01. THE
IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALISM: This 1997 work enlarges on
the scope and content of earlier works by me, as we are made aware of the
extent to which Social Transcendentalism is both ideological and philosophical,
that is to say, practical and theoretical, serving not merely as a vehicle for
Truth, but also, and no less significantly, as a catalyst for radical social
change.
02. DEISTIC
DELIVERANCE VIA THE IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALISM: Also
penned in 1997, this work - originally and somewhat over-politically entitled
'Deistic Liberation' - returns us to a more thematically-oriented cyclical
structure of philosophizing, as it passes beyond a number of formative stages
to a definitive working-out of the ideological philosophy of Social
Transcendentalism in relation to both psychology and psyche, as they impact
upon and are in turn conditioned by both physiological and elemental factors.
03. THE
CORE OF THE SELF: Continuing on from above, this further textural advance in my
philosophical or, as I now prefer to think of it, super-philosophical journey
brings us, via twenty-three headed sections numbered afresh in each case, to
the 'Core of the Self', the 'Holy Grail' of self-fulfilment which lies at
journey's end as its heavenly reward.
Although principally concerned, like the previous text, with the self,
this work does more justice to the totality of the self, including, for
virtually the first time, the id, which it analyses both in relation to the
self as a whole and to modern society, with particular reference to the
West. The id, however, is not the 'Holy
Grail' of self-fulfilment for me but, rather, the antithesis of the soul which
needs to be guarded against and, if possible, transcended in favour of that
path which truly leads to the 'Core of the Self'. Let the reader judge for himself
as to the success of my journey and the sincerity of my conclusions!
04. THE
KINGDOM OF THE SOUL: With implications that stretch into 'Kingdom Come', this
text adds one or two fresh ideas to the above, as well as highlights the extent
to which kingdoms, when genuine, are commensurate with one or another extreme
of the self. The extreme I favour is, of
course, alluded to in the title, and it is one that I
believe could have wider application than simply to the
05. THE
TRIUMPH OF BEING: It was not long after completing the above text that a seismic
shift occurred in my thinking not only with regard to the subject of morality,
about which I had theorized on a somewhat different basis in the past, but
also, and more importantly, with regard to such concepts as 'superman', 'supermasculine', 'supernatural', and so on, which, in
long-standing deference to Nietzsche, I had previously taken too much for
granted. Now, with a deeper concept of
nature, I was in a position to revaluate such terms and effectively displace
them from what had been a metaphysical perch, setting up a new evaluation for
that which sensibly pertains to the divine.
The result, not surprisingly, may come as a shock to those who had
supposed me too set in a Nietzschean mould.
06. BEYOND
IMAGINATION: This is another high-point on a long and winding philosophical
road which has led this pilgrim, inexorably, towards the 'celestial city' of
heavenly truth and thus towards the omega point of his cyclic oeuvre, wherein
many subjects are explored afresh and one or two long-standing assumptions or
presumptions summarily abandoned.
Certainly the title was based on conclusions I had reached about the
religiously undesirable nature of imagery, imagination, images, and other such
appearance-based variations on a common metachemical
theme, from the standpoint of philosophical essence.
07. THE
TOTALITY OF NATURE: Each time I write a new electronic text it is as though it
were the literary equivalent of a music CD, with a number of titles that, by
and large, are independent of each other and encourage one to proceed from one
subject to another in what is invariably a cyclical progression. In this particular project there are some
twenty cycles, all of which are self-sufficient and yet also interrelated in
what becomes a bigger picture of an overall philosophy stretching ever further
omega-wards, as it were, in the quest for ultimate truth and perfection. I needn't elaborate on any of the subjects
here, because most of them will have been explored to some degree in my work
before, but I doubt whether I have ever written or, rather, composed,
methodically and meticulously, anything better, least of all in relation to the
complex philosophical and moral problems posed by the distinction of 'right'
and 'wrong', which here undergoes what I believe to be a morally definitive
presentation.
08. THE
PROMISE OF 'KINGDOM COME': Similar to the above in structure but more
consciously tailored to the space limitations of aural CD transcription, this
work proceeds through nine cycles with titles ranging from 'The Wisdom of
Sensible Truth' to 'Saving and/or Damning from the World'. Not all of it, however, is profoundly
philosophic, and some lighter material is certainly provided by 'Bottles, Cans,
and Beakers', arguably one of my most thought-provoking cycles!
09. THE
RIGHT TO SANITY: Yet another cyclical text of aphoristic purism which goes to
the roots of Western insanity and offers both an explanation of and alternative
to the dilemma of what I call the paradoxical primacy afflicting modern society
which, granting undue prominence to the inorganic, has the effect of twisting
moral and other evaluations towards an anti-natural perspective in which
ugliness passes for beauty and falsity for truth, to name but two
categories. Also of especial note in
this text is an attack on what the author likes to think of as the delusion of
curved space in relation to spatial space, and his solution not only to the
nature of space as something divisible between straight and curved, but to the
division of time, volume, and mass along similar gender-based, albeit
element-conditioned, lines.
10. MAGNUS
DEI: With a title that is obviously a
pun on 'Agnus Dei', this further example of my
cyclical philosophy expands on the above to embrace a deeper analysis of the
distinction between 'right' and 'wrong', or immorality and morality, and does
so in relation to a number of dichotomous contexts, including sensuality and
sensibility, competition and cooperation, insanity and sanity, race and
culture. In fact, this text delves into
the racial dichotomy between Nordic and Celtic and seeks to deduce certain
moral distinctions between the two races, as well as to compare them with the
generality of darker races on this planet from what the author contends, on the
basis of metaphorical illustrations, to be a higher racial standpoint. Not least of the subjects under investigation
here is the distinction between immanence and transcendence, which few thinkers
would seem to have treated with the subtlety and profundity it deserves.
11. OPUS
D'OEUVRE: With subjects that range from modern architecture and myth to the
relationship of sensuality to sensibility and the evolution of media
technology, this 2001 text is sufficiently variegated to be of general interest
even if it did not contain material which expands on the above - as, for
example, race - and is instantly recognizable in relation to the nature and
development of my philosophy within an elemental structure which not only
evaluates things or situations from a standpoint based in the four elements,
but embraces a moral evaluation of them on both sensual and sensible terms in
either inorganic or organic contexts.
This text certainly does that to a conclusive degree, and a fuller
understanding of some subjects, including literature, the Arts in general, and
the relationship of science to religion or of politics to economics, would not
be possible without such a comprehensive perspective which, whilst doing
justice to every element or subject discussed, never looses track of its
priorities and the goal that such a philosophy inexorably leads to when, as
here, a proper moral and ideological evaluation of the various options has been
systematically undertaken and achieved.
12. PATHWAYS
TO 'THE KINGDOM': Composed in part of an overspill from the above and also of
several fresh cycles, this short text expands on the relationship between sin
and grace on the one hand and crime and punishment on the other by
incorporating, in more detail than ever before, anthropomorphic distinctions
between Father and Son in the one case and Daughter and Mother in the other,
showing how such symbols can be applied to religion and what the consequences
are when they are seen in a religious light.
Also of especial importance here is the correction I was at last able to
make concerning an old phrase ('salvation from sins and/or punishments of the
world') that had been taken for granted in certain previous texts but was dealt
its final death-blow here in what, with its philosophical consistency and
greater profundity, I like to think of as one of the most significant of my
cyclical works.
13. THE
OMEGA POINT OF CULTURAL TRUTH: The real point of this text becomes obvious
enough as we proceed ever more comprehensively through the elements and their
various subdivisions, and discover the actual basis of the distinction between
soma (formerly nature) and psyche and of how they exist, according to gender,
on both primal and supreme terms. In
fact, this text tightens-up on so many of the theories and findings which
preceded it that it would be difficult to imagine anything tighter and
effectively more definitive in relation to them, since it provides logical
evidence for the distinction between profanity and sanctity as applying not
merely to men, much less women, but also to gods and devils, as explained in
some detail. Yet it also drives home the
real point of cultural truth, contrasting it not merely with the moral
bankruptcy of civilized knowledge, but with the agonizingly annihilating
prospect of those secular realities which hang over the contemporary world in
self-denying philistinism and are likely to claim ever more victims as time
goes by unless the alternative I have suggested, and advocated all along, is
democratically put in place and permitted to develop in the logical unfolding
of an evolutionary solution to the problem of Man (as defined in the
text). For modern Man is a problem, not
a solution, and until his reign is officially consigned to the rubbish bin of
world history, it is impossible to see a brighter future for mankind in
general, the sort of future outlined in the above title which is but the final
player in the game of life.
14. ALPHA
AND OMEGA - 'Beginning and End': This work, divided into four evenly-structured
parts which permitted me to cycle material more intensively, takes a closer
look at such age-old questions as to whether mind precedes matter or matter
precedes mind, and answers them in a way which does equal justice to both, as
well as throws new light upon the distinction between 'the Father' and 'the
Son' which amounts, for me, to a complete rejection of my previous standpoint
and a reappraisal of their respective standings on the basis of a logically
incontrovertible insight such that I had been building towards all along, not
least of all in relation to the dissimilar ratios and significances attaching
to soma and psyche according to gender.
It is this work above all others that, when the contents of all four
parts have been taken into account and their conclusions carefully analysed, will
expose the humbug of conventional wisdom and morally challenge all who would
stand in the way of evolutionary progress and seek to undermine that very sharp
distinction between right and wrong, honesty and cowardice, sincerity and
hypocrisy, truth and lies.
15. VALUATIONS
OF A SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALIST: Carrying on the style of multi-part writing
started above, this text is divisible into three six-chapter parts entitled
'Revaluations', 'Evaluations', and 'Transvaluations',
and therefore approaches the task outlined in the title from three different
standpoints, albeit without undue inflexibility or too methodical a distinction
between them. Nevertheless the result,
overall, is not logically displeasing, and each part has something new and
different to offer, not least of all the third, which is closer to the
'transcendentalism' of the ideological title than to its 'social' aspect in the
way the emphasis has been placed upon transvaluating,
that is, upon shifting the concept of various notions or ideals or realities
from alpha to omega, soma to psyche, not-self to self, in the interests of a transvaluation of society along lines likely if not
guaranteed to lead to the sort of positive outcomes which I have identified
with virtue and, hence, morality, as befitting an alternative kind of society
to that which generally prevails at present, and not only in countries or
contexts where it is demonstrably official, but also wherever it exists
unofficially in consequence of the overwhelming influences and pressures which
have been brought to bear on virtually all Western societies by their more powerful
neighbours. Nevertheless this text is by
no means defeatist but, on the contrary, cautiously optimistic as to the
prospect of some kind of alternative dispensation, broadly identified with
'Kingdom Come', for the future. With
certain revaluations of previous philosophical positions taken by me and a
number of fresh evaluations also included along with these transvaluations,
I feel that I can confidently claim to have finally approached the omega point
of my cyclical oeuvre, and thus satisfied my claim to messianic credibility,
whatever others may think.
16. TOTAL
TRUTH: Here at last, in this major e-scroll, is the actual omega point
of my cyclical oeuvre as far as the achievement of a definitive insight into
the relationship of freedom to binding in both sensual and sensible contexts is
concerned, with an enhanced sense of the distinction between a variety of terms
that may previously have been used interchangeably or as equivalents. Here, too, I can safely claim to have done
more justice to the conflicting relationships between the individual and
society than in previous texts, as well as developed a superior understanding
as to the desirability of universal culture in the service of genuine religion
for a world that needs to reject its factual and/or illusory shortcomings if
civilization is to attain to its omega point in the blessedness of sensible
freedom and be truly at peace with itself.
Copyright © 1997–2012 John O’Loughlin