PART THREE
CONCRETE AND ABSTRACT REVALUATED
1. In the previous two parts of Alpha and
Omega I have drawn distinctions between the absolute alpha, so to speak, of
most particles/least wavicles and the relative alpha
of more (relative to most) particles/less (relative to least) wavicles, and contrasted both of these objective, or female,
realities with the relative omega, as it were, of more (relative to most) wavicles/less (relative to least) particles and the
absolute omega of most wavicles/least particles,
contending that a struggle is discernible in history between devolution of the
objective and evolution of the subjective, as between the Cosmos and Nature on
the one hand, and Man and (to anticipate the future) the Cyborg
on the other - the former pair female and the latter pair their male
counterparts.
2. Assuming one can speak of an overall
progression or, rather, gradual development from alpha to omega, as from a
devolutionary regression from the Cosmos to Nature on the one hand, and an
evolutionary progression from Man to the
Cyborg on the other hand (the latter of which is
still only potential), it must transpire that life is a gender-based struggle
between objectivity and subjectivity, in which, though neither side is totally
victorious or totally vanquished, things will favour the one side or the other
according to whether sensual or sensible, female or male, criteria are
hegemonic at any given time, both in society generally and the individual
members of which it is composed.
3. Therefore whilst all the elements, from fire
and water on the objective, or female, side of the gender fence to vegetation
(earth) and air on its subjective, or male, side, will be present to greater or
lesser extents in the world, a situation must nevertheless be possible for
societies or ages in which one element is especially prominent and the others
are subordinate, in different degrees, to it, with an overall distinction, in
consequence, between upper-class female criteria, lower-class female criteria,
lower-class male criteria, and upper-class male criteria, as between most
particles/least wavicles, more (relative to most)
particles/less (relative to least) wavicles, more
(relative to most) wavicles/less (relative to least)
particles, and most wavicles/least particles, or, in
historical terms, the Cosmos, Nature, Civilization, and the Cyborg,
or the Devil, Woman, Man, and God.
4. In the past I have tended to equate particles
with soma and wavicles with psyche, contending a
distinction to exist between the 'matter' of the one and the 'mind' of the
other, as between phenomenal and noumenal, corporeal
and ethereal, concrete and abstract. In
general terms, this is a fair distinction to draw, since soma and psyche are
neither identical on the one side of the gender fence nor on the other, but
reflect a gender differential between the objectivity of most particles/least wavicles and more (relative to most) particles/less
(relative to least) wavicles on the one hand, and the
subjectivity of more (relative to most) wavicles/less
(relative to least) particles and most wavicles/least
particles on the other hand, the hand in which, with a wavicle
hegemony, psyche could be said to precede soma and soma is accordingly
conditioned by psyche in terms of what has been called somatic determinism, the
opposite, in effect, of that psychic determinism stemming from the precedence
of psyche by soma on the female side of life, where soma will be free to
condition psyche in the manner described.
5. But this can only
happen when the female side of life is free, in sensuality, to be loyal to
itself or, rather, to its not-self, in soma, and females are accordingly
hegemonic over males. In sensibility, on
the other hand, no such freedom is generally possible to females, and
consequently male hegemonies in vegetation and/or air, physics and/or metaphysics,
over the female sensibilities of water and/or fire, chemistry and/or metachemistry, will ensure that males are in a position to
remain loyal to their selves, their psyches, and to condition soma in the best
interests of that freedom, which is to say, in relation to somatic determinism,
both directly in relation to themselves and indirectly in relation to the
undermining of female somatic freedom through the hegemonic influence of bound
soma.
6. All this has been stated before, but the fact
that soma corresponds to the corporeal and psyche to the ethereal, to 'matter'
and 'mind', the phenomenal and the noumenal, does not
mean, as I was formerly apt to suppose, that this is equivalent to the concrete
on the one hand and to the abstract on the other, as though concretism,
or the fact of something's being concrete, was equivalent to somatic corporealism, so to speak, and the fact, by contrast, of
its being abstract equivalent to psychic etherealism. On the contrary, that which is abstract has
been abstracted from a concrete basis or precondition, and therefore can exist
in relation to either the corporeal or the ethereal, soma or psyche.
7. Let me explain. The female, or objective, side of life, we
have found, bears testimony to the precedence of psyche by soma, of wavicles by particles, since it exists either absolutely in
objective time and space, viz. space-time devolution, in relation to most
particles/least wavicles or relatively in objective
volume and mass, viz. volume-mass devolution, in relation to more (relative to
most) particles/less (relative to least) wavicles,
and therefore in contexts where either the somatic predominance is absolute (metachemical) or relative (chemical), in consequence of
which one can argue that psyche has been abstracted, or extrapolated, from a
concrete basis in soma, which, being free, has conditioned psyche from its own
somatic standpoint, the standpoint or, rather, standpoints of will and spirit,
the former of which has its principal manifestation in fire, the latter in
water.
8. Therefore, in relation to free females, it
can certainly be said that psyche has been abstracted from soma, and precisely
in terms of a fiction extrapolated from a fact, the fact of either metachemical soma in the absolute case or chemical soma in
the relative case; for facts are ever objective and germane to the sensuality
of a particle hegemony, be that hegemony absolute or relative. Facts condition fictions, which are
abstracted, in psychic determinism, from free soma. So much for the relationship of concrete to
abstract on the female side of life!
9. On the male side of life, by contrast, no
such abstraction of psyche from soma can be properly said to apply, since
psyche, as we have found, precedes soma in terms of a wavicle
hegemony, be that hegemony relative or absolute, physical or metaphysical, and
consequently in contexts of more (relative to most) wavicles/less
(relative to least) particles, viz. those of subjective mass and volume, or
mass-volume evolution, and most wavicles/least particles,
viz. those of subjective time and space, or time-space evolution, one should
speak of soma abstracted from psyche, so that, contrary to the female elements,
psyche is concrete and soma abstract, in consequence of which one can argue
that soma has been extrapolated from a concrete basis, or precondition, in
psyche which, being free, has conditioned soma from its own psychic
standpoints, the standpoints of ego and soul, the former of which has its
principal manifestation in vegetation, the latter in air.
10. Therefore, in relation to free males, it can
certainly be maintained that soma has been abstracted from psyche, and
precisely in terms of an illusion extrapolated from a truth, the truth of
either physical psyche in the relative case or metaphysical psyche in the
absolute case; for truths are ever subjective and germane to the sensibility of
a wavicle hegemony, be that hegemony relative or
absolute. Truths condition illusions,
which are abstracted, in somatic determinism, from free psyche.
11. How different, then, is the relationship of
concrete and abstract on the male side of life from its female
counterpart! Fact conditioning fiction
makes for empiricism, or the binding of psyche to the
corporeal freedom of somatic fact. Truth
conditioning illusion makes for rationalism, or the
binding of soma to the ethereal freedom of psychic truth. In the one case, the rule
of corporeal reality. In the other case, the rule of ethereal reality. A
12. Hence the concrete is no more invariably
equivalent to the corporeal, or phenomenal, than the abstract to the ethereal,
or noumenal.
Fictions are ethereal abstractions, in bound psyche, from the corporeal
facts of somatic concretion, whereas illusions are corporeal abstractions, in
bound soma, from the ethereal truths of psychic concretion. The psychic determinism of the bound church
extrapolated from the
