Summa Metaphysica / Potentialism Theory
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DAVID BIRNBAUM SUMMA METAPHYSICA :
A PHILOSOPHY/COSMOLOGY SERIES
• a hitherto undiscerned overarching dynamic
David Birnbaum Summa Metaphysica philosophy treatise proposes its signature Potentialism Theory.
“Potentialism proposes that there is, indeed, a protagonist to the cosmic order, but that the protagonist is a ‘quest’, and not a ‘classic entity’. The universe quests for its maximal potential. The core dynamic Quest for Potential (Q4P∞) strives with purpose and direction towards ever-greater and higher potential. At the 'beginning of time’, eternal Quest for Potential (Q4P∞) harnessed the eternal equations of Physics-Mathematics to ignite our universe via the Big Bang. This same symbiotic dynamic - Quest for Potential (Q4P∞) in league with Physics-Math - then acted as a catalyst for life, evolution, language, emotion, consciousness, and, indeed, for all the key dynamics which have evolved in the universe.”
"POTENTIAL DRIVES THE UNIVERSE" - BIRNBAUM
note that 'complexification' aka C+ is a Birnbaumian term.
complexification = increased complexity, sophistication, wondrousness
Important: see PRELIM info on related $500,000- REWARD at very bottom of this landing page
Q4P∞
Quest for Potential∞
is the tip-of-the-spear
of Birnbaum's hypothesized directional
Prime Mover quest-force-algorithm
see Super-Formula1000.com
// Remember / Q4P∞ is infinitely nested & coiled
The Guts
of Potentialism Theory
# Birnbaum's Prime Mover is a quest-force-algorithm
# The Birnbaum algorithm is: Q4P∞ → C+ → E+
/// see: Super-Formula1000.com
per Potentialism Theory, the universe is, indeed, directional; Potential drives the universe; and does so via its quite-directional Prime Mover.
/ see Scientific American back cover www.TheoryAd1000.com (SEPT 2017)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
*** In Quantum Mechanics a sub-theory posits
that future possibilities (or energy)
may somehow impact present possibilities (or energy)
via 'backward causation' aka 'retrocausality'.
*
'Leveraged Buyout’ is actually a finance term from Wall Street in the 1980s,
wherein the protagonist, typically a key insider,
buys a firm with its own future projected earnings.
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David Birnbaum Philosophy
David Birnbaum Cosmology
Prime Mover quest-force-algorithm
David Birnbaum Philosophy
55+
Journals which have featured Summa Metaphysica
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Classic Issues Aligned
POTENTIALISM THEORY
THE SUMMA METAPHYSICA SERIES
a unified
( consistent, overarching, fully integrated)
conceptual line of attack
metaphysics
cosmology
philosophy
aligning
eternal origins
Life Force
direction/teleology/driver
purpose/meaning
evolutionary theory
universe horizon
via
one Common Denominator
dynamic*
- with theogony and theodicy in the mix from a Religious perspective, and, loosely defined, still in the mix from a Spiritual or Secular perspective
* Q4P → C+ → E+
David Birnbaum Philosophy
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
On Birnbaum's Formula
from the desk of
Hugo van den Berg
University of Warwick
Department of Mathematics
Coventry, United Kingdom
Mar 28, 2013
"unparalleled and magisterial"
Physics, unlike metaphysics perhaps, is concerned only with description. However, not all descriptions are created equal; it is sometimes possible to capture large swathes of phenomena with a minimum of formal apparatus. Such superb descriptions are what scientists like to think of as “good theories” (all is, in the final analysis, still mere description, a point that is sometimes lost). The game naturally becomes this: to capture as much as possible with as little as possible.
In Birnbaum’s unparalleled and magisterial Summa Metaphysica, we find a pithy quote attributed to a Nobel prize winner [physicist Lederman] who expresses this dream as capturing the universe in a formula that one could print on a T-shirt. Birnbaum, in a staggering and audacious move, displays a formula below this quote.
The formula just stands there, glorious in its splendid isolation. It reads:
Q4P∞
Are we to infer that this is the answer to the dream of the physicist recently quoted? The recondite renaissance man Birnbaum does not tell us, at least not directly, not on this page.
Perusal of Summa Metaphysica, two imposing tomes of recondite philosophical-mathematical-poetic musings, indicates that Birnbaum wants the reader to think of Q4P as a single symbol......
[ balance of essay upon request ]
Q4P∞
Q4P ( Q4P ( Q4P (
Quest for Potential ( Quest for Potential ( Quest for Potential
ad infinitum.
NewParadigmCatalyst.com
Q4P∞
Quest for Potential
(infinitely recursive)
Q4P ( Q4P ( Q4P …
Quest for Potential
within
Quest for Potential
within
Quest for Potential
ad infinitum
DAVID BIRNBAUM METAPHYSICS
see Testimonials1000.com
[ the published scientific study ]
www.Genome-Research-2022.com
See www.Vindication2022.com
for additional published articles on the Livnat study.
Directed & Designed Evolution
Evolution is not directed by
Natural Selection / Random Mutation
(the fatally-flawed Darwinian theory)
Rather, Evolution is hyper-intelligently directed/designed
by Q4P∞ -
Birnbaum’s hypothesized
Prime Mover quest-force-algorithm -
- essentially a unique directional ~secular dynamic
There is, thus, respectfully,
a powerful ~secular resolution path to resolving/understanding
the extraordinarily intelligently-crafted
hyper-complex and ongoing directional journey of Evolution
The hitherto intractable scientific conundrum of Evolution
is quite-elegantly resolved (by Potentialism Theory)
see Super-Formula1000.com
SMOOTH OPERATOR
Algorithm > Algorithm *
Evolution / Birnbaum / Potentialism Theory:
The Prime Mover is a quest-force-algorithm -
and this algorithm tweaks** another (subordinate) algorithm - DNA code.
see also: Super-Formula1000.com
* conceptually, seems pretty elegant to us
** and sometimes totally re-engineers
| Eternal Origins >Evolution | per the Summa hypothesis |
Sequence
POTENTIAL DRIVES THE UNIVERSE
*
The (ethereal & eternal)
Cosmic Womb of Potential *
births
PRIME MOVER
of the universe
*
quest-force
Q4P∞
which is building-out and complexifying the universe
via its ALGORITHM ***
Q4P∞ → C+ → E+
and
in the case of
LIFE FORMS,
in particular
the Q4P algorithm tweaks the (subsidiary) genome DNA algorithm
* metaphysical / intangible / ethereal -
it is a 'something' close to 'nothing';
see Chronology1000.com / Epoch 1
*** see Super-Formula1000.com
Creating / Morphing
a Species
- is a highly-sophisticated operation/endeavor
Multiply that sophisticated work by several billion species
It is a serious undertaking even for a -
hyper-intelligent / hyper-powerful / hyper-focused
SOMETHING ***
We identify that SOMETHING as Q4P∞
( see Super-Formula1000.com )
And our position is that -
No species has ever been created by
(ultimately fatally-flawed)
Natural Selection / Random Mutation (aka Darwinism) -
and none ever will be
*
THE FORMIDABLE 'UNIVERSE INTELLIGENCE'
IS NOT PLAYING-AROUND WITH SKETCHY
AND AGAINST ALL-ODDS
RANDOM MUTATION SCHEMAS
*** this directional/micromanaging quest-force-algorithm proposition is the polar-opposite of non-directional Random Mutation-Natural Selection aka Darwinism
Conference1000.com
Dr. Bruce Chilton, Conference Chair, presiding | International Academic Conference
David Birnbaum Summa Metaphysica | BARD College | April 16, 2012
Dr. Gary Hagberg, Conference co-Chair presiding
| International Academic Conference
David Birnbaum Summa Metaphysica | BARD College | Apr 18, 2012
Direction1000.com
HuffPost1000.com
150+ Scholars-Academics-Thought Leaders
BirnbaumAcademic.com
Summa Metaphysica's Theory of Potential
A Unified Metaphysics / Cosmology / Philosophy
by David Birnbaum
A Scientific Kabbalah
INFINITE QUEST FOR POTENTIAL∞
> COMPLEXIFICATION
> EXTRAORDINARIATION
the Summa SuperLaw: Q4P∞ → C+ → E+
Cosmic Womb of Potential
POTENTIALISM THEORY OF SUMMA METAPHYSICA BY DAVID BIRNBAUM
The Summa series:
Summa Metaphysica I: Religious Man: God and Evil
(Ktav, November 1988);
Summa Metaphysica II: Spiritual Man: God and Good
(New Paradigm Matrix, March 2005);
Summa Metaphysica III: Secular Man: The Transcendent Dynamic
(New Paradigm Matrix, January 2014).
DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY / METAPHYSICS
Prime Mover quest-force-algorithm
David Birnbaum Philosophy & Metaphysics
David.Birnbaum.NY@gmail.com
www.LastGreek1000.com
The Last Greek Philosopher
By ron1980 | Posted December 10, 2014 | Chicago, Illinois
David Birnbaum, author of Summa Metaphysica
Progenitor of classic-modern hybrid ‘Potentialism Theory’
He defines the ‘cutting-edge 21st Century cosmologist; his original cosmological concepts have almost single-handedly overthrown 100+ year-old (British-centric) Randomness/Atheism theory; he melds Quantum Field Theory with General Relativity Theory; he is the progenitor of conceptual breakthrough and paradigm-changing Potentialism Theory.
But is Manhattanite David Birnbaum not, more accurately, indeed, ‘the Last Greek philosopher’?
Birnbaum may have been born in the 20th century and may have authored one of, if not the only, defining cosmological theories of the 21st century – but does conceptual theorist David Birnbaum arguably not have more in common with Aristotle than any of his 21st Century contemporaries? Dusting off such theories of antiquity as teleology and then arming them with original conceptualization, modern science and mathematics – Birnbaum has re-defined the field; like a Persian scholar in the Middle Ages, Birnbaum has become not only a protector of the wisdom of a past era, but also the consummate practitioner of inductive reasoning (see https://www.summametaphysica.com/harvardinductive/) – originally made famous by Aristotle et al.
Indeed, Birnbaum maintains that if the Greeks could be beamed-up (a la’ Star Trek) to the 21st Century to read his works, they would sign on to his theory – and help him do battle with the rrear-guard gambits of the reactionary British Randomness/Atheists. Birnbaum views the classic Greek philosophers as his natural intellectual allies; loyal to conceptual elegance and empirical observation, and not inhibited by the limitations of laboratory experiment.
In his four-part metaphysics/cosmology/philosophy treatise – Summa Metaphysica – David Birnbaum has set course for a revolutionary re-writing of the rules of metaphysics, cosmology and philosophy; he has dug deep into classical philosophy to separate myth from insight; superstition from science; and the past from the future.
Potentialism Theory, at its core, revolves around a few radically new, concepts and equations: (See also Glossary1000.com.)
Q4P∞ – This is the infinite Quest for Potential∞ – the proposed (overarching natural force) prime mover of the universe. It is an inherent drive in everything that exists - to seek out new levels of Complexity.
C+ - On the intermediate level, infinite potential inherently strives towards greater and greater levels of what Birnbaum coins as Complexification (shorthand: C+) the drive for ever-greater
complexity/sophistication/richness/integration/diversity/wondrousness
E+
In turn, this C+ drives the universe towards what Birnbaum coins as Extraordinariation (shorthand: E+). Extraordinariation is a goal/horizon - of sublime and utter super-Complexification – both in form and quality (see www.summametaphysica.com/extraordinariation/).
The three key components noted just-above, in turn combine into the SuperLaw of Potentialism:
The SuperLaw of Potentialism Theory
Q4P∞ → C+ → E+
or
Quest for Potential > Complexification > Extraordinariation
Potentialism Theory: Historical Context
While Potentialism Theory is the first of its kind to enter the realms of physics and mathematics, some of its core ideas reverberate in classical philosophy. From the works of Pythagoras to those Plato and Aristotle, some of the underlying concepts of Potentialism are hyper-refined. Let us explore some the classic philosophical works of antiquity that are represented in Potentialism.
Pythagoras and the primacy of mathematics
To Pythagoras, the universe was governed by mathematics. He observed not only the orderly motion of heavenly bodies but its echoes in music. One of the first to recognize the earth as round, Pythagoras proved insightful beyond his time. His work in music was a study of numerics in music, noting harmonics were based on the mathematics of such properties as string lengths.
While Pythagoras' understanding of the cosmos was primitive and, ultimately, incorrect in a lot of instances, he did understand that the universe was governed by mathematical principle. It cannot be overstated how groundbreaking this was at the time.
David Birnbaum himself has revisited this assumption, but with the tools of modern mathematics, science and metaphysics at his disposal. Indeed, he has gone far to prove the universal math of the cosmos in his theory of Potentialism. Birnbaum shows that the universe is governed, in its entirety, on the mathematical principle of Infinite Potential. Far beyond simple macro or micro physics, Birnbaum has given the 21st century the key to understanding the interrelationship between matter, energy, thought and even emotion – all governed by one overriding principle, Potential.
Plato and the Demiurge
Plato, by comparison, is the father of the concept of the “demiurge.” Unlike the superstitions of other Greeks, Plato envisioned the creator of the universe, not as a human styled ruler of the cosmos, but as a “craftsman.” To Plato, the creator was a worker and an artist who sculpted the universe in the form of a predetermined pathway. The demiurge did not invent – it instead imposed form on the formless along a pre-determined pathway.
Plato's universe described several key concepts. Let us see how they align with Birnbaum and Potentialism:
The Demiurge – Plato's universal craftsman. This is vaguely aligned with Birnbaum's Q4P (infinite Quest for Potential). It is the eternal spark that drives creation and Complexity.
The Form – This, to Plato, is the perfect form things in the universe strive to be. This concept is vaguely similar to Extraordinariation – it is a hyper state of perfection – something which can be strived for, but never perfectly attained.
Imitation of the model (Form) – Plato describes this as what exists in the universe, the tangible forms that seek to emulate the perfect form. Birnbaum describes this as current reality as it moves towards greater levels of perfection/Complexity.
The Receptacle – Plato describes the Receptacle as the place where everything in reality becomes. Birnbaum describes a vaguely similar concept of the Cosmic Womb of Potential. While Plato's receptacle only properly identified where there is matter, Birnbaum's Cosmic Womb describes the “space” in which everything becomes – matter, energy, thought and expression.
In some ways, Birnbaum picked up where Plato left off. Using some of the core concepts - devoid of Plato's mistakes - Birnbaum shows that, nevertheless, many of Plato's base concepts, if resculpted, have modern day applications in cosmology. Birnbaum is able to take what basic concepts Plato conceived and then filters them for quality and validity through the lens of modern day science.
Aristotle and teleology
Another predecessor to a piece of Potentialism Theory is accredited to Aristotle – teleology.
“A teleology is any philosophical account that holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that — analogous to purposes found in human actions — nature inherently tends toward definite ends.”
Aristotle rejected the idea that everything in the world happens without purpose. Specifically, when viewing nature, Aristotle found it absurd that everything happens without a final cause in mind. To Aristotle, the natural world was capable of acting with extrinsic finality. That is to say, it could behave with an external end goal in mind.
This was highly contested both during and after Aristotle's time; Birnbaum has picked up the banner for teleology. Central to Potentialism, Q4P is a pervasive teleological force. It defines how and why the universe progresses towards Complexity.
David Birnbaum Metaphysics
Collision in Time
By Samna | Posted April 9, 2014
Let us juxtapose iconic philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677 CE) with cutting-edge contemporary conceptual theorist David Birnbaum (1950-present). You know them as two noteworthy metaphysics specialists, Baruch Spinoza of Amsterdam and the contemporary David Birnbaum of New York: Strong-willed intellectual revolutionary iconoclasts who challenged the entrenched status quo. Centuries and continents apart, both of these intellectually disciplined, but daring, thinkers sprang from within the Orthodox Jewish tradition; both pledged their allegiance to universalism; both gave full-fledged respect and honor - and Sabbath Observance - to their Jewish Orthodox tradition, even while their philosophical and metaphysics treatises dramatically branched-away from Orthodoxy over their respective lifespans; both published groundbreaking philosophical treatises; and both experienced virulent personal attacks from assorted cliques of zealot defenders of the ‘entrenched orthodoxy.’
A look at these two philosophical ‘Jedi masters’ demonstrates just how far the study of philosophy has come over the last three centuries. Spinoza and Birnbaum – each conceptually nimble, each respectively armed with a major treatise, separated by 350 years chronologically. They each launch major fields in the philosophical arena: Spinoza’s Determinism, Birnbaum’s Potentialism.
Their theories are each groundbreaking and unique, but there are also some extraordinary similarities. Across the centuries, their treatises ‘speak to each other,’ as if the treatises themselves are having a formal debate. Of course Birnbaum speaks last and is aware that Spinoza cannot rebut. As a consequence, Birnbaum is quite deferential to Spinoza.
Spinoza, the father of Determinism, set the groundwork for future Renaissance philosophers. He wrote his masterpiece “Ethics” in a powerful voice that provoked new ways of thinking. Spinoza believed that God was somewhat identical to Nature and the natural order. This God is an unknowable, impersonal entity who created everything as perfection, even evil. Spinoza states that evil is not deviance from perfection, but a part of it.
Spinoza's writings are not anti-religious, but his brazen voice and imperious attitude quickly caught the attention of the local rabbinic council, which excommunicated him for ‘his attitude’ when he was 23. He was even threatened with a knife outside a synagogue. It is just as well then, that Spinoza ended his formal education at age 17, providing himself some physical distance from the establishments he quarreled with. Despite his self-alienation from formal schooling, ‘outsider’ Spinoza has had a profound impact on the global intellectual world for the centuries subsequent.
A couple hundred years after Spinoza, ‘outsider’ David Birnbaum founded and championed Potentialism, which radically branches away from Spinoza's Determinism. Since 1988 Birnbaum has sequentially published a 3-volume treatise Summa Metaphysica (1988, 2005, 2014), which has come to be used as a course text at over a dozen universities. This breathtaking journey into Potentialism has tantalized many globally, but radically threatened a small segment. In any event, the theory is in position to shake the world. Potentialism is in that rare category of – simple, yet profound. Over a dozen journals have featured Birnbaum’s Summa Metaphysica and its Theory of Potential. For theory core, see https://www.summametaphysica.com/theory-core/.
Birnbaum proposes that his signature theme of Infinite Potential (Quest for Potential infinitely nested) gifts humans complete freedom and that interference is not possible in a cosmic order underpinned by Potentialism. According to Potentialism the universe of necessity has in it both good and evil, a duality which must always exist; good and evil must inevitably spar. If there were no possibility for evil in the universe, the universe could not have been created in-the-first-place.
Birnbaum posits both an eternal dynamic (Infinite Potential) and a cosmic purpose (the quest for Infinite Potential) while Spinoza develops neither of these major issues. Birnbaum is acutely aware of the apparent major gaps in Spinozan Determinism, but only obliquely notes that deficit.
The extraordinary works and lives of Spinoza and Birnbaum converge and diverge on major conceptual areas. In the ‘convergence’ department both believe that everything spanning the cosmic order is interconnected – past, present and future; both believe that a transcendent lattice-work unifies all life; both believe that an overarching force drives the cosmic order; and both very clearly leave open the metaphysical possibility of describing this force ultimately as God or Prime Mover.
There are interesting parallels in their life sagas as well. Each writes as an aside to their respective secular professions; each writes to a world audience; each has deep scholarship in the historic field; each has erudition in-depth in the myriad Jewish philosophical and mystical sources; each crafted an original philosophical paradigm; each introduce their ideas relatively early in life; each declined teaching positions in philosophy; and both believe in the treatise-form as the ideal ‘teaching modality.’
While each, in his own way, proposes a total philosophical revolution – the two theories are conceptually radically different. Spinoza’s universe is cold and deterministic, devoid of freedom; Birnbaum’s universe is rich and organic, a vibrant universe of maximum Potential and freedom.
Birnbaum asserts that his core philosophical paradigm can be employed by the spectrum of mankind: archetypes Religious Man, Spiritual Man and Secular Man. Humans, as an expression of Infinite Potential and the divine, have the freedom to choose their own expression of their Potentiality. This leads to a central tenet of Potentialism: Mankind has Free Will.
Spinoza's Determinism is something quite different, asserting that people are led by their own hard-wired emotions and that those emotions were put in place by God. Spinoza states that active, strong emotions cannot be overcome by reason, only by stronger emotions. In that way we are products of the universe, directly and inexorably guided by our God-given desires. According to Determinism, mankind does not truly have Free Will.
Likewise, Birnbaum and Spinoza disagree on the nature of evil. To Birnbaum, Evil is real. In a cosmos predicated on Potential, however, it cannot be countered by an intervening God. In contrast, Spinoza asserts Evil is not real; it just appears that way for lack of understanding.
Interestingly, concepts of both Spinoza’s Ethics (c. 1677) and Birnbaum’s Summa Metaphysica (first volume 1988) are later present in Programming the Universe (2006), a book by ‘outlier’ MIT Professor of Quantum Mechanics Seth Lloyd. Lloyd believes that the universe is like a super quantum computer. His concepts are highly complementary to Birnbaum's interlaced and perpetually iterating universe. In fact, Birnbaum’s Quest for Potential theory (1988) nicely sets the conceptual stage for the Lloyd’s quantum computing universe in which the universe is constantly self-iterating and evolving, as well.
Birnbaum notes vis à vis Lloyd - "While the cosmos may appear to have been mechanistic in its early stages, its ongoing work-in-progress goal is far from mechanistic. The universe sets-the-stage for – and proactively seeks – optimization of the multiplicity of venues and dimensions, including the aesthetic and emotional and possibly the spiritual... The mechanistic aspect of our universe is necessary but not sufficient. The mechanics are but a platform or base from which Quest for Potential advances forth, pressing the iterative limits of extraordinariation."
In November 2013, British journalist Oliver Burkeman, echoing the iconic French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (2006) described Birnbaum’s metaphysics as “remarkable and profound” (and as “not unscientific”). Similarly, University of Maine Professor of Biology and Ecology Andrei Alyokhin, in November 2012, forthrightly endorses the theory: “David Birnbaum’s Summa Metaphysica is a major philosophical contribution to the study of Being…Summa represents a bold attempt to formulate a unifying concept of the Universe…...it is reasonable to propose the Quest for Potential as a working hypothesis for explaining the impetus behind the cosmic dynamic.”
Spinoza and Birnbaum are paradigm-breaking philosophers who have shaped the study of philosophy. Both their works can be found in university classrooms across the country and the world – from UCLA on the West Coast to Yeshiva University and Brandeis on the East Coast to Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Built from a history of thinking, communicating, extrapolating, and creative thinking, the working hypothesis Quest for Potential∞ is a radical departure from Determinism. This newly-proposed concept is not unlikely to serve as a very key building block for future levels of understanding. Potentialism marks a seminal point of philosophical advance; it is a paradigm challenge of the first order.
