The Ontology of I-Thou

     This is me, some years ago.

          This is me just a few days ago.

Frankenstein's Boy

If I could retrieve all my losses --
The hair the barber took,
The fingernail and toenail clippings,
My discarded tonsils,
And foreskin,
The baby teeth sold to the fairy for only dimes,
And teeth extracted due to disease,
And could add the scars and other residue of ancient injuries,
Is there not some alchemy by which I could concoct from all this
A child a nature --
A little golden Frankenstein's boy
Playing in a limpid stream
On the eve a great discovery?

In The Ontology of I-Thou I am exploring ways of thinking about the ontology of relationships. In other words, I am asking “what is a relationship?” As the primary data I am using a selection of intense memories from my own life. That’s what gives this book an autobiographical slant. If I provoke any thought on this topic I am successful.

I begin my reflections with a primary ontological assumption – specifically, that what we call matter and what we call mind are two aspects of the same thing – the same kind of “being.” Philosophically I think this is close to what Spinoza thought. But I do not follow him exactly. I do think that ultimately mind is the more primary. A plausible way of understanding how “mind” produces “matter” was suggested by the philosopher, Charles Pierce. His suggestion was that what we call matter is the primary substance of the universe as it has become fixed in its habits. As it becomes fixed in its habits, its interactions with other entities becomes more mechanical.

There are some interesting ramifications to the above primary assumption that merit exploration. One important ramification is that that what is true of “matter” is true of “mind.” If it is true that matter is neither created nor destroyed, we have to assume the same is true of mind. Another important ramification derives from the fact that with physical systems it is impossible to define a single entity all by itself. It is always defined by how it is related to other things. The relationship is primary. If the same is true of mind, we are the sum total of all our relationships.

If mind is neither created nor destroyed, and who we are is defined by our relationships, we must speculate that at least some of our relationships are eternal. Or at least they will last for the duration of this universe.

Whether we want to or not, we tend to absorb the materialism of our culture, and that becomes the lens through which we perceive reality. Contrary to this materialism, I am suggesting that in its most primary manifestation the stuff of reality is more mind-like than thing-like. As a result, in our normal dealings with reality we are seeing the negative of a photograph and taking it for the print – for the way things really are.

These are simply intuitions. A truly clear and adequate statement of what I “intuit” always eludes me.

A hard copy of The Ontology of I-Thou is  available from Lulu.com, under my pen name, Jay Edson.

Or you can  Click here to download a complete PDF of The Ontology of I-Thou.