Edwina, List: ET: But what was before the Big Bang?
Again, *Peirce's *cosmology precludes any such definite beginning; and in any case, it is always tricky to talk about what could have "preceded" or come "before" the beginning of time itself. ET: I tend to follow Peirce's outline: 'The initial condition, before the universe exisetd, was not a state of pure abstract being. On the contrary, it was a state of nothing at all, not even a state of emptiness, for even emptiness is something" 6.215 Please keep reading ... CSP: If we are to proceed in a logical and scientific manner, we must, in order to account for the whole universe, suppose an initial condition in which the whole universe was non-existent, and therefore a state of absolute nothing. (CP 6.216, 1898) The whole universe did not yet *exist*, but reality encompasses more than existence. It also includes the *real *world of mind (3ns) and the *real *world of ideas (1ns), both of which are logically prior to the *existing *world of matter (2ns). Peirce continues ... CSP: We start, then, with nothing, pure zero. But this is not the nothing of negation. For *not *means *other than*, and *other *is merely a synonym of the ordinal numeral *second*. As such it implies a first; while the present pure zero is prior to every first. The nothing of negation is the nothing of death, which comes *second *to, or after, everything. But this pure zero is the nothing of not having been born. There is no individual thing, no compulsion, outward nor inward, no law. It is the germinal nothing, in which the whole universe is involved or foreshadowed. As such, it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility--boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law. It is boundless freedom. So of *potential *being there was in that initial state no lack. (CP 6.217) This is "the clean blackboard" as "the original vague potentiality, or at any rate of some early stage of its determination," which is "a continuum of some indefinite multitude of dimensions" (CP 6.203, 1898). Peirce continues ... CSP: Now the question arises, what necessarily resulted from that state of things? But the only sane answer is that where freedom was boundless nothing in particular necessarily resulted. (CP 6.218) Nothing *necessarily* resulted from that state of things, but something *actually *resulted from that state of things. How? CSP: In that state of absolute nility, in or out of time, that is, before or after the evolution of time, there must then have been a tohu-bohu of which nothing whatever affirmative or negative was true universally. There must have been, therefore, a little of everything conceivable. (CP 6.490, 1908) This is an allusion to Genesis 1:2, where the Hebrew phrase *tohu wa bohu* is typically translated as "formless and void." Peirce elsewhere identifies it with "the indeterminate germinal Nothing" (NEM 4:138, 1898), and as I have pointed out before, he also describes it in semeiotic terms reminiscent of John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word [Logos]." CSP: If we are to explain the universe, we must assume that there was in the beginning a state of things in which there was nothing, no reaction and no quality, no matter, no consciousness, no space and no time, but just nothing at all. Not determinately nothing. For that which is determinately not *A* supposes the being of *A* in some mode. Utter indetermination. But a symbol alone is indeterminate. Therefore, Nothing, the indeterminate of the absolute beginning, is a symbol. That is the way in which the beginning of things can alone be understood. (EP 2:322; c. 1904) According Peirce, rather than "utter nothingness," the initial state of things was "utter indetermination," and thus included "a little of everything conceivable." Nothing *existed* yet (2ns), but there was a *real *continuum (3ns) of *real *possibilities (1ns). Again, God as *Ens necessarium*, eternal pure mind, creative of thought (third Universe), imagines an inexhaustible continuum of such possibilities and their combinations (first Universe), and exercises perfect freedom in *choosing *which of them to actualize (second Universe). Mind is primordial, and some of it *becomes *matter. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 1:48 PM Edwina Taborsky <tabor...@primus.ca> wrote: > Gary R, list > > Actually, my reading of Peirce is that neither Matter nor Mind are > primordial; i.e., before the assumed 'Big Bang'. And neither have any > 'primacy'. But, that both co-emerged with that event. > > I wouldn't speculate about the first few moments after the Big > Bang...during which, apparently, the quarks and electrons were formed...and > then, 'a few millionths of a second latter, quarks aggregated to produce > protons and neutrons'. [Note: this sounds like the primordial habit-taking > tendency; i.e., Mind was already 'there', along with Matter'. > > But what was before the Big Bang? I tend to follow Peirce's outline: 'The > initial condition, before the universe exisetd, was not a state of pure > abstract being. On the contrary, it was a state of nothing at all, not even > a state of emptiness, for even emptiness is something" 6.215 > > And "There is no individual thing, no compulsion, outward nor inward, no > law....As such it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility - > boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law" 6.217. > > My reading of the above is that there was no primordial Mind [since Mind > includes Law and compulsion].. ie.. "nothing in particular necessarily > resulted" 6.218 > > My reading of Peirce's account is that the Big Bang produced BOTH Matter > and Mind. And, neither is primordial or has any primacy. > > Edwina >
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