The Magic Question of Self-Referential Metaphysics
You can count these stones on one hand.
Memorize the following:
1 What
2 about
3 that
4 statement
5 ITSELF?
The whole point of having you memorize that question is so that when you are exposed to general universal claims about knowledge, truth, or reality, you will think about what the implications are for that view itself.
A friend memorized that question, had a eureka moment, it blew his mind, and it changed his life.
Here's a few expanded versions of the question:
Is that statement itself merely the product of the factors it cites as fully explaining or determining everything?
Is that statement ITSELF relative, subjective, economically determined, socially determined, psychologically determined, genetically determined, environmentally determined, evolutionarily determined, illusion, maya, bs, meaningless, stated only because of the speaker's or writer's background, or due solely to some combination of explanatory or determining factors?
Or is that statement itself getting its own free ride past scrutiny?
Memorizing at least the first of these key questions is your ticket to developing a thoroughly rational metaphysic without having to read a lot of books, online essays and discussions, journal articles, and so on.
I'm doing all that dirty work, remember? In fact, what I'm telling you now is part of the result of my reading and analyzing all those sources so that you can benefit from it without having to pick-and-shovel your way to these insights for decades of your life like I did.
Let me do that for you. I will anyway.
Here are the benefits of memorizing the 5-word question and a few others that make up the basis of self-referential metaphysics:
Less to learn
Deepest level of analysis possible
Faster-shorter path to conclusions
Virtually none of the typical obstacles
Opposing arguments build your case for you
A few simple inference tracing principles are all you need
Systemic universal methods of refutation
No more haphazard struggling with first-order objections
Works with all self-referring views
What's not to love? Memorize now!
(Image credit: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo)
