Author News

My publisher, Authorhouse gave me a free deal on a Book Return Program for my two forthcoming books.

That means that there is a small (actual) chance that I may be in bookstores afterall.

Very good news, as far as that goes.

The two books I plan to release in the first four months of 2013 are the following:

The Dimensional Philosopher's Toolkit or, Essential Criticism: The Dimensional Encyclopedia First Volume (2013)

and,

Creeping Cadence and Cadence Continues: Poetry in the Life of a Schizophrenic (2013)

The first is pure philosophy, the second attempts to make my schizophrenic poetry into a useful clinical study.

Proto-Virtual Reality and Social Media

Article I wrote on Ezinearticles.com:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Proto-Virtual-Reality-and-Social-Media&id=7437040

See also my Virtual Reality links at the bottom of the Links box on the left.

New Dimensions of Psychology and the Media

Article I wrote at Ezinearticles.com:

http://ezinearticles.com/?New-Dimensions-of-Psychology-and-the-Media&id=7437014

"Expert Author" Award

My first article at ezinearticles.com earned me an "expert author" badge, whatever that means.

Look forward to more articles by Nathan Coppedge in the next two weeks.

My profile is visible at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Nathan_L_Coppedge

Future articles will be about Psychology, Technology, and Anti-Aging, amongst other things.

Philosophical Response to Serial Killers

I have been putting off responding to the Sandy Hook event, which occurred in this state, although many other philosophy bloggers have felt forced to respond. However, I recently read an article on the subject of mental illness at: http://aphilosopher.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/mental-illness-or-evil/ that reminded me of the pith of the debate. Essentially mental illness is the only exception granted to those that commit such serious crimes. And even mental illness is not always a guarantee of life over death. That double-condition, both of the strong degree of exception, and the seriousness of the punishment, makes me think that this is a worthy subject.

Writing previously about serial killers on Yahoo Answers, my conclusion was that they function by 'string-thinking', a special phenomenon in which common associations are granted additional evil meanings. This has been noted for example, in the Columbine incident, in which the perpetrators had a kind of living fear of 'normals'. In previous decades, other groups have had similar beliefs about government, business establishments, or even God (what I might call the visual folly of Marx).

These thinking patterns often share similar characteristics, such as simplistic plays on words, exaggerations or assumptions about popular figures such as Madonna, Marx, or Yahweh, and a striking rapid connectivity between one set of assumptions and the next, which may hinge on the previously mentioned plays on words.

Yet, as the problem goes, these problems are contextual: a philosopher can argue that there was some degree of 'authenticity' within these events, which was undeniable for those individuals, just like our own actions are undeniable for us. To some extent, the denial of fundamental authenticity is equally condemnable in anyone. According to that view, the only argument against the killer was that they were being inauthentic. Or perhaps that they were arguing. And their own language patterns may have been based on this same extended argument, with a stipulation for the materialism, e.g. they couldn't argue that guns weren't authentic. But I would like to escape this stem of the argument, because it seems inescapable. Clearly a feminist can argue that guns aren't authentic. They aren't feminine. But at this point the killer says that he wants to see a whore. And then there's no response.

So the choice is to deny authenticity without denying the context (not 'hard' context) so that the philosopher would have a different response. One way to do this is to say that the context is significant. Yet if the context is significant, and the would-be killers are not significant, there is a further problem relating to basic masculinity, which in the worst cases may seem unsolvable. Yet the fundamental choice is a choice for insignificance, at least under the terms that the killer would use, suggesting that barriers may exist that are reinforced by society. These barriers are more real for those people than almost anyone else. If there weren't a barrier, there might not be a problem. On this level, these figures may be looking for political significance like breaking down the Berlin Wall, or someone flirting with them or something. At this point the problem looks emotional. Or, it may be a problem with purposefulness. Purposefulness I think is too much of a confusion. It is better to see that emotions are possible or impossible. The evil caveat looks like 'improbable'. So that's a sort of dead end. We have to conclude either that the individuals are significant, or that the context is insignificant.

What this suggests is that the means to persuade a would-be evil-doer into taking a more emotional approach is to convince them that their context is insignificant, or in some way, that they are significant. While in the second case the route for serious cases looks like hiring them for a guns-related job, which may not be desirable, or may involve charity dollars, in the first case there may be an opening in using propaganda based on government, or even science fiction movies, as a motivator. The evil caveat is that they're ahead of the curve. Reverse psychology no longer works.

So, paradoxically to a psychologist, the thing to do is be positive and authentic. Although this is difficult, it is more statistically relevant than responding to the worst cases with misguided specialized treatment, such as standard morality, reprimands, or reverse psychology. Many of these look like the same thing to someone who would consider shooting people. The vicious circular argument produced here is that at some point in the process of reasoning the would-be-killers are materialists who love their guns. Differences from this line of reasoning are expressed largely in a historical frame of mind, such as land ownership and family feuds.

Life's Propinquities

Points at which I realized a particular form of thought concerning a great nothingness:

1. Lynn, my step-mother, commented that June bugs and cicadas are not the same thing.

2. A wooden figure carved for a Unitarian church seemed not to be a symbol of anything.

3. Playing LAN games with a friend in California, no one seemed to be winning or losing.

4. I conceived that a clay turtle I designed in grade school was a basis for my pseudonym.

5. It seemed that pure work of sketching a tree was the primary influence for designing systems.

6. Playing Jedi Knight II, I mused that I only cheated during one of the levels.

7. The symbol for Commonwheel seemed to pre-date perpetual motion.

[This writing originally included the notes:

When I originally heard the word propinquity I thought it meant "an occasional thought". I'm following through with that definition here. That definition can be developed to mean, "a thought based on associations or influences, a manisterianism, eglagogy, or elan-mistre / mise en scene".

These aspects of definition have come to bear in a number of incidents in my life, as points of insight about life and thought. Here are some examples...].

Studies of Cleverness

I was recently reading an article on a human resources website about cleverness: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=351825505

The topic struck me as yet another iteration of the application error, the idea that context supplies a highly specific answer which is not as objective as might be assumed.

In my own studies of cleverness, which are not so 'HR', I look at the root aspects, seeking to find the network of associations and natural kinds. The result is a variation from a datum, in which variation occurs by hypocrisy, generation into complexity, or degeneration into obviousness. In this particular study the essential nature is lies. In future studies there may be real principles of cleverness which I distinguish are not objective in the sense of providing a product, not unless there is a strong qualification.

Categories of Cleverness:

[1] Denial of the obvious
[2] Indulgence in the obvious
[3] Using the obvious as a shield for nothing
[4] Shielding a small detail with complexity
[5] Complexifying basic information
[6] Inventing an elaborate explanation to
explain what would not otherwise be explained
[7] Explaining complexity
[8] Replacing simplicity with complexity
[9] Performing complexity

Important Archetypes of Quadratics

NEW ARCHETYPES emerge in the use of quadratics, especially:

The Double-Dualism, such as time-travel, dimensional consciousness, and global government

Paradigms which do not accept traditional dualism, such as Intermediate Interface and Inter-Personal Psyche

Contexts and Applications for these things, according to the view that the fourth dimension is the dynamic of hyper-dimension: time-traveling buildings, time-traveling economies, professional artists, citizen-as-government, modularity, physical perpetual motion (a stage between the old paradigm of immortal bodies and the future stage of spiritual continuity)

BACKGROUND: The archetypes of a given period of time often correspond to the number of millenia that have passed according to the calendar. So for example, the first millenia is represented by a circle (one loop), the second millenium is represented by infinity (two loops), and the third millenium is represented by the synergy (three-loops). Thus, technically speaking we have not yet entered the era of the quadra. There is consequently reason to believe that the quadra still presents a realm of prophecy.

However, there are major precedents for the quadra and other systems dating back to the ancient Chinese. The system of five elements sometimes includes one element called void, which suggests that materially it is a system of four. This may be why Aristotle saw the fourth degree as referring to the earth element (also, plots of land are often laid out in squares for organization).

Extending further, quadra may also be seen as referring to books, which have four or eight corners depending on whether they are open or closed. Part of the mythology of the book developed even further when the fourth dimension was associated with Time, Mercury, and en-genesis.

However, it may be important to note that the fourth dimension in reference to time may easily be extended further down the line, leaving hyper-cubes in place of "true" dynamics. In this sense the hyper-cube is the fourth dimension.

Adding the earlier elements, there is a nature to add the knowledge of books and the knowledge of elements (and the knowledge of Mercury and Genesis?) to the hyper-cube.

What results, in my mind, is an exaggeration of the meaning of ordinary elements which refer to the number four:

BOOK represents WORLD

CROSSED STICKS represent KNOWLEDGE

TREES represent SYSTEMS

TECHNOLOGY / CIVILIZATION / PARADISE represents THE MIND

Important Archetypes of Dualism

Double-Thought: such as transience, paradox, dichotomy, juxtaposition

Double-Mind: such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, or a Jekyl and Hyde mentality

Double-City: a city that surrealistically exists even beneath the surface of a puddle, this is depicted well and poetically in the book Pile: Petals from St. Klyde's Computer.

Double-World: a world that exists on axes which represent opposing qualities of the world, nature, politics, magic, or ideologies. This is often called The Antipodes, after an expression by Aristotle; similar expressions are gamut, axiom, apogee, and stricture.

Double-Universe: such as depicted by the Yin-Yang represents duality at every level.

Nathan Coppedge's Processes of Productivity

Organized in quadrants according to the Cartesian method, these four methods give procedures for structuring, organizing, and assessing creative productivity, even for those that feel like clods. The first method is the Productive Method, the second is the Inspired Method, the third is the Methodic Method, and the fourth is the Systemic Method. Collectively they are pretty significant, although some may argue that these methods are highly specific to my own deliberate method orientation. But, I do get results. So I encourage those who visit my blog to suggest others read this material, just for the sake of academic interest if nothing else. These are highly interesting to me, in my studies of my productivity and creativity.

The Dimensional Philosopher's Toolkit, or The Essential Criticism

BOOK DESCRIPTION

---Not a prolegomena, a foundation.---As an avant-garde artist and student of philosophy, Nathan Coppedge feels uniquely qualified to offer a radical manual suited to the new study of categorical philosophy termed dimensionism. Essentially and critically, this body of thought is a movement beyond several major prior vanguards in philosophical history and critique, including the precepts of Immanuel Kant, the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and the atomical knowledge forms of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is through an especially coherent and exclusive theory that Coppedge’s work remains theoretically grounded. This work is an encyclopedia of new thought, offering a complex vantage point on voluminous quantities of insights.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dimensional-Philosophers-Toolkit-Encyclopedia/dp/1481704575/

I have been attracting philosophers

To my Twitter profile twitter.com/nathancoppedge

I hope some of them buy my book next year.

I have developed a list of all the philosophers and philosophy students that I have attracted to my Twitter profile. It's a significant percentage of them. Here is the link to the list.

My forthcoming book, The Dimensional Philosopher's Toolkit focuses on coherent typologies, and argues a number of positions, such as a revision of truth predicates and a more fundamental view of mathematics. Most of the book is devoted to establishing significant coherent methods with diagrams, using polarized opposites in a manner that strikes me as original and authentic.

Working Method 10: Rumination Folds

1. Are physical states meditating states? Are they ever obsolete?

2. Is higher reality material in some sense? Can real beings really manifest reality?

3. Does spirituality have more than one feeling? Is life just a privilege?

4. Is state of mind a state of ownership? Is life just a series of messages that merit being answered, perhaps by a feeling that doesn't intrinsically belong to the self?

5. Is subtlety lost for everyone who commits to knowledge, must something be thrown away? Isn't history more real than realization?

6. Isn't failure or success the interaction of parasites who require no conscious knowledge at all? Aren't murderers dreamers?

7. Isn't illusion an illusion? Isn't everything obvious to those who aren't taught anything? Or more so than receiving a simple confusing message? Isn't life complex and self-solving? Shouldn't we be granted the right kind of opportunity, if we are thoughtful, or laboring, or giving?

8. Doesn't everything confirm some sort of reality, which does not explain uselessness? Yet isn't laziness the most understandable thing? Do I have to be a robber to realize useful thinking?

9. Isn't significance inevitable if there has been infinite sacrifice? Yet isn't the smallest sacrifice regrettable?

10. Isn't consciousness maddening when it isn't complacent?

11. But isn't complacency more expensive and useless?

12. Is there a choice between trickery and fools?

13. Isn't that a compromise of intelligence?

14. Is everything deferred for judgment?

15. Isn't a citizen from sacrifice a king?

16. If we are not Plato, must we be victims or images, 'no matter who we are'?

17. Is pain a thoughtless error?

18. Is it deferred that thought is more than brilliant pain?

19. Am I a loss if I have a principle and a disadvantage which are both real?

20. Does nothing occur which is not fashionable?

21. Is sex a theory to dying fact?

22. Does everything depend on law, to the unreasonable?

23. Must we believe an accident is bigger than any life?

24. In architecture and prosperity, must we choose between death and a dream?

Components of Time Travel

Based roughly on some of the writings by the philosopher David K. Lewis at "Paradoxes of Time Travel": http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/merlinos/Paradoxes%20of%20Time%20Travel.pdf

The writing suggests one factor, determination, to be one of the constituent lower dimensions that compose the third.

In a strictly quadratic system, with a minimal of fuss the fourth dimension has to do with closing the loop between non-exclusive and exclusive concepts of system. If categories one two and three are a somewhat archetypal trinity, the fourth must close the loop, accounting for many exceptions to the rule that occur in all three categories.

Sometimes the fourth category is generic, e.g. when categories one through three are a specialized set. Then it must make a general theory about the nature of all the missing information. But the first three categories simplify this. Conversely, when the first three categories are generic, the fourth category must be a highly specialized theory which accounts for the specialized data missing from all three categories. That is, in the case of a quadratic set of categories, a four-dimensional typology.

Time Travel Quadra:

1. Entities (Mode of Operation)
2. Determination (Volition)
3. Associations (Assumptive References)
4. Pattern of Simulation (Copied from 1-3)

This is designed to be an adequate reference framework even in the case of technologies that mimic subtle or magical time travel.

My assumption is that time travel can be defined cogently as "a mental change of location"---consider how subtle this definition is, and then if it is impossible in extenuating circumstances, for example, for a social pariah, the president, or a yogi in the mountains.

Problems may emerge in this mental-technical concept of time travel, such as:

A. Multiple entities have contrasting associations, in other words, they are not integrable, a form of bifurcation error;
B. Pattern of simulation fails to refer to reality, a lack of omniscience;
C. Determination lacks authority to make meaningful changes to reality (intellectual, social, or technological failure)
D. Entity simply lacks a conceptual framework to utilize time travel, especially the case of lacking any associative framework for comparing the past with the future, with the present, etc. (a failure of ambition).

An Argument on Irrationalism

Consider a robot who has evidence of emotions; Seemingly non-emotion cannot be proved a posteriori;

So, despite the appeal of a posteriori claims like causality, they are not universal;

(But do they describe what we do not know?);

But let us claim that time travel is not refuted: it is natural; We are only refusing causal reasoning;

Now, the question goes, can we refute rationalism or irrationalism?;

I see no reason to refute rationalism, according to the view that it is a strong claim on minimalism, e.g. 'definitions'; Outside of definitions we are referring to something less universal (in reference to rationalism);

Indeed, irrationalism is a larger claim, since in some view, which is equivalent to a nominal theory, something that can be imagined to be true, all rational claims are potentially irrational; This is not true of irrationalism;

This goes to show that it is possible to have a theory that is mind dependent and reality-independent, which in my view supports coherentism, e.g. conceptualism.

Nano Perpetual Motion

(1) The question is, what is the mean energy
and (2) Does it disappear
or (3) Is there a way to prevent it from disappearing, and
(4) Is there a way to get motion without energy, or more motion than energy
(5) Can things be spent that are not energy and (6) With or without permanent expenditure, is it possible to have permanent energy, and (7)How does one anticipate exponents even when 'absolute' energy is daunting, (8) How to factor fractions according to the principles of volitional mechanics
(9) How to standardize integers (of energy) and (10) How to close the cycle and
(11) How to supplement the cycle and (12) Above all, how to quantify

An Affirmative Dream

I had a dream that I was taking a math class and opened locker 247;

This is exactly the kind of dream I would have if my previous statement that I was Euler had some truth; I don't normally dream about waking life; For my dreams are prone to understatement, and so taking a class in my dream could not mean merely (as it is) that I'm taking a math class in real life; But this may be a fault related to the accessory condition which would explain that all dreams are about the future; But my feeling was it was about the past, and the locker represented my early commitment to 'cubism' i.e. hyper-cubism and the math class represented Euler's mathematical gift (or the madman's gift, when the madman called himself Euler), perhaps including Asberger's, which could explain the reference to chairs in a classroom, representing the classroom itself;

On the other hand, the dream expresses a number of mistakes, including an absence of memorable equations, and an assumption that Asberger's represents a swear::

Macroscopy and Microscopy

In the study of language, few significances are more intriguing than the combination of related prefixes with meaningful suffixes; In this case I will explain an example of the use of macroscopy and microscopy, two words which seem initially intriguing by reference to technology and metaphysics:

[1] Macroscopy: A medicine is said to be best taken once every ten to fifty years

[2] Microscopy: This is the same case where the dose of medication is very small

Metaphorically, similar patterns emerge with other instances of the same; For now, this seems sufficient to explain the subject, but in a dimensional framework surely other standpoints exist::

Recovered Proof by Euler on Irrational Numbers?

"By the time I return to experience, it is the world which seems great; (But I don't expect you to understand; It is a riddle about math)" ---Euler, from an unrecorded interview

"It meant so much to you that you've forgotten what it meant" ---The voice in Euler's head

I have been thinking that I lived a past life as a sick boy during World War I, and have hypothesized that I may have had a mathematical gift; Based on that, I have recently wondered if it's possible that I was Euler; Are these half-remembered fragments of a forgotten Euler equation or proof?

The memory centers around an interview while I was ill, during which I thought of five related equations or equation fragments, which supposedly constitute a proof about irrational numbers; But I warn you, my powers are not too sharp now;

Perhaps I was a madman who merely believed he was Euler; Maybe the equations are still interesting to some people::

The Study of Big Assumptions

"Nature is philosophy"

"Art is dimension"

"Night is stealth"

I take these to be beautiful assessments of the middle ground between minimalism and hyperbolism. I posted these on Twitter @nathancoppedge as aphoristic quotations, using the tag #bigassumptions (the archetype).

Each of these makes a large claim, which may be ultimately questionable. But do these set a standard for what is right and wrong? At some point, via qualities, an assessment of hyperbole may be adequate for a certain amount of descriptiveness. Even when big assumptions are expressed, with the right stipulations, at the point that the claim may be argued to be too generic, it also expresses the nature of other, undeclared cases of 'big assumptions'; It is just at this point when the very nature of big assumptions is at its peak of accuracy.

The Faults of Sleeplessness

Here is depicted four relatively exclusive categories which explain the sources of sleeplessness; According to my theory, the root cause of sleeplessness when nothing else is responsible is fault to the regulatory system, especially the medula, which may occur in many types of ways; When there is some potential for fault with the medula, other problems may emerge, including intellectual inattentiveness or thoughtlessness, over-stimulation from chemicals or simply excited experiences, and manic obsession with thoughts.

Problems with a Number of Things

Art:
1. Cigarettes
2. The lottery
3. Pointillism
4. Philosophy

Immortality:
1. Candy
2. Tooth decay
3. Epiphenomenalism
4.Subjective advantages / Objective failures

Science:
1. Bad branding
2. Education bottleneck
3. Lack of privilege, physical constraints
4. Excess of privilege, lack of argument

Real Life Encounter with the Philosopher Colin McGinn

Most of my real-world experience with philosophers occurred during a short childhood camping trip my mother arranged; She had noticed that I was interested in philosophy, and offered to meet one of America's famous philosophers to see what he had to say (at the time, I had assumed that most philosophers were European); The name I chose off a list was Colin McGinn;

I said 'What my mother told me to say was that I'm interested in philosophy and I like to think'

He asked me 'What is your favorite problem?'

I replied 'I don't know, I guess I'm confused'

He replied, 'I like paradoxes, the more you use them, the more you think you can think; As it turns out, thinking that you think is very important in philosophy'

'What else is important?'

'You know what else is important? Abstract answers; Most philosophers think abstract answers are the key secret; I think it's less important, but that is just me; Every philosopher has her or his own preferences; It might turn out that you are an abstract kind of philosopher; It's up to you'

At that point my mother peeked in, and he said, 'I advocate what I call equal identical properties of matter; Everyone has a home, and everyone goes home; So no one's left alone; Know what I mean?'

'I don't know what you mean' I said; 'I was talking to your mother' he said;

'I don't know, do you want to continue?' She said; 'I'm sure he's interested';

He asked me 'What's your choice of religion?'

I replied, 'I'm Unitarian Universalist';

'Well, that gives you a head start' he said

He asked me, 'Who is your favorite philosopher?'

I replied 'I guess Plato'

He replied 'The thing you should know about Plato, is it's always about something else'

I replied 'I'm not sure what you mean'

He said 'I mean, with Plato, like Socrates before him, it's always about some new category, like Ethics or even philosophy itself; You might not know this, but Plato invented ethics; At least as we know it today; There's a good case that he invented religion, at least as we know it today; He invented God'

'I guess that's all I need to know, thank you'

'Wait, there's one another thing you should know' he said; 'I'm a millionaire'

'You mean spiritually?'

'No, I really am one'

'So can I have some?' 'Get lost, kid'

Later I had a voice in my head; It was my mother's voice; It said: You know, that really wasn't Colin McGinn, it was somebody else; I thought you would know; That's what philosophy is all about;

I thought, I guess having this thought is what philosophy's all about;

I felt connected to women, nature, and the universe at the same time;

Later my mother told him 'You seemed to influence him a lot; I can see him thinking'

I asked my mother: 'Was that really Colin McGinn?'

She replied, 'Yes, it was'

'Wow'


OTHER STORIES:

The Story of How I Was Offered a Time-Cube

My 5 Seconds with Warren G. Buffett

My Willful Abduction by Seth Rogen

Abducted by John M and His Father

The Casino

Precepts of Dimensional Psychology

1. "Dimensionism is the principle of the psyche whereby it might be quantified, even when it is qualified"

2. "What denies the psychic in psychology is precisely what denies that it is a discipline"

3. "The attempts at psychoanalysis are attempts at realizing the relationship between meaning and education"

4. "The argument for psychology is the argument for propter hoc reality"

5. "While philosophy provides a context for any caveat, psychology by working with people caveats no caveat"

All quotes by Nathan Coppedge as shown on Twitter.com/nathancoppedge #precepts #dimensionalpsychology #quotes #quotations

Knowing How to Sleep

1. Go to bed at a good time

2. Learn to soothe the brain, such as by drinking tea and avoiding coffee

3. Avoid the hardest thoughts

4. Remain thoughtful throughout the time leading up to sleep

5. Immerse yourself in a dream-state without losing these previous goals

Maxims and Mantras

"Sometimes discretion is not discrete" --Maxims

"Always positivism unless there is a requisite for specialism" --Maxims


"For every reality there is a form of structural reality" --High Mantras

"It works to favor neutrals" ---High Mantras



See also other quotations on my twitter profile: http://www.twitter.com/nathancoppedge