recap,  Crisis,  All or Nothing,  Triumph of Science?,  Angelic Doctor,  Solving the World's Problems,  AgoraphiliaEnd Times & Apokatastasis,  More of the Same,  The Heart of the MatterThe Mandelbrot RevisitedForeseeing the Second ComingEnd Game?Atoms Theism & Pantheism,  Rather GoodMind Bridges & PortalsShow Time?Showdown,  VLAA/SDPProof in the Pudding,  Mirage Men (R),  RecapXmas SurpriseBack to BeginningBPWH TutorialHands on a Hard Body,  Saving the AppearancesThe Soul Question End of the Tunnel, Ultra- vs. Extra-Terrestrial,    [<<< Latest page goes here!]

 

    0.2  [4/7/05]  I'm still working on The Second Coming: for all us Dummies: (formats: PDF, MHT, PPT, RTF).  And I may be working on this for some time, yet.  The most current version will usually be the PDF version.  If we can make this material sufficiently user friendly, then who is to say that we cannot save the world from materialism?  [aComments on Dummies.

    0.2a  [5/1/05]  I'm starting on a pdf for a prospective project with Jack SarfattiBPW Physics

    0.2b  [5/2/05]  Here is another point of departure for the project: The Just So Story of the Universe.

    0.2c  [5/6]  Yet another perspective: The Lone Ranger & Tonto.

    0.2d  [5/22]  Go west, young man: Parousia by the Bay.

    0.2f  [6/2]  On Being Focused

0.3  [4/16/05]  Here is a link to the contents of my original website Aquarium Contents dating from 1998 - 2000.  This was on clark.net, and the internal links still referring to that url have not been updated.  I will be attempting to explain the old website here: Comments on the original website.  (The cosmology diagrams on the old website are as follows: here is one link.  You will see some diagrams mentioned down towards the bottom of the page.  Then there is this, and this.) 

    0.4  [4/27/05]  The latest upgrade is to exploit Google's AdWord facility.  Here is the 'landing page' for those clicking through from Google's right hand column. 

    0.5  When I was in San Francisco in October '05, Jack and I recorded this conversation that has been transcribed

0.6  Here is a personal chronological summary.  (And see 7/14ff on nexu.52)

 

1.  Best Possible World (BPW):  

The Best Possible World Page,  How Many Worlds?,  Best World for Whom?

2.  Metaphysics:  

A Metaphysical Introduction,  The Observation Factor& (part 2),  

3.  God:  

Introduction to God,  & (part 2),  Beyond Naturalism?RationalismRational TheismThe Ecology of ExistencePantheismHow Many Buddhas?,  (also see personalism), 

4.  Metanarrative:  

Introducing the Metanarrative 

 

 

Commentary  (7/12/02)

 

[Note that the most recent additions, in the form of a weblog, appear grouped in chronological order near the top of this page.]

Here you have it in a nutshell.  If you have a familiarity with these four topics as treated herein, you may claim to have an overview of my philosophy, for better or worse.  Please note the three separate introductory pages under each major topic as well as the Introduction.  As of just now I would point to Introduction to God (part 2) as nearest to the crux of the issues being treated here.  [4/21/05 - Now also consider this.]

The idea of the BPW is the logical start and finish.  We like to complain about things, and with much cause, but that hardly proves that this is not the best possible world.  

If any part of this world turns out not to be explained by just atoms swerving in the dark, then, hallelujah,  none of it need be so explained.  Then we are permitted to turn our metaphysical attention from Newton to Leibniz, the originator of the BPW concept.  End of story, almost. 

Taking the leap from materialism to immaterialism opens the door to the gestalt of a world stood on its head, and to almost every other possibility including, of course, the BPW possibility. 

In questioning the authority of atoms, we consider reductionism vs. relationalism.  It is hard to see how reductionism still retains as much influence as it does.  We press ahead to the relational view associated with immaterialism and idealism.  Coherence wins the day.  Is anyone rooting for incoherence?  

If the atoms are not in charge, and naturalism is on shaky ground, to what do we turn?  How about to the Self and thence to the supernatural?  It may not be your father's God, but she will do in a pinch.  It will justify our consideration of the BPW.  We take up the all revealing issue of concealment. 

And finally the Big Story.  I don't want to give away too much, but it does have a beginning, middle and end.  It is a participatory drama in three acts and no intermissions.  It might behoove us to have a strategy regarding our participation.  Just a thought. 

 

Index  (old)

An annotated contents  (old)

Best Possible World (start)

email: dantsmith@comcast.net

 

9/8/02