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Original Aspects Page

(Up to 3 March 2003.)

Aspects of Reality

These pages discuss the nature and kernel meaning of Dooyeweerd's proposed fifteen aspects of reality (also called modalities or spheres), and such issues as what is an aspect, why the aspects are important and whether there are any other aspects. Since the understanding of this approach is developing, constructive comments and queries are welcomed. Fifteen aspects that Dooyeweerd discussed are: The structure of each aspect page is explained in the file ax.html, and each heading in each page has a small letter x , which will take you directly to the relevant explanation of that heading.

The kernels of the aspects are displayed as a table in kernels.html.

Briefly ...

No aspect is absolute, that is able to act as a firm foundation on which everything else is based. These aspects have their own laws, irreducible to each other. But with certain dependencies that places the aspects in a sequence, and analogies by which in each aspect we find 'echoes' of all the others, leading to anticipations and retrocipations.

Entities (pebbles, roses, sparrows, humans, etc.) function in some as subject, in others as object. The kernel meanings of the aspects are not always as Western Man would expect. Each aspect provides a different way of knowing (and also distinct things to know) and thus defines a special science, and also certain institutions, though these are secondary to their kernel meanings. Benefit comes from keeping them in balance; harm from ignoring or elevating one or from going against their laws.

Using these aspects aids clarification of complex issues. Human behaviour and living is multi-aspectual, which provides a means of understanding diversity of repercussions in the Shalom Hypothesis. This aids multi-disciplinary thinking and acting. They restore dignity to everyday activity (as opposed to 'scientific').

A discussion of what constitutes an aspect, as an aspect, can be found in the explanation page, to which the links above make reference. A discussion of what constitutes aspectuality - the aspectual concept, the whole set of aspects taken together - can be found in the aspectuality page. That pages also contains reference to other people's proposed sets of aspects.

Some uses of Dooyeweerdian thinking are discussed in the new page using.dooy.html. Some examples of aspectual analysis:


Back to Dooyeweerd Index.

Written by, and Copyright (c) 1997 of, Andrew Basden as part of the Web pages to explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy.

Questions or comments would be welcome, to "Dooy @ basden . u-net . com", especially if they aid exploration and enriching of the ideas. Last modified (modifying the dates of aspectual pages): 6 23 October 1997, 7 May 1998 (major update the structure of the aspect pages, from comments received at 1998 CTS Swehol Working Conference), 18 May 1998. 26 July 1998. 13 August 1998. 30 August 1998 all the aspect pages were re-structured and tidied. 5 February 1999 kernels. 27 June 1999 added pointer to aspectual analysis of marriage. 5 March 2000. 30 July 2000. 4 October 2000. 7 February 2001 mailto, copyright. 17 July 2001 link to knowledge.html. 18 October 2001 social. 16 January 2002 updated the aspect dates. 15 July 2002 some links updated. 2 August 2002 links to maf.html and some additions to text; new dates on aspects. 14 September 2002 5 aspects updated. 20 November 2002 link to various using/. 12 January 2003 link to anticipation.html and summary. 3 March 2003 .nav, link to knowing.html, kg.types.html.

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