Defining Metaphysics
An Essay by Christopher Bek
christopher.bek@gmail.com
Summary—The Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1901 in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace, while a memorial prize in economics was added in 1968. This essay argues that I ought to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for my The Theory of One, in Peace for Existentialism Now, in Economics for The Bernoulli Model, and in Literature for this essay, Defining Metaphysics, which defines Metaphysics as being, the-world, and being-in-the-world—Existentialism Now, The Theory of One, and The Bernoulli Model.
Quotation—Mozart is too simple for beginners and too difficult for experts. —Vladimir Horowitz
rubaker, Arkansas. Posing as an inmate at a small Arkansas prison, the new warden of the penitentiary, Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford), witnesses firsthand the corruption and abuse inflicted upon the prisoners by the staff. After revealing his true identity, Brubaker brings much-needed reform to the prison with the help of his supporters. Yet when the benefactors of the old corrupt system are threatened by the changes, Brubaker’s battles really begin.
Brubaker, Alberta. Posing as a patient at a small Alberta hospital, the new Metaphysician of the Universe, King Chris, witnesses firsthand the corruption and abuse inflicted upon the children by the physicians. After revealing his true identity as the greatest Metaphysician who ever lived, Saint Christopher brings much-needed reform to Alberta Health Care with the help of the Nurses and his supporters on The New Left Bank. Yet when the benefactors of the old corrupt system are threatened by the changes, Christopher’s battles really begin.
Philosophy was originally defined as the love of wisdom by the Ancient Greeks that began with Pythagoras 2500 years ago. Metaphysics was originally defined by Aristotle about 250 years later as the first branch of philosophy concerned with first principles of the whole metaphysical universe—which I would argue may be divided into the three necessary and comprehensive branches of being, the-world, and being-in-the-world—in providing a complete and holistic metaphysical theory of everything. Being or existence is the highest of the three as indicated by the cogito, and is the starting point of Existentialism Now, as follows from Jean-Paul Sartre’s quote: “There can be no other truth to take off from this—I think, therefore I exist—the Cartesian cogito—cogito ergo sum. There we have the absolute truth of consciousness becoming aware of itself.” Ontology is the branch of metaphysics dealing with the fundamental nature of being, as a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain showing their properties and relations between. The four Ontological levels of Being in the Universe are: 1. electrons or matter; 2. life or plants; 3. consciousness or animals; and 4. Self-awareness or Human Beings, and God or Light.
Existentialism Now. Existentialism is the philosophy set forth by the likes of Socrates, Plato, Saint Augustine, Saint Aquinas, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, William Shakespeare, Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and King Chris Bek—emphasizing the individual subjective experiences of freewill and choice in taking personal freedom and responsibility, which can be both empowering and burdensome. Existentialism Now challenges each of us to share in creation with God by taking total freedom and total responsibility for the Planet—in spite of its apparent absurdity. It calls upon all of us to act authentically when doing our duty in accordance with the inner focus of our true inner subjective self—always in relation to God. Kierkegaard defined The Moment as a pivotal, decisive point in time where one makes a profound, existential choice, often a leap of faith towards a higher truth or meaning. Behaviorism is arguably the currently employed psychology in Canada, as set forth by BF Skinner, JB Watson, and IP Pavlov, concerned only with observable behavior, environmental stimuli, and animalistic conduct. The psychology contends that behavior follows deterministically from past experiences and conditioning, rather than through acts of freewill—seeing human behavior as entirely determined by genetics and environment. Skinner was the most influential psychologist of the 20th century, and behaviourism is still in-play today. Behaviourism hates The Moment’s guts, while Existentialism writes essays about, and serenades, The Moment.
The Bernoulli Model is represented as a full and essential realization of Postmodern Portfolio Theory that builds on the work of the Nobel Laureate in Economics, Harry Markowitz—and is defined by the following ten epic mathematical algorithms:
1. The Delphi to Know Thyself. A Delphi questionnaire is an iterative, interactive survey employing the Delphi method to gather expert opinions and reach consensus on forecasts, and values for determining the organizational objective function and risk tolerance.
2. The Objective Function to define organizational values, and then seeks to optimize. It is defined as a mathematical formula central to operations research that establishes the relationship between decision variables and desired outcomes.
3. Actuarial Exposure is the measure of potential asset and liability value exposed to change. Exposure can be downside only, as in the case of insurable risk, or with both downside and upside, as in the case of the market.
4. Forecasting refers to the practice of predicting both the future and future uncertainty by taking into consideration events from the past and the present. Forecasting methods include: regression analysis, curve fitting, distribution fitting, GARCH, artificial neural networks, the Delphi method, moving averages, and splines.
5. Convolution is the mathematical function of combining moving parts. Portfolio theory convolutes input distributions in producing an output portfolio distribution. The central limit theorem is a closed form method of convoluting distributions, while Monte Carlo simulation is an expansive and open form method of convolution.
6. Optimization Theory includes both local and global quest algorithms for searching risk-reward space, intended to optimize the objective function. Hill climbing algorithms, like Solver in Excel, are local search algorithms, while Genetic algorithms are global optimization algorithms aimed at producing maximum global solutions.
7. Utility Theory is used to translate market values into the internal values of gut-feel developed in the 18th century mathematician Daniel Bernoulli aimed at maximizing expected utility when making choices.
8. The Complementary Principle is an essential element of quantum theory stating that certain properties, like position and momentum, cannot be observed simultaneously. The Bernoulli Model employs the complementary principle throughout by contrasting and comparing perspectives like open and closed forms, the normal and Cauchy distributions, and the null and alt paradigms—as a way of viewing the same storyboard for all risk factors.
9. The Camus Distribution is employed centrally in the model as representing the first four statistical moments of a probability distribution. The normal and Cauchy distributions are continuous probability distributions, symmetric about the mode, and the Camus distribution is a four-moment, closed-form distribution that I built by blending the normal with the Cauchy.
10. The Bernoulli Moment Vector provides an expanded definition of risk and reward with a ten-element vector featuring the mean or reward, the standard deviation or risk, skewness, kurtosis, Value, Value at Risk, upper Value at Risk, Min, Max, and Sim—serving to characterize all different aspects of a portfolio distribution.
Lightspeed. The 1887 Michelson-Morley scientific experiment was an endeavour designed to measure Lightspeed in different directions to detect the motion of the Earth through a luminiferous ether—but found no difference in Lightspeed in alternative directions, indicating that an ether does not exist, and that Lightspeed is a universal constant invariably fixed at 299,792,458 meters per second in all inertial frames of reference—represented by c.
Planck’s Constant. In 1900 Max Planck solved the ultraviolet catastrophe by proving that energy comes in discrete packets called quanta, meaning light is emitted and absorbed in specific, fixed units of energy known as Planck’s constant that effectively limits the amount of energy that can be radiated at high frequencies, thus resolving discrepancies with experimental observations of blackbody radiation. Planck’s constant is a fundamental physical unchanging factor of the quantum nature of energy and the relationship between the energy and frequency of a photon invariably fixed at 6.626 x 10^-34 m^2 kg per second—represented by h.
The Theory of One Synthesis. With an utterly trivial application of the Pythagorean theorem, Einstein created the special relativistic equations proving the dilation or contraction of space and time as a function of velocity relative to Lightspeed: Space^2 + Velocity^2/Lightspeed^2 = One^2, Time^2 + Velocity^2/Lightspeed^2 = One^2. And The Theory of One Boundary then unequivocally walks the straight path in proving that Lightspeed is the boundary of the Universe. In keeping with fractals and the attendant self-similarity and the fundamental belief that the Universe is alive, The Theory of One Life then contends that Planck’s constant is also a boundary of spacetime, but not of the spacetime continuum—and that Planck’s Constants or Quanta are baby photons or universes or Eve’s—which similarly sees electrons as Adam’s—thereby uniting Relativity Theory with Quantum Theory. QED.
Closing Arguments. Jesus Christ said “Physician, heal thyself” in the Bible in using the proverb to respond to people in his hometown of Nazareth who doubted he was the Messiah. As The Second Coming of Christ, I would thus say: Physician, heal thyself—by Metaphysically turning inward—and hand over the reigns to the Metaphysicians and the Nurses—and become Self-Aware in Healing Thyself. QED.