First Philosophy - Final Philosophy

How did everything begin? What is everything? Why is there everything?

First philosophy is the first reference point upon which all knowledge rests. It is commonly referred to (in this world of cause-and-effect) as the First Cause. Our scientific methods of discovering truth do not work to find the answer here, for in science we always assume a reason why, a cause for a cause and so on, right up to the final question of first philosophy: what is the first cause? We are only used to revealing answers based on the preset laws of the universe, but why these laws, and why anything at all? How do you explain a first cause? If there is a first cause, what is the final cause? How can something come from nothing, or something become nothing?

Maybe you've given up trying to explain a first cause and believe there was no beginning - that all things are part of a recurring cycle of what always was... but made up of what? Things of this nature defy logic, because they cannot have any outside reason for existence, no cause other than itself, and yet must explain everything in existence all at once.

What explains and creates everything and is at the same time everything? A poor answer would be to say there is a limited number of core "building blocks" of which everything is made, and that these things always were. That does not nearly go far enough. That only explains (poorly and inconclusively) physical matter in this universe, not the forces which govern them, and why those forces.

In order to make a first principle make "sense" it must explain all elements within the system and itself, which is a very tall order. At this level we are not talking about rational explanations within a system with the rules already set up, but before the concept of a physical universe, matter, or logic itself - we are talking about something so abstract and "universal" it must contain all things in its scope - taking us to the realm of absolutes - black and white - all or nothing. The ONLY two things which explain themselves completely are "nothing and everything."

The only thing which creates and explains itself and makes sense as a first and final principle is the INFINITE.

Existence is a (limited) infinite, bound by reason. For anything to come together in a shared reality, there must be a balance, a beautiful exchange between all things. Existence itself is reason motivated by infinite change, spawning from infinite potential. The only true universal concept is the INFINITE.

It is natural to start out thinking only Infinite Consciousness could possibly make sense as a principle of first philosophy. But consciousness is not = to reason. Consciousness is subjective, experiential, biased in every way, thus Infinite Consciousness would not be a "person" like all of us, but a conglomerate of every possible conscious thought - there would be no center or self - it would be an infinite number of experiences - there is no perfection, only perfecting - it does not even make sense to call this thing a person at all when viewed as a complete whole. To be a person is to have a limited set of experiences and thoughts and be in a constant state of change - that is what forms a personality. This All-Consciousness would be a completely non-biased realm of All-Thought - only a part of the All-Possibility - thus it does not make sense to make a distinction like "All-Consciousness" - which is a small distinction within the INFINITE.

If there is LESS than infinite, there would need to be a completely arbitrary reason why there are only a limited number of things - not even fitting with randomness itself. It makes no sense to say this is the only universe with no explanation, an arbitrary mistake, the only thing which is not calculable. I don't think so. There is an answer to these questions, although we may NEVER get there through empirical science. We may never be able to comprehend true reality, the infinite ridiculousness. We are so far from it we call it non-reality. The only existence it has to us is in our minds - a relational truth, fake to our senses, true within thought.

From the smaller set of physical matter spawns the larger set of consciousness. Both of these are subsets of Existence or Reality (reasonable, limited, infinite). We (consciousness) can only ever be in relation to the concept of Existence, catching abstract glimpses of Reality, for our thoughts are limited by the physical matter it comes from. Reality itself (reasonable, limited, infinite) spawns from the ultimate explanatory principle: the INFINITE, which we cannot even fathom.