First and Individual

Counting is a continuous, cumulative process. Thus, though it is commonly conducted in the medium of Cardinal, i. e. discrete, Numbers, i. e. #1, #2, #3, etc., they are abstractions from the continuum of Ordinal Numbers, i. e. First, Second, Third, etc. Thus, the quantity One is an abstraction from First, that, therefore, gets segregated from subsequent members of the continuum. Now, the field of the ordinary experience of each person is a continuum in which one appears to oneself as 'First', with respect to which others, as relatively more remote, are 'Seconds', 'Thirds', etc. Thus, the concept of oneself as an 'individual', i. e. as a quantity of One, fragments the experiential field, thereby isolating oneself from others. As a result, what is originally an ordered continuum of Self and Others, gets corrupted into a mutually exclusive Self-Other antithesis, typically expressed in apparent antagonisms, such as 'Selfishness vs. Altruism'. In other words, some staples of contemporary Political debates are figments of a corrupted mindset.