Why Everything Is What It Isn’t
Mad Hatter, Aristotle, and the Nature of Truth
Call for Art
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(See Clintavo’s Curated Corner after the article)
We have another post today by Eugene Terekhin, the man and the mind behind the publication Philosophy of Language.
Eugene is a regular contributing writer to The BoldBrush Letter.
Why Everything Is What It Isn’t: Mad Hatter, Aristotle, and the Nature of Truth
Aristotle famously said,
“For what is known to all is, in fact, known to few.” (Metaphysics, II.1, 993b11).
Reality is deceptive. We think we know what we know – until we don’t. We thought we knew that thing or that person, but something happened, and we saw them in a completely different light. They turned out to be other than we thought.
It sounds nonsensical – almost like something out of the mouth of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. In fact, it’s exactly what he said:
“Everything is what it isn’t, and contrariwise, what it is, it isn’t.”
Surprisingly, this statement is very Aristotelian. What seems to be known to all is known to few. In 1905, Albert Einstein showed in his paper on the photoelectric effect that light behaves as if it’s made up of discrete quanta (later called photons).
A few years later, Louis de Broglie proposed that not only light but all matter – electrons, protons, even larger particles – behaves as waves. Finally, Niels Bohr concluded that reality itself is neither purely particle nor purely wave. It reveals itself depending on how we observe the phenomena.
If we set up an experiment to measure wave properties, we will see a wave. If we set it up to measure particle properties, we see a particle. Born concluded,
“It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature.”
Science can’t say what nature is. It can only give us ways of speaking about it. Bohr reframed the whole debate: reality itself transcends both images – particle and wave are ways in which reality discloses itself to us.
In other words, we can’t know what reality is until it reveals itself. Reality is phenomenological – from the Greek phainómenon, which literally means “that which appears” or “that which is seen.”
We live in the world of phenomena – metaphysical reality that reveals itself to us in physical ways. To know reality is never an act of analysis or research; rather, it is an act of… not acting. An act of pure sensitivity to how Being discloses itself. Our first and ultimate activity is, paradoxically, passivity.
Not passivity as sloth, but passivity as the height of sensitivity. If I can only know what a thing is when it reveals itself to me, then, consequently, my only task is to patiently wait for it to do so. If I can only know a person when they reveal themselves to me, then my only task is to patiently wait for them to do so.
One of the greatest errors of the twentieth century was to saturate everything with the ideal of activity. We have come to believe that we must always be doing, producing, achieving. Yet, in truth, there is only one thing in which we must be active – becoming still.
Stillness is the only prerequisite for sensitivity. Reality unveils itself only to the one who does not force, who does not grasp, who does not act.
“We never come to thoughts. They come to us.” (Heidegger, Discourse on Thinking, 1959).
Excessive activity is noise – the clamor that keeps us from perceiving what is, what transpires through the phenomena. We have filled the world with so much noise of incessant activity that we perceive it as “silent.” A modern person doesn’t perceive the world as speaking.
Unless I allow reality to emerge through the phenomena, the world will remain silent. When I realize that nothing is what it seems, I make a very important discovery – I must wait for reality to speak. And when I do, I suddenly find that it has been speaking all along. It is my restless activity – my active imperception – that drowns out its still, small voice.
Creation speaks. If we hear its voice and open the door, it will enter and commune with us. It will reveal itself as ultimate mystery – boundless, eternal, oceanic, all-encompassing, and mesmerizingly beautiful. In that moment, we stand among the few who truly know.
PS — Editor’s Note: Please support artists and help us get more exposure for the artists featured in this newsletter by clicking the “Like” icon ❤️, by clicking the “Restack” icon 🔁, or by leaving a comment. The more engagement we get, the more widely these images get shown. Help us support human artists and push back against the encroachment of AI!
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Clintavo’s Curated Corner
We’re Looking for Great Art!
If you know of a great piece of real visual art (no AI art) that we should consider for future illustration of our articles or to feature in Clintavo’s Curated Corner, please click the button below and leave a sentence or two explaining what you like about a piece with a link to it on the web. It may be your own art or someone else’s (please do not send via email as we are much less likely to see or respond to those, thank you):
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No AI Zone: Everything written in this post (and all our posts) is written 100% by flesh and blood humans
We do not use AI images with our writing. We prefer to feature and provide more exposure for human artists. If you know of a great piece of art we should consider, please leave a comment with a link to it. All featured images are properly attributed with backlinks to the artist’s website. You can help support human artists and push back against AI by liking or restacking this piece by clicking the “Like” icon ❤️, by clicking the “Restack” icon 🔁 (or by leaving a comment).
Thanks for all your great insights, Clint. I am learning that sometimes sitting and "doing nothing" other than observing, hearing and absorbing, can be my most important task of the day. I am reminded of the quote by Pico Iyer: "In an age of movement, nothing is more critical than stillness." That's where the magic happens.
Patience, silence, stillness...perceptive and aware meditation, let Being enter.