AXIOMATA

 

Axiom 1

The universe is causal and deterministic.

Everything happens according to a cause since the beginning of time. Everything that happens, every phenomenon is the result of a sequence of trillions of causes and effects C/E, including chance. The latter, despite appearing abrupt and unexpected, is always a consequence of a cause, even if remote or distant. The chaos of the Universe, which postulates that small changes in any event can bring huge, disproportionate, and unknown consequences in the future and in space (butterfly effect), confirms the inevitability of the causal and deterministic Universe. An event without a cause does not exist, and it would be a miracle. The concept of Fado or destiny derives from universal determinism and the concept of Fortune derives from the emergence of chance, but chance is nothing more than some kind of effect that follows a cause, just because unexpected and unpredictable it seems random when it always has a cause.

As a corollary it follows that we have no free will, as any current state of any agent (by definition, an agent is an entity capable of doing things) is the result of previous C/E sequences. The ability or predisposition of an agent to take this or that decision is always the result of previous factors that predispose him to take one decision rather than another, even if it seems to be taken freely. Any agent has a conditioned will, due to its education, social background,

genetics, and even its microbiome. Let us remember that we did not choose the place we were born, nor the parents and grandparents we have, nor the schools we attended, which in turn conditioned the friends we had, the spouse we adopted and the jobs or economic activity we adopted. At all times we are the product of a sequence of causes in which we had

no interference or active role. If the will is conditioned, then it is not free and exempt from

coercion.

 

Axiom 2

We humans are agents empowered to influence, initiate, and alter C/E sequences, in our lives, others and the world around us, within the C/E outcomes and circumstances that make us unique Agents. While every living being has some ability to initiate or alter C/E sequences, humans in particular do so with intention and premeditation, albeit within their circumstantial frame at each instant, the result of trillions of C/E sequences.

The fact that we are agents capable of initiating and altering C/E sequences does not change the corollary of axiom 1.

The quality and typology of the Agents' actions is a function of the life history, training, and genetic and social conditioning of each one.

As a first corollary, it turns out that agents with greater awareness of their powers can proactively influence the C/E sequences, and that the accumulation of C/E experiences significantly improves the ability to interpret and initiate new events.

AMOR FATI because what destiny brings us is an opportunity to know what we are capable of.

As a second corollary, it is our responsibility to do what depends on us and is within our powers, to make the world around us and our circumstances better.

Third corollary, all actions that improve society and the greatest number of individuals are preferable to those that improve it less or worse.

Put another way, if one is an agent capable of initiating C/E sequences, and if one is conditioned to initiate quality sequences (by defining “quality sequence” as one that contributes to the Summum Bonum), and cumulatively these quality sequences aim conditioning other agents to create quality sequences themselves, then one will be proactively contributing to the SUMMUM BONUN.

 

Axiom 3

There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.

Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one-word, whatever affairs are our own, and of our mind.

Beyond our power are our body, possessions, reputation, offices, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs.

It follows that focusing on what depends on us is a path to achievement while focusing on what does not depend on us is a path to dissatisfaction.

Of the things that are not in our power, there are those that we can influence and those over which we have no instrumental capacity, so in terms of concerns and the focus of our attention, there are two circles, the *circle of influence* and the *circle of concerns*.

It follows that one should focus on what it can do and influence, and disregard the whole range of events, people, and situations over which it has no instrumental capacity. By working primarily within the "circle of influence", the "circle of concerns" becomes almost equal to the circle of influence, and we gain power of achievement and influence over the environment and others. On the other hand, by focusing on the “circle of concerns” one expands all his concerns by definition unresolvable.

By focusing on the "circle of influence", we are proactive and naturally end up expanding it while shrinking the "circle of concerns". So instead of complaining about competitors, customers, employees, spouses, neighbors, weather, or government policy, let's proactively act on what we can change and condition - our perceptions, opinions, desires, dislikes, deadlines, dedication, organization, prudence, analysis, effectiveness. In time, we gain greater responsibilities, new challenges, personal and professional development and, secondarily, the development of those around us – employees, colleagues, friends, and relatives.

If one spends most of its time in the "circle of concerns", that is, those things that distress but are not in one's power to change, one shall live a whole life bored, without achieving any happiness.

 

Axiom 4

The Universe is dual and there is polarity in everything, that is, there are two sides of the same thing, but with different poles, such as positive and negative, light and dark, hot and cold, Yin and Yang, etc. Everything has a front and a reverse, and every storm is followed by a calm just as after every calm there will be a storm.

If everything is dual, the polarity of perception conditions our actions and feelings through the perception we make of reality and its polarity at every moment.

As there are things over which we have power, and as within our power are our goals, our opinion, our desires, our aversions, then it is in our hand to focus on the positive polarities and on transforming obstacles into opportunities.

 

Axiom 5

There's a Golden Rule – not doing to others what we don't want them to do to us.

Like its positive approach – doing to others what we would like them to do to us – it is an evolutionarily sustainable strategy that results in a virtuous spiral with positive synergies and win-win results.

Its continued use makes the agent systematically behave well. Whenever we are kind, help someone, or adopt some kind of ethically correct behavior, we get a feeling of happiness, inner tranquility, peace, and personal pleasure. On the other hand, it is impossible to find happy people among those who practice vile, wrong, and perverse acts, and we know that happiness can only come from moral goodness, virtue being its own reward, while vice is its own punishment. The continued practice of good behaviors makes the practitioner virtuous, and since virtue is itself a reward in happiness and satisfaction, the continued practice of the “GOLDEN RULE” makes a person happy and satisfied.

Another corollary is the multiplying and reproducing effect of the “GOLDEN RULE”, since people tend to learn from each other, and to imitate and emulate each other, which is why the continued adoption of the “GOLDEN RULE” promotes C/E sequences of alike behaviors.

Most religions adopt this precept and in the case of Christianity it was preached by Christ, it is found in the gospels and in the Didache of the first apostles where it is its second and third precept – “love others as yourself” and “do not do unto others what you don't want done to you”.

It is, moreover, present in the other two Abrahamic religions: Judaism and Islam.

The Hindu tradition refers to it, and in the Buddhist tradition Siddhartha Gautama made this principle one of the pillars of his ethics.

Confucianism refers to him in the Anacletos and Taoism in the Tao Te Ching.

In ancient philosophy, Stoicism, which lasted for centuries until it became a stowaway of Christianity, has not forgotten it. Greek thinkers were clear about this, among other Thales of Miletus, Sextus the Pythagorean, and Isocrates.

The Pahlavi texts of Persian Zoroastrianism were one of the earliest sources for the Golden Rule.

The earliest known statement of the “GOLDEN RULE” comes from Middle Kingdom Egypt (c. 2040–1650 BC), in the commandments of the goddess Ma'at.

The “GOLDEN RULE” has an unsurpassed depth and breadth. It is humanist, it is civilizational, it is evolutionarily sustainable, it is postulated by most religious and philosophical creeds, and it is rationally irrefutable. It is, in fact, the belief most accepted by most people regardless of creed, ethnicity, culture, political or philosophical option.

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Axiom 6

Humans are distinguished from everything else by their use of reason and spirituality.

Emotion and emotions are animal attributes and the animal part of Man. The reason per se is not exclusively human, as the advent of Artificial Intelligence has been illustrating since Deep Blue defeated Kasparov. Spirituality we only share with each other, neither animals nor machines have spirituality. The ability to feel and believe in God, Goddess, spirits, premonitions and intuitions, the creation of parallel living worlds of souls and disembodied beings is a purely human characteristic.

If there is no tangible proof of the existence of beings or spiritual phenomena, but not being the absence of proof, proof of non-existence, it is necessary to suspend judgment (epoché), not accepting, however, not denying.

Logical or mathematical deduction is also not possible, just as its refutation is not. And yet spirituality continues to exist.

 

Axiom 7

Reality and truth are in the eye of the beholder, and it also varies with the eye of the beholder and even his mood.

As Protagoras of Abdera putted it, “Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not”, to which we would say with greater precision today that each living being is the measure of all things.

Our sensorial equipment is not enough to capture all the details of the Universe and as Hamlet has been told by the night watch: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. There are more things than what our eyes see, there are more things than our ears hear, there are more things than what our touch can feel, there are many more smells than our sense of smell smells, there are many more things that can be deduced than those which our reason can deduce. The machines and instruments we build capture many of these things that we empirically cannot feel, but these machines are built by us, who are limited, so they will necessarily also be limited.

Since our individual sensorial devices differ from each other, and are but representations of reality, not reality itself, it follows that there will be as many realities as there are people. Will there be a single reality? Having no way of apprehending it, we cannot draw a valid conclusion, as to what may or may not exist, and once again we must suspend our judgment, accepting the unique reality as possible and also as possible that there is not only one absolute reality. For convenience we like to accept that the reality that is shared by the greatest number of people with the same intellectual equipment is the statistically certain reality.