Thursday, July 25, 2019

Indefinite Dyad and Ordinal Axiology

For some neo-Platonists, and perhaps Plato himself, e. g. in The Laws, The One vs. Indefinite Dyad contrast has Theological and Moral implications that have been influential.  For example, The One signifies God, and the Good, while the Indefinite Dyad signifies the Demiurge, and Evil.  Consequently, the doctrine has been a factor in the long tradition of Axiological dualism.  However, as has been previously discussed, the neo-Platonist concept of the two principles is informed by Cardinal Numerology, to which an Ordinal alternative is possible.  According to that alternative, the Indefinite Dyad is the infinite sequence of First, Second, etc., from which the concept of The One is derived via hypostasization and abstraction.  Likewise, an Ordinal Axiology is available, beginning with the Best, perhaps ending with the Worst, within which the fundamental evaluative contrast is Better vs. Worse.  One prominent example of Ordinal Axiology, though rarely recognized as such, is Utilitarianism, but the more significant one has been obscured.  That is Nietzsche's concept of an Order of Rank, an important feature of his repudiation of the long history of Theological and Moral Dualism.  However, that Axiological concept has gotten overshadowed by his own apparent commitment to an inversion of the predominant Good vs. Evil dualism, which is actually not a commitment at all, but only an unearthing of an alternative dualism, i. e. Master Morality, in the genealogy of the predominant dualism.  Instead, his actual commitment to the more radical Ordinal alternative remains affirmed but underdeveloped in the projected Will to Power collection.  So, while Utilitarianism carries on the tradition of Ordinal Axiology, Nietzsche's more explicit version has gotten lost in the attention to the more controversial parts of his oeuvre.

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