Description of Each Aspect

The Quantitative Aspect

Kernel: Discrete quantity / amount ("numberness").

Experienced as: One, several and many, and comparisons of less and more.

The quantitative aspect and some of its constellation

Good:

Reliable amount and order: Each amount (numberness), other than infinity, always and in all situations retains the same quantitative meaning and differs from all others. 4-ness is always more than 3.9-ness and less than 4.1-ness. This is so fundamental that we usually take it for granted, yet functioning in all other aspects relies on this; so mathematics seems a foundational science.
Ordering: The less-and-more relationship in the quantitative aspect provides us with a natural way of placing things in order: 1, 2, 3, ...

Foundational Dependencies:

None. But the possibility of quantity depends on the Origin of Meaning.

Differences from Neighbours: See Spatial.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 79-93

Quantitative functioning feels like static property of having-an-amount.
Number-of and 'numberness': 4 wheels on a car and 4 points on the compass -- whereas the analytic aspect differentiates wheels from compass-points, and might see two 4s here, the quantitative aspect does not: there is always only one 4. It is not number-of-things that exists quantitatively, but what we might call 'numberness', quantity-as-such: 4-ness, 1-ness, 146-ness, 3/4-ness, 3.9-ness and so on.
Dooyeweerd places continual emphasis on "unity and multiplicity", "the one and the many", stressing that quantity is discrete, not continuous. He sees ratios as relationships whereas I see them also as amounts in their own right.

Analogies of this Aspect:

"More beautiful, faithful, costly, understandable ..." and correspondly, "Less ...", and the suffixes "-er" and "-est" denote quantitative analogies in almost all other aspects.
Equality is a quantitative analogy; beware!

Mistakes:

The kernel is amount or quantity, not number, since number implies lingual symbols.
Counting, though led by the quantitative aspect, also involves analytical functioning (distinguishing things to count) and lingual symbolisation.

Antecipations:

Irrational numbers antecipate the spatial in that they become important only when spatial meaning is imported. Example: the square root of two has little meaning to purely quantitative thinking and cannot be discovered by purely quantitative processes of converging approximations.
Differential functions anticipate the kinematic aspect [NC,II, 94].
Zero and negative numbers might anticipate the economic aspect.

The Spatial Aspect

Kernel: Continuous extension (extendedness).

Experienced as: Here, there, between, around, inside and outside, shape, proximity, symmetry, overlaps, surrounding.

The spatial aspect and some of its constellation

Good:

Simultaneity. Shapes, dimensions occur together.
Continuity. Space, in its original meaningfulness, is smooth. This is why purely quantitative methods can never find irrational numbers.

Foundational Dependencies:

Quantitative (reliable amount): Number of dimensions of a spatial world.

Differences from Neighbours:

Quantitative is discrete; spatial is continuous.
Quantitative gives sequential order, spatial allows simultaneity.
(Spatial is static, kinematic is dynamic.)

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 63-5, 85-96, 98-106.

Spatial functioning feels like static property.
What is space? Kant argued space is an inherent subjective category (maybe because of the myriad of analogies?). Dooyeweerd argues there is real space and that space as subjective is psychic or analytic analogy of space.

Analogies of this Aspect:

"Around 40 at the meeting" is a spatial analogy in the quantitative, meaning "approximately".
Size etc. of organisations: spatial analogy in the social. Length of paragraph: spatial in lingual.
Spaces for thinking or discourse: spatial analogy in analytic, lingual.
Boundaries of knowledge, jurisdiction, etc. are spatial analogies, as are inside and outside.
Left- and right-wing politics seems like spatial (and organic) analogy in the juridical, but we need social convention to understand their implications.

Mistakes:

"Extension" is extendedness, not processes of extension.
Discrete points have no spatial existence [NC,II, 102]. Either they are analytic things, when their distinction is emphasised, or quantitative, in the form (x,y).
Space is not "filled up" by physical things [NC,II, 95].
The relativistic stretching and curvature of 'space' discovered by Einstein refers, not to space as such, but to a physical analogy of space [NC,II, 101].

Antecipations:

Wiggly line might antecipate kinematic path or route.
A sequence of snapshots, each individually a unique spatial universe, antecipates the kinematic; this is employed in cinematography and animation.

The Kinematic Aspect

Kernel: Movement.

Experienced as: Going and flowing; forward and backward.

The kinematic aspect and some of its constellation

Good :

The kinematic is the first aspect to introduce the possibility of dynamic variation or change to temporal reality (but see Discussion).

Foundational Dependencies:

Depends on spatial continuity.

Differences from Neighbours:

Kinematic is dynamic; spatial is static.
Quantitative aspect is pure before-and-after with no simultaneity and the spatial aspect is pure simultaneity with no before-and-after, but the kinematic aspect merges before-and-after with simultaneity.
(Constant, uniform movement is meaningful to kinematic, but meaningless to physical.)
(Kinematic speeds can exceed that of light, physical cannot.)

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 93-106.

The kinematic was the last aspect that Dooyeweerd delineated; initially he conflated the kinematic with the physical [NC,II, 98-99], but then antinomies convinced him it was different.
Strauss [2009] takes the kernel meaningfulness of the kinematic aspect to be "constancy", and he moves change to the physical. However, this goes against intuition, which sees the kinematic as movement. From extensive references to how this is echoed in other aspects it is clear that Dooyeweerd means change or variability.
Dooyeweerd suggests that, therefore, acceleration is not kinematic but physical, in that it requires a force to cause it. However, acceleration may be defined in two ways. Defined as force/mass and linked with a cause, acceleration is physical ("the physical concept of acceleration" [NC,II, 99]). Defined as dV/dt (change in velocity, without regard to any cause), acceleration is kinematic. Uniform movement is a special case when dV/dt=0, meaningful in kinematic but not physical [p.99].

Analogies of this Aspect:

The mathematical notion of variable (an amount that could 'change') anticipates the kinematic aspect analogically.
(Inverse) Speed is a kinematic concept but it retrocipates the quantitative aspect, by an analogy that enables us to say "less" or "more". Velocity retrocipates spatial and quantitative.
Movement of thought and social movements, involving commitment and belief, are kinematic analogies in the analytic and social-pistic.

Mistakes:

Kinematic movement is not relative to a static background (example bird flying across the sky); static background is neither necessary nor even meaningful. Assuming it reduces kinematic to spatial [NC,II, 98]. So does using Cartesian coordinates to think about movement; think about it via intrinsic curves instead.
Zeno's paradox [p.103] reduces kinematic to spatial.
Originally Dooyeweerd used the term "motion" but this is not ideal [Kalsbeek 1975, 101] because, in conceiving of motion, we tend to think physically.

Antecipations:

Movement is very important in physics, as dynamics, especially in Relativity Theory.

The Physical Aspect

Kernel: Energy.

Experienced as: Matter, forces, energy, etc. (whether at the microscopic, human-level or macroscopic spans)

The physical aspect and some of its constellation

Good:

Causality
Resistance to causal change; momentum.
Irreversibility
Persistence -- that physical change remains in place.

Foundational Dependencies:

Physical functioning requires movement and change (kinematic), space and reliable quantity.

Differences from Neighbours:

Immaterial v. material.
Physical has persistence and uni-directional time; kinematic has neither.
From kinematic: uniform movement is meaningless.
From biotic: boundary is meaningless (see Mistakes).
Discrete space: This is a theoretical construct. If valid, it will occur because of physical discreteness of energy (quanta). Spatiality is still continuous.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 95,99,100,101,184 -- patchy.

At the human and macroscopic spans, physical causality is deterministic (predictable from initial conditions); at the microscopic span it might not be.
It is with the physical aspect that we first experience time as past-present-future.
Whether chemistry should be incorporated in the physical aspect, as in Dooyeweerd, or separated, as in Bunge [1979], is a matter that still deserves discussion.
Discrete space: This is a theoretical construct. If valid, it will occur because of physical discreteness of energy (quanta). Spatial space is still continuous.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Hardness (of problems, personalities, etc.) is a physical analogy of resistance to being changed.

Mistakes:

In the physical aspect there seems to be no such thing as an entity that is distinct from its environment. Rivers or hills merge into each other; electrons are smears. Physical laws do not stop at any boundary. Distinction is an analytic functioning for our convenience, rather than ontically physical.

Antecipations:

Carbon chemistry, with its long-chain atoms, strongly antecipates life; without organic meaningfulness, it would remain a mere speculative curiosity.

The Organic / Biotic Aspect

Kernel: "Vital unity" and "organizing" [NC,II, 110]; often seen as "life functions".

Experienced as: Living as organisms in an environment.

But what is "living"? It consists at least in the organism maintaining its equilibrium separately from the environment, with repair, and also the ability to reproduce after its kind.

The organic / biotic aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

The possibility of organisms that can sustain themselves within their environment, dependent on it but not wholly controlled by it, and reproduce after their own kind.
Separateness (not discreteness, nor independence) enters with the organic aspect.
From the biotic aspect onwards it is meaningful to talk of negative as well as positive: death, disease, poison, starvation, injury, etc.

Foundational Dependencies:

On chemical processes, to form cellular materials. Example: digestion depends on chemical reactions -- but such chemical reactions can only rightly be called digestion if they serve to keep their organism alive.
Cell processes depend on causality, forces, transport of chemicals, etc.
Organic life requires physical energy and depends on exchange of physical materials with environment.

Differences from Neighbours:

Organism's equilibrium state is not determined by the physical environment.
Physical laws are those of fields, and extend to infinity; organic-biotic laws are those of the organism, relative to its distinct entity.
The more we use a physical thing, the more it wears out and the weaker it gets; the more we use a organic thing (e.g. muscle), the more it builds and the stronger it gets.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 107-11

Dooyeweerd's discussion is brief and not entirely clear. He argues why life cannot be reduced to physical and chemical processes even though it depends on them, and argues against both vitalism and mechanistic views.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Birth, growth, maturity, environment have clear analogical meaning for businesses (economic entities).
Health is used analogically for good in many aspects.

Mistakes:

Materialist reductionism assumes dependency implies reducibility.
Vitalism treats life as a special substance or property added to matter, rather than an aspect. Hartmann makes the mistake of saying that life "transforms" matter [NC,II, 110-1 footnote].

Antecipations:

Activity in a cell usually affects other cells in its proximity. But Nerve cells have special properties: very long dendrites which are surrounded by a fatty sheath, so that activation in these cells finds its way to distant cells rather than diffusing to neighbours. What good this does cannot be understood from the biotic-organic aspect, but anticipates the psychic-sensitive aspect.

The Psychic / Sensitive Aspect

Kernel: Feeling, emotion

Experienced as: Sensing, responding and feeling (such that animals have, like fear, hunger).

Psychic functioning is both of the whole organism and also of the organs and cells (nervous system and neurones). The functioning of neurones and nervous system includes signal transmission, pattern-detection, pattern-recognition and memory.

The Psychic-sensitive aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

This is the first aspect to introduce interactive engagement with the world (via senses and employing mental processes)
Dysfunction: insensitivity, memory loss, etc.

Foundational Dependencies:

Organic functions make the mental possible.
The spatio-organic axon-dendron arrangement of neurones is the organic foundation of memory and recognition.
Physical persistence (change in chemical composition that persists) makes memory possible. Physical causation (electro-chemistry) makes signal-transmission possible.

Differences from Neighbours:

Mental rather than bodily functions.
Whereas organic-biotic organisms react passively to world (e.g. plant growing towards light), psychic-sensitive interaction is active.
Organic functions operate by spatial proximity; psychic functions escape proximity (e.g. neuronal signals to feet, hence the need for insulating sheaths).

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 111-118

Dooyeweerd does not discuss neuronal functioning, so the above is my own suggestion.
Dooyeweerd's discussion of the psychic aspect: (a) why the kernel meaning is feeling rather than soul; (b) why psychic feeling cannot be set alongside volition and knowledge as Erlebnisse (Kant), which are trans-aspectual.

Example Analogies:

The 'feeling' of a meeting is usually social agreement with some attitude (ethical).

Mistakes:

Usually, "I feel that ..." is not psychic but analytic or pistic.
Much of our feeling, e.g. of beauty or contentment, imports meaningfulness from later aspects, which are targets of the psychical feeling.

Antecipations:

Psychic memory antecipates cognitive concept nets, pattern recognition antecipates focal attention.
Post-animal feelings (such as beauty, insult) are psychic feeling targeting later aspects (aesthetic, ethical).

The Analytical Aspect

Kernel: Distinction: "setting apart what is given together" [NC,I, 39]

Experienced as: Conceptualising, clarifying, categorising and cogitating.

Conceptualising is of something meaningful in the world. We clarify that meaning, separating 'this' from 'that'. Categorising differentiates ways of being meaningful. Cogitating is thinking that involves these.

The analytic aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Ability to think independently of the world as given.
This in turn allows imagination, fiction, even of impossibilities (e.g. square circle).
It also enables the Gegenstand attitude of theoretical thought and the ability to distinguish aspects.
Enables 'conscious' awareness.
Dysfunction: confusion.
Evil: The independence from the world enabled by this aspect makes it easier for us to be arrogant, act selfishly and perpetrate or ignore injustice.

Foundational Dependencies:

Depends on psychical functioning in nervous system. There can be no disembodied minds in this temporal reality.

Differences from Neighbours:

Independence from world: The organic aspect enables distinct beings with dependence on the world. The psychic aspect enables interactive engagement with the world. The analytical aspect enables a degree of independence.
Analytic mental activity is less bound to the senses than psychic is.
Psychic pattern recognition (e.g. animals recognising mates) is not conceptualisation [NC, I, 39] (c.f. two streams in artificial intelligence: cognitive and neural nets).
Psychic functioning is analog, analytic is digital.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 118-125

Other names: Logical aspect.
Dooyeweerd's discussion is mainly about relationships with other aspects -- though his whole discussion of theoretical thought is an indirect discussion of this aspect: its Gegenstand requires analytic independence from world.
Independence is not absolute autonomy. It operates by reference to aspects. e.g. Thinking about square circles requires prior intuition of spatial meaningfulness.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Analytic logic / reason has analogies in all aspects as their rationality (sense-making: "The reason I did this was ...").
Clarity of text is analytic analogy in lingual. (Clarity of judgement is not analytic analogy but analytic functioning in the multi-aspectual activity of judging.)
Aspectual distinction might be an analytic analogy on the entire suite of aspects.

Mistakes:

"Distinction" refers not to social distinction, nor to animals recognising their mates (which is psychic pattern recogntion), but to crisp concepts.

Antecipations:

Imagination antecpiates formative, lingual and aesthetic creativity.
Ability to conceptualise antecipates formative power.

The Formative Aspect

Kernel: Formative power.

Experienced as: Shaping, making, planning, achieving; innovation [NC,II, 198]; goals, techniques, tools, technology.

All kinds of things can be shaped: clay into pots, concepts into concept-structures, reasons into arguments, words into sentences, people into performers, social relationships into institutions, etc. Historical impact is formative.

The formative aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Achievement and innovation; construction.
The good of achievement and innovation can then occur in any target aspect.
Through technology, technique and training, good in any targeted aspect can be amplified. So can evil.
Dysfunction: laziness or destruction (not deconstruction).

Foundational Dependencies:

Formative functioning depends on analytical functioning (conceptualising, etc.)

Differences from Neighbours:

From analytic: doing rather than thinking.
Construction versus deconstruction.
While the analytic aspect distances us from the world, the formative aspect achieves things in the world, and makes changes in the world. c.f. theory-practice duality.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II,68-9,190-1,192-217,218-98 - focusing overmuch on history

Other names: Cultural, historical aspect (Dooyeweerd's names). History is the story of human formative power or achievement [NC,II, 193] -- but "history" connotes the past. In Dutch the root of the word culture refers to human formative power (as in agriculture) -- but, in English, "culture" is strongly social. Hence, here, "formative".
Pages 192-217 discuss many other views and pages 218-98, links with other aspects, the history of humankind, and progress as humanity's "opening up" of aspects.
De Raadt [2002] splits this into operational and historical aspects.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Work is formative, with analogy in physical (kWh) and economic.
Power is formative, with analogy in physical (watts) and in the juridical as oppressive power relationships.
Aspectual structure might be a formative analogy of the entire suite of aspects.

Mistakes:

Spiders building webs is not formative functioning, but by psychical instinct [NC,II, 198].

Antecipations:

Much that we form -- boundary stones, hieroglyphics, stories -- has symbolic value, but this cannot be understood from the formative aspect. It anticipates the lingual aspect.
Whereas our formative functioning leaves a trace in the world, its meaning is not clear; with lingual functioning it can be much clearer.
Formative creativity antecipates the aesthetic.

The Lingual Aspect

Kernel: Symbolic signification.

Experienced as: Expressing, recording and reading/hearing. This can be by speech, writing, pictures, gestures, and even such things as boundary stones.

The lingual aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

The lingual aspect is the first that enables externalisation of clearly intended (target) meanings, so they can persist and/or be shared with others.
Dysfunction: deceit, obfuscation and equivocation. Quibbling.

Foundational Dependencies:

Formative structuring is essential for lingual functioning: syntax. So is analytical conceptualising into distinct linguistic units.
The precise signification-meaning of a symbol varies with historical (formative) context. It is the social aspect (antecipatory dependency), however, that determines whether it is at the right time, and in the appropriate situation.

Differences from Neighbours:

Structure v. its signification; syntax v. semantics.
Formative internalises, lingual externalises. If we forget or die, our formed thoughts are lost; if written down, they can persist.
However, making of artefacts (formative) can externalise attribution-meanings, but these are not as precise as lingual signification-meanings.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 221-7,284-5

Other names: Epistemic aspect [de Raadt 2002].
Signification-meanings (words, phrases, etc. and their significations) are objects generated by lingual function, targeting other aspects.
Dooyeweerd's discussion is rather brief, surprising for someone for whom meaning is so important.
Dooyeweerd privileges neither recipient (reader, hearer) nor originator (writer, speaker), nor sign nor the signified, but sees them all as functioning in the 'ocean' of meaningfulness . Many other thinkers (de Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, etc.) privilege one of them. Dooyeweerd goes further, binding together sign, what it signifies, the human beings who function lingually, and inter-individual understanding by which the signification of the sign is agreed by originator and recipient [p.225].
Signification-meanings (pieces of meaningfulness parcelled up as symbols) are objects generated by lingual function, targeting other aspects. If all being is multi-aspectual, even the exclamation "No!" expresses the speaker's whole web of meanings and meaningfulness [Basden 2011], not merely a truth-value.

Analogies of this Aspect:

'Reading' a landscape is lingual analogy in the analytic aspect, quantum 'information', in the physical.
Aspects as kinds of meaning: That each aspect is meaningful in a different way might be seen as an analogy of the lingual in the entire system of aspects; this is Strauss' [2013] view. Notwithstanding that, meaningfulness is more fundamental than lingual meaning -- but might be an expression of the Creator [NC,I,4].

Mistakes:

See analogies: 'reading' is not reading, etc.
"Information" in so-called information theory (Channon, Turing, etc.) is not lingual information. It is merely patterns (sensory), which have the potential to support true lingual information as signification of meaning. That this is so, is shown, for example, by the following antinomy:

An encyclopedia with 1000 pages contains much lingual information signified therein. A document with 1000 pages of random letters contains no lingual information, but according to information theory this contains more 'information' than the encyclopedia, because the amount of 'information' is defined by information theory as the shortest string of characters to which a string can be compressed.

Antecipations:

Agreement about the signification of signs cannot easily be accounted for by the lingual aspect, but requires the social. This is especially so for connotation, idiom etc.
Succinctness antecipates the economic, interest, the aesthetic, and truth, the juridical aspects.

The Social Aspect

Kernel: "Social intercourse" [Dooyeweerd], "Company" [Stafleu 2005]

Experienced as: We, us and them; agreeing, appointing and associating.

Agreeing implies shared action, belief, assumptions, etc. Associating implies treating others as like myself and submerging (though not obliterating) the I in the we. Association is either relationships or institutions, and implies roles (reader-writer, leader-follower, etc.), hence "appointing".

Communities and organisations are social wholes, formed of agreement and association, with more or less internal structure. Different types are led by different aspects (target aspect of social functioning), such as business (economic), the state (juridical) and the media (lingual).

The social aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

The social aspect enables working together. Especially with institutions, this amplifies the functioning and impact of individuals beyond their sum -- whether for good or evil. The impact that is amplified is in a target aspect.
Dysfunction: Aloofness, disrespect, rudeness, etc. (Disagreement is not necessarily a dysfunction.)

Foundational Dependencies:

Without lingual externalisation of pieces of meaning, good social functioning would not be possible.
On the formative; see Discussion.

Differences from Neighbours:

Lingual is (inter-)individual; social is communal.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 141,227-8, 565-624.

Dooyeweerd's discussion of the kernel of the social aspect is surprisingly meagre, though he does have a lengthy discussion of social categories and institutions [NC,III, 565-624; Dooyeweerd, 1986].
He uses the term "intercourse", listing norms like "courtesy, good manners, tact, socialbleness, fashion, and so on" [NC,II, 141 footnote] and "making a bow, giving a handshake, lifting one's hat, letting a superior precede" [p.227-8].
How (European) times change! No longer do we lift hats. This shows the important part the formative (historical) aspect plays, but Dooyeweerd argues why social cannot be reduced to formative. His discussion of social institutions shows Dooyeweerd recognises much more than such norms.
In his theory of social institutions, Dooyeweerd [1986] drew fundamental distinctions within the social aspect between inter-personal, intra-communal and inter-communal relationships. Class distinctions and power relationships are harmful in inter-personal and intra-communal relationships but may be valid in inter-communal.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Relationship as a link between two concepts (e.g. in databases) is a social analogy in the formative aspect. That between two mathematical variables is a social analogy in the quantitative (also kinematic).
Plant or animal "societies" is a social analogy in the organic aspect, and in the psychic of interaction.
(Inverse) The word "organisation" betrays its roots in (analogy with) the organic aspect.
The relating of aspects: That each relates to others and each seems to have a distinct role, might be an analogy of the social in the entire system of aspects.

Mistakes:

Some social scientists tend to assume that all post-social functioning can be treated as mere sub-fields of sociology [NC,III, 157ff].
Inter-individual activity is not always social; can be e.g. lingual.

Antecipations:

Togetherness antecipates respect (juridical) and courtesy (ethical). Togetherness gains strength from self-giving and is undermined by selfishness (ethical aspect).
Acting together to bring the good that is Shalom requires transfer of "goods". These are resources; to understand this antecipates the economic aspect.

The Economic Aspect

Kernel: Frugality

Experienced as: Managing limited resources carefully, treating them as having value. Economic functioning is "the sparing or frugal mode of administering scarce goods, implying an alternative choice of their destination with regard to the satisfaction of different human needs" [NC,II, 66].

This can be at levels of individuals, organisations, societies and humanity as a whole. Resources can be of any type (here, words). Limits imply value.

The economic aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Sustainable Shalom.
Frugality brings good, not only during scarcity, but also during plenty. This not only sustains future prosperity but also stimulates originality, responsibility and generosity.
Satisfaction of needs is good economic functioning, not maximisation of capital (profits, income, owner value, GDP, etc.); cf. Simon [1956].
Dysfunction: waste, squandering resources, leading to unsustainability, destitution.

Foundational Dependencies:

Frugality can be individual, but its fuller form involves distribution of resources, which depends on social functioning. Economic needs-satisfaction in not primarily for individuals but for "us and them", including future needs.
Economic functioning depends on formative (planning) and lingual (tokens of value).

Differences from Neighbours:

Social is relating; economic is managing.
The economic has some notion of limits and resources; the social lacks this.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 66-7,122-7,344-5,360-2.

Most of Dooyeweerd's discussion is devoted to economy of thought, logic, language, aesthetics and law rather than 'the economy'.
Currency (money) is only a quantitative measure of lingual tokens of value, and not itself value.
Modern economics is distorted by a mechanistic view of the world [NC,II,p.344].
Growth (economic) is a retrocipatory analogy to the biotic aspect. That prosperity need not involve growth is discussed in Jackson [2009]: ignoring the environmental 'limits to growth' undermines the foundations of future prosperity.
Marx's error was to absolutize the economic aspect [NC,II,293].

Analogies of this Aspect:

"Value" is an economic term, but is often used analogically to refer to the kinds of good that each aspect brings, such as social value, aesthetic value. Similarly, "capital".
The value of all aspects: That each aspect contributes some value to reality might be an analogy of the economic in the entire system of aspects.

Mistakes:

Economic is not primarily to do with money nor finance, nor with with production, exchange and consumption. These are means to the end of frugality.
Growth is organic analogy, so imposition of organic laws on the economy misdirects and harms it.
Over-emphasising accounting (quantitative) or money (lingual symbol) distorts the economic aspect, leading to aesthetic dysfunction.

Antecipations:

Economy of words is good in writing and especially poetry, but to understand why this is so requires the meaningfulness of the aesthetic aspect.
Originality, responsibility and generosity, stimulated by frugality, are meaningful in the next three aspects.
Successful economic functioning presupposes that (a) we balance different needs, (b) exchange is just, (c) generosity stimulates, (d) brokers operate in 'good faith' -- antecipating the next four aspects.

The Aesthetic Aspect

Kernel: Harmony, delight.

Experienced as: holism, orchestation, integration, rest, leisure, enjoying, playing, beautifying, humour and fun. Surprise, originality are aesthetic.

The orchestra of daily life, a multitude of instruments, generates something harmonious, interesting and enjoyable - or not as the case may be. "Whole is more than sum of parts."

The aesthetic aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Aesthetic aspect is the first that makes harmony and integration meaningful. In research: innovative harmony with extant knowledge.
It makes delight (enjoyment, interest, fascination, fun, ecstasy, etc.) possible.
Aesthetic dysfunction: Tedium, repulsiveness, pretension, fragmentation, snobbery.
See Seerveld's [2001, 175] table of aesthetic normativity.

Foundational Dependencies:

The best aesthetic is frugal (economic), it "speaks" (lingual) and is crafted (formative), and is worse for excess and lazy execution.
What is considered beauty is socially agreed.

Differences from Neighbours:

Economic parsimony v. aesthetic play; necessity v. delight.
Purely economic criteria in building generates ugliness and tedium (aesthetic dysfunction).

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 66-7, 128, 139, 345-8

The aesthetic aspect seems to cover two things: harmony and delight. Should it be split in two? Jones [2007] believes so, from his experience in sustainability, arguing that integration does not ensure beauty. Dooyeweerd emphasises harmony, Seerveld [2001], delight. Yet there is an intuitive link between the two.
This has generated considerable discussion about Dooyeweerd's understanding of aesthetic meaningfulness in Reformational Philosophy [Seerveld [nd]; Zuidervaart 1995; Seerveld 2001; Stafleu 2003], indicating that perhaps Dooyeweerd's view is not sustainable. These discussions have been brought together on the page for the aesthetic aspect.
Maybe they combine as follows. Dooyeweerd asks "What is beauty? What makes it possible?" and answers with "Harmony". A poem, film or piece of music with many threads that all interweave and come together, is seen as finer or greater art.
Seerveld [2001] argues that the kernel meaningfulness is "nuance" but is he over-emphasising links with the analytic aspect?
Harmony is always urging us to see the whole. It is a close friend of Truth [NC,II, 347].

Analogies of this Aspect:

Aesthetic harmonious "wholeness": organic health, organic ecosystem, social concord, formative integrality.
Aesthetic rest: psychic relaxation, pistic sabbath.
That each aspect coheres with others, in several ways, might be an analogy of aesthetic harmony in the entire system of aspects.

Mistakes:

Harmony is not uniformity but the oneness of an orchestra or good team.
Aesthetic is not confined to 'art' but pervades all of life. The aesthetic aspect is for everyone, not just the affluent, refined, clever, educated. Artists have no special claim on it. The aesthetic aspect goes beyond art. "The beauty of nature," Dooyeweerd wrote [NC,II:139], "is signified to those who are susceptible to aesthetic harmony, in the colours, the effect of light, the sounds, the spatial relations of nature etc." Mundane activities can be aesthetic.

Antecipations:

"Only in justice must delight be sown; only by love should delight be watered; only in faith can true delight blossom." [Basden 2011b]
Juridical depends on the sense of the whole that the aesthetic makes possible [NC,II, 135].
Aesthetic can encourage the evils of unconcern, elitism and snobbery (juridical, ethical, pistic).

The Juridical Aspect

Kernel: Due.

Experienced as: Appropriateness, responsibility and justice.

We can experience this personally and socially as intuition of what is appropriate in situations, as debt (due to another), as rights and responsibilities, as legal proportionality, the actions of rewarding or punishing ("retribution" [NC,II, 129]), and as (un)fairness, oppression or emancipation.

The juridical aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

The juridical aspect introduces the notion of appropriateness, of proportion, of right and wrong, of 'ought'.
Juridical introduces (im)partiality, equality and fairness.
Juridical dysfunction: partiality, inappropriateness, disproportion; injustice, oppression.

Foundational Dependencies:

Depends on social agreement about what is appropriate, due or just for each kind of thing in its situation.
Impartiality depends on aesthetic harmony: a "well-balanced harmony of a multiplicity of interests" [NC,II, 135].
The use of precedent in legal judgments must harmonise with all previous judgments (though not necessarily agree).

Differences from Neighbours:

Recreation (aesthetic) v. responsibility (juridical).

Notes, Discussion: NC-I 29,550,553; NC-II 67-70,119-138,181-185 and much in 290-411; NC-III discussion of the state.

Because of Dooyeweerd's roots in law and politics, his extensive study of the juridical aspect and especially his investigation of fundamentally different philosophies of law of and its manifestation in the institution of the state, are worth taking seriously. However Chaplin [2011] offers useful criticism.
Due: what is due or appropriate differs according to the type of thing (their aspectual profile or type laws) -- plant, animal, human. For humans what is due depends on roles (teacher, student, friend, parent). Due also varies according to situation.
Justice is not justice unless is applies to all -- not only to myself and people close to me, but also to people further away, the dead, past generations, future generations; to groups, roles, cultures; to animals, habitats, not just human beings: to all, according to type. Hence its dependency on aesthetic harmony. This "to all" is the sound basis for equality and rights.
So societal infrastructures of policy, law and enforcement have emerged, constructed by agreement (social aspect). Participative democracy may be useful for inscribing into these structures a more diverse awareness than the policy-makers themselves might possess.
The misleading connotations of harshness and rigidity in retribution, Dooyeweerd argues [p.128-34], come from the pagan idea of revenge, the old-Indian notion of karma and the old-Chinese notion of tao, and that a richer meaning of retribution emerges with the Biblical notion of love.
It may be that juridical recognises that what is due or appropriate differs according to the type of thing. What is due to plant, animals and humans might be different, as well as for humans in different roles. To functioning well juridically, we need a good understanding of types, which Dooyeweerd's view might offer.

Analogies of this Aspect:

That aspectual law guides the temporal actualisation of reality might be an analogy of the juridical in the entire system of aspects (e.g. "law of gravity").

Mistakes:

Right and wrong: Often confused with goodness (ethical).
"Justice" is not just legal judgement, but the state of all things together being appropriate.
"Retribution" is not revenge; see the Discussion.
Fairness is juridical, but is often overplayed. Occasionally real justice feels unfair to individuals. Similarly equality.

Antecipations:

That juridical functioning is better when tempered with love and mercy, and retribution guided by love is superior to revenge, antecipates the ethical aspect.

The Ethical Aspect

Kernel: Self-giving Love.

Experienced as: Attitude of self-giving, generosity, openness, vulnerability, trust and willing sacrifice.

In almost all cultures, those we admire and call "truly good" exhibit such things.

The ethical aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Full ethical functioning permeates reality with extra goodness, beyond the imperative of due, e.g. forgiveness.
Self-giving can change attitudes in others, permeating communities or society, which benefits all, including the giver. And conversely.
Dysfunction: not hatred so much as selfishness, self-protection, advantage-taking, competitiveness, uncaringness, and so on, and these retrocipatively poison earlier aspects.
In almost all cultures, those we call "truly good" are self-giving rather than selfish.

Dependencies:

One can hardly claim love when one deprives others of justice.
To go beyond due, one needs to know what is due.
Like juridical functioning, ethical functioning is orientated towards the whole (aesthetic).

Differences from Neighbours:

Law (juridical) v. love (ethical). (In Christian theology, law v. grace.) Rights v. mercy. Deserts v. generosity, mercy. Reward v. gift.
Repaying good for good, evil for evil (juridical) ameliorates wrongs proportionately (zero-sum); repaying good for evil (ethical) increases the sum total of good in reality. And conversely.
Copyright (juridical) v. "copyleft", open source software (ethical).
Self-giving vulnerability disarms hostility more effectively than laws or punishment do.
Aesthetic and ethical functioning go beyond imperative but whereas in aesthetic functioning, we ourselves benefit, in ethical the other benefits. Agap� rather than eros [NC.II, 153].

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 141-60

Also known as "moral aspect", "trothic aspect". I sometimes call it "attitudinal aspect" (because ethical functioning is not just overt acts of self-giving, so much as inner, oft-hidden attitude).
Dooyeweerd [p.157-60] expresses the kernel meaningfulness of this aspect as "love." "Self-giving" is prefixed to it here, to differentiate it from self-centred (promiscuous-sexual) desire or friendship-love.
Notice the paradox in the ethical aspect: giving with even the slightest hope that we ourselves will benefit (as in much social 'generosity') is no true self-giving and can become its opposite!
Dooyeweerd argues that views of ethics by thinkers like Aristotle, Kant, Buber, Aalders and Brunner are controlled by dialectical presuppositions that make it difficult to keep morality separate from legality or faith (juridical, pistic), which is necessary [NC,II, 148]. (However, does Dooyeweerd misinterpret Buber's distinction between I-thou and I-it, which that had previously been overlooked in Heidegger's existential I-in-the-world relationship, which conflates self-giving and self-formation?)
Dooyeweerd's discussion is not entirely clear, so much of the above arises from 'reading between the lines' especially in his mentioning 'disposition' (attitude), and from my pre-theoretical reflection.
Dooyeweerd [NC,II, 152] offers a list of how earlier aspects anticipate the ethical, such as love for language. Perhaps a better lingual example is that writing is, in itself, free to benefit all - until juridically constrained in copyright, hence the Copyleft and Open Source movements.

Analogies of this Aspect:

Sharing goods is an ethical analogy in the economic; sharing stories is an ethical analogy in the lingual.
Investment is an ethical analogy in economic functioning.

Mistakes:

"Research ethics" is mainly juridical rather than ethical in the Dooyeweerdian sense.

Antecipations:

What motivates self-giving? Never pushing itself, self-giving cannot be its own motivation; motivation is pistic.

The Pistic / Faith Aspect

Kernel: Faith, commitment.

Experienced as: Belief, commitment, certainty, motivation, courage, ultimate meaningfulness, hope, morale.

Pistic ranges from that "immediate certainty which manifests itself ... in practical life" [NC,II, 299] by which we live moment by moment (e.g. assuming the chair I am about to sit on will hold my weight), to firm ideological or religious belief for which people give their lives.

Pistic is found at personal, group and societal levels as, for example, personal beliefs and the courage of those who stand alone; group beliefs and mindset (including Weltanschauungen); presuppositions that determine the direction in which theoretical thinking develops.

The pistic aspect and some of its constellation

Good and Evil:

Good: Courage, motivation, loyalty, hope, meaningfulness.
Pistic enables the direction of society to be changed.
Pistic functioning is profound and powerful in its retrocipatory effects on all other functioning, bringing out both the best good and the worst evil.
Dysfunction: Pride, hubris, narcissism (partly ethical), cowardice, disloyalty, despair, idolatry, meaninglessness.

Foundational Dependencies:

Depends on good functioning in all aspects, for example the lingual (to exhort, praise), the social (together in a cause), but especially the juridical and ethical aspects.

Differences from Neighbours:

Pistic commitment motivates ethical self-giving.
Religious differences do not imply ethical differences.

Notes, Discussion: NC-II 298-334

Also known as "certitudinal aspect", "fiduciary aspect", "credal aspect" (which misleadingly connotes statements of faith).
Faith is not doxa (Greek: hypothetical opinion) but is pistis, firm faith that is active certainty [p.303-5].
Pistic functioning includes our ultimate identity -- who we see ourselves to be and our ultimate meaningfulness -- from which derives our "meaning of life". Is this why identity politics runs deeper than justice politics?
Dooyeweerd links pistic to our ability to transcend time [NC,II, 304]. It is "original transcendental certainty, within the limits of time, related to a revelation of the Arche which has captured the heart of human existence" [p.304].
How faith relates to magic, totemism and myths: p,312-8.
Clouser [2005] differentiates between religious and non-religious beliefs. Religious beliefs, he suggests, are "divinity beliefs" about what is Divine, by which he means that which is ultimately self-dependent and on which all else depends. Non-religious pistic functioning involves non-ultimate depending, e.g. assuming chair will take my weight.
Dooyeweerd's entire NC, Volume I, may be seen as an argument that faith underlies all theoretical thought.
In arguing the importance of faith in history [NC,II, 291-8], does Dooyeweerd place too much emphasis on Augustine's notion of struggle between civitas Dei and civitas terrena?
Sadly, much of Dooyeweerd's discussion of this aspect seems occupied with defending his ideas against other Christian thinkers (who had attacked them). Ho-hum, the NGGM!

Analogies of this Aspect:

Trust is pistic analogy in the ethical.

Mistakes:

Assent to a creed is usually social, and only pistic if it expresses one's deepest faith-commitment.

Antecipations:

None. Instead "this terminal aspect was destined to function as the opened window of time through which the light of God's eternity should shine into the whole temporal coherence of the world" [NC,II, 307]. It is therefore the aspect of human functioning that welcomes Divine Revelation, or rejects it and welcomes a substitute.

References

NC: Dooyeweerd H. 1955., A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol. I-IV, Paideia Press (1975 edition), Jordan Station, Ontario. See [NC].

Basden A. 2011. A presentation of Herman Dooyeweerd's aspects of temporal reality. Int. J. Multi-aspectual Practice, 1(1), Paper 1. Available at "papers/ijmap/issue1/basden-aspects.html"

Chaplin J. 2011. Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of the State and Civil Society. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN, USA.

Clouser R. 2005. The Myth of Religious Neutrality; An Essay on the Hidden Role of Religious Belief in Theories, 2nd ed. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

Seerveld, C. (unknown date). Rainbows for a Fallen World. IVP?.

Seerveld, C. (2001) Christian aesthetic bread for the world. Philosophia Reformata 66(2), 155-76.

Stafleu, M.D. (2003) On aesthetically qualified characters and their mutual interlacements. Philosophia Reformata 68(2), 137-47.

Strauss DFM. 2009. Philosophy, Discipline of the Disciplines. Paideia Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.

Strauss D. 2013. Understanding the Linguistic Turn and the Quest for Meaning: Historical perspectives and systematic considerations. South African Journal of Philosophy, 32(1), 90-107.

Zuidervaart, L. (1995) Fantastic things: critical notes toward a social ontology of the arts. Phil. Ref. 60(1), 37-54.

This page, "http://www.dooy.info/aspects.smy.html", is part of The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. Questions or comments are very welcome.

Compiled by Andrew Basden. You may use this material subject to conditions.

Written on the Amiga with Protext.

Created: 30 October 2018 Last updated: 28 March 2019 updated lingual with improved version, and added the antinomy from information theory. 5 April 2019 updated quantitative to organic to formative, social to pistic. 11 April 2019 spatiality replaced by proximity. August 2019 used as Chapter 9 of Foundations and Practice of Research : Adventures with Dooyeweerd's Philosophy. 13 August 2019 a correction plus bits in psychic, pistic, etc. Rearranged Jur notes. 16 November 2020 added a few NC page numbers, reformatted "NC,II,.." as "NC-II ..". 18 June 2021 quibbling. 20 January 2022 spatial added symmetry, overlap, surround.