Before I can go on to lay out the foundations of my belief system, I think it would be helpful to shed some light on the playing field in which these ideas are to be considered. This playing field is constructed of words and statements, of course, but the precise meaning of "words" and "statements" is often left unclear. I will begin by defining these things as I intend to use them. I will also make a cursury attempt to explain the different types of statements we will encounter, the importance of falsifiablity and the role of faith, in addition to a smattering of other definitions that will become important as we proceed. Statements
The ultimate building blocks of any philosophical system are statements. A statement is an attempt to communicate that which is true (or perceived to be true) through the symbolic code (words) of a language. All symbols are, of course, inherently limited. There exist various properties in a symbol's object of reference which cannot be contained within the symbol itself. An obvious example of
The consequence of this is the understanding that there exist incommunicable properties of all real objects. These incommunicable properties are no less real than their communicable counterparts. They simply cannot be conveyed by symbols. Knowledge of these properties can only be obtained by direct experience with the object itself. These properties will hereafter be referred to as existential properties.
Any given statement may be either a priori or reasonable. a prior statements are those statements whose truth value is not dependent on the validity of a logical deduction from other statements. We do not reason to a priori statements. We reason from them. There are no premises which give rise to them. Rather, they are the premises upon which all other deductions are ultimately dependent. Since such statements are not the product of deductive reasoning, their truth value cannot be logically determined. The only method by which we may establish (though never conclusively) the truth value of an a priori statement is by a
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