Sunday, November 14, 2010

Alexander and Deity

Alexander's presentation of 'Deity' focuses primarily on its emergent structure as a hitherto non-existent quality that will unify and transcend the entirety of what currently exists, as. e. g. a color emerges from underlying physico-chemical processes. Though an exposition of the quality is premature, Alexander projects its general structure by analogy--it will consist in an objective experience of the subjective dimension of experience, or, in his terminology, a 'contemplation' of 'enjoyment'. However, one peculiarity of this concept is that it is not as unprecedented as Alexander seems to take it to be. For sure, an external understanding of any internal experience, one's own or that of others, seems impossible for humans as currently constituted, but the concept of a God with such powers is nothing new. For, the ability, often attributed to traditional notions of God, to understand one's innermost thoughts, seems already to exemplify a 'contemplation of an enjoyment'. So, if Alexander's Deity is to surpass all hitherto qualities, it's structure will have to be something other than one that has already been conceived.

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